CINEMA STUDIES - It was a cinema studies major’s dream come true: Four CAS undergrads traveled to Los Angeles to work on the set of Professor Ernesto Javier Martínez’s upcoming feature film. From dressing a background set to operating a boom mic in the trunk of a car, they share what it’s really like behind the scenes of a movie. Read more in the January 2025 issue of CAS Connection.

CINEMA STUDIES - Boosted by an award from the Williams Fund, Colin Williamson, an assistant professor, developed the class Hands-On Film History, featuring two in-class workshops led by guest artists who will offer hands-on experiences with historically informed animation art.

EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - Godzilla rampaging through cities or grappling with other monsters is a hallmark of the Japanese monster film series. But there’s more to the reptilian creature than just mayhem. A new book edited by College of Arts and Sciences professor Rachel DiNitto explores Japanese cinema—including the Godzilla films—and environmentalism.

Through fellowships, the Oregon Humanities Center at the University of Oregon works to promote innovative humanities research produced by faculty members at the UO. The fellowships are for tenure-track faculty and are awarded on an annual basis. The 2025-26 fellows include CAS faculty members in the Divisions of Humanities and Social Sciences.

COMICS AND CARTOON STUDIES - The Science and Comics Initiative recently teamed up with the International NeuroAI Conference and hosted a satellite workshop for scholars who were attending the conference at the University of Washington. The Science and Comics Initiative works to make science more accessible for a general audience through the comics format.

THEATRE ARTS – Ever since she stepped on the stage in middle school, University of Oregon alum Jerilyn Armstrong (Theatre Arts, 2017) knew she wanted to be an actor. Her curiosity and eagerness led her to build valuable connections with instructors and explore every opportunity in the Department of Theatre Arts, setting her up to pursue her passion after college.

LINGUISTICS – A group of students in the University of Oregon's Department of Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences spent nine months in 2024 developing a unique set of open educational resources for language learning, available to the public for free. The book is in use in Linguistics 144 Learning How to Learn.

CINEMA STUDIES, MATHEMATICS - Abby Lewis, a fourth-year mathematics and cinema studies major, hopes to address the divide between mathematics vs. arts students in her second children’s book, Moose and the Math Fairy, earlier this year. “Math is in patterns, and it’s all around us in the world," Lewis said.

Higher ed faces big challenges, but Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences Chris Poulsen is ready to meet them with a forward-thinking plan to establish CAS as a leader and innovator. Read how Poulsen views the state of higher education and how a new strategy will work to make the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences a place where students can receive a high-quality liberal arts education while also preparing them for a 21st century work place.

PHILOSOPHY - Camisha Russell, an associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Oregon, has been named a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow  for 2024. Each year, approximately 12 scholars are selected for the prize, and Russell is the UO’s first faculty member to receive this honor.

ROMANCE LANGUAGES - A set of Angolan revolutionary Mário Pinto de Andrade's writings are now available in English thanks to Lanie Millar and Fabienne Moore, both associate professors in the College of Arts and Sciences. The two published a book of Andrade's essays and speeches they translated from French and Portuguese into English so more people could access his writings and gain perspective on such an important time in history.

THEATRE ARTS - When Damon Jones '84 was diagnosed with cancer, he was determined to make some dreams come true. One of those dreams was reviving "The Last Dragon," a stage production he was part of in his last year in the Theatre Department at University of Oregon. Through sheer determination he pulled together the majority of the original cast, and they are staging it live in Portland Aug. 8-10, 2024.

ECONOMICS, GLOBAL STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICAL SCIENCE - Two College of Arts and Sciences students — one attending an immersive Mandarin language study abroad and the other serving on a state of Oregon board on climate change and exploring Peru — are having life-transforming experiences.

GLOBAL STUDIES AND LANGUAGES, LINGUISTICS, SPANISH - U.S. Latinx students studying Spanish while studying abroad can encounter discrimination and condescending attitudes from their instructors. For students who grew up speaking Spanish, known as heritage speakers, this can lead to missed learning opportunities, according to Devin Grammon and Sergio Loza, both assistant professors of Spanish sociolinguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

At the end of June, more than 45 Native American language leaders, teachers and learners gathered on the University of Oregon’s Eugene campus to attend the annual Summer Institute. Presented by the College of Arts and Sciences's Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI), the event featured live, daily workshops for teachers of Indigenous languages. The Summer Institute provides professional development for Native language teachers and an opportunity for peer connection.