UW and the Community

"'Beauty of the Beasts' is chock-a-block with wonderful scientific and cultural facts. We get a clear-eyed look at disgust, a nearly universal human response to the likes of maggots, cockroaches, ticks, leeches, slugs and lice," writes David Barash, professor emeritus of psychology at the UW.

The Improv Music Project Festival (IMPFEST), hosted by the School of Music and the student-run organization Improvised Music Project, occurred from April 25-26. It celebrated exploration of sound through two shows featuring headliners Overall on Friday and Skúli Sverrisson on Saturday, playing alongside jazz studies students and faculty.

This year’s Neddy Artist Award Recipient in Painting is UW Associate Professor of Painting + Drawing Sangram Majumdar.

The Neddy Artist Award is one of the most generous and longest-running awards for visual artists in the state of Washington. This year's eight Neddy Awards finalists included alums Dana Blume (MFA 2023) and ralph salazar (MFA 2025). 

A 14-foot bronze sculpture commemorating the violent expulsion of Seattles Chinese community in 1886 moved closer to reality on April 28 when civic leaders, community historians and media professionals gathered at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience to announce the project had reached its fabrication funding thresholdmore than two decades after the idea was first conceived.Connie So, teaching professor of American ethnic studies at the UW, is quoted.

Come curious. Leave inspired. The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. 

There is a surging fixation on tracing mixed-race celebrities white-Asian heritage and famous Wasians are embracing the label.LeiLani Nishime, professor of communication at the UW, is quoted.

A Nigerian scientist's "personal experience" with a wildfire, its threat to endangered bats she discovered just days before, and her campaign to protect them, has won her the global Goldman Environmental Prize. Iroro Tanshi, postdoctoral scholar of biology at the UW and recipient of the award, is quoted.

Access, care, and community are at the center of Chave Pichardo's practice. Read how the graduating MFA student has connected their role at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery to their research and studio practice. 

Rustling leaves, ocean tides, and poetry — these aren’t the sounds you’d expect to hear at a classical concert, but Seattle Modern Orchestra is no regular orchestra. The collective arrived at Meany Hall’s Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater on April 8 for their concert, “Entangled Sounds.” 

Since its inception, Apple has not only introduced culture shifting technology like the Macintosh computer and iPhone, it has also influenced how we live here in the Bay Area, on the edge of the continent and a future being cast by technologists, innovators and entrepreneurs. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is interviewed.

A program designed to support Black women during pregnancy is helping shape ongoing efforts to address maternal health disparities in communities that have long faced unequal access to care. Rachel Chapman, a professor of anthropology at the UW, is quoted.

The University of Washingtons graduate and professional degree programs again were recognized as among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Reports 2026 Best Graduate Schools released late Monday.

“[Castalia is] a wonderful space for us to celebrate the hard work that we're all doing,” Em Beckert, a second-year MFA student, said. “On the first level, it was really hard to get into this program, and on the second level, it's really hard to be here and to keep writing and to move your life, in some cases across the country, and to find your voice and just to celebrate all of that.”

On display now at the University of Washingtons Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving examines the traditional art form and its importance to Coast Salish communities. Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, associate professor of art history at the UW and curator of Northwest Native American Art at the Burke Museum, is quoted.

UW Department of Communication Professor LeiLani Nishime shared her expertise on the current cultural discourse around “Wasians” (those of mixed White and Asian descent) for NPR’s It’s been a Minute podcast, “Welcome to ‘The Republic of Wasia.”