Research

The School of Global Studies and Languages faculty specialize in a range of research fields that deal with some of the most important contemporary and historical issues, including global health, media and culture, environmental studies, social and political justice, language and cognition across cultures, migration, food studies, and more.


18
languages offered in person
100
core faculty members
48
U.S. students Fulbright grantees in past 10 years
 

Programs within the School of Global Studies and Languages 

Chinese Flagship Program
Chinese Flagship Program

For more than ten years, the University of Oregon Chinese Flagship Program has been providing students with the wholistic academic and scholarship support they need to develop professional-level proficiency in Chinese while studying any academic major of their choice.

Spanish Heritage Language Program
Spanish Heritage Language Program

The Spanish Heritage Language Program (SHL) is designed specifically for students who have a personal, familial, or community connection to Spanish. In SHL courses, you learn about Spanish and Spanglish as they are used in the US and in the wider Spanish-speaking world, build on your existing knowledge of Spanish, and make meaningful connections with local Spanish-speaking communities.

Northwest Indian Language Institute
Northwest Indian Language Institute

With tribal, academic and community partners, we establish collaborative, ongoing projects that meet the specific needs and desires of each language community. We also provide outreach services on issues of language endangerment and advocate for language revitalization.

Yamada Language Center
Yamada Language Center

An innovative program for the study of less commonly taught languages—if three students or more suggest a language, we find a qualified tutor and put together a program.


Featured Research Projects

Heritage Language Teaching cover

Sergio Loza
Heritage Learning Teaching: Critical Language Awareness Perspective for Research and Pedagogy

Professor Loza’s co-edited volume, Heritage Learning, introduced the theory, research and classroom application of critical approaches to the teaching of minoritized heritage learners, foregrounding sociopolitical concerns in language education. Both Beaudrie and Loza open with a global analysis, and expert contributors connect a focus on speakers of Spanish as a heritage language in the United States to broad issues in heritage language education in other contexts.

Heritage Learning

Speaking of Race cover (Weaver)

Lesley Jo Weaver
Speaking of Race

How did race become such a flash point in modern society, and why does it remain contentious in our genomic age? In this first-of-its-kind trans-disciplinary podcast, biological anthropologist Jim Bindon joins with cultural anthropologist Lesley Jo Weaver and historian of science Erik L. Peterson to explore our species' centuries long debates over how to define biological and behavioral difference, and why it continues to matter today.

Speaking of Race

DiNitto book cover

Rachel DiNitto
Fukushima Fiction

Professor DiNitto’s book Fukushima Fiction: The Literary landscape of Japan’s Triple Disaster introduces readers to the powerful literary works that have emerged out of Japan’s triple disaster. The book provides a broad and nuanced picture of the varied literary responses to this ongoing tragedy, focusing on “serious fiction” (junbungaku), the one area of Japanese cultural production that has consistently addressed the disaster and its aftermath. The book is a winner of the Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title 2020.

Fukushima Fiction



The UO is one of the top universities in the nation to study languages!

Whether you want to learn a new language or conduct research in a language you’re proficient in, GSL offers students 18 languages to choose from. We rank #9 in Romance Languages, #6 in Spanish, #5 in East Asian Languages, #4 in Chinese, #4 in Japanese, and #6 in all Foreign Languages for annual degrees awarded.

(Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019.)


News

March 11, 2024
GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL STUDIES - Associate Professor Jo Weaver published research in the December 2023 issue of SSM-Mental Health that examines the mental health needs of women in India. Because of the gaps in mental health care that emerge from cultural mismatch, Weaver and her research team urge health workers to prioritize culturally informed methods of distress management and address the social and structural causes of suffering rather than delivering standardized clinical mental healthcare.
February 12, 2024
JAPANESE, LATINX STUDIES, LINGUISTICS, SPANISH - The Latinx Studies Experiential Learning Program offers funding for a limited number of undergraduates to conduct research or pursue creative projects under the supervision of a faculty member. At a Feb. 13 forum, four undergrads showcased their research, which includes language revitalization, preservation and environmental justice radio reporting.
January 29, 2024
GLOBAL STUDIES - Kathryn Desvignes Holder (MA, '17) earned her global studies master's degree, specializing in cross-cultural communication and Africa, which she said provided her with the experience and skills to speak and communicate with a diversity of stakeholders. She is now the public affairs officer and public engagement lead for the Umatilla National Forest.