Skip to main content
RIT Logo with Text
✕
Request Info Visit Apply Give

Mobile main navigation

  • About
    • Overview
    • Leadership
    • Faculty and Staff Resources
    • Facilities and Centers
    • Events and Lectures
    • Student Advisory Board
    • Student Resources
    • National Council
    • College of Liberal Arts Newsletter
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Degrees
    • Graduate Degrees and Advanced Certificates
    • Departments and Schools
    • Academic Advising
    • Double Majors
    • Accelerated 3+3 Law Program (BS/JD)
    • Teaching and Counseling Partnership Programs
    • Minors
    • Immersions
    • Personalized Visit
    • Peer Navigators
  • Experiential Learning
  • Admissions and Aid
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Contact

myRIT News Directory
College of Liberal Arts
✕
Future Students Current Students Parents Faculty and Staff Alumni Partners

Request Info Visit Apply Give
Future Students Current Students Parents Faculty and Staff Alumni Partners
Request Info Visit Apply Give
RIT logo and full name
College of Liberal Arts
News Directory myRIT
  • About
    • Overview
    • Leadership
    • Faculty and Staff Resources
    • Facilities and Centers
    • Events and Lectures
    • Student Advisory Board
    • Student Resources
    • National Council
    • An icon of an envelope with text inside, framed by orange brackets on a black background.
      College of Liberal Arts Newsletter
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Degrees
    • Graduate Degrees and Advanced Certificates
    • Departments and Schools
    • Academic Advising
    • Double Majors
    • Accelerated 3+3 Law Program (BS/JD)
    • Teaching and Counseling Partnership Programs
    • Minors
    • Immersions
    • Students walking across campus on a fall day
      Personalized Visit
    • Collage of peer mentors
      Peer Navigators
  • Experiential Learning
  • Admissions and Aid
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Contact

Spring Semester 2025

a photo of keys
 

College of Liberal Arts

Newsletter

  1. Home

News and Inspiration from the College of Liberal Arts -
Spring Semester 2025

dean martin

A Message from the Dean

As we have launched into the spring semester, I’m reflecting on the privilege of traveling to Chennai, India, to attend a summit on artificial intelligence organized by the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). The hospitality of the campus was like none I’ve ever experienced, and the discussions and enthusiasm for collaboration was inspiring.

I eagerly anticipate the opportunity to collaborate further with the faculty at VIT and to introduce them to our colleagues in the College of Liberal Arts. I also mention this here because in interactive sessions with the Indian students, the first questions asked of all the RIT Deans were about our College of Liberal Arts programs. 

This experience not only emphasized the global reach of RIT but also highlighted the strength of what we are offering in the college. Another sign of our strength, as highlighted in this newsletter, is that our graduates not only achieve financial success but also make meaningful contributions to their communities, including the RIT community.

Our distinguished alums Julie Tiddbit Feldman and Shane Feldman are exceptional examples of this as well as the College of Liberal Arts grads who were such a large percentage of those recognized recently on the Rochester Business Journal 40 Under 40 List. 

As always, this semester we have a lot of work to do as a college to continuing growing and achieving new goals, but this work feels less daunting and more heartening when we reflect on how far we have come and what we have already accomplished.

To kick off the AI conference, the VIT founder and Chancellor Dr. Govindasamy Viswanathan quoted Henry Ford “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success.”

I look forward to us working together this semester as a college this semester.   
— Kelly Norris Martin, Ph.D., Dean of the RIT College of Liberal Arts

two photos of kelly in india

 

See More about A Message from the Dean
two students in a lab with a techy headset

Museums Studies Research is VIP Supported

Co-led by Museum Studies Program Director Juilee Decker and the RIT Xerox chair in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, the Cultural Heritage Imaging, Preservation, and Research Project is among a select set of five projects supported by RIT’s new Vertically Integrated Project Initiative.

See More about Museums Studies Research is VIP Supported
two students in a lab talking

Alm and Fitch awarded NSF grant to study visual prosody in ASL in collaboration with Gallaudet University

Linguists face a resource gap for studying visual prosody and its grammatical and emotional functions in sign languages, and for creating AI systems capable of processing visual prosody. Cecilia Alm and Allison Fitch, College of Liberal Arts faculty members affiliated with RIT’s Ph.D. program in Cognitive Science, aim to fill that gap through Deaf scientist-centered research.

See More about Alm and Fitch awarded NSF grant to study visual prosody in ASL in collaboration with Gallaudet University

An inside look


RIT College of Liberal Arts alumni, students, faculty, and staff drive positive change. 

group photo of 40 under 40 award winnners
three students in the writ archives area
a phoot of the Tiddbits
irshad a presenting his keynote address
emma smiling in her RIT t-shirt
graphic of a chorus kick line dancers

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 Ancelin Quinones, Dean’s Office, Admin Assistant to the Dean

Favorite music (general style or specific band), podcast, book, or movie: 

Alternative rock. I’m usually singing along to Shinedown or Bad Omens in the car. 

Shameless brag: 

I can parallel park 98% perfectly!

Scariest thing you ever did & would you do it again? 

