CAS Connection - Nov 2025

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Research report feature story

Celebrate Research Progress

Researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences secured $83 million in sponsored grants to fund 199 research projects across the three divisions: Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. This year’s annual report provides a glimpse into the curious minds of researchers and their work.

Explore CAS Research

Experiential Learning  |  Research & Innovation  |  Community Impact  |  Career Preparation  |  Teaching Excellence  |  21st Century Liberal Arts  |  Building Community  |  Good Vibes  |  CAS Spotlights  |  All Stories  |  Past Issues
 

Eric Torrence, physics professor

Research & Innovation

Professor is cracking the cosmos

Eric Torrence, physics professor, will spend 18 months monitoring the mysteries of our universe.

By Leo Brown

Pop-culture trends like Labubus become a global phenomenon

Good Vibes

What is behind the Labubu craze?

Professor Alisa Freedman explains how pop-culture trends like Labubus become a global phenomenon.

By Laurel Hamers

cinema studies student, Elle Thompson, internship story

Experiential Learning

Student casts her future

This cinema studies student thought she wanted to go into casting, so she found an internship to confirm it.

By Harper Wells

Assistant Professor Yu Wang's (right) research involves using machine learning to model enormous sets of data to link data

CAS Spotlights

Professor links the world’s data

Yu Wang’s research moves us toward a world where accurate information for every problem is easily found.

By Evan Ney


CAS Spotlight

Alum’s joy fuels her career

For political science alum Sara Koski, breaking from the expected path after graduation helped her discover what she really wanted to do: help people feel seen and heard, and to make real change in the unhoused community.

By Grace Connolly

Meet Alum Sarah Koski

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

CAS News

EARTH SCIENCES - CRESCENT wrapped up its first-ever cohort for the Geoscience Education and Inclusion (GEI) Twinning Program. Students worked with mentors on fully funded research projects, developing practical skills and presenting their findings to fellow scientists. The program manager, Shannon Fasola, said it offered a unique opportunity because students could focus on research without having to worry about finances.
SOCIOLOGY - As part of the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History summer field school, the students are spending a month immersed in Indigenous cultural landscapes while studying archaeology, history and ecology and, at the same time, helping restore oyster beds. They’re learning vital career skills while helping usher in a new era of archaeology with Gabe Sanchez, a CAS assistant professor of sociology.
PSYCHOLOGY - A new study led by researchers at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with Google Research found little evidence linking smartphone use with mental well-being in adults. Researchers analyzed more than 250,000 days of smartphone usage from more than 10,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and up.

All news »


From the Media

The first protein shake was a concoction of "melted-down beef hides and carcasses." Now, consumers have various options, some that could be on a dessert menu. Hannah Cutting-Jones, a food studies assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages, spoke with The Guardian about the earliest protein shakes.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a who's who of the Silver Screen, stretching over 18 blocks in Los Angeles. But the city also boasts another walk of fame that highlights stars from the adult film industry. SF Gate spoke with Peter Alilunas, associate professor of cinema studies at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences. “You get this moment where adult films start to have premieres, and they start to have publicity, and they start to take themselves seriously,” Alilunas says. “And so they start to form themselves into an industry in the sense of all the trappings that go with that,” he adds, including critics’ associations, award shows. And walks of fame."
Landslides in Oregon are becoming more frequent and more unpredictable than earthquakes. CAS Earth scientist Josh Roering spoke with the Eugene Register-Guard about the past few decades of landslides. "Over the last couple decades, the landslides and the surface processes and surface hazards that I've been working on have become much more prominent, primarily due to climate change and humans inhabiting more areas in hazardous terrain," said Josh Roering, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Oregon who studies weathering, erosion and landslide processes.

All media news »

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