Rochester Institute of Technology Liberal Arts and Social Sciences News

Researchers at RIT and Texas Tech University will be incorporating more critical thinking and empathy skills into engineering curricula to prepare students to meet societal challenges today. The team, led by Iris Rivero, also includes Andrew Herbert and Michael Laver.

After 20 years as a nationally-exhibiting ceramic artist, Adam Spector called a career audible, enrolling in RIT's visual arts-all grades MST program to become a K-12 art educator.

A team of faculty from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Public Safety Initiatives is spearheading a new initiative to address community trauma and health inequity caused by gun violence. Jordan Health will serve as the central hub and is working with the United Way Systems Integration Project to coordinate services through other community partners.

From pandemic response to rebuilding after natural disasters, RIT students will draw upon their foundation of community service in their careers after graduation.

RIT students have more than 300 clubs and organizations to choose from today. There are also 24 varsity athletics teams and numerous intramural sports, among other groups. For many students, these extracurricular activities are a great way to try something new, find a niche, and build lasting relationships.

Essay written by Evan Selinger, professor of philosophy, published by The Boston Globe.

RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, created to help students invent and problem solve through experiential learning, offers multidisciplinary student teams a stipend for the unique opportunity to examine their businesses and, for some, move them to the next level of development.

Assistant professor of public policy, Dr. Nathan Lee, builds CivicPulse, an open-data platform available for use by both academics seeking information about local governments and by the local government officials themselves to identify issues such as gender parity. CivicPulse has collected data through surveys on some 21,000 local governments – villages, cities, towns and counties.

The course Honors Science and the Law: Biological, Ethical and Legal Perspectives emphasizes how science permeates the profession of law and concludes with a mock trial, giving students the opportunity to use scientific evidence like cell phone triangulation, medical assessments, and crash reconstruction in the context of a real case.

RIT Esports is a national champion again, after a team of students came out victorious in the 2022 Hearthstone Collegiate Masters Tournament. The Tigers bested more than 200 teams to win the tournament, which is the main event for collegiate Hearthstone and is run by the game’s maker, Blizzard Entertainment.

Nate Rohman, academic advisor for RIT's graphic design and studio arts BFA programs, will be honored April 12 at the Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship ceremony.

The Tina Lent Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Museum Studies was given on Friday, March 18, 2022 as part of the College’s 42nd Annual Writing Awards Ceremony. The award followed in the tradition of awards named in honor of other College of Liberal Arts faculty, including Stan McKenzie and Mary C. Sullivan, both esteemed former deans of the College of Liberal Arts. The inaugural recipient was Hannah Rachel Riley, a third-year student from Buffalo, NY who is undertaking her thesis this semester and will graduate in May 2022.