“” is hosted by , associate professor of history, and , professor of international studies and director of the , which is in the 91探花Jackson School of International Studies.

As Marhoefer says in the first episode, the series is “a deep dive podcast on stuff that matters now in Jewish life, politics, history and culture 鈥� from a scholarly perspective.”

Each of five episodes features a 91探花faculty member. The series begins with history professor talking with Marhoefer and Pianko about anti-Semitism in the United States and the “historical amnesia,” as Glenn said, Americans seem to have about their country’s anti-Semitic past.

Pianko said events of recent years such as the Charlottesville, Virginia, “Unite the Right” rally and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting have affected colleagues on scholarly and personal levels. Since many Stroum Center affiliates teach and conduct research related to anti-Semitism, he said, it made a fitting topic for the podcast series.

“As a historian, I recognized anti-Semitism as a part of American history,” Pianko said. “However, the scholarly narrative of American Jewish history focused on the exceptional nature of the American Jewish experience. The U.S. never experienced the same degree of anti-Semitism or persecution that shaped the European Jewish experience.

“Watching recent events unfold has challenged the assumption of American exceptionalism and raised a host of new scholarly questions with very broad public implications,” Pianko said.

In subsequent episodes:

• Marhoefer discusses the rise of Nazi Germany and asks: Can it happen here?
• , professor of Spanish and Portuguese studies, explores how anti-Semitism has changed over time
• , associate professor of history and Jewish studies, examines Jewish prejudice against other Jews; and
• , associate professor of history, discusses Russian anti-Semitism experienced by 19th-century Jewish settlers to Ottoman Palestine.

“Jewish Questions” is produced, recorded and edited by Stroum Center communications manager. The podcast series is funded by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Seattle and by the center.

For more information, contact Marhoefer at marl@uw.edu. Pianko at npianko@uw.edu or Schoonmaker at kschoon@uw.edu.

Sephardic Studies chair Devin Naar speaks at Holocaust commemoration event

, 91探花professor of history and Jewish studies and chair of the Jackson School鈥檚 Sephardic Studies Program, delivered a keynote address for Sephardic Heritage International DC’s third annual , held virtually on Jan. 28.

The event, sponsored by U.S. , a Democrat from Maryland, had the theme of “Refugees of the Holocaust.” The featured speaker was , CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer, who told of his Sephardic Jewish family’s Holocaust survival; his parents were among the few Jews to survive the Nazi onslaught on Thessaloniki, Greece.

Naar spoke of Claire Barkey Flash, author of the 2016 memoir “A Hug From Afar: One Family’s Dramatic Journey Through Three Continents to Escape the Holocaust.” The Barkey family emigrated from the Mediterranean island of Rhodes to Tangier, and finally to the United States. Naar, who is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies, wrote a foreword for the book.

is a nonprofit that celebrates Sephardic culture and raises awareness of the histories of underrepresented Jewish communities. Watch a of the event.

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Melia Watras releases new album, ‘Firefly Songs’

Violist, composer and music professor put out a new album in January. “,” with14 of Watras’ compositions played with the ensemble Frequency and other guests, was released by Seattle-based Planet M Records.

Album notes say the compositions “are a reflection on stories, artistic influences and people that are interconnected points of light from her own personal folklore.” Watras composed the music, for various instruments and voices, from 2015 to 2018.

Members of Frequency are Watras, viola and voice; Michael Jinsoo Lim, violin and voice; and S忙unn Thorsteinsdottir, cello. Also on the album are the voices of Catherine Connors and Vina Vu Vald茅s, as well as excerpts of recorded viola lessons given by Atar Arad. Watras is the Adelaide D. Currie Cole Endowed Professor, viola.

Watch a video of the album.

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Ted Poor’s ‘You Already Know’ noted among best local albums of 2020

An album by , assistant professor in the 91探花School of Music, was named on The Seattle Times list of the . Poor’s “” was released in March.

The Times asked 15 music critics to submit their top 10 for 2020 and then combined the results. “You Already Know” tied for No. 19 on the list. Though COVID prevented an in-person album release, the Times wrote, “this beautifully austere duo set with Seattle-reared sax man Andrew D’Angelo 鈥� hardly went unnoticed.”

Shuyi Chen elected to national board for atmospheric research

, 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences, has been elected one of to the board of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the group that manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The corporation, or , is a nonprofit consortium of 120 North American universities focused on research and training in atmospheric sciences and related Earth system sciences. Its 18 board members serve three-year terms. The new trustees were announced on Oct. 26.