I moved to Rochester from The Bronx. I would absolutely do it again. My life has taken a different route than I originally moved up here for, but I am the person today because of the leap I took. I can’t imagine my life any other way.

Advice for younger you: 

Don’t doubt yourself so much. You are stronger than you know.

On your perfect day off, you’re most likely to be found: 

Since it's cold right now you would find me at Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park. Drinking coffee, sitting among all the pretty plants. Watching the quail and tortoises while writing or reading.

ancelin in her office

Newsmakers


June 17, 2025

Katrina Overby, assistant professor in the School of Communication, served as one of five invited speakers for Tech Ed 2025, hosted by Macmillan Learning in Austin, Texas. Her workshop, “Creating Connection: Building Collaborative and Supportive Learning Communities,” guided participants on how to discover practical, relationship-centered strategies aimed at fostering trust, belonging, and meaningful collaboration among students—and between students and instructors in the classroom.

June 5, 2025

Jonathan Schroeder, the William A. Kern Professor in Communications, was featured in an article titled “Self-Improvement Rewind” in the summer 2025 issue of Atomic Ranch. The article referenced his latest book, Designed for Success: Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records. 

May 30, 2025

Amit Batabyal, the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics and the head of the Department of Sustainability, received an Editor of Distinction Award from Springer Nature for his role as an Editor-in-Chief of letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences.

May 28, 2025

Kaitlin Stack Whitney, assistant professor, and Abigail Block, an ASL-English Interpretation major and current Aberg Fellow in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, published “Cuts to FEMA and Disaster Preparedness Will Disproportionately Harm Disabled Americans,” as part of the series “Tracking the Effects: Environmental History and the Current United States Federal Administration,” for the Network in Canadian History & Environment. Block’s research involves how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are underserved by climate-related disaster preparedness campaigns.

Are you a newsmaker, too? Submit your news now

See the full list of Newsmakers here

Upcoming Events



  • February 21

    Donuts with the Dean, Jan. 30, Feb. 21, March 20, April 28. 12–1 p.m., Liberal Arts Hall Student Lounge. A chance for students to chat and connect with Dean Kelly Norris Martin


  • April 26

    Imagine RIT 2025


  • April 29

    COLA Spring Celebration. A chance for faculty and staff to celebrate the milestones and accomplishments of this academic year.


  • April 30

    COLA Undergraduate Capstone Conference

All Events   

Get Connected


Follow @rit_cola

College of Liberal Arts logo lockup

Address and Phone

92 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623
585-475-2444

Footer Main navigation

  • About
    • Overview
    • Leadership
    • Faculty and Staff Resources
    • Facilities and Centers
    • Events and Lectures
    • Student Advisory Board
    • Student Resources
    • National Council
    • College of Liberal Arts Newsletter
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Degrees
    • Graduate Degrees and Advanced Certificates
    • Departments and Schools
    • Academic Advising
    • Double Majors
    • Accelerated 3+3 Law Program (BS/JD)
    • Teaching and Counseling Partnership Programs
    • Minors
    • Immersions
    • Personalized Visit
    • Peer Navigators
  • Experiential Learning
  • Admissions and Aid
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Contact
  • About
    • Overview
    • Leadership
    • Faculty and Staff Resources
    • Facilities and Centers
    • Events and Lectures
    • Student Advisory Board
    • Student Resources
    • National Council
    • College of Liberal Arts Newsletter
  • Admissions and Aid
  • Contact
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Degrees
    • Graduate Degrees and Advanced Certificates
    • Departments and Schools
    • Academic Advising
    • Double Majors
    • Accelerated 3+3 Law Program (BS/JD)
    • Teaching and Counseling Partnership Programs
    • Minors
    • Immersions
    • Personalized Visit
    • Peer Navigators
  • Faculty
  • Experiential Learning
  • Research
  • About
    • Overview
    • Leadership
    • Faculty and Staff Resources
    • Facilities and Centers
    • Events and Lectures
    • Student Advisory Board
    • Student Resources
    • National Council
    • College of Liberal Arts Newsletter
  • Faculty
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate Degrees
    • Graduate Degrees and Advanced Certificates
    • Departments and Schools
    • Academic Advising
    • Double Majors
    • Accelerated 3+3 Law Program (BS/JD)
    • Teaching and Counseling Partnership Programs
    • Minors
    • Immersions
    • Personalized Visit
    • Peer Navigators
  • Research
  • Experiential Learning
  • Contact
  • Admissions and Aid
RIT logo and full name (footer)

Address and Phone

1 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623
585-475-2411

US News and World Report Badge for Best National Universities 2025
US News and World Report Badge for Best National Universities 2025
Website feedback Sign up for RIT news
US News and World Report Badge for Best National Universities 2025
About Academics Experiential Learning Admissions and Aid
Research RIT Life Athletics News

Copyright © Rochester Institute of Technology.
All Rights Reserved.

Land Acknowledgment
Nondiscrimination
Disclaimer
Emergency Information
Copyright Infringement
Accessibility
Privacy Statement
Search RIT
This website uses cookies to provide better user experience and functionality. You can control and configure cookies in your web browser. Cookie Statement | How to Disable Cookies