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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.

Comments from Tamela Eitle, dean of the IU School of Liberal Arts in Indianapolis, regarding IU Indianapolis earning Research 1 status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, making the campus Indy’s only R1 institution:

We at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts are pleased IU Indianapolis has earned Research 1 (R1) status in recognition of the high levels of research activity occurring on our campus.

In the IU School of Liberal Arts, the importance of research, scholarship, and the drive for discovery are found across our school, in all areas of the humanities and social sciences.

Our Liberal Arts faculty are active researchers who have won research grants from external funders including the Lilly Endowment Inc., National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Archives, the Mellon Foundation, and others. Through their research and creative activity, our faculty, our students, and their collaborators are developing solutions for a wide range of local, state, national, and global challenges.

Liberal Arts doctoral and master’s students research areas include education policy and practice, health economics and health service research, political and civic engagement, community capacity building as well as communication as it relates to topics such as health, information, ethics, and well-being. They also engage in public scholarship in museums and community organizations and community-curated public humanities and social science projects.

Our school also has the largest number of faculty participating in IU Indy’s 1st Year Research Immersion Program (1RIP). First-year undergraduate students from across the campus have worked on projects including but not limited to inventorying and analyzing skeletal remains, collecting data to support local sustainability efforts, digital transcription of historical papers, and leveraging emerging technologies to make ancient history more accessible to more people.

Moreover, in addition to campus research recognition awards, Liberal Arts researchers have received nationally recognized research awards, including several Fulbright U.S. Scholars.

All of us in the School of Liberal Arts are proud of our significant contributions to IU Indy’s R1 designation and of the positive economic and societal impact of our scholarship.

Associate Professor of Sociology Carly Schall has been appointed as the new director of the General Studies Program in the IU School of Liberal Arts in Indianapolis. The General Studies Program provides students the opportunity for a uniquely designed multidisciplinary course of study and is ideal for returning and nontraditional students seeking a college degree.

In making the announcement, School of Liberal Arts Dean Tamela Eitle said, “Professor Carly Schall’s experience in curriculum development, involvement with the First-Year Experience at IU Indianapolis, and overall commitment to student success will enable her to maintain the existing high standard of education within the program while also envisioning the program’s future.

Graduate students with the IU School of Liberal Arts Sports Capital Journalism Program, along with students in The Media School at IU Bloomington got the call for some of the most coveted press box opportunities in college football.

Three sports journalism graduate students, Cort Street, Chris Schumerth and Jeffery Green Jr., helped cover this year’s College Football Playoff games. Street and Schumerth started off early coverage at the Big 10 Championship in Indianapolis and then continued on to South Bend and then the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Now they are preparing for the National Championship game in Atlanta.

IU School of Liberal Arts geography professor, Jeffrey Wilson joined a group of Indiana University researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington and the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University Indianapolis to study the potential benefits of a European-style certification for local foods, known as a “Geographical Indication” (GI), to boost the Hoosier state’s rural economies.

The study asserts that GI designation could help Indiana’s small agricultural communities thrive by linking the quality of local foods to their place of origin-akin to protected names like Champagne in France, or Parmigiano-Reggiano in Italy.