Alma Matters May 2024 Newsletter

CLA students study the world through a wide range of perspectives and disciplines. Curious about the courses that are offered? We’ve compiled a list of fall 2024 offerings that engage deeply with the Middle East, each touching on issues related to the ongoing violence in Gaza.

The University’s Juneteenth Celebration will be on Saturday, June 15, from 11 am to 5 pm in North Minneapolis. This free event centers on the theme of "We are the Noise: The Echoes of Our Ancestors" and features Black vendors, speakers, workshops, fashion shows, and more! We hope to see you there. 

Professor Matthew Winn, a speech, language and hearing scientist, shares insights about hearing loss and aging for the University’s “Talking...with U of M” series. Read more about his research on speech communication and the factors that make it difficult for people with hearing loss.

Join us in congratulating CLA’s 21 President's Student Leadership & Service Award recipients! These stellar students were recognized for their accomplishments and contributions as outstanding leaders. 

“On the second floor of the Regis Center for Art, there is a small room filled with the stuff of nightmares…when you open the door and turn on the lights, what you’ll find staring back at you is a cluttered menagerie of mannequins, skulls, bones, and shelf after shelf of strange old bric-a-brac.” Russ White, communications specialist in the Department of Art, talks “the stuff of still life” and the story students hope to tell in their still life paintings. 

The next the CLA Alumni Book Club read is Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures, a heartfelt tale of Tova, a woman grieving her husband, and Marcellus, a shockingly smart octopus. Dive into summer with us (and 500 fellow CLA alumni!) by picking up a copy and reading along.

CLA celebrates Andreu Mas-Colell (PhD '72), recipient of the University’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award. Mr. Mas-Colell is a pioneering researcher in economic theory and considered to be one of the most highly regarded economists in the world. 

CLA has received a $300,000 award to support the establishment of a professorship in Buddhist Studies. This grant, awarded by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), will provide four years of seed funding to support new teaching positions in Buddhist Studies. Read the announcement.

KARE 11 covered CLA’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies and interviewed members of the class of 2024.

Prince, Porn and Public Space? Yep, we've got a class about that. Earlier this month, Professor Elliott Powell (American studies) shared why he started the class and how he balances fandom and scholarship for the Star Tribune.

Professor Timothy Johnson (political science) participated in the Oyez Project that used historical transcripts and AI voice cloning to recreate arguments in the landmark 1954 desegregation case.

“Being Indigenous, you should know something about the language of the people you come from,” shared Dustin Morrow, a PhD student with a bachelor’s and an associate degree in Ojibwe language, for the Minnesota Daily.

Associate Professor Michelle Phelps' (sociology) sat down with MPR's Angela Davis to talk about how Minneapolis arrived at the brink of police abolition, and why reform is hard to come by.