Department of History

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried will stand trial on charges of overseeing fraud that sucked in high-profile investors and hundreds of thousands of clients. Why do smart people buy into bad companies? Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Kick off the Autumn quarter and celebrate a return to campus with these can’t-miss recommendations from the College of Arts & Sciences.

"Like many readers, I was floored by the story of brutality and exploitation at the heart of the Washington Post's recent series on the Smithsonian's complicated history of collecting and preserving human remains," writes columnist Matt Driscoll. James Gregory, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Washington state has a unique connection to the period of time portrayed in the new Hollywood movie. Bruce Hevly, associate professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

The decades-old government housing discrimination program commonly called redlining continues to shape which of Seattle's streets are most dangerous for pedestrians. James Gregory, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

The four new graduates honored as College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Medalists for 2023 are all working to improve our world, in different ways. 

"In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case. It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there's been very little scholarship on trans people during this period," writes Laurie Marhoefer, professor of history at the UW.

Altman, the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind viral chatbot ChatGPT and image generator Dall-E, is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday. His appearance is part of a Senate subcommittee hearing on the risks artificial intelligence poses for society, and what safeguards are needed for the technology. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

On May 5, 1945, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded over Oregon and killed six Americans -- the only mainland civilian causalities from enemy attack during WWII. Ross Coen, a PhD graduate in history and instructor at the UW, is interviewed.

"The sight of diplomats fleeing Sudan amid chaotic scenes reflects the gravity of the situation, but also the extent of international interest in the strife-torn nation. Days into fighting that has left at least 400 people dead, governments from across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas evacuated nationals - teachers, students and workers, as well as embassy staff - from the capital, Khartoum," writes Christopher Tounsel, associate professor of history at the UW.

All the ways Saudi Arabia's cash powers tech startups and venture capital. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

The Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the UW.

Duplexes, fourplexes or sixplexes will soon be legal in nearly every neighborhood in nearly every city in Washington, after the state Legislature passed ambitious legislation last week overriding cities' power to restrict land to single-family homes only. The UW's James Gregory, professor of history, is quoted.

Christopher Tounsel, associate professor of history at the UW, explains the reasons behind the violence and what it means for the chances of democracy being restored in Sudan.

After Alice Ball died -- and just a year after her discovery of a treatment for leprosy -- another scientist took credit for her work. It would be more than half a century until her story resurfaced. Quintard Taylor, professor emeritus of history at the UW, is quoted.