At our nation鈥檚 research universities, including the 91探花, underrepresented minorities make up less than 6% of the faculty across non-medical science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This severe underrepresentation among faculty has persisted for decades and comes, in part, from a lack of diversity among the doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars in these fields who elect to pursue faculty positions.

In turn, the lack of diverse science and engineering faculty discourages students of color from pursuing degrees in these fields 鈥� a negative feedback loop that has proven difficult to break.

With the help of new grants from the National Science Foundation and the Washington Research Foundation, 91探花is attempting to address this problem by combining efforts across an alliance of top research universities.

鈥淭he time has come for change,鈥� said 91探花Provost Mark Richards. 鈥淣ot years from now, but in the immediate future.鈥�

The newly formed Research University Alliance joins 91探花with eight other leading research institutions, including University of California, Berkeley; California Institute of Technology; University of California, Los Angeles; Stanford University; University of Michigan; Harvard University; Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Texas at Austin.

Based on a well-tested precursor, the California Alliance, the larger Research University Alliance is working at many levels to redefine how doctoral students are mentored into the postdoctoral ranks, and how postdoctoral scholars are hired and mentored into faculty positions.

The Research University Alliance funds exchange visits across all of the nine partnering institutions, matching students and postdocs with faculty hosts in their area of research. Visits allow these early career scientists to share their work and ideas, learn new techniques and approaches, engage in collaborative discussions and innovation, and broaden their career opportunities. Annual retreats bringing all exchange participants together and professional development programming are also major components of the work of the alliance.

A key component of this effort 鈥� connecting underrepresented minority senior doctoral students with postdoctoral opportunities across the alliance 鈥� will be led by UW, under the co-direction of College of Environment Associate Dean Julia Parrish, Graduate School Dean Joy Williamson-Lott and Provost Richards.

The statistics are concerning. Just 8.5% of doctoral students in these science and engineering departments identified as underrepresented minorities, significantly lower than the demographics of the U.S. But these numbers are halved at the postdoc and faculty levels 鈥� to just 3.9% of postdoctoral researchers and faculty.

“That loss is a crucial starting point,鈥� Parrish said.

Unlike the hiring process for faculty, which usually involves advertising open positions, the hiring of postdoctoral researchers has relied more on word-of-mouth networks among academics.

“Put simply, we are looking to establish a new network at the graduate and postdoc level that doesn’t depend on who you already know or are connected to, but is instead dependent on the excellent, interesting, edgy work that they do,” said Parrish. This new system will vastly improve upon the old networks.

As part of the alliance, the 91探花is creating a web portal for postdocs and senior graduate students to showcase their work, and for participating university partners to post postdoctoral positions.

鈥淚n many fields, postdocs are vital positions to hold before becoming faculty or before becoming an entrepreneur,鈥� said Williamson-Lott. 鈥淚t’s an incredibly important space. And so we want to force that space open to allow more people to be able to enter it, and compete in it, and then benefit from it.鈥�

The Washington Research Foundation is dedicated to the diversification of science, Richards said, and the Washington state-based organization鈥檚 funding, $50,000 per year for the next four years, will be paired with the NSF/AGEP funds and funds from the Colleges of Engineering, Arts & Sciences, and Environment, and the Applied Physics Laboratory to allow 91探花to join with other institutions and meet the goal to attract more diverse candidates to the postdoc ranks and the professoriate.

鈥淚’m glad to be part of an institution that values diversity, pursues it aggressively and refuses to stand still, and wants to be part of the solution rather than the problem,鈥� Williamson-Lott said. 鈥淚t speaks very highly for our institution to participate in this.鈥�

For more information, contact Parrish at jparrish@uw.edu.

, dean of the 91探花Graduate School and a professor of education, has been honored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities for her book “,” published in 2018 by Teachers College Press.

The association has named the book winner of its annual for outstanding contributions to the understanding and improvement of liberal education.

“This well-researched volume explores how the black freedom struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement dovetailed with faculty and student activism in the South to undermine the traditional role of higher education and bring about social change,” the association said in a news release.

