Rochester Institute of Technology Liberal Arts and Social Sciences News

Essay co-written by Evan Selinger, professor of philosophy, published by The Boston Globe. (This content requires a subscription to view.)

Resistance Mapping is a local, collaborative digital humanities project focused on how Monroe County, N.Y., has been shaped by histories of institutional racism and collective community resistance. Scholars and students affiliated with RIT’s humanities, computing, and design program and the University of Rochester’s Digital Scholarship at River Campus Libraries helped create a website to host the educational content.

The Athenaeum Games—a domestic science fair held Dec. 7 in the RIT Archives—showcased 19th century skills and technology that RIT students learned about in the class Hands on History: Examining RIT’s Domestic Science and Arts Program.

Like many fields, the world of academia is wrestling with the challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI tools. While a few K-12 school districts, international universities, and businesses have attempted to ban the use of AI tools, RIT is acknowledging that it’s here to stay and can be used as a force for good.

RIT's Counter Strike 2 team won the 2023 Grand Finals of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Varsity Premier league—the most competitive league that NACE offers. This is RIT’s eighth national championship in esports.

Students enrolled in an Opinion Media course flexed their creative muscles and persuasive writing skills by producing a new publication about gun violence printed with ink made from an assault rifle.

A history class dug into the RIT Archives to sample the cutting-edge domestic science curriculum taught in 1893 at the Mechanics Institute, a forerunner to RIT.

Twelve RIT alumni have been honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards for the 2023-2024 year. The Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented annually by each of RIT’s nine colleges, the School of Individualized Study, and the RIT Graduate School to alumni who have performed at the highest levels of their profession or who have contributed to the advancement and leadership of civic, philanthropic, or service organizations.

The employee roster of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is, as expected, full of scientists, engineers, and cybersecurity experts. But there is one RIT College of Liberal Arts alumna among the ranks of experts at the lab working to solve some of the nation’s most complex national security challenges.

Faculty in RIT’s Modern Languages and Cultures department received an International Research and Studies grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund the development of new materials and curricula for Chinese, Italian, and Spanish courses that focus on STEAM. Associate Professor Zhong Chen, Principal Lecturer Elisabetta D’Amanda, and Department Chair Sara Armengot will spend the next three years developing, testing, and implementing the new materials in the classroom.

The Office of Veteran Student Success was created to help veterans and their families navigate the paperwork, finances, and social adjustments that come with college.

The College of Art and Design welcomed 226 young artists to campus for its National Portfolio Day event, where prospective students met one-on-one with faculty about their artwork and different programs.