CAS Connection - FEB 2025

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An Education Without Borders

Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages is preparing today’s students to 
go out and serve the world tomorrow.

By Henry Houston

 

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

A man being helped out of an ambulance by two paramedics

Experiential Learning

Students in Cahoots
with CAHOOTS

Data science undergrads use their analytical skills for public good in a research-based course piloted last spring.

By Nicole Krueger 

Professor Kevin Dicus excavating an ancient site

CAS Spotlights

Dumpster Diving in Ancient Rome

An ancient Roman’s trash is treasure to Associate Professor Kevin Dicus, who has spent the past 20 years digging in the ashes of Pompeii.

By Jenny Brooks

Daniel Levitin teaching conducting a lecture

CAS Spotlights

A Brain
on Music

Acclaimed cognitive psychologist and UO alum Daniel Levitin gets people excited about the neuroscience of music.

By Leo Brown

Brian Hubbell

CAS Spotlights

A Road
Less Traveled

After decades in the professional world, this sociology major has finally found his path—and he’s helping other students find theirs.

By Grace Olson and Grace Connolly  

Group of students participating in a hackathon

Experiential Learning

Sprinting Toward Innovation

Student coders put their creativity to the test at QuackHacks, a 24-hour hackathon organized by computer science students.

By Evan Ney

CAS Spotlights

Karen Thompson Walker

Breaking the Rules of Reality

Bestselling author Karen Thompson Walker has found success as a writer—and as a creative writing associate professor—by asking 'what if?'

By Kendall Baldwin 


 

Humanities Take Center Stage

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, make sure you buy your tickets for the University Theatre production of POTUS, which runs Feb. 7-23. 

 


CAS News

BIOLOGY - An expert on child and adolescent development and an expert on host-microbe interactions have each been recognized by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon of the Oregon Health and Science University. Karen Guillemin, professor and Philip H. Knight Chair in biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, received the Discovery Award for her significant contributions to health-related research.
SOCIOLOGY - Fear of deportation among people in the United States without permanent legal status declines with age, according to a study recently published by University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences researcher Isabel Garcia Valdivia. The project is the first to examine how those concerns diminish after age 50 because relationships, families, work and communities change with time.
EARTH SCIENCES - Researchers at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences are joining a new $15 million National Science Foundation center that will unite researchers across the country to understand and prepare for natural hazards like landslides, flooding, debris flows and river erosion. UO researchers will focus on how climate change and shifting storm patterns influence landslides and debris flows.

All news »


From the Media

A new book co-written by a soon-to-be College of Arts and Sciences faculty member explores the political divide that has emerged between rural and urban geographies over the past 30 years. "We are certainly concerned, but we do not think we have reached a point of no return," said co-writer Trevor Brown, a postdoctoral associate at Johns Hopkins University who will join the University of Oregon's Department of Political Science in 2026. "Just as politics helped make the rural-urban divide, political activity can help bridge it."
In the latest episode of Deep Green, created in partnership with Momentum, Avi Rajagopal sits down with University of Oregon physicist Richard Taylor, whose research underpins our understanding of fractal patterns’ impact, and Anastasia and Martin Lesjak of 13&9, who apply this research in their designs—including a new wallcovering collection for Momentum called Renaturation.
Dr. Christopher Hendon, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon and co-author of the book Water for Coffee: Science Story Manual, talks with Serious Eats about coffee. He says that the specific compounds you lose over time depend on the coffee itself, but you're generally losing aromatics (the things that make coffee smell good): "If you like the smell of the coffee when you grind it, that's what you're losing [when you allow it to cool]."

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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