Weasels are small carnivores with a long body and short legs. They also have a stout skull and sharp teeth. These creatures, along with ferrets and minks, make up the Mustelinae subfamily.

Until now, researchers believed that the oldest fossils from this family were from Poland and Germany, dating back to about 3.5 million years ago in the . But a fossil discovered in Teruel, Spain, has doubled that estimate, dating back to the late , around 6.5 million years ago.

The research team, including , a 91探花 principal research scientist in the biology department, has identified this fossil as belonging to a new species, named Galanthis baskini. The researchers estimate that this creature was about 5 ounces, comparable in size to the smallest living carnivoran today, the or Mustela nivalis. Much like the modern weasel, G. baskini was also likely a carnivore, based on its teeth.

The team in Palaeontology.

“This study begins to uncover the evolutionary history of modern weasels, specifically, why do they have unique small, elongated bodies compared to all other mammals?” said Law, who is also an affiliate curator at the 91探花Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. “We had hypothesized that events during the mid- to late-Miocene — both the expansion of open habitats, such as grasslands, and the diversification of rodents — would have allowed weasels to evolve bodies that were small and flexible enough to chase rodent prey in small crevices underground. G. baskini is exciting because it confirms that weasels were present in the Late Miocene. And it’s pretty cool that G. baskini was the size of the least weasel — that means small weasels were already around more than 6 million years ago.”

To compare this fossil to other weasel family members, the researchers used a combination of classical comparative anatomy with advanced analytical techniques, such as micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT. Micro-CT allowed the team to three-dimensionally reconstruct the internal structure of teeth and jaws as well as observe anatomical features that were not externally visible.

“The new genus, Galanthis, is named after a figure from Greek mythology who was transformed into a weasel, symbolizing the fossil’s significance as representing the origin of the weasel family and the lineage leading to modern species,” said senior author , assistant professor of paleontology at Complutense University of Madrid.

The fossils come from excavations carried out in the 1990s in the Teruel area of Aragón, Spain.

“This research is a clear example of the remarkable richness of Aragón’s fossil record of mammals, recognized worldwide,” said co-author , professor at the University of Zaragoza. “Our team has been contributing for decades to excavations and the study of fossil mammals.”

The study also revises the classification of another fossil of a similar age discovered in China. This fossil has now been assigned to the genus Zdanskyictis.

The next step, the researchers said, will be to find new fossils that help reconstruct in greater detail the early evolution of weasels and their relatives.

“Ideally, we will find an entire skeleton of a fossil weasel,” Law said. “That way we can actually quantify just how elongate these ancient weasels were and when body elongation actually evolved.”

A full list of co-authors and funding .

For more information, contact Law at cjlaw@uw.edu.?

Adapted from a release from Complutense University of Madrid.

Even on a campus like the 91探花’s — home to particle accelerators, wave tanks and countless other bespoke pieces of equipment — the machinery in the stands out. Take the dilution fridge, a large, white, cylindrical device that can cool a small chamber to one hundredth of a kelvin above absolute zero — the coldest possible temperature in the universe.?

“This is the coldest fridge money can buy,” said , a 91探花assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the former director of the lab, which goes by the nickname QT3. “When it’s running, the chamber inside this device is about 100 times colder than outer space. At that temperature, it’s much easier to study and manipulate a material’s quantum properties.”

The lab also houses a photon qubit tabletop lab: a nondescript set of boxes, lasers and lenses that can demonstrate the “spooky” — a term scientists actually use — phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, where two particles appear to communicate instantaneously with each other despite being physically apart.

Or there’s the lab’s latest acquisition, the scanning tunneling microscope, which can image individual atoms within a solid material, allowing researchers to study the structure of materials at the smallest scales.

An interdisciplinary group of researchers has been marshalling resources and expertise to create QT3 for three years, and now, the lab is opening its doors as a unique one-stop shop resource for quantum researchers and educators at the UW.

“The idea of this lab is to improve access to quantum hardware,” Parsons said. “It’s rather hard to acquire equipment like this. And there are a lot of researchers that may have good ideas that they want to test, but don’t have the resources yet for their own equipment. So we’re inviting researchers, initially from across campus, but also from other universities and from industry, to come in and test their ideas. This can be a hub for quantum experts to share their ideas and collaborate.”

The lab also boasts hardware that can demonstrate known quantum principles and techniques, making it useful for students in quantum fields. In addition to the entanglement device, Parsons’ students developed a machine that can suspend charged particles — in this case, tiny grains of pollen — in midair using electric fields. Researchers use the same technique to trap single atoms and manipulate their quantum properties, making the lab’s ion-trapping machine good practice for more complex work.

Some students even work at the lab through an undergraduate staffing program, and have helped install instrumentation, write code to power equipment and build parts for custom microscopes. The program provides yet another avenue for students to get hands-on experience with unusual machinery and techniques.?

“Quantum mechanics is inherently counterintuitive, and that makes it a powerful teaching tool,” Parsons said. “In the QT3 lab, students will encounter systems where their everyday intuition breaks down, and they must rely on careful reasoning and experimentation instead. They learn how to debug when results don’t match expectations, how to test simple cases and how to build understanding about hardware step by step.”

The cosmically cold dilution fridge remains something of a centerpiece, even as the lab fills up with specialized equipment. The extreme environment within the device strips heat, light and other stray energy away from materials, allowing researchers to observe the peculiar quantum properties that remain. One such property is superposition, or the ability of a particle like an electron to maintain multiple mutually exclusive properties at the same time. Scientists use superposition to create a powerful, tiny piece of technology: a quantum bit, or qubit.?

“Traditional computers use bits, which can only be one or zero. A qubit, on the other hand, we can make one plus zero,” Parsons said. “It’s both at the same time, and only when we measure it do we find out which one it is. We can use this unusual property to build a new class of computers that excel at tasks like communications and encryption.”

QT3 is part of a collaborative effort to solidify 91探花as a leader in quantum research and applications. Most of the lab hardware was funded by a congressional earmark championed by Senator Maria Cantwell’s office. Departmental funding from across the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences helped rehab the lab space. The National Science Foundation provided seed funding for the instructional lab equipment.

The 91探花has also spent the past decade investing heavily in faculty with quantum expertise.

“Very few places have expertise across the full quantum stack, from materials up to algorithms,” said , a 91探花professor of physics and founder of QT3. “The 91探花has quantum faculty in electrical and mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, materials science and chemistry. Our faculty work on superconducting qubits, spin defects, photons, trapped ions, neutral atoms and topological qubits. Our advantage is the breadth of our investment.”

The lab is now available to researchers and students across the UW, and private companies are encouraged to reach out about partnering. Parsons has already used the lab to teach a graduate-level class in electrical and computer engineering for students who included employees from Boeing, Microsoft and quantum computing company IonQ. The lab is hiring for a full-time manager to maintain the equipment and help users make the most of the facility.?

“Here in academia, we can improve the building blocks for applied technologies like quantum computing, and then transfer those learnings to industry for further scaling,” Parsons said.

For more information, contact Parsons at mfpars@uw.edu.

Come curious. Leave inspired.

The 91探花offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the 91探花community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. And you don’t have to wait until May: Take a look at everything still happening in April.

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ArtSci On Your Own Time:

Video | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Emily M. Bender’s talk on “AI” hype and resisting dehumanization, from a linguistic and humanities perspective, drew the largest crowd we have seen for a Katz Distinguished Lecture in years. For those who weren’t able to join us, and those who would like to revisit, you can now watch the full recording on our YouTube page. Free.

Podcast | (Biology)
This is a podcast centered around the humans who study the myriad biological processes that shape our world, specifically, the humans who are students and faculty in the Department of Biology at the 91探花. They are scientists who study everything from the ways cells move through complex tissues to ancient communities of long-extinct mammals, from the ways plants interact with their surroundings to the ways bats fly and hummingbirds feed. Plunge into the vast world of biology, students sharing paths to becoming scientists and the lessons they have learned along the way. Free.

Online Events | See all events offered online.

EXHIBITIONS:

April 28 – June 5 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Opening nights: Group 1 – April 28, Group 2 – May 12, Honors – May 26. Free.

Through May 24 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Rodney McMillian (b. 1969, Columbia, South Carolina; based in Los Angeles, California) works with the social and political histories of the United States and how they shape our daily lives. Using existing texts and domestic materials—such as house paint on thrifted fabrics and bedsheets, or “post-consumer objects” as he calls them—he traces both the visible and invisible forces that shape civic life, particularly for the lives of African Americans. Inspired by the lush surroundings of the Henry, McMillian brings together sculpture, video, and painting that present an outdoor landscape overgrown with the lingering effects of physical, political, and social violence. Free.

May 16 – June 14 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
The Henry is pleased to present the 91探花’s School of Art + Art History + Design Master of Fine Arts and Master of Design Thesis Exhibition. Throughout their programs, fine arts and design students work with advisers and other artists to develop advanced techniques, expand concepts, discuss critical issues, and emerge with a vision and direction for their own work. Henry staff conduct studio visits and work closely with the students to facilitate their projects and prepare them for exhibition at the museum. A digital publication will be produced in conjunction with the exhibition to highlight the students’ artistic endeavors and the Henry’s commitment to this exciting and important step in the students’ development as practicing artists and designers. Free.

Exhibition | (Henry Art Gallery)
ojo|-|o?l?? (pronounced oh-ho hol-ohn) is an exhibition of recent and newly commissioned work by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege (b. 1994, Na’nízhoozhí [Gallup, New Mexico]) that includes sculpture, textile, collage, and video, activated by moments of performance. Across this work, Riege combines customary Diné practices of weaving, silversmithing, and beading with contemporary cultural forms, exploring Diné cosmology, the history of Euro-American trading posts in and adjacent to the Navajo Nation, and the notion of “authenticity” as a value marker of Indigenous art and craft. Free.

Week of April 27

Online – April 27 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Niki Akhavan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Studies at The Catholic University of America. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

April 28 | ?(School of Music)
Students of Dr. Stephen Price present a 91探花Organ studio spring recital. Dr. Price teaches Organ performance, Church music, and Keyboard Harmony courses. In addition, he leads ongoing initiatives to develop and revitalize the 91探花program, continuing the legacy of his predecessor, Dr. Carole Terry. Free.

April 28 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

April 28 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Stephanie LeMenager, Professor of English and Environmental Studies, considers the role of fiction as a form of resistant truth-telling in an era of lies, bullish*t, propaganda, GenAI fakes, and conspiracy theory, and in the shadow of the climate crisis. In our media atmosphere filled with falsehoods, fiction becomes a means of capturing messy realities unassimilable to propaganda. Moreover, the flexibility of fictional imagination allows for social responses to radical uncertainties, via new genres of storytelling that call climate-change publics into being. In this talk, we’ll consider stories of megafire. Free.

Online option – April 28 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This panel features talks on conducting research in the Peruvian Amazon by Justin Perez (UCSC) and Amanda Smith (UCSC). Perez will present “Queer Emergent: Scandalous Stories from the Twilight of AIDS in Peru” and Smith will present, “Situating Mothering in a Geography of Digital Colonialism: The Digital Biblioteca Amazónica,” a project to create an open-access digital archive of materials housed at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru. Free.

April 29 | (Philosophy)
The idea of space as the stage on which physical events play out dates at least as far back as the 5th century BC. The twentieth century saw a shift from theorising about space and time separately to thinking about spacetime, but the metaphor of spacetime as a stage or arena has continued. Twenty-first century physics looks likely to render this untenable – theories of quantum gravity do not appear to postulate spacetime as a fundamental container for physical contents. This talk examines an alternative way of thinking about spacetime based on the role that it plays in our physical theories – spacetime philosophy should focus on what spacetime does, rather than what it is. Free.

