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Researchers Present Findings in Wake of CAHOOTS Losing Funding
SOCIOLOGY - On Thursday, April 10, researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences hosted a town hall to present findings about the positive impact that CAHOOTS has had on the Eugene community. The forum was held days after the city of Eugene announced that it would cut CAHOOTS’s funding.
chinese newspapers
New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China
SOCIOLOGY - Hannah Waight, an assistant professor of sociology in CAS, and her collaborators found that the use of state-planted propaganda is on the rise in China. And it’s not just a tool for spreading ideological content. It’s also used to control and constrain other kinds of information beyond political ideals, including natural disaster and public health reporting in China.
people help a man out of a CAHOOTS van
Eugene’s CAHOOTS subject of upcoming forum
SOCIOLOGY - In 2020, CAHOOTS became national model for de-escalation. Amid a budget crunch, on Thursday, April 10, researchers from the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences and Portland State University School of Social Work will share their findings on the impact of CAHOOTS on the Eugene-Springfield community.
a closeup of a computer
Harnessing Digital Tools for Social Justice
INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES, POLITICAL SCIENCE, SOCIOLOGY - We’re entering a new phase in the digital revolution, one in which scientists are stretching the capabilities of digital technologies to solve some of society’s largest and most complex problems. Read more in the Annual Research Report, out now.
housing cul de sac
Research Roundtable on Housing Challenges in Oregon
SOCIOLOGY - Associate Professor Claire Herbert is a current Consumer Protection Research Grant recipient. PhD student Mae Sowards and their research team they are diligently collecting and analyzing data for their project studying government protections for people excluded from the housing market in Oregon. They present their findings at a research roundtable titled "Discussion on Housing Challenges in Oregon" noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at Room 242 Gerlinger Hall.
Val Burris
In Memoriam: Faculty Emeritus Val Burris

Professor Emeritus Val Burris passed away in Eugene on November 30th, 2024. He had had a stroke in July, had been in a care facility since then, and went into hospice care Thanksgiving week. Val was born May 8, 1947 and grew up in Texas. He started his position at the UO in 1978. He studied power structures and Marxist theory, with a particular interest in understanding how the ruling class maintains and wields power. Throughout his career he promoted a critical approach to sociological research, challenging elitism and injustice.

Linda Fuller
In Memoriam: Faculty Emeritus Linda Fuller

Professor Emeritus Linda Fuller died last week after declining from dementia and falls that broke her hips.  She had been a professor in Sociology for decades and finished her career in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. Linda was a scholar of labor, social change, and development and published books on democracy in the workplace in Cuba and East Germany. After retiring, she was living in Ashland, where she and Greg McLauchlan, also long-time member of the Sociology Department, had retired and were enjoying a wonderful life of hiking and friends and the theater.

a man stands next to a big banner
A Road Less Traveled
SOCIOLOGY - After spending decades in the professional world, this sociology major has finally found his path—and he’s helping other students find theirs.
Dr. Emen Abdelhadi
Palestine and the Future of US Campus Activism
Dr. Eman Abdelhadi will hold two talks on campus discussing her research which examines how second-generation immigrant Muslim Americans reproduce cultural practices over time February 6-7, 2025
Dwight and Sylvia Lang in front of Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, California
Traveling the Ducks way
SOCIOLOGY - Dwight and Sylvia Lang married just two years after they began dating and then pursued higher education together as first-generation, low-income students. In 1983, they graduated from the University of Oregon, each earning a PhD in sociology. “We’re Ducks,” Sylvia says. “So this is another way of saying ‘thank you, Oregon.’ What happened in Eugene between 1977 and 1985 was very significant for us. It shaped who we are in many ways.” 
Sociology Graduate Student Isabella Clark
Graduate Student Isabella Clark Publishes Two Articles

Sociology PhD graduate student Isabella Clark has published two articles recently.

a person on a roof with a nail gun
Finding Home Again
SOCIOLOGY - It’s one thing to rebuild homes after a wildfire. Rebuilding communities is a different matter, discovered sociology graduate student Haisu Huang. Graduate student Haisu Huang spent three years interviewing survivors, establishing relationships with them and conducting check-ins to create holistic snapshots of their experiences of evacuations, recovery and rebuilding home. Those she interviewed ranged from people who lived in houses to those who lived in mobile RV homes.
a collage of nine headshots of new Latinx studies professors
Meet the Latinx Cluster Hire: Isabel García Valdivia
SOCIOLOGY - The College of Arts and Sciences is investing in its Latinx studies courses by hiring nine new tenure-track faculty members. Meet Isabel García Valdivia, who is researching how immigrants’ experiences change across their life course how does legal status impact families.
a collage of nine headshots of new Latinx studies professors
Meet the Latinx Cluster Hire: Byron Villacis Cruz
SOCIOLOGY - The College of Arts and Sciences is investing in its Latinx studies courses by hiring nine new tenure-track faculty members. Byron Villacis Cruz joins CAS after working as an assistant professor at Bowdoin College, a private liberal arts college in Maine. Before becoming a professor, Villacis worked alongside prominent social scientists and politicians in Ecuador but returned to academia after several years of working there.
an illustration of a man with various historical snapshots behind him
From Arafat to the Dalai Lama, sociology alum shielded leaders
SOCIOLOGY - When Burks arrived at the UO in 1992, he had no idea what to study, but an introductory sociology class grabbed his attention. “It appealed to my curiosity about what makes people tick,” he says. Burks would go on to have a career filled with danger and intrigue as a special agent for the US government, protecting international dignitaries and overseeing security at embassies around the world.