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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.
Tony Nichols
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
Geography major Tony Nichols won third place in the Tom McKnight Undergraduate Student Paper Award at the California Geographical Society annual conference in Huntington Beach, CA, for her paper Finding Belonging: Interviews with Queer People Across Humboldt County. In her paper, Tony highlights how queer residents in Humboldt County experience belonging, exclusion, and uncertainty across different community spaces, underscoring the importance of “third places” and supportive local environments in shaping LGBTQ+ well-being.
Ari Dixon
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
Ari Dixon won third place in the undergraduate Student Cartography Award at the California Geographical Society Annual Meeting in Huntington Beach, CA. This map uses a creative visualization to highlight woman-owned breweries across the U.S. West Coast, using proportional symbols to show the number of breweries within 100-mile buffers and callout boxes to spotlight specific brewery stories in Washington, Oregon, and California.
Will Bellairs
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
Geospatial Science and Technology major Will Bellairs won first place in the Tom McKnight Undergraduate Student Paper Award at the California Geographical Society Annual Conference in Huntington Beach, CA. Will's paper, titled Map Games: Learning Map Literacy through Engaging Play, demonstrated the design and classroom testing of an interactive educational map game he developed to increase elementary school students' geographic learning.
CAHSS Alumni Updates
Jon Pede
Environment & Community (Social Sciences), 1990
Dr. Jon Pede retired over a year ago as a middle school Principal. He is currently working as a University Supervisor for Pacific University as a teacher license candidate supervisor supporting special education teachers. He just completed his first book on supporting first year School Principals. He hopes to publish in the coming year.
Ethan Derner
Film, 1993
Ethan is embarking on his fourth career, following his first three as a motion picture editor, college faculty instructor, and currently a self-employed electrician and carpenter. After an initial open studio experience over 10 years ago, he fully immersed himself in the world of glass in December of 2025. Specifically, he is focused on studio glass art, having received instruction from the University of Oregon and Firehouse Glass. Ethan plans to return to Tacoma, Washington, in May of 2026 for continued private instruction at Area 253, in addition to revisiting the hot shop at the Museum of Glass. His present focus is on creating forms to enshrine the ashes of loved ones. Looking ahead, he has designs for free-form slumped sculptures and large-scale kiln-formed pieces.
Kimberly Nguyen
Philosophy, 2020
When Kimberly was pursuing her BA in Philosophy at Humboldt, her intentions were to continue on to law school to become an attorney. Instead, she made the decision to attend nursing school. Her training in critical thinking made nursing school much easier than she could have imagined. Kimberly now practices as a registered nurse and loves it! She has a feeling that her cravings for knowledge won’t stop here, though. She owes so much to the Philosophy Department for helping her build a solid foundation in her thinking and, consequently, opening her mind to what she can achieve. Kimberly can’t wait to see what the future has in store!
Upcoming Events
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CAHSS News
- 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
- Trailblazing Cultural Property Scholar and Violin Maker to Receive Honorary Degree
- Art + Film Professor Sarah Lasley Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
- Transformational $3 Million Gift