April 29 | (Psychology)
Presented by Maureen Craig, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University. Free.

April 30 | (School of Music)
The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Erin Bodnar, director) presents “Scenes and Portraits,” featuring music by Gustav Holst, Martin Ellerby, and others.

April 30 |(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
What does it mean to live well as wildfire and smoke season becomes more a part of life in the Pacific Northwest and many other places around the world? As much as we focus on preparedness and reducing materials that fuel wildfires, we must also reckon with the human dimensions of fire, which shape how we interact with it. “Fire Humanities” is a book project and an emerging field of study that draws on the humanities and arts to center stories, representations, collaborations, and values that promote adaptation, resilience, and justice as we adapt to a world with more fire.

This program will feature a panel discussion with five contributors to the book, who will share their approaches to this emerging field of research. After the panel, you’ll be invited to share your stories of fire and smoke with each other, speak with the panelists, and participate in hands-on activities connected to the Fire Humanities project. Free.

April 30 | ?(Jackson School of International Studies)
Panel discussion featuring Wang Feng, University of California, Irvine, and Yong Cai, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with 91探花faculty James Lin and Sara Curran. Free.

May 1 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Writing history entails good editing—and accepting when material can’t make the final cut. Lengthy research projects require a command of sources but also analytical flexibility. Such flexibility can ensure rigor, sometimes at the expense of findings that, alas, must be shelved for some other future use. “The B-Sides of Unmaking Botany” will examine a set of sources that did not make it into the recently published monograph Unmaking Botany: Science and Vernacular in the Colonial Philippines (Duke University Press, 2025). The objectives of the talk are thus twofold: to provide a behind-the-scenes take on the production of a scholarly monograph and to offer a conceptual argument gleaned from the sources that nonetheless resonates with some of Unmaking Botany’s principal interventions. Free.

May 1 | (Political Science)
Presented by Rachel Krause, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas. Free.

May 1-2 | (American Indian Studies)
Indigenous scholars, artists, community leaders, and practitioners come together to reflect on food sovereignty, wellness, cultural resurgence, and collective healing through land-based knowledge and practice. Keynote by Vina Brown (Haí?zaqv and Nuu-chah-nulth), a scholar, artist, and wellness advocate, whose work centers on Indigenous law, cultural healing, and community well-being. Raised in her Haí?zaqv homelands, Vina’s work is deeply grounded in cultural resurgence, ceremony, and Tribal Canoe Journeys. She is the founder of Copper Canoe Woman and co-founder of Rooted Resiliency, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit dedicated to community wellness, cultural healing, and reclamation. Across her work, Vina advocates for land, culture, and collective well-being, with particular attention to healing intergenerational and historical trauma through community, movement, and Indigenous knowledge systems.

Week of May 4

Online – May 4 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Teresa Mosqueda, Councilmember of the Metropolitan King County Council and Anita Ramasastry, Barer Chair and Professor of Law and the 91探花. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

May 4 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
The foundation of the Abe consensus — the LDP, together with Komeito, governing with large, stable majorities to promote growth as part of the global economy and develop Japan’s military power and international partnerships under the aegis of US leadership — has crumbled after little more than a decade. The LDP has lost public trust, its relationship with Komeito, and its large majorities. The US is in retreat and no longer defending the international order from which Japan had benefited. This talk will look at how this order crumbled and where Japan’s politics goes from here. Free.

May 4 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Tina Turner’s (1939–2023) successful recording career and electrifying stage performances earned her the moniker of “Queen of Rock and Roll.” At the same time, Turner was perhaps one of the most famous Black Buddhist celebrities. In this talk, I will highlight the ways that Turner’s Buddhist practice combined her Afro-Protestant upbringing, the trans-Atlantic flow of metaphysical religious ideas, and SGI Nichiren Buddhism. The talk will show how Turner’s combinatory religious sensibilities are indicative of trends in Black Buddhism. Free.

May 4 | (Chemistry)
Presented by Professor Maksym Kovalenko, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich. Hosted by 91探花Professor David Ginger. Free.

May 5 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
It seems like two separate realms. One is occupied by acclaimed dancers from Brooklyn’s world-renowned Mark Morris Dance Group, the other by people with Parkinson’s disease. CAPTURING GRACE is about what happens when those two worlds intersect. Filmed over the course of a year, Dave Iverson’s remarkable documentary reveals the hopes, fears, and triumphs of this newly forged community as they work together to create a unique, life-changing performance. There will be a post-screening discussion with Shawn Roberts, a Dance for PD? teaching artist? and Dr. Pravin Khemani, MD, Medical Director of the Movement Disorders Clinic, Swedish Neuroscience Institute, Providence Health & Services. Free.

Online option – May 5 | (Physics)
Dr. John Martinis, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, presents “Prehistoric quantum bits: experiments testing the fundamental physics of superconducting quantum devices.” Quantum mechanics was developed to describe the physics of the small, for fundamental particles, atoms and molecules. But does it still work for macroscopic systems? Martinis’ PhD thesis experiment in 1985 tested this idea, showing the macroscopic current and voltages in a 1 cm chip obey the quantum phenomena of tunneling and energy-level quantization, proving that a superconducting circuit can behave as a single `artificial atom.’ Over the last four decades, many physicists around the world have continued research on quantum devices. The field has evolved from fundamental tests into a high-stakes effort to build quantum bits and a quantum computer. At Google, the ‘quantum supremacy’ experiment was the culmination of this system-level optimization, proving that a processor could outpace classical supercomputers by maintaining high-fidelity control over a huge computational (Hilbert) space. Now, at his startup Qolab, they are leveraging 300mm semiconductor fabrication to achieve the extreme uniformity and yield necessary to build a useful general-purpose quantum computer. Free.

May 6 | (History)
Presented by Angela Zimmerman, George Washington University. Zimmerman’s recent research has focused on the global history of the U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction, and the New South. She is the author of Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South (Princeton, 2010) and the editor of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Civil War in the United States (International Publishers, 2016). Her first book, Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany (Chicago, 2001), studied imperialism, science, and popular culture. Her next book, To Seek a Newer World, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2027. Free.

May 7 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Move beyond the headlines and hot takes for a deeper conversation on labor and identity within women’s hoops with Dr. Courtney M. Cox, author of Double Crossover: Gender, Media, and Politics in Global Basketball (University of Illinois Press, 2025). In her book, she considers how athletes maneuver their lives and labor across leagues and borders, whether in the NCAA, WNBA, Athletes Unlimited, or overseas leagues. Cox is Associate Professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies (IRES) at the University of Oregon. She previously worked for ESPN, Longhorn Network, NPR-affiliate KPCC, and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Free.

May 7 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Dredge Byung’chu Kang, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. The aesthetics of K-Pop flower boy masculinity, the narratives of K-Drama cross-gender characters, and imagined Korean lesbianism have refashioned contemporary tom (Thai butch lesbian) gender presentation, partnership patterns, and sexual roles. Many Thai youth are “ba kaoli” (crazed for all things Korean), including young lesbians. In this talk, Kang examines how Korean media, consumer goods, and cultural assets are mobilized to imagine, enact, and embody Asian cosmopolitan identities. Kang describes a case in which Thai tom become “tom-gay,” by coupling with another tom. This masculine homogender pairing was previously considered inconceivable when tom-dee relationships between a lesbian and a “normal” woman were the heterogender norm. Kang argues that tom participation in K-pop fandoms, adoption of soft masculine style, and identification with female leads playing male roles in K-drama have allowed for the emergence of new lesbian sexualities. Kang thus shows how Korean Wave media has shaped Thai gender and sexuality. Free.

May 7 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presentations and discussions with:

• Raymond Jonas ( 91探花History Dept), “France’s Five Republics and what they tell us about how republics are born and how they die”
• Terje Leiren (Emeritus, 91探花Scandinavian Studies), “From Royal Absolutism to Parliamentary Government: Political Transition in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden).”
• James Felak ( 91探花History Dept), “The Perils of a Problematic Constitution: the Cases of Interwar Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.”

Free.

May 8 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Hidden for decades in a locked cabinet at the Center for Asia Minor Studies in Athens, Eva Palmer Sikelianos’s love letters (1900-1910)—personal, creative, and revealing networks of desire and kinship—challenge expectations about what belongs in Greece’s archival record.?These scattered, stuttering papers sat uneasily within an institute dedicated to Orthodox Christian refugee history, raising new questions about whose lives and stories find a place in official memory. What happens when a collection resists straightforward histories—when archiving itself becomes an act of negotiation, improvisation, and listening for what’s unsaid? What can these fragments teach us about the possibilities of cultural memory, and how listening to stutters and silences might open new ways of understanding the past? In this talk, Artemis Leontis (University of Michigan) explores the process of archiving Palmer’s collection: the hurdles, improvisations, and acts of care involved in bringing these materials from secrecy to public view. Inspired by Patricia Keller’s idea of the “stutter in the archive,” she shows how gaps, interruptions, and incomplete stories invite us to rethink what archives can do, and how they respond to lives lived beyond conventional narratives. Free.

May 7 – 9 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with Dances to American Music: Soul of America, a captivating performance by one of the country’s leading dance companies. Choreographed by the legendary Mark Morris, this program blends jazz, classical and folk music by iconic American composers, including George Gershwin, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, James P. Johnson and John Luther Adams. Morris brings his unique creativity and musical precision to life, fusing dance and live music to honor the vibrant spirit and diversity of America’s artistic heritage.

May 10 | ?(School of Music)
Performance by John-Carlos Perea, chair of 91探花Ethnomusicology and Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist. He is joined by guests Marc Seales, piano, Gary Hobbs, drums, and Michael Brockman, saxophone. Free.

Week of May 11

Online – May 11 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Stéphane Mourlane, Senior Lecturer, Aix-Marseille University; Yvan Gastaut, Lecturer, University of C?te d’Azur; and Paul Dietschy, Professor, Marie and Louis Pasteur University. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

May 11 | (Asian Languages & Literature)
What was the impact of colonialism on listening in nineteenth-century north India? How did conceptual vocabularies and explanations for emotional responses to music evolve? Did the way listeners processed their feelings about music dramatically change? In this lecture, Richard Williams, Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of Music and South Asian Studies at SOAS University of London, explores the place of music in the history of the emotions. Williams begins in the early modern period, and consider theories of embodied response and systems for visualizing music through painting and poetry. He then explores how colonial-era authors writing in vernacular languages drew these older theories into conversation with modern ontologies of music and emotion, often inspired by developments in European understandings of the physics of sound and psychological models of emotion. Despite these developments, he argues that nineteenth and twentieth-century sources show that older concepts continued to shape the discourse in Indian music studies, and were not simply overwritten by new, European theories. Free.

May 12 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

May 12 – 14 | ?(Mathematics)
Richard W. Kenyon, Erastus L. DeForest Professor of Mathematics at Yale University, will give a series of three lectures on “Dimers and webs,”

• May 12 | Webs, multiwebs, traces. The main theorem statement
• May 13 | SL3 case: reduced webs, scaling limits. Connection to the 4-color theorem
• May 14 | Positive connections and generalizations

Kenyon received his PhD from Princeton University in 1990 under the direction of William Thurston. After a postdoc at IHES, he held positions at CNRS in Grenoble, Lyon, and Orsay and then became professor at UBC, Brown University and then Yale where he is currently Erastus L. Deforest Professor of Mathematics. He was awarded the CNRS bronze medal, the Rollo Davidson prize, the Loève prize, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Simons Investigator. His central mathematical contributions are in statistical mechanics and geometric probability. He established the first rigorous results on the dimer model, opening the door to recent spectacular advances in the Schramm–Loewner evolution theory. In his most recent work, he introduced new homotopic invariants of random structures on graphs, establishing an unforeseen connection between probability and representation theory. Free.