Chen is a meteorologist whose research involves observing how the atmosphere and ocean interact with hurricanes and typhoons in tropical areas, and the use of mathematical models to predict weather patterns.

Joining Chen as a new board trustee is a former director of the National Science Foundation. Others are from the Georgia Institute of Technology; North Carolina State University; the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Colorado Foundation.

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David Crouse story wins award from literary journal

91探花English professor won the 2019 from the online literary journal for a story titled “Sixty Eight to Seventy.” The prize was announced earlier this year.

The publication, founded in 2015, sponsors annual contests for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and photography. Crouse’s story will appear in an upcoming issue. He also has new stories coming in the journals and .

Crouse is the author of two collections of short fiction: “” in 2005 and “” in 2008. He is at work on a collection of Alaska-themed stories, which will include “Sixty Eight to Seventy.”

One online reviewer wrote that Crouse’s writing “has a cool, measured urgency to it that invites his readers not to miss the most delicate flickers of language as he describes his characters’ often confused or detached states of mind.”

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Devin Naar does research for PBS show ‘Finding Your Roots’

, 91探花professor of history and Jewish studies and chair of the Jackson School’s Sephardic Studies Program, conducted research for a recent episode of the PBS program “,” hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The program, which aired Oct. 13 on PBS, features Gates talking with fashion designer Diane von 贵眉谤蝉迟别苍产别谤驳, whose mother was a Sephardic Jew from Salonica and survivor of the Auschwitz death camp.

Naar, author of the 2018 book “,” did extensive research on von 贵眉谤蝉迟别苍产别谤驳‘s family and is noted in the credits of the episode. In 2016 he did similar research, and was featured, in TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are.”

The Department of English has introduced its new , a series of podcasts and YouTube videos in which 91探花humanities faculty discuss their research and teaching 鈥� “including the ways our work contributes to how we experience and seek to understand this time of global crisis.” Each presentation is available in both podcast and YouTube video formats.

In the first of so far, associate professor describes “what studying literature in what’s called ‘the environmental humanities’ teaches us about collectivity during events from Cyclone Amphan to COVID-19.” was a powerful tropical cyclone that caused damage in Eastern India in May.

The second episode features , senior lecturer and associate director of writing programs, on the topic, “What Asian American Studies, Literature and Art Teach Us During COVID-19.” Liu also discusses anti-racist pedagogical practices.

The third episode features associate professor on “Queer Care and Trans Literature During COVID-19.”聽With a focus on promoting a “politics of care,” key texts she covers in the talk include “” by Imogen Binnie to “,” by Kai Cheng Thom.

Public scholarship project director for the podcast/video series is lecturer and project manager is Jake Huebsch, coordinator of the department’s Expository Writing Program.

In other podcast news:

Sephardic Studies chair Devin Naar visits two podcasts

, 91探花professor of history and Jewish studies and chair of the Jackson School’s Sephardic Studies Program, was a guest on two podcasts in recently.

In May Naar discussed the history and cultural legacy of the Ladino language on a about Near Eastern history, language and culture produced by Foreigncy.US. He described the growing , in the Jackson School’s , gathering and digitizing documents pertaining to the Sephardic Jews of the Mediterranean world.

Naar also was a guest in September on a podcast called “Then and Now,” produced by the University of California, Los Angles, Center for History and Policy. The episode was titled “.” Naar discussed the topic from the perspective of Sephardic Jewish history.

“He challenges the imposed racial categorization of Jews in the United States, discusses the erasure and exclusion of Sephardic and Mizrahi identity in mainstream Jewish institutions,” program notes say, “and proposes a historical reclamation of Sephardic identity and a radical reimagining of community spaces.” This podcast was released on Sept. 8.

Recent notable books by 91探花 faculty explore mindful international travel, men seeking work as day laborers, and activist teachers.

Mindful travel, thoughtful engagement in an unequal world

What is it like to travel through parts of the world that are socioeconomically different from home? How can travelers navigate the challenges, opportunities 鈥� and sometimes powerful emotions 鈥� of respectfully exploring cultures with lower incomes, different cultural patterns and far fewer luxuries?

, a senior lecturer in the 91探花 Department of English and the Comparative History of Ideas program, explores such questions in her new book, “.” Taranath has led student trips specializing in human rights themes to India, Mexico and other locations, and has her own company on racial equity.

“Many of us want to connect with people unlike us, and we know that’s a good thing 鈥� it’s good for our democracy, good for our souls, good for our communities,” Taranath said. “But we’re also not sure how to do so, because of the persistent inequities in race, economics and global positioning.

