COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, SPANISH - Leah Middlebrook, associate professor of comparative literature and Spanish for the College of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed as the new director of the Oregon Humanities Center. Her new position starts July 1, 2024. Middlebrook brings a rich humanities background to the position and she said the position is an honor she takes seriously.

LINGUISTICS - A historian and a linguist have received National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) awards, a prestigious honor that goes to only 16% of applicants in a given year. The grants were awarded to Gabriela Pérez Báez, associate professor of linguistics and director of the Language Revitalization Lab, and Arafaat Valiani, an associate professor in the Department of History and affiliated faculty in the Global Health program.

FOLKLORE AND PUBLIC CULTURE - Nearly 50 years after his death, Steve Prefontaine still motivates Eugene and University of Oregon runners to honor him. Professor Daniel Wojcik remembers running with the iconic runner in the May-June issue of CAS Connection.

LINGUISTICS - Language awakening is part of an ongoing effort to help Indigenous communities revitalize their languages and cultures after long periods of forced dormancy and even when no one is alive who speaks the language. While Indigenous tribes have been doing this work for decades, a growing movement within the field of linguistics aims to assist with these efforts. Read more in the May-June issue of CAS Connection.

ENGLISH, PHILOSOPHY - Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, public awareness of artificial intelligence has exploded, accelerating the technology’s inevitable creep into everyday life. In the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, where AI has made its way into both classrooms and research labs, faculty members are grappling with its impact on student learning even as they explore its vast potential in their research.

PORTUGUESE - Senior Instructor Bene Santos is one of three winners of the Tykeson Teaching Award, an annual prize given to one outstanding faculty member in each division of the College of Arts and Sciences who goes above and beyond in the classroom.

CINEMA STUDIES - Dive into the art of producing with a hands-on immersive experience through the University of Oregon’s “The Art of Producing” Visiting Filmmaker Series 2024. Hear firsthand from the producer who brought “The Last of Us” to the screen, explore the craft of horror cinema and learn about a variety of possible careers in the film industry.

ENGLISH - After a long career centered around a fascination for 19th-century American literature, William (Bill) Rossi will soon receive a prestigious honor: the Thoreau Society Medal. As a diligent professor emeritus of English, Rossi’s dedication to understanding the works of Henry David Thoreau has left a mark on literary scholarship and the University of Oregon.

GERMAN AND SCANDINAVIAN - The term "heimat," which loosely translates to home or homeland, is tied to ideals of unity and identity in one’s homeland. It’s also tied to controversial ideas such as colonialism and genocide. The 13th special issue of “Konturen" is devoted to a critical reassessment of this word and its meanings.

RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES - Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies faculty member Jenifer Presto recently presented at an Arts Unplugged event at Cornell University on "Nabokov, Naturally." The event, which brought together artists, humanists and natural scientists, explored “Lolita” author Vladimir Nabokov's legacy as a writer and a lepidopterist.

PHILOSOPHY - Cintia Martínez Velasco, an assistant professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, appears on an episode of UO Today, a production by the Oregon Humanities Center. Her research and teaching interests include feminist philosophy, gender theory, decolonial philosophy, and critical theory in Latin America.

CINEMA STUDIES, THEATRE ARTS - Built in the late 1800s, University and Villard halls haven't been state-of-the-art in a long time. But $68 million interior and exterior construction work is bringing new life to the two iconic University of Oregon buildings, which will host new facilities for the cinema studies and theatre arts departments.

ENGLISH, THEATRE ARTS - Alumna and Tony-nominated playwright Heidi Schreck (English, theatre arts, '09) is collaborating with director Lila Neugebauer to stage a production of Uncle Vanya at the Lincoln Center Theatre in April. The play, originally written in 1897, will star Steve Carell and Alison Pill.

THEATRE ARTS - Costumes are an essential element in transporting audiences to a whole new world. The Department of Theater Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences provides experiential learning opportunities for students, teaching them industry standards in costuming, to prepare them for internships and careers in the theatre world. Go inside the Costume Shop with Annika McNair as she and her colleagues prepared for Antigone.

PHILOSOPHY - With violence against women on the rise in many Latin American countries, a UO philosophy professor is working to make feminine genocide a recognized crime throughout Mexico. Recently, she urged Mexican consulates around the world to help eliminate violence against women and girls by recognizing and enforcing femigenocidio as a federal crime.