Five UC Davis faculty and staff have been named 2026-27 UC Dialogue Fellows for projects they will lead to advance the teaching and practice of dialogue across differences. Among those five, Heather Hether from the Department of Communication was named.
Two College of Letters and Science at UC Davis faculty members and one affiliated research center were honored with awards from the UC Davis School of Medicine Office of Wellness Education for their pioneering work in the wellness space.
New research in communication finds that college students who are lonely tend to choose media likely to make them feel worse while those who are depressed or anxious tend to choose media that might improve their mood. Making different choices could increase people's chances to improve their mental health.
A new review paper on political polarization globally argues that combatting it begins with expanding research on it beyond the U.S. context, where it’s been most prominent. Doing so could help avoid responding to polarization in ways that make it worse.
UC Davis Global Affairs has awarded two 2026 Peter and Marion London Global Learning Expansion Grants to faculty in the College of Letters and Science to develop or enhance global learning in their courses.
AI slop and misinformation is a systemic problem, and new research in communication shows us the limits and costs of dealing with it individually with constant skepticism.
As of March 2026, every U.S. state had introduced at least one bill seeking to regulate social media or other digital platforms for people younger than 18. The wave of legislation would be difficult for anyone to keep track of. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have built a public database to help.
From creating personalized maps of Alzheimer’s risk and designing next-generation cancer therapeutics to advancing AI-driven materials discovery and recovering nitrogen contaminants from water resources, the five projects that received this year’s Incentives for Large Grant Awards from the College of Letters and Science exemplify how UC Davis research is transforming science and society.
A new study in communication scoured the book buying histories and ratings of more than 35,000 Amazon shoppers and found that while some buy books that are similar to others they have enjoyed, people who were more curious were more likely to try something completely different and to like it.
On Presidents Day weekend, children at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, or MOSAC, in Sacramento played Wreathies, a game created by graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Communication’s UC Davis Media Lab. The game is part of a scientific study to test whether kids between 8 and 12 years old prefer to have choices in their learning.
