Student laid out on the grass and reading a book

College of Liberal Arts News

The College of Liberal Arts offers students a well-rounded education in the humanities and social sciences. Students develop strong analytical and communication skills for a lifetime of learning and discovery that can be applied to a wide variety of careers.

Current Liberal Arts News

Madison Montellano
People |

Madison Montellano knows what it means to take the road less traveled, embracing each twist and turn through her academic adventure.

commencement profile (josh hawkins/unlv)
People |

President Keith E. Whitfield honors six graduates who have shown exemplary commitment to both the community and their studies.

Angie Shenouda in a cactus garden
People |

Changing majors propelled Liberal Arts student Angie Shenouda into unexpected opportunities.

students in spring
Campus News |

News highlights starring UNLV students and faculty who made local and national headlines.

Sportsbook TV screens showing college basketball
Research |

UNLV study finds binge drinking is disproportionately more common among sports bettors than non-gamblers or those who don't wager on sports.

Spring Flowers (Becca Schwartz)
Campus News |

A roundup of the top news stories featuring UNLV students and faculty.

Liberal Arts In The News

Las Vegas Weekly

Las Vegas may seem like a magical place to the 41 million people that visit each year, but most of us understand that it’s great people who make that magic happen, every day and night, around the clock, 52 weeks each year.

Las Vegas Review Journal

Modern downtown Las Vegas’ origin can be traced back to 119 years ago Wednesday, when a land auction made history by making the desert settlement into a town.

Barron's

US President Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed Wednesday to hold election debates in June and September, with the rivals trading barbs about their first on-stage meetings in nearly four years.

City Cast Las Vegas

As graduation ceremonies occur across the country, you might notice more decorated attire in Nevada. This is the first spring graduation since Nevada passed a law allowing students to decorate their grad caps and robes with religious or cultural regalia. Despite the law, earlier this month at Eldorado High School, a student was told she couldn’t wear a stole honoring her family’s heritage. Ultimately, the student was allowed to wear her stole, but this shows how the practice can be controversial. Today, we revisit a conversation with Dr. Sheila Bock, a folklorist at UNLV. She tells co-host Dayvid Figler how grad garb became so contentious and what happens when students use robes and mortarboards as a form of expression.

Las Vegas Review Journal

All eyes will be on Nevada in November as a swing state likely to determine who will be the next president. After all, the Silver State has a long-standing reputation for picking the candidate who will head to the White House.

Las Vegas Review Journal

All eyes will be on Nevada in November as a swing state likely to determine who will be the next president. After all, the Silver State has a long-standing reputation for picking the candidate who will head to the White House.

Liberal Arts Experts

An expert on American literature and Las Vegas music.
An expert on child psychology, anxiety, and school absenteeism
An expert in child development. 
An expert in African American culture and the history of slavery in the U.S.
An expert in urban culture and interactions, popular culture, religion and spirituality, craft beer, and the Boston Red Sox.
An expert on Native American history.

Recent Liberal Arts Accomplishments

Shane Kraus (Psychology) and colleagues recently published a paper, "Impulsivity and diverse forms of sports wagering in the U.S.: An examination of the UPPS-P model," in Addictive Behaviors. 
Robert Futrell (Sociology) was recently featured in articles on far-right extremism: 1) Bellingcat's "Fugitive US Militant Ammon Bundy Geolocated to Utah" and 2) The Las Vegas Weekly's "Radicalized Online: How Digital Rabbit Holes Lead to Violent Extremism."
Ileana Jara Yupanqui (Linguistics), Miriam Melton-Villanueva (History), and Blanca Rincón (Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education) were selected to receive a 2024 Faculty Opportunity Award (FOA) for project entitled "A Planning Grant for NEH: Mural of Knowledges."
Christopher D. E. Willoughby (Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies) was awarded the Elizabeth Woodman Wright Fellowship by the Massachusetts Historical Society. This award helps support a month of research next year in the Historical Society's collections, which Willoughby will use to conduct research for his book project …
Amy Reed-Sandoval (Philosophy) and undergraduate philosophy majors and minors Gloria Lara, Jenifer Lissett, and Skylar Jones-Speaber, published "Philosophy for Children as Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Lessons from the Las Vegas Philosophy for Children Initiative" in The Routledge Handbook to Public Humanities Scholarship.
Joel Snyder (Psychology), Erin Hannon (Psychology), and Reyna Gordon (Vanderbilt University) published an article titled, "Theoretical and empirical advances in understanding musical rhythm, beat and metre," in Nature Reviews Psychology.