Dear Arts and Science community,

Recent news of the calamitous effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the devastating losses caused by the earthquake in Mexico serve as stark reminders of the importance of university research and teaching on the environment.

In scholarship spanning the disciplines, A&S faculty and students are at the forefront of these efforts.

The Earth and Environmental Sciences department is home to innovative research on oceans, climate change, and geochemical systems. EES faculty help lead a major research project on the links between socioeconomic behavior and the effects of climate change in Bangladesh.

In the Department of Sociology, David Hess, the James Thornton Fant Professor in Sustainability Studies, directs a new major in Environmental Sociology and conducts research on industry, social movements, and environmental policy – especially the politics surrounding water.

Humanities faculty and students meet regularly to discuss “environmental humanities,” an emerging field spanning literature, philosophy, history, anthropology, and art. New courses, on topics such as “Literature and the Environment” and “Environmental Philosophy,” form part of an interdisciplinary minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.

This list is a small sample. Faculty and students in economics, biological sciences, history, political science, chemistry, and medicine, health and society—and still more fields—are pushing the limits of knowledge about environmental science and human interactions with the natural world.

I remain hopeful and optimistic that their work will make a difference in preparing for, and even mitigating or preventing, future environmental crises.

Best regards,

Lauren Benton
Dean, College of Arts and Science
Nelson O. Tyrone, Jr. Professor of History

A&S in the news

The Conversation: Remembering America’s lost buildings
Five architecture professors from across the nation responded to the question, “What’s one American structure you wish had been saved?” Kevin D. Murphy, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, was one of the five contributors.

The New York Times: Alive in stone, now in Mel Ziegler’s home
Mel Ziegler, the Paul E. Shwab Professor of Fine Arts, discusses his art along with his collection of Mount Rushmore memorabilia.

Health Medicine Network: Goal of new tissue-chip research is to assess efficacy of novel epilepsy drugs 
An interdisciplinary team of researchers received a two-year, $2-million federal grant to develop an “organ-on-chip” model for two genetic forms of epilepsy. The project is led by John Wikswo, the A.B. Learned Professor of Living State Physics, Aaron Bowman, associate professor of pediatrics, and Kevin Ess, the Gerald M. Fenichel Professor of Neurology

Foreign Affairs: Opinion: When Prosperity Leads to Disaffection
Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, assistant professor of political science, co-authored the piece.