Alumnus Joel Guzman is providing a source of creativity for his community as the Director of Artist Engagement at Sing for Hope in New York City, which is a nonprofit organization that serves under-resourced schools, healthcare facilities, refugee camps, transit hubs, and public spaces by connecting them with creative outlets. As Director of Artist Engagement, Guzman is responsible for connecting with…
Resilient – that is the word to describe the students of the 2019-2020 Fiction Filmmaking Capstone class, who faced countless obstacles this past academic year, but each time they were knocked down, they stood up and figured out a way to move forward. Students in this capstone course spend the fall and spring semesters producing an original film in order…
Lynn Wolff’s decision to study German in middle school was purely pragmatic. Most kids her age took Spanish. She wanted to be different. Plus, it simply made sense to learn German when she lived in Wisconsin — a state where nearly 45 percent of the population claim German ancestry. Ultimately, learning German opened her eyes to the world beyond the borders…
Jonathan Choti, Assistant Professor of African Languages in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages, and two doctoral students, Pauline Wambua (Ph.D. in Educational Policy) and Ja’La Wourman (Ph.D. in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures), collectively received the 2020 Excellence Award in Interdisciplinary Scholarship (EAIS) for their 2019 study abroad project, Sustainable Community Development in Tanzania. Choti was the faculty leader of the…
This year’s College of Arts & Letters staff appreciation event, which is held each year to recognize the dedication, outstanding service, and exceptional work of the College’s staff members, was held virtually via Microsoft Teams on June 5. The highlight of this online event was the presentation of the group and individual awards. Those awards and the 2020 winners include:…
Anger,” Audre Lorde¹ insists, “is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.” The racist killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the wake of more than 400 years of anti-Black violence are infuriating. We must demonstrate solidarity through actions that support our African American colleagues who are directly impacted by the realities of racism. Our actions must be oriented toward systemic change.
In 2018, the Huffington Post described intimacy directing as “an emerging field in which a small group of professionals are pushing to develop standards and procedures for scenes involving physical intimacy in the wake of a public reckoning with sexual misconduct throughout the entertainment industry.” That same year, Michigan State University's Department of Theatre hired Alexis Black as Assistant Professor of Acting and Movement, in part,…
At the beginning of the Spring 2020 semester, Musical Theatre students in MSU’s Department of Theatre expected to finish the academic year with some intense scene work that would bring together every element of what they had learned. When the university switched to remote learning for the remainder of the semester, the direction of the course began an organic shift, born out…
Stephen Di Benedetto has been selected as the next Chairperson of the Department of Theatre at Michigan State University, effective July 15, 2020. “I am thrilled to join the Department of Theatre alongside such a wide array of talented artists working at the forefront of our field,” he said. “It is exhilarating to be a part of such a cohesive team charting…
Alumna Julia Domínguez, who earned her M.A. in Hispanic Studies from MSU in 2000, received this year’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award College/University Level from the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). An exemplary scholar-teacher, Domínguez is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. “I have dedicated my life to educating…