Lynn Pasquerella, president of the association, praised the book as well, adding that it demonstrates the power of student and faculty activism to advance social justice causes by “disrupting entrenched racialist structures within the academy.”

Thanking the association for the honor, Williamson-Lott said: “History teaches us that we must remain staunch stewards of academic freedom and freedom of speech at our colleges and universities. I am gratified to know that I join so many of my colleagues in that endeavor.”

The award, which includes an honorarium of $2,000, was established in 1979 to honor the association’s ninth president. Williamson-Lott will receive the honor at the association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in January 2020.

In other book news:

Classic Seattle history returns: 91探花 Press is republishing 91探花English professor ‘s well-loved 1976 reflections on his city, its history and its possible futures, “.” The new edition has an introduction by Seattle writer Knute Berger.

Pacific Northwest Quarterly called the book “an exhilarating critique of Seattle’s birth, growth, sickness, health, promise and fulfillment. Any serious student of Seattle or of recent urban history will now read Roger Sale, and with good reason.”

The new edition’s cover also drew attention from Spine, a magazine about book design, which praised its “gorgeous colors and dynamic angles” in a recent of university press covers.

Sale, who died in 2017, taught for decades at the 91探花and by colleague John Webster, associate professor of English.

“Aiiieeeee!: An anthology of Asian American Writers” gets third edition: 91探花Press in November published the third edition of this first released in 1974 and edited by , , and , 91探花professor of English.

The New York Times Book Review : “The stories are 鈥� strewn with new insights buried in the flesh of the narrative; they illuminate areas of darkness in the hidden experiences of a people who had been little more than exotic figments of someone else’s imagination.”

Read an essay by Wong about the book’s creation: “.”

“Aiiieeeee!” is part of 91探花Press’s Classics of Asian American Literature series.

As a professor and associate dean in the College of Education, an accomplished scholar and researcher in the field of American higher education and a committed advocate for equity and diversity in higher education, Williamson-Lott is well suited to the dean鈥檚 role.

鈥淧resident Cauce and I both thank Joy for lending her talent, passion and deep expertise to the critical endeavor of strengthening the excellence and competitiveness of the UW鈥檚 graduate programs, particularly through a focus on the recruitment and success of a more diverse graduate student body,鈥� Richards said. 鈥淚 am excited to work with her to advance this essential component of our world-class research university, and I thank all our faculty colleagues for their support and enthusiasm for Joy鈥檚 appointment.鈥�

While serving as Dean, Williamson-Lott will retain her faculty appointment in the College of Education, where she researches the reciprocal relationship between social movements and American higher education.

She is the author of several books examining black higher educational history and the black freedom struggle, including her most recent book, 鈥淛im Crow Campus: Higher Education and the Struggle for a New Southern Social Order.鈥� Her teaching focuses on education as a moral endeavor, the shifting definition of 鈥減roper education鈥� and 鈥渓iberation鈥� for different social groups, and the educational histories of people of color.

鈥淚 am excited to work with colleagues across our three campuses to ensure that our graduate students, professional students and postdoctoral fellows get the most out of their Husky Experience, and that they are well prepared to act as global citizens and leaders who enrich society and use rigorous research to devise solutions to today鈥檚 pressing problems,鈥� Williamson-Lott said.

She was awarded the UW鈥檚 Distinguished Teaching Award in 2010 and received the Mildred Garcia Award for Early Career Exemplary Scholarship from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, among numerous awards and recognitions.

Williamson-Lott earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology and speech communications, and her master鈥檚 degree and doctorate in the history of American Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the 91探花faculty in 2007, she served on the faculty at the Stanford University School of Education.

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Recent notable books by 91探花 authors tell of the struggle to break free of racism in higher education, taking an “urban diary” approach to documenting city life and more.

Stifling academic expression on campus in the 1960s and beyond

has been interested in the Black Power movement since she wrote her dissertation at the University of Illinois. Over time, as she examined how that activism played out in the South in the 1960s, she saw how colleges and universities stifled student expression and faculty academic freedom. Williamson-Lott, a professor in the 91探花College of Education, has turned her research on that era into a book, 鈥�,鈥� published in June by Teachers College Press.

