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College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (CAHSS) is an artistic, creative, and intellectual community. It is an equitable partnership of staff, faculty, and students who are devoted to teaching, learning, and collaboration. The many fields within CAHSS provide the greatest breadth for service-learning, creative engagement, and professional opportunity within a diverse and changing society.
Hands-on Experience
Our programs and majors offer many unique opportunities to extend learning beyond the classroom including student performances, studios, laboratories, newsrooms, internships, and more. Hands-on learning enriches the student, the university, and the community, tying academic study to real-world experiences.
Study Abroad
Studying abroad is an exciting way to enhance an undergraduate experience through exposure to different cultures, languages, and communities. Travel, explore, embrace new environments, all while making progress toward graduation.
Personal Attention
It’s the difference between sitting through a lesson and playing a role in creating it. Feel challenged by faculty who expand students’ worldview and supported by departments that pride themselves on personalized attention.
Elam Bender
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
Elam Bender has received an Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) NextGen Fellowship for his work using UAVs to apply precision agriculture techniques to small-scale sustainable farms. Through this research, Elam is exploring how high resolution aerial imaging and data collection techniques can help small farms improve efficiency, sustainability, and resource management. The USDA-funded ARI NextGen Fellowship Program provides 421 paid fellowships for California State University students pursuing careers in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences.
Robert Cliver
History
History Professor Robert Cliver contributed a chapter on "Socialist Industrialization" for The Routledge History of Communism, edited by Melissa Feinberg and Lisa A. Kirschenbaum. The book "examines how politics played out inside the factory, the village, the family, or the school. It highlights the different ways Communism shaped the lives of ordinary people all over the world and the ways in which ordinary people shaped Communist movements and states. The authors’ focus on everyday communism allows them to highlight the centrality of race, gender, sexuality, and other identities to understandings of Communism’s appeal, its successes, and its failures." Available from Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-History-of-Communism/Feinberg-Kirschenbaum/p/book/9781032513751
Kyleigh Brine
Dance, Music & Theatre
Professor Kyleigh Brine was selected to perform in the Selah Dance Concert in Santa Barbara, California, where she presented an excerpt from her new choreographic work, Holding Things. The work is inspired by Maira Kalman’s book Women Holding Things and explores the physical and emotional ways we carry, hold, and move through the things that shape our lives. The performance provided an opportunity to share emerging creative research and new choreography with a broader dance community beyond Cal Poly Humboldt.
CAHSS Alumni Updates
Jerry von Dohlen
Geography, 1998
Jerry helped design, map, and build the first nationwide wireless internet with Metricom INC. in San Jose, California. He moved back to Humboldt County in 2003 and worked with Center Arts Entertainment, now Cal Poly Humboldt Presents, the Mateel Community Center on Reggae on the River, and, the Black Oak Ranch coordinating parking and traffic at Pignic, Earthdance, The Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival, and currently Ten Mile Creek Revival. Jerry is currently serving as GIS Coordinator for the County of Humboldt, providing data and internships to students with the Geospatial Certificate Program. He is also the coordinator of the North Coast GIS Users Group. He is also presently coordinating the Bike Valet program with Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities (CRTP) at major local events such as Cannifest, North County Fair, and the Friday Night Markets.
Brittany Arzola
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, 2023
After graduating from my undergrad, Brittany moved back to the Central Valley and began working as a Youth Counselor serving teenage youth in combating and healing from anti-social behaviors. She is currently working towards an M.S. in Counseling Psychology where she will obtain her License for Marriage and Family Therapy. In the past three years, Brittany has continued showing up for her local community by being involved in working with local food banks and community food gardens at Food Link for Tulare County. Brittany is continuing to pass along her knowledge learned from wonderful professors and remaining respectful to others. It's been tough being away from the community she built in Humboldt, but she can proudly say she is thriving here too.
James Donlon
Theatre, 1970
James has been working in theatre for 56 years as an internationally acclaimed professional actor and director specializing in physical theatre. He recently founded the international Los Angeles Mime Festival, and this summer is playing the lead role of Macbeth at the Island Shakespeare Festival on Whidbey Island, Washington. Last year, he toured his one-person show to Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. Other recent tours have been in Italy, Spain, Cuba, and the Czech Republic.
Upcoming Events
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CAHSS News
- Bridging Languages, Expanding Access: Inside Cal Poly Humboldt’s Center for Translation & Interpretation
- Finding Community, Building Community
- Congratulations to the Class of 2026! (PHOTOS)
- Campus Research and Creativity Take Center Stage at 13th Annual ideaFest
- Humboldt Calypso Band Marks 40th Anniversary with Special Guest Artists
- $1 Million Grant Funds Study on Greener, Cleaner Cannabis Farming