anu phd arts

• Programs and Courses

Doctor of Philosophy, Research School of Humanities and the Arts

A single four year research award offered by the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

• Length 4 year full-time
• Minimum 192 Units
• Academic plan 9552XPHD
• CRICOS code 048381G
• Admission & Fees
• Introduction

Employment Opportunities

Further information.

• Additional Information

Admission Requirements

Scholarships.

• Indicative Fees

Program Requirements

The Doctor of Philosophy requires the submission and successful examination of a thesis of up to 100,000 words.

If approved the thesis may take an alternative form, such as a performance and/or corpus of creative work.

Study consists of two to four years of full-time study or part-time equivalent.

The Doctor of Philosophy requires the completion of 24 units of coursework, which will consist of courses covering training on research methods, ethics and other topics as deemed appropriate by your supervisory panel.

To be admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy program you will be required to have completed at least an Australian Honours degree or equivalent, with a result of H2A (Second Class Honours Division A). Equivalence may be met by completion of a Master’s degree that includes a significant research component.

All applicants must meet the University’s English Language Admission Requirements for Students .

You may be granted admission if you can demonstrate that you have a background equivalent to these qualifications.

If you think you qualify, check out our guidance on how to apply .

Indicative fees

All students are required to pay the Services and amenities fee  (SA Fee)

Domestic students

Domestic research students are not required to pay tuition fees as they are enrolled under the Research Training Scheme which funds the fees. For further information see students.anu.edu.au/fees/domestic/research.php

International students

Indicative fees for international students are:

International student fees (ISF)

Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC)

For more information see: http://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/costs-fees

For further information on International Tuition Fees see: https://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/fees-payments/international-tuition-fees

ANU offers a wide range of  scholarships  to students to assist with the cost of their studies.

Eligibility to apply for ANU scholarships varies depending on the specifics of the scholarship and can be categorised by the type of student you are.  Specific scholarship application process information is included in the relevant scholarship listing.

For further information see the  Scholarships  website.

Exceptional research degrees at ANU

The Australian National University provides PhD students with a vibrant research community and outstanding program support . When selecting a research program, an institution's reputation is everything. ANU is one of the world's leading universities, and the smart choice for your research program.

As a PhD student you will work with increased independence, under the direction of a supervisory panel of experts in the field. Your research will make an original and important contribution to human knowledge, research and development .

Career Options

Graduates from ANU have been rated as Australia's most employable graduates and among the most sought after by employers worldwide.

The latest Global Employability University Ranking, published by the Times Higher Education, rated ANU as Australia's top university for getting a job for the fourth year in a row.

The Doctor of Philosophy equips graduates to work in a wide variety of areas including academia, public and private sectors and NGO’s.  For further details see the CASS website .

ANU is consistently ranked amongst the best universities in the world for its research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Our students are part of a community of leading researchers and are inspired by intellectual curiosity and scholarly excellence.

Graduate research degrees are available in over 20 disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences within the College of Arts & Social Sciences (CASS).  The major component of the research program is a substantial piece of written work which investigates a particular subject or issue.  A research student works independently under the direction of a primary academic supervisor who forms part of a supervisory panel of academic staff.

Graduate students in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts are located in four schools:  School of Art, School of Music, School of Archaeology and Anthropology and School of Literature, Language and Linguistics.  Interdisciplinary work is encouraged through the Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Research program.

See the CASS higher degree research website for more information.

Responsible Officer: Registrar, Student Administration / Page Contact: Website Administrator / Frequently Asked Questions

• Contact ANU
• Freedom of Information

+61 2 6125 5111 The Australian National University, Canberra CRICOS Provider : 00120C ABN : 52 234 063 906

ANU Postgraduate research

Research is at the core of everything we do. It informs the content of our degrees, influences public policy and solves some of our region’s greatest challenges.

ANU postgraduate research

Find a supervisor

Scholarships & Fees

How to apply

Change the conversation

Studying an advanced, research-focused Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree at The Australian National University (ANU) is an opportunity to make a substantial and original contribution to your discipline or area of professional practice.

We’ll automatically consider you for a scholarship when we receive your application.

Research areas

Our research priorities reflect the challenges facing the world today.

ANU researchers are currently exploring a range of disciplines and study areas .

university in the world

QS World University Rankings 2024

Nobel laureates among ANU staff & alumni

in Australia in 13 disciplines

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023

for student-teacher ratio and staff qualifications

Good Universities Guide 2023

Before you apply

Find a potential supervisor and explore our colleges’ research opportunities. Some colleges have different application requirements – so make sure you’re aware of and follow these before you apply.

1. Find a supervisor

Discover potential supervisors. Explore their research and published works and find their contact details.

Search supervisors

2. ANU college research opportunities

Our colleges can provide you with information about research areas, supervisors and groups, as well as who to contact.

NOTE: More than one college can offer supervision in a particular study area.

• ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
• ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
• ANU College of Business & Economics
• ANU College of Engineering, Computing & Cybernetics
• ANU College of Health & Medicine
• ANU College of Law
• ANU College of Science

3. Explore college application requirements

If you have found a supervisor you would like to work with and the college that offers this supervision, you will need to find out if there are any pre-application steps that your college would like you to take.

Most colleges would like you to find and secure the support of a potential supervisor before you complete your application. For example, the ANU College of Business & Economics has different arrangements for setting up supervision, so please check in with them before applying.

Some colleges will ask you to send a short description of your proposed area of research as an expression of interest and a summary of your academic qualifications, including grades, to them first.

Visit the ANU college research pages for pre-application advice (see the links under 'ANU colleges’ content above).

  Previous   Next

Applying to ANU

You can apply at any time of the year – but if you would like to be considered for a scholarship, you will need to send your application within the scholarship’s application deadline.

Scholarship applicants

Your referees should send their reports before your scholarship’s deadline. Give them as much time as possible by completing your ANU application 2–3 weeks earlier than the scholarship’s deadline. We’ll contact your referees when we get your application.

Application requirements

Your application to study at ANU must meet the following requirements.

1. Minimum admission requirements

Explore our minimum admission requirements.

Requirements for admission to a Doctor of Philosophy degree

• An Australian bachelor’s degree with at least second-class honours (Upper first-class honours may be required by some programs) or the international equivalent, or
• Another degree with a significant research/thesis component, or
• A combination of qualifications, research publications and/or professional experience related to your field of study

Requirements for admission to a Master of Philosophy degree

• An Australian bachelor’s degree or higher, with an overall grade of distinction or higher, or the international equivalent, or
• Another equivalent degree, or
• A combination of qualifications, research publications and/or professional experience that are related to your field of study

2. English language requirements

You must meet our English language requirements to be eligible for admission to ANU. While you can apply without having met them, you will need to show that you do when you get a study offer from us.

Unsure whether you can meet the English language requirements? Contact your research school or the Graduate Research Office before you send your application.

Learn more about ANU English language requirements

3. Research proposal

Your draft research proposal only needs to be short. Check in with your potential supervisor to clarify their expectations for this proposal before you send it in with your application.

Your proposal should present your idea or question in your discipline area clearly. Consider it a statement about the basis of the research you’d like to do.

Your research proposal should:

• establish the relevance of your idea
• show gaps in your field – and how your research would address these
• include how you would go about your research project – your approach, methodologies and resources.

You will be able to change the proposal once you have enrolled in your program.

Learn about research proposals

4. Referees

Referee reports are mandatory when applying for admission to a HDR Program. At least 2 referees reports are required to commence assessment of the application. Academic referees, who are able to comment on the applicant’s ability to undertake the program, are preferred, however, professional references can also be used. The University may request additional referee reports during the assessment of the application.

