Improving Collaboration Between Native Americans and Climate Scientists

Written by: Kristen Parker and Kyle WhyteHoping to improve Native American tribes’ access to climate science tools, a Michigan State University researcher will use a four-year $450,000 National Science Foundation grant to foster better relations between tribes and scientific organizations when dealing with climate change. Tribes are among the groups most affected by climate change, and they’re also some of the…

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Project eSankofa MOOCc: A ‘Massive Open Online Community conversation’

Project eSankofa at MSU’s African American and African Studies (AAAS) launched the first Massive Open Online Community conversation (MOOCc) via Canvas Network Tuesday, August 4, 2015. (Canvas Network offers open online courses taught by educators globally and provides a place and platform where teachers, students, and institutions worldwide can connect.) A new take on the MOOC, or Massive Open Online…

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Entrepreneurial Students Present App at Techweek

Necter (Now, Conecter) is “Your go-to campus connector.” Students want to be social. They want to do the things they love and connect with others who love doing the same things. But when you’re attending a school like MSU, with so many other students, connecting with people that share similar interests can seem overwhelming. It may seem easy to find…

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Doctoral Student Wins International Research Title with Language App

Laura Gonzales presenting PromptMe at the SIGDOC conference in Ireland. A team of three graduate students in the Rhetoric and Writing program at Michigan State are changing the way language is used in the classroom. Spokesperson for the team, Laura Gonzales, won first place at the annual SIGDOC conference for their application idea, PromptMe, and is now in the running…

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red brick building
Eustace-Cole Hall, Michigan State University

Linguistics Senior Awarded Baggett Fellowship

A Michigan State University Honors College senior, majoring in linguistics and neuroscience, has been awarded a prestigious Baggett Fellowship. Mina Hirzel will be participating in a one-year post-baccalaureate research fellowship at the University of Maryland, College Park. Hirzel has been an undergraduate researcher in MSU's Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages Language Acquisition Lab for the past two…

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Faculty and Students Showcase Research on Reducing Online Trolling

Have you ever participated in a vibrant online discussion, only to see it hijacked by a user or users bent on going off issue, venting, and/or name-calling? Well, if an MSU College of Arts & Letters research team—including professors, post-doc, graduate and undergraduate students—has its way, that may happen a lot less in the future thanks to a new software…

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Faculty Honored for Research in Literary Neuroscience

Natalie Phillips, assistant professor of English at Michigan State University, has been awarded a Digital Innovation Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. One of only seven scholars to receive such an award, the council recognized Phillips’ research on literary cognition. In a recent study, subjects read the works of Jane Austen while researchers measured their brain flow in an MRI. Preliminary…

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Amy DeRogatis Awarded Grant for Studying “Soundscapes” of Religion

The Midwest is becoming more religiously diverse, and with that comes new sounds that can shape communities, says a Michigan State University researcher who will use a grant to create a digital sound map of religion in Midwestern cities. Amy DeRogatis, associate professor of religious studies at MSU, and Isaac Weiner, assistant professor of comparative studies at The Ohio State University, have…

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$2 Million Endowment Ensures Ongoing Success in Humanities

Kyle Whyte, a leading researcher and authority in the ethical and political issues surrounding climate policy and indigenous peoples, has been named as the inaugural Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University. As part of the MSU Empower Extraordinary campaign, alumnus and retired businessman Henry Timnick gifted $2 million to endow the position in honor…

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Senior Varsha Koduvayur Nominated for Carnegie Research Assistant Fellowship

Two Michigan State University Honors College seniors interested in international affairs have been nominated for a nationally competitive research assistant fellowship through the Carnegie Junior Fellows Program within the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The two nominees are Varsha Koduvayur and Brittany Zwierzchowski. Koduvayur is majoring in international relations and comparative cultures and politics in James Madison College and Arabic in the College of Arts…

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