Arts Division

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the Distinguished Teaching Award, the UW’s highest teaching honor. And now, drumroll please, here are this year’s stars.

The College of Arts & Sciences celebrates undergraduate and graduate students from across all four divisions, who are recognized for making the most of their time at the UW. 

Recent recognition of the University of Washington includes an EarthLab Innovation Grant, the Best Paper Award from American Political Science Association and honorable recognition mention from the American Society for Theatre Research. UW professor Richard Watts and team awarded EarthLab Innovation Grant Richard Watts, UW associate professor of French, is part of an interdisciplinary team...

Henry Jackson-Spieker, assistant professor of ceramics, glass and sculpture at the UW, is a born-and-raised Seattle artist known for his art installations. In his own work he uses a mix of material metal, glass, paracord, neon, wood to push viewers expectations of space and discernment, forcing them to rethink their physical and sociological relationship to everything around them.

Alejandro Rico Guevara is one of the foremost researchers on hummingbird bills. He has spent years studying how hummingbirds use their beaks to feed and fight. But his latest research looked at how human actions seem to be driving a high-speed example of evolution in hummingbird bills.Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is interviewed.

While at the UW, artist Kyra Wolfenbarger was a researcher, museum intern, and arts writer. What shaped her most were the people she met along the way.

Many bird enthusiasts like to hang bright red feeders filled with homemade sugar water to attract hummingbirds to their gardens. Now, new research suggests this common practice may be driving rapid evolutionary change in one species in California. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

A new study suggests that Anna's Hummingbirds in the western United States are not only keeping up with human influence on their habitat, they're thriving. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.

Your Words Have Power is a temporary exhibition designed by a team of Design students and Studio Matthews in Partners in Print's new location in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood.

From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this May. Innovation Month April 30 | An Evening with Christine Sun Kim (Public Lecture)...

A new show at Sebastian Gladstone places work by the influential teacher and artist Denzil Hurley alongside his former student Brian Sharp (MFA 2001). Sharp talks with his former classmate Jonas Wood (MFA 2002) about their shared education.

William Dougherty, assistant professor of composition in the UW School of Music, is raising awareness about gun violence through “Hearing Philadelphia,” a community music project aimed at honoring the voices of those affected by gun violence and providing healing. Dougherty, who joined the UW faculty in January 2025, started the Healing Philadelphia project two years ago to help his community through music.

In each episode, the Back to School podcast welcomes a special guest for an intimate conversation with host Liz Copland (BFA 2009, MA 2022) to reflect on their journey from being a student to a practitioner in their respective field. 

Any institution with a depository of Indigenous items that receives federal funds must notify a tribe if it has the tribes property and obtain informed consent. But a staggering number of institutions have ignored the law. Sven Haakanson, chair of anthropology at the UW and curator of Native American anthropology at the Burke Museum, is quoted.

A video project led by School of Music professor Stephen Price highlights the work of Black composers for organ and provides historical context.