Associate Professor Tamura Lomax is going back to her roots to the discipline that first inspired her scholarly work. In January 2023, she will begin teaching classes as a faculty member of Michigan State University’s Department of Religious Studies. A scholar, author, and activist, Lomax never left Religious Studies, it’s always been an important part of her life, but now…
Alexis Black is always up for a good fight. And since February 2022, the Assistant Professor of Acting and Movement at Michigan State University has been choreographing stage combat for the Tony Award-nominated production of Macbeth, currently on Broadway, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. Working alongside her long-time mentor David Leong, Black is the Assistant Fight Director for the production, which runs…
Rocío Quispe-Agnoli, Professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies, is a 2022 recipient of Michigan State University’s prestigious William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award, which honors faculty members for a comprehensive and sustained record of scholarly excellence in research and/or creative activities, instruction, and…
Jon Keune, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, is exploring non-traditional teaching methods in one of the oldest fields of study. In a quest to see how changes to teaching style can affect student engagement, Keune is exploring transformational classroom models within the College of Arts & Letters. He has been experimenting with the “flipped classroom model” in his REL 340…
Kirk Domer, Professor of Scene Design in the Department of Theatre, has been appointed Acting Associate Dean of Academic Personnel and Administration and will serve in this position July 1-December 31, 2022, while Sonja Fritzsche, Associate Dean of Academic Personnel and Administration, is on research leave. "I am excited to join the College of Arts & Letters Deans' Team to…
Michigan State University has received a $228,000 grant from the Templeton Religion Trust to fund a multi-year, multi-national, multi-faceted research project on “Science, Art and Faith: Architectural Heritage and Islam.” Led by Martha Olcott, James Madison College Professor, and Mohammad H. Khalil, Director of the Muslim Studies Program and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, with support from Salah Hassan, Director of Global Studies in…
The Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) was initially founded as a Ph.D. granting program in 2002. On July 1, 2019, AAAS became a department. In Spring 2020, MSU appointed Ruth Nicole Brown the inaugural chair.
A group of Michigan State University faculty and students from the Department of Theatre in collaboration with the Wharton Center Institute for Arts & Creativity led an effort to bring the Next Narrative Monologue Competition (NNMC) to Michigan, a national high school competition that celebrates the diverse perspectives and worldviews of the Black community by bringing works of contemporary Black…
The world of language teaching has faced enormous challenges in delivering quality education due to the abrupt transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the major challenges is the difficulty of using traditional textbooks in the new reality, and Arabic language programs are no exception. Two Assistant Professors of Arabic at Michigan State University, Sadam Issa and…
As an applied linguist with interests in language education, Peter De Costa is interested in how policy decisions impact language learning and teaching and is drawn to the identity, ideological, and emotional consequences of these decisions.