Students walking across UW quad with trees turning orange in fall.

Perspectives Newsletter

November 2026 Newsletter

Perspectives is a monthly newsletter that highlights the accomplishments and latest news from the College of Arts & Sciences community. Learn about unusual courses, student projects, faculty research, alumni careers, and more.

Featured Stories This Month

Colin Marshall sitting on a wooden bench on the UW campus.

How to Persuade People: A Philosopher's Perspective

In our increasingly polarized world, philosophy professor Colin Marshall's new book about successful — and ethical — persuasion offers an encouraging perspective. 

A dancer, roped for safety, leaps skyward off the side of Meany Hall

A Dance Film That Soars

In their new dance film, professors Rachael Lincoln and Juliet McMains highlight dancers (including Lincoln) leaping along an exterior wall of Meany Hall, 30 feet in the air. 

Megan Ming Francis on the UW campus, with sunlit greenery in the background.

Where Philanthropy Meets Racial Justice

Political science professor Megan Ming Francis studies how philanthropy impacts social justice movements, sometimes with unintended consequences. 

Opportunities to Explore

  • Illustration of a woman reclining between the horns of a bull.

    Phèdre

    Thursday, November 5 – Sunday, November 15
    Meany Hall - Studio Theatre
    After Phèdre, a queen and mother, receives news that the king is dead, she confesses her forbidden love to the King’s son and heir. When the King returns alive and well, it sets off a series of unforeseen consequences. Presented by the School of Drama, with MFA student Sebastián Bravo Montenegro directing this contemporary adaptation of a classic tragedy written by Jean Racine and translated by Ted Hughes. 

  • hands holding a film slate

    UW Student Film Showcase

    November 6, 2:00 – 3:00 pm
    Henry Art Gallery Auditorium
    Join the Henry for a special screening of short films made by students in the UW Department of Cinema & Media Studies. Spanning a wide range of genres, including documentaries, comedies, dramas, and music videos, get an exclusive glimpse into the work of this emerging cohort of filmmakers. After the screening, attendees can meet the filmmakers and faculty guiding the students’ creative projects and research.

  • Exterior of entrance to Jacob Lawrence Gallery

    Fall MFA Show: I will carry you over on my back

    Through November 7
    Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Art Building
    The School of Art + Art History + Design’s fall MFA show meditates on accumulation, the underground, labor & capacity, and the movement of systems and objects toward loss, disrepair, and failure. Works by MFA students Jayden Dukes, Gaeun Kim, Cameron McGaff, and Skye Amber O’Brien span performance, installation, sound art, and found object sculpture.

  • Seattle Modern Orchestra name logo

    Seattle Modern Orchestra: "90/100"

    November 9, 7:30 pm
    Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
    In this concert, Seattle Modern Orchestra’s (SMO) UW residency celebrates the legacies of longtime former School of Music professors Stuart Dempster and the late William O. Smith and their impact on West Coast Experimentalism. Curated by SMO clarinetist Rachel Yoder, the evening integrates elements of improvisation, deep listening, and playfully creative movement while rebooting elements of the composer/performer duo’s historic antics. 

  • Dancers in black, lifting their leg high in the air

    Hung Dance: BIRDY

    November 19 – 21, 8:00 p.m.

    Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
    Taiwan's Hung Dance makes its Seattle debut with BIRDY, a powerful and poetic work that blends contemporary dance with elements of Chinese opera, Tai Chi, and myth. BIRDY explores the tension between freedom and constraint, personal feeling and social pressure, inviting audiences to reflect on the desire to break free and the quiet strength it takes to keep moving within the world around us. Presented by Meany Center for the Performing Arts.

Looking for more events? Check out the College's Arts Roundup or visit ArtsUW. 

In The News

  • What the Cornell Case Reveals About Group Sexual Violence

    “Right now, we’re focused on the ‘who’ in this case,” Nicole McNichols writes about the widely publicized Cornell University sexual assault lawsuit. “In order to dismantle the settings that make unimaginable assaults like these possible, we need to understand the psychology of ‘how’ and ‘why.’” McNichols, UW associate teaching professor of psychology, teaches courses on human sexuality. 

    Psychology Today

  • The Birds I Waited 45 Years to See

    Evolutionary biologist Carl Bergstrom, UW professor of biology, writes about his return to New Zealand to find the rare birds he dreamed of seeing as a child, which are making an extraordinary comeback. [Unable to access the story due to a paywall? Request the PDF version at nancyj@uw.edu.]

    Bloomberg

  • Reinforced vertebrae allow plunge-diving seabirds to survive high-speed impact

    A new UW study shows that plunge-diving birds such as gannets and boobies have unique morphological adaptations that allow them to survive high speed, headfirst impact. UW Biology graduate student Megan Vanderberg and UW postdoctoral student Bart Boom, both at UW’s Friday Harbor Labs, are quoted.

    UW News

Editor

Nancy Joseph
nancyj@uw.edu

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