Advancing the Human Experience

The research, scholarship, and creative artistry from the College of Liberal Arts teaches people to deal with complexity, diversity, and change, and ultimately provides a variety of skills for people to explore or solve the world's most pressing human problems.

Scroll down to see this issue's featured stories
Drawing from the Old English Hexateuch

Listening to the Past and Looking to the Future: the value of the liberal arts

College of Liberal Arts

“The liberal arts aren’t just a field of study. They are a living thing, a thread that connects us all.” And it is through our learning, scholarship, and engagement that we advance the human experience.

Students smile while playing percussion instruments

Outside the ivory tower: Engaging with the community through engaged scholarship

College of Liberal Arts

Engaged scholarship is one way that faculty and students in the College of Liberal Arts are collaborating with communities to co-create knowledge and to have significant impact. We believe that our disciplines will be key in addressing crucial issues and enhancing the quality of life of the diverse people of Colorado, the nation, and the world.

Lightbulb graphic with a brain inside

Curiosity, Generosity, and New Knowledge

Anthropology and Geography | Art and Art History | College of Liberal Arts | English | Languages, Literatures and Cultures | Political Science

From electronic art to silver mining in Bolivia, the German Enlightenment to Congressional productivity, our faculty are able to extend their research based on donor support from Great Conversations.

Black Lives Matter protest

Speak. Disrupt. Empower.

Political Science

Political science professor Courtenay Daum researches how the right to free speech enables the modern protest movements of marginalized groups.

Cow

Lost in translation: CSU launches certificate in Spanish for animal health and care

Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Sometimes a Spanish speaker who knows a little bit of English — or an English speaker who knows some Spanish — will get designated as a farm’s translator, but if they’re not fluent in both languages, misunderstandings can happen.

Maasai man excavating Olduvai Gorge

Scavenging for clues of our past

Anthropology and Geography

For the past 10 years, assistant professor of anthropology Michael Pante has collaborated with other scientists, students, and the local Maasai population to study early human eating behavior (1.7M years ago) in Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania as part of the Olduvai Geochronology and Archaeology Project.

School-aged girl standing in a classroom in front of a world map

Family, Culture, and French Immersion in Cajun Country

History

A new documentary film, Theo’s Choice/Le Choix de Theo, by assistant professor Thomas Cauvin takes viewers into French immersion classrooms of southwest Louisiana and explores the complex history of French in the Cajun culture.

Nepali schoolgirls in classroom

The Dynamics of Development: How School Attendance Differs by Gender

Economics

A thoughtfully asked question from an Economics 101 student, – “How can we fix global poverty” – set Niroj Bhattarai on a journey that would be surprising and illuminating about what affects school attendance, while also serving as the dissertation research for his Ph.D.

Farmers market purchase

Discussing Diversity over Dinner: How Food Systems and Communities Interact

Sociology

Diversity of food is about more than how many different vegetables and fruits you can fit on your plate. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, CSU faculty are researching the linkage between rural and urban communities and how those diverse worlds impact the food on your dinner table.

Students at CSUnite solidarity march

Why We Need Ethnic Studies (Now More than Ever)

Ethnic Studies

Ethnic studies is the history of us: of how we have become this great nation (with warts and all), of the obstacles we have overcome to get to this point, and of the challenges that we still face as a nation.

Woman explaining the plan to office team

Three Approaches to Work and Meaning

Communication Studies

Communication scholars research TV in the workplace, women entrepreneurs, and high reliability organizations, showing that the intersection of work and communication is vital to our success.

Cars piled up at the US-Mexican border

The Case for Limits: One Professor’s Take on the Immigration Debate

Philosophy

Philosophy Professor Phil Cafaro makes an economic and environmental argument for reducing immigration in his recently published book.

Doug Cloud

Imagining the Possible: the power of public rhetoric to inspire social change

English

For assistant professor of English Doug Cloud, rhetoric can be used for social justice. “It goes beyond describing reality as it is and articulates new and sometimes radical visions of how things could be.”

Gabriel Dance

Pulitzer-winning alumnus at New York Times got his start at the Collegian

Journalism and Media Communication

From the arts and entertainment desk at The Rocky Mountain Collegian to the highrise of the New York Times, Gabriel Dance credits his time at CSU to equipping him with the multimedia skills that launched his career.

Mulligan exhibit in the Hatton Gallery

Collaboration, Contemporary Discourse, and A Golf Course

Art and Art History

Art galleries are not usually the place people go to play mini-golf. That is, unless the gallery in question is the Hatton Gallery in the Visual Arts building. The interactive show, called “Mulligan,” was put together by CSU art department students and the experimental design studio Zero-Craft Corp.

Laura Jones in the CSU Theatre

Attention Was Paid: Retiring CSU theatre professor receives the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion

School of Music, Theatre, and Dance

Laura Jones’ four decades of work in theatre in higher education didn’t go unnoticed, earning her one of the most prestigious honors in theatre education.

Syrian women praying at a Greek Orthodox church

Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today

International Studies

Since fighting first erupted in Syria in March 2011, many have discussed the role of the Arab Spring, the attendant Arab Winter, Syria’s government, sectarianism and the rise of the Islamic State to explain it. These factors, while important, ignore a key part of the story – Syria’s past.

Elham Musa

LEAP explores free speech and cultural values

LEAP Institute for the Arts

For Elham Musa, the Master’s of Arts Leadership and Cultural Management program is pushing her to challenge societal norms, especially when typical Western values conflict with her worldviews as a Muslim and immigrant.

Panelists at the MIX event

1st MIX: The responsibility of dialogue

The Gregory Allicar Museum of Art

This spring, the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art presented the first event of its kind at CSU – MIX: Multicultural, Intersectional, Inclusivity, Exchange – a look at representation, accessibility, and power as demonstrated by the museum’s art collections.

Student using a blow torch in a metalsmithing class

Reverence In the Face of Complexity

Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts

Interdisciplinarity, an old approach with a recent resurgence of interest, is a research process that integrates insights from two or more disciplines to address a complex problem so as to come to a broader understanding. This complexity encourages a sense of reverence.

Clark Building on CSU campus

College of Liberal Arts Spring 2018 News

College of Liberal Arts

Award winners, retirements, moves, and more in the College of Liberal Arts.