Social Justice

Film Documents the Struggle of Growing Old Behind Bars

April 14, 2025

A UC Merced professor entered the bleak world of a fading, 64-year-old man in a Virginia state prison to illustrate the challenges of being elderly and incarcerated. “Where’s My Coffee Cup?” is a half-hour documentary by media and performance studies Professor Yehuda Sharim....

UC Merced Spendlove Prize Tsitsi Dangarembga

Spendlove Prize Winner Brings Spirit of Ubuntu to UC Merced

Tsitsi Dangarembga spread the spirit of ubuntu over UC Merced on Wednesday night, imparting its message of “how we can be good people who live well together.” Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean...

3 New Majors Meet at Crossroads of Communication and Science

Information – how it is shaped, delivered and received – is a thread that runs through three dynamic new majors at UC Merced. Communication and media; neuroscience; and science,...

UC Merced Professor Christiana Spitzmueller

UC Merced Leads $6.5 Million Initiative to Reduce Promotion and Tenure Bias Against Black and Hispanic Faculty

Black and Hispanic faculty members seeking promotion at research universities face career-damaging biases, with their scholarly production judged more harshly than that of their peers, according to a...

Sharim Film 'Flora' Wins Festival's Social Justice Award

“Flora,” a film by UC Professor Yehuda Sharim, earned an award from the Latino and Native American Film Festival. The film, which Sharim describes as a memoir of post-teen daughters...

AI generated illustration for UC Merced Tobacco Summit

UC Merced Hosts Tobacco Control Summit

The community is invited to an all-day summit where researchers will present cutting-edge information on the latest efforts to stem tobacco use in the San Joaquin Valley and surrounding foothills...

AI illustration of rural dangers of tobacco use

Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center Gets $3.9 Million Extension

UC Merced’s Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center has earned multiyear funding to continue its mission to embolden community partners and share policy-influencing data in the long battle...

Human Rights Film Festival Shows the Faces of Injustice

The unflinching demand for justice drives the moving images and impassioned ideas packed into the agenda of this year’s UC Merced Human Rights Film Festival, presented by the university’s...

W.E.B. Du Bois and 1900 information graphic

Project Positions W.E.B. Du Bois as Inspiration for STEM Students

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus. We...

Students of color gathered together for a conference at UC Davis.

Students From Nine UC Campus Will Be Represented at Student of Color Conference Hosted by UC Merced

Hundreds of students representing all nine University of California undergraduate campuses will descend upon Merced this weekend for the annual Student of Color Conference. The conference is...

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