Faculty

A grid of four headshots of the 2025-2026 Fintz Award recipients. Top left: Laura Yares, smiling, with shoulder-length brown hair and blue earrings, against a yellow background. Top right: Jonathan Choti, smiling, with a navy blazer. Bottom left: Nerli Paredes Ruvalcaba, smiling, with long pink-tinted hair. Bottom right: Aaron Schultz, smiling, with a beard and glasses

Four MSU Faculty Honored with Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence

April 20, 2026

Four College of Arts & Letters faculty have been selected as this year’s recipients of the Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities in recognition of their exemplary Integrative Arts and Humanities (IAH) instruction. Presented each spring by the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities (CISAH), the Fintz Award, which is student nominated, recognizes outstanding faculty who engage students in arts and humanities ways of knowing while helping them develop critical thinking and effective communication skills.

Two young women sit on a stage, one comforting the other by holding her face. Both wear casual summer outfits. The woman on the right holds yellow flowers, conveying emotions of support and tenderness.

Arts MSU / Faculty / Faculty / Lansing-East Lansing Impact / News / Performance / Production / Student / Student / Theatre / U.S. Impact

MSU Premieres New Musical, Exploring Caregiving, Resilience, and Mental Health

April 15, 2026

Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre invites audiences to experience Dandelion, a 23-song original musical based on a true story that will resonate with families everywhere. Brought to life in just months with limited resources and running April 23-26, 2026, at Studio 60 in the MSU Auditorium, this new musical tells the story of a daughter who longs to leave…

Faculty / Faculty / Faculty Stories / News

From First-Generation Student to Beal Award Recipient: Thomas Berding Honored for Scholarly Excellence

April 14, 2026

Thomas Berding, Professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, has spent more than three decades at Michigan State University, creating paintings, mentoring student artists, and developing a studio practice that has taken his work to galleries and museums across the country. He is now among a select few MSU faculty members who have earned the William J.…

Bright graphic announcing 1,332 Spartan undergraduates at the University Undergraduate Research & Arts Forum, April 17, 2026. Bold colors convey excitement.

Event / Faculty / Faculty / News / Research / Scholarship / Student / Student

MSU’s 28th Annual UURAF Showcases Undergraduate Research and Creative Work

April 14, 2026

Michigan State University’s 28th annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) takes place in person on April 17 at MSU’s Breslin Center and asynchronously online on April 16 and 17, hosted on Symposium by ForagerOne. This hybrid event will feature research, scholarship, and creative work in multiple formats from hundreds of MSU undergraduate students, including many students from the College of Arts…

A woman in a vibrant purple dress stands against a lavender background. She wears matching earrings, and her expression is confident and serene.

Faculty / Faculty / Faculty Stories / News

Suban Nur Cooley Named Lansing’s Next Poet Laureate

April 2, 2026

Suban Nur Cooley, Assistant Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) at Michigan State University, has been named Lansing’s next Poet Laureate and will serve the greater Lansing region for the 2026-2028 term. She also is an MSU alum having earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing from MSU’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures.

Two people stand smiling against a warm wooden background. The person on the left wears a dark jacket with a name tag, while the person on the right wears glasses and a brown shawl.

Faculty / Faculty / Faculty Stories / News / Research

MSU Professor and Alum Earn International Outstanding Publication Award for Second Language Acquisition Research

March 30, 2026

A research article co-authored by a Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters faculty member and an alum has received the 2025 Albert Valdman Award for Outstanding Publication in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, which recognizes the top article published in the international journal each year.The award-winning article, titled Testing the three-stage model of second language skill acquisition, was…

Two men exchange a staff in a cultural ceremony. One wears a suit and white headscarf, the other dons traditional attire with feathered headdress.

Faculty / Faculty / Faculty Stories / Grant / News / WRAC

Marohang Limbu Awarded HARP Large-Scale Funding to Advance Global Understanding of Himalayan Indigenous Rhetorics

March 26, 2026

Marohang Yakthung Limbu, Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University, has been awarded Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) large-scale development funding for his project "Documenting Matrilineal Civilizations and Ancient Himalayan Yakthung Histories: A Study Through Mundhums and Film." HARP is one of MSU’s largest internal grants, providing funding to support faculty conducting important research projects or activities in the arts and humanities.

A portrait of Dr. Rocío Quispe Agnoli smiling at the camera. She wears a black embroidered top and gold jewelry against a blue background.

Faculty / Faculty / Faculty Stories / News / Spanish

Rocío Quispe Agnoli to Deliver Legacy Lecture April 2

March 20, 2026

After 26 years as a faculty member in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University, Rocío Quispe Agnoli, Professor of Latin American Literatures and Cultures, will begin a new chapter as an Emeritum Professor at the end of this academic year. Before that, she will deliver the 2026 College of Arts & Letters Legacy Lecture, an…

Eight cast members of RA-Holes posed on and around a brown leather couch against a light blue background. Four students stand in the back row while four others sit in front, displaying a range of exaggerated and comedic expressions.

Arts MSU / Faculty / News / Performance / Production / Student / Student / Theatre

MSU Production Blends Theatre, Digital Storytelling, and TV for Live Studio Audience Experience

March 19, 2026

MSU’s Department of Theatre invites you to step into the excitement of a live sitcom recording where lights blaze, cameras roll, and the laughter is real. This spring, audiences have an opportunity to experience that electric atmosphere firsthand as a WKAR studio becomes the stage for a one-of-a-kind theatrical event. Recorded in Front of a Live Studio Audience: THIS RA…

The entrance to the RCAH LookOut Art Gallery, with a promotional poster for the Dogs Playing Poker exhibition visible in the foreground. The poster features a close-up portrait of Lorelei d'Andriole and lists the exhibition's run dates of March 16 through April 24, 2026.

Faculty / Faculty / News / RCAH

Art, Identity, and Visibility: Lorelei d’Andriole’s Solo Exhibition Anchors MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility

March 18, 2026

Through both her art and her voice, Michigan State University faculty member Lorelei d’Andriole is taking center stage at MSU’s Transgender Day of Visibility, delivering the event’s keynote and showcasing her work in a new solo exhibition that opened on campus this week. An artist, educator, and writer, d’Andriole is an Assistant Professor of Electronic Art and Intermedia in MSU’s…