Recent recognition of the 91探花 includes an EarthLab Innovation Grant, the Best Paper Award from American Political Science Association and honorable recognition mention from the American Society for Theatre Research.

91探花professor Richard Watts and team awarded EarthLab Innovation Grant

, 91探花associate professor of French, is part of an interdisciplinary team from the 91探花that received an to support their collaborative project, 鈥淟ife in Spite of It All: Water, Wetlands, and Reclamation in a Changing Climate.鈥澨�听

The $80,000 grant, awarded through EarthLab鈥檚 2024鈥�25 funding cycle, supports a team that also includes additional members of the 91探花faculty: , remote-sensing scientist in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, and听, professor of international studies and director of the Jackson School of International Studies. Independent wetlands scholar and visual artist rounds out the team. The project focuses on documenting climate change and cultural resilience in a threatened wetlands region of the Senegal River Valley in southwestern Mauritania.听听

鈥淭his grant enabled our Seattle-based research and filmmaking team to conduct a second site visit to the region,鈥� Watts said. 鈥淭he footage the team gathered is now being edited for a documentary film that explores the environmental and human stakes of a disappearing landscape.鈥�听

Political science faculty honored for research on religion, policy and economic discrimination

, 91探花associate professor of political science, received the from the American Political Science Association鈥檚 (APSA) Religion & Politics Section.听

The award honors the best paper presented at the previous year鈥檚 APSA Annual Meeting that exemplifies the section鈥檚 mission: encouraging the study of the interrelations between religion and politics. Recipients are recognized for addressing timely and relevant topics in a theoretically innovative and methodologically rigorous way.听

Cansunar was recognized for her co-authored work, 鈥淗omogenizing the High Street: The Economic Cleansing of Minority Elites through Fiscal Discrimination,鈥� which explores the complex interplay between faith and policy. She sees the award as a meaningful affirmation of her scholarship in a field that is continuously evolving.听

鈥淩eceiving this award recognizes my work on the interplay between faith and policy,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his recognition encourages further thoughtful analysis of the intersection between religion and politics, both within academia and beyond.鈥�听

Theatre professor Stefka Mihaylova earns recognition for debut monograph

, 91探花associate professor of theatre theory and criticism, received honorable mention for from the American Society for Theatre Research.听

The honors exceptional research and scholarship in theatre history and is one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field. The honorable mention highlights Mihaylova鈥檚 debut monograph, 鈥淰iewers in Distress: Race, Gender, Religion, and Avant-Garde Performance at the Turn of the 21st Century.鈥�听

In the book, Mihaylova examines how avant-garde performance art engages with identity, faith and social distress, offering new insights into the political power of live performance.听

鈥淭his is an award for my first monograph Viewers in Distress: Race, Gender, Religion, and Avant-Garde Performance at the Turn of the 21st Century,鈥� Mihaylova said.听

A new documentary from two 91探花 professors tells the story of a man accused of starting a wildfire while illegally removing trees from the Olympic National Forest.

was produced by , professor of history, and , professor of anthropology and of international studies at the Jackson School. Michael Sanderson, Thomas鈥� husband who is a lawyer and a photographer, was also a co-producer.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Justin Wilke while destroying a beehive at the base of a tree he鈥檇 planned to cut down. The fire burned more than 3,000 acres of the Olympic National Forest near Hood Canal.

Wilke was searching for figured bigleaf maple, a wood that has a unique pattern and is often used in the crafting of musical instruments, particularly guitars and violins. Tree DNA evidence matched wood allegedly sold by Wilke to the remains of poached trees in the area where the fire started.

Wilke, who admitted to taking one tree but denied starting the fire, was convicted of multiple charges in July 2021, including theft of public property and trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber. The jury did not convict Wilke of the two counts related to the fire. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and he鈥檚 currently serving the final five.

Before his sentencing, Wilke met multiple times with the filmmakers. They followed him through the forest, capturing his thoughts on the surrounding trees while weaving together a story of rural poverty, addiction, the supply chain for forest products and the different ways people love and value the woods.

A final cut was screened at the 91探花on March 30. The documentary is the first project in the 听 series, sponsored by the . Unthinkable Films gathers 91探花faculty members 鈥渢o develop short documentary films that speak and theorize on our planet鈥檚 cataclysmic, unpredictable or unprecedented future.鈥�

Hoffman and Thomas hope viewers leave the film with an understanding of Wilke鈥檚 complex relationship with the forest.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to condone poaching trees or starting a wildfire to feel like it鈥檚 worth trying to understand a little bit more about Justin and the world he comes from,鈥� Hoffman said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to apologize for him but can recognize that he is part of a backstory around this fire.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to be able to address the future of local forests if we don鈥檛 think about what it is that Justin represents and that he has a relationship to the environment. It鈥檚 just too easy to write it off, to everybody鈥檚 detriment.鈥�

Thomas originally set out to compare rainforests in the United States and East Africa. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she shifted her focus to become more local. News of the Maple Fire trial caught her attention, and she decided to focus on it and figured bigleaf maple.

