Latest News

October 6, 2025
In this installment of Geeking Out With..., a series in which we talk to graduate students about their passions, Chemistry PhD student Emily Ziperman talks about her research in directed evolution and collaborating with others in the lab.
October 6, 2025
The Edmond J. Safra Foundation has committed to support the development of Sephardic Studies PhD fellowships at Brandeis University with a generous gift of $1.1 million.
September 29, 2025
Sociology PhD student Riagan McMahon was drawn to Brandeis University for its strong sense of community and the chance to do a joint master's with Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Now in her second year here, McMahon discussed the ways she has felt embraced by her program, the opportunities she has had to take courses across the disciplines, and the ways Brandeis combines the resources of an R1 university with a liberal arts heart.
Photo Credit: Dan Holmes
September 19, 2025
This academic year, 451 new graduate students joined the Brandeis community. We reached out to our incoming class to ask them to share some of the work they plan to pursue. Across schools and fields, students are interested in communities and connections, in what makes people tick, and in tackling knotty social problems to help others and build a better world.
September 12, 2025
Jamie Brandon, MS' 19, came to Brandeis's Computational Linguistics program with a background in math. While there, she was mentored by the program's faculty and learned a wide range of skills that set her up for success in the field of Natural Language Processing.
September 11, 2025
Physics PhD student Mason Miguel was drawn to Brandeis because of its New England location, cutting-edge research, and small size. Now in his third year, Miguel praises the closeness of Brandeis's Physics community and the connections he has been able to build with other researchers.
Photo Credit: Gaelen Morse
September 10, 2025
On August 31, 2025, 59 students received a master’s or PhD from Brandeis. Years of hard work paid off for these students as they completed their degrees and prepared to head out into the world beyond grad school. We talked to some of our August graduates about their favorite memories of Brandeis, their future plans, and what advice they have for other graduate students.

September 2, 2025
In this installment of Geeking Out With..., a series in which we talk to graduate students about their passions, Molecular and Cell Biology PhD student Camille Sullivan talks about her work facilitating mentorship at Brandeis and why good mentors are so important.

Photo Credit: Becky Prigge
August 28, 2025
Brandeis welcomed new and returning graduate students with an ice cream social on the first day of classes.

August 25, 2025
National Dog Day falls on August 26, 2025. To celebrate, we asked students to share "then and now" pictures and stories of their dogs.

August 4, 2025
In this installment of Geeking Out With..., Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs Charles Golden and his team introduce themselves, what they do at Brandeis, and their passions beyond the office.

July 31, 2025
Aparna Dutta, MS'22, was drawn to Brandeis's Computational Linguistics program for its interdisciplinary nature. While there, she built skills and connections that are now serving her well in her industry career.

July 24, 2025
Throughout his time at Brandeis, Will Dahl, PhD '25 in Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB), found a strong community that supported him as he persevered with his work. Through his experiences in the lab, program events, and the Three Minute Thesis competition, Will learned alongside people from a range of disciplines.

July 11, 2025
The Computational Linguistics master’s program at Brandeis University brings together computer science and linguistics and prepares students to work professionally in the fields of computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP). GSAS connected with five program alums, who spoke about their experiences in the program and how it set them up for success.

July 1, 2025
In this installment of Geeking Out With..., a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, Politics PhD student Daniel Ruggles talks about his research into the way young conservatives built bureaucratic institutions.

June 2, 2025
In this installment of Geeking Out With..., a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, Computer Science PhD student Jin Zhao talks about her research and how she uses Natural Language Processing tools to analyze the framing of news stories.

Photo Credit: Maddie Schroeder
May 13, 2025
On May 18, 2025, Brandeis University will hold its 74th Commencement. The afternoon Graduate Ceremony will honor students who earned a graduate degree in August 2024, February 2025, or May 2025, including 205 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) students.

May 12, 2025
In the fall of 2024, Brandeis University’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) launched the first Outstanding TA Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring. Open to undergraduate and graduate TAs across all the disciplines at Brandeis, these awards honor the teaching assistants who make a difference in students’ learning experiences.
May 9, 2025
In the past year, GSAS students across programs have earned a wide range of external grants and fellowships. Thanks to these awards, they are able to pursue work that supports their research, from traveling to new sites to conducting additional experiments. GSAS spoke to five of these students about their research, the award application process, and their advice for others.
May 9, 2025
This year, the PhD students of the Brandeis University Anthropology Department received a bumper crop of prestigious grants! With six students receiving Wenner-Gren or NSF grants, the program’s students had their hard work and innovative research recognized and received support with which to continue their fieldwork.
May 8, 2025
While studying at Brandeis, Emiliano Gutierrez Popoca, PhD '23 in English, took advantage of many opportunities to connect across departments and was the winner of GSAS's inaugural Three Minute Thesis competition in 2022. He now puts the experiences and skills he gained to work in teaching and research as a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech.
May 5, 2025
In this installment of Geeking Out With..., a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, Neuroscience PhD student Mike Vivian talks about his passion for science and mentoring others in the field.
April 22, 2025
Since graduating from Brandeis University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Ryan Collins, MA ‘13 and PhD ‘18 in Anthropology, has worn many hats. He’s harnessed his skills as an archaeologist and his experience in digital media both in the private sector and, most recently, as a new Assistant Professor at Millsaps College. Collins joined GSAS to discuss his range of roles, the projects he’s worked on, and the importance of collaboration across fields.
Photo Credit: Gaelen Morse
April 16, 2025
On the afternoon of April 4, 2025, students, faculty, and staff gathered in the Spingold Theater at Brandeis University. They were there to watch and participate in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ (GSAS’) flagship event: the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, now in its fourth year. The competition, which has sent two GSAS students to Nationals, challenges graduate students to explain their research in just three minutes, using a single slide, in a way that people in any field can understand.
April 16, 2025
The Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) celebrated the university’s third annual Graduate Appreciation week from April 7 to 11, 2025. Along with other members of the Graduate Engagement group, they offered a range of activities to celebrate and support graduate students as a part of this national event.
April 15, 2025
Constantine Lignos is an assistant professor of Computational Linguistics in the Computer Science Department at Brandeis University and this year’s winner of the Walzer Teaching Award. He teaches and works with a range of students, including those in the Computational Linguistics master’s program and the Computer Science PhD program. Lignos joined the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) to talk about his research into natural language processing and the exciting range of backgrounds that Brandeis students bring to their work.
April 2, 2025
In this installment of "Geeking Out With...," a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, History PhD student Cat Rosch talks about her love of knitting and dyeing yarn and how they have found a knitting community.
April 1, 2025
Bradford Garvey of Music and Amy Singer of History are the co-recipients of the 2025 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Mentoring Award. Both received enthusiastic nominations from many students.
March 24, 2025
Now in its fourth year, the Career Fellows program at Brandeis University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) continues to go strong. The program brings together students across graduate degree programs for the important work of career exploration.
March 20, 2025
Claudia Politanski came to the master's program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies as the start of a second career. She found faculty and courses that changed her personally and intellectually and that she will take with her into life after Brandeis when she graduates in May of 2025.
March 17, 2025
Liz Mahon, PhD '25 in Psychology, won the Brandeis Three Minute Thesis competition in 2023, going on to compete at regionals and nationals. The experience, along with other skills gained during her time at Brandeis, helped her find and succeed in her post-graduate career.
March 7, 2025
In this installment of "Geeking Out With...," a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, Biochemistry and Biophysics PhD student Neerja Garikipati talks about their research on enzymes and their love of finding out how and why things happen in nature.
March 7, 2025
Brandeis University Mentoring Program (BUMP) is a new student-created program designed to pair graduate students in the sciences with alum mentors who can guide them through the career exploration process. The program kicked off with a networking event on February 27.
March 7, 2025
In her dissertation, Shirah Malka Cohen, PhD ‘23 in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS), examined the use of classical music in early 20th century Japanese and Hebrew Literatures. She has now turned the dissertation into a book, Music in Modern Japanese and Hebrew Literatures: Weaving Sounds Into Words, which will be published as part of the Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature series in May. She spoke to GSAS about her experience of turning her dissertation into a book.
February 18, 2025
Jenny Factor is a seventh-year PhD student in English at Brandeis University. Her research interests include Pan-Atlantic eighteenth century media history, Black bibliography, poetry, and gaming. For Black History Month, she spoke to GSAS about her research into Black New England poet Phillis Wheatley Peters and her use of games in her poetry.
February 10, 2025
Alums of the one-year Chinese Language and Culture master's program at Brandeis go on to teach Chinese content courses at universities and secondary schools. GSAS connected with seven program alums, who spoke about their experiences in the program and how it set them up for success.
February 4, 2025
Computer Science PhD student Chester Palen-Michel, MS'18 in Computational Linguistics, discusses how his experience at Brandeis has helped him grow as a researcher and find opportunities to apply his skills.
February 4, 2025
In this installment of "Geeking Out With...," a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, English PhD student Jessi Brewer talks about her community-engaged research into prison abolition and its literary imagination.
January 31, 2025
Jonathan Anjaria, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Director of Professional Development in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, joined GSAS to talk about his ethnographic research into urban transportation, the value of the anthropological perspective, and why professional development is so important for graduate students.
Photo Credit: Becky Prigge
January 29, 2025
On Friday, January 17, 2025, thirteen Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) PhD students in the Humanities and Social Sciences attended the third annual PhD retreat. Aimed at building connections among first- and second-year students in different programs and giving them the skills to succeed in graduate school, the event was co-sponsored by GSAS and the Mandel Center for the Humanities.
January 23, 2025
Professor Amy Singer of the History Department spoke to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences about her research, why historical training is important, and the ways she brings graduate students in History together academically and socially.
January 22, 2025
Professor Maria-Eirini Pandelia, of the Biochemistry department, joined GSAS to talk about her research into metalloproteins, the collaborations she and her students participate in with scientists inside and outside of Brandeis, and her love of seeing graduate students succeed.
January 3, 2025
In this installment of "Geeking Out With...," a series in which we talk to GSAS students about their passions, Psychology PhD student Emily Calobrisi talks about her experiences as a competitive ballroom dancer.