Mapping with A Cause
Mason Leavitt works as a geographic information system analyst for the Eugene-based environmental justice nonprofit Beyond Toxics. Every year in spring, he and his team get calls from the community about pesticide spraying. Wanting to create a database of spraying to inform the Eugene community, he went to the InfoGraphics Lab, based in the College of Arts and Sciences, for help.
Leavitt graduated with a bachelor's degree in geography and is a current graduate student in the program, so he knows how impactful the InfoGraphics Lab is, which is led by Erik Steiner. InfoGraphics Lab and Beyond Toxics collaborated on a dynamic map that not only provides a public service but also served as a training ground for students learning how to communicate complex data through mapmaking and atlas design.
“The goal in this situation is to take what is very often hidden and make it visible,” Steiner said. “It’s really about translating research into publicly available content.” Since 1988, the InfoGraphics Lab has partnered with faculty researchers and outside organizations to visualize information using tools at the forefront of technology.
Ducks Give is May 14. And We Need Your Help!
Ducks Give is the University of Oregon’s annual 24-hour fundraiser. On Thursday, May 14, your gifts — no matter how small — can support programs that benefit undergraduate and graduate students, including experiential learning and scholarships that are making a real impact to prepare them for careers after college.
Join Ducks from around the world to support current and future students. Let’s rise together on May 14!
Congratulations, Graduating Ducks!
The College of Arts and Sciences’ departments will hold commencement ceremonies on Monday, June 15, 2026.
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?
Why is storytelling so important for College of Arts and Sciences students, whether they're pursuing creative writing or neuroscience? With the advent of AI and constant technological innovation, it's more important than ever to bring humans together. Find out more how the craft of storytelling is preparing students for an ever-changing world.
Also in the April CAS Connection issue, an economist weighs in on why the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz leads to high prices around the world; alum, filmmaker and Olympic runner Alexi Pappas shares her perspective on ambition and failure; and a chemist shares research on how we can make labs more accessible for students — and more.
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
1:00 p.m.
Please join us Wednesday afternoons for a free cup of coffee, pastries, and conversation with your history department community! We’re excited to continue this tradition for our history undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff. We hope to see you there!
3:30–4:30 p.m.
The Northwest Native American Language Resource Center's Community Project Planning and Development (CPPD) workshops are designed to help guide you through the process of creating a community-based project: from coming up with the idea, to building a solid organizational and logistical foundation, and all of the other necessary steps to get your project proposal completed. Overall, there are 15 CPPD workshops in this series.
Each workshop also has an associated next-day drop-in assistance hour. This workshop series is meant to take participants with little to no experience in community project planning and development and help them complete their first project proposal. While we are focused on assisting with project planning and development of Alaskan Native/Native American Language projects, much of the content that you will be learning in these workshops is readily transferrable to other types of projects.
Registrants will have access to all workshops in this April offering. Attendance at all workshops in the offering is recommended but not required.
All instruction is provided online and instructors will join online. Participants will join remotely via zoom (please see technology section below.)
Workshops in this Offering
The CPPD workshops are offered in smaller, five workshop offerings. The first five workshops were offered in November and December of 2025. The workshops that are available in the April offering are:
Workshop 6: Identifying Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Supports facilitation of community discussions to identify vision-aligned, long-term goals that drive project outcomes.
- Date: 4/1
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/2
Workshop 7: Defining Barriers to Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Identifies internal and external barriers, explores strategies to surface challenges, and begin problem-solving approaches.
- Date: 4/8
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/9
Workshop 8: Creating Project Goals & Objectives
- Topic: Translates community vision into specific, measurable project goals and objectives using clear, structured frameworks.
- Date: 4/15
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/16
Workshop 9: Outcomes, Outputs, & Activities
- Topic: Distinguishes outcomes, outputs, and activities, aligns them within a project framework/logic model.
- Date: 4/22
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/23
Workshop 10: Building a Project Work Plan
- Topic: Hands-on strategies to create a work plan with timelines, milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables.
