Kinitra Brooks grew up connecting ideas, asking questions, and demanding the freedom to do so. Today, the Associate Professor in MSU’s Department of English continues to push boundaries through her study of Black women, genre fiction, popular culture, and the work of conjure women as intellectual history. “Basically, I teach and research Black women creating weird stuff,” Brooks said. “That includes Black women…
The CREATE! Micro-Grant Program has selected 12 student projects to each receive $500 to respond critically and imaginatively to events occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the winning projects also will reflect on the fight for social justice in the Black Lives Matter movement, producing art that responds to struggles brought on by the pandemic and acts of police…
Elena Ruíz’s anti-violence research has attracted the interest and support of advocacy organizations and philanthropic groups world-wide, including the Me Too Movement Organization for which she was named principal researcher for gender-based violence in January 2020. An Assistant Professor in MSU’s Department of Philosophy, Ruíz identifies strategic interventions for sexual violence and social structuresthat harm and keep people from meeting their basic needs. Through cross-disciplinary…
Ruth Nicole Brown has been appointed as the Inaugural Chairperson for the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) at Michigan State University, effective July 1, 2020. She currently is an Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “I’m overjoyed about joining MSU as the Inaugural Chairperson of African…
After more than a year serving as Acting Interim Chair and then Interim Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages, Yen-Hwei Lin has been appointed Chair of the Department. This four-year appointment is effective August 16, 2020, through August 15, 2024. A Professor of Linguistics, Lin served as Acting Interim Chair (November 5, 2018-2019) and…
(PLEASE NOTE: The performance dates for Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder have been postponed. Please call 1.800.WHARTON to receive a refund or hold on to your tickets for rescheduled dates when they are announced. If you have any questions, please call 1.800.WHARTON.) Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre is staging the latest production to be commissioned by the Big Ten Theatre Consortium,…
Jeff Wray and Julian Chambliss, two distinguished professors from Michigan State University's Department of English, joined Russ White on WKAR's MSU Today to talk about their work and how it impacts their students and our evolving society. The conversation began with their thoughts on a challenging time for racial tension on campus. “It has been a challenging year, but in some ways, it's been a typical…
(PLEASE NOTE: In response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and in the interest of public safety, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum closed on March 14 and has not determined a reopening date due to the rapidly changing nature of the situation, but will communicate updates as they become available. Also, the Claudia Rankine Signature Lecture scheduled for April 9 has been canceled, and…
As a visual artist, curator, and filmmaker, Parisa Ghaderi has always taken into consideration her identity as an Iranian woman and has expressed her identity through her work. “Every exhibition I have seen about Iranian women is always in black and white imagery and features people with hijab and chador with very extreme and radical perspectives. To me, it feels like these…
The MSU Latinx Film Festival (LxFF), scheduled for February 12-16, will offer five days of film, music, and art at various venues across the Michigan State University campus as well as throughout Lansing and East Lansing, giving attendees many opportunities to make meaningful connections with Latinx communities. The biannual festival, which is celebrating its second iteration, will feature the work of…
