2023 Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Awards Presented

This year’s winners of the Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Awards are Mona Jahani, MFA Candidate in Theatre Design, the Outstanding Achievement in the Arts recipient, and Naiyan Du, Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics, the Outstanding Achievement in the Letters recipient. The Varg-Sullivan Endowed Graduate Awards, presented by the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, were established in honor of…

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Linguistics Major Helps Rebuild LGBTQIA2S+ Student Organization from Ground Up

Linguistics major Ryan Peters has devoted much of his time to cultivating the LGBTQIA2S+ community at Michigan State University in his pivotal role as the Residence Halls Association (RHA) Representative for People Respecting the Individuality of Students at MSU (PRISM), which is the South Neighborhood LGBTQIA2S+ Caucus.  He was first elected as the RHA Representative for PRISM during his first semester on campus.…

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German Professor Awarded for Outstanding Service to Education Abroad

Elizabeth Mittman, Associate Professor of German in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University, is the 2023 recipient of the MSU Award for Outstanding Service to Education Abroad, which recognizes faculty and staff who give their time, energy, and creativity to the development and implementation of education abroad programs that support MSU's commitment to providing students with high-quality international education opportunities.…

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Doctoral Candidate Receives AAAL Graduate Student Award

J. Dylan Burton, a doctoral candidate in the Second Language Studies (SLS) Ph.D. program at Michigan State University, received a 2023 Graduate Student Award from the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL). Each year, this merit-based award recognizes 20 students from across the country based on the quality of a written proposal for a poster or a paper.  Burton’s primary research interests center around…

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Paula Winke Named Inaugural Arts & Letters Professor

Paula Winke, Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures (LiLaC) at Michigan State University, recently was named the inaugural Arts & Letters Professor recognizing her outstanding intellectual leadership and excellence in teaching. “It is a true honor to be the inaugural Arts & Letters Professor in the College of Arts & Letters,” Winke said. “This award is meaningful…

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MSU Linguist Receives NSF Grant for Cutting-Edge Research in Word Pattern Recognition

Most people can recognize what words are real and which ones aren’t in the languages they know. However, sometimes a nonsense word might sneak through, especially when the word sounds and looks a lot like a legitimate one. Karthik Durvasula, Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University, is delving further into “wordlikeness judgments”…

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College of Arts & Letters Students Earn First-Place Awards at UURAF

Three College of Arts & Letters students earned first-place awards for their presentations at Michigan State University’s 24th Annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF). The students are now among the other first-place winners who will be considered for the grand prize, which will be announced in June.   This year's UURAF was held at the Breslin Student Events Center.…

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LiLaC Faculty Promote Open Pedagogy Beyond MSU

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…

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