Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Building and Mobilizing Women’s Political Power

February 25, 2021

From the growing gender voting gap to record numbers of women elected to public office to white women’s contribution to white supremacist political movements, women’s place in US politics has never been so hotly debated and contested since the Suffrage Movement of the early 1900s. In this presentation I will highlight some of the key issues in women’s political power in the US in the last four decades, emphasizing recent developments in the 2018 and 2020 elections. I will explore gender voting patterns, the effects that women have on politics when they run for public office, and the directions we might see women’s political power move towards in the next several years.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News / Programs / Student

Graduating Senior Influential with Curriculum Changes Addressing Racial Equity

February 23, 2021

Olivia Gundrum, a senior Honors College English major and first-generation college student, graduates this May and will leave MSU having made a positive impact through her work to cultivate a racially informed curriculum within the College of Education. As an English major focusing on English Secondary Education, the interconnectedness of racial identity in the English classroom has always intrigued Gundrum.…

Award / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Exhibition / News / Student

Community Vote to Determine Final ‘Who Is a Citizen?’ Prize

February 18, 2021

Supporting the voices of emerging artists has never been more important. The MSU Broad and the College of Arts & Letters are honored to have been able to do this work through the Who Is A Citizen? exhibition, which runs through March 21, 2021, at the MSU Broad Art Lab. The public is now invited to help support these emerging artists as…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News / Programs / Publication / Research

New AAAS Department to Focus on Black Feminisms, Black Genders, and Black Sexualities

February 17, 2021

Being built to blaze a trail in higher education with its focus on Black Feminisms, Black Genders Studies, and Black Sexualities Studies, the architects of the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS), the newest department within MSU’s College of Arts & Letters, are unapologetic in this focus as they build the unit they have long dreamed about. Dr.…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News / Research

The Trailblazing Life of MSU’s First African American Faculty Member

February 16, 2021

David W.D. Dickson’s trailblazing career, spanning more than 40 years and five academic institutions, began at Michigan State University in 1948 when he became the university’s first African American faculty member and, a few years later, the first to be awarded MSU’s Distinguished Faculty Award. He also went on to become the first African American to lead a college or…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News / Programs / Research / Scholarship

Working Toward a Philosophy for All of Us

February 12, 2021

“Why philosophy?” That’s a question MSU Philosophy Professor Kristie Dotson, formal advisor to the new Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS), has fielded many times before. Perhaps it is because she had never taken a philosophy course until she began graduate studies in philosophy. It could also be the centrality of Black feminisms in Dotson’s life and the…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News / Publication

Faculty Voice: Comics and the Black Experience

February 9, 2021

Julian Chambliss, Professor in the Department of English, core faculty for the Consortium for Critical Diversity in Digital Age Research, and Val Berryman Curator of History for the MSU Museum, wrote the following article about the exhibit he curated for the MSU Museum, titled "Beyond the Black Panther: Visions of Afrofuturism in American Comics," for MSU Today.

Alumni / Award / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / News / Research / Student

Doctoral Students Receive Excellence in Diversity Award

February 4, 2021

Jessica and Michael Stokes, both doctoral students in the Department of English, received the MSU Excellence in Diversity Award for their work with the HIVES Research Workshop. They were nominated for this honor in the “Teams: Emerging Process” category.

Alumni / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / Grant / News / Research / Student

Conversations with CAL – Sounds of Religion Project

February 4, 2021

What does religion in the United States sound like? We begin by exploring the question that animates the American Religious Sounds Project (ARSP), a collaborative research initiative co-directed by Michigan State University Religious Studies Professor Amy DeRogatis and Ohio State University Comparative Studies Professor Isaac Weiner.

Alumni / Award / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion / Faculty / News / Programs / Research

Art Education Alumna Creates and Exhibits Black Art Library

February 2, 2021

Last year, at the start of Black History Month, College of Arts & Letters alumna Asmaa Walton began posting covers of art monographs, exhibition catalogues, and art biographies of African American visual artists to Instagram. An Art Education graduate, Walton was in the middle of her appointment as the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum…