����̽̽

Arts Scholars have the unique opportunity as first-year students to take a writing course with a poet combined with a hands-on art making course and a course from Dance or Film and Television Studies. This small cohort of students shares a passion for creative expression and a drive to improve and expand their creative outlets, and they have their own section of these courses. A few Arts Scholars are theatre, music, or art majors, but we often see a wide variety of majors such as neuroscience, history, computer science, and undeclared. 

“The Arts Scholars program was more than just academics. It was a safe space. A space of relief. But also, a place of joy, acceptance, and growth. It was a fun place where creative minds came together to do more than make art. It was an outlet where we could express ourselves freely through all the classes we took together. I was nervous going into college, and this was a tight knit community that I knew I could fall back on that would help me in my transition to college life.”

- Dean I., Class of 2025, Social Work Major

2025-2026 Arts Scholars Courses (subject to change)

Arts 1020 – Perspectives on Art Making (Fall) 

Perspectives on Art Making is an introduction to contemporary art practice. We will explore the making, presenting and analyzing of art works in a variety of media and formats. This may include: drawing, three-dimensional construction, collage, photography, painting and digital/video art. The work produced within this class demonstrates how hands-on creation and collaboration are integral to making. This course prepares students well for upper level college art courses.  

Taught by Jaimes Mayhew, Professor of Art  &�Բ�����;

Dance 1020- Environment and Performance (Fall) 

This course explores the relationship between the human body, environment, and performance. The course orients itself around the processes of the body, as it moves, witnesses, and discerns to uniquely perceive ‘environment’ as a multi-layered body of history, geography, and identity and ‘performance’ as a social-political and transformative structure. The goals of the course are to heighten an individual's sensitivity to naturalistic practices that help build relationships to space, time, biography, and context. The class offers perspectives of how performance can function as a vital way of seeing, as well as being, within specific and rapidly shifting environments. 

Taught by Julian Barnett, Professor of Dance 

English 1027 - Writing: The Manuscript (Spring) 

This workshop will focus on the reading and writing of the creative manuscript. We’ll explore a selection of books published within the last ten years, which may include Robin Coste Lewis’s To the Realization of Perfect Happiness, Ronaldo Wilson’s Carmelina: Figures, Julian Delgado Lopera’s Fiebre Tropical, Terrance Hayes’s So to Speak and Nicole Sealey’s The Ferguson Report: An Erasure. 

What can these collections tell us about contemporary American writing? What does each manuscript demand of the reader? The writers we’ll read work in a diversity of forms, drawing on radically different schools and traditions. What’s your artistic lineage? Who are your literary ancestors? You will be encouraged to explore these questions. Over the course of the semester, you will compose your own 15-page manuscript. Expect to generate new pages each week, explore various perspectives on revision, and contribute meaningfully to workshop, supporting the evolution of your classmates’ writing. A dedication to craft, aesthetic innovation, and risk-taking is expected of writers in this course. &�Բ�����;

Taught by Eve Alexandra, Professor of English and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies 

2025 Arts Scholars Application Questions

1. How does creativity inform your identity? Please describe your creative interests and activities, and how you think the Arts Scholars program could be important to your undergraduate education. How do you intend to challenge yourself as an artist and a scholar?
2. Over the past few years students in the Arts Scholars program have studied the work of artists and writers such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Danez Smith, and Eileen Myles. Artists and writers may push a viewer or reader out of their “comfort zone” and challenge established ways of thinking on subjects such as race, sexuality, beauty, and identity. Important and innovative works often challenge our very idea of what constitutes art. Can you identify a work of art that pushed you out of your “comfort zone”? Is there a painting, a poem, a performance, or a song that radically challenged your way of looking at the world? How would respond if you encountered such an artist or writer in an Arts Scholars classroom? Can you imagine pushing at boundaries and conventions in your own work?

