News
Department of English

Two new degree programs within RIT’s College of Liberal Arts were approved by the New York State Department of Education and will be accepting students this fall. The Bachelor of Science degrees in history and English will be open to new students as well as existing RIT students who want a new or double major.

RIT's College of Liberal Arts honored student achievements in writing with 15 writing awards on Friday, March 19. This year marks the 41st year the awards were presented, though the first time the ceremony was held virtually.

Department of English professor Robert Glick was featured in Rochester's 585 Magazine discussing his new book of short stories, "Two Californias."

There are several unique classes being offered in the spring across RIT's colleges. While some of the classes are for specific majors or require prerequisite classes, some of the courses are being offered as general education classes.

When Carla Stebbins redesigned the health systems management MS degree, she included a culminating travel course in Sweden for her students to observe a different approach to health care. Stebbins, program director, built the online hybrid program to educate health care leaders to navigate a quickly changing field and widen their perspective. Even though COVID-19 canceled the trip, Stebbins found a solution

A one-credit workshop allowed RIT students to examine ways of sharing more accurate depictions of a complex topic. The class culminates in an exhibition that opens Nov. 5. 

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts honored student achievement in writing with more than a dozen writing awards for essays varying from wasteful energy, maternal mortality, eyewitness testimony policies and seeking worth in a liberal arts degree. Each department within the college selected student awardees whose work embodies the ideals and standards of excellence, creative endeavor and scholarship.

Dean James Winebrake will be leaving RIT’s College of Liberal Arts to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Winebrake, who came to RIT in 2002 as chair of the Department of Public Policy and became dean in 2011, will leave RIT effective June 30.

The Global Opportunities (GO) grant, a partnership between RIT’s College of Liberal Arts and RIT Global, is the latest incentive program to encourage students to experience learning in other countries.

Four faculty members from RIT’s College of Liberal Arts have recently written books on diverse subjects: how disability is viewed in the media, the commercialization of 19th-century autobiographies, how birth and death costs and practices have changed over the years, and how Germany adopted technology and a productivity culture after World War II.

Essay by Michael Brown, assistant professor of history, published by The Conversation.