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
Anthropology Department Presents: “Geophysical Surveys of Southern Pacific Northwest Coast Plankhouses"
noonOct
21
noon
Please join the Department of Anthropology and Gabriel M. Sanchez for the Colloquium Series talk: "Geophysical Surveys of Southern Pacific Northwest Coast Plankhouses."
Geophysical and remote sensing surveys of Pacific Northwest Coast plankhouses, sweathouses, and other architectural features have been a growing component of Pacific Northwest Coast archaeological studies. Most of these studies have focused on coastal plankhouses with associated shell middens, especially in British Columbia. Limited geophysical examples exist of Pacific Northwest Coast architectural features from the southern region, including Northern California and Oregon, especially in riverine settings.
In this study, we integrate ground penetrating radar and magnetic gradiometry to document subsurface features in collaboration with the Tsnungwe Council. Our findings, based on our interpretations of the observed data, document subsurface features ranging from ~2 m wide pits to large rectangular plankhouses ~6 m wide and 12 m in length. These houses contain central subterranean pits, which contain a hearth, that are ~5 m wide. Our findings support the interpretation of a large multicomponent village site with several plankhouses present, providing a unique example of southern Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous architecture.
Sanchez is an Indigenous Anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and affiliated faculty in Latinx and Native American and Indigenous Studies. Gabriel completed his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2019. From 2019-2021, he was part of the inaugural cohort College of Social Science Dean’s Research Associate (postdoc) Program at Michigan State University, which aims to promote inclusive excellence in the academy. From 2021-2022, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State, before joining the UO. Currently, he is the director of the Coastal Archaeology, Ancient Proteomics, and Zooarchaeology laboratories. He also directs the Collaborative Archaeology Field School. Sanchez currently participates in a collaborative and community-based participatory research projects in California and Oregon with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the Tsnungwe Council, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
How to: Interviewing (Workshop)
12:30 p.m.Oct
21
12:30–1:15 p.m.
Ever walk out of an interview thinking, “Wait… what did I even just say?” Yep, we’ve all been there. Join us for just 45 minutes and learn how to dodge that post-interview panic.
We’ll break down the different types of interviews you might face, how to prep without spiraling, and how to answer questions with confidence.
Interviews make you sweaty, anxious, or just a little dramatic? Perfect. We’ve got strategies to help you feel prepared and way more chill.
International students: get the inside scoop on U.S.-style interviews. No prior experience needed!
Come hang out in person at the University Career Center, Tykeson Hall, Garden Level 50P.
This workshop is hosted by the University Career Center's Career Readiness Coaching team! To learn more about career coaching, drop-in peer advising, and other career readiness workshops and events visit career.uoregon.edu/coaching or stop by the UCC in Tykeson Hall-Garden Level
The University Career Center gives a special thanks to Enterprise Mobility for sponsoring all of our Fall Career Readiness Week events and workshops!
To learn more about all of the week's events visit http://career.uoregon.edu/events
Iran Beyond the Headlines: Revolutionary Politics, Foreign Relations, and Prospects for Peace/Day 1
8:30 a.m.Oct
22
8:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m.
Day 1:
Since February the US has been at war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, yet Americans know little about that country. This interdisciplinary conference hopes to demystify Iran by examining two central questions: How has the Islamic Republic gotten to where it is now--a regime facing significant domestic challenges while simultaneously exercising substantial influence abroad? And, what might the future hold for Iran, the broader Middle East, and the US in the coming years? By more deeply looking into Iran with the goal of placing recent events within their respective historical, social, and comparative contexts, we hope to offer a better understanding of the current situation and its future prospects.
The conference is open and free to the public.
This event is part of International Education Month (IEM) programming. View the full calendar of IEM events here: https://international.uoregon.edu/IEM.
HSI Symposium: Building a Latinx-Thriving University
9:00 a.m.Oct
22
9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Join the University of Oregon for the HSI Symposium: Building a Latinx-Thriving University. This two-day gathering brings campus and community together to explore how UO can strengthen support, deepen belonging, and expand opportunities for current and prospective Latiné students.
As UO explores its pathway toward becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), the symposium will build on the scholarship, student leadership, cultural initiatives, and community partnerships already shaping the university. Participants will learn from research and lived experiences and develop ideas to help shape what comes next.
Thursday, October 22 | 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Day One features a keynote address by Marcela Cuellar and panels on the HSI landscape, academic success, Latiné research, and community and belonging. Thursday offers flexible, drop-in participation—attend all or part of the program when it works best for your schedule. Join us afterward for a 5 p.m. reception with acoustic music by Ricardo Cárdenas and refreshments and bites from Sheild Catering.
Friday, October 23 | 9 a.m.–2 p.m. Facilitated by Abigail Leeder, Day Two is a collaborative planning workshop focused on recruitment and enrollment, retention and graduation, research, and culture building. Participants will identify priorities and develop initial action plans, including practical steps that could begin soon and longer-term strategies.
Day Two has limited capacity, requires organizer confirmation, and asks participants to commit to the full session from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. To express interest, email cllas@uoregon.edu with a brief description of the perspectives, experiences, or ideas you hope to contribute.
We especially welcome campus and community members with lived experience as Latiné college students, as well as those who work closely with current and prospective Latiné college students, youth, and their families and can speak to their experiences, needs, and aspirations.
Free to attend. Complimentary coffee and tea will be served in the mornings, and lunch will be provided both days.