Program Contact

Read more about  Eve Alexandra, Program Director and Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies &�Բ�����;

Reach Eve at: Eve.Alexandra@uvm.edu &�Բ�����;

Earth and Environment Scholars look at issues of sustainability through many lenses. Students have the unique opportunity to take a field-based Geology course. This course, called “Mountains to Lake,” uses Vermont’s natural landscape as a laboratory to learn how geoscientists use rocks, minerals, fossils, measurements, and observations to reconstruct the natural history of places. Additionally in the fall students take a writing course and then in the spring add a Geography course.  

"The Earth and Environment LASP provided me with an environment where I was able to explore my academic interests in an intimate learning environment. The classes I took broadened my understanding of what it meant to study the environment through scientific, cultural, artistic, and literary lenses. I took classes that I would have never chosen for myself, but they ended up being my favorite classes I’ve taken so far. The small group sizes allowed my peers and I to engage in compelling discussions, work in small groups, and make lasting friendships. The professors were passionate and engaging, and I was able to make strong connections with them. LASP is an excellent way for students to become acclimated into the ����̽̽ community through shared interests and academic passions. It creates opportunities for students to build connections both academically and socially, and ultimately, allowed me to experience my first year of college to the fullest."

- Izzy D., Class of 2026, Political Science & Environmental Studies Double Major

“The Earth and Environment Scholars program was an exceptional opportunity that allowed me to get experience in natural science related fields without being in the Rubenstein School. The EES program is unique, and thus notable, because it took elements from other areas of study, like philosophy and literature, and connected them to our learning about the natural environment and the role we as humans have played in shaping it. Another aspect of the class, which is the same for all LASP programs is the small class sizes. These allowed me and my fellow classmates to more deeply understand what was being taught and connect with the professors on a personal level.”

- Barton R., Class of 2026, Undecided as a first year, now a Geography major

2025-2026 Earth and Environment Scholars Courses (subject to change)

Geology 1020 – Mountains to Lake (Fall) 

Have you ever been curious about how geoscientists look at the natural world and gather clues that reveal the history of a geological feature or landscape? In this class, we will use Vermont’s natural landscape as a laboratory to learn how geoscientists use rocks, minerals, fossils, measurements and observations to reconstruct the natural history of places. Most weeks we will engage in field activities and visit a different place from deep within Vermont’s Green Mountains to the shores of Lake Champlain. Along the way you will learn about the methods of scientific inquiry in the geosciences and develop skills necessary to make informed judgements about geological information and interpretations. This class has many practical applications, from the exploration of natural resources to learning about changing environments and meets the Natural Science with Lab requirement for the College of Arts & Sciences.  

Taught by Professor  Keith Klepeis, Geology 

English 1705 - Writing Sustainability (Fall) 

We write in order to share information, yes, but also to make meaning of our lives in connection with the myriad happenings around us—the web of life. “We tell ourselves stories,” as Joan Didion famously stated, “in order to live.” In this nature- and science-oriented composition course, a core offering for credit toward both the Reporting & Documentary Storytelling (RDS) and Writing Minors as well as the Sustainability (SU) Gen Ed Requirement fulfillment, we’ll do just that: utilize writing to increase understanding—others’ and your own. The focus, for the most part, will be on sustainability—encompassing environmental concerns, medical practices, ecological literacy, and social connection. Through various forms of writing—including magazine-style journalism—we’ll learn to keep a close eye on detail, to recognize the wait—what? moments, and then translate those into writing that creates a desired cause-and-effect in our intended audience. Readings include: Why Fish Don’t Exist, “a magical hybrid of science, portraiture, and memoir” (Susan Orlean) by NPR’s Lulu Miller; writings from American Earth, Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (edited by Vermont’s own Bill McKibben), and excerpted essays and chapters by renowned feminist and naturalist, Terry Tempest Williams. &�Բ�����;

As Sam Kean, editor of The Best American Science & Nature Writing, writes: “This is one of the most exciting times in the history of science…. Perhaps, not coincidentally, science writing itself has never been better either. There’s a misconception among the public that science is Vulcan, a strictly logical enterprise. In reality it’s an intensely human activity, employing the full range of both reason and emotions, of logos and pathos… and a real sense of craft and storytelling.” Through storytelling, imitation, and the writing process, we’ll learn the craft of employing the written word not simply for education and comprehension but so that these sustainability-based narratives become touchstones to the deepest of human concerns and values—as well as action and hope for change. How did they do it? we’ll ponder, and then track scientific queries and pluck ideas from the rich pasture of nature and the environment. How does this impact the quality of life over time? What can I do? we’ll wonder as we explore sustainability and discover both solutions and recreation—through writing itself, as its own sustaining tool and activity. &�Բ�����;