Ensure their contact details are correct; we will email them a report to complete from within the application portal as soon as we have received your application.

If your referee is unable to access our system-generated referee report, they can contact the Admissions team and ask for another version of the form.

Your referees must send their completed reports confidentially and directly to the University rather than to you.

Reference documents:

• Research Application Referee Report (DOCX, 82.99 KB)

5. Supporting documentation

Upload clear, colour copies of your academic transcripts and graduation certificates with your application. You do not need to certify these documents, but they must be original copies. We will verify their authenticity.

If your academic documents were originally given to you in a language other than English, we will need official copies of the document in that language and original translations for verification purposes.

6. Incomplete qualifications

You can apply to ANU before you complete your current degree if you are in your final year. Advise the Graduate Research office your expected completion date via your application and supply a copy of the qualification when we make you an offer.

For more information, refer to ‘Supporting documentation’.

If you have the approval of a college and a potential supervisor, you can apply for admission to ANU. Without this endorsement, though, we might not be able to assess your application.

Choose the program you want to study from the Program & Courses catalogue

On the program’s page, click 'apply’ to open the application portal

Complete your application

Receiving an offer from ANU

After we assess your application, we will contact you via email about the outcome within 6–8 weeks (about 2 months). This could take longer if we're also considering you for a scholarship.

If you do not hear from ANU within two months, contact your research school or email the Graduate Research Office.

• Contact Graduate Research Office

Related links

School of Philosophy

• Study with us

Centres & Projects

• Centre for Moral, Social and Political Theory
• Centre for Consciousness
• Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences
• Humanising Machine Intelligence

Related Sites

• Research School of Social Sciences
• ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

You are here

Phd program.

The Research School of Social Sciences is home to one of the best Philosophy programs in the world. It is currently ranked 1st in Oceania and 5th worldwide . 

It offers both Master’s and PhD studies in a wide range of areas of philosophy. In both cases, the principal focus of graduate training in the School of Philosophy is on training students to engage in original philosophical research.

Students typically arrive with a strong grounding in philosophy overall, and they leave with a thesis which establishes them as an expert. Master’s students may go on to pursue PhD studies at ANU or elsewhere. And our PhD students typically go on to careers as academic researchers, though many also pursue non-academic careers. 

The Master of Philosophy degree is up to 2 years full-time or 4 years part-time and culminates with a thesis of up to 60,000 words. The PhD takes up to 4 years full-time or 8 years part-time. Master’s students work under the direction of a primary supervisor and at least one associate supervisor, while PhD students have a primary supervisor and at least two associate supervisors.

Philosophy HDR students take eight 6-week Foundations seminar modules over the course of 2 years. This coursework provides students with deep knowledge of major philosophical debates and helps introduce them to research methods in philosophy. 

Higher degree research (HDR) students thrive in ANU’s unique culture of collegiality and collaboration. Outside of supervision, they talk philosophy with world-leading scholars and fellow HDR students at twice-daily teatimes, regular reading groups, and weekly research talks. In this way, ANU Philosophy HDR students develop not only into experts on their thesis topics, but also into philosophers of great breadth and scope.

Students should begin by considering our areas of research and possible supervisors . They can contact potential supervisors directly or contact the HDR convener  to recommend suitable supervisors.

To apply, students must secure the agreement of a primary supervisor and write a 2-5 page thesis proposal. The proposal should include the main research question, the significance of the topic, the background of the debate, and the approach that will be taken in the thesis. A student’s thesis may change in ways both small and large during the course of their degree, but a strong initial thesis proposal provides a firm foundation on which to build.

Information about applications and scholarships can be found here . 

Postgraduate Research Top-Up Scholarship for Advancing Women in Philosophy

The School of Philosophy is offering a supplementary stipend scholarship ($4,000 p.a. for three years maximum) to an outstanding woman commencing PhD studies in the School.

No separate application is required as all eligible students in any given PhD admission round will be automatically considered .

Tweets by @anu_philosophy

There were no tweets found.

Connect with us

Updated:   18 August 2023 / Responsible Officer:   Head of School / Page Contact:   CASS Marketing & Communications

• Contact ANU
• Freedom of Information

+61 2 6125 5111 The Australian National University, Canberra TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) CRICOS Provider : 00120C ABN : 52 234 063 906

School of Art & Design

• The Gallery
• Current students

What's on

Study with us

• Our Research
• Art History & Theory

Upcoming events

• Past events
• Conferences
• Visiting Artist Program
• Stephen Procter Fellowship
• Sharing Stories Arts Exchange
• Centre for Continuing Education
• H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship
• Our degrees
• Our Facilities
• Indigenous students
• International students
• Accommodation
• Scholarships
• Bachelor of Design and Bachelor of Visual Arts
• Graduate Programs
• Master of Art History and Curatorial Studies
• 2019 VC's Creative Research Fellows
• 2017 VC's Creative Research Fellows
• 2016 VC's College Visiting Artist Fellows Scheme
• 2015 VC's College Visiting Artist Fellows Scheme
• 2014 VC's College Visiting Artist Fellows Scheme
• 2013 VC's College Visiting Artist Fellows Scheme
• Favourite Slide
• Archive in the Spotlight
• Linked Institutions
• Ephemera and Notes
• Video Collection
• Visual Database
• Explore Collection
• Research projects
• Research Hubs
• Higher Degrees by Research
• Sir William Dobell Art Foundation
• Our History
• Visitor and Accessibility Information
• Exhibition program
• Exhibit with us
• Changes to course delivery - Semester 1, 2020
• Art History and Art Theory Courses
• Visual Art and Design Courses
• Higher degree by research
• Workshops & Materials Payments
• Emerging Arts Support Scheme (EASS)
• Transition arrangements for pre-2019 Bachelor of Visual Arts Majors
• Programs and courses
• Search ANU web, staff & maps
• Search current site content
• How to apply
• VC's Creative Research Fellows Scheme
• Heritage in the Limelight

Centre for Art History & Art Theory

Acknowledgment of Country

We acknowledge and celebrate the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet and work, and whose cultures are among the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

Latest news

New Gallery Extended Hours

» more news

Join our community of world leading artists and designers, art historians and curators at Australia’s # 1 ranked university (QS World University Rankings 2021).

A Proposition towards A Praxis of Treaty with International Country | Portals out of The Garden of Non by Jonathan Kimberley

10.30am Thu 2 May 2024

11.00am Sat 4 May 2024

10.30am Thu 6 Jun 2024

10.30am Thu 11 Jul 2024

« past events

more events »

Receive our latest news and invitations to events and exhibitions.

Updated:   1 September 2021 / Responsible Officer:   Head of School / Page Contact:   CASS Marketing & Communications

• Contact ANU
• Freedom of Information

+61 2 6125 5111 The Australian National University, Canberra TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) CRICOS Provider : 00120C ABN : 52 234 063 906

ANU College of Science

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Australian National University provides PhD students with a vibrant research community and outstanding program support .  When selecting a research program, an institution's reputation is everything. ANU is one of the world's leading universities, and the smart choice for your research program.

As a PhD student you will work with increased independence, under the direction of a supervisory panel of experts in the field. Your research will make an original and important contribution to human knowledge, research and development.

Program details

The major component of a research program is a substantial written work known as a thesis, which investigates a particular subject or issue. As a research student, you will work with increased independence, under the direction of an academic supervisor or a supervisory panel of academic staff.

A PhD will normally take you between 2-4 years to complete.

