University of Washington

This year has been another exciting and busy one, marked by many developments in the department, including new student initiatives, a "facelift" of our student advising offices, and faculty awards and transitions. As you'll see in the following pages, our students are thriving. Sara Leonetti, a history and philosophy double-major and leader of history's honor society Phi Alpha Theta, was one of two graduating seniors – across the entire university – to earn the University of Washington President's Medal. Students in our new education-to- employment program, History Fellows, organized a very successful event, History for Life, that enabled recent UW history graduates to offer advice on the job market and share how their history training prepared them for successful careers in education, non-profit administration, law, and education. History undergraduate and graduate students have won prestigious awards including a Fulbright and fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the Simpson Society of Scholars. We are proud of all these student accomplishments. To provide students with a more welcoming advising center and study space, we undertook a major renovation in Smith Hall. We turned 320 into a multi-purpose room for study groups and small classes, and moved the main office to 318. Our advisors will now be housed in a brightly remodeled and spacious 315. We are deeply grateful for the generous support provided by Nancy F. and Benjamin P. Remak, the Friends of History Fund, and the College of Arts & Sciences that made this renovation possible. Please come by Smith Hall to check out our wonderful new spaces! We also delight in the recognition that two faculty members recently received for their outstanding public scholarship. Professor James Gregory is the inaugural winner of the Barclay Simpson Prize for Scholarship in Public for his Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/). For his establishment of the world's premier website on African American and African history (http://www.blackpast.org), Professor Quintard Taylor won the Washington State Jefferson Award and the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award from the National Education Association. Quintard Taylor is also one of five History faculty members who elected to retire in 2014-15. The others are Professors Alexandra "Sasha" Harmon, Sandra Joshel, Kenneth Pyle, and Carol Thomas. For decades, they have devoted themselves to teaching UW students and have made terrific contributions to their respective fields of study. On another note of transition, this summer, I handed the departmental reins over to Professor Anand Yang. Anand assumes the position of history chair with a broad vision of our discipline and great administrative experience. In addition to being a highly accomplished scholar and teacher of South Asian and World history, he has served as chair of History at the University of Utah (1989-94) and the director of the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School for International Studies (2002-10). Anand has much to look forward to in his new position. History's students, faculty, and staff are hard-working, creative, and a constant source of inspiration, while its friends are enormously engaged and generous. Working with all of you has been the source of much pleasure and joy for me. In gratitude, Lynn M. Thomas Chair, Department of History Alexandra "Sasha" Harmon, a professor with the American Indian Studies department and history adjunct, retired in June. In her twenty years at the university, Harmon has made tremendous contributions to the study of Native American history, in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Her greatest enjoyment over this time, however, has come from undergraduate teaching, and seeing her students develop skills, tackle important issues, learn and grow. "Sasha has been a terrific member of the UW community," remarked her friend and colleague John Findlay. "I always urge the students I work with to take courses with Sasha, and I keep her books handy because I have learned so much from Sasha myself." In the years to come, Harmon will continue work on a book about the efforts of tribal governments to assert jurisdiction over their lands during the 1970s. She will also teach part-time, mentor her graduate students, and support the university's efforts to become a premier center of Native American and Indigenous studies. Faculty DEAR FRIENDS OF HISTORY, 2  U N I V E R S I T Y O F W A S H I N G T O N

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