Taught by Jenny Grosvenor, Professor of English 

Spring Course TBD 

2025 Earth and Environment Scholars Application Question

EES is designed for students who are interested in the environment. Craft a short autobiography (i.e. tell us the story of YOU) that makes clear your interest in the environment and how you came to that interest.

Program Contact

Read more about Paul Deslandes, Interim Program Director, Professor of History, Associate Dean for Student Success  &�Բ�����;
 
Reach Paul at Paul.Deslandes@uvm.edu &�Բ�����;

The Humanities Scholars Program prompts students to think about transnational experiences and the cosmopolitan life of cities in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Through the lenses of history, religion, and art history, students explore the various cultural encounters that have shaped and continue shaping our increasingly connected and diversified world.

“Participating in the Humanities LASP has provided me with an expertly curated body of knowledge and a strong foundation to build the rest of my college experience upon. The content of the program was rich, the professors were compelling and helpful, and it was rewarding to participate in a shared discourse with peers who were passionate about the material.”

- Liana L., Class of 2025, Religion and Film & Television Studies Double Major

“LASP provided me with the perfect landing pad for my first year at ����̽̽. By providing special dorm housing with other LASP students, dedicated faculty, and classes just for LASP students, the program provided a unique blend of structure, opportunity, and fun. It introduced me to new subjects I would not have otherwise explored and friends I still have three years later. The students I met in the humanities program were from many different majors, but aligned around a common interest in human society and culture, giving me a rich glimpse into different parts of ����̽̽. LASP also helped me to develop my research skills, which has been useful as I am now completing my undergraduate honors thesis.”

- Laurel K., Class of 2024, Psychological Science major, Anthropology minor

2025-2026 Humanities Scholars Courses (subject to change)

Religion 1000 – Ghosts in the City (Fall) 

We normally think about communities as constituted by people, the living people who are members of the community. While this is true, communities are also shaped by the places they exist in, and beings that we cannot (necessarily) see. That is, humans are affected by the built environments that they live in, and they interact with and are affected by ghosts, spirits and gods. We will use stories of ghosts in cities to consider some of the central questions of the Humanities: Who and what counts as a human? What are the consequences of human actions? How do cultures conceive of the divine and the ghostly, and how do people interact with the supernatural? How do questions of race or gender affect notions of the supernatural? Despite the universal aspects of religion as a concept or an ideology, we will see that religions are experienced not universally, but tied to very specific places and communities. The material from the course will include ghost stories and ethnographic material from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Bangkok and other cities in Asia.

Taught by Tom Borchert, Professor Religion 

History 1020 - Visualizing India (Fall)

In this course we will explore the urban history of India through its nineteenth and twentieth century visual and material culture, using images, advertisements and the histories of things to uncover different perspectives on the past than what is available from other sources. Visual and material culture provided essential tools by which Britain made sense of their colony, Indians integrated global trends and built national identities. By looking at examples including how handwoven cloth became a potent tool for resisting colonialism and how sex tonics expressed anxieties about middle class masculinity, we will explore how various visual and material forms have generated meanings in different historical contexts, and also how those materials are used for particular social, cultural or political ends. The course will be divided into roughly three parts. In the first, we will do a crash course in Indian history generally and Bombay history more particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, offering a quick overview of the development of British colonial rule, the reorientation of local economies towards imperial and global markets, and the various caste, religious, social and anti-colonial movements that roiled this era. With this as a rough starting point, we will then turn to the second part, where we explore key changes in the city of Bombay in this era through iconic visual and material sources. To understand new gender ideals, we will explore how the 1920s Modern Girl (known for her flapper dresses and bobbed hair) reconciled global and local expectations of femininity, while men took up sports and worried about their marriages under the pressures of new expectations for competition and sexuality. To understand new forms of sociality, we will examine the rise in tea and alcohol consumption, noting how particular ways of drinking each mapped onto race and class. Through these and other examples, we will focus on how particular objects or visual genres helped to define and express ideas in the past. Finally, in the third section of the course, we will take the breadth of knowledge and methodologies learned over the course of the semester to offer our own visual interpretations of the past. Here we will be focusing specifically on advertisements as a way to explore daily life and everyday politics in different moments of time. Working with Bombay’s the Times of India (which is fully archived online, available through the ����̽̽ library) from the 1900s through the mid-1940s, students will use advertisements to explore markets, desires, and political choices in late colonial urban India.

