Humanities Division

The Simpson Center's Executive Board has awarded support to select UW scholars and projects for 2013-2014 year. Simpson Center funding sponsors a wide range of activities, including fellowships for UW faculty and doctoral students and more.

As White House counsel, UW alum Kathryn Ruemmler, guides the president's decisions on issues ranging from the war on terrorism to Cabinet and judicial nominations to immigration policy.

The way we teach grammar is scandalous, according to linguist Geoffrey Pullum. We nitpick too much he says, and we rely too much on old rules that have little application today. Pullum spoke about how we can fix this in a talk recorded at the University of Washington's Kane Hall on February 12, 2013.

KUOW presents Colleen McElroy, professor of English, reading her poem "Crossing Oceans"

Sandra Silberstein, professor of English, comments on the use of language in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Robert Stacey, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, announced the appointments of Betsy Cooper and Michael Shapiro to Divisional Deans of the Arts and Humanities, respectively. Both Cooper and Shapiro have served those positions in the interim since January, 2012.

Professors Tom Daniel (Biology) and Yomi Braester (Comparative Literature) are among a prestigious group of 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship recipients.

"The Best of the Best American Poetry" collects 25 years of the best poetry published in this country, including poems by Sherman Alexie and the University of Washington's Heather McHugh.

Shawn Wong, director of the Creative Writing Program at UW, establishes the Red Badge Project, a class for former soldiers to write about their experiences and tell stories that will help them cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Beginning in June 2013, two students majoring in Germanics who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement will receive the newly-established Award for Excellence in German Studies, which includes a round-trip Lufthansa ticket to Germany anywhere the airline flies.

The Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center has been designed by a team that includes several former UW students who used the previous center.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog is a vocal critic of the documentary film genre, yet nearly half of his films can be categorized as documentaries. That love/hate relationship is the focus of Ferocious Reality, a new book by UW Professor Eric Ames.

Three UW faculty, including two from Arts and Sciences, have been elected senators of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation's most prestigious academic honor society. The election of three senators from one university is unprecedented.