The Quadrangle

Fall 2024 cover The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences publishes The Quadrangle magazine to tell stories about and impacting the college's alumni, students, faculty, and staff.

View highlights from our most recent issue below, or download a PDF version to view all the stories.

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News & research from LAS

Click on the images to read recent news and research from faculty, staff, students, and alumni. View the full list in the magazine.

Students in the lobby of Lincoln Hall at Illini Fest for admitted students, Spring 2024

Two students sitting across form each other and talking at the Paul S. Lisnek LAS Hub

LAS graduate in blue cap and gown holding newspaper with the phrase "91% of LAS alumni secure first destination soon after graduation" across front page

Paul Bogdan, Florin Dolcos, and Sanda Dolcos

Researcher in blue-lit room in front of a computer

Animal Encounters

Anthropologist Jane Desmond examines a different kind of ethics

Books from LAS

Indigenous poetry, natural disasters, political philosophy, and racism in Russia were just some of the subjects of books published recently by LAS faculty members.

View books

Watch a video of Skeuomorph Press & BookLab, sponsored by the School of Information Sciences with support from the Department of English to study the art of printing.

Learn more

The big why

Evolution, ecology, and behavior professor Alison Bell seeks answers to fundamental questions about individual behavior

Children at a Cena y Ciencias event observe a microbial growth experiment using yeast to make carbon dioxide. (Photo by Ivan Sosa Marquez)

Progress on the menu

LAS students and faculty members in Cena y Ciencias give children the tools they need to dream

Kameno Bell in the stands of Memorial Stadium

Life is a rush

Kameno Bell’s family, education, and football stardom propel his career in emergency medicine

2024 Alumni honorees pose with Dean Venetria K. Patton (center) at the event. From left: Daniel Heller, John Anderson, Lisa Monteggia, Venetria K. Patton, Ernest Crim III, Susan Morisato, Tom Remec, and Ruben Mesa. (Group and awardee event photos by Darrell Hoemann)

2024 College of LAS Alumni Award Honorees

Including Eboo Patel, eight alumni of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences received recognition during the college’s 2024 alumni awards at a celebration in April. They are researchers and entrepreneurs who have made incredible impacts in their fields and communities.

Anthropology professor LaKisha David standing at the stairs in the Main Library

Restoring family narratives disrupted by slave trade

In a recent paper published in the journal American Anthropologist, anthropology professor LaKisha David explains how genetic genealogy combines DNA testing with traditional family history research to help people discover ancestral origins and living relatives and extend their family trees beyond the limitations of historical records.

Clara Bosak-Schroeder attended LAS Liftoff to speak with new first-year students about studying classics.

LAS Experts: Clara Bosak-Schroeder

Professor of classics Clara Bosak-Schroeder’s first book, “Other Natures: Environmental Encounters With Ancient Greek Ethnography,” (UC Press 2020), explored how ancient Greek authors cast humans and nonhumans in complex, interdependent relationships.

The contours of LAS

How are schools of thought defined? The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has more than 60 academic units, and some, like English and chemistry, have been within LAS since the beginning. But how is it that the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, for example, resides in LAS, while physics, the science of matter and energy, is within the Grainger College of Engineering?

Every academic institution has its own distinct identity. It’s revealed by the history that exists at the borderlines and contours within itself.

Find out more

A minute with the dean

Venetria K. Patton, is beginning her fourth year as Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of LAS. She talks about the college commitments and the life and career tracks of alumni.

doodles of chart regarding digital media

LAS@Work

Nisha Chittal (BA, ’09, political science) is the chief of staff at Vox.com where she oversees the many facets of a newsroom with an eye on accessible journalism.

Success in student support

The College of LAS supports students on their unique paths to success. Here’s a quick look at just
a few of the programs that provide undergraduate students academic, career, and social support.