Spring 2023

Dear Friends,

Hello from the Department of Geography! I write to wish you well and share recent news and highlights. As I write this letter, the Quad is alight with cherry blossoms and full of visitors. By the time you receive it, we’ll be wrapping up a busy spring quarter and getting ready to celebrate another year of accomplishments by members of our community!

In student celebrations, we are delighted to announce 2023 Halmo Scholar Kels Rizzo, who is collaborating with the ASUW and the UW Student Disability Commission, on a research and action project, “Expanding Reproductive Health Care at UW Seattle.” Geography major Eva Hudak was awarded a Mary Gates Research Scholarship for her Geography Honors project, "Storytelling and Mixed Race Identity in Seattle." And Katelyn Saecho, majoring in geography: data science and environmental studies, has just been named among the 2023 Husky 100! Ph.D. Candidate Julian Barr’s digital public history project on Pioneer Square and the making of queer Seattle was featured in a recent podcast “Politics of Public Memory." Ph.D. Candidate Yuying Xie was awarded the Frank Jenkins Jr. Fellowship in Labor Studies, to support her comparative analysis of service sector work, labor regimes, and union cultures in the US and China.

High-impact research by our faculty continues apace, with a number of projects drawing public attention in recent months. Results from Mark Ellis’s collaborative project on Geographies of Ethnic Diversity and Inequalities in England and Wales were shared by The Guardian and the BBC. Kim England’s ongoing work with the UW’s Wage Equity Study has generated a number of vital outputs, including an interactive digital timeline of policy developments related to Wage Equity in Washington state (in collaboration with Yuying Xie). Bo Zhao’s analysis of consumer support for Black-owned businesses in 20 US cities, including Seattle, was featured on KUOW’s Soundside radio show.

As friends and alumni, you play a crucial role in supporting these accomplishments. We are so grateful for your gifts, your involvement in department events and programs, and your efforts to champion geography in your professional and personal communities. Please keep in touch as we are always happy to hear from you!

No stranger to social justice advocacy in their education and career, Kels Rizzo enrolled at the University of Washington with the goal of "mov[ing] through spaces with camp ground rules 'leave it better than you found it.'" Certainly they are improving the UW campus with their project "Expanding Reproductive Healthcare at UW Seattle," by sponsoring legislation to install an emergency contraception (EC) vending machine on the main floor of Odegaard Library, and now establishing a permanent… Read more
Katelyn Saechao Seattle, WA B.A. Environmental Studies; B.A. Geography: Data Science Year awarded 2023 Through UW, I have been granted valuable experiences where I worked towards achieving equity in my community and strived for growth as an advocate. As a Southeast Asian woman in STEM, I ultimately hope to encourage others from marginalized backgrounds to reach for their dreams despite the trials and tribulations they may encounter… Read more
In Ep. 6 of Going Public: Reimagining the PhD, Geography Ph.D. Candidate Julian Barr discusses the affordances and limits of various digital platforms, the ways in which the dissertation form might shift to integrate public scholarship, and how a walking tour can powerfully excavate gentrified spaces, subordinated knowledges, and competing memories through his project, “Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle." “Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle” is a… Read more
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Congratulations to geography Ph.D. Candidate Yuying Xie, recipient of the Frank Jenkins Jr. Fellowship in Labor Studies from the UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies! This new award honors the legacy of Frank Jenkins Jr., a lifelong civil rights and union rights activist and one of the first African Americans to hold a leadership role within Seattle’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 19. An international student, Xie is originally from China and is a current graduate… Read more
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"Ethnic segregation in England and Wales is on the wane as more people live alongside neighbours of different backgrounds, creating 'rainbow' towns and cities, research reveals. Neighbourhood diversity more than doubled nationally between 2001 and 2021, with huge transformations in some places. There was close to a tenfold increase in diversity in Boston, Lincolnshire, albeit from a low base; Barking and Dagenham recorded a ninefold increase, while diversity in Watford and Reading increased… Read more
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Aliyah Davis is the owner of Black Magic Sweets, in the Mount Baker neighborhood of Seattle. She makes treats like macarons, cake jars, and cream puffs. Davis launched her business in 2019, and said she spent her first year building a solid customer base by hosting pop-ups just about every weekend. But when the pandemic shut down brick and mortar stores, Davis knew she had to change course. She started delivering curbside to her customers’ homes. "I’ve pivoted so much since the beginning,"… Read more
Thank you very much to Geography Interim Administrator Kendall Nelson for contributing this article! Since joining the Department of Geography in autumn 2019, Professor Bo Zhao has been creating opportunities for both undergraduate- and graduate students to engage in collaborative, cutting edge research. Professor Zhao is the founder and director of the… Read more
Patti Shah Karam wasn’t in a healthy head space. It was the day before Thanksgiving and big holidays are hard for her, as she’s mostly estranged from her family. But [UW Geography B.A. Alum] Thai Nguyen, a 31-year-old peer mental health counselor who was at Shah Karam’s Shoreline apartment for their weekly meeting, helped pull her out of bed and out of a funk… Read more
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