May 12 – 14 | (Stroum Center for Jewish Studies)

• May 12 | Did ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ Always Exist? What the Talmud Can Tell Us
• May 14 | Monsters, Hybrids, and Holy Images – Rethinking Bodies in Ancient Jewish Art

Rafael Neis is a scholar and artist. Neis is the Jean and Samuel Frankel Professor of Rabbinic Literature and is appointed in the Department of History and Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. As Faculty Director of Arts Learning at Michigan’s Arts initiative, Neis supports campus-wide art-integrated pedagogy. Their second book, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species, was published in 2023 by University of California Press. Their artwork has been featured in shows and in many publications. Free.

Online option – May 13 | My Greatest Save with Briana Scurry (Public Lectures)
From winning two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup championship to enduring a career-ending concussion that left her “temporarily totally disabled” and forced her to pawn her Olympic medals, Briana Scurry delivers a raw and inspiring account of resilience. With unflinching candor, she guides audiences through the soaring highs and devastating lows of her journey—sharing a story of triumph, adversity, and ultimate redemption. Along the way, Scurry reflects on the global influence of soccer and the enduring significance of the World Cup, offering a deeply personal perspective on the sport that shaped her life and legacy. Free.

May 14 | ?(Political Science)
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations was published 250 years ago and illustrated how prosperity is created by an invisible hand (specialization, competition, and a well-governed society). Was it a coincidence that sustained economic progress began shortly thereafter? Smith’s framework and his spirit remain a wise guide to modern betterment and a powerful antidote against today’s reflex for control, protectionism, and political allocation. Join us for a discussion of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and its continued relevance. Free.

May 14 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004), Taiwan’s beloved and pioneering postwar cook book author and television celebrity, was often called the “Julia Child of Chinese cooking.” Fu appeared continuously on television for forty years, wrote dozens of best-selling Chinese cookbooks, owned a successful cooking school and traveled the world, teaching foreigners about Chinese food. Women in her generation, which included both housewives and career women, turned to Fu because she taught them how to cook an astounding range of unfamiliar Chinese regional dishes, in ways their own mothers and grandmothers never could. Her cookbook also represents the transpacific journeys of thousands of migrants, as they carried her recipes in their suitcases, traveling far from home. Fu’s story offers us a window onto not just food, but also family, gender roles, technology, media, foreign relations, and cultural identity. This is not a story of timeless culinary tradition, but one of modern transformation– of self and family, of cuisine and society. Free.

May 15 | (School of Music)
William Dougherty is an American composer, sound artist, educator, and writer who joined the 91探花 faculty in January 2025. Dougherty’s works have been performed internationally by ensembles including BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Glasgow), The Sun Ra Arkestra (Philadelphia), Yarn/Wire (New York), Ensemble Phoenix (Basel), TILT Brass (New York), Ensemble for New Music Tallinn(Estonia), JACK Quartet (New York), and Talea Ensemble (New York). His music has been featured in festivals such as Tectonics Glasgow (2023), IRCAM’s ManiFeste (2019), musikprotokoll (2018), Donaueschingen Musiktage (2017), New Music Miami (2017), Tectonics Festival New York (2015), the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (2015), the 47th Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt (2014), the New York Philharmonic Biennale (2014), and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. THEME: A colloquium of 91探花faculty and students of Theory, History, Ethnomusicology, and Music Education held on select Friday afternoons during the academic year. Free.

May 15 | (School of Music)
Faculty pianist Craig Sheppard is joined by current and former 91探花students in this concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

May 15 | (Political Science)
Presented by Daniel Krcmaric, Associate Professor of Political Science and Law, Northwestern University. Free.

May 16 | ?(Biology)
Welcoming all families and science enthusiasts of all ages. The 91探花Department of Biology’s experts in the field whose research and teaching span cellular and molecular biology, global climate change, paleontology, and plant biology. Through experimentation and conversation, explore questions such as: How have penguins adapted to survive climate change? How is neuron fate decided during development? Why are mosquitoes attracted to us? Do plants really “defend” themselves against insect predators? How does the brain really work? And does the Greenhouse really have a stinky corpse plant and when will it bloom next? You’ll also be able to touch invertebrates, brains, fossils…and more! Free.

May 16 | (Henry Art Gallery)
As part of the U District Street Fair, Meet Me at the Henry is a twice-a-year celebration of contemporary art and ideas. Explore new exhibitions, catch captivating performances, get hands-on with an all-ages art-making workshop and museum bingo, and discover rarely seen works from the Henry’s collection. Free.

May 14 – 17 | (Dance)
The MFA Dance Concert features original dances created by the current MFA Cohort, with over fifty undergraduate dancers. The artists explore humanity and community drawing from a variety of movement languages including contemporary modern, wh/aacking and punking, groove, body percussion, and more.

Week of May 18

Online – May 18 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Speakers TBD. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

May 18 | (School of Music)
91探花music students perform music from the Baroque era under the direction of Tekla Cunningham. Free.

Online option – May 19 | Five Ways to Watch the World Cup with Ron Krabill (Public Lectures)
As Seattle gears up to host the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the city finds itself at the center of a heated debate: Is the tournament an economic catalyst or a misuse of public funds? A celebration of Seattle’s cultural vibrancy or a distraction from pressing regional challenges? A thrilling chance to witness the world’s greatest athletes—or a calculated profit grab by global elites? This talk invites audiences to explore five distinct perspectives on the political and cultural impact of the tournament—offering a more nuanced, thought-provoking look at what the World Cup means for Seattle and the world.?Free.

May 19 | (Stroum Center for Jewish Studies)
Visiting author and scholar Jacob Daniels will discuss his new book, The Jews of Edirne: The End of the Ottoman Europe and the Arrival of Borders. At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Edirne was a bustling center linking Istanbul to Ottoman Europe. It was also the capital of Edirne Province—among the most religiously diverse regions of the Ottoman Empire. But by 1923, the city had become a Turkish border town, and the province had lost much of its non-Muslim population. With this book, Jacob Daniels explores how one of the world’s largest Sephardi communities dealt with the encroachment of modern borders. Free.

May 19 | (School of Music)
91探花voice students of Thomas Harper and Carrie Shaw perform art songs and arias from the vocal repertoire. Free.

May 19 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Thea Riofrancos is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. She is the author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2025) and Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), and the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Free.

May 19 | (Astronomy)
Enjoy evening talks, interactive exhibits, and on clear nights, sky viewing through our historic 1895 telescope. Viewings are held on the first and third Tuesday evenings from April through September, rain or shine. A public talk followed by telescope viewing once the sky darkens. Explore the universe with the UW! Free.

May 21 | (School of Music)
The master Javanese gamelan musician Heri Purwanto from Indonesia performs with his students in this evening of music from central Java, Indonesia.

May 21 – 31 | (School of Drama)
At “God’s” command, “Death” summons “Everybody” to go on the long and difficult journey to give a presentation to “God” on Everybody’s life and why they have lived it the way that they have. Everybody wants to bring along a friend, and Death says it’s fine if Everybody can find someone to volunteer. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the play from the 15th-century morality play Everyman. Professor Chi-wang Yang directs this production, in which each night the performers’ roles are determined by a lottery. Everybody reveals to us the value of our relationships and how to live with intention amid uncertainty.

May 21 | (American Indian Studies)
Sacred Breath features Indigenous writers and storytellers sharing their craft at the beautiful w???b?altx? Intellectual House on the 91探花Seattle campus. Storytelling offers a spiritual connection, a sharing of sacred breath. Literature, similarly, preserves human experience and ideals. Both forms are durable and transmit power that teaches us how to live. Both storytelling and reading aloud can impact audiences through the power of presence, allowing for the experience of the transfer of sacred breath as audiences are immersed in the experience of being inside stories and works of literature. Free.

May 22 | (School of Music)
Guitar students of Michael Partington present their quarterly studio recital. Michael Partington is one of the most engaging of the new generation of concert players. Praised by Classical Guitar Magazine for his “lyricism, intensity and clear technical command,” this award-winning British guitarist has performed internationally as a soloist and with ensemble to unanimous critical praise. Audiences are put at ease by his charming stage manner and captivated by his musical interpretations. His innate rhythmic understanding and sense for tonal colour combine to form some of the most memorable phrasing to be heard on the guitar. Free.

May 22 | (School of Music)
The UW’s graduate-student-led choral ensembles—the University Singers, 91探花Glee, and Treble Choir—present an eclectic year-end concert.

May 22 | ?(Political Science)
Presented by Valentina González-Rostani, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California. Free.

Through May 24 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Rodney McMillian (b. 1969, Columbia, South Carolina; based in Los Angeles, California) works with the social and political histories of the United States and how they shape our daily lives. Using existing texts and domestic materials—such as house paint on thrifted fabrics and bedsheets, or “post-consumer objects” as he calls them—he traces both the visible and invisible forces that shape civic life, particularly for the lives of African Americans. Inspired by the lush surroundings of the Henry, McMillian brings together sculpture, video, and painting that present an outdoor landscape overgrown with the lingering effects of physical, political, and social violence. Free.

Week of May 25

Through May 31 | (School of Drama)
At “God’s” command, “Death” summons “Everybody” to go on the long and difficult journey to give a presentation to “God” on Everybody’s life and why they have lived it the way that they have. Everybody wants to bring along a friend, and Death says it’s fine if Everybody can find someone to volunteer. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the play from the 15th-century morality play Everyman. Professor Chi-wang Yang directs this production, in which each night the performers’ roles are determined by a lottery. Everybody reveals to us the value of our relationships and how to live with intention amid uncertainty.

May 26 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

May 26 | (School of Music)
The 91探花Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, director) performs contemporary music of many genres composed for percussion ensembles ranging in size from trios to nonets and dectets. Free.

May 27 | (Chemistry)
Presented by Professor Benedetta Mennucci, Department of Chemistry, University of Pisa. Free.

Online Option – May 27 | Is A River Alive? Exploring the lives, deaths and rights of rivers with Robert Macfarlane (Public Lectures)
Across the globe, rivers are dying—choked by pollution, parched by drought, and shackled by dams. The prevailing narrative treats freshwater as a mere resource, water as a liquid asset, existing solely for human use. This lecture offers a different current: an ancient and urgent story in which rivers live, die, and even possess rights. It reimagines rivers as vital, sentient life-forces, intertwined with our own survival. Spanning Ecuador, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, northeastern Canada, and the speaker’s native southern England, the talk weaves together the voices of activists, artists, and lawmakers. Passionate and immersive, it promises to spark debate, shift perspectives, and invite listeners to recognize a profound truth: our fate has always flowed with the rivers. Free.

May 28 | (History)
Professor Matthew Sommer’s new book The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China (Columbia UP, 2024) considers a range of transgender practices and paradigms in Late Imperial China, illuminating how certain forms of gender transgression were sanctioned in particular contexts and penalized in others. This talk will focus on the crime of “a male masquerading in female attire” (男扮女裝), which was prosecuted by applying the statute against “using deviant ways and heterodox principles to incite and deceive the common people” (左道異端煽惑人民). Anatomical males who presented as women sometimes took a conventionally female occupations such as midwife, faith healer, or even medium to a fox spirit — yet, suspected of sexual predation, they risked death for the crime of “masquerading in women’s attire,” even when they had lived peacefully in their communities for years. Free.

