School of Social Sciences Humanities and Arts

Ripon Student Turning Heart and Heritage into a Path of Healing

March 19, 2026

As a child of the Central Valley and a member of a Native tribe, Grace Grinder developed an early awareness of health care disparities affecting rural regions and underserved communities. While in third grade, Grinder lost her grandmother to what she described as too few physicians nearby to...

Student-run Journal Showcases Historical Essays, Reviews

Most UC Merced students have the desire to help shape the university — whether it’s the culture or the curriculum. Rocco Bowman was no different. Bowman is the co-founder of the Undergraduate...

Sociology a Lens That Focuses World's Events

Sociology at UC Merced is a prism that offers insight and perspective into what's happening in the world. Trying to understand how people mobilize under democracies or military dictatorships? Ask...

Study Looks at Emotion's Role in Chemotherapy Tolerance

How patients perceive and talk about their illnesses can have an impact on how they recover and heal, according to a growing area of health research being furthered by UC Merced health psychology...

Slain Civil Rights Activist to Receive Spendlove Prize

Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a civil rights activist who was killed by the Ku Klux Klan while driving another activist home from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in March 1965, has been named the...

New Faculty Members Expand, Strengthen Research

UC Merced has hired 34 faculty members for the 2014-15 academic year, giving the campus 212 tenure-track professors who expand the depth and breadth of research expertise. Excluding student employees...

Students Expand Build Skills in New Souza Leadership Center

Shy in high school, Rachel Fang didn’t want to follow the same pattern as a UC Merced student. “I decided that I was going to change,” Fang said. “I wanted to be more outspoken.” Fang found the...

Researchers to Develop Virtual Center for Learning Disabilities

UC Merced researchers will develop a virtual center to support parents and caregivers, as well as health and other professionals in detecting and treating Merced County children with developmental...

Book Explores Tea Party's Rise, Dynamics

There’s a tendency for researchers to only study leftist movements, but a new book co-edited by UC Merced sociology Professor Nella Van Dyke analyzes the Tea Party movement. “We need to understand...

Scholarship Helps UC Merced Senior Expand Her Worldview

Patricia Leslie is the first in her family to attend college. And the UC Merced senior is making the most of it, both on campus and beyond. Leslie is studying abroad in Córdoba, a small city located...