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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS & PROGRAMS

The College comprises more than 20 departments across the liberal arts and sciences with a curriculum that challenges students to go beyond mastering subject matter to gaining real insight and a global perspective. CLAS offers interdisciplinary programs that enrich and diversify the educational experience and nine Centers of Excellence that encourage research collaboration across academic disciplines.

Augustine and Culture Seminar

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Biology

Chemistry

Classical Studies

Communication

Computing Sciences

Economics

Education and Counseling

English

Ethics

Geography and the Environment

Global Interdisciplinary Studies

History and Art History

Humanities

Liberal Studies

Mathematics and Statistics

Philosophy

Physics

Political Science

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Public Administration

Romance Languages and Literatures

Sociology and Criminology

Theatre and Studio Art

Theology and Religious Studies

Africana Studies

Arab and Islamic Studies

Asian Studies

Biochemistry

Cognitive Science

Comprehensive Science

Creative Writing

Cultural Studies

Gender and Women's Studies

Russian Area Studies

Latin American Studies

Irish Studies

Peace and Justice

Sustainability Studies

Writing and Rhetoric

The Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest

Center for Arab and Islamic Studies

Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship

Center of Excellence in Enterprise Technology

Center for Irish Studies

Center for Peace and Justice Education

Center for Political Theology

Center for Statistics and Data Education Science

The Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good

The Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society

   

FACULTY RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

NEW ANTIBIOTIC APPROACHES

Matthew O’Reilly, PhD, assistant professor of Chemistry, received a $340,871 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support his project, “Development of allosteric dihydrofolate inhibitors: exploration of a novel inhibitory mechanism for a validated antibiotic target.” Dr. O’Reilly studies the intersection of chemistry and biology and is specifically interested in discovery efforts toward new antibacterial compounds. MORE...

ANT ADHESION

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $480,927 grant to Alyssa Stark, PhD, assistant professor of Biology, to support her research on how environmental factors affect the performance, behavior and morphology of biological organisms. The project, will seek to quantify the functional morphology of ant adhesion and relate it to the ecology and behavior of tropical arboreal (tree-dwelling) ants. MORE...

SPEAKING THROUGH MASKS

Joseph Toscano, PhD, and Cheyenne Toscano, PhD, from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, published research showing how various types of masks affect speech recognition in different levels of background noise. They found that a speaker wearing a surgical mask over their mouth has virtually the same chance of being understood as a speaker without a mask and published an article in the February 2021 issue of the journal "PLOS ONE." MORE...

BOOK SMASHES STEREOTYPES

Throughout history, temperance and prohibition have often been viewed as a largely American movement. In a new book, "Smashing the Liquor Machine," Mark Lawrence Schrad, PhD, associate professor of Political Science, offers an international history of alcohol prohibition—redefining it as a progressive, global, pro-justice movement that affected virtually every significant world leader from the 18th through the early 20th centuries. MORE...