Honors’ Global Challenges Series
Interdisciplinary Ways of Thinking About the Complexities of our World
Welcome into Honors’ interdisciplinary discussions about big, complicated issues.
The Honors Program brings curious, nimble learners into community at UW. People who are excited to learn across many fields and to combine deep inquiry with the practice of examining ideas and information from multiple perspectives. People who ask great questions and value difference. Both within and beyond the classroom, Honors students think together about issues like poverty, human rights, and climate change. Because, college is more than a means to a degree: it’s a launchpad into a lifetime of opportunities to investigate and offer solutions to profound human problems.
The University of Washington is committed to deep interdisciplinary discussion about big, complicated issues. The Honors Program is proud to be a vibrant center of collaborative thinking at this Top-10 public research institution. Each year, we convene a public “Global Challenges” event featuring fast-paced conversation between thought leaders who are working on these issues from different disciplines. This event is a joint effort between students, faculty, staff, alumni, and is our gift to members of the broader community.
Save the Date for our next event…
Interdisciplinary thinking about The Purpose of Public Research Universities
Wed, Nov 13, 2024, 6-8pm, HUB South Ballroom
Join UW Honors’ 10th annual Global Challenges event, where our whole community considers big, knotty topics through conversation between three fascinating UW professors. This November, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Ed Taylor, meets with disability rights champion, Megan McCloskey, and political expert on indigenous/borderlands politics, Tony Lucero, to discuss the many purposes of a public research university like the University of Washington. What are we all doing here and why does it matter? Whose voices and agendas drive our mission and actions as a university?
RSVP link and additional details coming in early September.
This event is free and open to the public. Please contact uwhonors@uw.edu to inquire about disability accommodations.
Subscribe to Honors News for invitations to our Global Challenges series and other public events.
Global Challenges Archives
Explore video and audio archives of our past Global Challenges talks, still relevant as our world’s biggest issues continue to evolve.
Ways of knowing, 2023
Different disciplines, cultures, and individuals have distinct approaches to gathering information, interpreting it, and forming beliefs. This begs the question: “How do we know things and where else should we be looking for answers?” On November 9, 2023, Samantha-Lynn Martinez, Polly Olsen, Tony Lucero, and Katie Davis explored this topic with the help of Honors students and input from our broader community.
Click this link for an overview of the event, a video recording, and more!
Thinking together about the power of place and care, 2022
Hosted in a hybrid format, Martine Pierre-Louis, LaShawnDa Pittman, Megan Ybarra and Stephanie Smallwood explored the causal factors of displacement and how we can work together to address those challenges. For the first time ever, the conversation and Q&A were moderated by Honors students, Brandon Wu and Shannon Hong.
Youth political engagements constructing our world, 2021
Ben Danielson, Alexis Harris and Dean Spade discussed recent events and opportunities in youth-led political activism in our “Post 2020 World.” The conversation was moderated by disability rights activist, Christine Lew, centering perspectives from public health, legal systems and mutual aid, poverty and criminal justice institutions.
Communicating about crises across a divided public, 2020
Hosted online in the interest of public safety, Jeanette Bushnell, Clarence Spigner and Michelle Koutnik brought perspectives from glaciology, indigenous philosophy, public health, and so much more to this community conversation about the concept of “crisis,” how activism and academia can work in tandem and also hold each other accountable.
Technology ethics and social change, 2019
Society is scrambling to understand (and govern) the impact of paradigm-changing technologies like big data and artificial intelligence on our identities, systems, health and rights. What is currently happening and what’s predicted to happen at the intersections of “ethical” social change and technology? Speakers: Anna Lauren Hoffmann (UW iSchool), Ece Kamar (Microsoft Research) and Shankar Narayan (ACLU: Technology and Liberty Project).
The question of rights, 2018
Tom Ikeda (Founder/Director of Densho), Megan Ming-Francis (Political Science) and Angélica Cházaro (Law) at the intersections between historical Japanese-American experiences and current systems and political decisions to disenfranchise/displace and dehumanize.
Nationalism, news, and the power of culture, 2017
Kate Starbird (Human-Centered Engineering and Informatics), Randy Engstrom (Public Servant in Arts and Youth Advocacy) and Reşat Kasaba (International Studies) held a dynamic conversation that helped to broaden perspectives on how to remedy or at least slow the progress of civic discord.
Talking about climate change, 2016
Jean Dennison (Anthropology/Colonialism), David Battisti (Atmospheric Sciences) and Hanson Hossein (Communication Leadership) discussed why it is so hard for those most invested in the way things are to talk about, much less agree about, the science and social impacts of climate change.
“Our solution is storytelling…If you can come up with a really powerful narrative and tell stories in an effective way, you transcend some of the challenges we have right now. If you can find a narrative that both groups or identities can agree upon, then you can start agreeing upon what path you can take to make that change.”
Health and poverty, 2015
