Social Justice

The first comprehensive national study on fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, from researchers at the UW and Drexel University, found that roughly 73% of AIAN people killed by police violence were on or within 10 miles of a reservation. Theresa Rocha Beardall, co-author and UW associate professor of sociology, is quoted.

Pulitzer-winning reporter Evelyn Iritani uncovers the diplomatic exchange of American and Japanese civilians while the two countries were at war.

Emma Teal Laukitis, ’18, and her sister Claire not only catch and sell Alaska’s most famous fish, they help feed hundreds of thousands Alaskans through their donations.

"Survivor accounts of the lasting effects of their prostitution at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his wealthy friends repeat the story of every trafficked girl and woman on Aurora Avenue in Seattle," writes Debra Boyer, affiliate faculty in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the UW.

Former Husky basketball star and NBA player Bobby Jones is a big hit in Compton and beyond with his community-oriented organizations.

Jones, who earned his B.A. in writing from the UW, has already published a children’s book. And the small forward who was always known as a dogged defender for three Husky teams that made the NCAA tournament from 2004 to 2006, is just as fired up to provide representation to his communities. “I’m from Compton,” he says, “I played in the NBA, and I look like the kids from this area. It means so much for them to see someone who looks like them teaching yoga and mentoring them.”

In February, the UW Symphony will perform a symphony that Coast Salish elder Vi Hilbert commissioned years ago to heal the world after the heartbreak of 9/11. The symphony was first performed by the Seattle Symphony in 2006.

Public safety in the Chinatown-International District (CID) takes an important step forward with a targeted educational campaign. More than 100 elderly residents and their family members gathered on Nov. 15 at the International District/Chinatown Community Center for CID Cares, a community safety program for one of Seattles most vulnerable populations. The event is supported in part by the UW American ethnic studies department.

Close to 100 people gathered on Nov. 15 at the Chinatown-International District Community Center for a celebratory launch of a project more than a year in the making: a public safety pamphlet called "With Love for Our Grandparents & Seniors." The comic book-style guide provides safety tips for seniors in both English and Cantonese, including education on common scams and support resources in the event of an emergency or attack. Connie So, teaching professor of American ethnic studies at the UW, is quoted.

Sixty years after one of the 20th centurys worst atrocities, three scholars gathered at the UW to confront a question that is still connected to Indonesia: What does it mean to commemorate a genocide? Nazry Bahrawi, assistant professor of Asian languages & literature at the UW, is quoted.

Despite the Makah Tribes success in getting a waiver to carry out their exclusive treaty right for whaling, the permitting process that had dragged on for over 20 years has now been effectively delayedanother year and a half because of bogged-down federal bureaucracy. Joshua Reid, associate professor of history and of American Indian studies at the UW, is quoted.

UW Professor Connie So and interns in the Department of American Ethnic Studies take part in launching an educational campaign to support elderly Asian Americans in protecting themselves from crime and scams.

Sudans civil war has become a humanitarian catastrophe of staggering scale, marked by famine, ethnic cleansing and sexual violence. Christopher Tounsel, associate professor of history at the UW, is interviewed.

As King County officials work through the budget process, they are engaged in deciding the future of a restorative justice program diverting youth from the criminal legal system. Sarah Cusworth Walker, research professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the UW School of Medicine and Katherine Beckett, professor of sociology and of law, societies and justice at the UW, are quoted.

American Indian Studies professor Dian Million received a Freedom Scholar Award, which honors leading academics whose visionary work advances social and economic justice.

At its heart, the Jackson School’s Cybersecurity Initiative is more than a program — it’s a community. From the get-go, the program builds a sense of community that carries students through their time at the University of Washington and well into their professional lives.