Taught by Abigail Mcgowan, Professor of History  

Art History 1020– Arts of Conflict/Revolutions (Spring)

This course delves into art created during periods of social and political upheaval and revolution. Starting with the Haitian Revolution in the 1800s, it spans various global contemporary events. The focus is broad, encompassing graffiti, large paintings, physical acts of protest, re-enactments, and photographs. The course aims to familiarize students with worldwide expressions of rebellion and dissent, encouraging critical analysis of historical events' enduring impact and exploring how people voice their concerns during times of socio-political turbulence. We will explore the historical and ongoing responses of global cultures to political conflict, upheaval, and revolution. Students will actively engage with diverse resources, including primary source documents, documentaries, interviews, and other materials, to investigate how art serves as a form of political expression. The examination will extend to topics such as censorship, iconoclasm, and the role of art as an agent of social and political change. Throughout the semester, we will assess and enhance our understanding of the diverse functions and value of art within Western visual culture.

Taught by Sarah Richter, Professor of Art History 

2025 Humanities Scholars Application Question

Explain how a book, work of art, film, or cultural experience has influenced your world view or made you interested in learning more about other world cultures.

Program Contact

Read more about  Ignacio López Vicuña, Program Director and Professor of Spanish and World Literature &�Բ�����;

Reach Ignacio at: �����DZ���������ܱ���.����  

The Life Science program is open to students entering ����̽̽ in Biology, Biological Science, Plant Biology, Neuroscience, and Zoology. We pair one fall and one spring course with the core science and math courses this cohort takes as part of their major. In the fall, students take a seminar course on evolution, and in the spring, dive into research. A benefit of this program is having a small cohort of 25 peers who are taking many of the same Biology, Chemistry and Math courses and share a passion for science.

“I am very thankful that I got a chance to do LASP…it had a big impact on my experience of being a freshman at ����̽̽. One of the most important parts for me, was living with people who I was also taking classes with. This made my community feel a lot smaller and helped me find some amazing friends. Having friends in my classes with me also meant that I had people I could turn to for help with assignments or studying. Our environment of helping each other was also something I really valued. I think that being surrounded by people who had ambitious career goals and are truly passionate about biology, zoology, and neuroscience encouraged me to take my own goals more seriously. I appreciated the different interests and perspectives of other LSS students and enjoyed learning about everyone’s interests, whether that was insects, the impact of aging, equality in healthcare, or endemic species.”

- Aly R., Class of 2025, Biological Science Major, Spanish Minor

2025-2026 Life Science Scholars Courses (subject to change)

Biology 1020 – Human Evolution: Cambrian Era to the Present (Fall)

How do human beings fit into the natural world? Are we fundamentally different from other animals, or do we just have a specialized skill set? Who are our closest relatives among non-vertebrates? Among the vertebrates? How did our evolutionary history lead our species to occupy such a key ecological role that the very future of the global ecosystem depends on the choices we make? Through readings, videos, exploratory writing, and discussion we will critically examine our place in the natural world and how we came to occupy it. We will begin the semester learning about the history of evolutionary thought leading up to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and studying the mechanism of natural selection. We will then follow the evolutionary history of humans, from the earliest vertebrates in the Cambrian seas, to the colonization of land in the Devonian, to the radiation of mammals after the extinction of the dinosaurs, to the evolution of humans over the last five million years. We will finish the semester by considering the Anthropocene, the period in history during which ecosystems have been primarily affected by human activities – how we got to where we are now, and where we can go from here.

