Ayanna De’Vante Spencer, who earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Michigan State University this spring, has accepted a tenure-track assistant professorship at the University of Connecticut with joint appointments in Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Spencer is changing the status quo in the field of philosophy by combining activism with her research. Her dissertation, “Epistemologies of Criminalization:…
Continue ReadingPhilosophy Alumna Accepts Assistant Professor Position
A $1 million gift from alumna Carol Ann Bennett-Vallès and her husband Jean-Paul Vallès has established the first-ever endowed professor position in art history in the College of Arts & Letters. “We are grateful to Carol Ann and Jean-Paul for a gift that so generously supports the university’s commitment to programmatic growth, enhancement, and success in the arts,” said MSU…
Continue ReadingFirst-Ever Endowed Professorship in Art History Established with $1 Million Gift
When classes at Michigan State University moved to remote learning, students in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design (AAHD) faced the unique challenge of emulating studio spaces from home. In an effort to ensure student success, AAHD created the Student Art Materials Fund to provide necessary art supplies for students during remote learning. “Some forms of Studio Art and Apparel…
Continue ReadingFund Created to Help Students Get the Art Materials They Need
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Michigan State University a $325,000 grant to support the first phase of the “Emergency Response Archive of Puerto Rico,” a digital open-access repository of Puerto Rican artifacts of disasters pertaining to Hurricane María (2017), the Guayanilla earthquakes (2020), and COVID-19 (2020). The project involves collaboration between MSU, the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras,…
Continue ReadingEmergency Response Archive of Puerto Rico Receives Mellon Foundation Grant
As art and design students and faculty take on the task of remote learning, it seems as if some of their subjects pose seemingly insurmountable challenges. How can painters learn to paint outside of the studio? How can apparel students learn to make patterns at home? What might a home ceramics studio look like? Faculty in the Department of Art,…
Michigan State University has created a number of support programs and materials to help Michigan’s K-12 school districts prepare for online instruction this fall. Among these programs is the Foundations of Successful Online Teaching & Learning series that was collaboratively developed by MSU's Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative and Okemos Public Schools. This series is designed to help teachers understand and adopt the…
Continue ReadingFree Support Programs to Help Michigan’s K-12 School Districts
As the COVID-19 pandemic turns our way of life upside down, one principle continues to be of utmost importance: the need to look out for one another. Since mid-March when Michigan State University moved to remote learning to contain the spread of COVID-19, College of Arts & Letters alumni, parents, and friends have asked how they can help and dozens have contributed…
Continue ReadingSpartans Will to Give and Help Students Who Face Financial Hardships
Scott Lovejoy is a Spartan who is living, working, and raising a family in the middle of Oregon, far from East Lansing, Michigan, so he wanted to make sure his wife Kristy and three young children were aware of all the reasons they should be Spartans. Turns out, it wasn’t a hard sell. The Lovejoy family loves MSU, and they’ve…
William and Audrey Farber and their family EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Michigan State University’s newly created William and Audrey Farber Family Chair in Holocaust Studies and European Jewish History, funded by a $1.5 million private gift, will be one of just a handful of Holocaust Studies chairs in the country, one of four in the Big Ten and the first…
Continue Reading$1.5 Million Gift To Make MSU a Leader in Holocaust Studies
$36M RAISED 6,179 DONORS 181% TO GOAL Alumni: 47.4% Friends: 35.9% Corporations: 0.9% Foundations: 7.9% Other: 7.9% SPARTANS STEPPED UP Spartans in various regions stepped up by volunteering and supporting the campaign. Take a look at the below list to see where—and from whom—these gifts came from. MICHIGAN $921.9M • 186,221 donors OUTSIDE MICHIGAN $912.1M • 69,063 donors Atlanta $11.4M • 1,597 donors…