• 2 - 4 years full time
• Access to state-of-the-art facilities

The Doctor of Philosophy is your gateway to an academic or research career in science. In addition to academia, PhD graduates work in diverse fields within government, education, industry and media.

World class facilities

Students will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and support, including labs, computational services and recreation and relaxation rooms.

Learning experience

Industry engagement

Industry engagement is one of the best ways for a PhD student to test their capabilities as a researcher, and to obtain transferable and professional skills.

Get out of the classroom

PhD student Kate Holland takes us on a field trip to One Tree Island to explain her research.

PhD student unearths the Holy Grail of paleontology

Ilya Bobrovskiy had a crazy idea for his PhD. And then he made one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the year.

Fees & scholarships

Scholarships.

Whether you are looking for financial support to start your studies at ANU or help to move away from home for the first time, we have scholarship opportunities for you and your situation.

• How to apply
• International

Understand the how to apply steps

Visit the domestic postgraduate research applications page to prepare for your application to ANU.

Finding an academic supervisor

Prospective research students first need to identify a research project and find an academic supervisor.

Review the  fields of research  we offer and contact the academic convenor for advice about potential projects, supervisors, and the pre-application process. The  ANU Researchers  website is also a good place to start looking for a supervisor.

Email your academic supervisor directly to enquire about projects and supervision. Your email should outline the reason(s) why you are attracted to their field of research, the type of research you would like to pursue and a summary of your academic qualifications and research experience. You may also submit a short research proposal, however, this is not mandatory at this point.

The academic supervisor may contact you to discuss your research proposal and possibly other projects, or they may forward your email to other staff in the research school / centre.

Once an academic supervisor has been confirmed to support your application you may proceed to step three.

If you are not sure which area of research or supervisor matches your interest please complete an  expression of interest  and we will get in contact with you. Do not proceed to next step until advised.

Finding available scholarships

ANU Colleges and individual research schools offer a number of  scholarships  that are awarded on a merit basis. You can also talk to your academic supervisor about other sources of funding you might access to assist with living expenses and tuition fees.

Visit the international postgraduate research applications page to prepare for your application to ANU.

Need more information?

Send us an enquiry and we'll get back to you within 48 hours

• Dean's welcome
• Our history & achievements
• Reconciliation Action Plan
• ANU Joint Colleges Partnerships with Indigenous Organisations & Communities Fund
• Indigenous Professional Staff Traineeship Program
• Research & innovation
• Advancement office
• Business Development
• Human Resources
• International Relations and Partnerships
• Marketing and Communications
• Research Management
• Student Services
• International Relations & Partnerships
• Award winners
• Grants & fellowships
• I.D.E.A events
• I.D.E.A. resources
• Academic career support
• Staff guide on moving to Australia
• Pathway to secondary teaching with University of Canberra
• Vertical Double Degree Pathways
• Master degrees
• Graduate certificates
• Joint & Dual Award PhD programs
• Summer Research program
• Commonwealth Supported Places
• Future Research Talent Travel Awards (India)
• Future Research Talent Awards (Indonesia)
• Sustainable agriculture top-up scholarship
• The Biosocial Shaping of Conservation and Biodiversity in Australia's Capital
• Dean’s Science Education Commendation Award
• Dean's International Science Excellence Scholarship
• Australian Research Council discovery project scholarship
• Director’s Scholarship for Academic Excellence
• ANU Chancellor's International Scholarship
• External scholarships & sponsorships
• International students
• Careers & opportunities
• Course guides
• Interview Your Future Self
• Field trips
• Global learning
• Student stories
• 360 Virtual tours
• Our research
• Field sites
• Research stories
• Academic profiles
• Research projects
• Research schools
• Institutes & centres
• ANU Science on Location
• Hosting an intern
• Schools outreach
• 2024 STEM Challenges
• STEM Boxes 2024 (Domestic)
• STEM Boxes 2024 (International)
• The National STEM Communicators Challenge: Hidden Mathematics at Work
• Indigenous engagement
• Science Lab: Experiments for home & school
• Science Case Study Competition 2024
• Australian Bee Observation Network
• Student blog
• STEM Guest Lecture Series
• Current student enquiries
• Book an appointment
• Ask a question
• Online drop-in sessions
• Future student enquiries
• Current students
• Alumni events
• Alumni news
• Mentoring & volunteering
• As You See It! Public voting
• As You See It! winners

• Directories

PhD Students

Our Health in Our Hands - supporting PhD Students

Robin Vlieger

Robin Vlieger is a PhD candidate with the Research School of Computer Science, ANU, under supervision of A/Prof Hanna Suominen. The focus of his PhD is investigating tests that provide information that can be used in machine learning algorithms for the diagnosis and prediction of disease progression in Parkinson's disease. Robin received his BA (Hons) in Liberal Arts & Sciences from University College Maastricht, Maastricht University in 2014. In 2017 He graduated with a MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from Maastricht University, writing his thesis on the development of a testing protocol of a motor rehabilitation device for people that suffered a stroke, working closely together with medical doctors and physiotherapists.

Liyuan(Joe) Zhou

Liyuan(Joe) Zhou is a PhD student at the Research School of Computer Science. His study focuses on improving Machine Learning based Natural Language Processing algorithms with few samples under the supervision of A/Prof Hanna Suominen, Prof Tom Gedeon, and Dr Lizhen Qu. Liyuan finished his Master of Computing (Honours) with a topic of Investing Indexing Units for Chinese Web Information Retrieval in 2014 at ANU. He joined the CSIRO DATA61 (previously known as NICTA) as a Research Assistant in 2012. During his research career, Liyuan worked on a wide range of projects that developing algorithms for Web content retrieving, medical records Information Extraction, social networks data crawling, patent classification, genomics sequence classification, eye gaze movement alignment, and sentiment analysis. Liyuan's research is mainly focused on Natural Language Processing and low resource learning. 

Alex Sneddon

Alex Sneddon  is a PhD candidate within the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at ANU.  Her work involves using deep learning and signal processing algorithms to decode RNA sequencing signals generated by Oxford Nanopore Technology's sequencing platforms.  The aim is to identify very short regions of RNA known as "microexons" to better understand transcriptional changes in Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Prior to starting her PhD in 2020, she worked as a Software Engineer at Saluda Medical and completed a BEng (Biomedical)(Hons I) and BSc (Adv), majoring in Computer Science, at The University of Sydney in 2017.

Nicholas I-Hsien Kuo

Nic I-Hsien Kuo is a third year PhD student studying machine learning under the supervision of A/Prof Hanna Suominen. His area of research relates to developing deep learning theories for recurrent neural networks, and on meta-learning and continual learning for training models on a low resource enviornment.  As a member of the Friends of OHIOH, Nic is currently working with the OHIOH team developing data driven machine learning algorithms.

Shridhar Manjunath

Shridhar Manjunath is a PhD student in the Research School of Physics, ANU, supervised by Professor Dragomir Neshev. He currently works on Our Health in Our Hands (OHIOH) ANU Grand Challenge project: personalised optical sensors based on metasurfaces. His research is mainly focused on the development of optical sensing platforms for point-of-care devices. His current research interests are meta-surfaces, optical sensing, and microfluidics. He completed his Masters in Photonics from Australian National University in 2018.  He serves as the President for SPIE student chapter, Vice-president for OSA student chapter at ANU and HDR student representative at RSPhys. 