Taught by Kristin Bishop, Professor of Biology

Biology 1020- Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) (Spring)

How does modern science evolve? How do researchers build upon each other’s contributions? This Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) provides early opportunities to Life Science Scholars to participate in scientific research. In this course we will focus on the first steps of scientific research: reading, analyzing, and synthesizing scientific literature. Students will discuss how science works and how it is communicated to the scientific community and the public. Specifically, we will discuss how scientific papers are structured and reviewed by peers before publication. Students will read the most recent scientific literature to develop a research question on their field of interest and write a research proposal. This course helps students to get involved early on in scientific inquiry, develop innovative ideas and realistic expectations about science, and gain confidence and competency in developing hypothesis and scientific writing - all key skills that jump-start a research career at ����̽̽.

Taught by Kristin Bishop, Professor of Biology

2025 Life Science Scholars Application Question

A liberal arts education is distinguished from a professional education in taking a broad, interdisciplinary approach incorporating viewpoints from such diverse fields as the arts, philosophy, economics, mathematics, history, social and physical sciences, etc. Please describe a recent scientific discovery you have read about in the news and describe how considering this discovery from the viewpoint of different disciplines can help guide our understanding of this discovery and make wise decisions about how to use it. Explain how studying the life sciences through an interdisciplinary lens is important to your own educational goals.

Program Contact

Read more about Kristin Bishop, Program Director and Professor of Biology  
Reach Kristin at: kbishopv@uvm.edu 

This program looks at current social problems with faculty from a variety of disciplines such as Sociology, Political Science, and Anthropology, examining dimensions of social inequality, including class, race, gender, and environment. The fall seminar on Global Gender Inequality adds an extra one credit research experience.

"I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to take part in the Liberal Arts Scholars Program at ����̽̽, an opportunity that has truly enriched my academic journey. I was in the Social Science LASP and only had great experiences. I loved all of the professors in the program, they were all very knowledgeable and great at presenting their information. The classes were able to push me in a way that bettered my education at ����̽̽. I also was able to quickly build great friendships with many of the other people in LASP. It is an amazing way to meet people during your freshman year. I would highly recommend that anyone with the opportunity to be involved in LASP, do it. The program was such a valuable experience that I’m honored to have had."

- Luke H., Class of 2026, History major with Anthropology and Geography minors

2025-2026 Social Science Scholar Courses (subject to change)

Political Science 1026 - Global Gender Inequality (Fall)

This course asks the question, “Why does the status of women vary so dramatically across countries?” and seeks to answer this question using social science research methods. The main assignment is a workshop style, multi-stage research/writing assignment about the status of women across the world. Each student chooses an indicator of gender equality, collects data on that indicator, and uses the data to test hypotheses about the causes of gender equality. The course includes dedicated time where we work on the research project.

Taught by Caroline Beer, Green & Gold Professor of Political Science

Second Fall Course tbd

Anthropology 1020 - Past and Present Perspectives on Human-Landscape Interactions (Spring)

This course will interweave the concept of sustainability with themes of land use pressure, ecological diversity, environmental conservation, tourism, geopolitics, climate change, and social justice. Students develop a foundational knowledge of sustainability, delve into a research project that tasks them with exploring and evaluating the human-landscape interactions of past cultures and civilizations and their environments, and finally discuss how power imbalances and structural inequalities at the local to global scale are disenfranchising many groups from making sustainable decisions about their futures.

Taught by Marieka Brouwer-Burg, Professor of Anthropology

2025 Social Science Scholars Application Questions

1. The Social Science Scholars Program is designed for students who want to understand critical social problems from an interdisciplinary social science perspective. What problem most interests you? Why? Describe your personal and academic experience with this issue.
2. Are there any specific books, films, research studies, performances, manifestos, visual works or experiences that have already come to shape the way you see the world? What are they and how have they affected your ideas?