“And having good intentions and knowing how to connect are two different things.”

The book, she said, is informed by her many travels with 91探花students and the ways she sees them wrestle with ideas like: What does it actually mean to be global citizens, to be mindful of these inequalities and to act accordingly?

“We often soak in guilt and soak in shame for all that we have, especially if we come from a very privileged background and are going into communities that have little or none of what we have. How could you not feel guilty? How could you not start feeling really uncomfortable?”

“Beyond Guilt Trips” starts at home and takes readers through stories where Taranath 鈥� both narrator and a central character in the telling 鈥� and students and others are finding their way through that guilt. What happens on the far side of such feelings, she asks. “And what else might we find?”

Her advice? A mix of persistence and humility. “You have to stay in it to get through it 鈥� that’s the first thing. We live in an exceptionally distracted time, and whenever there is an uncomfortable moment of feeling we are quick to swipe it away, to move out of it.”

But try to resist that, Taranath advises. And try to understand that “mindful travel in an unequal world isn’t about getting on a plane to go somewhere 鈥� it’s about paying attention, and noticing positionality in relation to each other. It’s about understanding that we are all living in a much longer history that has put us in different positions of advantage and disadvantage, and equipped us with very few tools to talk about it.”

Taranath added that these lessons are not only for travel.

Such conversations, she said 鈥� about having or not having, or enjoying opportunity or not 鈥� “these are not just questions you experience when you are abroad in Nepal or in Honduras. They are questions our students should be grappling with, all the time, here, in the community they are in.”

“Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World” 鈥� with illustrations by Seattle-based artist , was published in May by .

For more information, contact Taranath at anu@uw.edu.听

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‘Daily Labors’ explores world of men seeking work daily on Brooklyn street corner

A new book by , 91探花assistant professor of American Ethnic Studies, examines the experiences of African American and Latino day laborers who look for work daily at an intersection of streets in Brooklyn. “” was published in April by Temple University Press.

Pinedo-Turnovsky spent nearly three years talking with men seeking work as day laborers. Her book considers them as active participants in their social and economic life, publisher’s notes say.

“They not only work for wages but also labor daily to institute change, create knowledge, and contribute new meanings to shape their social world. ‘Daily Labors’ reveals how ideologies about race, gender, nation, and legal status operate on the corner and the vulnerabilities, discrimination, and exploitation workers face in this labor market.”

For more information, contact Pinedo-Turnovsky at cpt4@uw.edu.

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Activist educators through US history

A new book co-edited by two graduates of the 91探花College of Education doctoral program presents case studies of teacher activism throughout the history of the United States.

“” was edited by Tina Y. Gourd, who is now an instructor in the College of Education and Jennifer Gale de Saxe, now an instructor at Victoria University of Wellington.

“Through a lens of teacher agency and resistance,” publishers notes states, “chapter authors explore the stories of individual educators to determine how particular historical and cultural contexts contributed to these educators’ activist efforts.”

Several other 91探花education alumni also contributed chapters to the book; 91探花education professor wrote the foreword. Read an from the college about the book, which also includes an audio interview. Part of the Routledge Research in Education series, “Radical Educators” was published in late 2018.

For more information, contact Gourd at gourdt@uw.edu.

* * *

Other book notes:

“Postracial Resistance” book honored: Ralina Joseph’s latest book, “” has received the 2019 ICA Outstanding Book award from the International Communication Association. Joseph is an associate professor of communication. She received the award at the association’s 69th annual conference in Washington, D.C. in May. Read an interview with Joseph.

“Jewish Salonica” in Greek: A Greek translation of “Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece” by , 91探花professor of Sephardic studies and history, was released in mid-March. Naar visited Salonica, Greece, for a book launch event also featuring prominent local scholars. The book was in 2016 by Stanford University Press. Naar also participated in a series of programs noting the 76^th anniversary of the start of deportations of Jews from Salonica to the death camp in Auschwitz. Naar is an affiliate of the in the .

Summer reading: New York Times co-chief art critic Holland Cotter listed “,” published by 91探花 Press and written by Harvard’s Philip J. Deloria., among interesting books for summer reading. Sully was a self-taught Dakota Sioux artist and the great-granddaughter of 19^th century artist Thomas Sully. The praises “semi-abstract celebrity ‘portraits,’ which combine a modernist spirit and Native American aesthetics.”

