Writing

How Writing Rewires Your Brain to Face Everyday Challenges

February 11, 2026

AI-rendered of hand emerging from a box, holding a pen pressed against paper

Written words can do more than communicate. They can also unlock the writer’s ability to process distress, identify hurtful feelings and take control of personal conflict. Emily Johnston, a writing studies professor at UC Merced, has researched how the act of writing rewires the brain to...

Poetry Prize Recognizes Instructor’s Accomplishments, Potential

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has awarded its prestigious May Sarton Prize for Poetry to Vanesha Pravin, a lecturer in UC Merced’s Merritt Writing Program. The award, considered one of...

Dissertation Boot Camp Gives Grad Students a Leg Up on Writing Projects

UC Merced Graduate Division’s second Dissertation Boot Camp — a weeklong intensive writing program for graduate students — successfully wrapped up last week, and participants agreed the experience...

Campus Continues to Set Precedents in Sustainability

UC Merced is the only university in the country to have all of its buildings certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. That body...

Conference to Explore Black Arts Movement, Influences

An international two-day conference on the Black Arts Movement will draw world-renowned scholars, musicians and artists, and offer new scholarship and perspectives on the 1960s and 1970s movement....

Merritt Writing Program Lecturer Reaches Students with Comic Books

In John Bultena’s writing classes, students often explore new literary classics. Like “Batwoman Volume 1: Hydrology.” Bultena, a lecturer in UC Merced’s Merritt Writing Program and recent panelist at...

Internship Gives Undergrads Journal Experience

The undergraduate students in Professor Linda Hirst’s new internship course are getting an advanced education in science communications that could serve them well in their future careers. By...

Common Read Builds Community, Connections with Shared Book

A richly illustrated book tracing centuries of change in the California landscape is this year’s Common Read, a program that connects students and faculty across disciplines by putting the same text...

Campus Humanities Center to Expand Mission with Private Gift

With the help of a $2 million gift, UC Merced’s humanities center will support scholars in conducting interdisciplinary research, engaging the public and addressing issues critical to the San Joaquin...

Student Newspaper Editor Cultivates Legacy of Teamwork, Dedication

When Alma Fausto first arrived at UC Merced in 2008, she felt pangs of doubt common to many freshmen. Fausto was hundreds of miles from the family home in Orange County. She had too much time on her...