May 28 | (Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies)
Graduate and undergraduate students and Indigenous Knowledge Families present their original research in the field of Indigenous Studies. Free.

May 29 | (School of Music)
Students of John Popham present a chamber music showcase. Free.

May 29 | (School of Music)
The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) performs music from the mid-20th century and beyond, including world premieres of works by living composers. Free.

May 30 | (School of Music)
The Campus Philharmonia Orchestras (Robert Stahly, Zach Banks, conductors) present an end-of-quarter concert. Free.

Online Events:

Online option – April 28 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This panel features talks on conducting research in the Peruvian Amazon by Justin Perez (UCSC) and Amanda Smith (UCSC). Perez will present “Queer Emergent: Scandalous Stories from the Twilight of AIDS in Peru” and Smith will present, “Situating Mothering in a Geography of Digital Colonialism: The Digital Biblioteca Amazónica,” a project to create an open-access digital archive of materials housed at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru. Free.

May 5 | (Physics)
Dr. John Martinis, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, presents “Prehistoric quantum bits: experiments testing the fundamental physics of superconducting quantum devices.” Quantum mechanics was developed to describe the physics of the small, for fundamental particles, atoms and molecules. But does it still work for macroscopic systems? Martinis’ PhD thesis experiment in 1985 tested this idea, showing the macroscopic current and voltages in a 1 cm chip obey the quantum phenomena of tunneling and energy-level quantization, proving that a superconducting circuit can behave as a single `artificial atom.’ Over the last four decades, many physicists around the world have continued research on quantum devices. The field has evolved from fundamental tests into a high-stakes effort to build quantum bits and a quantum computer. At Google, the ‘quantum supremacy’ experiment was the culmination of this system-level optimization, proving that a processor could outpace classical supercomputers by maintaining high-fidelity control over a huge computational (Hilbert) space. Now, at his startup Qolab, they are leveraging 300mm semiconductor fabrication to achieve the extreme uniformity and yield necessary to build a useful general-purpose quantum computer. Free.

Live (not recorded) | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This lecture series is hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Topics include:

• April 27 | Iran and Seattle’s World Cup
• May 4 | Workers’ Rights in Seattle during the World Cup
• May 11 | Seattle’s World Cup: The View from Europe
• May 18 | The Pride Match and LGBTQ+ Rights
• June 1 | Egypt Comes to Seattle

Free.

May 13 | My Greatest Save with Briana Scurry (Public Lectures)
From winning two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup championship to enduring a career-ending concussion that left her “temporarily totally disabled” and forced her to pawn her Olympic medals, Briana Scurry delivers a raw and inspiring account of resilience. With unflinching candor, she guides audiences through the soaring highs and devastating lows of her journey—sharing a story of triumph, adversity, and ultimate redemption. Along the way, Scurry reflects on the global influence of soccer and the enduring significance of the World Cup, offering a deeply personal perspective on the sport that shaped her life and legacy. Free.\

May 19 | Five Ways to Watch the World Cup with Ron Krabill (Public Lectures)
As Seattle gears up to host the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the city finds itself at the center of a heated debate: Is the tournament an economic catalyst or a misuse of public funds? A celebration of Seattle’s cultural vibrancy or a distraction from pressing regional challenges? A thrilling chance to witness the world’s greatest athletes—or a calculated profit grab by global elites? This talk invites audiences to explore five distinct perspectives on the political and cultural impact of the tournament—offering a more nuanced, thought-provoking look at what the World Cup means for Seattle and the world.?Free.

May 27 | Is A River Alive? Exploring the lives, deaths and rights of rivers with Robert Macfarlane (Public Lectures)
Across the globe, rivers are dying—choked by pollution, parched by drought, and shackled by dams. The prevailing narrative treats freshwater as a mere resource, water as a liquid asset, existing solely for human use. This lecture offers a different current: an ancient and urgent story in which rivers live, die, and even possess rights. It reimagines rivers as vital, sentient life-forces, intertwined with our own survival. Spanning Ecuador, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, northeastern Canada, and the speaker’s native southern England, the talk weaves together the voices of activists, artists, and lawmakers. Passionate and immersive, it promises to spark debate, shift perspectives, and invite listeners to recognize a profound truth: our fate has always flowed with the rivers. Free.

ArtSci Roundup goes monthly!

The ArtSci Roundup is your guide to connecting with the UW—whether in person, on campus, or on your couch.

Previously shared on a quarterly basis, those who sign up for the Roundup email will receive them monthly, delivering timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Make sure to check out the ArtSci On Your Own Time section for everything from podcasts to videos to exhibitions that can be enjoyed when it works for you!

In addition, if you like the ArtSci Roundup, sign up to receive a monthly notice when it’s been published.

Do you have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).uw.edu).

UPDATE April 7, 2026:?The original version of this story omitted two 91探花programs that were included in the rankings: Occupational Therapy (Tied for 20th) and Physical Therapy (Tied for 31st).?

The 91探花’s graduate and professional degree programs again were recognized as among the best in the nation, according to .

Topping this year’s list include programs at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering in the College of Engineering and the College of Education. The College of Arts & Sciences and the College of the Environment also had top-rated programs.

In total, 81 graduate and professional degree programs across the 91探花placed in the top 35 in this year’s U.S. News rankings.

“These rankings highlight the strength and impact of the 91探花’s graduate and professional programs,” said 91探花President Robert J. Jones. “These programs equip students with the skills and knowledge to meet critical workforce needs and serve society, while demonstrating the power of higher education to advance the public good. We are proud to foster an environment where students and faculty can thrive and have a real impact on the world around them.”

While the 91探花celebrates the success and impact of the programs recognized by U.S. News — and notes that many applicants use these rankings to help them select schools and discover potential areas of study — the University also recognizes shortcomings inherent in the ranking systems.

The 91探花School of Law and the 91探花School of Medicine withdrew from the U.S. News rankings in 2022 and 2023, respectively, citing concerns that some of the methodology in the rankings for those specific disciplines incentivize actions and policies that run counter to the schools’ public service missions.

91探花leaders continue to work with U.S. News and other ranking organizations to improve their methodologies, to the extent that the organizations are open to it. Schools, colleges and departments continually reevaluate the benefits and potential shortfalls of participating in specific rankings.

Excluding the School of Law and the School of Medicine, 29 91探花programs placed in the top 10, and 81 are in the top 35.

?The 91探花this year placed in the top 10 nationwide in public affairs, biostatistics,? nursing, computer science, education, psychology, speech and language pathology, statistics and Earth sciences.

The UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade and tied for fifth in the nation this year. The Evans School’s environmental policy program was ranked second, while public finance and budgeting as well as leadership both ranked No. 10.

The 91探花School of Nursing’s doctor of nursing practice program tied for No. 1 among public institutions. The School of Public Health has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade, coming in this year at No. 9. The school also had three programs in the top 10: biostatistics, environmental health sciences and epidemiology.?

The UW’s programs in speech and language pathology tied for No. 6.? Two programs from the College of Education placed in the top 10. And the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering this year tied for seventh place overall with three programs ranked in the top 10, including artificial intelligence, programming language and systems.

U.S. News ranks biostatistics in two ways. 91探花ranked No. 3 as a science discipline that applies statistical theory and mathematical principles to research in medicine, biology, environmental science, public health and related fields. UW’s School of Public Health ranked No. 7 in biostatistics as an area of study that trains students to apply statistical principles and methods to problems in health sciences, medicine and biology. At the UW, biostatistics is a division of the School of Public Health.

In some cases, such as the College of Arts & Science and the Foster School of Business, U.S. News ranks several professional disciplines housed within academic units. Programs in dentistry are not ranked.?

The rankings below are based on preliminary data and may be updated. relies on both expert opinions and statistical indicators.

TOP 10:

Library and Information Studies (overall): Two-way tie for 1st (ranked in 2025)

Public Affairs (environmental policy): 2nd

Library and information studies (digital librarianship): Two-way for 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Library and Information Studies (information systems): 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Biostatistics: 3rd

Physics (nuclear): Two-way tie for 3rd (ranked in 2024)

Nurse practitioner (doctor of nursing practice): Four-way tie for 4th

Evans School of Public Policy & Governance (overall): Four-way tie for 5th

Library and Information Studies (library services for children and youth): Two-way for 5th (ranked in 2022)

Computer science (systems): Tied for 6th

Education (elementary education): 6th

Psychology (clinical): Three-way tie for 6th

Speech-language pathology: Five-way tie for 6th

Statistics: Four-way tie for 6th

Public Health (biostatistics): 7th

Computer science (overall): Three-way tie for 7th

Computer science (programming language): Tied for 7th

Education (secondary education): 7th

Nursing (midwifery): Five-way tie for 7th

Public Health (environmental health sciences): 7th

School of Social Work (overall): 7th (ranked in 2025)

Public Health (epidemiology): 8th

Computer science (artificial intelligence): 9th

Earth sciences: Tied for 9th?

Geophysics: Three-way tie for 9th (ranked in 2024)

Public Affairs (nonprofit management): 9th

School of Public Health (overall): Tied for 9th

Public Affairs (public finance and budgeting): 10th

Public Affairs (public management and leadership): 10th

TOP 25:

Biological sciences: Five-way tie for 16th

Business (accounting): 10-way tie for 16th

Business (entrepreneurship): Five-way tie for 17th

Business (information systems): Three-way tie for 15th

Business (part-time MBA): Three-way tie for 11th

Business (full-time MBA): 20th

Business (management): Five-way tie for 25th

Business (marketing): Eight-way tie for 25th

Chemistry (analytical): Four-way tie for 16th (ranked in 2024)

Chemistry: Seven-way tie for 22nd

Chemistry (inorganic): Three-way tie for 22nd (ranked in 2024)

Computer science (theory): Tied for 11th

College of Education (overall): Tied for 24th

Education (administration): Tied for 11th

Education (curriculum/instruction): Tied for 12th

Education (policy): Tied for 14th

Education (special education): Tied for 12th

College of Engineering (overall): Three-way tie for 22nd

Engineering (aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical): Tied for 17th

Engineering (biomedical/bioengineering): Five-way tie for 12th

Engineering (civil): Four-way tie for 13th

Engineering (computer): 12th

Engineering (electrical): Three-way tie for 22nd

Engineering (industrial/manufacturing/systems): Seven-way tie for 24th

Engineering (materials engineering): Five-way tie for 25th

Library and Information Studies (school library media): Two-way tie for 11th (ranked in 2022)

Mathematics (applied math): 21st (ranked in 2024)

Nursing master’s (overall): Tied for 12th

Nurse practitioner (adult gerontology acute care): Tied for 11th

Nurse practitioner (family): Tied for 15th

School of Pharmacy (overall): Tied for 14th

Physics (overall): Tied for 20th?

Public Affairs (public policy analysis): 14th

Public Affairs (social policy): Tied for 13th

Public Affairs (urban policy): Three-way tie for 21st

Public Health (health care management): Three-way tie for 16th?

Public Health (health policy and management): 11th

Public Health (social behavior): 13th

Sociology (overall): Two-way tie for 22nd (ranked in 2025)

Sociology (population): Two-way tie for 15th (ranked in 2022)

TOP 35:

Business (analytics): Seven-way tie for 32nd

Business (executive MBA): Three-way tie for 29th

Business (finance): Nine-way tie for 31st

Business (international MBA): Tie for 32nd

Business (production & operations): Five-way tie for 27th

Engineering (chemical): Tied for 28th

Engineering (mechanical): 34th

English: Two-way tie for 34th (ranked in 2025)

Fine arts: 15-way tie for 34th

History: Three-way tie for 31st (ranked in 2025)

Mathematics: Four-way tie for 26th

Occupational Therapy: Tied for 20th

Physical Therapy: Tied for 31st

Political science: Five-way tie for 33rd (ranked in 2025)

Using preliminary data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids in our solar system. The findings were confirmed by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center (), and include hundreds of distant worlds beyond Neptune as well as 33 previously unknown near-Earth objects.

