Raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Yomaira Figueroa thought college was not a possibility for people like her, despite that she became the first person in her family to go to college.
Kristin Arola has been hired as Associate Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC), effective August 16, 2017, and will contribute to the development of the College’s Critical Diversity in a Digital Age (CDDA) initiative as well as to the Cultural Rhetorics doctoral concentration. Arola previously served as Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and Technology at…
Professor of Hispanic Studies Rocío Quispe-Agnoli was awarded the 2017 Flora Tristán Book Award for the best scholarly book about Peru published in 2016 for Nobles de papel: Identidades oscilantes y genealogías borrosas en los descendientes de la realeza inca.
MSU’s College of Arts & Letters has established a Critical Race Studies Residency Program that will bring an Artist-in-Residence and a Designer-in-Residence to campus for the 2017-2018 academic year to enrich the life of the greater Lansing community by facilitating practices of inclusion through art and design as part of the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. Appointed to…
Jacqueline Rhodes, Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, has been named Director of the Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research (CEDAR).
Tara Mock, a doctoral candidate in African and African American Studies, was recently awarded the 2017 TIAA Ruth Simms Hamilton Graduate Merit Fellowship at MSU. “Ruth Simms Hamilton’s scholarship challenged our understanding of the linkages between the past and contemporary experiences of African people globally,” Mock said. “My project builds on Dr. Hamilton’s legacy in its exploration of the continuities and…
Elizabeth LaPensee, Assistant Professor with a dual appointment in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures and the Department of Media and Information, has received the 2017 Serious Games Community Leadership Award from the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Serious Games Special Interest Group. The award is presented to a member of the game community who displays exceptional commitment…
Two faculty members from MSU’s College of Arts & Letters have been awarded a Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Yomaira Figueroa and Tamara Butler, both Assistant Professors in the Department of English and African American and African Studies program, were named 2017 Woodrow Wilson Fellows. Figueroa received a year-long fellowship that runs…
MSU faculty, staff and students who have demonstrated their efforts toward a more diverse and inclusive community will be honored at the 2017 All-University Excellence in Diversity Recognition and Awards Program Feb. 13. The ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. in Big Ten Room A of the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. Mohammad Khalil The 2017 Excellence in Diversity…
An artist of the spoken word, David Gonzalez, a nationally acclaimed storyteller and performer, spent a week in residence at Michigan State University. With support from the College of Arts & Letters, he inspired community members from ages 4 to 94 to tell their stories and showcase their creativity. The general theme for the week was the power of the word in…