News

Mass Communications Department Receives Second Grant to Continue Film and TV Workforce Training Program

On Monday, October 5, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Kevin Leonard, PhD, Mass Communications Chair Suman Mishra, PhD, the Department’s veteran broadcast engineer Theresa Pauli joined Gov. JB Pritzker at Hollywood River Studios’ groundbreaking ceremony in Wood River. The Governor, local legislators and Illinois Department of...

For years, Howard Rambsy II, PhD, Distinguished Research Professor in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Department of English Language and Literature, and his brother, Kenton Rambsy, a professor of literature at Howard University, collected data on African American writers, tracking how newspapers, anthologies, scholarly journals and other institutions shaped public awareness of Black authors.

Their research became the foundation for “One Black Writer at a Time: How Literary C...

More than one thousand Cougars will fill the stands at the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students and alumni will join race fans for an exciting, televised NASCAR race, while the University’s School of Engineering (SOE), STEM Center, Alumni Association and enrollment team greet visitors on the Raceway’s STEM Lane. SIUE is a sponsor of the Infield Main Stage presenting music artists Dasha and Old Dominion set to headline the post-...

For nearly a year, Orest Matsiyevsky did not know whether the application he had submitted would bring him back to the United States. He advanced through the Fulbright selection process but was named an alternate finalist, waiting as one month folded into the next.
Come spring 2026, that answer changed. By August, the Ukrainian language instructor was on his way to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. This time, he would not only be a student, but a teacher eager to share his language and c...

Each year, faculty members at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville change the trajectory of lives without ever realizing it in the moment. This year, SIUE is recognizing eleven such educators, spanning psychology, nursing, pharmacy, engineering, social work, world languages and English, through the 2026 Teaching Excellence Awards. Sarah Conoyer, PhD, NCSP, and Jared Sheley, PharmD, are this year's winners, while nine additional faculty members were recognized as nominees for their o...

On August 1st, Jason Stacy, PhD, Chair of the Department of History, hosted a team of Walt Whitman scholars from around the country to visit the “The Douglas and Betty Noverr Collection of Walt Whitman’s Journalism” at Bowen Archive in Lovejoy Library. This collection was donated by Jason Stacy, who received the collection in 2022 from Betty Noverr after Douglas Noverr’s death in 2021. It represents 100 years of primary and secondary sources on Walt Whitman’s career...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville celebrates the life, career, and memory of Ruth Slenczynska, world-renowned concert pianist, SIUE Artist-in-Residence and music professor emerita. Slenczynska performed more than 3,000 recitals and concerts worldwide, appeared with the world's greatest orchestras, recorded music for multimedia and was the last known surviving student of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The SIUE community was sad to learn the news of Ruth’s passing in April this year.

In ...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has announced its summer 2026 Dean’s List, honoring undergraduate students whose academic achievement reflects a strong commitment to scholarship and excellence.

To earn Dean’s List recognition, students must complete at least 12 graded credit hours and achieve a semester grade point average of 3.5 or higher.

The full list of honorees for summer 2026 is available on the SIUE News Dean’s List webpage. To explore students by location,...

On a glacier in southeast Iceland, Ethan Welch, a senior at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, stopped at a rock marked “June 17, 2022.” Their guide explained that Breiðamerkurjökull had reached that point only four years earlier. The present edge of the glacier was now roughly a 20-minute walk away.

For Welch, an environmental sciences major with an emphasis in environmental management, the distance transformed an abstract lesson about climate change into something...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville alumnus Steve Porter, ’73, has been selected as an inductee in the Illinois Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

A veteran in print media, Porter worked as a sportswriter for 45 years with the Alton Telegraph, Alton AdVantage and Collinsville Herald. Throughout his distinguished career, he has been actively covering athletes, teams and events that had a la...

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Archeology Field School continues its exploration and uncovering of interesting discoveries at the Gehring site. The site is an important archaeological location situated on the campus between Cahokia Creek and the bluffs, approximately 10 miles north of Cahokia Mounds.

The site is significant for its use from the Late Archaic (3000-1000 BC) through histor...

As part of its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, the Department of Theater and Dance has established a Hall of Fame honoring alumni whose achievements and contributions have helped shape the department's legacy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

During the annual Encore Awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 5, Theater and Dance formally recognized the inaugural Hall of Fame class as part of "A Season of Gold," a historic season celebrating five decades of artistic excellence, creati...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville continues to foster future leaders through outstanding academic programs and dedicated faculty. Each semester, undergraduate students who achieve exceptional academic performance are recognized on the Dean’s List.

To qualify, students must complete at least 12 graded credit hours and earn a semester grade point average of 3.5 or higher. (An A is valued at 4.0, and a B at 3.0.)

The full list of honorees for spring 2026 is available on the SIUE New...

When best-selling author and cultural commentator Ta-Nehisi Coates was closing his run on the comic book “Black Panther” in May 2021, Howard Rambsy II, PhD, Distinguished Research Professor in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Department of English Language and Literature, was already thinking about the larger significance of Coates’s contributions to comics and Black literary culture.

“Writing Black Panther: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Representation Struggles,&#8221...

Carole Collier Frick, PhD, has been named a recipient of the 2026 Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Outstanding Faculty Award for Commitment to Student Success.

The awards were established in 2023 by the Provosts from each OVC member institution to recognize outstanding faculty at each OVC member institution, who make a lasting impact on students both inside and outside the classroom. Frick was honored alongside fellow recipients during the recent OVC&#...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville music professor emerita and world-renowned pianist, Ruth Slenczynska, died on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. She was 101.  Slenczynska was the last surviving pupil of composer-pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Slenczynska began her SIUE career 61 years ago in 1964 when she accepted a full-time position as Artist-in-Residence. In 1967 Slenczynska married James Kerr, PhD, an SIUE professor of political science.&#16...

Students from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville stepped beyond the classroom this April to test ideas, take risks and build ventures with real potential. Through The Other 40 Business Fair on April 2 and The Other 40 Pitch Competition on April 9, the SIUE School of Business created an environment where innovation met execution.

“At its core, progress begins with curiosity. It starts with the willingness to see opportunity where others see ...