A Letter to Bill Hart-Davidson
The spirit of your gifts are present all around us, they animate our relationships and illuminate a world broken without you and better because of you.
Christopher LongMay 3, 2024
Coalition for the Future Academy
The metaphors we use shape the future we create. Upon entering the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, you are immediately confronted by four enormous Corinthian columns supporting a spacious atrium. There they stand, four…
Christopher LongJanuary 18, 2024
Ubuntu, Drawing, and A Pilgrimage to the Boggs Center
I am learning how to draw. It started during the pandemic, but if I am being honest, my practice has languished. Over the last few weeks, however, I have felt the need to redouble my…
Christopher LongOctober 21, 2023
Finding the Values in Committee Work
The transformative power of values-enacted scholarship is only really felt in lived-experience. Just before spring break, and only two weeks after the mass shooting on the MSU campus, a small group of staff, directors, and…
Christopher LongMarch 16, 2023
What Does Religion Sound Like?
This question, What does religion sound like?, inspired the creation of a remarkable collaborative project on Religious Sounds between Amy Derogatis of Michigan State University and Isaac Weiner at The Ohio State University. Yesterday, I…
Christopher LongJanuary 28, 2023
Power, Love, Justice, and Joy
Since Thursday, I have been reflecting on the powerful keynote address Professor LeConté Dill gave at the 43rd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Unity Dinner. Drawing on King's insistence that "ower, properly understood, is…
Christopher LongJanuary 14, 2023
A Place of Wholeness
Last week we celebrated the Ascension of the Department of African American and African Studies in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. What follows are my remarks emphasizing the hope that…
Christopher LongNovember 21, 2022
To the Class of 2025: Let Us Begin Again Together
To the Class of 2025, Welcome to Michigan State University, to the College of Arts & Letters, and to the MSU Honors College! You begin your MSU journey at a time like no other. As…
Christopher LongAugust 31, 2021
The Promise and Perils of Democracy
Below is a message I sent to my colleagues in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University in the wake of the first turbulent days of 2021. Dear College of Arts &…
Christopher LongJanuary 7, 2021
Register to Vote
On National Voter Registration Day, I sent the following message to students, staff, and faculty in the College of Arts & Letters. Dear College of Arts & Letters Students, Staff, and Faculty, As we navigate…
Christopher LongSeptember 22, 2020
To the Class of 2024: Embarking on an Education for Action
Dear MSU Class of 2024, Welcome to Michigan State University and to the College of Arts & Letters! You are embarking on an education that will forever shape the course of your life. At the…
Christopher LongAugust 31, 2020
Open Letter to Our College of Arts & Letters Community
Dear College of Arts & Letters community, “Anger,” Audre Lorde insists, “is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.”Lorde, Audre. “The Uses of…
Christopher LongJune 5, 2020
To the Class of 2020
There is nothing the world can now throw at you that you are unprepared to handle. You have harnessed the great power of a liberal arts education...
Christopher LongMay 7, 2020
Deepening Connection in a Time of Distancing
As this disquieting semester comes to a close, it’s appropriate to pause for a moment to reflect on the distance we have traveled and the path that lies ahead.
Christopher LongApril 29, 2020
Catalyst of Collaboration
On September 26, 2019, I had the opportunity to address the Michigan State University President’s Council, which includes the Deans Council and the Executive Leadership of the University, about the values-based strategic planning process we…
Christopher LongOctober 7, 2019
To the Class of 2023: Embrace the Adventure
Dear Class of 2023, Welcome to Michigan State University! As we prepared our Welcome to MSU video this year, I found myself unexpectedly face-to-face with a picture of my past self as a first-year student…
Christopher LongAugust 27, 2019
Toward a Culture of Care
In the summer of 2018, a group of MSU Deans came together to write an essay that was published in Inside Higher Education under the title: "Can Michigan State Recover and Chart a New Path…
Christopher LongApril 24, 2019
Failures to Listen
One year ago today, Rachael Denhollander addressed the Ingham County court in Michigan, her abuser, and the institutions that failed to protect her and her #SisterSurvivors. Listen again to part of what she said on…
Christopher LongJanuary 24, 2019
Open Letter Regarding MSU Interim President Transition
Dear College of Arts & Letters Alumni, Students, Staff, and Faculty, One year ago this week, the courageous testimonies of the Sister Survivors began to sow the seeds of change at Michigan State University. Taking courage…
Christopher LongJanuary 17, 2019
Living Values
In the open letter we wrote to the College of Arts & Letters community in January 2018, we promised to look critically at ourselves, recognize our failures, and rebuild the trust that is required of…
Christopher LongNovember 30, 2018
2018 Dean’s Report – Resilience
Dear College of Arts & Letters Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends, For generations, the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University have demonstrated the capacity…
