Jody Murray

em·pa·thy (noun): the ability to recognize, understand and share the thoughts, emotions and perspectives of another person.

It is a means of connection, a path to understanding. Can you see where I’m coming from? Walk a mile in my shoes.

Written words can do more than communicate. They can also unlock the writer’s ability to process distress, identify hurtful feelings and take control of personal conflict.

Three Merced painters, united in friendship and in their steadfast determination not to compromise their creative values, are serving as UC Merced’s first locally based artists-in-residence.

The brushes of Ruben Aguilera Sanchez, Frank Ayala and Abel Corchado create surreal scenes of fieldhands and crops coalescing in blues and reds, of a rural street splashed in watercolor, of shark fins cutting through a beach as a sandcastle rises from the surf.

UC Merced, a beacon of academic achievement in the San Joaquin Valley, is also a powerful driver of economic growth and prosperity in the region it was created to serve. 

Should a scientist who sees signs of global catastrophe sound an early alarm or wait until more conclusive evidence is in? Does going public lead to swifter action or give naysayers more time to discredit the message?

 A beaming Jesus Cevon-Gonzalez stood on Merced’s Main Street, surrounded by his mom and dad, grandparents, sister and other loved ones. He clutched the proof of a freshly bestowed bachelor’s degree in computer science.

“I’m just trying to make my parents proud,” the Merced native said.

More than a dozen undergraduate students in UC Merced’s Sociology Club were immersed in the discipline’s breadth of research and professional possibilities during the California Sociological Association’s annual conference.

While California Democrats are nearly unified in their views on current immigration enforcement strategies, Latino Republicans and party moderates, especially women, are most likely to diverge from the GOP majority, according to a study co-authored by a UC Merced researcher.

A husband’s optimism and confidence might play a crucial, if often unseen, role in helping babies arrive healthy and on time.

A new study from UC Merced psychology researchers found that when married fathers reported higher levels of resilience — a quality that includes traits such as optimism, self-esteem and perceived social support — their partners showed lower levels of inflammation during pregnancy and carried their babies longer.

As debates rage about artificial intelligence's impact on jobs, new research suggests that even warnings that AI could disrupt workers' employment soon do little to shake their confidence.

In a survey-based study, political scientists Anil Menon of UC Merced and Baobao Zhang of Syracuse University examined how people respond to forecasts of the arrival of “transformative AI,” ranging from as early as 2026 to as distant as 2060.