Category: News - College of Arts & Letters

A group photo featuring Jonathan Choti, Dean Thomas Stubblefield, Tim Conrad, and Casey McArdle standing together and smiling, with Choti, Conrad, and McArdle holding their respective faculty award plaques.

2026 Faculty Award Winners Recognized for Outstanding Achievement

October 9, 2026

The College of Arts and Letters honored its 2026 Faculty Award at the College of Arts and Letters Faculty and Staff Welcome Reception on Sept. 28 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The honorees were recognized for their outstanding leadership, teaching, innovation, mentorship, and community engagement, as well as the significant impact they have made in enhancing curriculum and student experiences.

Side-by-side portraits of a smiling man wearing a blue and white checkered shirt in front of a whiteboard with colorful sticky notes, and a smiling woman with wavy brown hair wearing a black blazer and purple top against a background of green leaves

Award / Faculty / Faculty / Faculty and Staff / News / Staff / WRAC

2026 Outstanding Undergraduate Mentorship Award Recipients Honored

October 8, 2026

The College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University recently awarded its Outstanding Undergraduate Mentorship Awards, which acknowledge faculty and staff who make exceptional contributions to mentoring students outside the classroom. Recipients are nominated by students, endorsed by their chair or director, and selected by a student committee.

A group photo of eleven people—including the award winners and Dean Stubblefield—standing in a line holding plaques, joined by a golden retriever on the left and a man holding a wooden shepherd's crook on the right.

Award / News / Staff

2026 Staff Award Winners Recognized for Exceptional Dedication, Service, and Leadership

October 7, 2026

The College of Arts and Letters presented its 2026 Staff Awards at the College of Arts and Letters Faculty and Staff Welcome Reception on Sept. 28 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The award winners were recognized for having contributed to the success of the college and demonstrating exceptional dedication, service, and leadership.

A smiling man in a yellow shirt stands beside a vibrant gallery wall installation of colorful abstract figures in motion.

Alumni

MSU Alum Honored with Artista Latino Award at ArtPrize

October 6, 2026

MSU alum Gustavo Uriel Ayala received the Artista Latino Award at this year’s ArtPrize for his installation, titled “Masking Tears With Sweat.” The Artista Latino Award is a community award that recognizes and celebrates outstanding works of art by Latin American and Hispanic artists participating in ArtPrize, an international art competition and cultural festival held annually in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Three students in Michigan State University apparel pose outside a university building, standing in front of an arched entrance with the Michigan State College seal above the doors. Two women wear green Spartans sweatshirts and jeans, and a man wears a black Michigan State polo and jeans.

Student / Student

Three College of Arts and Letters Students on 2026-27 Homecoming Court

October 5, 2026

Three College of Arts and Letters students are part of Michigan State University’s Homecoming Court, which is considered one of the highest honors for MSU seniors. This week, Oct. 5-10, the MSU community will celebrate Homecoming week. Each year, 10-12 MSU students are selected to be part of the Homecoming Court based on their qualities of leadership, spirit, integrity, and…

A woman wearing headphones and a yellow sweater sits in a comfortable chair with a laptop in her lap.

Faculty / News / Religious Studies / Research / U.S. Impact

Ask the Expert: How Americans Are Learning About Judaism and Religion Through Art and Culture

September 29, 2026

A growing number of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, according to the Pew Research Center, but those broader shifts don’t necessarily mean Americans’ religious lives are disappearing. To understand what religion looks like in 21st-century America, scholars like Michigan State University Associate Professor Laura Yares are asking different questions. Yares co-authored the recent book “Judaism Mediated: Learning About Jewishness through the…

Text on a light green background reading 'Stanley + Selma Hollander lecture series' on the left, separated by a vertical line from the words 'Artist Designer + Scholar' on the right.

AAHD / Art, Art History, and Design / Arts MSU / Donor / Event / Lansing-East Lansing Impact / News / Programs / Scholarship

Hollander Lecture Series Brings Artists, Designers, and Scholars from Around the World to MSU

September 28, 2026

Michigan State University’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design will welcome 10 artists, designers, and scholars to campus during the 2026-27 academic year as part of its annual Stanley and Selma Hollander Visiting Artist, Designer, and Scholar Lecture Series. All lectures and events in the series are free and open to the public.

Students gather around a large black-and-white drawing displayed on an outdoor easel during the MSU Drawing Marathon.

Arts MSU / Event / Faculty / Faculty / Lansing-East Lansing Impact / News / Staff / Student / Student / Theatre

Drawing Marathon Brings Eight Hours of Non-Stop Creativity to Campus

September 22, 2026

The Summer Circle Theatre Courtyard will become a hub of creativity as people from across campus and the community come together to draw and create during the annual Drawing Marathon on Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hosted by MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design, this free event will include hands-on art activities, live models, music, and drawing opportunities for participants of all experience levels.

Illustrated poster for the “Sacred Nine Project: The Billings Pendulum 250,” featuring a colonial-era figure swinging a mallet, with text promoting a performance about revolutionary America.

Arts MSU / Faculty / Faculty / Faculty Stories / Lansing-East Lansing Impact / News / Religious Studies / Research

MSU Professor Brings America’s First Composer to Life in October Musical Performance

September 21, 2026

As the United States continues to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, David Stowe, Professor of Religious Studies and Adjunct Professor of History at Michigan State University, is helping audiences rediscover a figure often overlooked in the story of the American Revolution: composer, teacher, writer, and patriot William Billings. On Sunday, Oct. 4, the public is invited to experience “The…

Graphic for the MSU Department of English’s “Circulations: Transnational Contact & Global Circulation in Literary and Film Studies,” featuring black-and-white portraits of four people within overlapping purple, orange, and green circles.

English / Event / News

English Department Launches New ‘Circulations’ Speaker Series

September 18, 2026

The Department of English at Michigan State University is launching a new speaker series, titled “Circulations,” which features scholars working in literary and film studies whose work centers transnational contact and global circulation. The 2026-27 series, programmed by Professor Kristin Mahoney, is funded through the generosity of the Russel B. Nye endowment.