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This is your central location for IU School of Liberal Arts news. Check back regularly for the latest stories highlighting the research and academic accomplishments in and around our liberal arts community.

 

Six IU School of Liberal Arts students were recently recognized at IU Indianapolis’s inaugural Honors Convocation, celebrating this year’s most academically distinguished undergraduate students. The event, held on April 6 at the IU Natatorium on the Indianapolis campus, was an opportunity for students and families to come together and be honored by faculty and staff for their hard work, dedication, and achievements as IU Indy’s top scholars. Awards were given for the 2025 IU Indianapolis Top 100, Top 10 Seniors, Outstanding Seniors, and Chancellor’s Scholars.

Three IU School of Liberal Arts graduate students, Persis Ayeh, Ph.D. Health Communication and a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Isabel (Izzy) Silverman, M.A. Museum Studies, and Hiba Alalami, Ph.D. American Studies with a minor in Philanthropic Studies, were named as IU Indianapolis’ 2025 Elite 50. This prestigious honor is presented annually to 50 graduate and professional students across all Indiana University Indianapolis graduate schools who excel beyond the classroom through leadership, scholarly work, and community engagement.

And very special congratulations to Persis Ayeh, who took home top honors among the recipients by winning the 2025 Charles R. Bantz Award for Excellence.

IU School of Liberal Arts first-year undergraduate student, Malachi Aklilu, who plans to major in political science with a minor in Arabic and Islamic studies, has been awarded a Critical Language Scholarship to study Turkish. This prestigious national scholarship provides immersive summer programs for American students to learn languages of strategic importance to national security, economic prosperity and global engagement. He will spend the summer in Turkey learning the language, living with a host family and exploring the culture.

IU School of Liberal Arts associate professor and director of the Medical Humanities and Health Studies Program, Emily Beckman is using artificial intelligence and literary fiction to help students understand the human experience of addiction from the perspectives of characters in fiction.

At the forefront of medicine, IU Indianapolis was one of the first universities in the country to offer a medical humanities program, where today, Beckman’s dedication to helping tomorrow’s medical professionals foster better relationships with their patients by implementing the humanities into their scientific and clinical studies is on full display in a course called Addiction Narratives.

The IU School of Liberal Arts congratulates Rehab Morsi, Lecturer in the Program for Intensive English and Anneka Scott, Career Consultant in the Office of Career Development, for having been recognized with a 2025 IU Indianapolis Women’s History Month Recognition Awards.

For more than 20 years, the annual ceremony, hosted by the Office for Women, celebrates and recognizes the valuable contributions of students, faculty, and staff who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, achievement, advocacy, or service at the campus, community, national, or international level in support of the empowerment of women.

Chancellor’s professor of History in the IU School of Liberal Arts at Indianapolis and executive director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Philip K. Goff, has received the 2024 Henry R. Besch, Jr. Promotion of Excellence Award from the Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors at Indiana University.

The honor recognizes an individual who has exhibited distinction in promoting and encouraging the growth of excellence at Indiana University. It credits steadfast and tireless service for the students, faculty, and staff of IU, and of extraordinary professional and personal commitments to outstanding teaching, scholarship, and creativity.

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