Each April, the School of Arts & Sciences awards the David C. Evans Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship and Artistic & Creative Works at the A&S Honors Convocation. During the A&S Honors Convocation, department honor societies, winners of the A&S Student Symposium paper and art competitions, John R. Rilling Award for First-Year Seminar Writing, and the outstanding faculty mentor are also recognized.
Sasha Hanson and Charles Sheppard
Toby Tate
Paper Competition
Samuel Chanenson, Joshua Walker, and Jason Yoo
Art Competition
Sarah Wirth
Outstanding Mentor
Mariama Rebello de Sousa Dias, associate professor of physics, and Heather M. Russell, associate professor of mathematics
Oral Presentation
Marcela Pizzato
Poster Presentation
Charlie Fisher, Charlie Orben, and Owen Hoover
Denis Velazquez-Mondragon and Charlotte Nofsinger
Rylan Arata and Emma Contursi
The Faculty & Staff Research Symposium brings together colleagues from multiple disciplines, programs, and all five schools to present their research, work, and creative projects. All faculty and staff are invited to present their current work as part of interdisciplinary panels, roundtables, short-format sessions, or poster presentations.
Five Class of 2026 Jepson School graduates receive full scholarships to attend University of Oxford master’s programs.
Geography, sustainability, and environment professor Stephanie Spera is quoted.
UR alum Kobie Turner is featured.
UR alum Kobie Turner is featured. Turner served as UR’s 2026 Commencement speaker.
UR alum Kobie Turner is featured.
Do you envision college as a place where your professor’s office hours are spent in deep conversation about topics beyond this week’s assignment? Where you can work side-by-side with a faculty member on cutting-edge research that is published in a professional journal?
In A&S, our faculty are experts on the cutting edge of their fields. While they could work in some of the top research institutions in the world, our faculty chose Richmond because they believe in educating tomorrow's leaders and are passionate about mentoring and sharing their knowledge with students.
Caitlin Giustiniano, visiting assistant professor of Russian studies, was awarded a fellowship by the American Councils for International Education for a four-week immersive program that combines language and cultural study in Kazakhstan.
Melinda A. Yang, assistant professor of biology, Stephanie A. Spera, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, and Beth Zizzamia, spatial analysis lab GIS operations manager, along with students Flora Yi, '27, and Elliot Delroba, '24, published "The AADR Visualizer: an ArcGIS online visualizer for ancient human DNA from the Allen Ancient DNA Resource" in the Bioinformatic Advances. The AADR Visualizer is the associated tool. The groundbreaking project lets users explore ancient human DNA through an interactive global map.
Rania Kassab Sweis, associate professor of anthropology, presented "The Politics of Medicine in the Middle East" at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago in honor of National Arab American Heritage Month.
Harrison Moenich, manager of photography arts and media equipment, presents their piece, Z, at the Queer Conscience 2026 exhibition at The Image Flow Photography Center. This is the first exhibition of Moenich's newest body of work, Q.M.C., which documents the rise of the Queer Moto Club in Richmond, Virginia.
