In January 2015, Zoe Zappitell texted Brittney Urich: “I want to make an app that helps improve the lives of college students.” Urich’s positive response was nearly instantaneous. “We immediately began brainstorming the problems that students endure in their lives,” Brittney, a senior majoring in Professional Writing with Business and Communications cognates, says. “We decided that making friends while…
Dr. April Baker-Bell has been invited to join the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standing Committee on Research, and has also been named a Fellow with the Literacy Research Association (LRA) STAR mentoring program. Baker-Bell is an assistant professor in the MSU Department of Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures (WRAC), and the African American and African studies program.…
December 15, 2015 The fifth of nine children, who grew up in the city of Khorramabad in mountainous western Iran, Mostafa Papi already had significant learning, teaching, and academic experience in Iran when he applied and was accepted as a doctoral candidate in the Second Language Studies (SLS) Program at Michigan State University. In Iran, Mostafa received a BA in…
After taking the Children’s Language Acquisition course taught by Cristina Schmitt, Honors College and linguistics and neuroscience major Mina Hirzel found something she was truly interested in pursuing. “Cristina invited me to come sit in on the acquisition lab, and that really opened up my world of research.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h12-qxc1ko&feature=emb_title Preschool Language Learning The Language Acquisition Lab operates under the Department…
“You can’t really understand the world without understanding religion,” says Dr. Mohammad Khalil, Director of the Muslim Studies Program and associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. “I do think there is a misconception that Religious Studies is theological studies or some kind of devotional approach to religion,” Dr. Khalil says. “Actually, we’re not here to promote a particular worldview;…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…