Uthayasuriya Sundaramoorthy

Uthayasuriya Sundaramoorthy  is a PhD student, under the supervision of Professor Colin Jackson in the Research School of Chemistry on the Grand Challenge Project: Our Health in Our Hands (OHIOH): Future Personalised Medical Technologies for a Sustainable and Effective Healthcare. She completed her B.SC Biotechnology from Pondicherry University, India in 2012 and M.SC Biotechnology from Bangalore University, India in 2014. She worked as a research assistant at Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea in (2015-2017) at Protein Engineering Laboratory. During her research assistant position, she worked on the different projects. "w-transaminase and Kinetic Resolution of Racemic Amines using a whole-cell Biocatalyst Co-expressing Amine Dehydrogenase and NADH Oxidase." published in Catalysis. Her PhD mainly focused on designing fluorescent biosensors for the study of diabetes a biomarker for personalized health care.

Chirath Hettiarachchi

Chirath Hettiarachchi is a PhD student in the Research School of Computer Science, ANU, supervised by A/Prof Hanna Suominen. He currently works on utilising machine learning for control system development in a multiple input artificial pancreas system. Chirath received his BSc (Hons) in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering in 2018 from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and has completed his professional qualification in Management Accounting at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in 2014 (CIMA-UK). Chirath worked as a Machine Learning Engineer in the FinTech industry from 2018 - 2019, developing algorithms for identifying outliers in corporate financial transactions, forecasting, name screening and risk prediction applications. During the final year of his undergraduate studies, he pursued his entrepreneurial aspirations by co-founding a healthcare startup which achieved multiple awards and publications. He joined the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Moratuwa as a Research Assistant in November 2018, to follow his passion on developing healthcare technologies. His research interests include machine learning, dynamical systems, biomedical signal processing, health informatics and financial data analytics.

Sandaru Seneviratne

Sandaru Seneviratne is a PhD student in the Research School of Computer Science, ANU, under the supervision of A/Prof Hanna Suominen. She currently works on medical text simplification and ontology learning for diabetes management in a school setting utilising natural language processing and machine learning techniques. She received her BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science & Engineering in 2019 from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Sandaru worked as a trainee software engineer in a Research & Development unit in 2017, and in 2019 she worked as a software engineer to develop a stable reservation platform for the travel domain. Her research interests are in the fields of Natural Language Processing, Ontology Learning, and Machine Learning.

Li'An Chen is a PhD candidate at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) at ANU. Her PhD project is about contextualising soft skills required of medical science and computer science PhD graduates who wish to (or have to) work in industries instead of academia. Linguistic analytic skills which she gained from her MA in applied lingsuitics in combination of machine learning techniques allow her to explore job market mysteries from job adverts texts

Shankar Dutt

Shankar Dutt joined the Swift Heavy Ion Material Group in October 2018 as a PhD candidate in the Research School of Physics. He is working on the development of novel composite nanopore membranes. Using high-energy ion irradiation and chemical etching provides an industrially compatible technology for the fabrication of extremely small nano-pores in a variety of materials. Combining this technology with 2D materials such as Graphene or ultra-thin film deposition enables the fabrication of nanopore membranes with desired functionalities that can be used in medical and biological sensors, ultrafiltration and lab-on-the-chip applications.

Ran Cui is a PhD student of the big data group. His research interest is all aspects of machine learning, with an especial focus on deep learning. Ran's main research project in OHIOH is personalised short-term glucose prediction using deep learning based time-series forecasting, for a better management of type 1 diabetes.

Himadri Shekhar Mondal

Himadri Shekhar Mondal started his PhD in December 2019 at The Australian National University. His research includes investigation of plasmonic response, optical characterization and chemical activities of desired nano structures which will provide new insights for developing low-cost scalable self-assembly optoelectronic materials for photonic applications. Currently he is focused on a novel family of functionalized plasmonic materials to develop contactless biosensing devices for noninvasive early stage detection of biomarkers.

Monalisha Ghosh Dastidar

Monalisha Ghosh Dastidar is a new PhD student, under the supervision of Professor Antonio Tricoli in the College of Engineering and Computer Science working on the Grand Challenge: Our Health in Our Hands (OHIOH): Future Personalised Medical Technologies for a Sustainable and Effective Healthcare. She completed her B.Tech in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology, India in 2017 and M.Tech in Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India in 2019. During her M.Tech, she worked on the project "Design of conducting monomer - nanogold scaffolds and their application in bioelectronics and molecular adsorption". She also worked in Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India as research assistant where she was working on fabrication of electrochemical biosensors for 6 months before joining the Australian National University. Her PhD will be mainly focused on designing electrochemical biosensors for selective detection of miRNA specific to diseases like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and age-related macular degeneration.

Zain Ul Abideen

Zain Ul Abideen  joined the Nanotechnology Research Laboratory in February 2020 as a PhD candidate in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) at ANU. He is working on Grand Challenge: Our Health in Our Hands (OHIOH): Future Personalised Medical Technologies for a Sustainable and Effective Healthcare. He is particularly interested to develop wearable medical devices for early and continuous detection of diabetes via breath analysis. He has been working as a Product Development Engineer at SukgyungAT. Co., Ltd. (Republic of Korea) for 2 years before joining the Australian National University, where he gained hands-on experience of synthesis of various inorganic nanomaterials for advanced applications. He has received his Master of Engineering degree in Materials Engineering from Inha University, Republic of Korea in 2016 under the supervision of Professor Sang Sub Kim. The title of his Master's Thesis was "Semiconducting Oxide-Graphene Nanocomposite Gas Sensors for Environmental Monitoring and Noninvasive Medical Diagnostics". He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Engineering from GIK Institute, Pakistan in 2014. He is also interested in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and their implementation in medical devices.

Alishba Tanya John

Alishba Tanya John is a PhD student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) working on the Grand Challenge: Our Health in Our Hands (OHIOH): Future Personalised Medical Technologies for a Sustainable and Effective Healthcare. She completed her B. Tech + M. Tech in Nanotechnology (Dual Degree) from Amity University, India in 2019. Her M. Tech project was entitled "Graphene quantum dot-gold hybrid nanoparticles integrated aptasensor for Vitamin D 3 detection". She started her PhD in 2020 and is working on the development of a metal-oxide based dual layer chemi-resistive sensor for highly selective detection of different gases.

Marika Niihori

Marika Niihori's research interests focus on understanding the fundamental properties of III-V semiconductor nanowire light emitting diodes for their applications as integrated optical sensors for wearable medical technologies.

Shiyu Wei's research project is about fabrication of high performance III-V semiconductor nanowire array chem-resistors for bio-sensor applications such as medical diagnosis, food safety etc.

Alexander Kiy

Alexander Kiy started his PhD in April 2019. He is part of the Department of Electronic Materials Engineering (EME) at the Research School of Physics (RSPhys). As a member of the Swift Heavy Ion Material Group, his research is focussed on the design of a novel electro-chemical solid state nanopore sensor for medical applications. During his Master thesis, he has worked on the fabrication and characterisation of nanopore membranes in polymers.

Research Committee

Research Fellows

2020 OHIOH Symposium: PhD Poster Presentations

Big Data program team

Image Gallery

Schools of Study

Visual Arts

Communications

Health & Wellness

Library Arts

Science and Technology

Digital Media Studies

Learning Without Limits

Students can flourish and thrive. Support Our Mission!

Equitable Higher Education Opportunities

Collegiate experience for adults with special needs

Lifelong Learning Model

Lifelong learning model, without any minimum or maximum age or participation limits. 

Our Mission: To provide an equitable, lifelong collegiate experience to adults with special needs who historically have not had access to college education.

Our Vision: To empower the student body to transform perception of individuals with disabilities. 

