The departments and programs of the Humanities Division are committed to the study of human meaning as it is expressed in diverse languages, explained in diverse literatures, and reflected upon from diverse philosophical and religious perspectives. Students seek to understand the values and purposes that make practices and systems worthwhile. In an increasingly interconnected world, the ability to critically consider how individuals and communities make sense of their world is an essential skill. Explore majors, minors, concentrations, and academic programs in the humanities.
Arabic Studies
Chinese
Cinema Studies
Classical Civilization
Classics
Comparative Literature
Creative Writing
Comics and Cartoon Studies
Digital Humanities
Disability Studies
English
Environmental Humanities
Ethics
News from Humanities
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Gifts to the College of Arts and Sciences can help our students make the most of their college careers. To do this, CAS needs your support. Your contributions help us ensure that teaching, research, advising, mentoring, and support services are fully available to every student. Thank you!
World-Class Faculty in the Humanities
Stephen Shoemaker
Professor of Religious Studies
Stephen Shoemaker teaches courses about Christian traditions and is a prolific contributor to research related to ancient and early medieval Christian traditions in early Byzantine and Near Eastern Christianity.
Shoemaker has received research fellowships over the years and received two in 2024 to complete the translation of the earliest surviving Christian hymnal from sixth-century Jerusalem, which is in Old Georgian. The fellowships include one from the National Endowment for the Humanities for 2024–2025 and a Senior Fellowship funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation).
He recently published The Quest of the Historical Muhammad and Other Studies on Formative Islam (2024) and is the co-author of The Capture of Jerusalem by the Persians in 614 CE (2024).
Stacy Alaimo
Professor of English
Stacey Alaimo’s research explores the intersections between literary, artistic, political, and philosophical approaches to environmentalism. She has published three books and more than 60 scholarly articles, on such topics as toxins, gender and climate change, environmental justice, queer animals, Anthropocene feminisms, marine science studies, the blue humanities, and new materialist theory.
Her concept of trans-corporeality has been widely taken up in the arts, humanities and sciences. She has been interviewed many times in print and podcasts. Her work has been translated into at least 12 languages and has inspired several art exhibitions.
Her fourth book, The Abyss Stares Back: Encounters with Deep Sea Life (2025), explores the science and aesthetics of deep-sea creatures since the 1930s. Alaimo currently serves as the English department’s director of graduate studies and is a core faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program.
Lowell Bowditch
Professor of Classics
Lowell Bowditch is the head of the Department of Classics. Her research explores the interface between the literature and socio-political relations of Augustan Rome.
Her newest project addresses issues of free speech and censorship in the early imperial age. She explores this through the work of Ovid in the context of the growing authoritarianism of the Augustan regime, with the planned book to draw comparisons with the contemporary political landscape.
Her previous work focused on love elegy and Roman imperialism from postcolonial perspectives. Along with multiple articles and research papers, she is the author of two books and a commentary, including the most recent, Roman Love Elegy and the Eros of Empire (London and New York 2023).
Bowditch came to the UO in 1993 and particularly enjoys mentoring classics undergraduates and master’s students.
Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages
At the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages (SGSL), UO students engage with diverse cultures, languages, histories, and lifeways across the world. Students of the humanities, from Cinema Studies to Religious Studies, will broaden and deepen their education in their field by viewing it—and experiencing it—through a global lens. GSL prepares our graduates for life after college with an interdisciplinary curriculum, innovative language teaching, abundant learning opportunities outside the classroom, and paths of study that lead to many options for real-world careers.
Research in the Humanities
Inquiry in humanities fields centers around our collective human experience. Our stories are told in many forms, be it a script, a screenplay, a religious text, in literature or in folktales. Researchers in the humanities employ tools of analysis to explore the long history and rapidly changing landscape of ideas, values and beliefs that coalesce in a different sort of knowledge about reality and human life.
2024-2025 Sponsored Research in Humanities
Between July 2024 and June 2025, researchers in CAS received $83 million to fund 199 research projects, including $1.5 million for Humanities. The research projects, which span divisions and fields of study, represent CAS's commitment to curiosity, discovery, and innovation.
Explore Other Majors and Minors in the College of Arts and Sciences
Meet our Dean
Welcome to the humanities!
With the human condition as our starting point, and an orientation spanning the past, present, and far into the future, the humanities at the University of Oregon address society’s core human questions of meaning, making, communication, and understanding.
