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Insect specimens

Doctoral Candidate Awarded Prestigious Fellowship

Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship will support history graduate student Michele Pflug's research of the people who collected insect specimens belonging to a 300-year-old collection at the Natural History Museum in London.

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News from CAS

June 2, 2023
GEOGRAPHY - A two-day conference June 3-4 will honor the work of University of Oregon Department of Geography Professor Alec Murphy and will discuss the changing significance of territory and the rise of right-wing populism in response to the changing state of borders.   
June 2, 2023
POLITICAL SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - Amy Bowers Cordalis will speak at the University of Oregon's commencement on Tuesday, June 20. Cordalis is the co-principal of the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, a nonprofit that represents Indigenous tribes, organizations and people in natural and cultural resource matters. She graduated from the UO in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in political science and minor in environmental studies.
May 31, 2023
ECONOMICS - People are living longer and birth rates are declining, and that could hamper growth of the U.S. gross domestic product, the monetary sum of goods and services, according to an April 2023 paper published in American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics. University of Oregon Associate Professor and Petrone Chair of Economics Kathleen Mullen is a co-author of the study.

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Your Gift Changes Lives

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!

Give to CAS

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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 nearly 50 departments and programs, there’s an intellectual home for almost any interest, talent, or career aspiration.

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Graduate Studies

The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 40 masters’ 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

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The College of Arts and Sciences faculty 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, and 10 Members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 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.

Spotlight on CAS Academics

Choose Your Path

The College of Arts and Sciences offers 54 majors and more than 70 minors across multiple departments and programs in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. We also offer more than 40 master’s programs and more than 20 doctoral programs.

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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 55 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! 

More from Dean Chris Poulsen

The College of Arts and Sciences includes:

50
undergraduate degree programs
40+
masters programs
26
PhD programs
10,000+
Undergraduate students in CAS Majors
750
faculty members
1,285
masters and PhD students in CAS

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UO College of Arts & Sciences (@uocas) • Instagram photos and videos

Jun 3
Craft Center Visiting Artist Exhibit: Mitra Gruwell

Mitra's work is on display through Spring Term in the Erb Memorial Union (2nd Floor, just past the Adell McMillan Gallery). Please visit emu.uoregon.edu to view open...
Craft Center Visiting Artist Exhibit: Mitra Gruwell
April 18–June 9
Erb Memorial Union (EMU) Second Floor, by Adell McMillan Gallery

Mitra's work is on display through Spring Term in the Erb Memorial Union (2nd Floor, just past the Adell McMillan Gallery). Please visit emu.uoregon.edu to view open hours.

Mitra Gruwell is a community focused upcycle fashion/product designer and sewist, with 20 years experience in business management, entrepreneurship and event production. As the owner of Discard Upcycling, her mission is to make upcycling more accessible and affordable for both businesses and individual clients. Mitra is the program manager and developer for Viking Textile Maker Hub and she also teaches workshops in upcycled design and design thinking, and apprentices and mentors youth in these skills. She has bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and Religious Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder and has served on the board of the Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene for 8 years. Mitra is passionate about the arts and the role it plays in connecting people and keeping them happy, healthy and prosperous.

Artist Talk: April 21st, 6pm-9pm in the Lease Crutcher Lewis Room in the Erb Memorial Union. No registration required. 

Artist Workshop: Upcycled T-Shirts (Session B), May 20th, 1pm-4pm. Registration required. Please visit craftcenter.uoregon.edu. 

Jun 3
MFA Art Exhibition 2023

The University of Oregon MFA Art Exhibition 2023 culminates three years of independent research and experimentation by Lily Wai Brennan, Mary Evans, Anastasiya Gutnik,...
MFA Art Exhibition 2023
May 8–June 20
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA)

The University of Oregon MFA Art Exhibition 2023 culminates three years of independent research and experimentation by Lily Wai Brennan, Mary Evans, Anastasiya Gutnik, David Peña, and William Zeng, a cohort of five artists whose various practices engage a broad range of inquiry. This year marks the 100th year of the University’s MFA degree, making it one of the oldest programs in the country. As a marker of the program’s centennial moment, the MFA exhibition returns to the JSMA, making the work accessible to the UO and Eugene community, while celebrating the MFA graduates’ efforts in the high standard of the museum setting.