Welcome to CAA

Welcome to College of Adaptive Arts! CAA’s mission is to provide an equitable and lifelong collegiate experience to adults with disabilities who historically have not had access to higher education. CAA’s vision is to empower the student body to creatively transform perception of individuals with disabilities. Eager learners ages 18+ are welcome to enroll in this unique, lifelong learning model without any minimum or maximum age or participation limits.

CAA offers 1-hour classes in 10 Schools of Instruction, offering a full liberal arts education that you will find at any campus of higher learning.

Student Age Range 18 to 74+

18- 74 yrs+

Average Students Per Semester

Class Seats Filled Per Semester

Total Class Registrations To-Date

Total CA. Regional Centers Served

CAA News and Press

In The News

College of Adaptive Arts Students with Disabilities Gain Leadership Skills

KRON-TV News Segment 4/4/24

Major Pain Podcast

The College of Adaptive Arts Is Providing Continuing Education for Adults With Disabilities

Success Magazine - How 3 Post-Secondary Programs Are Setting Autistic Individuals On a Patch to Success

Empowering Diverse Minds: College of Adaptive Arts' Trailblazing Journey

Santa Clara County setting up advisory board within disabled community

Santa Clara County is asking members within the disabled community to serve on a new advisory group focused on disability issues.

College of Adaptive Arts co-founder DeAnna Pursai was recently selected as one of the profiles for the prestigious Human Atlas project.

Human Atlas projects are research-based, interdisciplinary explorations of the people of a specified geography. They are built on an extensive nomination process from a carefully curated group. These individuals profiled are championing and driving social impact in all its forms: from public servants to entrepreneurs, from non-profit leaders and activists to artists and scientists.

Dr. Pamela Lindsay Selected as a 2024 AARP Purpose Prize® Award fellow

National award recognizes people over the age of 50 who have had a positive impact in their communities

Saratoga’s College of Adaptive Arts earns $2.2 million in state funding

Nation’s first special needs college to create educational model for campuses across country

Congrats, College of Adaptive Arts you're a top-rated nonprofit!

Your organization has achieved Top-Rated status for 2023 from your community on GreatNonprofits. You are among the distinguished few to receive this community endorsement. Keep up the great work! 

Where Diversity thrives, Dreams come Alive with CAA.org

Non Profit Stories Podcast

Saratoga’s College of Adaptive Arts gets $250,000 from county budget

Funds to be used for federally accredited apprenticeship program

CAA is featured in the latest edition of DIVERSEability Magazine

Reimagining Educational and Vocational Opportunities for Adults with Developmental Disabilities (page 71)

College for disabled is adapting to success at Saratoga campus

The Mercury News

Saratoga Non-profit Leader Honored as District 15 "Woman of the Year"

Senator visits College of Adaptive Arts

 Los Gatan Mention

Santa Clara Weekly

CNN Heroes Social Feature

CAA’s Oldest Student Bob Rahn

CNN Heroes – April 2021

Mercury News

Exceptional Parent

KTVU-TV (Fox 2)

Student PSA

Good Day Sacramento

Women at Work - Purdue Alumni

The Give Back Economy Spotify Podcast

Listen to this episode from Give Back Economy on Spotify with CAA Co-founder Dr. Pamela Lindsay. The Giveback Podcast features over 100 interviews from social innovators from all over the world.

Learning for All Abilities - ABC 7 David Louie

Reference Point - College of Adaptive Arts - Part 1

Reference Point - College of Adaptive Arts - Part 2

The College of Adaptive Arts opens new location at Saratoga's West Valley College 

BayAreaLIFE: San Jose's CAA Continues to Grow and Thrive

BayAreaLIFE Storyworthy Segment - Learn about the inspiring college model

BayAreaLIFE: College of Adaptive Arts Professors Empower Students

BayArea LIFE: Local College Helps Adults with Disabilities Reach Full Potential

South Bay college helps adults with disabilities reach potential

1% For Good - College of Adaptive Arts

Bay Area Women Magazine: Meet Pamela Lindsay, Co-Founder/Dean of Instruction, College of Adaptive Arts

Bay Area Women Magazine: Meet DeAnna Pursai, Executive Director, College of Adaptive Arts

ABC7 StoryWorthy Commercial

OKLaw: San Jose’s College of Adaptive Arts delivering lifelong learning for adults with special needs

College of Adaptive Arts delivers lifelong learning for adults with special needs

College of Adaptive Arts CreaTV PSA

San Jose Mercury News: San Jose Dance Teacher Finds Calling Teaching Students with Disabilities

Latizmo helps San Jose teacher give students with disabilities strength

The Three Tomatoes Blog: College of Adaptive Arts

SF LIFE: Gabrielle Union, College of Adaptive Arts, Cashmere, Corgis

CAA 10 Year Anniversary White Board Animation Video

San Jose Mercury News: Adults with disabilities learn to perform at college of their own

Adults with disabilities learn to perform at college of their own.

Land of Milk and Honey Podcast: College of Adaptive Arts

#29-College of Adaptive Arts. This show is part of a 12 episode education series.

# University of Illinois: Alumna Starts College of Adaptive arts to Make a Differing in the Lives of Diverse Learners

Arts Education for Everyone

Painting, music, dance - anything you would expect to find at a performing arts college you can find at CAA - but they teach it in a way that allows people with differing abilities to comprehend, achieve and grow to their full potential.

Members of the Children's Touring Puppetry Ensemble from the College of Adaptive Arts perform during a puppet show at the Morgan Autism Center in San Jose, Calif. 

CBS BaySunday: College of Adaptive Arts

College of Adaptive Arts in San Jose helps adults with special needs to get a higher education

College of Adaptive Arts in San Jose is paving the way for every special students to pursue a higher education

Go inside the school offering adults with special needs the college experience they were missing

San Jose, California (CNN)Growing up in rural Indiana, DeAnna Ellenberger Pursai and her sister, Angel, were constant companions and playmates. Only a year apart in age, they called themselves twins.

College of Adaptive Arts Has New Location

North Coast Medical Interview with Pamela Lindsay, Co-Founder, College of Adaptive Arts

College of Adaptive Arts, furthering education and therapy compliance

Sponsors and Supporter can Subscribe to our General Updates List to get information on public events and news:

College of Adaptive Arts Co-Founder DeAnna Pursai Added To the Human Atlas Project

Students with intellectual disabilities shine in new leadership opportunities.

"My mind is my best asset"

College of Adaptive Arts Golf Tournament Brings Together Players of All Abilities

Swenson Flagship Campus at West Valley College

14000 Fruitvale Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070

(408) 538-3809

All Rights Reserved | College of Adaptive Arts

Powered by Rediker Software

I am a psychologist with offices in Palo Alto, and San Francisco. I have been a practicing therapist for 16 years, after receiving a Ph.D. from UCLA in Psychology. I specialize in helping people overcome depression, fears and anxieties, and relationship issues, and I enjoy working with both adults and children, as well as couples. My standard fee is $240 per session. Although I am not within network for any insurance carriers, I will provide you with all the documentation necessary to obtain reimbursement if your plan has that option. Se habla Español . If you would like to make an appointment, or have any questions, please feel free to give me a call. I have a Quora page here.

Visit the Health Advisories website for the latest vaccination and mask information and to Report a Case.

Questions about FAFSA and CADAA?

Visit our Financial Aid and Scholarship Office for updated information, workshops and FAQs.

