News from the School of IAS

Category: Cultural Studies

Karen Rosenberg and Julie Shayne speak on a panel in honor of Judy Howard

University of Washington Professor Judy Howard is retiring as Divisional Dean of Social Sciences. On Monday June 5, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the UW Seattle campus hosted a half day conference and reception to honor the career and mentoring of Judy. Included in the program was a panel titled “Feminist Scholarly Mentorship and Publishing,” on which both Karen Rosenberg and Julie Shayne were invited panelists.

June 8, 2017

Jed Murr presents “Whiteness: Seven Frames” and also receives early-career faculty fellowship

IAS faculty member Jed Murr presented a multi-media presentation entitled “Whiteness: Seven Frames” as part of INTERRUPTING WHITENESS, a PechaKucha Night at the Seattle Public Library and on KUOW. The event, featuring Robin DiAngelo, Shelby Handler, Ijeoma Oluo, and other cultural workers and organizers, focused on the necessity for white people to work “with communities of color, to center people of color and be supportive of collective work to end racism and create a deeper collective humanity.” Murr’s talk emphasized ...

June 6, 2017

Activist Kelsen Caldwell enacts social justice in communities and on buses

Alum Kelsen Caldwell (’13, Cultural Studies) continues to expand their horizons and recently became a Housing Justice Organizer with LGBTQ Allyship. In this role, they are helping launch and facilitate the LGBTQ Housing Leadership Institute. Of this endeavor, Kelsen writes, “Housing costs are on the rise, which puts LGBTQ communities at increased risk of homelessness, displacement, and general economic insecurity. The institute is an awesome opportunity to be part of a cohort of emerging housing justice leaders who can build fierce and grounded solutions through organizing with the communities that matter the most.”

May 22, 2017

Kristin Gustafson publishes two new columns in Clio Among the Media

IAS faculty member Kristin Gustafson published two new columns in Clio Among the Media: Newsletter of the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which is part of her role as the Division's Teaching Standards Chair. The column published in the winter 2017 issue discusses how Earnest Perry helps students think beyond the field's cherished First Amendment. Her interview with Perry, co-editor of the 2016 Cross-Cultural Journalism: Communicating Strategically About Diversity and associate professor and associate dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Missouri, shared how he centers the 14th Amendment in journalism history classrooms. Her column in the spring 2017 issue ...

May 8, 2017

Ben Gardner receives Undergraduate Research Mentor Award

IAS faculty member Ben Gardner has received a UW Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. Each year, students who are presenting their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium are invited to nominate their mentor for special recognition. This year there were 159 nominations. Gardner was one of the five selected from this pool.

May 5, 2017

Helen K. Thomas commentary on African American cultural practices featured in the Seattle Times

For a front-page Easter-edition feature on black women and Sunday hats, the Seattle Times drew on the expertise of IAS alum Helen K. Thomas (16, Cultural Studies). “It’s important to acknowledge,” says Thomas, “that we did not always have authority over our own selves and our own bodies, clothes, hair or looks. We were not, as black women, always afforded the luxury of adorning ourselves. So for us, there is something about wearing a hat that is deep."

April 28, 2017

Dan Berger’s Captive Nation featured in Social Justice

IAS faculty member Dan Berger wrote and spoke about his award-winning book Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era recently. The journal Social Justice published a review forum on the book in its latest issue, with commentary from Sarah Haley, Toussaint Losier, and Waldo Martin as well as an author's response from Berger. He also ...

April 27, 2017

IAS student Kyra Laughlin wins Chancellor’s Medalist Award!

Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies (GWSS) major Kyra Laughlin received the UW Bothell 2017 Chancellor’s Medalist Award. The award is an honor that recognizes graduating seniors who have achieved academic excellence and served as a consistent source of inspiration for faculty and students alike. In winter 2017 Kyra founded the campus group Sexual Assault and Violence Education (S.A.V.E.), which works from a grassroots empowerment model of social support and awareness raising. With Kyra at the helm, the group applied for and won the T-Mobile Equity and Inclusion Grant, and collaborated with IAS faculty member Lauren Lichty and Campus Safety director Cham Kao to revise the UW Bothell website's Sexual Assault Support pages. Kyra continues to build new awareness initiatives and programming for Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April), and delivers class presentations and trainings in our residence halls.

April 26, 2017

Joshua Heim calls for rethinking the suburbs as a site for the arts

Joshua Heim ('10, Cultural Studies) has recently published a call to rethink the suburbs as a space for arts engagement and development. The article, posted on the Americans for the Arts Artsblog, poses a challenge in its very title: “Over 50 percent of American live and work in suburbs. Are 50% of them arts leaders?” Since graduating from the MA in Cultural Studies, Heim has worked as ...

April 25, 2017