Fifty years later, she says, those battles, and the racism underlying them, remain relevant in all parts of the country. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something to be learned from the Southern experience,鈥� Williamson-Lott says. 鈥淚n a way, it wasn鈥檛 exceptional. It鈥檚 who we are as a nation.鈥�

To learn more, contact Williamson-Lott at joyann@uw.edu.

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Studying the use of secrets in world cinema

How are secrets employed and understood in international cinema? In a new book, , associate professor in the Jackson School, explores the use of secrets in acclaimed films such as Guillermo del Toro’s “” and Alejandro Amen谩bar鈥檚 “,” in which Nicole Kidman starred.

Porter’s book “” was published in early 2018 by CRC Press. Publishers notes say the book “advances a methodological line of inquiry based on a fresh insight into the ways in which cinematic meaning is generated and can be ascertained.” The book analyzes the use of secrets in these films and more.

“It demonstrates how a rethinking of the figure of the secret in national film yields a new vantage point for examining heretofore unrecognized connections between collective historical experience, cinematic production and a transnational aesthetic of concealment and hiding.”

, a growing concept in film studies, considers films that span national boundaries.

To learn more, contact Porter at debzport@uw.edu

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Tool kit for urban observation promotes better planning, design

Personal observation remains an important way of understanding and improving cities, says Seattle-based attorney in his book “.” Wolfe is also an affiliate associate professor of urban design and planning in the 91探花College of Built Environments, where he teaches land use law at the graduate level.

Notes from publisher Island Press say that Wolfe takes an “urban diary” approach to describe how city dwellers can “catalog the influences of urban form, neighborhood dynamics, public transportation, and myriad other basic city elements that impact their daily lives” and use such observations to improve planning and design decisions.

“This type of close, thoughtful looking is a way to snap out of the stupor of the daily grind and parse the details that are so easily overshadowed. But 鈥� it is also a way to think about how to shape the future,” says a on the Atlantic monthly’s website CityLab.

“Seeing the Better City” was an and was a in the United Kingdom for a National Urban Design Award from the nonprofit celebrating the best books on that topic.

To learn more, contact Wolfe at cwolfe@crwolfelaw.com.

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‘Rethinking’ youth media empowerment

How do queer youth use media for self-expression, connection and public visibility? Who is best equipped to participate in meaningful ways, and where might social inequities be reproduced in the process of production?

A new book by , assistant professor in 91探花Bothell’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, combines three years of “” with young media makers in San Diego with textual analysis of many youth-produced videos and media campaigns. “” was published this summer by Routledge.

In this way, Berliner examines how media makers at the margins negotiate funding and publicity and strategically produce their online identities.

Publishers notes say the book “unsettles assumptions that having a ‘voice’ and gaining visibility and recognition necessarily equate to securing rights and resources.

“Through her study of youth media practices within larger contexts of history and pedagogy, Routledge says, Berliner “reframes digital media participation as a struggle for 鈥� rather than, in itself, evidence of 鈥� power.”

To learn more, contact Berliner at lsb26@uw.edu.

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91探花faculty pen book chapters on environmental studies

A new textbook on environmental studies includes two chapters written by 91探花faculty members. “,” published in May 2018 by Routledge, contains more than 150 short chapters written by leading international experts. Together they provide concise, authoritative and easy-to-use summaries of key issues, debates, concepts and current questions in environmental studies.

, a 91探花associate professor of political science, authored a chapter on “Gaia.” Litfin is also the author of a 2014 book, “,” that describes a year of travels to sustainable communities around the world.

, a 91探花professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences, authored a chapter on “Key Debates on Population and Global Demography.” The chapter covers issues such as causes of population growth, influence of education, demand for and access to contraception, and geographic variations. (Warren is also the author of a 2015 open-access academic on population growth issues.)

To learn more, contact Warren at sgw@uw.edu or Litfin at litfin@uw.edu.