Michigan State University has begun collecting art from around the world in an exploration of how people are using creativity in coping with the challenges and stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic...
This past fall I began my graduate assistantship with Matrix: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at MSU, working closely with the Enslaved project. In partnership with the MSU Department of History, University of Maryland, and scholars from various institutions...
We in the College of Arts & Letters have long understood the power of words to strengthen or diminish democracy. Over the past 24 hours, we have witnessed the power of words to incite violent insurrection at the United States Capitol, distort the truth, and undermine a peaceful transition of power. But we have also seen the power of words to organize and mobilize voters in Georgia, to resist cynical strategies of voter suppression, and to persevere in certifying the will of the people.
Lauren Slawin, a sophomore majoring in Creative Advertising and Graphic Design, used the CREATE! Micro-Grant program to confront racial discrimination and police brutality in a video essay where she sketches the face of the late George Floyd, an African American man killed during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill, with a voiceover that describes such events as “the second pandemic.”
Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre has produced a new sensory-friendly musical for children who are neurodiverse and will begin offering free virtual performances this month. Written by students and faculty at Michigan State University, Soda Pop Shop! is an interactive musical that invites audience members to relate to the experiences of the characters in the show and help them cope with their feelings as…
The CREATE! Micro-Grant Program supported the launch of 12 student projects that analyze and respond to racial injustice and the struggles brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These projects, ranging from interpretive dance and musical performances to traditional Anishinaabe quill work, videos, podcasts, personal essays, and poetry, can now be viewed online through the CREATE! Micro-Grant Virtual Exhibit.
As the 2020-2021 College of Arts & Letters’ Artist-in-Residence of Critical Race Studies, Young Joon Kwak is using multidisciplinary artistry to examine MSU’s Sparty statue in order to understand its deepest details and what lies beyond its symbolic skin.
Delivering general education curriculum in the arts and humanities requires some ingenuity to put the human experience into context. Faculty and instructors who teach in MSU’s Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities (CISAH) in the College of Arts & Letters continually meet this challenge by taking innovative approaches to teaching essential subjects. “The way we teach the…
The Creative Writing and Film Studies programs within the Department of English held a literary and video contest this past spring calling for student submissions of short prose, poetry, screenwriting, and video works exploring evolving notions of citizenship in the United States by asking students to respond to the question, “Who Is a Citizen?” The works submitted focused on themes relevant to…
Scholar, author, activist, and visionary builder, these are just a few words to describe Tamura Lomax, Foundational Associate Professor, who came to Michigan State University to work alongside Ruth Nicole Brown, Inaugural Chair, to envision and build the new vanguard Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS). Good timing and the extraordinary opportunity of creating a new department with…