Program Contact

Read more about  Marieka Brouwer Burg, Interim Program Director and Professor of Anthropology

Reach Marieka at: Marieka.Brouwer-Burg@uvm.edu 

The World Languages & Cultures program provides students interested in world cultures the opportunity to explore the role languages play in constructing notions of memory, identity, and belonging in our globalized world. World Language and Culture programs are a main branch of the humanities and engage broadly with regional/local/global concerns. Students dive deeply into transnational issues as they manifest through concrete and abstract cultural products, processes and practices. In addition to a foreign language course of their choosing, students take one seminar per semester that investigates the dynamics of language and culture from a variety of regional, disciplinary, and scholarly perspectives. Students in the program choose from areas across our School of World Languages & Cultures including Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian, Spanish and American Sign Language. 

"It was a really great way to connect with other people interested in language, and it was fun to live with those same people so we could easily talk outside of class! Coming from a bilingual household, it was nice to live with people who spoke another language as well, even if it wasn’t the same as mine. I’ve also made some really good friends through the program, and had the opportunity to have more personal, engaging interactions with my professors that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise."

- Emilia W., Class of 2024, Math major with Minors in German and Music

2025-2026 World Language Scholars Courses (subject to change)

Film & Television Studies 1022 – Now on Netflix!: Producing and Streaming of World Culture(s) (Fall) 

‘Now on Netflix!: Producing and Streaming of World Culture(s)” critically approaches key issues in scholarship on Netflix’s global reach: from its ability to popularize minority cinema productions to concerns regarding translation (subtitling versus dubbing), and more. 

Taught by Bridget Levine-West, Professor in German, Russian, and Hebrew 

World Literature 1022 – Constructing Nations: Fairytales (Spring) &�Բ�����;

This course will explore the diverse and fantastical world of fairytales in the Western, Slavic, and Eastern worlds to unearth their relationship to and social/political value in their nations of origin, both historically and in contemporary society. Fairytales are a form of folk literature that have existed since the early formation of society; they are passed down orally from generation to generation with the intention of instilling societal expectations (such as gender or behavioral norms, cultural values, and other socially constructed standards). The first half of this course will undertake a comparative examination of the mutually constructing role of folk literature in four area of the world we think of as very different. The second half of the course will look more closely at the form and functions of traditional and contemporary fairytales in the Slavic world. In the nineteenth century, scholars in Russia, as in Western Europe, put enormous effort into documenting and recording these fairytales for the purpose of constructing a historical narrative and national identity. This scholarly pursuit simultaneously reinvigorated the art of fairytales, and we see the proliferation of modern folktales with contemporary meaning by writers such as Alexander Pushkin during the imperial era, Yuri Olesha in the early Soviet period, and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya in the Post-Soviet world. This section of the course will offer students a dive deep into the unfamiliar corners of Slavic folk literature in the way to understanding the beliefs, anxieties, and desires that motivated the construction of a Russian (and broader Slavic) “national identity” across time and space.

Taught by Devin McFadden, Interim Program Director and Professor of World Literature, Russian and Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies   

Courses previously taught in this program: Deconstructing Humor, Cuisine As Culture - Foodways from the Middle Ages to the Present, Frames of Remembrance: Post-Memory Generations and the Graphic Novel 

2025 World Language Scholars Application Questions

1. Describe your language learning experiences thus far. What motivated you to study a new language and culture and what continues to motivate you? What have you found challenging and how have you responded?
2. In Norwegian, “utepils” refers to drinking a beer outside on a sunny day. In Japanese, there is a noun that specifically refers to the splitable wooden chopsticks you get at take-out restaurants. The German verb “verschlimmbessern” describes the phenomenon of accidentally making something worse while trying to improve it. These and other words require explanation to properly communicate their meaning in a different language and culture, and are, to varying degrees, “untranslatable.” What word or concept do you consider untranslatable? Choose a word from any language/culture (even English!). Then, explain what it means and why it cannot or should not be translated from its original language.

Program Contact

Read more about Devin McFadden, Interim Program Director and Professor of World Literature, Russian and Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies 

Reach Devin at: Devin.McFadden@uvm.edu