PHILOSOPHY - Camisha Russell, an associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Oregon, has been named a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow  for 2024. Each year, approximately 12 scholars are selected for the prize, and Russell is the UO’s first faculty member to receive this honor.

THEATRE ARTS - Jeanette deJong, associate professor of costume design, history and technology in the College of Arts and Sciences, brings decades of experience to the theatre arts. Whether leading a lecture or writing a book, deJong draws from her professional journey and offers methods and techniques that have been honed over the years.

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.

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.

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.

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.