News | July 22, 2024
A week of nonstop breaking political news stumps AI chatbots
Reported by Heather Kelly For The Washington Post In the hour after President Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 campaign on Sunday, most popular AI chatbots seemed oblivious to the news. Asked directly whether he had dropped out, almost all said no or declined to give an answer. Asked who was running for…
News | July 28, 2020
As districts seek revenue due to pandemic, Black homeowners may feel the biggest hit
New research bolsters the case that Black homeowners bear a disproportionate tax burden for underfunded public schools. Now those same homeowners are likely to see their property tax rates climb even higher due to the coronavirus pandemic’s economic devastation. That’s because cash-strapped school boards that oversee majority-Black school districts are expected to ask their residents…
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Candice Rai
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Carly Roberts
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College of Built Environments’ unique Inspire Fund aims to foster research momentum in underfunded pursuits college-wide. And it’s working.
“For a small college, CBE has a broad range of research paradigms, from history and arts, to social science and engineering.” — Carrie Sturts Dossick, Associate Dean of Research Upon taking on the role of Associate Dean of Research, Carrie Sturts Dossick, professor in the Department of Construction Management, undertook listening sessions to learn about…
News | June 5, 2024
Community broadband provides a local solution for a global problem
Written by Esther Jang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Computer Science, University of Washington; Katherine Gillieson, Associate Dean, Master of Design, Emily Carr University; and Michael Lithgow, Associate Professor, Media and Communication Studies, Athabasca University Published in The Conversation. According to a 2023 study by the International Telecommunications Union, approximately 2.6 billion people are unconnected to the internet….
News | November 26, 2024
Creating multi-sector teams to build cities where everyone thrives.
Research-to-Action Teams 2024-25 In April of 2024 two teams were selected for participation in the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory. For 18 months Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicated time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These…
News | April 8, 2024
Earthquake showed Taiwan was well prepared for a big one — more so than parts of U.S.
Originally reported by Evan Bush for NBC News. The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said. Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in…
Degree Program
Education, Communities and Organizations (BA)
The University of Washington's Education, Communities and Organizations (ECO) degree believes teaching and learning happens not only within the formal classroom, but also across a host of professions such as youth development, policy reform, business, healthcare and in a variety of other organizations serving communities.
Visit program websiteNews | May 24, 2019
Event looks at past efforts to integrate schools in Seattle and what can be done now
May 17 was the 65th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision that said segregating public schools by race was unconstitutional. Many public schools in Seattle remain segregated in spite of past efforts to address that, including several decades of busing. A national nonprofit group, Integrated Schools, hosted an event on Thursday,…
Course | EdLPS 539
History Of Urban Education
Examines the complex ways that race, class, real estate interests, the quest for social mobility, and a range of government policies have interacted to structure the social and spatial distribution of educational opportunity in cities historically. Includes a comparative historical analysis of urban case studies, including Seattle.News | March 8, 2017
Honoring Women Collaborators at Urban@UW
In honor of International Women’s Day, we are highlighting just some of UW’s brilliant female professors, scholars, and and change-makers with whom Urban@UW is proud to collaborate. Click on their names to explore their work. Leadership: Thaisa Way, Executive Director, Urban@UW; Department of Landscape Architecture Executive Committee: Margaret O’Mara, Department of History Susan P….
News | July 29, 2024
How Tiny Homes Could Help Solve America’s Homelessness Crisis
Reported by Giulia Carbonaro for Newsweek Shelter villages of tiny homes have popped up across the U.S. in recent years, as the small structures have started to be seen by many advocates as a promising solution to solve homelessness. Perhaps unsurprisingly at a time when mortgage rates are still hovering around the 7-percent mark and…
News | October 18, 2024
How to avoid sharing election misinformation
Reported by Audrey Nguyen for NPR The 2024 election season is upon us. While Election Day is November 5, early voting started in September in some states. As we wait for the final results to be declared, chances are, you’re going to come across false or misleading information. To avoid spreading misinformation this election season,…
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Janine Jones
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Joe Lott
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Join Urban@UW in creating innovative solutions for city dwellers, today and into the future.
