Perspectives Newsletter

April 23, 6:00 pm
Henry Art Gallery
Deana Lawson’s photographs, resulting from collaborations with strangers, often depict richly textured domestic scenes in which the details of decor, lighting, and pose are constructed. In this lecture, Lawson will reflect on her approach to portraiture, collaboration with her subjects, and the layered histories and intimacies that inform her images. A reception will follow at 7 pm.

April 24, 5:00 pm
Denny Hall, Room 303
What is the price of your soul? Learn about the enduring legacy of Faust in this Department of German Studies lecture presented by Professors Ellwood Wiggins and Andre Schütze. Discover what to look out for in Murnau’s revolutionary cinematic masterpiece and learn about the Faust story as a parable of modernity – and of German history – in its adaptations across the ages. Free, but registration recommended.

April 26, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
Dig into paleontology at the Burke’s annual festival of fossils! Celebrate all things fossilized with hands-on activities for all ages. View hundreds of specimens from the Burke’s collection – including the only dinosaur bone found in Washington state – and hear about groundbreaking research from Burke and UW scientists.

April 28, 6:30 pm
Kane Hall
For this Katz Distinguished Lecture Series talk, Professor Stephanie LeMenager (University of Oregon) will discuss the role of fiction as a form of resistant truth telling in the shadow of the climate crisis. In our media atmosphere filled with falsehoods, fiction becomes a means of capturing messy realities unassimilable to propaganda. Presented by the Simpson Center for the Humanities.

May 1, 7:30 pm
Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony in a program featuring winners of the 2025-26 School of Music Concerto Competitions: Xinyin Cao, piano; Claire Wei, flute; and Hanu Nahm, violin. The program includes works by Franz Liszt, Carl Reinecke, Samuel Barber, and Richard Strauss, plus a new work by UW composition doctoral student Yongwoo Lee.

Astronomers say they've likely witnessed the collision of two planets orbiting a distant star, Gaia20ehk, located 11,000 lightyears from Earth. Doctoral student Anastasios Tzanidakis and research assistant professor James Davenport, both in the UW Department of Astronomy, are quoted.

The first comprehensive national study on fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, from researchers at the UW and Drexel University, found that roughly 73% of AIAN people killed by police violence were on or within 10 miles of a reservation. Theresa Rocha Beardall, co-author and UW associate professor of sociology, is quoted.

Alumna Angie Mentink (BA, General Studies, 1997), the first female color commentator in Mariners history and a legendary softball player for the UW, suffered a stroke in February but returned to the broadcast booth for Opening Day at T-Mobile Park.

A "peculiar" ancient relative of the crocodile started life on four legs before it began walking on two, according to new research. Elliott Armour Smith, lead author on the research and a UW biology graduate student, and Christian Sidor, UW professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum, are quoted.