From Curiosity to Impact
Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are on the frontline of addressing the world's most pressing issues, including AI, Alzheimer's, ice sheet loss in Greenland—and more. These are big problems, and our faculty members are relying on millions of dollars in grant funding to explore solutions for a better tomorrow.
Check out some of the funded projects our researchers investigated in the 2023-2024 academic year.
News from CAS
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We Love Our Supporters
Gifts to the College of Arts and Sciences can help our students make the most of their college careers. To do this, CAS needs your support. Your contributions help us ensure that teaching, research, advising, mentoring, and support services are fully available to every student. Thank you!
What’s Happening in CAS?
Grab your lab coat and let's see what CAS faculty members are researching. The March issue of CAS Connection features our annual research report, a glimpse into how grants are supporting our faculty as they work toward innovation, from the frontiers of science to a better understanding of the human experience.
This month's issue also looks at a history PhD candidate and a 17th-century court case she discovered. That court case led to an essay about how early scientists named their specimens and a prestigious award.
Undergraduate Studies
Wherever your academic goals eventually take you at the UO, all Ducks begin their journey with foundational courses in CAS. More than 60 percent of students go on to pursue a major in a CAS department or program. With more than 50 departments and programs, there’s an intellectual home for almost any interest, talent, or career aspiration.
Graduate Studies
The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 30 master's programs and more than 20 doctoral programs across a diverse range of disciplines. Both as contributors to research teams and through their own scholarship and teaching, our CAS graduate students are indispensable to the vitality of the UO academic mission.
Student Support Services
We provide our students with a variety of resources to help you thrive inside and outside the classroom. Through Tykeson Advising, we provide comprehensive academic and career advising from the start of your journey at the University of Oregon. Learn about career preparation and get assistance in selecting the very best classes. Connect with labs, libraries, IT and tutoring. Find your community on campus.
World-Class Faculty
The College of Arts and Sciences faculty members are a driving force of the high-output, high-impact research activity that has earned the UO membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). Our world-class faculty members are inspiring teachers.
Among them are five members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, four members of the National Academy of Sciences. They are committed to helping students discover their academic passion. Every day, they work to expand students’ intellectual horizons, preparing them for life after college with real-world knowledge and skills.
Meet our Dean
In the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), we are committed to excellence in research and teaching, student success, and diversity, equity, and belonging.
A liberal arts education—one that offers a breadth of intellectual approaches and perspectives and depth in a major discipline—is the foundation to a purposeful life as a life-long learner, engaged citizen, and leader. The skills you will learn here—from written and verbal communication to analytical and quantitative reasoning, to compassion and understanding—are those that employers seek and will open the door to a wealth of opportunities.
You will find more than 50 majors and a multitude of minors within CAS, and seemingly endless opportunities for personal exploration and discovery. Whether you are an incoming first-year student, a grad student or a transfer student, you can map an exciting future and be part of a fun, warm, engaged liberal arts community here. Come join us. And go Ducks!
The College of Arts and Sciences includes:
Happening at CAS
4:30–6:00 p.m.
"On the Logic of Autocracy and the Plasticity of History: The Case of Frederick William I, King of Prussia"
Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger Rector, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute of Advanced Study)
Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger explores the fascinating contradictions of Frederick William I (1688–1740), the “Soldier King” of Prussia and father of “Frederick the Great.” He is remembered for his state reforms, the vast expansion of his army, and the shocking fact that he nearly had his own son sentenced to death. While contemporaries like Montesquieu saw him as a ridiculous outsider and pathological despot, later historians reinterpreted him as the “educator of the German people to Prussianhood.”
Illustration: Frederick William I, after Jacob Jordaens, 1736. © SPSG / Roland Handrick
2:00–3:00 p.m.
Students taking WR 121z, 122z, or 123 are invited to drop by the Tykeson 3rd floor Writing Lab (glass room, 351) for candy and quick writing support. Our GE Writing Support Specialists (tutors) are available to help you with any part of a WR assignment, from coming up with ideas to reading to revising to polishing up a final draft. Join us!
Mondays 3-4 and Thursdays 2-3, beginning week 4, for the rest of Winter quarter 2025.
6:00–7:00 p.m.
Join the Women in Economics Club and Women in Business Club as we lead a discussion on navigating imposter syndrome as women in male dominated fields.
Join us from 6-7pm on March 6th. Location TBD!
The UO Women in Economics Club (WiE) was established in 2023 to support and meet the unique needs of women and gender-diverse individuals in the male-dominated economics field. WiE strives to build community, empower, and increase participation in economics through academic and social events. The club hosts guest speakers, roundtable discussions, professional development workshops, and more. Students undergraduate through PhD are welcome. We hold meetings bi-weekly on odd weeks from 6-7pm in Anstett 193. All are welcome, regardless of major or gender!
"In a male-dominated field, the Women in Economics Club is the first opportunity I've had to directly collaborate with and support my female peers." -M.S. Economics '24
7:30 p.m.
Please join the Department of Theatre Arts for a play reading of Kitty & the Crescent Moon, a new play by Douglas Killingtree and directed by Joseph Gilg.
March 7 and 8 at 7:30 pm in Hope Theatre
“A woman lies dead in the street. The police see an opportunity. The newspapers see only a headline...Kitty Genovese’s murder shocked the nation—but the details of her death were completely fabricated. 60 years later, playwright Douglas Killingtree seeks to correct the record.”
The play reading is free and open to the public, and tickets are not required. We hope to see you there!