Debunking anti-vaccine myths: , author of “,鈥� debunks 10 common arguments used by anti-vaccine activists in , which published his book in December 2018. Sanford is an associate professor of family medicine and global health with the 91探花School of Medicine.

“Given the vehemence and organization of anti-vaxxers, their battle with traditional providers will probably continue for the foreseeable future,” Sanford writes. “it is important that those of us who believe in the benefits of vaccines speak our minds. If the pro-vaccine majority are passive, the anti-vaccine minority will determine the national and international tone and policy.”

, 91探花 professor of international studies and history, is featured in “,” a new documentary film about descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions discovering their Sephardic Jewish heritage.

Several years in the making, “Children of the Inquisition,” directed by , will premiere at 1 p.m. March 24, at the AMC Pacific Place 11 in Seattle, followed by a talk with Naar and the director. The event is part of the annual , which runs March 23-31 and April 6-7 at several venues.

The documentary also features New York Times journalist , neuroscientist and others as they trace their families’ histories across continents and centuries.

“Most of the figures featured tell the story of the hidden Jewish roots in their families as their ancestors were forced to conceal their Jewish origins under threat of denunciation and punishment by the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions, which were also active in the Americas,” said Naar. “The film follows several such individuals as they rediscover their Jewish roots and the varying paths that they take with that new knowledge.”

Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and chair of the UW’s , and is affiliated with the , also in the Jackson School.

He deepened his knowledge of through years of research before his 2012 arrival at the UW. As a child he heard his grandfather use phrases of , the now near-dead language spoken by Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. In time, he learned the Ladino language so he could better understand his own family’s history.

Naar said his ancestors lived “outwardly” as conversos 鈥� or Jewish converts to Christianity 鈥� until the 1530s, when family members escaped the Inquisition and settled in the Ottoman Empire, in today’s Greece.

While others in the film learned about their long-ago Jewish family roots, Naar’s experience was different. He’d always assumed that his ancestors had been Jewish, but learned that “for two generations or so, many centuries ago, they were forced to live as Christians and only later formally readopted Judaism in the Muslim world of the Ottoman Empire.”

The production crew filmed Naar in his Thomson Hall office, in the history department talking with graduate students in Sephardic studies, and at his home, where he told his family’s story. They also filmed at The Summit, a Jewish retirement home in Seattle where a number of members of the Sephardic community attend a weekly language group they call The Ladineros.

This is not the first film to call upon Naar’s talents and background; he appeared briefly in the 2008 documentary “” and was a guest in 2016 on the television show “Who Do You Think You Are?” where he helped young TV star Lea Michele learn about her Sephardic family history. Among director Lovett’s previous projects is the 2010 documentary “Going Blind,” about vision loss.

Stories of people rediscovering their Sephardic Jewish roots, Naar said, “are part of a broader story about the fate of Jews and their descendants in the Spanish and Portuguese empires, including in the United States.

“It is a story not only of genealogy, memory and forgetting, but also of race and empire.”

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For more information, contact Naar at 206-616-6202 or denaar@uw.edu.

Block was among many Stroum Center faculty and student affiliates who presented at the 50^th annual of the Dec. 16-18 in Boston. The Stroum Center is part of the UW’s Jackson School of International Studies.

At the conference, Block held a roundtable discussion titled “Teaching the Holocaust in the Age of Trump,” where he said participants remarked on how student attitudes had changed since the panel was first proposed last February.

“Until Pittsburgh, students, even in courses dedicated to study of the Holocaust, did not consider anti-Semitism a real threat and did not think of Jews as a vulnerable minority,” Block said.

Though the Holocaust itself seems to have “receded in importance for today’s students,” he said, “students were for the most part more aware of anti-Semitism and more concerned about similar risks to vulnerable groups today.”

Block said in the last two years, U.S. immigration policies and those elsewhere “have made comparisons between Nazi Germany and these practices necessary and instructive. The vilification of specific groups, the explicit appeal to racist ideologies, and the disrespect for democratic institutions and practices have led even cautious Holocaust historians to warn that the similarities are too close for us to believe it could never happen here.” Jews remain a target of bigotry, he added, and “Jewish life even in America is under renewed threat.”

Missing from the dialogue, Block added, were participants from the South or from schools with religious affiliations. Given the strong response to the December discussion, he said, there may be follow-up discussions at the German Studies Association conference in the fall.

