GLOBAL STUDIES - It’s a big world, and decisions that happen in one region often ripple out to others. The School of Global Studies and Languages provides students with an internal atlas that helps them understand the forces and decisions that have human impact.

ENGLISH, WOMEN'S, GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES - From noon to 1:30 pm Monday, Feb. 17, experts will discuss on the works by Octavia E. Butler's work and her legacy, as well as Afrofuturism, and how her literature can inspire us to see new futures and view the past through a new lens. “Octavia E. Butler’s work remains as urgent and essential as ever,” said Kemi Balogun, one of the organizers and an associate professor in CAS.

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.

BIOLOGY - College of Arts and Sciences biology PhD student Heather Dawson and her sister Hillary Dawson and dog Rye are cataloging some of Oregon's truffles, which may be affected by warming temperatures and the increasing magnitude of wildfire season. The team's catalog contains more than 50 genera, or broad categories, of truffles since he began searching in 2020. The sisters’ latest data, published in a 2024 paper in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

All the world’s a stage for CAS students, whether they’re on the screen, in the classroom, in the lab or beyond. Hear from Dean Chris Poulsen about how humanities programs like theatre arts and cinema studies build valuable skills—and how storytelling fosters an understanding of what it means to be human. And if you’re in the Eugene area, buy your tickets for the University Theatre production of POTUS, which runs Feb. 7-23.

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.

THEATRE ARTS – Coming to University Theatre's Hope Theatre in February is "POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive." The all-female feminist satire looks at sex and politics and women working in the confines of the patriarchy.

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.

ECONOMICS - Increased exposure to glyphosate, one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States and much of the world, harms infant health in agricultural counties, according to a new study by two University of Oregon economists Emmett Reynier and Edward Rubin. The two published the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

PHYSICS - Professor Tien-Tien Yu is one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the US government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.

EARTH SCIENCES - Any moment, the "Big One" could hit the Pacific Northwest. It's been more than 300 years since the last 9.0+ Cascadia earthquake. At the University of Oregon, researchers are working from many angles to make sure people across the region are as prepared as possible.

EARTH SCIENCES - Oregon’s Cascade Range mountains might not hold gold, but they store another precious resource in abundance: water. Scientists from the University of Oregon and their partners have mapped the amount of water stored beneath volcanic rocks at the crest of the central Oregon Cascades and found an aquifer many times larger than previously estimated — at least 81 cubic kilometers.

WOMEN'S, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY STUDIES - Isabel Millán, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon, has worked to explore how children’s literature can be used as a tool to introduce different identities to kids at a young age. Millán has recently received numerous award for her 2023 publication Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children’s Literature.

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.