Recent News
The English Department has much to celebrate from 2025 in terms of our faculty's awards and achievements. This article captures just a selection of all that our wonderful colleagues accomplished over the past year.
In 2025, the English Department welcomed three remarkable new faculty members: Rhema Hokama (Assistant Professor of English Literature),
Below is a small selection of notable publications from English Department faculty throughout 2025, comprising new and forthcoming books, chapters in edited collections, and journal articles.
College of Arts and Sciences spotlights English PhD Anselma Prihandita's award-winning short fiction
Anselma Prandhita, 2025, a PhD in language and rhetoric, was profiled by the College of Arts and Sciences last summer. A scholar of speculative fiction and the English language, Prihandita completed a dissertation that explores writing challenges faced by historically marginalized students, while also producing short stories in the speculative fiction genre.
Derek Sheffield, ’90, ’99, a poet and English teacher, was appointed Washington State’s Poet Laureate in April by Governor Bob Ferguson.
Congratulations to Professor John Webster, who retired this past Winter! Professor Webster received his B.A. from UCLA in 1967; he received a M.A. from UC Berkeley in 1969 and a Ph.D., also from Berkeley, in 1974. He joined the faculty in the UW English department in 1972.
Will Generative AI end college writing as we know it?