Other presentations by 91探花Stroum Center affiliates included:

• “Uncovering the : Ladino and the Future of Jewish History” by , associate professor of international studies, history and Jewish studies
• “Animals and the Holocaust in Hebrew Literature,” by , professor of Hebrew and comparative literature
• “Radicalism and Violence in Religious Zionist Thought” by doctoral student
• “Ottoman Jews and the Emergence of Modern Psychiatry,” by doctoral student

Two Stroum affiliates 鈥� , 91探花assistant professor of Germanics and , assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization 鈥� also wrote featured articles for the 50^th anniversary issue of , the association’s magazine. Oehme reflected on a key teacher and her path to studying Old Yiddish in “From Old Yiddish to Modern Mentorship” and Zafer told of what brought him to study Judaism in “Found in Translation.”

, director of the Stroum Center and professor of international studies, wrote on the center’s that the founders of the association, which has historically been based in the Northeast, “would have likely been surprised to see the especially strong showing of 91探花 faculty and graduate students playing important roles in this jubilee celebration.”

A novelist’s thoughts on storytelling, a geologist’s soil restoration strategy, an environmentalist’s memoir, a celebration of Latino music influences, a poet’s meditations on her changing city 鈥�

Yes, and a best-selling author’s latest work, a podcast reborn as a book, a collaboration of world-class violists and even tales of brave Icelandic seawomen 鈥� at this festive time of year, 91探花 faculty creations can make great gifts for the Dawg on your shopping list.

Here鈥檚 a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by 91探花talents in the last year or so 鈥� and a reminder of some perennial favorites.

Charles Johnson, “.” Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of “” and longtime professor of English, discusses his art in a book stemming from a year of interviews. “There is winning sanity here,” the New York Times wrote: “Johnson wants his students to be ‘raconteurs always ready to tell an engaging tale,’ not self-preoccupied neurotics.” Published by .

Marisol Berr铆os-Miranda, Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pall谩n, ““ An extraordinary exhibit at the Smithsonian and Seattle’s Experience Music Project (now Museum of Pop Culture) comes to life as a book, detailing Latino influence on American popular music from salsa to punk, Chicano rock to the Miami sound. Berrios-Miranda is an affiliate associate professor of ethnomusicology, Dudley an associate professor of music and Habell-Pall谩n an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. It’s a dual-language volume 鈥� English on the right side, Spanish on the left. And as a bonus the authors have created an American Sabor on iTunes and Spotify; the book flags specific songs with a playlist icon. Published by 91探花 Press.

David R. Montgomery, “.” Montgomery, a professor of Earth and space sciences, won praise for his popular 2007 book “.” Several books later he returned in 2017 with this view of environmental restoration based on three ideas 鈥� “ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity.” said Montgomery’s well-expressed views “will convince readers that soil health should not remain an under-the-radar issue and that we all benefit from embracing a new philosophy of farming.” Published by .

Margaret Willson, Willson is an affiliate associate professor of anthropology and the Canadian Studies Arctic Program. In her years working as a deckhand she came across historic accounts of a woman sea captain known for reading the weather, hauling in large catches and never losing a crew member in 60 years of fishing. “And yet people in Iceland told me there had been few seawomen in their past, and few in their present,” she said. “I found this strange in a country of such purported gender equality. This curiosity led to the research and all that came from it.” Published by .

Estella Leopold, “.” Leopold is professor emeritus of biology and the youngest daughter of , who wrote the 1949 classic of early environmentalism, “.” She returns to scenes of her Wisconsin childhood in this follow-up, describing her life on the land where her father practiced his revolutionary conservation philosophy. Published by .

David Shields, “.” Shields is a professor of English and the best-selling author of many books, starting with his 1984 novel “.” In 2017 he brought out this collection of essays that the New York Times called “a triumphantly humane book” and him “our elusive, humorous ironist, something like a 21^st century Socrates.” The paper’s praise continued: “He is a master stylist 鈥� and has been for a long time, on the evidence of these pieces from throughout his career. . . All good writers make us feel less alone. But Shields makes us feel better.” Published by .

Joseph Janes, “.” The year 2017 saw Janes’ popular podcast “” become a book under a slightly different title. Janes is an associate professor in the Information School who writes here about the origin and often evolving meaning of historical documents, both famous and less known. Some of his favorite “documents” are Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s fictional list of communists, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the backstory to what’s called the Rosie the Riveter poster. Published by .

Frances McCue, Well-known Seattle poet, teacher and self-described “arts instigator,” McCue is a senior lecturer in English. She was a co-founder of Hugo House, a place for writers, and served as its director for 10 years. Those experiences fuel this book of poems about the changing nature of the city. “This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” she writes. Published by .

