Perspectives Newsletter

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  How to Steal an Election

  A new political science course, “How to Steal an Election,” examines democracy’s vulnerability from a US-global perspective.

  UW News
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  From the Dean: Even One Vote...

  Arts & Sciences Dean Dianne Harris offers a personal reflection on the importance of voting.

  UW Arts & Sciences
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  A Nobel, an Inventor, a Polymath & More

  Recent awards and appointments celebrate Arts & Sciences faculty and staff for their research, leadership, and global impact. 

  Perspectives newsletter

Opportunities to Explore

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  Trust on the Ballot: Voting in Washington

  November 7, 7:30 pm
  Town Hall Seattle
  Livestream option available
  In this panel discussion, three Washington secretaries of state — current Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and former Secretaries of State Kim Wyman and Sam Reed — discuss the history and evolution of voting in Washington state, from the various systems in place to the complex and polarized climate in which we now operate. Convened by the UW College of Arts & Sciences and the UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.
   

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  The Caucasian Chalk Circle

  November 4, 7 & 8, 7:30 pm
  November 9, 2:00 pm & 7:30 pm
  November 10, 2:00 pm
  Meany Hall – Studio Theatre
  Written by Bertolt Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle retells the tale of an abandoned child whose custody is contested by his caretaker and his biological mother. This School of Drama production explores questions about justice, what is fair, and how to do right when it seems impossible — with an original pop rock score to breathe new life into these questions.

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  DXARTS Fall Concert: Fictions in Fugue

  November 7-8, 7:30 pm
  Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
  Fictions in Fugue is an interdisciplinary collaboration by new media artists/performers who come together to activate Meany Theater as a space in fugue and fragmentation. Combining interactive storytelling, Extended Reality technologies, and Machine Learning experiments, a series of embodied narratives emerge throughout the evening. Inspired by the short story "The Spiral" by Italo Calvino, formlessness and “indeterminate ways of feeling oneself there” emerge as vignettes of narrative possibilities.

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  The 2024 Election: What Just Happened and What Happens Next?

  November 12, 5:00 – 6:30 pm
  Kane Hall, Room 210
  A post-election faculty roundtable, hosted by the UW Department of Political Science and the Political Economy Forum, will be moderated by James Long, professor of political science. One week after the election, roundtable guests Victor Menaldo and Scott Lemieux from the Department of Political Science and Jessica Beyer from the Jackson School of International Studies will discuss what we know so far and what to expect next.

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  “Bad River” Screening & Panel

  November 23, 5:00 pm
  wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – UW Intellectual House
  A special screening of “Bad River,” a critically acclaimed new documentary film, will be followed by an in-depth discussion of Indigenous water rights, Indigenous health, and Native sovereignty with a panel featuring “Bad River” writer/director Mary Mazzio and Native American leaders in related fields, including several Arts & Sciences alumni. 

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  Afro-Peruvian Music and Dance

  December 3, 7:30 pm
  Brechemin Auditorium, UW Music Building
  Miguel Ballumbrosio, Ethnomusicology Visiting Artist in the School of Music, presents a performance of Afro-Peruvian dance and music traditions from the region of Chincha, where several generations of his family have been prominent culture bearers. He is accompanied by students from his UW classes in music and dance.

In The News

• Arts & Sciences First-Generation Storytelling Celebration

  National First-Generation College Celebration Day is November 8! Visit the UW College of Arts & Sciences’ First-Generation Celebration webpage for recollections and insights from first-generation students, faculty, staff, and alumni about their college experience.

  UW College of Arts & Sciences

• Opinion: Hurricanes Helene and Milton should motivate us to bury power lines

  "Hurricanes Helene and Milton remind us of electricity infrastructure’s vulnerability to extreme weather events. However, at least one Florida community, Babcock Ranch, managed to avoid electricity shutoffs from downed power lines," write Aseem Prakash, UW professor of political science, and Nives Dolšak, UW professor of marine and environmental affairs.

  Forbes

• Sweetened beverage taxes decrease consumption in lower-income households by nearly 50%, UW study finds

  New research from the University of Washington investigated responses to sweetened beverage taxes using the purchasing behavior of approximately 400 households in Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, and Philadelphia. Researchers found that after the tax was introduced, lower-income households decreased their purchases of sweetened beverages by nearly 50%, while higher-income households reduced purchases by 18%.

  UW News

• A look inside Puget Sound’s declining bull kelp beds

  Kelp has vanished from about 80% of the shorelines around which it once grew in Puget Sound, according to a 2023 report from Washington’s Kelp Forest Monitoring Alliance. Megan Dethier, UW research professor of biology and director of the UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories, is quoted.

  The Seattle Times