Paw'd Defiance

The Center for Business Analytics at the Milgard School of Business is creating a culture of innovation through the strategic use of data and analytics. In this episode, we talk with the CBA's Director Haluk Demirkan and the CBA's Assistant Director Michael Helser. We'll talk about big data and the role it plays in business. We'll also discuss how CBA students are helping organizations solve real-world problems. Finally, Demirkan and Helser discuss the CBA's efforts to graduate students who are both job seekers and job creators. 

Hilltop Action Coalition President Brendan Nelson has spent most of his life living in or near Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood. Nelson serves in a volunteer position with the Hilltop Action Coalition. In his regular job, Nelson works for Tacoma's Peace Lutheran Church. In this episode, Nelson talks about his love of the Hilltop. He also discusses the issues facing the neighborhood including lack of affordable housing, rising home prices, and gentrification.

More information:
Hilltop Action Coalition
UW Tacoma's Master of Arts in Community Planning

UW Tacoma Professor Carolyn West has spent her career looking at issues affecting Black women. In her early career, she focused on domestic violence and how larger forces like historical trauma play a role in domestic violence perpetrated against Black women. In this episode, we talk about West's research into intimate partner violence. We also talk about her work as an expert witness in court cases involving intimate partner violence.  Finally, West talks about how Black women are portrayed in the media and what impact these tropes and stereotypes have on Black women and on society as a whole.

This mini-episode is part of a much longer episode we plan on airing during Earth Week in April. We asked faculty, students, and staff at all three University of Washington campuses to answer some questions related to sustainability. First, we asked folks to give their definition of sustainability. Next, how has the pandemic impacted their ability to be sustainable? And finally, in what ways are they practicing sustainability in their day-to-day lives. We’ll hear everyone’s responses in full during our Earth Week podcast in which we explore sustainability and the challenges of being sustainable during a pandemic.

Black Student Unions took root on college campuses across the country in the mid to late 1960s. These student organizations provided connection but they were also a potent force in the push to reform higher education. Students in Black Student Unions held sit-ins and protests to demand greater representation both in the classroom and in the curriculum. In this episode, we hear about the founding of UW Tacoma's Black Student Union through a collection of oral histories. These stories were collected by the UW Tacoma library as part of its UW Tacoma Oral History: Founding Stories project. Founding Stories is a growing collection that captures the first-hand accounts and perspectives of individuals who played significant roles in the shaping of the campus community and identity. 

"The Book of Andy" by playwright Michael J. Mejia is UW Tacoma's first virtual theater performance. The play will be presented as chapters on successive Saturdays starting on February 13. In this episode, five cast members, including four UW Tacoma students, talk about what it's like putting together a virtual performance. The group discusses the challenges and opportunities that come when the stage is also one's home. The performances are free and open to the public but you'll need to register via the Tacoma Arts Live website: https://www.tacomaartslive.org/events/calendar/eventdetail/1772/9/the-book-of-andy?filter_reset=1

This is the last in our series of reflections about 2020. In this episode, we’ll hear from UW Tacoma’s Lorraine Dinnel, Joel Larson, and Maria Tania Bandes B. Weingarden as they discuss everything from remodeling a home to building a home office, to organizing a virtual theater performance and completing a doctorate. 

In this episode, we discuss the thriving Japanese community that lived in Tacoma prior to World War II with UW Tacoma Professor Lisa Hoffman and UW Tacoma Associate Professor Mary Hanneman. Hoffman and Hanneman have written a new book called Becoming Nisei: Japanese American Urban Lives in Prewar Tacoma. The book is a result of a years-long project to document and preserve the experience of Japanese immigrants and their descendants in Tacoma. We’ll talk about what brought immigrants from Japan to Tacoma, what life was like for their children, and how their history was almost erased both during and after World War II.

Medicine has played a key role in the development of racist ideas, policies, and practices.  Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus developed a system of organizing plants and animals known as taxonomy. Linnaeus and other scientists used taxonomy to disseminate racist ideas about those who weren't white. In this episode, we talk about Linnaeus with University of Washington Assistant Dean Edwin Lindo. We also talk about other historical examples of medical racism and how these ideas still impact medicine and the larger society. Finally, we discuss how this history impacts the current effort to vaccinate members of Black and Brown communities against COVID-19.

2020 is over, but the impact of the chaotic, stressful, and challenging year remains. The University of Washington did something unique. Vice Provost and Dean of Academic Affairs Ed Taylor pulled together a course about 2020 that allowed students to analyze the year in real-time. The course was offered in the fall across all three campuses and featured lectures from UW Tacoma faculty.  Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success Bonnie Becker participated as did  Assistant Professor Sharon Laing, and Professor Carolyn West. In this episode, Becker and Laing talk about the course and how 2020 impacted both their personal and professional lives.