Support Urban@UW Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. Urban@UW works with scholars, policymakers, and community stakeholders to develop cross-disciplinary…
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Jondou Chen
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 22, 2017
Julian Agyeman: A Brief Reading List
Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, will be delivering a talk at the University of Washington on February 28 at 7:30pm. Agyeman was originally trained as an ecologist and biogeographer before turning to critical urban studies and environmental social science. Agyeman’s scholarship challenges basic notions of sustainability through…
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Katie Headrick Taylor
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 13, 2024
Looking inward for pollution In his latest research, Dr. Dan Jaffe looks to the kitchen as a source for indoor pollution in the home.
Excerpted from the University of Washington- Bothell website. For more than 30 years, Dr. Dan Jaffe has spent his career researching outdoor air pollution and its many sources — from wildfires to fossil fuels. In recent years, however, his curiosity has shifted inward as he looks to answer the question: “How clean is our indoor…
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Maggie Beneke
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Manka Varghese
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Marge Plecki
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Meredith I. Honig
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Michael Knapp
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Nancy Beadie
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Office Hours with Britton Shephard
Britton Shepard is a Masters student in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington, and will be graduating this June. He is currently wrapping up his thesis project, Site 1121: Field Notes, a public site exhibition of an abandoned lot that explored the history and identity of a landscape in an urban setting. The week-long…
Scholar
Paul Hill
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 28, 2020
PODCAST: An Indigenous community’s fight for educational equity and cultural reclamation
A recent award-winning study by University of Washington College of Education Assistant Professor Shaneé Washington explores the challenges and possibilities for Indigenous families, community members and district educators to engage with one another in culturally sustaining and revitalizing ways. In a new podcast, Washington discusses her study, “Family-School-Community (Dis)Engagement: An Indigenous Community’s Fight for Educational Equity and Cultural…
News | May 4, 2016
Quick Recap: A Busy April!
April saw a lot of wonderful developments here at the University of Washington, here’s a quick recap: Our first Office Hours interview with John Vidale (more coming of these soon!) UW researchers continued to explore the effects of a $15/hr minimum wage. PBS premiered their 10 Parks that Changed America program featuring our own Thaisa…
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Quintard Taylor
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Rachel Vaughn
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Racial justice is an urban issue: A curated list of resources from UW BIPOC scholars
Racial injustice is not a new issue. Segregation and discrimination on the basis of race has long been tied to the built environments across the country, from redlining and restrictive covenants in the mid-1900s, to white flight and suburbanization after World War II, to the current trends of gentrification and displacement in cities throughout the…
News | December 20, 2016
Reflections on Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change
On November 7th and 8th Urban@UW, in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group (CIG), hosted a symposium to begin transdisciplinary conversation on the multifaceted dynamics and consequences of Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change (UEJ). Below are some reflections from this event, and a sample of the resources we’ll…
News | April 16, 2020
School budgets are in big trouble, especially in high-poverty areas. Here’s why — and what could help
When the last recession hit school budgets about a decade ago, it didn’t hit them equally. Affluent school districts saw their state funding drop by more than $500 per student after the downturn. High-poverty districts in the same state lost much more: over $1,500 per student in state funds. Now, the coronavirus has brought much of…
News | September 23, 2020
Seattle-area families of color are talking about improving remote education. Here are some of their ideas.
