History

This story is part of a series for Black History Month. Read more stories highlighting Black excellence at UC Merced.

The brutal deaths of African Americans George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and others at the hands of police officers five years ago catalyzed for Black communities to unite globally and reignite the Black Lives Matter movement.

Educators from across California will gather at UC Merced for an up-close look at a curriculum that teaches schoolchildren about Hmong Americans — their history in Southeast Asia, their cultural traditions, and their journeys to the United States to escape war and deadly oppression.

Faculty members at UC Merced are taking the lead on four Multicampus Research Program Initiatives (MRPI), working with colleagues around the University of California system to address challenges around labor and agriculture, active matter, Indigenous health and fusion energy.

Humanities education has been under fire on college campuses over the past decade.

“There’s a lot of concern nationally about graduate education in the humanities. We’re producing plenty of Ph.D.s but are there enough jobs for them upon graduation?” said anthropology and heritage studies Professor Robin DeLugan, who leads UC Merced’s Research Center for Community Engaged Scholarship (ReCCES).

“How do we make a humanities career more feasible?”

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.

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus.

We all need heroes.

Perhaps that was on Roy Wilkins’ mind as he faced the sea of humanity – 250,000 strong – on a warm August afternoon in 1963. At the podium on the Lincoln Memorial, the executive secretary of the NAACP stood to inspire the throng gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Professor Maria Martin has a lot going on.

On Feb. 18, she was the grand marshal and a speaker at a program and march honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in downtown Merced.

Trevor Albertson Ph.D. (’09) had a history of “firsts” during his time at UC Merced.

Albertson was among the university’s earliest doctoral students, entering the then-World Cultures and History program in 2006 and earning his Ph.D. in political diplomatic history in 2009. He is also the first UC Merced graduate to be appointed to a three-year term on the UC Merced Board of Trustees.

Now, he and his wife, Katherine, have created the Albertson Family Fellowship Fund, making Albertson the first UC Merced alumnus to endow a fellowship.

For the first time, UC Merced’s Political Science and Interdisciplinary Humanities (history discipline) graduate groups made national rankings.

US News & World Report’s annual rankings, released today, also highlighted the campus’s growing School of Engineering, as most of its programs climbed the charts.