Department of History

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more.

Twenty-seven years to the day after founding Amazon in a Bellevue garage, Jeff Bezos has relinquished control of his company. Bezos’ trusted deputy, Andy Jassy, steps into his new role as Amazon’s CEO Monday. The UW's Margaret O'Mara, professor of history, and Jeff Shulman, professor of marketing, are quoted.

House Bill 1016 will make Juneteenth a legal Washington state holiday starting next year. This Saturday, June 19, will mark the first Juneteenth since Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill into law. Work by Quintard Taylor, professor emeritus of history at the UW, is quoted.

For more than 50 years, the UW Awards of Excellence have celebrated outstanding faculty, staff, students and alumni whose achievements exemplify the University’s mission. This year, 20 people were honored with the new Together We Will award, which celebrates outstanding staff contributions made during the challenges of 2020.

“BIPOC has become a trendy acronym among people interested in diversity issues, but this is not good. The ‘B’ stands for Black people, the ‘I’ is for Indigenous persons and the ‘POC’ stands for people of color. This effectively shunts Hispanics or Latinos aside,” writes Carlos Gil, professor emeritus of history at the UW.

Robert Stacey, who served on the faculty of the Department of History for 33 years and retires after serving as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, is honored.

The Defense Innovation Unit, an organization within the U.S. Department of Defense focused on adopting commercial technology, is building an Uber-like app called “Gig Eagle” to match part-time service members possessing private sector experience with program managers. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Seattle was the first city in the country to pass laws mandating premium pay and sick days for delivery-app drivers during the pandemic. But the current laws are set to expire after the pandemic ends, so Seattle leaders may soon consider making those protections permanent. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

A collection of work by Arts & Sciences faculty, students, alumni and friends related to Asian American and Pacific Islander history, heritage and culture.

Christoph Giebel, associate professor of history and of international studies at the UW, writes of a marker in Seattle's Volunteer Park, "The marker’s words grotesquely falsify a gruesome past ... To call America’s violent conquest of Asia’s first constitutional republic [the Philippines] a 'liberation of oppressed peoples' constitutes an 'alternative fact' so shameless as to render the plaque’s continued display scandalous."

This week at the UW, attend a lecture on revolutionary reforms to the metric system, "Asian American Women Rising: NOT the Model Minority," and more.

W. Royal Stokes, who received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1958 and a master’s degree in classics in 1960 from the University of Washington and later taught classics at the UW, has passed away.

Racial covenants prohibited people of certain races, nationalities and religions from living in Seattle neighborhoods. A recently passed bill provides funding for the UW to search for these covenants and notify property owners. James Gregory, professor of history at the UW, is mentioned.

This week at the UW, attend a Sports & Civil Rights History Panel, Drive-In at On the Boards, and more.

A bill state lawmakers passed this month directs UW and Eastern Washington University to search for racial covenants in home deeds and notify property owners when their homes are affected. James Gregory, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.