A Message from the Dean
Greetings! Our fall semester seems to be flying by as we perform the important day-to-day tasks while building the foundation for the future through larger, more encompassing programs and projects. The Creative Arts Center Modernization and Expansion is underway with banging in the Music wing and crane action in front of the new Motion Pictures Center. The CAC project will consume life over in the fine and performing arts for the next 2.5 years, even as our numerous events and performances continue. This year we are offering new courses and programs in Classified Intelligence, Philosophy: The Big Questions (and we mean BIG), Legal Studies, TESOL Internships, Islamic Studies, Global Issues of Gender and Sexuality, and Spanish for the Medical Professions. We advanced Chinese and Arabic language studies through Year 4 and are undertaking the hard work of defining what is essential for all liberal arts students to know when they graduate. We continue our work on recruitment, and focus this year on retention, reaching out to our students most at risk through pro-active advising and mentoring. CoLA is excited to join Wright State in celebrating our 100,000 alumni milestone as we approach our 50th anniversary in 2017, and we are proud of the skills our graduates have learned from our faculty, staff, and each other. We strive to be, in the words of President Hopkins: The Best University FOR the World.
Kristin Sobolik
Dean, College of Liberal Arts
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CoLA Faculty and Staff Receive University Recognition
Congratulations to CoLA faculty and units that were honored in September with prestigious, University-level awards for their outstanding achievements!
Paul Lockhart,
History
Brage Golding Distinguished Professor of Research
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Social Work
President's Award for Excellence: Early Career Achievement
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Read more>>
Design and Technical Theatre, Outstanding Unit
LEAP, UCIE, and WSIG, Outstanding Collaborative Unit
Read more>>
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Back in the Day
CoLA is please to feature another installment of Back in the Day,a column that includes stories, articles, and reminiscences about the founding of our great university. This final segment of A University is Born, written by Dr. Elizabeth Harden, Professor Emerita of English and former President of the University Faculty, celebrates the great accomplishments made in Wright State's first 20 years and includes a message of hope for the future.
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CoLA Outstanding Alumni
The College of Liberal Arts celebrated the many achievements of its illustrious alumni at its annual Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony on September 12. The 19 honorees had the opportunity to reconnect with faculty and share their most memorable Wright State experiences. Past honorees were also recognized. |
School of Music
Congratulations are in order for CoLA's School of Music! Formerly the Department of Music, this name change to the School of Music is significant and reflects the stature, accomplishments, and growth of the program. CoLA's Music faculty, staff, and students are fantastic; they have performed at Carnegie Hall for the past two years as well as venues all around the world. The Benjamin and Marian Schuster Hall is a top-notch acoustically superior venue for musical performances on campus. In the world of music, the title of "School" is designated for units with outstanding programming and a strong reputation for excellence. "On behalf of our students, alumni, faculty, and friends; we are beyond excited and proud of this distinction," said School of Music Chair Randall Paul. "This name change represents decades of work and dedication for all those that came before, and are here now. All this would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Sobolik and all those that helped in CoLA and the University." We welcome and celebrate CoLA's first School!
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CUPA Taps Political Veteran, Dayton Business Expert to Take Center to 'the Next Level'
He's a politically savvy professional with big ideas and the networking skills and contacts to bring in new work.
Mike Wiehe is the new director of the Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) in Wright State University's College of Liberal Arts. He believes CUPA is ready to take its operations to the next level.
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Awards Abound in CoLA's Motion Pictures Program
CoLA's Motion Pictures program is recognized nationally and internationally for its high caliber programming, and there are many recent accomplishments by our Motion Pictures faculty and alumni to celebrate.
Current professor Steve Bognar along with professor emeritus Julia Reichert showcased the short film Last Reel at the late-August Telluride Film Festival. Alumna Nicole Reigel has been recognized as one of the top 25 new independent filmmakers. Two recent film graduates, Ashley Brandon and Dennis Hohne, received a Student Academy Award nomination last spring for their film Punches and Pedicures.
At this summer's FilmDayton Festival, retiring film professor Jim Klein and program alumus Jonathan McNeal received prestigious awards for their service to the profession. Film professor Nicole Richter is the FilmDayton President and our two new program faculty, Chinonye Chukwu and Jason Kaufman, conducted panels at FilmDayton.
Motion Pictures will soon have more good news to celebrate. As part of the exciting Creative Arts Center Modernization and Expansion project, the Motion Pictures program will have a new home in the former TV Center building. The space will be entirely renovated to include a production studio, a sound studio, a digital animation lab, editing booths, a color correction facility, classroom space, a video library and equipment room, faculty offices, and a student lounge. This new space will allow the program to grow and continue to foster excellent work and creativity in its faculty and students.
Motion Pictures graduates joined graduates from Theatre and Dance for a grand reunion this summer to celebrate the first 20 years of the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Motion Pictures. Over seventy alumni came from all over the world to take a walk down memory lane and get reconnected.
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CoLA in the CommunityCoLA is heavily involved in the Dayton community. Through its Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) and its Center of Excellence in the Arts (CELIA), faculty, staff, and students are engaged in a wide variety of community collaborations. Strong internship programs and a variety of service-learning classes also allow students to get involved and become better citizens of our region.
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Grateful Retiree Supports Literature StudentsCecile Williamson Cary, Professor Emerita of English, recently established the Norman and Cecile Cary Endowed Scholarship to support English majors with an interest in English, American, or Anglophone Literature. This gift honors her late husband Norman Cary, fellow English department retiree, and their gratitude to Wright State for the opportunity given them to teach the literature that enriched their lives. The first recipient of this scholarship is Michael Perkins, a first-generation college student pursuing his degree in Literature with a minor in Women's Studies.
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CoLA Students Explore the World
Study Abroad opportunities abound for students in the CoLA! Last year 87 students broadened their horizon through a trip abroad. A new partnership between CoLA and the Provost's Office provided $37,000 in study abroad scholarship funding for 74 students, increasing the number of students to participate in these very beneficial programs. In addition to a wealth of semester and year-long study abroad opportunities provided by the university, CoLA offered six exciting Ambassador Programs in 2014. These intense, two-three week faculty-organized trips led students to Canada, Costa Rica, France, South Africa, Switzerland, and Europe.
Six Ambassador Programs are already planned for 2015, visiting Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. For more information on these exciting upcoming trips, please visit the website for the University Center of International Education.
Fourteen WSU and Sinclair students explored La Paz Waterfall Gardens and learned about typical fruits at the Museum of Popular Culture during the 2014 Summer Ambassador Program to Costa Rica, led by professors Bobby Rubin, English, WSU and Derek Petrey, Spanish, Sinclair.
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