Ducks Give is May 14. And We Need Your Help!
Ducks Give is the University of Oregon’s annual 24-hour fundraiser. On Thursday, May 14, your gifts — no matter how small — can support programs that benefit undergraduate and graduate students, including experiential learning and scholarships that are making a real impact to prepare them for careers after college.
Join Ducks from around the world to support current and future students. Let’s rise together on May 14!
Congratulations, Graduating Ducks!
You’ve put in the work and earned the diploma. Now let’s celebrate! On June 15, join your fellow CAS Ducks for this year’s CAS commencement ceremony. Head over to the 2026 CAS Commencement website where you can find ceremony details for each CAS ceremony, logistics and any other answers to all your questions about the big day.
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
All news »
We Love Our Supporters
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
7:30–9:30 p.m.
In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Written with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving, highly theatrical ensemble piece for 9 to 10 actors, who play more than 30 parts—friends, co-workers, lovers, relatives, attorneys, scientists, consumer advocates, and myriad interested bystanders. Called a “powerful” and “engrossing” drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science. Produced by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois. Originally produced by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and developed with a commissioning grant from The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project.
by D. W. Gregory Directed by Willow Jade Norton Zolan
2:00–4:00 p.m.
In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Written with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving, highly theatrical ensemble piece for 9 to 10 actors, who play more than 30 parts—friends, co-workers, lovers, relatives, attorneys, scientists, consumer advocates, and myriad interested bystanders. Called a “powerful” and “engrossing” drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science. Produced by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois. Originally produced by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and developed with a commissioning grant from The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project.
by D. W. Gregory Directed by Willow Jade Norton Zolan
5:00–7:30 p.m.
Meet director Shiori Ito in person on the UO campus! https://www.shioriito.com/en/films
- Woman who sparked Japan’s #MeToo movement
- Peabody Award winner
- Oscar-nominated filmmaker
This event will feature a screening of the widely acclaimed memoir documentary film, Black Box Diaries, followed by an in-person conversation with director Shiori Ito.
Ito is the first Japanese documentary filmmaker to be nominated for an Academy Award. The film chronicles Ito’s investigation and pursuit for justice following a sexual assault she suffered in 2015 as a young journalist. It follows her attempt to prosecute the high-profile offender, a senior figure in the Japanese media. Her challenge to Japan’s patriarchal, judicial, political, and media systems has made this a landmark case of gender-based violence in Japan.
Content warning: This film contains accounts of sexual violence. We encourage viewers to practice self care and take breaks from the film as needed.
The event is sponsored by:
- Yoko McClain Lecture Series in Japanese Studies
- Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
- Oregon Humanities Center Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities
- Center for Asian and Pacific Studies
5:00–6:45 p.m.
Do you want to use your critical thinking skills to make an impact on safety, security, and justice? Investigative careers span a range of roles within public and private agencies, from legal advocacy to data-driven crime analysis and frontline public safety. They share a focus on gathering evidence, analyzing information, and solving cases to protect people and assets. But there are so many types of investigative careers across various jurisdictions, so where do you start?
Join us for a special panel + connect night dedicated to helping YOU get career-ready for your future in investigative careers. Come to either or both events—Learn something new and meet employers and alumni you can add to your network! Both events are open to all majors and academic years. Snacks provided. Casual Dress. No RSVP is required. Bring your friends! ALL students are welcome to participate!
PANEL DISCUSSION: 5:00pm-6:00pm Facilitated by Dr. Stephanie Wiley, Director, Criminology Minor
PANELISTS
- Haley Kotkin, Social Service Specialist I, Oregon Department of Human Services
- Detective Ryan Underwood, Eugene Police Department
- Sergeant Chris Duffitt, Benton County Sheriff's Office
- Elle McCall OR Spencer Gwartney, Lane County District Attorney's Office
- Special Agent Damara Gonzalez, Federal Bureau of Investigations
CONNECT/NETWORKING: 6:00pm-6:45pm
This open networking session allows students to rotate through tables to learn more about your organization and to get advice about how to find career-building opportunities and connections in the field.
CONNECT ORGANIZATIONS - open networking
- Lane County Parole and Probation (Tabitha Rose, Jenalee Nichols, and Brittany Marshall)
- Benton County Sheriff’s Office (Ryan Roth &/or Chris Duffitt)
- Eugene Police Department (Lauren Fechtel-Nusser & Trent Magnuson?)
- Portland Police Bureau (Emily Cote)
- Lane County District Attorney's Office (Elle McCall, Spencer Gwartney, &/or Monte Ludington)
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (Damara Gonzalez & Flo Mackey)
- Multnomah County Department of Community Justice (Travis Gamble)
- Oregon Department of Human Services (Lorenzo Olono &/or Haley Kotkin)
- University of Oregon Police Department (Anthony Button & K9 Thor)