The discoveries — Rubin Observatory’s largest asteroid haul yet — were made using data from the observatory’s early optimization surveys and processed with software developed at the 91探花’s . The new findings are a powerful preview of the observatory’s transformative impact on solar system science.

“This first large submission after is just the tip of the iceberg and shows that the observatory is ready,” said , a 91探花professor of astronomy and leader of Rubin’s solar system team, which is located at the UW. “What used to take years or decades to discover, Rubin will unearth in months. We are beginning to deliver on Rubin’s promise to fundamentally reshape our inventory of the solar system and open the door to discoveries we haven’t yet imagined.”

The submission to MPC comprises approximately 1 million observations, taken over the span of a month and a half, of over 11,000 new asteroids and more than 80,000 already known asteroids, including some that had previously been observed but were later “lost” because their orbits were too uncertain to predict their future locations. The new batch adds to roughly 1,500 asteroids previously discovered by Rubin as part of its First Look project.

The newly discovered near-Earth objects, or NEOs, are small asteroids and comets whose closest approach to the sun is less than 1.3 times the distance between Earth and the sun. None of the new NEOs pose a threat to Earth. Once in full operation, Rubin is expected to reveal an additional nearly 90,000 new NEOs, some of which may be potentially hazardous. By enabling early detection and continuous monitoring of these objects, Rubin will be a powerful tool for planetary defense.

The dataset also contains roughly 380 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) — icy bodies orbiting beyond Neptune. Two of the newly discovered TNOs — provisionally named and — have been found to be on extremely large and elongated orbits. At their most distant points, these two objects reach roughly 1,000 times farther away from the sun than the Earth is, placing them among the 30 most distant known asteroids.

A total of 12,700 asteroids discovered with Rubin are shown here during the 1.6 years of observation. The discoveries come in three bursts: 73 were discovered during the first early test observations using Rubin’s Commissioning Camera in late 2024; 1,514 were discovered during First Look observations in April and May 2025; and the recent 11,000 asteroids were discovered in Rubin’s early optimization surveys in Summer 2025.

The discoveries were enabled by Rubin Observatory’s unique combination of a large mirror, the world’s most powerful astronomical digital camera, and highly sophisticated, software-driven pipelines developed at the 91探花that can detect faint, fast-moving objects against a crowded sky. These capabilities will allow Rubin to build the most detailed census of our solar system ever, and the resulting discoveries will help scientists work out the story of the solar system’s history.

“Rubin’s unique observing cadence required a whole new software architecture for asteroid discovery,” said , a 91探花research scientist of astronomy who, together with 91探花astronomy graduate student , built the software that detected them. “We built it, and it works. It seems pretty clear this observatory will revolutionize our knowledge of the asteroid belt.”

Particularly striking is the rapid growth of the TNO population. The 380 candidates discovered by Rubin in less than two months adds to the 5,000 discovered over the past three decades. As with less distant asteroids, finding the TNOs depended critically on developing new sophisticated algorithms.

“Searching for a TNO is like searching for a needle in a field of haystacks — out of millions of flickering sources in the sky, teaching a computer to sift through billions of combinations and identify those that are likely to be distant worlds in our solar system required novel algorithmic approaches,” said , a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and former director of the Minor Planet Center, who spearheaded the work on the TNO discovery pipeline.

“Objects like these offer a tantalizing probe of the solar system’s outermost reaches, from telling us how the planets moved early on in the solar system’s history, to whether a hitherto undiscovered ninth large planet may still be out there,” said , a research scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who, with Holman, developed the algorithms to detect distant solar system objects with Rubin data.

The verification of this large group of discoveries enables the entire global community to access the data, refine orbits and begin analysis immediately. And these 11,000-some asteroids are just the start. Once the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time () begins later this year, scientists expect Rubin to discover this many asteroids every two to three nights during the early years of the survey. This will ultimately triple the number of known asteroids and increase the number of known TNOs by nearly an order of magnitude.

Rubin Observatory is jointly operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC.

For more information, contact Juri? at mjuric@uw.edu.?

This story was adapted from a .

Operations of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

Other team members include , a former DiRAC postdoctoral fellow at the UW, now at the Institute for Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of S?o Paulo; , a 91探花research software engineer and B612 Asteroid Institute team member who earned his doctorate in astronomy at the UW; , a former 91探花postdoctoral researcher in astronomy, now at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne; and at Princeton University.

once believed the focuses of her doctoral and postdoctoral work were completely different.?

She completed her doctorate in Botswana, studying how humans were changing large carnivore behavior. After earning her degree, she researched whale migration at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But while Abrahms was with NOAA, a historic heat wave off the West Coast was associated with an unprecedented rise in whales getting tangled in fishing gear. The event reminded her of studying in Botswana, when an extreme drought led to predators killing more livestock.?

“It struck me as important that you have two really different systems, yet in both cases an extreme climate event led to a change in human-wildlife interactions,” said Abrahms, an associate professor of biology at the 91探花.

Those experiences led Abrahms to study how climate change is affecting human-wildlife interactions and increasing conflict around the world — from polar bear attacks on people to elephant destruction of agricultural areas. Her areas of expertise made her the ideal choice for keynote speaker at the held in Botswana in January.

Abrahms offered a global perspective on how climate change is impacting human-wildlife conflict while also providing specific insight on southern Africa, since she has worked in Botswana since 2011. The roundtable was hosted by the National Assembly of Botswana in partnership with through its program.

“It was really gratifying,” Abrahms said. “As a scientist, we’re often putting papers out and not knowing what reach they will have. You never really know where they’re going to go, if they’re going to go anywhere. To be featured so prominently in this intergovernmental parliamentary workshop was a career highlight.”

The roundtable brought together parliamentarians from Botswana, other African nations, the European Union, and beyond, alongside government officials, civil society leaders, local community representatives, conservation experts and international partners. Attendees focused on identifying solutions to human-wildlife conflicts while ensuring that the interests of citizens, local communities, ecotourism operators and wildlife advocates are reflected in policy.

Abrahms’ speech addressed the global impacts of climate change on human-wildlife coexistence.

She discussed increasing news reports of human-animal conflict, like kangaroos mobbing areas in Australia during droughts, and increased alligator attacks due to hurricanes in South Carolina. Previous research from Abrahms and her team revealed that the warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Another of her studies found that the overlap between humans and animals will increase substantially across much of the planet in less than 50 years due to human population growth and climate change.?

“These issues are definitely getting more attention and when I gave this talk, it resonated,” Abrhams said. “Afterward, there was a panel featuring different parliament members and every single one of them had their own stories of climate increasing conflict in their countries, whether it was from a hurricane or a drought or a heat wave.”

Despite the wide variety of animal species and climate events — floods and hurricanes in Sri Lanka, droughts in Botswana and more — Abrahms was struck by how frequently climate change exacerbated these problems. She was heartened, though, by how many people from around the world came together to share experiences, success stories and challenges.

Some national-level policy recommendations that came out of the roundtable included predictable compensation and insurance mechanisms for when human-wildlife conflicts occur. Experts also suggested land-use planning that recognizes wildlife corridors as well as human needs. Among the other ideas: Investment in community resilience and climate-smart livelihoods, parliamentary oversight and a wildlife coexistence fund.?

Public outreach is also an important piece, Abrahms said.

“That would help people prepare and hopefully prevent some of these conflicts from occurring,” Abrahms said. “Governmental fiscal planning also could help by anticipating that there will be increased strain on a system and extra money could be put into a fund for use during extreme climate events.”

Abrahms left the roundtable impressed with how much the attendees genuinely cared about the environment, as well as their interest in learning from each other and about her work.

“It was a very grounding experience,” Abrahms said, “and it was nice to be part of a policy-oriented audience. There is a huge amount of money and resources and personnel and expertise aimed at alleviating these problems. In that respect, it was uplifting.”

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

Nautilus and Allonautilus cephalopods and their extinct ancestors have been drifting through of the ocean for more than 500 million years. Researchers have spent the last 40 years trying to understand how these mysterious “living fossils” thrive in areas with limited nutrients. published in Scientific Reports, a UW-led team documented new habits and habitats for current Nautilus and Allonautilus species. These creatures appear to live in deeper water than their extinct cousins did, and the younger ones live twice as deep as the fully mature adults. Nautilus and Allonautilus species scavenge their food and never stop moving. While a few species migrate hundreds of meters down at dawn and then back up at dusk every day, the team found that most species aren’t quite as intrepid. The researchers also describe a new population of Allonautilus in waters off the island , one of several populations thriving due to hunting restrictions inspired in part by research efforts from this team.

For more information, contact senior author , 91探花professor of both biology and Earth and space sciences, at argo@uw.edu.

Other 91探花co-authors are , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included

Green clay tennis courts become carbon negative after 10 years

The United States has around a quarter of a million tennis courts, 40,000 of which are helping mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Green clay tennis courts, an alternative to traditional hard courts and the red clay courts popular in Europe, are constructed with a type of rock that reacts with carbon dioxide and water to sequester carbon as a stable dissolved salt. In , 91探花researchers show that in the U.S., green clay courts remove 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year and 80% of green clay courts make up for construction emissions within 10 years. Moving forward, the researchers hope to experiment with other materials that also remove carbon dioxide without compromising performance for players.

For more information contact lead author , 91探花assistant professor of oceanography, at fjpavia@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

Temperature dynamics, not just extremes, impact heat tolerance in mussels

Intertidal mussels, forming bumpy layers on shoreline rocks, withstand significant temperature swings as the tide ebbs and flows. These creatures live in one of the most thermally variable environments on Earth, but a new study shows that the rate, timing and duration of heating and cooling impact their metabolic rate, a proxy for overall health. At the UW’s , researchers exposed mussels to temperature regimens with equal highs and lows but different patterns of change. Even when the average temperature for a set period was the same, the mussels’ response was distinct. These results, , show that predicting how marine organisms respond to climate change means considering how temperature changes over time, not just how warm it gets.

For more information, contact lead author , assistant professor of biology at the College of the Holy Cross and a mentor for the 91探花Friday Harbor Laboratories , at mnishizaki@holycross.edu.

The other 91探花co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

When algae stop growing, bacteria start swarming

Tiny geometric algae, called , produce nearly a quarter of the world’s organic matter by photosynthesis. In the microscopic marine universe, diatoms coexist with both harmful and helpful bacteria. A new study, , describes how a recently identified species of marine bacteria targets diatoms based on growth phase and nutrient availability. Growing diatoms can resist bacterial attacks, but when growth ceases, the bacteria modulate their gene expression patterns to become aggressive — first swimming and releasing compounds that damage the diatom and then clustering around them to feed. Bacteria can also overcome the diatom’s defenses in nutrient-rich environments. These findings highlight the dynamic relationship between bacteria and algae in the lab. Moving forward, researchers will explore what, if anything, changes in a more complex environment.

For more information, contact lead author , 91探花postdoctoral fellow in oceanography, at dawiener5@gmail.com.

Other 91探花co-authors are and . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

Four 91探花 researchers have been named AAAS Fellows, according to . They are among 449 newly elected fellows from around the world, who are recognized for their “scientifically and socially distinguished achievements” in science and engineering. New Fellows will receive an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin — representing science and engineering, respectively — to commemorate their election.

