School of Social Sciences Humanities and Arts

Depression Due to Politics: the Quiet Danger to Democracy

July 7, 2025

UC Merced Professor Christopher Ojeda and his book "The Sad Citizen"

On laptop screens, televisions and social media feeds across the nation, images and words fueled by a fractured political landscape spout anger, frustration and resentment. Clashing ideologies burst forth in public demonstrations, family gatherings and digital echo chambers. Red-hot rhetoric and...

Ancient Chinese Government Lends Perspective to Modern Challenges

Government, for better or worse, hasn't changed all that much in two millennia. China's government 2,000 years ago confronted the same kinds of problems as their modern counterparts — making...

Campus Teach-In to Discuss Occupy Movement

As the Occupy social movement sweeps across the nation, UC Merced students, faculty and staff have planned a teach-in on campus from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7 in an effort to assist the...

New Art Gallery Showcases Student Photography

UC Merced can add another first to its list — dedicated space for an art gallery. The UC Merced Art Gallery is in the northeast corner of the Social Science and Management Building, which opened this...

Student-Athlete Excels On and Off the Field

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcU7dfzB7G4&feature=youtu.be Sophomore Alexandria Curtis is doing something most students wouldn’t even consider — competing in two of UC Merced’s first varsity...

Students Spend Summer Researching Alongside Professors

As a child, Sarah Sanders was fascinated by how some of her bilingual classmates needed to translate conversations for their parents. Called language brokering, the practice often resulted in her...

UCSF, UC Merced to Study Effectiveness of Anti-Tobacco Programs

Researchers with the University of California, San Francisco, and UC Merced will examine the effectiveness of state and local antismoking programs across the United States in an effort to make sure...

Student Bridges Generation Gap, Finds Acceptance and Fulfillment

David Brantley isn’t a typical UC Merced student. He’s older by a few decades. He’s already built a career as a professional photographer. And he’s the patriarch of three generations of Brantleys on ...

Impact: Creating More Realistic Virtual Reality Avatars

http://youtu.be/bWfh28B-hv0 UC Merced's computer graphics lab, with body sensors, motion-capture cameras, and a giant movie screen is straight out of Hollywood. But instead of producing blockbusters...

Researchers Assist IBM in Cognitive Computer Chip Design

A team of researchers led by IBM, including a pair of professors from the University of California, Merced, unveiled today a new generation of experimental computer chips designed to emulate the...