Diversity & Inclusion

Shakespeare can feel stuffy and difficult to understand. Native English speakers often struggle with decoding the Bard’s works, so imagine how difficult it would be to appreciate Shakespeare if you spoke another language.

This is the challenge UC Merced’s students and faculty took on with their bilingual production of “Ricardo El Segundo,” or “Richard II.”

When the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) began planning its first Free Speech Week a year ago, staff members couldn’t anticipate just how timely the event would be in 2021.

Being a university student is stressful on its own. Students who have an uncertain immigration status have an additional layer of worry.

The nearly 600 UC Merced students with undocumented status are finding support not only from the university, but from one another.

UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz was a first-generation college student who became a lifelong advocate for education and the social mobility it provides to students from underrepresented backgrounds. Next month, he will be honored for his leadership in support of workers’ rights and humanitarian issues.

“Songs that Never End,” Professor Yehuda Sharim’s intimate film about a family transitioning from Iran to life in Texas, is a finalist contender in the International Documentary Film Festival Vienna and will stream on the festival’s site for one week starting Thursday.

Dania Matos has been at UC Merced for less than a year but is making a big impact as the university’s first chief diversity officer. Now two graduate students with small-town roots are helping Matos amplify her message of equity and justice — a message made more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arturo Arias, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation professor in the Humanities at UC Merced, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his ground-breaking study of contemporary indigenous novels from Guatemala and Mexico.

Arias was one of 173 American and Canadian fellows announced Wednesday by the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

The Whiting Public Engagement Program has awarded a $50,000 fellowship to Professor Ma Vang for her efforts to integrate the experiences of refugees into education for high school students in Merced County and beyond.

The University of California, Merced, today announced the appointment of Dania Matos as Associate Chancellor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

Matos is the first appointment to the new position, which will serve on Chancellor Dorothy Leland’s senior leadership team and is charged with advising the team on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion and overseeing campus diversity initiatives. Her appointment, which begins in July,  follows a nationwide search that included input from throughout the campus community.

Chancellor Dorothy Leland made her way to Capitol Hill this week for the first convening of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.