Scott L. Montgomery, “.” Scientific research that doesn鈥檛 get communicated effectively to the public may as well not have happened at all, says geoscientist Montgomery in this second volume of a popular 2001 book. A prolific writer, Montgomery is a lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies. “Communicating is the doing of science,” he adds. “Publication and public speaking are how scientific work gains a presence, a shared reality in the world.鈥澛� Published by .

Odai Johnson, “.” The true cultural tipping point in the run-up to the American Revolution, writes Johnson, a professor in the School of Drama, might not have been the Boston Tea Party or even the First Continental Congress. Rather, he suggests, it was Congress’ 1774 decision to close the British American theaters 鈥� a small act but “a hard shot across the bow of British culture.” Published by .

Here are some recordings from 2017 involving faculty in the 91探花School of Music:

Melia Watras, “.” Music professor Watras offers a collaboration from of world-class violists performing and sharing their own compositions with each other. Her own playing has been described in the press as “staggeringly virtuosic.” Richard Karpen, School of Music director, is among several guests. The title comes from the number of strings on the instruments used: two violas, one violin, and the 14-string viola d’amore. .

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “.” A live collaboration between Vu, 91探花Jazz Studies chair, and renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who is an affiliate professor with the School of Music. Recorded in 2016 at Meany Theater, Vu and Frisell were joined by artists in residence Ted Poor on drums and Luke Bergman on bass. Released on .

Craig Sheppard, “.” Sheppard, longtime professor of music and a world-class pianist, plays sonatas and mazurkas by Frederic Chopin recorded live at Meany Theater in February 2017. The Seattle Times said of an earlier Chopin concert of Sheppard’s that his playing featured “exquisite details 鈥� it was playing that revealed layer after layer of music in each piece, as if one were faceting a gemstone. Released on .

Here are some other notable recent UW-authored books:

• Research on poverty and the American suburbs in “,” by Scott Allard, professor in the Evan School of Public Policy & Governance.
• Literature meets science to contemplate the geologic epoch of humans in “,” co-edited by Jesse Oak Taylor, associate professor of English.
• A popular science exploration of machine learning and the algorithms that help run our lives in “,” by Pedro Domingos, professor of computer science and engineering.
• A close look at four of America’s electoral adventures in “” by Margaret O’Mara, professor of history.
• A fully revised second edition of Earth and space sciences professor Darrel Cowan’s popular 1984 book, “.” This 378-page paperback is filled with details about Washington state geology.
• The story of a city’s transition from the Ottoman Empire to Greece in “” by Devin Naar, professor of history and Jewish studies.
• A city that “thinks like a planet” is one both resilient to and ready for the future that the changing Earth will bring, says Marina Alberti, professor in the College of Built Environments in “.
• Todd London, professor and director of the School of Drama, follows the professional theater experiences of 15 actors from the 1995 class of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in “.”
• Dr. Stephen Helgerson, a 91探花School of Public Health alumnus and physician in preventive medicine for four decades, uses the novella form to tell of the influenza epidemic’s arrival in his state in “.”
• On the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an exploration of faith that results in the common good in 鈥�,鈥� co-authored by Steve Pfaff, professor of sociology.
• Calm down from holiday 鈥� and tech-induced stresses 鈥� by thinking mindfully with “” by communication professor David Levy.

Finally, still-popular and pertinent books from a few years back include the second edition of “” by Jeffrey Ochsner, professor of architecture; “” by Randlett with Frances McCue; “” by Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences; and the ever-popular “” by Bill Holm, professor emeritus of art history. All of these were published by , which has many other great titles.

Faculty with the 91探花 will explore the impact of the 2016 election on their respective areas of expertise in a weekly lecture class for students titled “Trump in the World: International Implications of the Trump Presidency.”

Each week, faculty members will explore perspectives from Europe, Asia, Mexico and Russia as well as questions of human rights, international cooperation and migration.

“Two months in, it is clear that Trump administration represents a radical departure in how the United States approaches foreign policy. Given the size and the power of the U.S., these changes are having significant effects in the lives of the people all around the world,” said Jackson School Director , whose May 10 lecture will be on Turkey and the Middle East, and who will conclude the series with a final discussion on May 31.

“In this lecture series the Jackson School faculty will provide a historical context to the rise of 聽Trump and discuss聽how the Trump administration is altering 聽global priorities and affecting different parts of the world. ”

The lectures will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays in Room 110 of Kane Hall.

The schedule is as follows:

March 29: The Global Context, with , professor of international studies.

