Department of History

“2020: The Course” gives students an opportunity to hear from UW professors and special guests who will discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, race in the United States, the state of the environment, the economic recession, civic participation, citizenship and this election season and outcomes.

The 2020 election is fast approaching, and with the protests against police brutality still continuing throughout the country, race is one of the hot issues for voters. It’s been talked about in all of the presidential and vice presidential debates; there have been Tweets and speeches made about the division of race and the current need for unity. In response to the importance of the issue of race, the history department organized a webinar with UW professors to discuss it.

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online. 

As tech companies have faced growing oversight from Congress in recent years, they have ramped up their contributions to political campaigns, including to Northwest lawmakers. Tech workers have become another important source of campaign funds, though their interests are not always aligned with those of their employers. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

This week could mark the official end of the long love affair between Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley. The U.S. Justice Department and 11 state attorneys general have filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Google, accusing it of being an illegal monopoly because of its stranglehold on Internet search. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

A sitting Boston mayor was last unseated in 1949. How unusual is a seven-decade stretch of incumbency dominance? A Boston Globe review of 18 of the nation’s most populous municipalities found a mixed bag when it comes to the reelection success of sitting mayors. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

The national Alcohol and Drugs History Society has established an annual book prize in the name of longtime University of Washington history professor William Rorabaugh, who died this spring, calling him “a pioneer in the social history of alcohol.”

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online. 

UW Press looks back on a century of publishing, featuring works by Quintard Taylor and Bill Holms. George Behlmer’s 'Risky Shores’ honored.

President Trump is still using Seattle as a bogeyman in his campaign. What’s the point, and why does this tactic work? Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is interviewed.

The Southeast Asia Center will spearhead a new initiative to explore the effects of authoritarianism in Southeast Asia and on Southeast Asian American communities in the United States.

How do you protect a culture that is being wiped out? For Uighurs, this is more than just a hypothetical. The Chinese government has corralled more than 1 million of them into internment camps. Since 2016, dozens of graveyards and religious sites have been destroyed, the Uighur language has been banned in Xinjiang schools in favor of Mandarin Chinese and practicing Islam, the predominant Uighur faith, has been discouraged as a “sign of extremism.” Devin Naar, associate professor of history and of Sephardic studies at the UW, is quoted.

This week at the UW, join online events ranging in topics from population health to contempary race and politics in the United States.

The selection of a deeply conservative jurist to replace the late liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not sitting well with some women on the Eastside. In 2016, they formed an organization in reaction to the president’s election, Plateaupians 4 Peace. This nomination has them riled up. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is interviewed.

"In June, manufacturers of skin lighteners joined other corporations in voicing support for the racial justice movement. Critics quickly pointed out the hypocrisy of voicing such support in the U.S. while continuing to sell skin whitening products globally. Such products, they say, play off of and promote racism and colorism (which is prejudice based on preference for people with lighter skin tones) in Asia and Africa," writes Lynn Thomas, professor of history at the UW.