School of Social Sciences Humanities and Arts

Old Friends and Bold Art Inspire UC Merced Professor’s Latest Film

October 30, 2025

They are longtime friends, united by a passion for art and a stubborn determination not to compromise their unconventional styles. Their brushes paint scenes of fieldhands and crops coalescing in blues and reds, of a rural street splashed in watercolor or of shark fins cutting through a beach as a...

Professors Nancy Burke and Whitney Pirtle are the two newest MacArthur Foundation chairs at UC Merced.

Two MacArthur Foundation Chairs Awarded to Female SSHA Faculty

Two female faculty members of UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts (SSHA) have been named the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation chairs, making four prestigious...

Global arts Professor Yehuda Sharim’s 2019 documentary “Songs That Never End” examines the feelings of displacement refugees grapple with upon relocating somewhere new.

Documentary on Refugee Experience to Premiere at UC Merced and Abroad

Global arts Professor Yehuda Sharim’s 2019 documentary “Songs That Never End” will continue to be screened at several international venues over the course of the coming weeks....

Ph.D. student Megha Suswaram was instrumental in assisting the Graduate Division transition its Graduate Orientation Week to an online format.

Grad Services Bolstered to Better Support Students Remotely

UC Merced’s Graduate Division provides many programs throughout the year to ensure students succeed academically, including faculty and peer mentoring programs, free tutoring, and social and...

California deemed agriculture an essential business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning many farm workers have worked during the harvest season under unusual and stressful conditions.

Public Health Professors Study COVID-19 Impact on Rural, Latinx Health

The coronavirus has impacted everyone in different ways and three public health professors are examining specifically how rural, Latinx communities in California have been affected in a new study...

Virtual Summer Academy, Other Sessions, Reached Students Around the Country

Students and faculty worked with a record number of schoolchildren from Merced, the Bay Area and southern California all the way to Washington, D.C., enriching their learning and increasing their...

Statewide Coalition Forming to Bring COVID Awareness to At-Risk Communities

A new coalition of universities and community partners across the state — including UC Merced —aims to address the COVID-19 pandemic in communities that are disproportionally affected...

Political Scientists Study Effects of Affluence in Newest Nature Publication

How does socioeconomic inequality affect people? Seeing expensive items such as cars, which function as signs of social class, can potentially influence people’s political behavior according...

UC Merced Interdisciplinary Humanities graduate students and faculty will have the benefit of two additional years of funding from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Scholarship and Community Partnerships Continue with Renewed Luce Foundation Grant

It has been two years since UC Merced received the $280,000 Henry Luce Foundation grant, but its community engaged research endeavors are far from over. This fall, UC Merced Interdisciplinary...

Founding UC Merced Faculty Member Appointed to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has announced that UC Merced Art History Professor ShiPu Wang has joined the museum’s Board of Commissioners for a four-year term. His appointment...