Centers & Institutes
The College is home to a wide spectrum and rich collection of specialized interdisciplinary institutes, centers and other initiatives.
Americas Center/Centro de las Américas
The Americas Center/Centro de las Américas promotes the interdisciplinary study of the arts, cultures, histories, and societies of the Americas at UVA, bringing together diverse scholarly communities of faculty across the College and the University working in American studies, Latin American studies, and Latino/a studies.
Blandy Experimental Farm
The purpose of Blandy Experimental Farm is to increase understanding of the natural environment through research and education.
In that natural systems support and increasingly are affected by humans, ecological and environmental literacy are fundamental requirements for citizens, policy-makers, and society as a whole. Blandy Experimental Farm exists to promote this understanding through education and research on plants, plant biology, ecology, evolution, the environmental sciences, and the manner in which all of these are used and affected by humans.
The three principal programs designed to achieve this mission include:
- University research and education
- Outreach and environmental education
- The State Arboretum of Virginia
Center for American English Language and Culture
Creation of the Center resulted from recommendations made by the Virginia 2020 Commission on International Activities and the Committee on the Future of ESL at the University of Virginia. CAELC is funded through the Office of the Vice President and Provost and is housed in the Office of Summer and Special Academic Programs. CAELC is advised by a faculty council comprised of representatives from across the University. The Director of CAELC reports to the Vice Provost for Academic Programs.
CAELC partners include the Department of Anthropology, the Department of English, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, the Curry School of Education, the McIntire School of Commerce, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Law, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, the Teaching Resource Center, the Speech-Language-Hearing Center, the International Studies Office, the International Center, the Summer Language Institute, and the U.Va. Medical Center.
The Center for American English Language and Culture endorses the NAFSA Principles of International Educational Exchange and the TESOL Standards for Post Secondary Programs.
Center for Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences
CAMOS was founded in 1987 at the University of Virginia to coordinate and promote research and training in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences.
Center for Chemistry of the Universe
The Center allows scientists to explore new types of chemical reactions that occur under the extreme conditions of space. It combines laboratory experiments, theoretical studies, and radio-telescope observations to dramatically expand our understanding of the processes that build molecules that may “seed” young planets with the building blocks of life.
Center for Digital Editing
The Center for Digital Editing (CDE) promotes innovation, creativity, and accessibility in the fields of scholarly editing and digital humanities. The CDE is continuously exploring and developing new resources and insights as they relate to the following four elements: research and development, engagement, project consultation and development, and education. As a result, the CDE provides a distinct concentration of resources, knowledge, and solutions essential to the conceptualization and development of digital editing projects as well as advancement of the field.
Center for German Studies
Established by a generous grant from an anonymous donor, this Center serves as a hub for interdisciplinary activity, joined by the departments of German, History, Sociology, Art History, Religious Studies, Philosophy and the Darden School of Business, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the McIntire School of Commerce, among others. The Center seeks to build on the long and significant history of transatlantic and German-American relations. By drawing on the University’s strengths across the humanities and social sciences, the Center will:
- Promote the cooperation of scholars at the University of Virginia whose work touches upon the cultural traditions of German-speaking societies.
- Provide a forum for interdisciplinary research and interdepartmental collaboration.
- Provide a significant opportunity for enhanced forms of faculty-student cooperation.
- Generate visibility and recognition for the University of Virginia on a regional, national and international level supporting German Studies.
- Provide a forum for scholars, writers, artists, journalists and other professionals from the US, Germany and elsewhere who have an interest in German Studies.
- Support and expand current departmental and inter-departmental programs for study abroad and academic exchange.
- Provide a platform to develop and support community-centered activities concerned with German Studies.
- Create a forum and resource for teachers of German throughout the State of Virginia.
Center for the Liberal Arts
Begun as an experiment in 1984, the Center for the Liberal Arts has for more than three decades honored its mission of offering "programs for K-12 teachers designed to increase their knowledge of the content that they teach. It has also sustained and nurtured respectful relationships between university faculty—including some of the nation's most celebrated thinkers--and those K-12 teachers, collaborating with education and technology specialists and master teachers to create pedagogical tools and materials that are used around the globe. The Center now resides at 102 Cresap and continues to enjoy the support of the Office of the Provost, reporting directly to the Vice Provost for Academic Outreach, Louis Nelson.
Center for Poetry & Poetics
The Center for Poetry & Poetics seeks to enhance the study and understanding of poetry in our global age. Poetry goes back thousands of years, yet still flourishes today in many different parts of the world. The Center aspires to help develop various ways of thinking about poetry—what it is, how it works, why it matters, and how it changes and endures across time, place, and culture. The Center strives to advance the understanding of poetry through its support for various activities, such as conferences, colloquia, visiting speakers, and graduate and undergraduate participation in the study of poetry.
Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
Serves as a resource for research and scholarship in the field of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. The center supports teaching, research, curriculum development, community outreach programs and university-wide activities.
College Science Scholars Program
College Science Scholars is a program for exceptional students of astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental sciences, mathematics, physics and psychology, designed to give each student individual attention and opportunities for close interaction with faculty conducting research at UVA.
