RELIGIOUS STUDIES - A new award is shining a spotlight on the hard work of department leaders at the University of Oregon. The Office of the Provost is recognizing Mark Unno and Gretchen Soderlund as the Outstanding Department Heads of 2022. Both winners will receive a $5,000 award.

THEATRE ARTS - Before “Stranger Things,” there was “She Kills Monsters,” a 2011 coming-of-age drama-comedy brimming with Mind Flayers and Bulettes, also known as landsharks, and an array of other monsters and heroes drawn from the popular role-play game Dungeons & Dragons.

ENGLISH - Ben Saunders was voted best professor for the second year in a row. He is professor of Comics and Cartoon Studies.

ENGLISH - Ben Saunders has co-founded and directs University of Oregon’s minor in Comic and Cartoon Studies (the first undergraduate minor of its kind in the country), and he is a book editor, author and curator of numerous museum exhibits, including the latest hosted at OMSI.

ENGLISH - Life rarely follows a linear narrative. It zigs. Sometimes it zags. Just ask Lidia Yuknavitch—teacher, lecturer, and best-selling author of Thrust and soon-to-be feature film, The Chronology of Water—whose fierce and fragmentary form of storytelling took root at the University of Oregon.

LINGUISTICS - Two University of Oregon linguistics professors have received funding from the National Science Foundation for a collaborative seminar, Research Experiences for Undergraduates, to be conducted over three summers.

Seven faculty members have been recognized for their exceptional teaching with the 2022 Distinguished Teaching Awards. Recipients of the University of Oregon annual awards are tia north, Katie Lynch, Keli Yerian, Michael Aronson, Lara Bovilsky, David Steinberg and Tina Starr.

University of Oregon alumnae are changing the face of public service. We look to the women highlighted in this article to govern nations, lead at the highest level of the military, interpret the law, determine the constitutionality of the law, and apply it to individual cases, and serve the public in state and local government.

FOLKLORE - When folklorist Michael Atwood Mason walks into work each day, he’s greeted by the legendary Emancipation Proclamation room, where President Lincoln wrote his famous 1863 presidential speech. As CEO and executive director of the Lincoln Cottage, Mason plays a pivotal role in the operations of the National Trust for Historic Preservation site.

Founded in 1997, the Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI) at the University of Oregon recently celebrated its 25th anniversary this past June. Now, thanks to a recent grant from The Roundhouse Foundation, NILI will be launching an initiative to analyze and re-envision needs for growing and expanding in the years ahead.

ENGLISH - Exploring comics art and pop-culture history through the lens of Marvel’s iconic superhero, Professor of English Ben Saunders curates a 2022 exhibition at San Diego's Comic-Con Museum.

The long legacy that women have made in sports at the UO and beyond. While Title IX continues to impact generations, we look at a group of alumnae who have inspired countless women and girls who came after them.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE - From nontraditional undergraduate student to prize-winning essayist, the journey feels far from complete for Laurel Sturgis O’Coyne. The University of Oregon doctoral candidate marked a milestone this April when she won the A. Owen Aldridge Prize in Comparative Literature for her 2020 essay “Toward Weaving/Reading Hemispheric Land and Literature.”

CINEMA STUDIES - Some of the best athletes in the world will compete at Hayward Field in Eugene next month for the World Athletics Championships. Before the games begin, a video created by University of Oregon freshman Quinn Connell will be featured on the jumbotron inside the stadium.

Two interdisciplinary teams have been awarded seed funding through the Incubating Interdisciplinary Initiatives awards, known as I3 awards, which provide up to $50,000 to University of Oregon research teams.