Neuroscience Undergrad Receives Prestigious Award
Valerie Owusu-Hienno, a third-year College of Arts and Sciences student who aspires to be a physician, researcher, and global health advocate, has been named a Goldwater Scholar. It's a nationally prestigious award for undergraduates conducting research in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
Owusu-Hienno has been conducting research since her first year at the University of Oregon. As a pre-med student, she knew that undergraduate research was something valued by medical schools. Her current research project examines how best to supplement thiamine (Vitamin B1) to mothers in Cambodia to reduce infant mortality from beriberi and to protect infants’ neuro-cognitive development. The research, mentored by psychology professor Dare Baldwin, is in support of her thesis Clark Honors College honors thesis and the McNair Scholars Program.
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What’s Happening in CAS?
The urgency of climate change can’t be overstated. The Earth’s ten hottest years on record have occurred in the last decade, and 2024 has been the very hottest. This is leading to devastating and costly consequences. This month is a special issue that looks at how students are dealing with one of the bleakest futures of any generation and how CAS researchers are addressing climate change.
Find out how researchers in CAS are calculating the cost of climate change for Oregon households, chemists developing sustainable technologies, using economics to inform policymaking—and more.
Undergraduate Studies
Wherever your academic goals eventually take you at the UO, all Ducks begin their journey with foundational courses in CAS. More than 60 percent of students go on to pursue a major in a CAS department or program. With more than 50 departments and programs, there’s an intellectual home for almost any interest, talent, or career aspiration.
Graduate Studies
The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 30 master's programs and more than 20 doctoral programs across a diverse range of disciplines. Both as contributors to research teams and through their own scholarship and teaching, our CAS graduate students are indispensable to the vitality of the UO academic mission.
Student Support Services
We provide our students with a variety of resources to help you thrive inside and outside the classroom. Through Tykeson Advising, we provide comprehensive academic and career advising from the start of your journey at the University of Oregon. Learn about career preparation and get assistance in selecting the very best classes. Connect with labs, libraries, IT and tutoring. Find your community on campus.
World-Class Faculty
The College of Arts and Sciences faculty members are a driving force of the high-output, high-impact research activity that has earned the UO membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). Our world-class faculty members are inspiring teachers.
Among them are five members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, four members of the National Academy of Sciences. They are committed to helping students discover their academic passion. Every day, they work to expand students’ intellectual horizons, preparing them for life after college with real-world knowledge and skills.
Meet our Dean
In the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), we are committed to excellence in research and teaching, student success, and diversity, equity, and belonging.
A liberal arts education—one that offers a breadth of intellectual approaches and perspectives and depth in a major discipline—is the foundation to a purposeful life as a life-long learner, engaged citizen, and leader. The skills you will learn here—from written and verbal communication to analytical and quantitative reasoning, to compassion and understanding—are those that employers seek and will open the door to a wealth of opportunities.
You will find more than 50 majors and a multitude of minors within CAS, and seemingly endless opportunities for personal exploration and discovery. Whether you are an incoming first-year student, a grad student or a transfer student, you can map an exciting future and be part of a fun, warm, engaged liberal arts community here. Come join us. And go Ducks!
The College of Arts and Sciences includes:
Happening at CAS
10:00 a.m.
Please join us Tuesday mornings for a free cup of coffee, pastries, and conversation with your history department community! We’re excited to continue this tradition for our history undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff. We hope to see you there!
4:00–5:30 p.m.
Join Ms. Ilana Sol, documentary filmmaker and archival producer, for a special screening of her film Samurai in the Oregon Sky.
Following the screening, Ms. Sol will discuss the inspiration behind the film, the research process, and the stories uncovered along the way. She will also take questions from the audience.
Samurai in the Oregon Sky is a compassionate and engaging film that tells the story of Fujita Nobuo, the only Japanese pilot to bomb the US mainland during World War II, and the connections he formed with Brookings, Oregon, the site of his attack.
11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Want to learn more about graduate school or different types of part-time/full-time jobs, internships, volunteer opportunities, and careers in the health professions? The Health Grad & Career Expo is your chance to get curious about your present and future in healthcare! This expo is a mix of graduate schools, health-related businesses, non-profits, and government agencies excited to share more with you about their organization/program and early career talent and educational opportunities. Great for students exploring career paths as well as students ready to start applying for the year ahead.
Register on Handshake today to learn about all the schools and organizations coming, positions of interest, and get tips and advice for how to make the most of the expo.
For more information, visit the Unviersity Career Center in Tykeson-Garden Level to learn more about how the UCC supports students applying to grad school through career coaching and document reviews! Also check out our NEW online career exploration resources around Health & Scientific Discovery!
4:00 p.m.
This lecture will examine narrative constructions used in contemporary German and African literature to frame intercultural awareness by promoting an openness to pluralism and respect for differences. It will critically analyze how authors respond to issues of power dynamics and cultural impacts stemming from colonial history. In the first step of the argumentation, I will explore the concept of aesthetics or Poetizität’ as explained by Aimé Césaire, Georg Lukács, Paul Ricoeur and Umberto Eco. Then, I will analyze how literary texts deconstruct colonial strategies of power, construct hybrid identities by discussing notions of home or belonging, and frame a politics of similarity that engages reciprocity, transfer processes between North and South. I will argue that one of the specific relevance of this intercultural texts is to let the reader gain an aesthetic experience (ästhetische Erfahrung) and a shared history between human beings.