Dear Friends of LSJ,
I write to send greetings to everyone in the LSJ community and to wish success to UW students, staff, and faculty as we get ready for Spring Quarter. In this letter, I will discuss some recent achievements, important updates, and new challenges.
Events in the country and the world make this a very scary time. Some of us are impacted directly, while others feel sorrow and fear for family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, clients, colleagues, and fellow human beings. Much of what is happening bears directly on the values that define the teaching and research mission of LSJ. As scholars, global citizens, and engaged human beings, there is much that we can do. We should seek opportunities to listen, learn, and lend help, and to speak and act in support of human rights and basic decency.
LSJ faculty, staff, students, alums, friends, and supporters continue to work, sometimes against daunting obstacles, to make the world a better place. They do so by advancing rights and justice, making beneficial use of law, guarding against law’s dangers, and improving the law. They are accumulating and disseminating knowledge, reflecting on current practices, imagining alternatives, and joining organized efforts to help those in need. Seeing the idealistic, creative, and dedicated work all around me makes me proud to be a member of this department.
I would like to record some recent achievements. LSJ continues to offer a rich menu of study abroad and experiential learning opportunities. In spring 2025, LSJ professors Stephen Meyers and Megan McCloskey introduced a new study abroad course in Rome on Human Rights & Social Inclusion in the EU and Italy. This is in addition to the department’s existing study abroad programs on the rights of persons with disabilities and older persons in Jamaica, human rights law in Geneva, comparative social control in Amsterdam, restorative justice in New Zealand, and legal institutions and individual rights in Rome.
In the 2025-26 academic year, Professor Frost continues to lead the mixed enrollment book clubs for LSJ students and Washington state prisoners. Professor Katherine Beckett is teaching a yearlong course for the Juvenile Justice Project, in which students work with people currently incarcerated for crimes committed in childhood or young adulthood to help obtain their re-sentencing or review by Washington State’s Indeterminate Sentence Review Board. For the third year, Professor Angelina Godoy is teaching a yearlong course on Storytelling for Migrant Justice, in which students co-create stories with detained migrants and learn about the power of stories to achieve healing and justice. Next quarter, Professor Meyers will once again teach his course on Social Justice through Philanthropy, a practice-based course in which students solicit proposals from international NGOs and award grants to projects they deem most likely to make a sustainable impact advancing social justice.
Other faculty accomplishments: Professor Morgan Vickers has received two prestigious scholarships from the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities to support their book project Condemned: Damned Swamps, Black Haunts, and the Draining of the Lowcountry, 1865-1945. Katherine Beckett received a Galaxy Leadership Fellowship for 2026-2028 from the Galaxy Gives Foundation, which supports efforts to create a fairer and more just world. Last spring, Professor Sebastián Rubiano-Galvis won a major legal victory when the litigation he helped lead over many years resulted in a decision by Colombia’s Constitutional Court that granted thirty Indigenous peoples robust protections against mercury pollution. A 400-page report by Professor Godoy contributed to a judicial decision in El Salvador last July that sentenced three former members of the military High Command to prison for the assassination of four Dutch journalists in 1982. Under Professor Godoy’s direction, the UW Center for Human Rights has published several major reports on human rights violations connected to U.S. immigration enforcement policy. Here is a recent op-ed by Professor Godoy appearing in the Seattle Times.
Professor Rawan Arar organized a two-day conference at UW on “Crossing Borders, Building Belonging” and co-edited a special journal issue on “Resettlement as an Institution” which will be published as a book with Routledge Press. Professors Rachel Cichowski, Megan Francis, and George Lovell taught popular and innovative courses on comparative law, legal cultures, and threats to American democracy. Professor Francis continues to deliver high-profile public lectures on continuing struggles for justice and democracy in the United States.
LSJ students and alums continue to set shining examples of leadership and public service. We are thrilled that LSJ alum Colleen Melody has been appointed as the newest justice on the Washington State Supreme Court. LSJ alum Paul Heer, a law partner at Foster Garvey and recipient of several prizes for outstanding legal practice, recently completed terms as president and board member of the Seattle Clemency Foundation. LSJ alum Hamdi Mohamed continues to serve as elected Commissioner of the Port of Seattle. LSJ alum Karan Gill currently serves as Deputy Executive of King County.
Recent LSJ student award winners include but are not limited to Anika Mehta who received the Mary Katherine Mackenzie and Mary Ann Whitmore Endowed Scholarship and the Chester William Fritz Scholarship; Francesca Espey and Nora VanRees who received the Mary Gates Research Scholarship; Lydia Bernahu, who was chosen by the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity as the 2026 honoree for Martin Luther King Jr. Day; Ethan Hagey, who received a President's Student Civic Leadership Award from the Washington Campus Coalition for the Public Good; and Remi Alidon who received the Bonderman Fellowship. (We recognize that this is not a full list. Please write to us with news of your accomplishments for inclusion in future communications.) We are proud of the many personal, professional, and civil accomplishments of LSJ students and alums. You continually amaze and inspire us.
Sadly, there have been departures of some cherished colleagues. Last summer, Professor Arzoo Osanloo began a new position as professor of anthropology at Princeton University. We miss her dearly, but are grateful for her lasting contributions to LSJ as a teacher, scholar, and mentor.
In recent months, several LSJ staff members have accepted more senior positions elsewhere at the University of Washington. They include our administrator Felicia Foster, our academic advisor Jonathan Fincher, our administrative assistant Nicki Jamet, and our computer specialist Stephen Dunne. Felicia, Jonathan, Nicki, and Steve devoted generous, loyal, and superbly capable service to the department. In all honesty, it is hard to imagine LSJ without them. We are happy about their professional success, but keenly feel their absence.
We are fortunate that our wonderful academic services director, Kat Eli, continues in her present role. Kat was recently nominated for a UW Distinguished Staff Award. We are delighted to welcome Laura Ohata as our new administrative assistant and Frances Zielonka as our interim finance and operations specialist serving LSJ and the Disability Studies Program alongside a couple of other units.
These changes occur amid a major staff reorganization throughout the College of Arts & Sciences, as some staff positions are being moved from individual departments to newly designated department clusters. The end result of this process (which in LSJ’s case is scheduled for completion over the next few months) will be a reduced number of staff members and staff hours allocated to individual departments. The College of Arts & Sciences is implementing this change because of a mandated $14.1 million cut, which in turn is caused by a constrained revenue outlook for the University of Washington as a whole.
We cannot predict how this change will play out in the long term, but some temporary impacts are likely. Because of short-term staffing reductions, we need to simplify our spring graduation ceremony and may have to cut back on certain department services and activities. We are committed to doing all that we can with the resources we have, without placing unreasonable burdens on staff and faculty.
I close by renewing my best wishes to all and by thanking members of the larger LSJ community for the indispensable work you are doing.
If you are interested in supporting the work of LSJ, we invite you to make a gift to Friends of LSJ or one of our endowed funds.
Sincerely,
Jamie Mayerfeld
Chair of Law, Societies & Justice