Regina Elmi is the executive director of the Somali Parent Education Board. Ann Ishimaru is associate professor of education at the University of Washington. The authors wrote this piece along with 10 other African American, Somali, Latina and Vietnamese parent leaders from the Renton, Federal Way, Kent, Highline and Seattle school districts. Thousands of families…
News | April 26, 2024
Seattle’s troubled past and present suggest a new approach to mental health
Written by Will James, Sydney Brownstone, and Esme Jimenez as part of the series “Lost Patients” for KUOW, an NPR Station. Edward Moore, a 32-year-old sailor, was discovered, near freezing and living in a tattered tent on the shore near current day Seattle in 1854. At the time, Washington was still a territory and Seattle…
Scholar
Shaneé A. Washington
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 1, 2024
Should social media pay for addicting kids? Seattle schools lawsuit gains steam
Reported by KUOW Written by Sami West A year into Seattle Public Schools’ lawsuit against social media companies, the case is gaining traction. More than 50 school districts in Washington state — and dozens more across the country — have joined Seattle’s lawsuit. Seattle became the first district to sue social media platforms last January,…
News | August 27, 2020
The historian of Seattle hip-hop
In 1979, when Daudi Abe was 9, his father took him to Dirt Cheap Records and set him loose to explore. After a few minutes in the Central District store, Abe came up to the cashier carrying a 12-inch vinyl single with the words “Sugar Hill” across the top. “I just liked the sky-blue cover,”…
News | October 29, 2024
This Atlanta neighborhood hired a case manager to address rising homelessness − and it’s improving health and safety for everyone
Reported by Ishita Chordia, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Science, University of Washington Homelessness has surged across the United States in recent years, rising 19% from 2016 though 2023. The main cause is a severe shortage of affordable housing. Rising homelessness has renewed debates about use of public space and how encampments affect public safety. The…
Scholar
Tom Halverson
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 13, 2024
University of Washington study finds cities must prioritize youth mental health
Excerpted from KOIN/Channel Six in Portland Written by Michaela Bourgeois Researchers at the University of Washington conducted an international survey that found cities need to focus on youth mental health as younger generations flock to urban areas. Starting in April 2020, researchers worked with the nonprofit citiesRISE to survey over 500 people in 53 countries…
News | May 26, 2023
Urban Scholar Highlight: Dana Nickson
This is the third in a series of interviews from Urban@UW highlighting the research of urban scholars at the University of Washington. Urban@UW spoke to Dana Nickson, Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Washington Seattle. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. What do you do at…
News | April 3, 2024
Urban@UW announces second cycle of Research to Action Collaboratory projects
Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the second Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) cohort. Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicate time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These two project…
News | October 20, 2017
Urban@UW compiles Faculty Highlights Report for research, teaching and engagement on homelessness
As part of its recently launched Homelessess Research Initiative, Urban@UW has collaborated with faculty and staff across all three UW campuses to compile a broad-ranging selection of powerful and robust projects addressing homelessness from a research lens. Check out the Faculty Highlights Report to learn more about these efforts and the people behind them.
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW is working toward a future where cities are hubs of innovation, inclusivity, & sustainability.
Research-to-Action Teams 2023-2024 In April of 2023 the teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) were announced. These groups combine the research capabilities of University of Washington scholars with frontline leaders embedded in their communities and government officials who can codify change. The Research-to-Action Collaboratory provides the teams with…
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Urban@UW unites research, community insight, and policy to drive innovation for resilient and equitable cities.
Inclusive Data-Driven Innovation for the Future of Cities Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. In partnership with the College…
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Urban@UW’s Research to Action Collaboratory provides funding, facilitation, & tools to empower cross-disciplinary teams to solve urban problems
About the RAC The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. The RAC combines financial support, thought partnership, and skill-building to increase the capacity of scholars, community stakeholders, and the UW for impactful, collaborative research. Today’s most pressing problems—from…
News | June 26, 2015
Urbanity and Indigeneity with respect to Education by Megan Bang
Presented at the June 1st Urban@UW Launch
News | June 25, 2024
Why social media rarely leads to constructive political action
Written by Stefan Milne for UW News. While social media platforms are rife with problems — from harassment to misinformation — many argue that the platforms also nurture political movements, such as the Arab Spring and #MeToo. But in her new book “Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix,” Katherine Cross, a University…