News from the School of IAS
Community engagement on a global scale
Isolated at home by the pandemic, members of UW Bothell’s 2020 Global Scholars cohort said they nonetheless had a meaningful experience of global engagement. Through an inspiring book, deep discussions and remote projects with partners in different countries, they also experienced personal growth and community building. The Global Scholars program was launched by IAS faculty members Ben Gardner and Ron Krabill, along with Global Initiatives Director Natalia Dyba and Eva Navarijo, director of undergraduate advising for IAS.
January 11, 2021
Timely lessons from 2020: The Course
IAS faculty members Karam Dana and Cinnamon Hillyard were among the two dozen faculty from across the University of Washington who shared insights about a year of historic upheaval and change in a class called 2020: The Course. A good fit with UW Bothell’s cross-disciplinary approach, 2020: The Course featured perspectives from diverse faculty in public health, social science and data science, with nearly everyone touching questions of social justice, Hillyard said. Issues included racial inequities, health care access, domestic violence, the presidential election and how social media tells you what you want to hear.
January 11, 2021
Alka Kurian interviews Pulitzer Prize winner, leads South Asian film events
In December 2020, IAS faculty member Alka Kurian interviewed the Pulitzer Prize winner poet Vijay Seshadri for the Tasveer Author Meets event. In November 2020, Kurian was a panelist for the “Triumph over Misogyny,” “Duties, Dreams and Desires in a Young Woman,” “Displacement and Trauma: Sri Lanka’s Civil War and Partition of India,” and “Courageous Ordinary Lives in Flood-prone Assam,” panels at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal.
January 6, 2021
Acclaimed photojournalist David Ryder documents 2020
Master of Arts in Cultural Studies alum David Ryder (’11) has been working non-stop. An independent Seattle photographer and filmmaker, Ryder’s portfolio includes extensive experience with wildfires, disaster zones, protests, and hurricane coverage. 2020 was his busiest year yet.
January 6, 2021
Madison Nikfard: Personal growth through writing, digital arts
Madison Nikfard, a Media & Communication Studies graduate (’20) who excelled in writing and digital arts, continues at UW Bothell in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Poetics program. For making the most of her UW education, Nikfard was recognized this past academic year as one of the Husky 100 students honored from across all three UW campuses.
January 4, 2021
David Goldstein co-authors Toni Morrison’s Secret Drive
IAS faculty member David Goldstein published a book co-authored with Dr. Shawnrece D. Campbell (Stetson University), Toni Morrison’s Secret Drive: A Reader-Response Study of the Fiction and Its Rhetoric (McFarland Press). The book argues that late Toni Morrison ...
December 28, 2020
Ching-In Chen receives 2020 BIPOC Seed Grant Award on Intersectional Sustainability
IAS faculty member Ching-In Chen was awarded a BIPOC Seed Grant on Intersectional sustainability: Imagining solutions to racial and environmental injustices from the University of Washington Resilience Lab in partnership with the Campus Sustainability Fund. The seed grants support resilience and compassion building initiatives that foster connection and community, educate the UW community and spark dialogue. The selected projects proposed solutions to environmental and societal problems that have a disproportionately negative impact on ...
December 18, 2020
Jennifer Atkinson collaborates with youth/teen climate activists
IAS faculty member Jennifer Atkinson collaborated this fall with youth theater groups and young climate writers to explore the emotional impact of our climate crisis. For the newest dramatic production created by Cry Havoc Theater Company in Dallas, Texas, Atkinson contributed a series of interviews based on her work helping students navigate eco-anxiety and climate despair. The resulting piece, titled Endlings, is Cry Havoc’s fourth ...
December 17, 2020
Shana Lee Hirsch publishes Anticipating Future Environments
M.A. in Cultural Studies alum Shana Lee Hirsch has published a new monograph, Anticipating Future Environments: Climate Change, Adaptive Restoration, and the Columbia River Basin, with University of Washington Press. In this book, Hirsch tells the story of restoration science in the Columbia River Basin, surveying its past and detailing the work of today’s salmon habitat restoration efforts. Her analysis ...
December 16, 2020
In Defense of a Humanities Education
IAS junior Joe Lollo wrote an opinion piece for The Husky Herald on the relevance of humanities education. A double-major in Culture, Literature & the Arts and Media & Communication Studies, Lollo is an aspiring educator and has been contributing to The Husky Herald for two years. “The humanities really are a valuable course of study – it is not only edifying and intellectually stimulating, but ...
December 15, 2020