April 5: Authoritarian Trends from the Past to the Present, with , associate professor of international studies and history.

April 12: Asia, with , professor of international studies.

April 19: Mexico, with , assistant professor of international studies.

April 26: Europe, with visiting EU Fellow and , associate professor of international studies.

May 3: Russia, with , associate professor of international studies.

May 10: Human Rights in Latin America, with , professor of international studies.

May 17: Turkey and the Middle East, with Re艧at Kasaba, professor and Jackson School director.

May 24: Migration, with , associate professor of international studies.

May 31: Final discussion, with Kasaba.

Two credits are available for students who register and attend regularly.

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For more information or to arrange interviews, contact Monique Thormann, Jackson School director of communications, at 206-685-0578 or thormm@uw.edu.

is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies in the 鈥� part of the 91探花鈥檚 鈥� and an associate professor in the Department of History. He is the author of “,” published in September by Stanford University Press.

“Jewish Salonica”
book launch
7 – 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3
Prof. Naar will explore the fate of Salonica’s Jews and offer behind-the-scenes insight into how he uncovered the previously lost sources necessary to tell the story.
91探花Tower Auditorium
4333 Brooklyn Ave. NE
Presented by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and the Sephardic Studies Program.
Registration and more information .

What is the book about?

A few years ago, The New York Times ran a about the city of Salonica (also known as Thessaloniki), the subject of my book. The headline read: 鈥淕reek youth remake the 鈥楽eattle of the Balkans.鈥欌�� What makes a relatively obscure city on the Aegean coast in northern Greece seem like Seattle? The article explains that Salonica鈥檚 鈥済rowing appeal as a youthful city with an intriguing multiethnic history and an arty counterculture is turning it into something of a Seattle of the Balkans.鈥� Suddenly, a place so distant strikes very close to home for us at the 91探花.

My book is preoccupied with the 鈥渋ntriguing multiethnic history鈥� that once characterized Salonica but was radically transformed and ultimately erased due to the pressures and upheavals of the 20th century: war, population movements, imperial collapse, rising nationalism, urbanization, and, ultimately, genocide.

The book tells this story from the perspective of Salonica鈥檚 Jews. Part of the predominantly Muslim Ottoman Empire for more than four centuries and now part of predominantly Orthodox Christian Greece, Salonica was long-defined by one of its more unusual features: Until the start of the 20th century, half of its multiethnic population was composed of Judeo-Spanish (Ladino)-speaking Sephardic Jews. Expelled from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews fled across the Mediterranean, settling in what was then the Ottoman Empire, and continuing to speak their language and practice their religion. The imprint of Jews on Salonica became so significant that, into the twentieth century, the markets closed every Saturday in observance of the Jewish Sabbath. For Jews in Salonica, their city became the 鈥淛erusalem of the Balkans.鈥�

The book charts how the end of the Ottoman Empire and the incorporation of Salonica into Greece impacted the city鈥檚 Jews. It was a challenging transition. As an important part of a multicultural empire, Jews in Salonica suddenly became a minority in Greece: they observed a different religion and spoke a different language from the majority of the country鈥檚 citizens. The book focuses on the strategies that the city鈥檚 Jews developed to bridge the gap between their Ottoman past and their Greek future, to figure out ways for them to be Jews while also becoming Greeks. Would such a transformation even be possible?

As a clue as to how the story ends, one of the features that makes Salonica today a 鈥測outhful city,鈥� as The New York Times suggests, is that it is home to the largest university in Greece and the Balkans. What is lesser known 鈥� often taboo to discuss 鈥� is that nearly all of the campus was built atop Salonica鈥檚 vast Jewish cemetery, which was once the largest Jewish burial ground in Europe. Destroyed at the initiative of the local authorities, but under the cover of the Nazi occupation during World War II, the cemetery and its disappearance from the urban fabric鈥攚ith few traces left behind鈥攕ymbolize the fate of Salonica鈥檚 Jews and their erasure from the city鈥檚 public memory.

How did Jews in Salonica try to bridge the gap between the Ottoman Empire and modern Greece?

One of the ways that Salonican Jewish leaders sought to re-anchor themselves in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and in the new context of Greece was to emphasize their connection to their city and their status as Salonicans. Rather than tying themselves to a country or a religion, these Jewish leaders saw their primarily connection as being to their city. Even if their new neighbors did not see them as members of the Greek nation, Jews鈥� longstanding roots in the city could not be refuted 鈥� or at least they hoped. They even proposed transforming Salonica into an independent city-state as an alternative to continued imperial control or the incorporation of the city into a new nation.