College of Graduate Studies

Doctoral Programs

Earn Your Doctoral Degree in Silicon Valley

A doctoral degree from San Jose State University, Silicon Valley's public university, can propel you along the professional career path you have created for yourself. SJSU currently offers four doctoral degree programs: one in the College of Education and three in the College of Health and Human Sciences. We look forward to offering additional doctoral degree programs in the coming years.

Doctoral Degrees

Audiology (AuD)

Audiology is an allied health profession that is concerned with the science of hearing and balance mechanisms as well as the clinical identification, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with hearing and balance disorders. An AuD is required for new practitioners applying for a license in California. The AuD program emphasizes clinical proficiency that is informed by scholarly research and evidence-based practice. 

Watch AuD Informational Video

Educational Leadership (Ed.D)

The Ed.D. Leadership Program prepares the next generation of leaders with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to understand the causes of inequitable outcomes in P-16 educational institutions. Students in this program are also prepared to assess pedagogies, practices, policies, and curricula that hold the potential to improve the lives of minoritized students. 

Watch Ed.D Informational Video

Nursing Practice (DNP)

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is a practice degree program designed to prepare nurses at a doctoral level to lead health care change, serve as nursing faculty, and advance healthcare throughout central and northern California communities. The DNP program prepares nurse leaders and advanced practice nurses for evidence-based practice in patient care, leadership, and educational roles. 

Watch DNP Informational Video

Occupational Therapy, OTD

The SJSU Occupational Therapy program prides itself on emphasizing authentic practice experience through faculty-run clinics and community partnerships. The Occupational Therapy Doctorate program is designed to develop occupational therapy leaders, advocates, and innovators with a clear focus on community engagement and social justice for underserved populations, and prepares graduates to provide service in a wide variety of settings.

Visit their Website

California State University, Sacramento

Based on real user feedback and statistics, csus.edu no longer supports Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Skip to Main Content

Story Content

Sacramento state alumnus’s legacy lives on through powerful new campus sculpture.

By Jonathan Morales

April 25, 2024

In 2020, Sacramento State alumnus Stone Singh began creating a sculpture highlighting inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Two years later, struggling to find a home for the sculpture, Singh reached out to his alma mater to see if there was space for it there.

Less than a year later, Singh was tragically struck and killed by a vehicle. The sculpture – an imposing critique of mass incarceration and America’s broken promises – languished in a parking lot next to railroad tracks, it’s future uncertain.

“Stone, in the summer of ’22, had reached out to a few professors on campus, who directed Stone to me.” said Kelly Lindner, Sac State art galleries and collections curator. “We started talking about bringing the piece to campus and found a site at the front of campus that was well-suited for the piece. And then unfortunately Stone died. We persevered through all the various hoops to figure out how to get it here, and now it’s finally happening.”

The University officially unveiled the sculpture, titled “In God We Trust,” on April 17. Situated at the front of campus near Sacramento Hall, its centerpiece is a large, broken column bearing the words of the national motto from which the piece takes its name. Next to the column is a wire skull with a lock on its forehead. Next to that is a golden eagle, aspiring to put the column back together.

A plaque reads, in part, “In honor of the people who continue to work as slaves in our penal system,” a nod to the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime.”

Lindner said the sculpture represents the deterioration of society – the words on the broken column will eventually rust and bleed – but also hope, as seen in the eagle trying to restore the promise of America.

The subject was personal for Singh, who spent time in a county jail and, while at Sac State, participated in Project Rebound , a program that supports students who were formerly incarcerated.

Shortly after graduating in 2020 with a degree in Art Studio, Singh conceived the idea for the sculpture but needed funding. Andrew Winn, then the Project Rebound director, connected him with the nonprofit organization California Lawyers for the Arts, which provides legal services for artists. Seeing the piece aligning with its mission and advocacy work, the organization obtained a grant from the Art for Justice Fund to finance Stone's project.

“It was great to be able to be back here working on campus, seeing a lot of people, a lot of faculty, that I still know. I know Stone was really excited to have it here.” -- Chris Duffy, Sac State alumnus who installed Stone Singh's sculpture

Alma Robinson, CLA’s executive director, said she was familiar with Project Rebound and jumped at the chance to work with one of the program’s graduates.

“This takes our organization to a different level,” she said. “We have never commissioned a piece before. We’re very excited about seeing Stone's piece to completion and installation, and it means that we can help artists have a voice in important civic conversations through their art.”

Singh was a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force , the Sacramento-based art collective founded by Sacramento State students and faculty in 1970. The influence of the RCAF is seen throughout the sculpture, in the skull that evokes the “calaveras” seen during Dia de los Muertos, and in the golden eagle, an important Aztec cultural symbol.

He and classmate Chris Duffy, who assisted with the project’s early stages, even consulted Sac State Emeritus Professor and RCAF co-founder Esteban Villa as they planned the design.

“Stone’s dad, Arturo Singh, was one of the ‘OG’ RCAF guys down in San Diego,” Duffy said, “and so we sort of had this in, (where) we could go to Villa and ask him questions about it. And he knew public art better than anybody else did in Sacramento.”

Duffy said he and Singh were part of Sac State’s first public art cohort, which in 2018 created a metal stegosaurus sculpture known as #Poppy that resides south of campus on Ramona Avenue. The two continued to create public art together after graduating.

After Singh’s death in 2023, Duffy offered to install the piece at Sac State and fulfill his friend’s vision. As he was putting the finishing touches on the sculpture in early April, it was already provoking questions and conversations with people passing by.

“It was great to be able to be back here working on campus, seeing a lot of people, a lot of faculty, that I still know,” he said. “I know Stone was really excited to have it here.”

Lindner said she hopes to partner with CLA this fall on a symposium or panel discussion about incarceration. The sculpture, she said, will live on campus for two years before moving to a permanent home somewhere else.

For now, the piece will greet visitors to campus, provoke curiosity and, hopefully, spark dialogue.

“ ‘In God We Trust’ is addressing important societal issues,” Lindner said. “Having the sculpture at the front of campus supports the Sac State educational mission. It can be the spark to get the conversation going.”

Share This Story

Related Topics:

• Excellence in the Arts

About Jonathan Morales

Jonathan Morales joined the Sac State communications team in 2017 as a writer and editor. He previously worked at San Francisco State University and as a newspaper reporter and editor. He enjoys local beer, Bay Area sports teams, and spending time outdoors with his family and dog.

• [email protected]

Editor's Pick

Bright, colorful murals highlight Sac State’s progress toward ‘Becoming’ an antiracism and inclusive campus

Festival of the Arts returns, inviting community onto the Sac State campus for weeklong showcase of arts and humanities

New faculty group collaborates on implementing social practice in arts and humanities

Media resources.

• Media Resource Page
• Administration
• Public Records Requests
• Policy for Recording Film/Sound On Campus

Faculty/Staff Resources

• Briefing Submissions
• University Marketing
• Brand Center
• Editorial Style Guide

Looking for a Faculty Expert?

Contact University Communications (916) 217-8366 [email protected]

Keep up with Sacramento State!

Get the Sac State story right in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter, The Sacramento State Leader

• Current Students
• Online Only Students
• Faculty & Staff
• Parents & Family
• Alumni & Friends
• Community & Business
• Student Life
• College of the Arts
• Architecture & Construction Management
• Campus & Community
• Computing & Software Engineering
• Engineering & Engineering Technology
• Health & Human Services
• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Science & Mathematics
• Publications
• Merit Pages
• Film on Campus
• For the Media

Kennesaw State graduate shares his artistry and passion for theatre in the community

KENNESAW, Ga. | Apr 26, 2024

Lance Avery Brown exemplifies Kennesaw State University’s dedication to student success.  

