Karissa Zárate, a Spanish major with a minor in Chicano/Latino Studies, is a 2025 recipient of the Aguila Award (MSU Student of the Year), which is presented each year by the MSU Commemorative Planning Committee to individuals who have shown courage, dedication, and a commitment to make Michigan State University a better place.
Michigan State University’s Womxn of Color Initiatives (WOCI) has selected Porsha Olayiwola, Poet Laureate for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, as its 2025 Artist-in-Residence. An award-winning poet, performer, educator, and curator, Olayiwola employs Afrofuturism and surrealism to explore historical and contemporary issues within the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She will be in residence on Michigan State University’s campus March 24-27.
Alejandra Márquez Guajardo, Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University, has been selected to receive the 2025 Plantando Semillas Award, also known as the MSU Faculty of the Year Award, recognizing her dedication and commitment to Latinx students and the Latinx community. Presented each year by MSU’s Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion,…
MJ Monteiro’s passion for art became an extraordinary pursuit at Michigan State University where, with Spartan support, they have received funding as an Art History and Visual Culture major and have worked multiple student jobs supported by alumni.
A new on-campus living-learning community where Spanish is the primary language will open its doors at Michigan State University in Fall 2025. Led and developed entirely by a team of MSU students from the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, this living-learning community, named La Casa, is open to all undergraduate students who are interested in Spanish language and cultures.…
For centuries, the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade have shaped the cultural, political, and historical narratives of the Francophone Afro-Caribbean world. Yet, many of these histories remained unspoken, fragmented, or overshadowed. In an effort to uncover some of these silenced stories, Safoi Babana-Hampton, Professor of French and Francophone Studies in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan…
As an artist-activist, Vadu Rodrigues came to Michigan State University from his native Cape Verde with a desire to not only hone his skills as a graduate student in the MFA in Studio Art program but to also fuel his decade-long efforts to transform global perceptions of Africa and the Black diaspora.An installation artist and veteran photographer, Rodrigues has spent…
This month, the Michigan State University Libraries, MSU College of Arts & Letters, and MSU College of Law are partnering to celebrate the birthday of renowned 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass with an event focused on helping to transcribe the Library of Congress’ African American Perspectives Collection. To commemorate the life and legacy of Douglass, who is widely considered the…
Three faculty members from the College of Arts & Letters are being honored by the university as recipients of 2024-25 Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards. These awards, presented by MSU's Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, recognize exceptional and innovative contributions that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at Michigan State University through their teaching, research, programming, service, community…
Trixie Long Smith, Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University, is part of the second cohort of the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Faculty Fellows Program-Africa and is partnering with a faculty member at the University of Pretoria in South Africa during the 2024-2025 academic year.