News from the School of IAS
Category: Alumni
Marcus Johnson publishes on Black cultural studies
Marcus Johnson is an M.A. in Cultural Studies alum (’16) and Ph.D. candidate at the UW Department of Communication. He recently co-authored the article “Black Cultural Studies is Intersectionality” with Dr. Ralina Joseph, which was published in the International Journal of Cultural Studies. The article argues ...
October 15, 2020
Berette Macaulay and Black Cinema Collective extend programming and engagements virtually
Berette Macaulay (Cultural Studies, ’20) founded Black Cinema Collective (BCC) in 2019, developing and co-organizing all programming with classmates Mateó Ochoa (Cultural Studies, ’19) and Savita Krishnamoorthy (Cultural Studies, ’20), who joined in 2020. In February 2020, BCC facilitated public discussion of “Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema from UCLA” at the Henry Art Gallery with director and visiting filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis. Soon thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic closed public spaces for such gatherings ...
October 13, 2020
Berette Macaulay named to new position at Henry Art Gallery
Berette Macaulay (M.A. in Cultural Studies, ’20) has been named to a new position, Museum Guide Program Manager, at the Henry Art Gallery (University of Washington, Seattle campus). In this new role, Macaulay will pilot and lead a new museum guide training program. She will create curriculum that offers UW undergraduate students from multiple disciplines formal training from Henry staff, developing ...
October 13, 2020
Alumni support virtual human rights seminar
While the pandemic has pushed most courses online, students continue to benefit from rich learning experiences like UW Bothell’s annual Washington D.C. Human Rights Seminar. When the 2020 D.C. Seminar went virtual, leaders Ron Krabill and Jung Lee enlisted the program’s vital network in a series of online dialogues. Several IAS alumni joined this cadre of experts and mentors, sharing their firsthand experiences with human rights and social justice. ...
October 9, 2020
Frances Lee and Stephanie Segura awarded Hugo Fellowships
IAS alumni Frances Lee (Master of Arts in Cultural Studies) and Stephanie Segura (MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics) were recently awarded Hugo Fellowships for 2020-21. The Hugo Fellowship supports emerging writers, providing space and resources to four to six fellows in the Seattle area to complete a proposed project ...
October 8, 2020
Breka Blakeslee publishes Probably It Will Not Be Okay
IAS alum Breka Blakeslee (MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics, '15) has published their debut novel, Probably It Will Not Be Okay, which began its life as the author's MFA thesis. From the publisher's page: "Probably It Will Not Be Okay takes place at the end of the anthropocene. People and animals, what's left of them, share the ruins of a human city ...
October 6, 2020
MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics students and alumni interview recently-published authors
Since 2018, the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics has collaborated with Essay Press on the annual publication of a work or works of innovative prose. The first two books in the series were published this summer, and MFA students and alumni have come together to interview the authors to gain deeper insights into their work and poetics. Stephanie Segura (2020), N. L. Sweeney (2020) and Scott Bentley (2021) interviewed Katherine Agyemaa Agard about their book of colour, an experimental essay about color, hybridity, and art-making that provides a memoir of Agyemaa Agard’s coming to North America and encountering binaries of black and white within global anti-blackness. Cliff Watson (2021), Annika Bunney (2021), and Sabina Livadariu (2020) spoke with Kaia Preus about ...
October 2, 2020
Abigail Echo-Hawk fights for the inclusion of Indigenous people in COVID-19 data
IAS alum Abigail Echo-Hawk has been working for years with Indigenous people, mostly in cities, across the United States to collect data about their communities. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic takes a disproportionate toll on many Indigenous communities, Echo-Hawk’s work takes on more urgency. Science magazine recently featured Echo-Hawk’s ...
September 28, 2020
IAS alumni, faculty member, and student serve on UWAA Board of Trustees
The University of Washington Alumni Association (UWAA) has been the foundation of the UW alumni community for more than 125 years, and the UWAA Board of Trustees is a vital body of committed individuals responsible for setting the association’s tone and direction. IAS alumni serving on the Board of Trustees for the 2020-21 term include: At-large Trustee Emily Anderson (’09), University Representative Trustee David Hernandez (’03), and Geographic Trustee Tanya Kumar (’18) ...
September 24, 2020
Meshell Sturgis reviews The Rachel Divide and Fearing the Black Body
M.A. in Cultural Studies alum Meshell Sturgis ('17) studies representations of difference and identity in the media using Black feminist critical-cultural communication theories and methods. A Ph.D. candidate in the UW Department of Communication, Sturgis recently published reviews of the documentary film, The Rachel Divide, with co-author Victoria Thomas, and the book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, by Sabrina Strings.
September 17, 2020