November 2023
Inside the Open
News and Inspiration from the College of Liberal Arts -
November 2023
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday break, there's so much to be grateful for at the College of Liberal Arts. This newsletter highlights just a few of the notable advances our college has made, collectively and individually. For more, be sure to check out the College of Liberal Arts news feed, read about Newsmakers, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
COLA at the SHED:
Cross-Disciplinary Courses Ignite Dialogue on Enduring Human Challenges
The SHED is open and now the site of engaging opportunities from music and dance performances to dynamic learning exeriences. Made possible by a generous gift from a COLA National Council member, new interdisciplinary courses have been developed to be taught SHED. Each course examines an enduring human problem and is co-taught by faculty from different academic disciplines, providing broader perspectives, differing views, and expanded context. Upcoming courses planned include:
- Piracy: Ancient and Modern, co-taught by Sarah Burns (political science) and Amit Ray (English)and explores historical, political, and economic facets of piracy while integrating modern approaches and challenges, including open source culture and cyberpiracy.
- Sustainable Textiles, co-taught by Hinda Mandell (journalism) and Melissa Dawson (College of Art and Design), explores the ethical and social implications of current industrial textiles production, while placing that production in the context of historical effects of textile production, including the industrial revolution.
- Worldbuilding in the Liberal Arts, co-taught by Trent Hergenrader (English) and a rotating cast of College of Liberal Arts faculty, provides incoming first year students with an overview of the tools and techniques that worldbuilding in the liberal arts brings to bear on enduring problems like propaganda and misinformation.
Upcoming Recitals and Performances Showcase Student Talent
Performing Arts Events
Mark your calendar and plan to be inspired! November 30 and throughout early December, join us for performances presented by our School of Performing Arts music and dance students. Some events even include traditional holiday tunes to get you in the spirit of the season.
An inside look
Hover over each image to read its caption.
Inspiring people, amazing work.
"If you have ever gotten a vaccine or received an intravenous drug and did not come down with a potentially life-threatening fever, you can thank a horseshoe crab."
Horseshoe crab blood is vital for testing intravenous drugs, but new synthetic alternatives could mean pharma won’t bleed this unique species dry.
Department of Education grant will fund the development of new materials and curricula for Chinese, Italian, and Spanish courses that focus on STEAM
“I hope more students will be inspired to take on internships, co-ops, or other experiential learning opportunities where they can continue to further connect through languages other than English...” ...
“I love my job so much. I use the observational skills I learned through my graduate work with Dr. DeLong in the Comparative Cognition and Perception Lab every day when training my dogs."
...My experience at RIT has made me a really successful service dog trainer." — Irene Fobe, Experimental Psychology MS, '17
Hello, friend.
Get to know the people who keep the College of Liberal Arts moving forward in these regularly updated profiles.
Nominate a faculty or staff member for a future profile spotlight
Meet Jeffrey Wagner, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
Favorite music (general style or specific band), podcast, book, or movie:
The Allman Brothers Band—unique blend of jazz, blues and rock.
Shameless brag:
I am proud of myself for completing a first marathon last month in 3 hours and 51 minutes.
Three foods I can’t live without:
My wife’s pecan pie, shrimp & grits, and wood-fire grilled pizza I like to make.
What or who inspires me?
The playwright and former president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel. He was a terrific writer of not only plays but of his own political speeches; I highly recommend to my family, students and friends a collection of his speeches published as The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice. His writings and his life story inspire me to try to do my best and to try be of service to others.
On my perfect day off, I'm most likely to be found...
Surf fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Newsmakers
December 7, 2023
O. Nicholas Robertson, associate professor of criminal justice, and Venita D’Angelo ’23 (criminal justice), a criminal justice master’s student, presented “Race and Crime in a Rustbelt Suburb: Irondequoit, NY” at the 2023 American Society of Criminology meeting, held Nov. 16 in Philadelphia.
December 7, 2023
Jonathan Schroeder, the William A. Kern Professor of Communications, presented “On Midcentury Vinyl and Cultural History” on Nov. 30 at Stockholm University Business School and “Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records” on Dec. 4 for the Art Talk series at Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden.
December 7, 2023
Christopher Schreck, professor and chair of the Department of Criminal Justice, was invited to give presentations of his work on decision-making processes that people use to manage their victimization risk, including the acquisition of weaponry, at Tulane and Pennsylvania State universities.
December 1, 2023
Hinda Mandell, professor in the School of Communication, delivered an invited Zoom talk, “Craft Activism, Memory-Making, and Political Action,” to the MidAtlantic Fiber Association on Nov. 28.
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See the full list of Newsmakers here
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