Humanities News

ROMANCE LANGUAGES — Terence McCulley ’79 (French, history) is a decorated former U.S. ambassador whose dynamic 41-year career in Africa began with an interest in the French language. When asked about his choice of majors and careers, he said he “felt a call” to learn a foreign language all the way back in grade school and eventually developed a love of French and France’s literature and history.

THEATRE ARTS — In a season of productions that each promise to examine what happens when things go wrong, the first production in the 2026-2027 University Theatre season is a classic comedic play where everything goes wrong. “Noises Off” is filled with innuendo, comic misunderstandings, physical humor and characters running around on stage in their underwear. It is often called “the funniest farce ever written.”

LINGUISTICS — The annual sponsored research report highlights research projects across disciplines, from the Oregon Coast to Papua New Guinea. Featured projects in this year's report include a linguistics project studying how a specific set of language patterns arise, how people learn them and why they persist over time as well as a project capturing an endangered and undocumented language in Papua New Guinea.