A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor. AAAS Fellows play a crucial role in shaping public policy, advancing scientific research and influencing national and global perspectives on critical issues. Becoming a AAAS Fellow is among the most distinct honors within the scientific community, and those elevated to the rank have made distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. All fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

This year’s 91探花AAAS fellows are:

, professor of biochemistry at the 91探花School of Medicine and the director of the 91探花Medicine Institute for Protein Design, was recognized for his groundbreaking work in computational protein design. Baker’s early work was in predicting how chains of chemicals fold into molecular structures that determine protein functions. He went on to design new proteins from scratch to carry out tasks in medicine, technology and sustainability. His team is developing vaccines, targeted drug delivery for cancer, enzymes to break down environmental pollutants and innovative biomaterials, among other endeavors. Baker received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his scientific achievements to benefit humankind. He has also been awarded the Overton Prize in computational biology, Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences.

, professor and chair of neurobiology and biophysics at the 91探花School of Medicine, was honored for her distinguished contributions to cognitive and systems neuroscience. Buffalo, who is the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor, is particularly noted for her pioneering research on the neural basis of remembering and learning, and for advancing translational research into broader insights on human brain function. She studies the relationship between eye movements and activity in the hippocampus and other nearby brain regions involved in forming memories, navigating and recalling the emotional context of past events. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, which presented her with the Troland Award for innovative, multidisciplinary studies. She also helps train postdoctoral scholars at the 91探花Medicine Institute for Translational Immunology.

, professor and chair of genome sciences at the 91探花School of Medicine, was noted for her distinguished contributions to the fields of genetics and genomics. She is known for advancing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying molecular evolution and genetic variation in yeasts and in humans. Her lab develops new tools to study mutations and their consequences, genome structure, gene interactions, and the evolution of gene expression. She has a longstanding interest in how copy number variations — how many times a particular segment of DNA repeats — affect adaptation, and how these variations arise. Dunham applies her genomics methods to diverse topics, including the biology of aging and the emergence of multi-drug antibiotic resistance. Dunham is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar.

, 91探花professor of chemistry, was honored for distinguished contributions to the theoretical understanding of nanoscale light-matter interactions, particularly for the design and interpretation of advanced spectroscopies that use electrons and light to probe material excitations. Masiello is an applied physicist whose research focuses on creating simple-yet-rich theoretical models that bring insight and understanding to observations spanning from quantum materials to nanophotonics. Masiello was hired as an assistant professor at the 91探花in 2010. He is a faculty member in both the Molecular & Engineering Sciences Institute and the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems, and is also an adjunct professor of applied mathematics and of materials science and engineering. Masiello’s honors include receiving an NSF CAREER Award and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, called PECASE, awarded by President Obama at the White House.

Come curious. Leave inspired.

The 91探花offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the 91探花community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University.

And as April comes to a close, see what’s happening in May.?

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ArtSci On Your Own Time or From Your Own Home

Video | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
From “Mourning across Centuries and Languages: A Poem’s Six-Hundred-Year Journey” with Jahan Ramazani to “What Is Racial Capitalism and Why Does It Matter?” with Robin D. G. Kelley, the Katz Distinguished Lectures Playlist offers a rich, ever-growing archive to explore from wherever you are, inviting you to engage with a wide range of thought-provoking topics. Free.

Book Club | Chronicles from?the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka?( 91探花Alumni)
Readers’ Choice! A mix of mystery and political satire, this novel takes aim at corruption in modern Nigeria. Two old friends decide to investigate a local cartel that traffics in human body parts. But in a country where religious charlatans and dishonest officials abound, can they trust anyone in their search? Free.

EXHIBITIONS CLOSING:

Through April 4 | ?(School of Art + Art History + Design)Death is a fundamental first step toward rebirth—but this transition can feel daunting without a compassionate guide. In The Book of Zero, our 2026 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Resident indira allegra presents a multimedia, meditative experience shaped by their research into doula work, death care, and the cyclical nature of bodies and environments. Free.

Through April 26 | ?(Henry Art Gallery)
How might art respond when the conditions supporting artistic expression—its very ground—are under threat? Directly or more obliquely, at scales ranging from intimate to monumental, works by artists including Chakaia Booker, Denzil Hurley, Jennie C. Jones, and Stephanie Syjuco engage with the conditions that shape creative freedom. Free.

Through April 26 | (Henry Art Gallery)
we leak, we exceed activates the unique volume and multiple vantage points of the Henry’s double-height gallery, drawing together threads from physics, Black critical thought, and information theory to create an immersive environment that interrogates the spatial and social implications of compression. A common process used in data storage, spatial organization, and information systems, compression abbreviates and collapses complex ideas into more simplified forms. Kameelah Janan Rasheed questions the way compression comes at the cost of nuance and creates unrecoverable losses. She draws parallels between the compression of information and the containment of people, both physically and through the structuring and defining of identities. Through a network of video, sound, and architectural mark-making, Rasheed proposes alternatively what she calls “an embrace of Black excess and expansion” as a liberatory practice. Free.

Through May 3 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Deana Lawson’s photographs result from collaborations with strangers whom the artist encounters by chance or deliberately seeks out. The pictures often depict richly textured domestic scenes in which the details of decor, lighting, and pose are constructed. In this way, Lawson draws on the legacies of historical portraiture, documentary photography, and the family album, but transcends these traditions, constructing images that merge lived experience with imagined narratives. Free.

Week of March 30

March 31 | ?(College of Education)
EduTalks brings together educators, researchers and community leaders to share bold ideas shaping the future of education. In just five minutes — and with a single powerful image — each presenter explores innovative approaches to today’s most pressing challenges. In the College of Education, we’re “solving for x,” taking inspiration from high school algebra to step into the complicated, often uncertain challenges in education with imagination and heart. In math, x represents the unknown. In education, it symbolizes the complex questions we face as we strive for a more just, equitable and joyful future for all learners. Solving for these challenges takes imagination, persistence and, above all, community. Free.

April 1 | (Communication)
Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson argues that scientists and science communicators would be well served by use of a “mental models” approach to simultaneously increase consequential knowledge and reduce public susceptibility to misconceptions about controversial climate and health findings. By engaging audiences with visual, verbal, or animated models, this approach creates understandings of science on which the audience can draw to recognize and reject consequential misconceptions. Free.

April 1? | (School of Music)
A free lunchtime performance featuring 91探花School of Music students in the North Allen Library lobby. Presented in partnership with 91探花Libraries. Free.

April 2 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Libraries in French colonial Vietnam functioned as symbols of Western modernity and infrastructures of colonial knowledge. Yet Vietnamese readers pursued alternative uses of the library that exceeded imperial intentions. Bibliotactics examines the Hanoi and Saigon state libraries in colonial and postcolonial Vietnam, uncovering the emergence of a colonial public who reimagined the political meaning and social space of the library through public critique and day-to-day practice. Free.

April 2 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Part of Burke’s Free First Thursday series, the museum opens its collections spaces from 4:30 to 7:30?PM. Visitors can explore behind?the-scenes labs and storage, and speak with researchers, staff, and volunteers about their work.?Free.

April 2 | (Henry Art Gallery)
To celebrate the opening weekend of Eric-Paul Riege: ojo|-|o?l??, visit the artist offsite at the Burke Artist Studio, located in the Northwest Native Art Gallery at the Burke Museum, just a few blocks from the Henry. As part of Free First Thursday at the Burke, visitors will have the chance to watch the artist at work and speak with Riege about his process. Free.

April 3 | ( 91探花Planetarium Arts x Colectivo Arte GUENDA)
An evening of guided gallery tours, lightning talks, and moderated panel discussions, featuring artists and scientists from Oaxaca, Seattle, Portland, UW, and UNAM. Guided tours are offered in English and Spanish. Lightning talks and panel will be conducted in English. Free.

April 3 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Be among the first to experience Eric-Paul Riege: ojo|-|ól??, the artist’s largest solo exhibition to date. Featuring sculpture, textiles, collage, and video, the exhibition draws on Diné cultural memory and examines the (re)production of Indigeneity. A no-host bar and music by KEXP DJ Kevin Sur round out the night. Free.

April 4 | (Henry Art Gallery)
An immersive performance by Eric-Paul Riege. Working in close concert with exhibition objects, Riege utilizes performance as a means of care and relationality among materials and objects. At once haptic and visceral, Riege will perform his self-described “weaving dances” as an extension of his world building across and within exhibitions. After the performance, Riege will be joined by co-curators, Thea Quiray Tagle and Nina Bozicnik, for an in-depth conversation about the connections among his research, practice, and performance. Free.

April 2 – 4 | ?(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Feathers will fly in this exuberant take on Swan Lake by the Australian contemporary circus group Circa. The world’s most romantic ballet is re-imagined as a circus spectacular, full of Circa’s signature physicality and shot through with cheeky humor and a thoroughly contemporary energy. Be swept away by this tale of swans and hapless princes sparkling with quirky touches like the sequined flipper-wearing duck army and a burlesque black swan. There are sumptuous aerials, jaw-dropping acrobatics and of course…feathers! Touching, funny and utterly entertaining, Duck Pond is a tale of identity and finding your true self.?

Week of April 6

Online – April 6 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Sean Jacobs, Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School, and Martha Saavedra, former Associate Director of the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Each week, Global Sport Lab will bring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Lectures will focus on teams coming to Seattle, as well as topics such as workers’ rights, World Cup histories, immigration and travel bans, the Pride Match controversy, and more. Free.

April 7 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Grammy-nominated documentary The Music of Strangers, which follows members of the Ensemble as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution. There will be a post-screening discussion with visionary Peter Sellars and Grammy Award-winning, multi-instrumentalist John-Carlos Perea, Chair of Ethnomusicology at UW. Free.

April 7 | ?(Asian Languages & Literature)
Japanese-language literature has been both read and written in Brazil for more than a century, creating an ever-expanding corpus of works. The talk will introduce these literary activities, focusing on the first decades of their production. In addition to presenting the authors, newspapers, bookstores, and readers in Brazil, the talk will also raise some questions about what makes up “Japanese literature” — and all other identity-based groupings of literary texts. Free.

Online option – April 7 | Unlocking Secrets: Interrogating the Epigenome to Reveal Pregnancy Risks in Moms with High Blood Pressure with Bertha Hidalgo (Public Lectures)
Dr. Bertha Hidalgo as she explores how epigenetics is reshaping our understanding of hypertensive pregnancy disorders. This lecture highlights population-based insights, early biomarkers of risk, and transformative strategies for prevention—advancing maternal health equity and innovation in public health. Free.

April 8 | (English)
Featuring Ange Mlinko, poet, critic, editor, & professor. Book signing and reception to follow. Free.

April 8 | (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)
Grrrilda Beausoleil is turning 50. All she wants is a reunion with her 1990s riot grrrl band—the one she abandoned just as they were about to make it big. With a scrappy film crew documenting the journey, she navigates old wounds, new-age platitudes, and a San Francisco transformed by tech and displacement. The band must decide whether they can trust Grrrilda again—and whether their DIY roots of wheat paste, stickers, and zines can still build community in a digital age.

Dubbed “SPINAL TAP with BIPOC and queers” by the Chicago Reader, the film is a hilarious improvised mockumentary that treats comedy as activism. At its heart, the production centers LGBTQ community building across generations—reconciling past and present, passing the mic, and finding solidarity through creativity. Free.

