Breadcrumb
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.
Sarah Lasley
Art + Film
I was included in Filmmaker magazine's 28th edition the 25 New Faces of Independent Film list, an annual curated cross-section of impressive independent film creatives.
Lisa Tremain, Libbi Miller
English
A new open-access book is available through the WAC Clearinghouse (https://wacclearinghouse.org). The book is edited by Lisa Tremain and Libbi R. Miller.
Across diverse institutional, disciplinary, and educational contexts, the contributors to this edited collection challenge conventional understandings of transfer and explore alternative frameworks grounded in antiracist, queer, feminist, relational, and other marginalized epistemologies. Radical Frameworks for Writing Transfer offers new directions for those interested in writing development, writing across the curriculum, composition, rhetoric, education, and teaching and learning. It serves as both a critique of existing frameworks and an invitation to rethink how writing knowledge is recognized, valued, and carried across contexts.
The book can be found at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/radical/
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
AnthroPod, the official podcast of the Society for Cultural Anthropologists, interviewed Dr. Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, associate professor in the Department of Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, for its newest episode, "What Disappointment Does." Atienza shares how disappointment is an important human feeling that merits analysis. He discusses how disappointment animates the lives of his interlocutors, as well as what it means for him to feel failure doing research in the field. The new episode goes live on Thursday, September 10, 2026 on most streaming platforms.
CAHSS Alumni Updates
Kathleen Clark
Sociology, 91
After graduation, Kathleen very happily worked as a bread baker at the Co-op Bakery for several years... but eventually got a job as a social worker in Child Welfare in the Bay Area. She promoted to a supervisor position (her favorite job) and later became a program manager for the Public Administrator in the Bay Area. Kathleen retired in 2022. She and her wife returned to Humboldt County where she is now on the McKInleyville Municipal Advisory Committee, and volunteering at the Native Plant Society and thoroughly enjoying the beaches and hikes that she loved 30+ years ago. And she is so glad that so many college friends are still here.
Robert Christensen
History, 2007
Robert has continued to live in Humboldt County since graduating. In 2024, he was hired by the Humboldt Community Services District, and in 2025, he was promoted to Administrative Services Manager at the District, where he oversees Human Resources and Risk Management and serves as the Board Secretary to an elected Board of Directors.
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.
Upcoming Events
See what's happening around campus.
CAHSS News
- Working with the Elements: Inside Cal Poly Humboldt’s Clay Recycling and Reclamation Projects
- Bridging Languages, Expanding Access: Inside the 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