2020-21 School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts Handout

SCHOOL OF

SOCIAL SCIENCES,

HUMANITIES AND ARTS

PREPARING FOR ROLES AS INFORMED CITIZENS AND LEADERS In the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, known on campus as SSHA, you will explore the current and historical dimensions of human existence, from the concepts of citizenship and community, to artistic and literary expression, diverse global and local institutions and cultures, the acquisition and the functions of language, the nature of the mind, the principles of economics and management, and the improvement of public health. This means that the fields of study in SSHA will help you understand the world and our place in it. They also will teach you to write convincingly about your ideas and to engage in respectful, thoughtful dialogue with those who might disagree. UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Omar González , who is majoring in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies as well as History, has received more than $7,000 from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC) in the past two years to conduct archival research that focuses on farmworker efforts to bring land redistribution in California’s Central Valley during the 1960s and 1970s. Omar’s research contributes to the discourse surrounding U.S. agricultural policy by making a compelling case for family farms to replace agribusiness in California, specifically, and in the United States, broadly. Psychology major BaileyWeikel-Feekes serves as a research assistant in two developmental psychology labs on campus. In one lab, participants study how infants understand other people’s emotions towards objects and people, while research in the other lab focuses on how young children can control whether they give an instinctive answer to a question or the correct answer. As a research assistant, Bailey works directly with the children and, which, she says, includes making a lot funny faces at toys. Under a larger, multi-year effort to uncover the lives of Chinese residents in the city of Merced, History major Sarah Lee received a research grant from the Mellon Foundation to research racialized policing in late-19th-century Merced. Sarah tracked how Merced residents understood the changing duties of local police, from distrusted Keystone Cops to entrusted keepers of strict race relations. She worked with fellow History major Madelyn Lara to develop a public humanities project in partnership with the Merced County Courthouse Museum, where both of their projects on the Chinese community in Merced could be shown to the public and become part of the museum’s archive.

FACULTY PROFILE

Maria Martin, Assistant Professor Ph.D., Michigan State University

Professor Maria Martin, a native of Cleveland, holds a Ph.D. in African American and African studies with a concentration in history and women’s studies. Her research interests include African women and gender, the 20th-century intellectual history of African women, inductive development of Black feminist theory, African nationalism and transnational Black experiences. She has both taught gender studies and conducted research in Nigeria, using oral histories and archives to help build an intellectual history of Nigerian women’s activism in the nationalist movement. Dr. Martin is a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Scholarship alumna, has won several Fulbright Scholar Awards, and received an honorable mention from the Ford Foundation for her research. She also mentored with a nonprofit organization that serves young girls from the inner city of Detroit for six years.

PAST INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES (UROC-H) The goal of the UROC-H program is to engage promising undergraduate students each year in faculty-mentored research and prepare them for advanced education in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. As a student, you will benefit from: » Mentorship by a professor and graduate student » Funding, including a research stipend, and money for conference travel and research activities » Graduate school preparation and career coaching » Participation in UROC’s 9-week Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) uroc.ucmerced.edu/uroc-h SSHA MAJORS » Anthropology, B.A. » Cognitive Science, B.A., B.S. » Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, B.A. » Economics, B.A., B.S. » English, B.A. » Global Arts Studies Program, B.A. » History, B.A. » Management and Business Economics, B.S. » Philosophy, B.A. » Political Science, B.A » Psychology, B.A. » Public Health, B.A. » Sociology, B.A. » Spanish, B.A. » Undeclared School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts

» Cedars Sinai Medical Center » JPMorgan Chase and Co. » Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

» PayPal Holdings Inc. » U.S. Attorney’s Office » U.S. House of Representatives

STUDENT PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

» Alpha Kappa Psi » Anthropology Society » Bobcat Model United Nations » Business Society » Cognitive Science Student Association

» Marketing Club » Merced Pre-Law Society » Microfinance Project Student Association

» Phi Alpha Delta » Pi Sigma Alpha » Public Health Society » The Prodigy News

» Delta Sigma Pi » Economics Club

WORLD LANGUAGES UC Merced offers four world languages for students: Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish. All lower-division courses strive to promote cultural awareness of the countries and communities where the languages are spoken.

CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES The UC Merced Center for the Humanities is committed to stimulating individual and collaborative research and scholarly work in the humanities, arts and social sciences through a wide array of forums, from lectures and seminars to exhibits and films. centerforhumanities.ucmerced.edu

ssha.ucmerced.edu

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER FEBRUARY 2020 | XX,XXX