CAS Connection

CAS Connection
Dean Chris Poulsen speaking to an audience in a classroom

Creating a Future Forward CAS

How will CAS tackle the major challenges higher education faces? 
Dean Chris Poulsen has a strategic plan to establish the college as a leader and innovator.

By Nicole Krueger

 

In Focus  |  Around CAS  |  Liberal Arts at Large  |  Q&A  |  In the News  | Student Spotlight  |  Faculty Spotlight  |  Page Turners  |  Past Issues

Academic and career advisor Sonia Gordillo advises students who are pre-health and plan to go to medical school or other health-related graduate program.

Around CAS

Meeting Students Where They Are

What’s the best way to leverage your degree into a successful career path? Find out how CAS advisors help students flourish both in college and beyond.

By Jenny Brooks

Colin Wilfrid chose to attend UO in part for its disability studies program and in part for its marching band

Around CAS

Exploring Identity
in CAS

Students who come to CAS seeking a degree often find something even greater: themselves. Discover how an identity-focused major or minor can lead to a fulfilling career.

By Jenny Brooks 

Statue of Socrates illuminated with pink light

In Focus

Taking Liberal Arts to the Next Level

Are liberal arts degrees becoming obsolete? Far from it, say CAS faculty who are evolving liberal arts education to prepare students for jobs that don’t exist yet. 

By Nicole Krueger

A collage of images of LatinX professors

Faculty Spotlight

Meet Your New Latinx Studies Professors

Want to explore Latinx studies from a variety of perspectives? These nine new faculty members are bringing their valuable their expertise in Latinx studies-related issues to CAS.

By Henry Houston

Person on a roof making repairs with a nail gun

Student Spotlight

Finding Home
Again

It’s one thing to rebuild homes after a wildfire. Rebuilding communities is a different matter, discovered sociology graduate student Haisu Huang.

By Henry Houston

Page Turners

Book cover "Fighting Mad"

‘Fighting Mad’ Tackles Reproductive Justice 

The overturning of the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion in the US sparked a wave of responses across the nation. 

Explore the impact of this momentous decision through a collection of voices and perspectives in Sociology Associate Professor Krystale Littlejohn’s latest book.

By Codi Farmer

CAS News

a three panel from a comic book
New graphic novel uses nostalgia as a superpower
CREATIVE WRITING – Creative writing professor Mat Johnson's new graphic novel, "Backflash," deals with loss and grief in a wild, time-traveling thriller where nostalgia is a superpower. Portland-based artist Steve Lieber provided the illustrations that mix humor and heart.
Octopus under sea
Octopuses have some of the oldest known sex chromosomes
BIOLOGY - University of Oregon researchers have identified a sex chromosome in the California two-spot octopus. This chromosome has likely been around for 480 million years, since before octopuses split apart from the nautilus on the evolutionary tree. That makes it one of the oldest known animal sex chromosomes. Doctoral students Gabby Coffing, Andrew Kern and their team described the findings Feb. 3 in the journal Current Biology.
two people in a lab setting, person on the left holding a cylinder as a person on the right looks at it
Bad bacteria can trigger gut pain, new research shows how
BIOLOGY, PHYSICS - A new study published in the journal mBio shows how one kind of bacteria, Vibrio cholerae, triggers those painful contractions by activating the immune system. The research also finds a more general explanation for how the gut rids itself of unwanted intruders, which could also help scientists better understand chronic conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. The research was led by Julia Ngo, a now-graduated doctoral student in Karen Guillemin and Raghu Parthasarathy’s labs.

All news »

From the Media

an illustration of a woman sitting at a top of a flight of stairs in the heavens
So You Reached Your Goal. Now What?
The comedown after an accomplishment is normal. What to do next? CAS Psychology Professor and Natural Science Divisional Dean Elliot Berkman is quoted in the New York Times, saying it’s important to ask yourself what drove you to set a particular goal. If your ambitions are rooted in your values, there’s a greater chance you’ll stay motivated, he added.
a baby and a tractor
Common Herbicide Linked to Low Birth Weights in Rural Areas
Newsweek featured work by CAS economics doctoral student Emmett Reynier. "We had heard some pretty broad claims about the effects of pesticides on health that seemed to be based more on correlations than on causal effects," Emmett Reynier—an author of the paper and a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon, supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—said in a statement.
a mountain in the sunset
The Cascade Mountains Have Been Hiding a Precious Natural Resource. A Research Team Just Found It.
Popular Mechanics covered the recent finding by CAS researchers of water in the Cascade Mountains. “It is a continental-size lake stored in the rocks at the top of the mountains, like a big water tower,” UO’s Leif Karlstrom, a co-author of the study, said.

All media news »

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CAS Connection is produced by the CAS Communications Department and edited by Nicole Krueger.

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