A lot happened in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2024. Let's take a look back at some of our top stories from the past 12 months as we get ready to share another year of excellence, innovation and community with you in 2025.

Brothers in Song: 150 Years of Tradition

Music has a way of permeating space and time — connecting us to a place, a moment, a feeling and often each other. When you witness a tight-knit group of students in their element, weaving a tapestry of sound that resonates deep within your soul, that connection becomes clear. The Ohio State University Men’s Glee Club (MGC) embodies what director Robert Ward describes as “the quintessential manifestation of all that is good and right about the institution.”

Connecting History with Heritage

In 2023, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthwork sites, which includes the Newark Earthworks, to its world heritage list. It was the culmination of a decades-long push to get the Native American site officially recognized by UNESCO. The Ohio History Connection manages the Octagon Earthworks and two other Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks sites, while the National Park Service oversees the remaining five.

A for Effort

Professor Emeritus Pierre Agostini, along with Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier, received the 2023 Nobel Prize in physics “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.” Because the initial work was published around 2004, the recognition came as a bit of a surprise to the research team. 

Ohio State to open NeXUS Facility to users with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation

NSF NeXUS enables researchers to study chemical and material dynamics on the scale of atoms and electron motion utilizing a first-in-the-U.S., high-power ultrafast laser. NSF invested in the facility's construction as part of its mid-scale facility initiative in 2019, and now the NSF Division of Chemistry and Ohio State are supporting researchers from around the world to take advantage of its variety of experimental capabilities.

Black Girlhood Studies

Assistant Professor Ashley Smith-Purviance shines a light on young Black women’s experiences in the world. “The goal of Black Girlhood Studies is to create a space for Black girls to be seen, heard and deeply understood. We want to position them as theorizers of their own lives,” Smith-Purviance said. “As a former Black girl, now a Black woman, I don’t know what it means to be a Black girl today. So, it is important for me to work alongside Black girls to try and understand and think alongside them.”

Ohio State launches accelerated online language courses for new learners

Ohio State has launched five self-paced beginner language courses in Catalan; Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian; Persian; Polish; and Romanian, aimed at businesspeople, journalists, doctors and other travelers who need to quickly learn how to navigate countries where these languages are spoken. The online courses last from five to 25 hours and include cultural know-how in addition to useful vocabulary. 

Arts and Sciences alumni lead the way in suicide prevention

Alumni from the College of Arts and Sciences are spreading the message about suicide prevention and mental health as part of their roles with the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation (OSPF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing suicide. These issues hit close to home for Austin Lucas, program director for OSPF, who graduated from Ohio State in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

(Buck)eyes on the Sky: Total solar eclipse places worldwide focus on astronomy

On April 8, 2024, millions of people across the United States shared an experience that only comes to this part of the world every few decades: a total solar eclipse. From large watch parties at national parks to small get-togethers in private backyards, humans in the path of totality took a break from regular life to watch the moon cover the sun and turn day into dusk. After such an experience, you may well wonder: what else is going on in the sky?

Real Art

Department of Art Assistant Professor Dionne Lee and Associate Professor Carmen Winant have been selected for the 2024 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial. One of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions, the Biennial presents the work of contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art.