Saint Anselm College has launched a new Liberal Arts Task Force to help promote the liberal arts and the humanities throughout campus. With the new Humanities Center being built behind Alumni Hall, the college looks to reignite student engagement with the humanities, a staple of the college for decades. 

As part of this initiative, Dr. Sheila Liotta, Vice President of Academic Affairs, has put together a task force designated with the assignment of enhancing what has been a dying area of study in recent years. The college hopes that the creation of the Gregory J. Grappone ‘04 Humanities Institute, set to be ready for the spring semester of this year, will engage students with the liberal arts. In preparation, she selected ten faculty members to make up the Liberal Arts Task Force. The members of this committee are Meg Cronin (English), Sarah Glenn (Philosophy), Matthew Gonzales (Classics; co-chair), Christine Gustafson (Politics), Matthew Masur (History), Stephen Shea (Mathematics), Alexander Smith (Physics), Kelley Spoerl (Theology; co-chair), and Dianna Terrell (Education). 

Dr. Liotta sent an invitation to all faculty to either self-nominate or nominate a colleague. “I received almost twenty applications/nominations. To make the Task Force a manageable size, I made sure that every department with an applicant would be represented on the Task Force, and arrived at the list of members above. It was hard to reduce the number since all of the applicants were excellent,” Dr. Liotta said. “I think the fact that so many people put their names forward is a sign of how important this issue is for our faculty, so that was impressive to see.”

The task force will be in charge of creating programs and resources to connect Saint Anselm students, prospective students, parents, alumni, and the general public with the humanities and liberal arts. One upcoming event will be the sonnet reading in honor of William Shakespeare’s birthday, which will take place on April 24th.

All photos Courtesy of Saint Anselm College