College of Arts and Sciences

In collaboration with the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee, award-winning poet and UW assistant professor Piotr Florczyk dedicated an event to the reading and discussion of poetry in Polish and English. Contributing writer Avery Cook dives into the importance of bilingual writing and writers.

"Santos may be exceptional in how many lies he has told, but politicians seeking election have incentives to tell voters what they want to hear – and there is some empirical evidence that a willingness to lie may be helpful in the process of getting elected. Voters may not appreciate candidates who are unwilling or unable to mislead others from time to time," writes Michael Blake, professor of philosophy and of public policy and governance at the UW.

Following a dramatic departure of two key leaders from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Microsoft, a major investor in the startup, ended up a winner on Monday. The Redmond-based tech giant said Monday it was hiring former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and co-founder and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman, who left after Altman’s ouster Friday, to lead an in-house AI innovation lab. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

UW researchers discovered an “unexpected finding” while studying the effects of alcohol and caffeine on sleep. Frank Song, a doctoral student of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

"Why do you tip? And have your reasons for tipping changed lately? Is there less gratitude in the mix and more — shall we say — fear?" writes columnist Peter Coy. Anthony Gill, professor of political science at the UW, is quoted.

Over 100 people are refusing meals at the privately-run Northwest Detention Center, which has a history of controversy and similar strikes. Angelina Godoy, professor of law, societies and justice and of international studies and director of the Center for Human Rights at the UW, is mentioned.

Early research presented at the leading brain conference suggests that the pandemic changed the brains of teenagers. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is quoted.

Pandemic-related lockdowns were hard on everyone, but a growing body of research suggests they were especially hard on young people. Now a new study scanning adolescent brain seems to be backing some of those suspicions. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is interviewed. [This interview is part of a roundup and begins at 27:05]

With the creation of a new Equity, Justice & Inclusion fund, the College is putting resources behind its values. Under the leadership of Associate Dean Maya Smith, this new fund will foster faculty mentorship, curricular innovations, and more—all toward a vision of greater access and equity.

"College freshmen read a New York Times Magazine piece about issues in education, then communicate what they learned by experimenting with audience and format," writes Megan Butler, a doctoral student of English at the UW.

Building upon the curriculum of the new course, “Cinema and Feminism in the Middle East”, the department of Middle Eastern languages and cultures and the Henry art gallery collaborated on film screenings from a renowned Iranian director. The films “[serve] as a window into a culture rich with history that is worth learning about”, according to writers Shireen Aryana and Madhavi Karthik.  

Researchers from UW’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences discovered that drinking your morning coffee and then an alcoholic beverage before bed cancels the negative effects on your sleep. Frank Song, a doctoral student of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

What do you get when you put two of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people on artificial intelligence together in the same lecture hall? If the two influencers happen to be science-fiction writer Ted Chiang and Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, you get a lot of skepticism about the future of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.

“Killers of the Flower Moon," the 2017 true crime book, and its new feature film adaptation, shine a light on the conspiracy to murder Osage people for their oil rights in early 1920s Oklahoma. Jean Dennison, associate professor of American Indian Studies at the UW, is interviewed.

"If a policy imposes costs locally to create benefits across the border, it is likely to run into local opposition. This is the story of Delhi’s air pollution as well as the global slowdown in addressing climate issues," write the UW's Nives Dolšak, professor of marine and environmental affairs, and Aseem Prakash, professor of political science.