College of Arts and Letters

Traci A. Zimmerman, Interim Dean

Melinda J. Adams, Associate Dean

Siân E. White, Associate Dean

Karina Kline-Gabel, Assistant Dean

Shannon L. Wilson, Director of Professional Development and Engagement

Phone: (540) 568-6334
MSC: 2105
Location: Harrison Hall, Suite 1103
Website: http://www.jmu.edu/cal

Academic Units

School of Communication Studies  
Lori Britt, Director

Department of English  
Rebecca “Becky” Childs, Head

Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures  
Cynthia Chalupa, Head

Department of History   
P. David Dillard, Interim Head

Department of Justice Studies   
Peggy Plass, Head

School of Media Arts and Design  
Joe Hinshaw, Interim Director

Department of Philosophy and Religion 
Kenneth Pearce, Head

Department of Political Science 
Kerry F. Crawford, Head

Department of Sociology and Anthropology 
Liam M. Buckley, Head

School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication 
Michael Smith, Director

Mission Statement

The College of Arts and Letters empowers students to become reflective lifelong learners who can address today’s social, cultural, and political challenges through inclusive awareness, creative thinking, problem solving, communication, and responsive leadership. 

Goals

In addition to the special goals of each major, all programs in the college are committed to helping the students achieve the following common objectives:

• Improve foundational skills fostered by general education courses: writing, critical thinking, information access through technology and, where appropriate, foreign languages.
• Develop the ability to use writing to acquire knowledge and to communicate ideas effectively through writing-intensive courses required in the major.
• Enrich perspectives essential to building the skills, knowledge and relationships for 21^st century citizenship, global awareness, and appreciation of racial and cultural diversity in the United States.
• Provide significant active-learning experiences through field courses, research projects, internships, studies abroad and simulations.

Majors and Minors

Students may select from a broad spectrum of major and minor programs in the seven departments and three schools. The departments and schools fully describe their programs in the “Academic Departmets” section.

Cross Disciplinary Activities

In addition to departmental majors and minors, the college offers a wide array of interdepartmental minors, pre-professional programs, general education courses, annual events and supporting services, some of which reach out to the regional community. Information about these programs may be found on the “Majors and Programs” tab of the College of Arts and Letters website.

Centers and Institutes

African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies Center

The African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies Center provides interdisciplinary knowledges, programming and initiatives related to Black peoples, histories, cultures, languages, economics, philosophies, ideas and socio-political structures. The center’s core mission is to cater to student-faculty constituencies with academic interests in the peoples, cultures and institutions of Africa and the African Diaspora. Each February, the center hosts the Annual African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Interdisciplinary Conference, which welcomes scholars across the world.

The American Political Reform & Innovation Lab (APRILab)

The American Political Reform & Innovation Lab (APRILab) is a nonpartisan, civic- and community-engaged political science and data science research lab dedicated to institutional political reform.

The Cohen Center for the Humanities

Siân White
Phone: (540) 568-3993   
Email: white2se@jmu.edu

Funded by a generous gift from the late Ralph Cohen, The Cohen Center for the Humanities serves the university community with innovative programming related to interdisciplinary graduate education and the professionalization of graduate students. Through the use of speakers, workshops, roundtables and presentations, the center engages important issues that affect us in a modern, technological world, on a local, national and global level.

Furious Flower Poetry Center

Lauren Alleyne, Executive Director
Phone: (540) 568-8883          
Email: alleynlx@jmu.edu

The nation’s first academic center for Black poetry, the Furious Flower Poetry Center is committed to ensuring the visibility, inclusion and critical consideration of Black poets in American letters, as well as in the whole range of educational curricula. Our programming seeks to cultivate an appreciation for poetry among students of all levels—from elementary to graduate school and beyond. In addition, Furious Flower seeks to support and promote Black poets at all stages of their careers and to preserve the history of Black poets for future generations.

Innovation Center for Youth Justice

Rita Poteyeva Britt, Director
Phone: (540) 568-7124         
Email: poteyemx@jmu.edu

The ICYJ is a partnership between James Madison University and the RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice. Our shared mission and goals include national and international leadership for positive innovation in policy and practice in youth justice systems. We accomplish these goals through collaborative partnerships with youth justice practitioners and stakeholders, community members, state and local leaders and policymakers, researchers, students, and youth and their families. 

Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue

Lori Britt, Co-Director
Phone: (540) 568-5028         
Email: brittll@jmu.edu

Rob Alexander, Co-Director
Phone: (540) 568-3771         
Email: alexanrw@jmu.edu

In designing and guiding conversations that help people think together productively, we strive to create conversations that engage, connect and sustain communities. We seek to create a world that engages in dialogue and deliberation across differences as a cultural norm and as an effective tool for addressing the challenges and opportunities of civic life.

Logic and Reasoning Institute

Thomas Adajian, Director
Phone: (540) 568-6394         
Email: adajiatr@jmu.edu

The Logic and Reasoning Institute promotes the interdisciplinary study of logic and reasoning at James Madison University. The LRI sponsors and encourages coursework and research, as well as promoting the teaching and application of logic across the university.

The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence

Taimi Castle, Director
Phone: (540) 568-5929        
Email: castletl@jmu.edu

The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence serves as a local and global hub to advance the understanding of justice and nonviolence through individual and collaborative endeavors.

Center for Public Broadcasting/ WMRA-WEMC

Matt Bingay, Director
Phone: (540) 568-6221
Email: wmra@jmu.edu
Website: http://www.wmra.org

The Center for Public Broadcasting’s mission is to inform, connect and engage communities through journalism, broadcasting and outreach. It serves over 50,000 listeners in the Shenandoah Valley, Charlottesville and Farmville areas.

The center comprises a network of non-commercial public radio stations, serving Harrisonburg at 90.7 FM, Charlottesville at 103.5 FM, Lexington at 89.9 FM and Winchester at 94.5 FM, and one standalone station, WEMC, serving Harrisonburg at 91.7 FM. The WMRA network stations are licensed to the James Madison University Board of Visitors. WEMC is licensed to Eastern Mennonite University, but is operated entirely by the center. Much of WMRA’s programming is rebroadcast by WMLU 91.3 FM, the station owned by Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. WMRA and WEMC are members of National Public Radio, and are affiliated with Public Radio International and American Public Media. The stations broadcast 24 hours per day year-round, offering extensive in-depth news coverage and classical, folk, blues and jazz music. The center also operates Valley Voice Radio Reading Service for the print-impaired. Listeners and local businesses contribute nearly three-quarters of the center’s annual budget.

Annual Events

CAL Career Readiness Conference

Shannon Wilson, Director
Phone: (540) 568-8904
Email: wilso4sl@jmu.edu

The College of Arts and Letters Career Readiness Conference is a multi-day event open to CAL students and features JMU alumni from all CAL majors discussing the wide range of career opportunities available to graduates with a liberal arts degree. The program of alumni panels, career-readiness workshops, networking opportunities, and a keynote speech provides an opportunity to learn more about the transition from college to post-graduate life. The event cultivates and strengthens relationships among alumni, current students, and CAL faculty and staff.

Conference on Global Issues

The Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures organizes a yearly conference on global issues, held in the spring. The conference brings together scholars and researchers from a variety of disciplines to address and assess specific global issues, issuing a call for papers in the fall on an announced topic. Proposals for papers, panels and workshops should be sent to the coordinator.

Madison Writing Awards

Madison Writing Awards (MWA) is a university-wide biennial competition that celebrates the importance of writing and sophisticated rhetorical practice across all undergraduate academic programs. Winners are recognized at a spring awards reception and the top submissions receive generous cash prizes. These awards reflect the commitment of the School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication and the College of Arts and Letters to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue and engagement as well as to acknowledge the power of writing in all its forms and contexts.

JMU Arts & Letters Undergraduate Research Conference

Melinda Adams
Phone: (540) 568-3377           
Email: adams2mj@jmu.edu, CAL_UGRC@jmu.edu

The JMU Arts & Letters Undergraduate Research Conference features outstanding research and/or creative works by undergraduates working in any humanities, social science, or communication discipline. Held every spring, it attracts students from across the eastern United States and has become one of the largest humanities and social science undergraduate research conferences in the region.