Christopher LongNovember 16, 2018
To the Class of 2022: MSU is an Open Door
Welcome to the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University! As you embark on your educational journey here at MSU, I invite you to consider the doors that are opening for you all…
Christopher LongAugust 28, 2018
Open Letter to College of Arts & Letters Alumni and Friends
Dear College of Arts & Letters alumni and friends, By now many of you have heard that the university has agreed in principle to a $500 million global settlement with the survivors of the sexual…
Christopher LongMay 24, 2018
Cultivating a Culture of Trust
It has been difficult to write for the public in the months since posting the Open Letter to the College of Arts & Letters in the wake of the survivor impact statements that are transforming…
Christopher LongApril 12, 2018
Open Letter to the College of Arts & Letters
Dear College of Arts & Letters Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends, In the wake of the survivor impact statements, the Nassar sentencing, and the resignation of President Simon, we have entered an important period…
Christopher LongJanuary 25, 2018
Life’s Blueprints: Designing the Structure of Our Professional Lives
Last year at this time, we spoke of beginnings and routine, of resolve and the quotidian habits required to weave them into a meaningful life. We set our intention to focus on five priorities through…
Christopher LongJanuary 15, 2018
Practices of Weaving: Arts & Letters at MSU
Late last month, the faculty on the College Advisory Council (CAC) gave me a writing assignment. In preparation for our Fall 2017 faculty meeting on November 17, they asked me to take a step back…
Christopher LongNovember 14, 2017
Practicing Gratitude
Last weekend was homecoming on the Michigan State University campus, and I found myself reflecting on the meaning and significance of gratitude. So many alumni returned to campus to give thanks for all the ways…
Christopher LongOctober 24, 2017
To the Class of 2021: Be Resilient, Like a Tree
Dear College of Arts & Letters Class of 2021, Welcome to Michigan State University! As you embark on the adventure of discovery and growth that is a liberal arts education in the College of Arts…
Christopher LongAugust 25, 2017
The Emergence of Our Vision: Public Education Rooted in the Liberal Arts
This month marks the beginning of my third year as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. When I began as Dean in 2015, I spoke about advancing the arts and humanities at the…
Christopher LongJuly 19, 2017
The Liberal Arts at the Heart of the MSU Land Grant Mission
When Ryan Kilcoyne and I met late last year to plan the 2017 MSU College of Arts & Letters Dean’s Report, we wanted to show what we have long talked about: situating the liberal arts…
Christopher LongJune 26, 2017
Beware the Jabberwocks
Lessons from the Dragon Boat None of us knew quite what to expect on Saturday as we gathered at Hawk Island for our one-hour training session for the Capital City Dragon Boat Race to support the…
Christopher LongMay 23, 2017
To Teach and Delight
The last two weeks of March this year brought sadness twice over to the College of Arts & Letters. On March 18, 2017, we lost Anna Norris, a beloved professor of French Literature who taught…
Christopher LongApril 14, 2017
Charting a Path to Intellectual Leadership, then Following It
As a junior faculty member, I attended every possible workshop on tenure and promotion I could find. Inevitably, however, as the shared wisdom of those who had successfully been tenured and promoted washed over me,…
Christopher LongMarch 14, 2017
Finding Your Place, Leaving a Mark
Dear College of Arts & Letters Class of 2020, Welcome to Michigan State University! As you begin your journey in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University, let me tell you a…
Christopher LongAugust 31, 2016
Investing in Humanities Publishing
To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at the headquarters of the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C. early last week to take part in a discussion about a…
Christopher LongAugust 8, 2016
Learning to Play in a More Inclusive Key
On three different days in three different meetings, the same note was sounded. It struck a cord that resonated with me as I listened to faculty from three groups talk about their experience in the…
Christopher LongApril 25, 2016
I am allergic to cynicism.
I have been owning up to this affliction in each of the introductory department meetings I have had with faculty across the College during my first semester as Dean. Of course, the more cynical among…
Christopher LongJanuary 12, 2016
Paths to Explore
Last week was the first week of the fall semester at Michigan State. It was my first opportunity to welcome new students to campus as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. In order…
Christopher LongSeptember 7, 2015
A Living Place of Education
The places we inhabit habituate us. The virtues they cultivate are grounded in the values they embody. In 1855, a natural opening in the oak forest of the Burr farm was selected as a fitting…
Christopher LongJuly 28, 2015
The Edge of the Oak Opening
As I begin my tenure as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University I find myself thinking of these lines adapted from Deuteronomy 6:10-12 by Peter Raible: "We build on…
Christopher LongJuly 1, 2015