April 8 | (School of Music)
Seattle’s contemporary music orchestra performs Gy?rgy Ligeti’s piano concerto, featuring faculty pianist and SMO member Cristina Valdés, alongside new works for sinfonietta by faculty composers William Dougherty, Jo?l-Fran?ois Durand, and Huck Hodge. SMO is joined onstage by select graduate-student members of the 91探花Modern Music Ensemble in this large-ensemble format.

April 10 | ?(Digital Arts & Experimental Media)
Anomalous Textualities re-imagines the Studio Theater as a traversable showroom. Inhabited by seven distinct works, the margins of language and meaning are re-mediated, embodied, and deconstructed through human-machine (mis)translations. In this performance-installation, spatial, temporal, and linguistic boundaries are blurred, giving way to slippages across models, bodies, and forms. Within this anomalous showroom, language models drive mechanical systems, glitching oracles, and choreographic prompts. Two further works explore non-verbal communication, seeking a physical vocabulary for a world shared with a “technological other.”

In this complex system, there is no fixed sequence. Light and sound are the conductors. As illumination fades in and out across the grid, models are sporadically activated. The audience is invited to navigate the showroom and explore multiple perspectives, moving through the partitions to witness interactions up close, or observing the entire system from the margins as it breathes and stutters as a single organism. Free.

April 10 | Sand Point Open Studios (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Visit the private studios of the Painting + Drawing MFA students and Division of Art faculty at the School’s Sand Point facilities. We will also be celebrating the opening of Rebecca Shippee’s show in the Sand Point Gallery. Students, alumni and the general public are invited for an evening of conversation, interaction, and art. Free.

April 10 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
What does democracy look like from below? This talk will look at how ordinary lives are reshaped by surveillance, majoritarianism, and corporate-political nexus in South Asia. Exploring media influence, gendered surveillance, majoritarian and casteist politics, the struggles of urban poor workers and the slow erosion of democratic rights in contemporary South Asia through Neha Dixit’s The Many Lives of Syeda X, this talk explores how journalism can recover erased histories, expose routine violence, and hold power to account. Free.

Week of April 13

Online – April 13 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Mary V. Harvey, Chief Executive at the Center for Sport and Human Rights; Maya Mendoza-Exstrom, Board Member of the SeattleFWC26 Local Organizing Committee, Chief Business Officer of Seattle Reign Football Club, and Chief Operating Officer of Seattle Sounders Football Club; Leo Flor, Chief Legacy Officer of the SeattleFWC26 Local Organizing Committee; and Anita Ramasastry, Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law and Director of the Sustainable International Development Graduate Program at the 91探花 School of Law. Free.

April 13 | (School of Music)
Faculty soprano Carrie Shaw’s new Seattle-based group Wind Up Vocal Project performs musical puzzles of the past and present, including Ming Tsao’s “DAS WASSERGEWORDENE KANONBUCH.”

April 13 | (School of Music)
The School of Music keyboard program presents a solo piano recital by Spencer Myer, associate professor of music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, performing works by Haydn, Ravel, Liszt, and Carl Vine. Free.

April 14 | ?(School of Art + Art History + Design)
Our question to consider: We are all in this together, so, how do we actually do this work together? This year-long program series hopes to honor our commitment to social justice and to gather our community to think about the work of liberation through shared texts, art, film, music, conversation, and workshops. Unlike your traditional book club, all the reading and study happen together, so no need to prepare. Join us monthly as we approach the topic of liberation from a number of perspectives. Free.

April 14 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Tiffany Tsao will discuss the challenges of translating Indonesian literature in the context of a publishing industry that has tended to value Indonesian works more for their “Indonesianness” than their literary value. Catering to a readership interested specifically in the history, culture, and living conditions of Indonesia has some near-term benefits, but does this approach do Indonesian writing a disservice over the long term? She will discuss, more specifically, how this state of affairs has shaped the decisions she has made as a translator – from the works she has chosen to translate, to her approach to the translation process itself. Free.

April 16 | (School of Music)
Faculty percussionist Bonnie Whiting celebrates the release of Through the Eye(s), her new CD out now on Neuma Records. Documenting a cycle of pieces for solo speaking and singing percussionist developed in collaboration with nine incarcerated people at the Indiana Women’s Prison, Through the Eye(s) is a collaboration with composer Eliza Brown, who facilitated the project. The program includes a short performance followed by a question-and-answer session. Free.

April 16 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Join The Black Embodiments Studio for The (Printed) Matter of Black Arts Writing: Archives for the Future, a panel discussion on the practice of collecting, preserving, and circulating Black arts writing ephemera. Featuring archivists and publishers of printed matter like flyers, zines, pamphlets, notebooks, and books, the program explores the significance of gathering around materials that are fragile and prone to disappearance—and reflects on what contemporary practices of preserving and circulating Black arts writing ephemera can tell us about the futures of the art world in general. This is the second of two programs for Public Scholarship + Practice: Black Futures + Archives, a new series highlighting 91探花-led research and practice at the intersections of visual art and culture. Free.

April 16 – 18 | (Drama)
The IGNITE New Works Festival is a three-day event celebrating 91探花student “ART” of all forms, including performance art, theatre, film, installation, multimedia, and sculpture. The festival’s goal is to ignite expression, community, accessibility, and belonging among 91探花students by showcasing art that is FRESH, RISKY, and ODD. Performances will be held in the Glenn Hughes Penthouse (GH Penthouse) or Hutchinson Hall (HUT). Free.

April 17 | (School of Music)
Ana Alonso Minutti, associate professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of New Mexico, presents “Noising the Desert: Land and Memory in Raven Chacon’s Work.” Composer and installation artist Raven Chacon (Fort Defiance, 1977) has developed a body of work shaped by the sonic landscapes of the New Mexican desert. This presentation traces how his engagement with noise amplifies place and activates personal and cultural memory, positioning noising as a borderlands practice that unsettles colonial histories. Free.

April 17 | (School of Music)
Seattle orchestra Harmonia (William White, conductor) performs concerto excerpts with 91探花piano students. Kane Chang, Jiaxuan Wu, Eli Antony, and Yuchen Qi.

April 17 | (Political Science)
Presentation by Tongtian Xiao, Ph.D. Student, 91探花 as a part of the Severyns Ravenholt Seminar in Comparative Politics. Free.

Online option – April 17 | (Classics)
Linda Gosner (Texas Tech) examines mining and its effects on the communities and ecologies of southeast Iberia following the conquest of this region during the Second Punic War. This region also had botanical and marine resources, long exploited by local communities, who reacted to Roman mining in divergent ways. Weavers of local grasses shifted their production strategies, supplying equipment for Roman mining. By contrast, harvesters of a large mollusk species, who once collaborated closely with miners, broke ties with the industry. Ultimately, the talk shows the important role local decision-making played in organizing production and in the empire’s experience in Roman Iberia. Free.

April 18 | ?(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Hailed as the “global ambassador of Spanish guitar” by Billboard Magazine, Pablo Sáinz-Villegas is widely acclaimed as the successor to Andrés Segovia. His playing dazzles with vibrant colors and deep emotion, captivating audiences with its expressiveness. Sáinz-Villegas’ guitar evokes intimacy and passion, weaving haunting melodies that transport listeners to a place of reverie and reflection. An exceptional performer, he stands as a living testament to music’s profound power to touch the depths of the human soul.

Week of April 20

Online – April 20 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by César Wazen, Director of the International Affairs Office at Qatar University. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Each week, Global Sport Lab will bring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Lectures will focus on teams coming to Seattle, as well as topics such as workers’ rights, World Cup histories, immigration and travel bans, the Pride Match controversy, and more. Free.

April 21 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Focusing on Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s public displays of crying, this talk examines what these moments signify, and why his supporters interpret them as authentic, drawing on insights from focus group discussions. It situates these performances within Erdo?an’s increased reliance on populist discourse and style, arguing that these emotional and performative dynamics have been central to mobilizing support and maintaining the cohesion of his constituency. In doing so, the talk shows how such strategies have contributed to the consolidation of an authoritarian regime sustained by popular backing, particularly in moments when legitimacy is under strain. Free.

April 22 | ?(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Yo-Yo Ma’s performance is currently sold out. Tickets may become available as some tickets get returned closer to the performance. A waitlist will open at the Meany Box Office starting at 6:30 p.m. on April 22. This special performance from Yo-Yo Ma pairs repertoire from the center of his musical firmament with reflections on how it has shaped his thinking about art, human nature and our search for meaning.

April 22 | (Communication)
Drawing on his research in media, technology, and public life, USC Associate Professor Mike Ananny examines how this framing shapes public understanding, limits accountability, and influences how societies respond to emerging technologies. The talk invites audiences to think more critically about what generative AI is, how it operates, and why treating it as a public problem is essential for addressing its broader social and political impacts. Free.

April 23 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Deana Lawson draws on the legacies of historical portraiture, documentary photography, and the family album, but transcends these traditions, constructing images that merge lived experience with imagined narratives. The aesthetics of intergenerational connectivity guide Lawson’s choice of subject matter, with each of her works taking its place in an overarching project that coheres into what she terms “an ever-expanding mythological extended family.” Lawson’s works also demonstrate a special attention to the element of light, as both part of the mechanical process by which photographs are realized, and as a manifestation of the divinity that suffuses her sitters. A focused presentation of Lawson’s work on the Henry’s mezzanine features photographs that highlight her ongoing exploration of female subjectivity through the photographic image. Free.

April 24 | (German)
German Studies Chair, Ellwood Wiggins, and Professor Andre Schütze present and discuss the enduring legacy of Faust.?Discover what to look out for in Murnau’s revolutionary cinematic masterpiece and learn about the Faust story as a parable of modernity–and of German history–in its adaptations across the ages. What is the price of your soul? Following the discussion, please stick around as the community—students, alumni, faculty, and staff—gather over refreshments to celebrate German Studies’ own 21st Century learning. Free.

April 24 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
The dinosaurs ruled the Earth for more than 150 million years — evolving into spectacular giants like Brontosaurus and T. rex, which captivate our imaginations. In this talk, University of Edinburgh professor and paleontologist Steve Brusatte will discuss the complete story of where dinosaurs came from, how they rose to dominance, how most of them went extinct when a giant asteroid hit, and how some of them live on as today’s birds. In doing so, he will recount stories of digging up dinosaurs and working with colleagues around the world. At a time when Homo sapiens has existed for less than 300,000 years and we are already talking about planetary extinction, dinosaurs are a timely reminder of what humans can learn from the magnificent creatures that ruled Earth before us. Free.

April 24-25 | Improvised Music Project Festival (IMPFEST): / (School of Music)
The School of Music and the student-run Improvised Music Project (IMP) present IMPFest, featuring 91探花Jazz Studies students and faculty performing with guest artists of international renown. Headliners for this year’s festival are Grammy-nominated drummer, producer, and emcee Kassa Overall and Icelandic composer and bass guitarist Skùli Sverisson.

April 24-25 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Seamlessly blending illusion, acrobatics, magic and whimsy, MOMIX sends audiences flying down the rabbit hole in Moses Pendleton’s ALICE, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland. Join this dazzling company on a mind-bending adventure, as Alice encounters time-honored characters including the undulating Caterpillar, a lobster quadrille, frenzied White Rabbits, a mad Queen of Hearts and a variety of other surprises.

April 26 |?( 91探花Alumni)
Join the UWAA and BECU for a day of service to help fight food insecurity. Free.

April 26 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Dig into paleontology at the Burke’s annual festival of fossils!
Celebrate all things fossilized with hands-on activities for all ages! View hundreds of specimens from the Burke’s collection and hear about groundbreaking research from Burke and 91探花scientists.

