Lecture Series Showcases Strong Connection Between Religious Studies and MSU Libraries’ Special Collections

Religious Studies faculty will discuss how the MSU Libraries' Special Collections informs their teaching and research as part of the Collecting Religion Lecture Series offered this semester. Hosted by MSU Libraries and organized in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies, the series will highlight how rare and historical primary sources bring Religious Studies to life. The series kicks off…

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Religious Studies Alum Awarded Prestigious International Fellowship

Mustafa Syed, a Michigan State University alum who graduated in Summer 2024 with a B.A. in Religious Studies, has been named a Schwarzman Scholar and will join an elite group of future global leaders selected from around the world for this prestigious graduate fellowship program. He is MSU’s second Schwarzman Scholar in the 10-year history of the award.

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Tracing the Roots of Indigenous Science Fiction and Futurisms in America

A photo of a Star Wars stormtrooper that hangs in Blaire Morseau’s home epitomizes both her childhood passions and current research pursuits. The photo appears in a frame with a unique Southwest design, a favorite find bought from a Native artist when Morseau was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico. Now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University and an inaugural 1855 Professor of Great Lakes Anisshinaabe Knowledge, Spiritualities, and Cultural Practices...

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$3M Mellon-Funded ‘Creativity in the Time of COVID’ Has Local and Global Impact

When the world went into lockdown in the face of COVID-19 and while adapting to social distancing, zoom, and masks required, many, in their isolation, turned to art and creative expression as a way to cope with the stress, grief, loneliness, and loss brought on by the pandemic. This artistic exploration, born from confinement and fueled by emotions of uncertainty…

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Incoming First-Year Students Receive Prestigious Alumni Distinguished Scholarships

Two incoming first-year College of Arts & Letters students have been awarded Michigan State University’s highly competitive Alumni Distinguished Scholarships, which cover full tuition, room and board, and a stipend for up to eight semesters of undergraduate study. This year, MSU awarded its annual Alumni Distinguished Scholarships to 13 top incoming first-year students. Among those students are: Zachary Bigelow of…

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Afrofuturism & Quilting Exhibition: Exploring Connections Within Teaching, Learning, and Quilt Praxis

Stitch by stitch, quilt making has played an integral role in African American history. But the storytelling embedded in the quilts themselves is more than mere tradition. In the Afrofuturism & Quilts: Materializing Black Futures & Black Womxn’s Quilt Legacies Exhibition now on display through Friday, July 19, at the MSU Union Art Gallery, local and national quilt artists and quilt scholars explore embodied and theoretical connections between Afrofuturism and quilt making.

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CREATE! Micro-Grant Project Examines Mental Health Through Poetry

As a recipient of a 2023 CREATE! Micro-Grant, Rose Butler-Shriner, a senior English major with a concentration in Creative Writing, used the funding to write an inspirational poem that shines a spotlight on the struggle between mental health and hope. This poem, Ars Poetica: Just a Poem, explores the feeling of being overloaded and the inability to focus on mental…

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Registration Still Open for 9th Annual Global Digital Humanities Symposium

This year’s Global Digital Humanities Symposium at Michigan State University will, in large part, focus on ethical Artificial Intelligence with each of the three keynote speakers planning to address the topic. Bill Hart-Davidson, Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Arts &…

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International Advocacy for Racial Equity an Intrinsic Part of Professor’s Research and Teaching

Leonora Souza Paula, Assistant Professor in MSU’s Department of English and affiliated faculty in the Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities Program, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Center for Gender in Global Context was invited to participate in the most recent meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent held at the…

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Legacy Gift Creates Two Scholarships to Support College of Arts & Letters Students

Alaine Weiss credits her time as an undergraduate at Michigan State University as one of the most impactful experiences in her life and her years in East Lansing among her most treasured memories. But the road to becoming a Spartan was difficult, having lost both her parents due to extended illnesses when she was just 11 years old. Were it…

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