SPANISH – Cissy Jones, BA ’02 (business administration, Spanish), is an award-winning voice actor and a fierce advocate of protection for voice actors in the wake of generative AI. In March 2024, she became the CEO of ETHOVOX, a company she co-founded to develop an ethical AI voiceover dataset that collaborates with artists and ensures fair compensation.

LINGUISTICS - We’re entering a new phase in the digital revolution, one in which scientists are stretching the capabilities of digital technologies to solve some of society’s largest and most complex problems. Read more in the Annual Research Report, out now.

COMPUTER SCIENCE, EARTH SCIENCE, GEOGRAPHY - The world can be hazardous: seismic activity that shakes the earth, rising sea levels and volcanic eruptions that reshape the landscape. Meet some of the CAS scientists who are studying the most powerful forces that threaten humanity.

ENGLISH, WOMEN'S, GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES - From noon to 1:30 pm Monday, Feb. 17, experts will discuss on the works by Octavia E. Butler's work and her legacy, as well as Afrofuturism, and how her literature can inspire us to see new futures and view the past through a new lens. “Octavia E. Butler’s work remains as urgent and essential as ever,” said Kemi Balogun, one of the organizers and an associate professor in CAS.

CLASSICS - After more than two decades of digging in the volcanic ash covering the ancient city, associate professor of classics Kevin Dicus in the College of Arts and Sciences plans to delve into a mound of dirt he hopes is covering Roman garbage so he can study how the residents used it. Between digs, Dicus teaches Latin, mythology, classical archaeology, Roman architecture and Pompeii in the University of Oregon Classics department.

CREATIVE WRITING - Bestselling author and CAS faculty member Karen Thompson Walker has found success as a writer—and as a creative writing associate professor—by asking "what if?." She also incorporates it into her classroom, where her primary teaching focus is on fiction with a catastrophic or fantastical element.