A graduating theatre and performance studies student in KSU’s College of the Arts , he has leveraged countless resources and has taken every opportunity during his undergraduate experience to hone his creative skills.

Throughout his time at KSU, Brown has appeared in multiple KSU productions, including “SpongeBob,” “Jitney,” “Rent” and the recent performances of “Pride and Prejudice.” In addition, he formed a freestyle improv troupe, which integrates musical performances with suggestions from the audience.

Growing up in Atlanta, he mostly stuck to sports and admittedly didn’t realize hip-hop could be a gateway to performing on Broadway until his junior year of high school. 

“Back then, musical theatre was not discussed as much,” he said. “When I joined the program at Kennesaw State University, it truly opened my eyes to the community around me and made me recognize the power of art and expression.”

Since then, Brown has written and workshopped two original hip-hop musicals on the KSU stage, allowing him to develop his artistic skills with support from the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies faculty and students.

His first musical, “The Heist,” was shown during his sophomore year, and his second original musical was shown this past semester. Additionally, he’s been able to network and work with industry professionals outside of KSU, including those at Alliance Theatre and Theatrical Outfit.

Over the past three summers, Brown has been involved in undergraduate research with the Juvenile Justice School System in Macon, Eastman, & Atlanta. He served as a peer leader and has collaborated with students to tell their stories using poetry and songwriting.

“It has been a joy and a beautiful learning experience to witness what art students create and to be a mentor for future artists,” Brown said. “Working with them to express themselves through the mediums theatre provides has been rewarding.” 

His research was presented as part of the 2022 Fall Symposium of Student Scholars.

Brown credits his mentors for instilling him with the confidence to pursue his dreams, including faculty members Amanda Wansa Morgan, Jacqueline Springfield, Margaret Pendergrass and Tiffany Small. As his journey takes him to New York City, he looks to impart wisdom on his fellow Owls.

"My advice to students is to trust yourself and the work you put in, which will ultimately have an impact on the people around you,” he said. “Also, do not sell yourself short. If you feel you can go further, do it with grace. Only you can believe in your truest potential."

– Article by Ana Johnson

– Photo by Darnell WIlburn

Related Stories

Spring Symposium showcases impactful research of KSU students

New graduate found service through theater at Kennesaw State

Empty Bowls event combines Kennesaw State art, music and support for students

Kennesaw State professor earns USG Hall of Fame teaching award

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 45,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 7 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu .

Contact Info

Kennesaw Campus 1000 Chastain Road Kennesaw, GA 30144

Marietta Campus 1100 South Marietta Pkwy Marietta, GA 30060

Campus Maps

Phone 470-KSU-INFO (470-578-4636)

kennesaw.edu/info

Media Resources

Resources For

Related Links

• Financial Aid
• Degrees, Majors & Programs
• Job Opportunities
• Campus Security
• Global Education
• Sustainability
• Accessibility

470-KSU-INFO (470-578-4636)

© 2024 Kennesaw State University. All Rights Reserved.

• Privacy Statement
• Accreditation
• Emergency Information
• Report a Concern
• Open Records
• Human Trafficking Notice

Congratulations to the 2024 Commencement Marshals!

Share this page.

The Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) is proud to announce the 2024 Commencement Marshals. One of Harvard's most cherished traditions, to be named a marshal is considered an honor for a graduating student.

Selected by the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Council and nominated by fellow students, graduate program administrators, or Harvard faculty, the Commencement Marshals play a crucial role on graduation day, assisting the School's deans in organizing the procession from the Lawns at Richards Hall to Harvard Yard. As they lead the graduating class into Tercentenary Theatre, they proudly raise the Harvard Griffin GSAS gonfalon, a symbol of its history and tradition.

The 2024 Commencement Marshals representing the doctor of philosophy are:

• Jonathan Boretsky, PhD, mathematics
• Iman Mohamed Said Darwish, PhD, history of science
• Gino Domel, PhD, engineering sciences
• Kelcee Alexandria Everette, PhD, biological and biomedical sciences
• Sonya V. Gupta, AM, regional studies–Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia
• Ayana LaShae Henderson, PhD, biological and biomedical sciences
• Chanthia C. Ma, PhD, biological and biomedical sciences
• Amy Tsang, PhD, sociology.

Sonya V. Gupta, AM, regional studies—Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, has been chosen as the 2024 Commencement Marshal representing graduates with a master of arts, master of science, or master of engineering. Ms. Gupta and Ms. Henderson have also been selected as the student speaker for their respective Harvard Griffin GSAS Diploma Awarding Ceremony. 

Congratulations to all the 2024 marshals on behalf of the entire Harvard Griffin GSAS community!

Get the Latest Updates

Join our newsletter, subscribe to colloquy podcast, connect with us, related news.

Space to Grow

Katelyn Sweeney is an MS/MBA candidate at SEAS and HBS where she is the president of the aerospace and aviation club and works on the potential uses of satellite systems

Modeling Medical Machine Learning

Graduating student Yaniv Yacoby studies machine learning and how it can be applied to fields like healthcare.

Engineering a Solution to Climate Change

Graduating student Aaron Sabin may have a practical way to pull billions of tons of carbon out of the atmosphere, helping to arrest global warming.

Meet the 2023 Harvard Griffin GSAS Commencement Marshals!

Each year, the GSAS Student Council (GSC) chooses its Commencement marshals to represent the School’s graduating class. 

• UB Directory
• Office of the Provost >
• Communications from the Provost >

Spring into Art at UB Center For The Arts

By CAS Staff 

Release Date: April 25, 2024

The artistic community that calls the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts (UBCFA) home welcomes all on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 5 p.m. for “ Spring into Art .” The UBCFA's annual showcase turns the spotlight on the various visual and performing arts created in this hub of activity, which has a well-earned reputation for inclusivity, innovation and quality.

Performances, art installations, exhibits, film screenings, a printmaking station, artist talks and a student art sale are all part of the evening's program.

"Spring into Art" has become a highlighted event of the UBCFA's mission to provide the greater community access to where art is made and experienced on the UB campus," said Jamie Enser, executive director. “We welcome both our university members and the greater Western New York Community to get a behind-the-scenes look at the student work that happens here daily," she added.

The event is free to attend and open to the public. Complimentary refreshments will be available and parking is free. Visitors can expect to experience a taste of what the UBCFA offers throughout the year thanks to the faculty, staff and students who create in its studios, rehearsal halls and performance spaces. 

Live theatrical, dance, and musical student performances will take place in the atrium from 5 to 7 p.m., along with a printmaking t-shirt station.

Spring into Art is presented by the UBCFA in collaboration with the departments of Art, Media Study, Music, Theatre and Dance, the Arts Management Program and the UB Art Galleries.

Among the many events scheduled is a special artist talk with Visiting Artist Wuon-Gean Ho, with the exhibition “The Heart's Sight” which is currently on view in the UB Art Galleries. This talk will take place at 7 p.m. in the UBCFA's Second Floor Gallery.

A full schedule of activities is available online . 

Media Contact Information

Gina Cali-Misterkiewicz Assistant Dean for Marketing and Communications College of Arts and Sciences 716-645-0755 [email protected]

Do you have questions or comments for the Office of the Provost? Let us know your thoughts and we’ll be happy to get back to you.

PhD Excellence Initiative

A campus-wide, student-centric effort to ensure that UB’s PhD programs remain among the strongest in the world.