In the College of Arts and Sciences, humanities span disciplinary fields, such as literature and languages, folklore, theatre and cinema, philosophy, classics, and religious studies. Our faculty teach students key humanistic skills such as writing, critical analysis, logical reasoning, translation, and expression. Our programs emphasize the liberal arts through engaged student learning, and our students are trained by the UO’s world-class research faculty to be resilient thinkers, capable of bringing their humanistic insights to bear on a transforming world.
Like any other time of rapid change, whether the Industrial Revolution or the technological revolution, thinkers of the human condition reflect and analyze human experiences and make it possible to share them. Through its many disciplines, the humanities inspire communication, uniting diverse communities in a common path, helping us address some of our most pressing human concerns.
We hope you will explore the humanities at the UO.
Erica Bornstein
Divisional Associate Dean, Humanities
Happening at CAS
April 6 through 10 is Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week, and we're celebrating the UO's graduate and law students with events, activities, and giveaways. See what's happening below, and check out our Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week webpage for more details.
All Week
- Free professional headshots (hosted by the Division of Graduate Studies)
- Prize wheel for COE graduate students (hosted by the College of Education, HEDCO's Student Academic Services Office)
- Free coffee for SOMD students (hosted by the School of Music and Dance)
Monday, April 6
- 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. Free refreshments for all graduate and law students (hosted by the Division of Graduate Studies, Graduate Student Lounge, Susan Campbell Hall 111)
- Noon - 12:45 p.m. Free Pilates-yoga class for graduate students (hosted by PE and Rec, Woodruff Gymnasium, 220 Gerlinger Hall) - Register in advance
Tuesday, April 7
- 8:30 - 10 a.m. Knight Campus and collaborating departments and institutes coffee and treats (hosted by the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Impact, First Floor Forum, Knight Campus Building 2)
- Morning. Coffee and hot chocolate for law students (hosted by the School of Law)
Wednesday, April 8
- Morning. Doughnuts for Ducks for COE graduate students (hosted by the College of Education, HEDCO Courtyard)
- Noon - 12:45 p.m. Free Pilates-yoga class for graduate students (hosted by PE and Rec, Woodruff Gymnasium, 220 Gerlinger Hall) - Register in advance
- Noon - 1:00 p.m. College of Design graduate student showcase and social (hosted by the College of Design, Hayden Gallery)
- 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Free button-making table for all graduate and law students (hosted by the Craft Center and the Division of Graduate Studies, Graduate Student Lounge, Susan Campbell Hall 111)
Thursday, April 9
- 9 - 11 a.m. Free coffee and pastries for all graduate and law students (hosted by the Knight Library, GradSpace, Knight Library 148)
- 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. Free button-making table, plant giveaway, and refreshments for all graduate and law students (hosted by the Division of Graduate Studies, Graduate Student Lounge, Susan Campbell Hall 111)
- 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. Reception for CAS graduate students (hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, Tykeson Hall)
Friday, April 10
- UO Summit for Sustainable Organizations. Ten free tickets available for graduate and law students (email summit.so@uoregon.edu to request your free ticket)
- 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Free coffee if you wear your UO Ducks gear (hosted by Duck Store, Flagship Campus Location in Eugene)
- Noon - 2:00 p.m. Free rock painting with the Craft Center (hosted by the Craft Center, Erb Memorial Union, Oregon Plaza by the O Desk)
- 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Grad student networking: Like to mingle? Let’s play bingo! (hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, Willamette Hall Atrium) - RSVP by April 6
Saturday, April 11
- UO Summit for Sustainable Organizations. Ten free tickets available for graduate and law students (email summit.so@uoregon.edu to request your free ticket)
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Commencement is on its way, and The Duck Store has what you need to celebrate your achievement. From your cap & gown, stoles of all kinds, graduation announcements to send to family & friends, class rings, diploma frames and more, you'll find everything to get you set for commencement day.
Join us for Grad Fair between April 6–April 8 at the Flagship Campus Duck Store.
3:00–4:00 p.m.
Join fellow postdocs from across campus at a University of Oregon Postdoc Association (UOPA) networking and professional development planning meeting. This is a great opportunity to meet and connect with colleagues from different departments, build your campus network, and brainstorm ways UOPA can improve your time as a postdoc. Light refreshments will be served.
5:00–6:30 p.m.
Comparative Literature graduate students Mus'ab Abdul-Salam, Mariam Nadeem and Untara Rayeesa will present on their research in progress.
Presented by the Comparative Literature Department and the Comparative Literature Graduate Student Association.