The UO’s Environment Initiative has awarded seed funding to five new teaching projects to support faculty members who have proposed innovative courses and dynamic classroom experiences. The funding supports both research and curricular projects and focuses the intellectual energy and work of faculty, students and community partners on a just and livable future through transdisciplinary research, teaching and experiential learning.

INDIGENOUS, RACE, AND ETHNIC STUDIES; NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES-Researchers from the University of Oregon (UO) have earned a $3 million grant from the federal government to help tackle global warming, while incorporating the insights of rural and Indigenous communities which are often left out of decisions about what happens around them. The grant will last five years and come from the National Science Foundation, (NSF) part of a tranche of $27 million for 12 projects that use the “rules of life”—the interactions between living systems of different sizes—to address societal problems.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - A University of Oregon research team has landed a $3 million federal grant to work with Indigenous and rural communities in Oregon to find ways of reducing climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere in ways that build trust with historically marginalized groups.

ECONOMICS - A new economics study by Kathleen Mullen, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, suggests workers would trade wages for benefits, such as working from home, having schedule flexibility, taking paid time off — and more.

GLOBAL STUDIES - The Incubating Interdisciplinary Initiatives (I3) awards provide up to $50,000 to seed new interdisciplinary research. This year, three awards are funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Among winners are Jo Weaver (Department of Global Studies), Matthew Barber (Department of Biology and the Institute of Ecology and Evolution), Michael Harms (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Institute of Molecular Biology) and Melanie Spero (Department of Biology and Institute of Molecular Biology).

ENGLISH, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES, NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - “Indigenous Data Sovereignty Research Center,” will serve as a hub for transdisciplinary and collaborative research focused on transforming institutional practices and frameworks to honor tribal sovereignty through data justice.

ANTHROPOLOGY, HISTORY, POLITICAL SCIENCE, SOCIOLOGY - The College of Arts and Sciences is adding six Latinx studies tenure-track faculty members in several departments as part of the college’s commitment to becoming a premier institution for Latinx studies while meeting student demand for culturally relevant classes.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, GEOGRAPHY - The University of Oregon's Environment Initiative has named six faculty fellows for the 2023-24 academic year, two of whom belong to the College of Arts and Sciences: Lauren Hallett, associate professor of environmental studies and biology, and Peter Walker, professor of geography and environmental studies.

HISTORY - Assistant Professor Steven Beda recently won two awards for his debut book on timber workers in the Pacific Northwest. The book, titled Strong Winds and Widow Makers: Workers, Nature and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber Country, is the winner of the Philip Taft Labor History Book Prize from Cornell University and is a co-winner of the Pacific Coast Branch Book Award.