Every day, faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences undertake boundary-pushing research, scholarship and creative activity.
They investigate, innovate and invent, asking the big questions and challenging conventional wisdom. And, no matter what their fields are, their work results in new knowledge, technologies and creative works that advance the economy, culture and health of the state of Colorado, the nation and the world.
Re-examining hearing loss causes
Rachel Baiduc, of speech, language and hearing sciences, is the director of the Hearing Epidemiology and Research Diagnostics (HEARD) Laboratory and a professional hearing scientist that looks into possible external and internal risk factors for age-related hearing loss.
Understanding wildfires in the west
Jennifer Balch, of geography, is the director of Earth Lab—an initiative launched in 2015 to use space information to better understand our own planet—and is a nationally renowned wildfire expert, particularly on how it relates to human actions.
Giving a voice to ancient monks
Tiffany Beechy, of English, explores the poetics of old English and early medieval literature, particularly anonymous and pseudonymous texts (including forgeries, fake grammars and riddles) and the “mistakes” and misrepresentations in the texts.
Merging visual arts and English
Thora Brylowe, of English, is a scholar of British Romanticism and the visual print history of books who brings innovative hands-on teaching approaches to the arts and humanities.
Examining the known for solutions
Clint Carroll, of ethnic studies, is a social-environmental scientist whose research focuses on indigenous environmental policy and governance—particularly in the Cherokee nation.
Bringing art into the public sphere
Brianne Cohen, of art and art history, explores contemporary artistic practices and visual culture in the public sphere—particularly as it pertains to global migration, political violence and ecology and environmentalism.
Discovering bacterial infection-fighting chemicals
Corrie Detweiler, of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, focuses on the discovery of chemicals that interfere with bacterial infection and is considered an expert on early antibiotic discovery.
Initiating artistic platforms for memory
Kim Dickey, of art and art history, is using ceramics to explore how people construct environments, creating works that are platforms on which memories, myths, nostalgia and imagination can play.
Analyzing mental illness triggers
Zoe Donaldson, of psychology and neuroscience, is a neuroscientist whose research delves into how genes and the environment shape humans and the potential development of mental illness.
Adapting and persisting in a changing world
Nancy Emery, of ecology and evolutionary biology, looks to understand how plants from the wetlands in the West to the forests in the East adapt and persist in a constantly changing world.
Blasting off to study the sun
Maria Kazachenko, of astrophysical and planetary sciences and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, works with the National Solar Observatory to study solar astrophysics.
Fostering positive social change through archaeology
Sarah Kurnick, of anthropology, practices community archaeology with the Maya to study creation, perpetuation and negation of institutionalized social inequality—both in antiquity and today.
Applying current stipulations to future successes
Richard Mansfield, of economics, looks to the implications that sorting people into groups has on their future success.
Changing the “Mycenaean” narrative
Dimitri Nakassis, of classics, is a world-renowned field archaeologist that co-directs the Western Argolid Regoinal Project in southern Greece and specializes in the "Mycenaean" culture of the Greek Late Bronze Age.
Boosting disaster resilience
Lori Peek, of sociology, directs the Natural Hazards Center—a renowned clearinghouse of knowledge about the social science and policy aspects of disasters—and studies vulnerable populations in disasters.
Traversing complex ideas through dance
Erika Randall, of theatre and dance, is a world-renowned dancer, choreographer and filmmaker whose research seeks to examine, reconsider and rewrite roles for women on the stage, the screen and the street.
Investigating transgressive spaces in ancient Greece
Lauri Reitzammer, of classics, studies transgressive spaces in ancient Greece, as well as Greek literature, mythology and religion.
Traveling back to early America
Honor Sachs, of history, specializes in the history of early America, particularly focusing on slavery, gender and law.
Performing the political
Marcos Steuernagel, of theatre and dance, works on the intersection of performance and politics—particularly in Brazil and Latin America—and the digital humanities.
Investigating justice in Victorian Britain
Nicole Wright, of English, examines personhood and shifting conceptions of justice and representation in British literature and culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.