Our Year: 2021–2022
Entering Class of 2025 Profile
New Courses and Degree Programs
Year in Review
In July, the BU Center for the Humanities (BUCH) hosted “The One and the Many at BU,” bringing low-income Boston-area high school students to campus to deepen their engagement with the classics while better preparing them for college. The program, which is led by Susan Mizruchi, BUCH Director and William Arrowsmith Professor in the Humanities, and supported by a three-year $300,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation, offers three weeks of college-level philosophy and literature seminars, tutoring, and mentorship for the students. Learn more.
In August, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, led by Vincent Stephens, Associate Dean, Diversity and inclusion (left), launched the inaugural CAS Diversity and Inclusion Staff Institute, giving CAS staff an opportunity to grow, learn, and take action around topics of diversity and inclusion. Participants attend an orientation and at least five several workshops and seminars, and complete an independent project within their area or department. At the end of the institute, participants received a certificate.
In September, Ibram X. Kendi, professor of history, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and founder of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, received a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, a five-year gift of $625,000 “designed to provide recipients with the flexibility to pursue their own artistic, intellectual, and professional activities.” Learn More.
In September, Ray Fisman, Slater Family Chair in Behavioral Economics, gave the Gitner Family lecture: “Hidden Influence in U.S. Politics.” The annual Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family College of Arts & Sciences Lecture is designed to highlight current CAS faculty members whose teaching and research addresses topics of major importance for the broad interest and benefit of the BU community.
In October, Arts & Sciences launched the new Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS), under the direction of Inaugural Director and Professor of Sociology Deborah Carr (left). The Center provides an intellectual home for faculty and students engaged in social science research across the BU campus. Learn More.
In October, the BU Center for Global Christianity and Mission, a collaboration with the School of Theology, the History Department, and other units at CAS, received a Digital Humanities Advancement grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its project “China Historical Christian Database: Mapping the Spatial and Social Networks of Christianity in China, 1550-1950.” This peer-reviewed grant is one of only 20 Digital Humanities Advancement grants awarded nationally by the Endowment, which support “the implementation of innovative digital humanities projects that have successfully completed a start-up phase and demonstrated their value. to the field.” Learn More.
In October, Arts & Sciences received a $1 million gift from Demir Sabanci (CAS’93) to support experiential opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees and/or coursework in the Humanities at the College of Arts & Sciences and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, including programming, internships, or co-curricular experiences that enable students to experience the interconnection between humanities, the world, and other fields.
In January, Internationally recognized social scientist Dr. Benjamin Sovacool was appointed as director of BU’s Institute for Sustainable Energy (now the Institute for Global Sustainability). Dr. Sovacool, a leading scholar on global energy and climate policy, also joined Arts & Sciences as a professor in the Department of Earth & Environment.
In February, Melissa Moore, CSO, Scientific Affairs, Moderna, gave the 2022 Silas Pierce Lecture: “Exploring the Science of mRNA.” The annual Silas Peirce Lecture is open to all fields of inquiry covered in the College of Arts & Sciences, and is designed to represent different fields across the years. Peirce lectures bring our academic community together across multiple disciplines.
In March, Jill Lepore, David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History and Affiliate Professor of Law at Harvard University, gave the 2022 Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture, “Amend: Rewriting the U.S. Constitution.” The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture was established in 2008 to be a stimulating and energizing memorial to the progressive political values Professor Howard Zinn, a longtime professor in BU’s Department of Political Science, embodied as a writer, teacher, and mentor.
In March, The College of Arts & Sciences, along with the Law School, the Center for the Study of Europe, the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Innovation in Social Science, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of History, co-hosted a Town Hall on the war in Ukraine. Learn More.
In March, Alumnus Mark Mobius (CFA’58, COM’59) made a generous $1M gift to establish the Mark Mobius Student Research and Travel Endowment Fund at the College of Arts & Sciences. This permanently endowed fund will provide support for research and fieldwork conducted by undergraduate and graduate archeology students at the College of Arts & Sciences. Learn more.
In April, incoming College of Arts & Sciences Professor of Sociology Loretta Lees was named the new faculty director of Boston University’s Initiative on Cities, a hub for inter- and transdisciplinary urban research and learning across the University.
In May
, Geddes Language Center Media Resources Specialist Francis Antonelli, and Department of Biology Proposal Development Specialist Cynthia Bradford received the University’s John S. Perkins Award for Distinguished Service.
In May, Christopher A. Schmitt, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Biology; Heather Mooney, Ph.D. student in Sociology; Laura Wipf, former director of CAS Faculty Actions Office; and Jack Giunta (CAS`22), a dual BA/MA student in Computer Science, received the Arts & Sciences Susan K. Jackson Award. View the full list of awards and prizes that Arts & Sciences faculty and staff received at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.
In June, Arts & Sciences held its first-ever Pride Luncheon at the dean’s residence. The event was hosted by Arts & Sciences Dean Stan Sclaroff and co-sponsored by the Associate Dean of D&l, Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs, and the LGBTQIA+ Center for Faculty & Staff.
In June, Kate Snodgrass (GRS’90), longtime head of BU’s Playwriting Program and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, retired from BU. Read more.
In June, Arts & Sciences received an anonymous gift of $2.5 million from an alum to support the Arts & Sciences in Action initiative, which seeks to ensure that undergraduate students have the tools and opportunities to explore and discover the tremendous range of possibilities within Arts & Sciences that will maximize their degree experiences and prepare them for whatever the future might hold.