Social Sciences

Hellman Fellowships Welcome Three New Members from UC Merced

September 4, 2025

This year's Hellman Fellows: Adeyemi Adebiyi, Qian Wang and Meredith Van Natta

As the Hellman Fellowships celebrate their 30th year, three more researchers, one from each of UC Merced’s schools, have joined the prestigious ranks of recipients. Electrical engineering Professor Qian Wang, sociology Professor Meredith Van Natta and Earth systems Professor Adeyemi...

Humanities Center to Host Visiting Lecturers

The next week will be a busy one for the Center for the Humanities at UC Merced. David Palumbo-Liu, the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University, will be on...

Political Scientist Studies Who Tortures Whom, and Why

What makes a government decide to use torture in its interrogations? How do those decisions differ when terrorism is suspected? Once torture starts, how can it be stopped? These questions are at...

Aldenderfer to Speak at Prestigious Indian Event

Mark Aldenderfer, dean of the UC Merced School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, will speak this weekend as a guest lecturer at Kshitij, the annual “techno-management fest” of the Indian...

Sociologist’s Influence in Higher Ed Debate Grows

UC Merced sociologist Laura Hamilton has gained national attention since the 2013 release of the book she coauthored, “Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality.” The book, which...

Discover Magazine Features Archaeologist’s Cave Research

Most archaeologists have to dig in the field, but Professor Holley Moyes digs deeper than most. Her research takes her more than 400 feet into the Belize underground, where ancient Maya caves hold...

Video | Discover UC Merced: Nick Fong

If you're not a student, faculty or staff member here, you don't know UC Merced. You haven't experienced the excitement of building a university from the ground up, finding strengths you didn't know...

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...

Research Universities Create Economic Spillover, Study Shows

A $1 increase in university spending generates an 89 cent increase in local noneducation labor income — evidence of a measurable spillover effect created by public research institutions, according to...

Summer Scholars Learn by Doing

UC Merced has made a name for itself by giving undergraduates the opportunity to engage in research early in their academic careers. Nothing showcases that commitment better than the campus’s...