School of Social Sciences Humanities and Arts

First-generation Students Shine at UC Merced. This Week Celebrates Them

November 3, 2025

UC Merced Professor Rose Scott, student Narciso Martinez Solorio

More than six in 10 UC Merced undergraduates are the first in their families to attend a university. The national average for four-year universities is about two in 10. Opening doors to opportunity for first-generation students is infused into UC Merced’s DNA. Young people who had little...

Bodie Digital Preservation Project Earns CITRIS Grant

UC Merced Professor Nicola Lercari is leading an effort to preserve, through 3-D renderings, the deteriorating ghost town of Bodie. Thanks to $60,000 in seed funding from the Center for Information...

Symposium Features Faculty Research on the ‘Developing Child’

UC Merced will host its third annual Symposium on the Child and Family on April 30, offering hours of talks by researchers on the theme of “The Developing Child in a Developing World.” The symposium...

For GradSLAM Champion, Research Is Personal

Arturo Durazo, winner of this year’s UC Merced GradSLAM! competition, has a personal connection to his research. The fifth-year Ph.D. candidate studies the psychological effects of debilitating...

Bobcat Day Brings Admitted Students to Campus

Students from across California and their family members will converge on the UC Merced campus April 16 for Bobcat Day. The day is an opportunity for admitted students to visit campus, and talk with...

Sociologist Shows Human Side of Deportation in New Book

A single mother in Guatemala works at a factory owned by a U.S. company, but doesn’t make enough money to support her family. She immigrates to the U.S. and finds a low-paying job with no benefits...

Ancient Textile Discovery Suggests More Southern Route for Silk Road

Cloth remains found in the Samdzong tomb complex in Nepal by UC Merced Professor Mark Aldenderfer suggest the village might have been part of the long-distance trade network of the Silk Road. Textile...

New Lecture Series Draws Distinguished Maya Scholars

UC Merced Professor Arturo Arias, recently named one of the campus’s first John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chairs, has established a new lecture series to further critical race issues and ethnic...

Study: In-Home Parent Training Levels Field for Low-Income Kids

Home-based interventions that teach parents to engage children in playful interactive learning activities can close the cognitive development gap between disadvantaged children and higher-resource...

Message From the Provost and EVC on Professor William Shadish

To the campus community: I am sad to report that William Shadish, professor of quantitative psychology and a founding faculty member at UC Merced, died at his home on Sunday, March 27. Professor...