- Date: 4/29
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/30
Technology
The CPPD workshops will be held via Zoom and will use Canvas, a course management system, for materials and activities. Participants must have an email address. It will be best to join on a computer that has a stable internet connection, a webcam, and headphones (depending on your work environment). Using a computer rather than a mobile device will improve your experience - you will be able to better interact with others, participate in hands-on activities, and see presented materials.
3:30–4:30 p.m.
The NW-NALRC's Community Project Planning and Development (CPPD) workshops are designed to help guide you through the process of creating a community-based project: from coming up with the idea, to building a solid organizational and logistical foundation, and all of the other necessary steps to get your project proposal completed. Overall, there are 15 CPPD workshops in this series.
Each workshop also has an associated Next-Day Drop-In Assistance Hour. This workshop series is meant to take participants with little to no experience in Community Project Planning and Development and help them complete their first project proposal. While we are focused on assisting with project planning and development of Alaskan Native / Native American Language projects, much of the content that you will be learning in these workshops is readily transferrable to other types of projects.
Registrants will have access to all workshops in this April 2026 offering. Attendance at all workshops in the offering is recommended but not required.
The CPPD Workshops are offered in smaller, five workshop offerings. The first five workshops were offered in November and December of 2025. The workshops that are available in the April 2026 offering are:
Workshop 6: Identifying Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Supports facilitation of community discussions to identify vision-aligned, long-term goals that drive project outcomes.
- Date: 4/1
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/2
Workshop 7: Defining Barriers to Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Identifies internal and external barriers, explores strategies to surface challenges, and begin problem-solving approaches.
- Date: 4/8
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/9
Workshop 8: Creating Project Goals & Objectives
- Topic: Translates community vision into specific, measurable project goals and objectives using clear, structured frameworks.
- Date: 4/15
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/16
Workshop 9: Outcomes, Outputs, & Activities
- Topic: Distinguishes outcomes, outputs, and activities, aligns them within a project framework/logic model.
- Date: 4/22
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/23
Workshop 10: Building a Project Work Plan
- Topic: Hands-on strategies to create a work plan with timelines, milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables.
- Date: 4/29
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/30
Technology
The CPPD workshops will be held via Zoom and will use Canvas, a course management system, for materials and activities. Participants must have an email address. It will be best to join on a computer that has a stable internet connection, a webcam, and headphones (depending on your work environment). Using a computer rather than a mobile device will improve your experience - you will be able to better interact with others, participate in hands-on activities, and see presented materials.
7:00 p.m.
The Department of History invites you to a screening of The Devil’s Bath (2024) and talk with Kathy Stuart, Professor of History at the University of California, Davis.
Synopsis: Upper Austria in the year 1750: a fishpond reflects the grey sky. A deep, dark forest swallows the sunlight. On a hilltop, an executed woman has been displayed for all to see. As evidence. As a warning. As an omen? Agnes, deeply religious and highly sensitive, looks at the dead woman with pity. But also with longing, because she feels like a stranger in the world of her husband Wolf. It is an emotionally cold world consisting of work, chores and expectations. Agnes withdraws more and more into herself. Her inner prison becomes ever more oppressive, her melancholy more overwhelming. Soon her only way out seems to be a shocking act of violence. Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala have created a profound and disturbing psychogramm of a woman, played with flesh and bone, sinew and soul by Anja Plaschg, who also composed the music as Soap&Skin. The Devil’s Bath gives a voice to the invisible and unheard women of the rural past; it portrays the harshness of their daily lives defined by religious dogma and taboos which still resonate down the ages. A film based on historical court records about a shocking, hitherto unexplored chapter of European history
Stuart is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. She researches the history of criminal justice, marginality and gender in early modern Germany. Her first book, Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts: Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge UP, 2000), received the biennial Hans Rosenberg Book Prize. Her second book, Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) was awarded the Natalie Zemon Davis Book Prize in 2024. She collaborated with Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala on their feature film Des Teufel’s Bad (The Devil’s Bath), awarded a Silver Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival. The film’s female protagonist is a composite of two historical women child murderers featured in Suicide by Proxy.
Free and open to the public.