Jun 3
TRIP IS FULL! Common Adventure: Camping Near Crater Lake! 8:00 a.m.

Join Theo for a camping trip to Crater Lake over the long weekend and make new friends! You will camp at Collier Memorial State Park and exploring Crater Lake during the...
TRIP IS FULL! Common Adventure: Camping Near Crater Lake!
June 3
8:00 a.m.
Outdoor Program (OP) Barn

Join Theo for a camping trip to Crater Lake over the long weekend and make new friends! You will camp at Collier Memorial State Park and exploring Crater Lake during the day.

Sign up on our website under the Common Adventure tab.

Mandatory Pre-Trip: June 1, 4:00pm at the Rental Barn.

Cost: $25 for gas, campsite fee. Other costs to consider include food and any camping gear you will need such as a tent, sleeping bag, hiking boots, (potentially snowshoes), etc.

Must be a student at the UO to participate, no refunds will be given once you reserve your spot.

Once you get a confirmation email from Scout and Ellie that you are on the trip call the rental barn ASAP to reserve gear! 541-346-4371 If you wait until the end of the week to rent gear there may be none left!

Departure time and place: June 3, 8:00am at the Rental Barn

Return time and place: June 4, approximately 8:00pm at the Rental Barn

Trip Initiator: Theo Meunier

Trip Initiator Contact: tmeunier@uoregon.edu

Pre-trip Meeting: Thursday, June 1, 4:00pm

Pre-trip Meeting Location: Rental Barn 1225 E 18th Ave Eugene, OR 97403

Departure Date: Saturday, June 3, 8:00am

Departure Location: Rental Barn, 1225 E 18th Ave, Eugene, OR 97403

Jun 3
Saturday Seminars: Three Great Epics 9:30 a.m.

We will consider three works of adventure that become increasingly psychological as we move from ancient Greece to the present time. Homer’s Odyssey (700 B.C.?),...
Saturday Seminars: Three Great Epics
June 3–24
9:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Baker Downtown Center

We will consider three works of adventure that become increasingly psychological as we move from ancient Greece to the present time. Homer’s Odyssey (700 B.C.?), George Eliot’s ;Silas Marner (1861) and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931) all present a hero or heroine on a quest. For Odysseus, the goal is home, for Silas Marner, it is at first gold and then the love of a child, and for Bernard, Rhoda and others of Woolf’s twentieth century novel it is immersion in collective community, of being a wave among waves. In this seminar, we will study the epic structure of blocking the protagonist from his or her goal with a follow-up of a final celebration of arriving at the destination. We will also study what we mean by “epic style,” or the grand way the poet or novelist finds in narrating his or her subject. As one great literary critic put it, epic “is nearest of all literary forms to the wish-fulfillment dream.” The seminar will be a balance of lecture and discussion with excerpts presented from DVDs and audio CDs.

Readings to acquire on your own:

Homer’s Odyssey. Richmond Lattimore’s translation recommended. Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2007)

George Eliot’s Silas Marner. Penguin Classics (2007). Editor David Carroll.

Virginia Woolf The Waves. Annotated Edition, Mariner Books (2006). Editor Mark Hussey.

Reading Assignments and Overall Plan

Week 1:  Homer’s Odyssey (700 B.C.?). Books 1-13. General Historical Background. Overview of epic structures. Discussion of Odysseus’s character and the other dramatis personae in the book.

Week 2: Homer’s Odyssey Continued. Books 16, 22-24. Discussion, in particular, of the father-son reunion and the controversial “justice” of the ending.

Week 3: George Eliot’s Silas Marner (1861). The evolution of the novel form in England. George Eliot’s biography. Presentation of the “anonymous hero.” Discussion of the ambiguities surrounding the characters and their quests.

Week 4. Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931). Virginia Woolf’s inheritance of the psychological novel tradition. Her biography. Discussion of her modification of the epic tradition. Analysis of the cast of complex characters and voices.

INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Henry Alley is Professor Emeritus of Literature in the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon.