Giving

PROVIDING AN UNPARALLELED LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION

Taking Root

UVA’S DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE MAKES SIGNIFICANT STRIDES IN ITS FIRST YEAR

Since last year, the University of Virginia’s Democracy Initiative has launched four research labs led by some of the top Arts & Sciences faculty on Grounds. Private funding in excess of $50 million has been committed to support the Initiative’s aim to bring together a diverse range of scholars, government leaders, and practitioners to study and advance the prospects of democracy around the world.

College People: Unearthing History

Student researchers explore the Lawn for history of black students’ experience

A graduate student and an Arts & Sciences undergraduate conducted research in the University of Virginia’s historic Academical Village this summer, exploring the Lawn experience for black students and the history of the pavilion gardens.

College People: Matthew Newton

Matthew Newton’s WUVA news team produced 17 videos in seven days after Final Exercises last spring.

Reporters from the University of Virginia’s student-run digital media outlet covered not only graduation weekend — which included a speech from Pharrell Williams and numerous events for the Class of 2019 — but also the Presidential Ideas Festival, which brought almost 100 White House veterans, including former president Bill Clinton, to Grounds.

College People: Award for Projects in the Arts

From stages in London and North Carolina to a community health center in South Africa, three Arts & Sciences students are working with their muses, thanks to grants from the University Award for Projects in the Arts program.

News & Notes

POWERFUL PHOTOS FOR A POWERFUL SITE

Earlier this spring, under the supervision of UVA history professor John Edwin Mason, portraits of African Americans in Charlottesville taken by Rufus Holsinger in the later 1800s and early 1900s were installed around the construction site that will become UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.
Some of them show the men and women who were born into slavery and worked at the University — the very peo-ple being honored at that site. All of them were taken at the height of the Jim Crow era in Charlottesville and the South.

A Message From the Dean

THE STARS THAT CONNECT US

Every August, when I welcome new students at Old Cabell Hall for their First Lecture, I encourage them to take a moment to walk the Lawn at night. As they look up to the stars, I hope they experience not only a sense of peace in the beauty of the night, but also a sense of belonging.