School of Social Sciences Humanities and Arts

Writer-in-Residence Mark Arax Chronicles California's Lifeblood: Water

September 18, 2025

UC Merced has debuted a writer-in-residence program with one of California’s premier chroniclers of its history, especially the titanic power plays for land and water that have shaped the state’s growth and loom over its future. Mark Arax, a Fresno native, author and former Los...

UC Merced CAPE Legislative Fellows Sacramento interns Rep. Adam Gray

UC Merced's CAPE Takes Extraordinary Steps to Prepare Legislative Interns

Mariel Garcia accepted a welcoming handshake from the chief of staff for state Sen. Tim Grayson. A large photograph of rolling hills at sunset near Walnut Creek, a city in Grayson’s district,...

UC Merced Graduates Encouraged to Embrace Every Moment

With cheers, hugs and leis, more than 1,500 UC Merced graduates received a celebratory sendoff to their bright futures as a prominent keynote speaker told them to make the most of the here and now...

UC Merced Alumna’s Legal Career Soars in Silicon Valley

Temnee Wright (’08) has realized a successful career as legal counsel at several Silicon Valley companies. Her interest in law was forged at UC Merced, where she made the most out of being a...

Sociology Graduate Program Debuts Strongly in U.S. News Rankings

Only 10 years after it began, the Ph.D. program in UC Merced’s Department of Sociology made an impressive debut in U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings of graduate-level...

Sociology Ph.D. Student Examines Why Workers Protest in El Salvador

UC Merced Sociology graduate student Luis Rubén González Márquez has a new first-authored article titled “The Glocal Foundations of Threat-Driven Labor Resistance to Authoritarian Capitalism,...

uc merced behavioral health dept interms

Students Get Real-world Education with Behavioral Health Internships

UC Merced students are getting first-hand experience in providing mental health care to the most vulnerable and needful among us, thanks to a partnership between the university and Merced County....

UC Merced political science mock legislative hearing

Social Sciences Graduate Programs Shine in U.S. News Rankings

UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts made a splash in the latest rankings of university graduate programs compiled by U.S. News and World Report. The university...

Two female standing in front of a poster

Center Engages Campus, Community with Africa and its Diaspora

This story is part of a series for Black History Month. Read more stories highlighting Black excellence at UC Merced. The brutal deaths of African Americans George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and others...

A fluorescence microscope image of one kind of active matter being studied. Image courtesy of Amanda Tan, UC Merced

UC Awards Support Tackling Big Questions in Health, Physics, Agriculture and Climate

Faculty members at UC Merced are taking the lead on four Multicampus Research Program Initiatives (MRPI), working with colleagues around the University of California system to address challenges...