Wilke was enthusiastic about the project, and his charisma made an impression. The trio quickly realized the film would center him.

鈥淛ustin was such a good storyteller and so eager to talk,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淲e were incredibly lucky that he wanted to talk to us and he had so much to say. We really enjoyed going into the woods with him and seeing the woods from his perspective.

鈥淭here are so many different elements of it, but what鈥檚 really important is the combining of aesthetics and the economics 鈥� for Justin, the beauty of the woods and their economic value are totally inseparable and intertwined.鈥�

Hoffman, who started working in film more than a decade ago, launched Unthinkable Films. The idea is to give scholars in the social sciences and humanities a way to contribute to the conversation around climate change and the environment.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not always clear how to play a productive role as scholars in the humanities and social sciences,鈥� Hoffman said. 鈥淗ow do you use these tools and areas of expertise that we have? It鈥檚 sometimes a little easier to see the logic of where the hard sciences fit into how you address climate change. We hope this opens the space to have conversations about what we can contribute. That鈥檚 a major part of what this whole project is about.鈥�

“The Maple Cutter” will be shown at the 91探花for the second time on Friday, April 22 in the Allen Auditorium in Allen Library at 3 p.m. The documentary has also been submitted to multiple film festivals, and the creators are interested in holding further screenings.

For more information, contact Hoffman at djh13@uw.edu or Thomas at lynnmt@uw.edu.

Journal of American Medical Association lauds personal essay by 91探花Medicine’s Dr. Roberto Montenegro, ‘My Name is Not ‘Interpreter”听

The Journal of the American Medical Association has named a powerful first-person essay by 91探花Medicine’s one of the top pieces from the last 10 years in the journal’s ongoing “A Piece of My Mind” series.

His essay, “‘,” was published in May of 2016. The article has been reprinted in the journal’s “A Piece of My Mind” , celebrating and reprinting the editors’ 40 favorite essays from the last 10 years.

In the essay, Montenegro describes his experience being the target of microaggressions based on his appearance, and his realization that he unwittingly committed them as well. Microaggressions, he wrote, “do not respect boundaries 鈥� they exist in our personal, academic and work lives and are detrimental to the training and well-being of our colleagues and trainees.”

He concludes with the challenge to reflect on how we perceive each other, in order to shift the conversation about microaggressions “from taboo to mutual understanding.”

He added: “I have no doubt that in our practice of healing, we have the capacity to compassionately listen to one another and further this discourse for the sake of our trainees, colleagues, patients and profession.”

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Botanic Gardens’ Rare Care program honored by Washington Native Plant Society

The Washington Native Plant Society has chosen Rare Care, a program of the , for its for 2020.

Rare Care is short for and includes a team of more than 200 volunteer citizen scientists who fan out each summer to study and document plant populations across the state. Rare Care volunteers also collect the seeds of rare plants for permanent storage at the UW.

The Rare Care program is overseen by , associate director of the Botanic Gardens, and is the volunteer and outreach coordinator.

The native plant society gives the award each year to an agency, organization or individual who has made significant contributions to native plant conservation, research or education in Washington state.

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Jackson School’s Hellmann Task Force prompts possible policy change in Ghana

It’s not often that work by 91探花students and their professor affects the very policies of another nation. But that might be the case for the Jackson School’s and The Republic of Ghana, in Africa.

The Task Force program is the school’s undergraduate capstone for its International Studies Program. There are several; one in particular, overseen by , professor and chair of the , along with doctoral student , used Ghana as a principle case study for an examination of best practices for how energy infrastructure can reach rural Africa. The report is titled “.”

Hoffman learned recently from the Honorable Amin Adam, Ghana’s deputy minister of energy 鈥� who also was among the evaluators for the students’ presentations 鈥� that two of the students’ recommendations for energy use have been written into the country’s new draft national energy policy, soon to be finalized for the government to approve.

One recommendation is to expand Ghana’s National Electrification Scheme for rural electrification to include mini-grids or off-grid communities; the other is to develop regulations to promote and govern bio-energy industries.

“It would be hard for me to overstate how proud I was to get this,” Hoffman said.

Learn more about this Task Force, its 13 undergraduate members and their work on the Jackson School .

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91探花affiliate Dr. Klaus Mergener named president of American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Dr. Klaus Mergener, an affiliate professor with the 91探花Division of Gastroenterology in the School of Medicine, has been president of the , after serving a term as vice president. As president, among other duties he will lead the group’s COVID Response Management Team.

Mergener is also a partner at Washington Gastroenterology in Tacoma. His term as president will run until May 2021. The society, founded in 1941, has more than15,000 members worldwide.