Humanities Division

UW student Zoe Mikuta’s first book, “Gearbreakers,” is set to come out June 29. Mikuta has sold the film rights to “Gearbreakers,” and she’s currently working on its sequel, due out in 2022. Shawn Wong, professor of English at the UW, is quoted.

“I caught the live telecast [of the presidential inauguration] just as Amanda Gorman was set to recite her soul-stirring poem ‘The Hill We Climb.’ As she took the stage, radiant in her bright yellow jacket and red headpiece, the morning’s frustrations began to recede. And when she gifted us her words, I could feel the nation let out a collective sigh of relief after four years of weathering trauma,” writes Maya Smith, associate professor of French and Italian studies at the UW.

This week at the UW, attend a book launch for "Union by Law," the Critical Issues Lecture Series, and more.

Students share their experience with the ART 496 museum guide program, a year-long paid internship at the Henry Art Gallery.

This week at the UW, attend virtual Meany on Screen events, a lecture in the History Lecture Series, and more.

Sharma Shields (BA, English Literature, 2000) reads Törzs' "The Comet."

This week at the UW, attend the History Lecture Series, Meany On Screen events, and more.

"Gearbreakers," the debut novel by Zoe Mikuta, a junior studying English, is set to come out in June.

Nicolaas Barr of the UW’s Comparative History of Ideas Department has worked with the author of "Dijinn," a compelling memoir about coming out, to translate the book into English and write a new introduction.

E.J. Koh, a doctoral student in English at the UW, has translated all 49 letters from her Korean mother into English and used them as the skeleton for her brief, but time- and continent-spanning memoir, “The Magical Language of Others,” published in early 2020 with Portland publisher Tin House.

This week at the UW, attend Meany on Screen events, listen to a lecture from Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and much more.

UW graduates go on to work in a range of careers, whether it be law, medicine, or video game design. But it may surprise you to know that students in all three of these careers have majored in the same subject: English.

College of Arts & Sciences Dean Stacey explains that there is an important civic, political, social, and cultural element to an education and that you can get that in a wide variety of majors.

The humanities’ newest major, cinema and media studies (CMS), allows students to explore different modes of expression and their effects on a world increasingly dominated by mass media. “This new major should be especially relevant to incoming students,” department chair Eric Ames said. 

Interested in the College of Arts & Sciences but don’t know what to study? Here are six majors that you may not have discovered yet.