Associate Professor Charlene Liu recently embarked on a new body of work: exploring ideas of motherhood, intimacy, and sustenance.

Twenty-four years ago, the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Berlin was torn down. To the east, the Israeli-Palestinian border shows the result of a long and convoluted conflict. Half a world away, the U.S.–Mexican border has become a place of national political discourse on immigration control.

A new book coedited by Christopher Michlig, assistant professor in the Department of Art, launched in September at the New York Art Book Fair.

The release of In the Good Name of the Company coordinates with exhibitions cocurated by Michlig in New York and Los Angeles this year. The book will be officially released November 30 by PictureBox/ForYourArt but is pre-selling on amazon.com.

Kartz Ucci, associate professor of digital arts, lost her battle with cancer on October 6. She was 52 years of age. Ucci joined the UO faculty in 2004 and taught art and digital arts in the Department of Art. Her courses were rich and powerful lessons on contemporary art practice, time-based media, and interactive installations.

The University of Oregon keeps coming up tops in national surveys of the flagship colleges in the United States. This summer, two national rankings included UO in the best of the best: the Fiske Guide to Colleges and U.S. News and World Report’s annual Best Colleges ranking.

Shanghai, long considered China’s most cosmopolitan metropolis, has today reemerged as a global center with a booming culture industry and flourishing art scene. A panel discussion, “Picturing Global China: Contemporary Art from Shanghai and Beyond,” October 5 from 1-4 p.m. at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will bring together leading scholars and practitioners of Chinese art, theater, and film to discuss the rapidly developing cultural climate of China’s largest city and primary financial capital.

Stephani Stephenson’s career has taken a global path since she graduated from UO with an MFA in ceramics in 1989.

The Ford Family Foundation has named UO Career Instructor Mike Bray a 2013 Hallie Ford Fellow in the visual arts. The $25,000 award is given to artists who have demonstrated excellence in their work and who show potential for significant advancement.

Lin Cook was commissioned to design the first Lawrence Medal — a prestigious honor now awarded annually to a distinguished graduate — in 1999. She has produced every medal that has been presented since then.

“Metal is the medium in which I can express myself artistically,” says Cook, BFA metalsmithing and jewelry ’80, who based the design of the medal on a rosette motif from the columns at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA, a building designed by Ellis F. Lawrence.) “With metal you can define an edge, an important element of my design language.