Recent University News

• 4/26/24 School of Nursing fosters mentor experience
• 4/26/24 Nielsen recognized in Obama Presidency Oral History
• 4/26/24 UB to hold commencement ceremonies
• 4/26/24 New algorithm cuts through ‘noisy’ data to better predict tipping points
• 4/25/24 Spring into Art at UB Center For The Arts

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

your money adviser

Louisiana Will No Longer Require Students to Fill Out FAFSA to Graduate

Experts say high school seniors are more likely to go to college if they complete the financial aid form, but the state sees privacy issues with mandating it.

By Ann Carrns

High school seniors are more likely to attend college if they complete the federal financial aid form known as the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

But the state that was the first to require students to fill out the form to graduate, Louisiana, has reversed course and dropped the mandate, after state officials decided it was too intrusive. For now, Louisiana appears to be an outlier.

“I have not heard of other states considering repeal,” said Bill DeBaun, senior director of data and strategic initiatives with the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit organization working to expand college access. (The network prefers to call such practices “universal FAFSA” policies, rather than “mandatory,” because all states with the requirement allow students and their parents to opt out if they don’t want to fill out the form.)

“We know FAFSA completion and enrollment are associated with each other,” Mr. DeBaun said. Filing the form allows students to get their share of federal grants .

At least 11 other states followed Louisiana’s lead and adopted similar policies or are scheduled to apply them in coming years, he said.

Unlike Louisiana, where education officials adopted the requirement as an administrative policy effective in 2018, many of the other states enacted it by law, so rescinding it would require legislative action, said Peter Granville, a fellow at the Century Foundation, a think tank, who studies federal and state efforts to increase college access and affordability.

Louisiana’s action came as a surprise, Mr. Granville said, because its policy had been “remarkably” successful, raising the state’s FAFSA completions more than 20 percent in just one year and narrowing the filing gap between high- and low-income school districts. The state ended last year’s filing cycle first in FAFSA completions, according to the college attainment network’s tracker.

The FAFSA is administered by the Education Department. It collects financial details from students and their families and is used to determine if they qualify for federal aid like need-based Pell grants, student loans and work-study programs to help pay for college. States and colleges also use the form to award their own grants and scholarships. Students, with their parents, file the form when applying to college and resubmit it each year they are enrolled.

This year, the FAFSA filing process has been plagued by delays, administrative errors and technical problems. A major revamp of the form and its financial aid formula, meant to simplify the form and make more grant aid available for students, went badly awry , making it difficult for many students to file the form. As of April 12, the number of high school seniors completing a FAFSA nationally was down 36 percent from a year earlier, according to the attainment network’s analysis of federal data.

States with universal filing policies were put under added pressure because of the FAFSA problems, Mr. DeBaun said. Some states are creating workarounds. Texas said that this year, proof of simply submitting a FAFSA would meet the requirement.

The messy FAFSA overhaul, however, wasn’t mentioned as a factor when the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education repealed the requirement on March 6. At a committee meeting the day before the vote, Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s superintendent of education, cited concerns about requiring parents to share financial information with the federal government and said graduation should be tied to academic criteria — and not depend on filling out financial aid forms or waivers.

Students will still receive financial aid information from school counselors, Dr. Brumley said, but won’t have to wait for their parents to fill out the FAFSA to graduate. “Basically, it’s moving it from an opt out to an opt in,” he told the full board.

Dr. Brumley, who became superintendent in 2020 and was reappointed in January, said in an interview that being seen as a state leader in FAFSA completions wasn’t necessarily positive if it meant “invading the privacy of families” or increasing student debt.

“We are simply trying to protect the liberty of our families,” he said.

He noted that the state last year passed legislation requiring high school students to take a financial literacy course, which will include information on loans and managing debt, starting with the class of 2026-27.

Caroline Roemer, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, told the board that she worried that without the requirement, the state would “go back to the bottom of the list” of FAFSA completion rankings. Before the policy was enacted, she said, fewer than half of Louisiana’s high school seniors completed the form.

Louisiana’s FAFSA completion rate for the 2014-15 school year was about 48 percent, compared with a national rate of 55 percent, according to a 2016 state report . (The state board adopted the policy in 2015, and it took effect in the 2017-18 school year.)

Ms. Roemer said in an interview that she was disappointed that the committee had jettisoned the requirement, especially since families could opt out: “You could say no.” One reason for the policy, she said, was to make sure that minority students received proper counseling about financial aid and post-high school opportunities.

“Black and brown kids were not getting the information,” she said. “We have a history.”

Asked about that, Dr. Brumley said guidance given to school systems “is colorblind.”

Mia Gonzales Washington, director of the New Orleans College and Career Attainment Network, an initiative of the Cowen Institute at Tulane University that offers professional development for high school counselors, teachers and other professionals, said the repeal was “unfortunate.” Most financial information requested on the FAFSA is also included in federal tax returns, which can be transferred into the form, she said.

If you are filing tax returns, “the government already has your financial information,” she added. “It’s really difficult to understand the rationale.”

Here are some questions and answers about the FAFSA and college financial aid:

What states have universal FAFSA policies?

In addition to Louisiana , where the policy remains in place for this year’s graduating class, at least six other states have a requirement tied to graduation: Illinois, Alabama, Texas, California, Indiana and New Hampshire, according to the attainment network. Four states — Connecticut, Nebraska, New Jersey and Oklahoma — plan to require it starting with the class of 2025, and Kansas is scheduled to begin a requirement in 2028.

In New York, the budget just approved by the Legislature includes a plan to require school districts to make sure all students complete federal or state financial aid forms, or sign a waiver stating that they are “aware of available aid but choose not to pursue it,” according to a news release from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office. (School districts will enforce the rule. If students do not fill out the application or opt out, they will still be able to graduate.) The policy takes effect in August, for the class of 2025.

What about financial aid packages this year for graduating high school seniors?

Because of the botched FAFSA update, many students and families are still waiting for official financial aid offers, even as the traditional May 1 deadline for committing to a college approaches. A survey of members of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators this month suggested that fewer than half of colleges had sent out aid offers to some or all accepted students, and that 44 percent had not begun packaging offers at all. Some schools have extended their commitment deadlines to give students time to review offers.

How much does it cost to attend college?

The turmoil around the FAFSA comes amid growing concern about student debt and the cost of attending college. The average published, or “sticker,” price for tuition, fees, housing and meals at a four-year private college was $56,190 for the 2023-24 school year, compared with about $24,000 for an in-state student at a public college, according to the College Board. The published cost of a year at some private colleges is soon to reach $100,000 , although most students don’t pay full price because of financial aid and discounts.

University of South Florida

School of Geosciences

College of Arts and Sciences

Main Navigation

Undergraduate Geosciences Student Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for PhD Pursuit at University of Michigan

• April 24, 2024

Honors and Awards , Research

Undergraduate geosciences student Abigail Reed was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF) this year to pursue her PhD at University of Michigan . Abigail is graduating this semester with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Policy and minors in Geology and Biology. She will attend the University of Michigan starting in Fall 2024 in their Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD program. 

Abigail's future research funded by the NSF GRF will address cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, specifically focusing on winter nitrification and nitrogen cycling. She will expand on her biogeochemistry and GIS skills that she has explored at USF and hopes to incorporate environmental justice into her work to make a meaningful impact in the communities her research will take place in. 

Return to article listing

Explore More Categories

• Department News
• Community Engagement
• Honors and Awards
• Alumni News

About Department News

A collection of articles showcasing the latest achievements, scholarly contributions, and exciting updates from our accomplished students, faculty, and staff. Stay informed and inspired as we celebrate the dynamic accomplishments within our Geoscience community.