Jody Murray

Katherine Cai is on stage, reminiscing about high school.

“My dad tried to teach me geometry. You know how that goes. The questions get more and more difficult and Dad gets more and more frustrated, which leads to both of us having a crisis.”

“We’re all just victims of word problems.”

Laughs ripple through the 100 or so students, faculty and friends in the audience. They can relate.

Cai, a UC Merced psychology major, is halfway through her standup comedy routine, a final performance for Writing 122. And she’s crushing it.

Tsitsi Dangarembga spread the spirit of ubuntu over UC Merced on Wednesday night, imparting its message of “how we can be good people who live well together.”

Information – how it is shaped, delivered and received – is a thread that runs through three dynamic new majors at UC Merced.

Communication and media; neuroscience; and science, technology and ethics will be available to undergraduate students in the fall semester 2025. The majors are centered in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts but tap into knowledge from the School of Natural Sciences and School of Engineering.

Here’s a rundown:

Tsitsi Dangarembga, a renowned Zimbabwean filmmaker, novelist and cultural activist, was selected as the 16th recipient of the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance.

Tsitsi Dangarembga is best known for her critically acclaimed 1988 debut novel, “Nervous Conditions.” The first book by a Black Zimbabwean woman to be published in English, it won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and is celebrated for its incisive portrayal of colonialism, gender and identity in postcolonial Africa.

A celebration of stories and a concert highlighting the history of San Joaquin Valley’s railroads are the opening acts of the 2024-25 UC Merced Arts season .

Merced LitFest and Train Station Trios reflect the season’s varied offerings. Gallery exhibitions, concerts, theater performances and a film festival are scheduled on and off campus through May 2025. The creators and their work provide a multilayered experience of the Valley’s people, culture and landscape.

UC Merced has received a $750,000 boost to its mission to invest in the San Joaquin Valley’s unique cultural, creative and linguistic wealth by working with the region’s people to strengthen communities and champion social justice.

More than 170 students have enrolled this fall for classes in UC Merced’s new environmental humanities major, a degree that will prepare them to be advocates and storytellers for the living world.

Exploring sources of historical narratives can take you to places where walls seem to move and truth feels fluid and interchangeable. Ma Vang’s research has focused on how people narrate their histories, tracking the lived experiences of people pigeonholed or marginalized by dominant narratives that privilege the record and written text.

Thirteen graduating students were honored by UC Merced’s School of Social Science, Humanities and Arts for outstanding academic careers.

It’s a pair of special birthdays for UC Merced’s two student-run journals for undergraduates. The Vernal Pool , which publishes creative stories, poems and images, turned 10 this academic year. Meanwhile, it’s the sweet 16th for the Undergraduate Research Journal , which provides an early taste of the lifeblood of graduate and post-grad research — peer-reviewed publication.