Although the plan for the city-state failed, Salonica鈥檚 Jewish leaders continued to believe that by seeing themselves as fundamentally Salonican, they could also become legitimate members of the national community. The experiment 鈥� both in local Salonican patriotism and in transforming the last generation of Ottoman Jews into Greek Jews 鈥� was ultimately cut short by the Holocaust, during which the Nazis tragically deported the city鈥檚 nearly 50,000 Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

What was the research process like for the book?

In conducting my research, I felt like I was living out a historian鈥檚 fantasy: the discovery of a dusty trove of previously unstudied archival documents in some obscure basement. That鈥檚 literally what happened.

The research for this book took more than a decade, required travel to six countries, and knowledge of six languages. As I wanted to tell the story of Salonica鈥檚 Jews through their own voices, I needed access to local sources written by Jews themselves. Until recently, the limited but growing scholarship about Salonica has relied on sources from outsiders, like foreign travelers or European consuls. Since the city had experienced such devastation as a result of fires, wars, and the deportation of the Salonica鈥檚 Jews, access to local sources was not easily attained.

During the Second World War, the Nazis had confiscated the libraries and archives of the Jewish community of Salonica. 聽It was long thought that these records had all been destroyed. But, sleuthing in American military records, I discovered that much of the archive had been preserved and dispersed across the globe. After the war, the Soviets found some of the archives and deposited them in Moscow. Only after the collapse of the USSR did their existence become known. Other materials, found by the Americans in Germany at the end of World War II, wound up in New York and another section was returned to Greece. Some of that material was later sent to Jerusalem for safekeeping. In Salonica itself, in 2005, I miraculously found another portion of those returned archives in the basement of an old Jewish communal building, transferred them to the , and spent a year organizing and studying them.

In combination with local newspapers preserved abroad, the thousands of documents from the scattered archives of the Jewish community of Salonica became the primary sources through which I tried to restore the long-forgotten voices of Salonica鈥檚 Jews and to tell their story through their own words.

This scholarly work was also a personal project in many ways 鈥� could you tell about that?

My paternal grandfather was born in Salonica and immigrated to the United States in 1924. His brother, who stayed in Greece, was ultimately deported with his wife and two children to their deaths at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 along with the vast majority of Salonica鈥檚 Jews. Their world always intrigued me: enchanting stories recalling interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews; the question of whether our family were 鈥淪panish Jews鈥� or 鈥淕reek Jews鈥� or something else; and the tragic fate of the relatives who perished in the Nazi camps. I decided at a certain point that I wanted to know more and was surprised to discover how little information was available. The quest to address that absence and to understand the world from which my family came inspired my career as a historian and the subject of my book.

As the first person in my immediate family to step foot in Salonica since 1924 鈥� I first visited in 2004 鈥� I experienced powerful, but mixed, emotions. 鈥淩eturning鈥� to my family鈥檚 city 鈥� a city where my ancestors lived for four centuries 鈥� I found few traces of their longstanding presence. When I enrolled in Greek language classes at the university, I could not help but lament the fact that generations of my own ancestors had been buried under the campus 鈥� beneath the very classroom in which I sat. Their eternal resting place had been destroyed and their very existence was unknown to my classmates. At the same time, I made many dear friends and found many allies in my pursuit of the city鈥檚 history. Salonica has changed since I began my research: now, certain segments of society are more interested in the city鈥檚 鈥渋ntriguing multiethnic history鈥� and are reclaiming it as their own.

When I arrived in Seattle in 2011, I was pleasantly surprised to encounter echoes of the world of Jewish Salonica in the Pacific Northwest. Among the many communities that comprise Seattle鈥檚 diverse population is one of the country鈥檚 largest contingents of Sephardic Jews. A handful of these families come from Salonica 鈥� primarily Auschwitz survivors and their descendants. Many have shared their memories with me and participate in our .

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that one the most important figures in the history of the Seattle Sephardic community was from Salonica. He was a journalist, poet, and educator. His great-granddaughter became a student of mine at 91探花and dedicated more than three years of independent studies with me to uncover the writings of her great-grandfather, translate them into English, write her own original Judeo-Spanish poems, and compile a marvelous . How fitting: echoes of the 鈥渋ntriguing multiethnic history鈥� of the Seattle of the Balkans continue to resonate in Seattle itself.

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For more information, contact Naar at 206-616-6202 or denaar@uw.edu.