• Fossil fun for everyone!
• Watch paleontologists uncover a duck-billed dinosaur in the Fossil Prep Lab.
• Learn about the fossils of Sucia Island, including the one and only dinosaur bone found in Washington state!
• Chat with Burke paleontologists and students about fossils from the Burke’s extensive vertebrate, invertebrate, and paleobotany collections.
• Check out the amazing T. rex skull unearthed by Burke scientists.
• And more!

Week of April 27

Online – April 27 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Niki Akhavan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Studies at The Catholic University of America. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Each week, Global Sport Lab will bring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Lectures will focus on teams coming to Seattle, as well as topics such as workers’ rights, World Cup histories, immigration and travel bans, the Pride Match controversy, and more. Free.

April 28 | ?(School of Music)
Students of Dr. Stephen Price present a 91探花Organ studio spring recital. Dr. Price teaches Organ performance, Church music, and Keyboard Harmony courses. In addition, he leads ongoing initiatives to develop and revitalize the 91探花program, continuing the legacy of his predecessor, Dr. Carole Terry. Free.

April 28 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

April 28 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Stephanie LeMenager, Professor of English and Environmental Studies, considers the role of fiction as a form of resistant truth-telling in an era of lies, bullish*t, propaganda, GenAI fakes, and conspiracy theory, and in the shadow of the climate crisis. In our media atmosphere filled with falsehoods, fiction becomes a means of capturing messy realities unassimilable to propaganda. Moreover, the flexibility of fictional imagination allows for social responses to radical uncertainties, via new genres of storytelling that call climate-change publics into being. In this talk, we’ll consider stories of megafire. Free.

April 29 | (Philosophy)
The idea of space as the stage on which physical events play out dates at least as far back as the 5th century BC. The twentieth century saw a shift from theorising about space and time separately to thinking about spacetime, but the metaphor of spacetime as a stage or arena has continued. Twenty-first century physics looks likely to render this untenable – theories of quantum gravity do not appear to postulate spacetime as a fundamental container for physical contents. This talk examines an alternative way of thinking about spacetime based on the role that it plays in our physical theories – spacetime philosophy should focus on what spacetime does, rather than what it is. Free.

April 29 | (Psychology)
Presented by Maureen Craig, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University. Free.

April 30 | (School of Music)
The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Erin Bodnar, director) presents “Scenes and Portraits,” featuring music by Gustav Holst, Martin Ellerby, and others.

April 30 |(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
What does it mean to live well as wildfire and smoke season becomes more a part of life in the Pacific Northwest and many other places around the world? As much as we focus on preparedness and reducing materials that fuel wildfires, we must also reckon with the human dimensions of fire, which shape how we interact with it. “Fire Humanities” is a book project and an emerging field of study that draws on the humanities and arts to center stories, representations, collaborations, and values that promote adaptation, resilience, and justice as we adapt to a world with more fire.

This program will feature a panel discussion with five contributors to the book, who will share their approaches to this emerging field of research. After the panel, you’ll be invited to share your stories of fire and smoke with each other, speak with the panelists, and participate in hands-on activities connected to the Fire Humanities project. Free.

April 30 | ?(Jackson School of International Studies)
Panel discussion featuring Wang Feng, University of California, Irvine, and Yong Cai, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with 91探花faculty James Lin and Sara Curran. Free.

May 1 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Writing history entails good editing—and accepting when material can’t make the final cut. Lengthy research projects require a command of sources but also analytical flexibility. Such flexibility can ensure rigor, sometimes at the expense of findings that, alas, must be shelved for some other future use. “The B-Sides of Unmaking Botany” will examine a set of sources that did not make it into the recently published monograph Unmaking Botany: Science and Vernacular in the Colonial Philippines (Duke University Press, 2025). The objectives of the talk are thus twofold: to provide a behind-the-scenes take on the production of a scholarly monograph and to offer a conceptual argument gleaned from the sources that nonetheless resonates with some of Unmaking Botany’s principal interventions. Free.

May 1-2 | (American Indian Studies)
Indigenous scholars, artists, community leaders, and practitioners come together to reflect on food sovereignty, wellness, cultural resurgence, and collective healing through land-based knowledge and practice. Keynote by Vina Brown (Haí?zaqv and Nuu-chah-nulth), a scholar, artist, and wellness advocate, whose work centers on Indigenous law, cultural healing, and community well-being. Raised in her Haí?zaqv homelands, Vina’s work is deeply grounded in cultural resurgence, ceremony, and Tribal Canoe Journeys. She is the founder of Copper Canoe Woman and co-founder of Rooted Resiliency, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit dedicated to community wellness, cultural healing, and reclamation. Across her work, Vina advocates for land, culture, and collective well-being, with particular attention to healing intergenerational and historical trauma through community, movement, and Indigenous knowledge systems. Free.

See all that’s to come in the May ArtSci Roundup.

ArtSci Roundup goes monthly!

The ArtSci Roundup is your guide to connecting with the UW—whether in person, on campus, or on your couch.

Previously shared on a quarterly basis, those who sign up for the Roundup email will receive them monthly, delivering timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Make sure to check out the ArtSci On Your Own Time section for everything from podcasts to videos to exhibitions that can be enjoyed when it works for you!

In addition, if you like the ArtSci Roundup, sign up to receive a monthly notice when it’s been published.

Do you have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).uw.edu).

The U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28 that targeted military and civilian infrastructure, missile launchers, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and triggered hundreds of retaliatory missiles from Iran.

More than 1,200 civilians so far in the conflict, Iran reports, while nearly 10,000 civilian sites have been hit and 3.2 million Iranians have been displaced. An ongoing military investigation also determined the U.S. is responsible for a deadly strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to a .?

President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have offered for the war with Iran — now entering its third week — including the regime’s nuclear ambitions, its ballistic missile capabilities and its support for groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Rubio said that the U.S. abandoned negotiations and bombed Iran because Israel had already attacked and Washington expected Iranian retaliation against U.S. bases.?

Before the strikes, in December 2025, massive anti-government protests erupted in Iran. The protests, driven largely by the economic crisis caused by U.S. imposed sanctions and regime corruption, were the largest since the 1979 revolution. The Iranian government thousands of protestors in response.

, a professor of Persian and Iranian studies at the UW, researches modern Iranian and Afghan histories and modern Persian literature and has been widely quoted in the media since the war began. He spoke with 91探花News about the U.S.-Israeli strikes, the impact on Iranians and more.

What should people know about how Iranians and the Iranian diaspora feel about the conflict?

Aria Fani: The Iranian diaspora is . A segment of Iranians in the West has advocated for war on Iran, while others have against military intervention. Voices from within Iran appear conflicted as well, reflecting the precarity and desperation of the moment. As we have seen in Iraq, Venezuela and Cuba, the U.S. has relied on a security, economic and political apparatus that creates a state of paranoia for the ruling regime and collectively punishes the population, pushing them to the brink of despair. Equally undeniable is the Iranian regime’s brazen corruption, both moral and economic, and its violent repression of protesters.

When weighing in public opinion, as reflected in the media, we should not forget that the U.S. media to be a reliable partner for the military-industrial complex. The way in which pro-war voices are currently being amplified is a testament to this alignment. I immigrated to the United States when President George W. Bush was running for re-election and remember how the media failed to hold his administration to account. In many ways the media landscape is even worse today, as of major outlets. Yet, unlike the early 2000s, we now also have a number of independent platforms that cover war with greater transparency and skepticism.?

On a personal note, as a teenager living under an Iranian regime that made anti-U.S. rhetoric a cornerstone of its revolutionary ideology, I held an abstract yet largely positive view of the U.S. Moving to the U.S. in 2004 — studying its history and traveling through and living in Latin American countries it has ravaged — profoundly shifted my perspective. Two wrongs do not make a right. The mantle of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggle has never been on the minds of this Iranian regime, but it is a mantle we cannot afford to put down for a livable planet.?

Iranian youth, much like their counterparts in places such as Hong Kong, Egypt and the United States, confront a militarized state that shows little regard for collective dignity and insatiable appetite for money and power. History teaches us that effecting durable change takes time. If change begins with a supposition of violence, it will undoubtedly end with more of the same. The spectacle of imperial violence is also designed to demoralize a generation of youth all over this beautiful planet who dare to dream of a different system. To them I say: do not despair and work toward positive change at any level you can.

What misconceptions about Iran do you see in Western media?

AF: The military-industrial complex thrives on generating hysteria and fear of racialized others. A familiar example is the claim that the Iranian regime is an ideological actor hellbent on the total destruction of the West. Yet the same regime entered into a nuclear agreement in 2015 with the United States and other world powers that placed its nuclear program under international scrutiny. Unlike the United States and Israel, both of which possess hundreds of nuclear weapons — the U.S. remains the only country that has used them — Iran is a signatory to the , and its nuclear facilities were regularly monitored before the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018. Like Iraq, Iran is being attacked not because it has nuclear weapons, but because it does not.?

Every time politicians sell the public a new war, the narrative is predictably the same: baseless claims of an imminent threat paired with promises that military objectives will be easily attainable and the suffering minimal. However, Israel and the United States have a documented history of destroying civilian infrastructure; we have seen this clearly in Gaza and Beirut. That it is happening again breaks my heart. Whether one believes the current war is justified or not — and on what grounds — the abuse of power and through which it is conducted should concern everyone. Equally disturbing is the role of religious fundamentalism as evidenced by references to the .?

Let me be clear again: the Iranian regime’s willingness to engage in diplomacy abroad does nothing to absolve it of state violence, which it directs at . The regime poses a deadly threat to its own people and to Iran’s ecology, as evidenced by the brutal suppression of protesters in recent weeks.

How will this conflict impact Iran and its people in ways that are being overlooked?

AF: There are those in my community who accept any collateral damage if it means the Islamic Republic might ultimately collapse. This mindset is profoundly dangerous. For decades, the Iranian regime has invoked the men it lost during the (1980–1988) to justify cracking down on dissent years after the war ended. In effect, the regime has argued that any sacrifice at home is justified if it preserves the revolutionary state. Yet some of its most ardent opponents now accept the same logic in reverse: that widespread bloodshed and ecological destruction are acceptable if it leads to the regime’s downfall.

Even more troubling is that their idea of who counts as part of the “regime” is dangerously broad. It is not difficult to imagine a similarly vengeful purge to the one carried out by the regime’s own founders in 1979, should the regime fall. My mother recounts how her father — the Friday prayer imam in Shiraz — fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution because he was aligned with the Shah. He was never in the Shah’s regime, a fact that mattered little to those who were doing the purging. We cannot break the cycle of violence by doing one last purge.??

Vengeance does not offer a positive agenda for the working class and minoritized Iranians. The greatest victims in war are civilians and the infrastructure on which their lives depend. The more bombs that fall, the further we move from the day when those responsible for atrocities against the Iranian people might be held accountable.

For a big segment of the Iranian diaspora to throw up their hands and say, “bomb them,” is not an act of courage but the greatest abdication of collective responsibility. And to ask the same power that has economically strangled Iran to save it through its bombs is the stuff of Orwellian fiction. Millions of American voters feel deeply disempowered by the ongoing dismantling of democratic institutions here at home. Yet who among them would seriously advocate for their country to be bombarded by a foreign power??

The world has changed in the wake of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. One thing seems increasingly clear: the cheerleaders of today’s war will later warn about a “caravan of Muslim refugees” supposedly arriving to invade the nation. This is already happening, as Iranian . While I do not begrudge any of my suffering compatriots celebrating the downfall of a brutal dictator, history suggests that the only actors ultimately left dancing on the global stage will be weapons manufacturers and oil industry executives.?

For more information, contact Lauren Kirschman at lkirsc@uw.edu.