Ruby Mendoza, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University, has won a national award in recognition of their outstanding work in the area of queer theory. Mendoza is one of only two recipients of the 2023 Gloria Anzaldúa Rhetorician Award, a national scholarship presented by the Conference on College Composition and…
Michigan State University’s Department of Religious Studies will expand its curriculum to include a focus on Anishinaabe communities, and more broadly, Great Lakes Native American cultures thanks to the creation of two new faculty positions conceived by the Department’s winning proposal for an inaugural 1855 Professorship. Named for the year MSU was founded, the 1855 Professorships, created by the Office…
Linguistics major Ryan Peters has devoted much of his time to cultivating the LGBTQIA2S+ community at Michigan State University in his pivotal role as the Residence Halls Association (RHA) Representative for People Respecting the Individuality of Students at MSU (PRISM), which is the South Neighborhood LGBTQIA2S+ Caucus. He was first elected as the RHA Representative for PRISM during his first semester on campus.…
An equity-based art exhibition featuring more than 200 pieces of work from all around the world, exploring the use of creativity to cope with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, is opening this week at various Lansing, Michigan, locations and was three years in the making by a team led by Nancy DeJoy, Associate Professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Writing,…
Nowruz is the Iranian New Year celebrated by many ethnicities around the world, with origins in ancient Persian culture. It marks the beginning of spring and includes rich traditions that symbolize renewal and hope for the new year. Parisa Ghaderi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan…
The MSU Womxn of Color Initiatives (WOCI) is bringing Colah B. Tawkin to Michigan State University’s campus March 27-31 as its 2023 Artist-in-Residence. Tawkin is the creator, producer, and voice behind the renowned Black in the Garden podcast. Using her extensive horticultural knowledge, endless love for Black people, and keen ability to teach in a spirit of joy and kinship, Tawkin has built a…
Four faculty members from the College of Arts & Letters are being honored by the University as recipients of 2022-2023 Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards. These awards, presented by MSU's Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, recognize recipients' exceptional and innovative contributions that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Michigan State University through their teaching, research, programming, service,…
Michigan State University junior Morgan Braswell has had an interest in Black Studies from a very young age. Growing up in Detroit, watching shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World, and hearing her father talk about Malcolm X, instilled in Braswell a sense of pride in her culture. That influence has led her to become one…
Following in the footsteps set by her grandfather and mother who both attended Michigan State University, Anel "Nel" Robinson, a junior from Brookfield, Wisconsin, is now making history of her own as a member of the first cohort of students majoring in MSU’s new African American and African Studies (AAAS) major. “I love making history, and this is neither the…
Lynn Lammers’ work at Michigan State University has been nothing short of transformative. As Artistic Director of the Transforming Theatre Ensemble (TTE), she helps bring the art of theatre into a different area of campus life: diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) education. Through specialized workshops, the TTE, which is part of MSU’s Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, uses theatrical…