East Asia Center
The East Asia Center was founded in 1975 to provide a forum for faculty and students interested in East Asia. It currently sponsors a speaker series, grant programs, and promotes academic activities and cultural events related to East and Southeast Asia. We are an interdisciplinary organization of faculty, each of whom is a full member of an academic department. East and Southeast Asia-related courses are taught as part of the various departmental curricula. The Center does not have its own faculty or course offerings. However, it administers the interdisciplinary M.A. and M.B.A./M.A. degree programs in East Asian Studies, while the B.A. program in East Asian Studies is administered by the Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. The Center encourages and coordinates East and Southeast Asia-related activities such as lectures, and supports faculty initiatives in publications, workshops, and conferences that involve faculty across departments. It also administers a grant program for student and faculty travel to East Asia. Since 2015, the generosity of the family of Bruce and Sally Nelson has allowed the Center to sponsor the “Nelson Lectures on Southeast Asia” and to offer travel grants to Southeast Asia for study and research.
Echols Scholars Program
The Echols Scholars Program is predicated upon the Jeffersonian ideal of freedom of inquiry and the development of critical thought. It offers special opportunities to undergraduates in the College of Arts & Sciences considered to be the University's most intellectually curious, broad thinking, and self-motivated students and its most avid learners.
Environmental Resilience Institute
The Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) is the hub of environmental resilience and sustainability research at the University of Virginia. ERI builds a diverse and collaborative community to accelerate the rate of discovery, trains the next generation of leaders in integrative research, and develops external partnerships to translate research findings into policy and practice. Over 100 faculty from 10 UVA schools are affiliated with the Institute.
Food Collaborative
The University of Virginia Food Collaborative works to promote research, teaching, and community engagement around issues of food, agriculture and sustainability.
Islamic Study Colloquium
The Islamic Studies Colloquium (ISC), an interdisciplinary forum based in the Department of Religious Studies, brings together all students and faculty at the University of Virginia whose academic work involves Islam and Muslim cultures—including but not limited to Religious Studies, Medieval Studies, Anthropology, History, and Comparative Literature—to discuss their research in conversation.
Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture
An interdisciplinary research center, the IASC studies through empirically grounded research the rapid and extensive cultural changes taking place in our world today.
Institute of the Humanities & Global Cultures
Promotes the mission of the humanities, locally and globally, as a vocation in teaching, a central area of research, and an indispensable civic ideal. The IHGC's audience stretches throughout the humanities and sciences.
Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics
Solid Polarized Target Group: Our research program is at the forefront of the studies of the fundamental properties of the nucleons, i.e. the proton and neutron, which are the two building blocks of the atomic nucleus.
Institute of World Languages
The Institute for World Languages aims to place the learning of languages at the forefront of a shared educational mission and to provide new opportunities for collaboration in research, instruction and outreach activities in languages and cultures. (website forthcoming)
Learning Design & Technologies
The A&S Learning Design & Technology team is a faculty support group created to collaborate with and support faculty as they explore how to incorporate innovative pedagogies and instructional technologies into their courses.
Mellon Indigenous Arts Program
“The Indigenous Arts of Australia and the Americas: Object-based Research and Curatorial Skill for a New Generation” (2016-2020) is a broad multi-year initiative funded in partnership by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and the Provost’s Office.
Miller Arts Scholars
Miller Arts Scholars is an interdisciplinary arts program comprised of student researchers, creators, interpreters, collaborators and advocates actively engaged in the arts within the College of Arts and Sciences, offering students increased access to resources and distinguished arts faculty at UVA.
Mountain Lake Biological Station
A residential research and teaching field station on a southwestern Virginia mountaintop, MLBS draws biologists and students from around the world to explore the diverse flora and fauna of the Southern Appalachians.
Nau Center for Civil War History
The Nau Center promotes scholarship, teaching, and public outreach regarding the United States in the era of the Civil War.
Page-Barbour and James W. Richard Lecture Series
Founded in 1907, the Page-Barbour Lectures may be related to any field in the arts and sciences, seeking to present "some fresh aspect or aspects of the department of thought" in which the lecturer is a specialist. The James W. Richard Lectures specialize in religion or history.
Papers of George Washington
Established in 1968, the grant-funded project was created to publish a comprehensive edition of George Washington’s correspondence. The complete edition will include about 90 volumes.
Papers of James Madison
Established in 1956 to publish annotated volumes of the correspondence and writings of James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution" and fourth president of the United States.
Quantitative Collaborative (QC)
Supports and enhances the work of social scientists and graduate students who employ quantitative methods to analyze social behavior and pursue research questions of common interest.
The Power, Violence and Inequality Collective
The Power, Violence and Inequality (PVI) Collective in the College of Arts & Sciences brings together scholars, students, and others in the University community and beyond to advance research, mentorship, and teaching focused on violence rooted in power and inequality, and to foster collaboration in those areas across disciplines, methods, and university units.
Religion and Its Publics
The Project on Religion and Its Publics is a multi-year initiative dedicated to bridging the gap between the academic study of religion and public conversations about religion.
Society of Physics Students at UVA
A group of physics majors focused on community, public outreach, and academic excellence.
Summer Language Institute
A summer language school offering eight-week courses in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Russian, Spanish, and Tibetan. Students attend classes five days a week, seven-and-a-half hours a day.
The Project on Lived Theology
Exploring the Interconnection of Theology and Life. The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research community, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.
UVA Coastal Research Center
Located in Oyster, Virginia, the Center provides facilities to support a wide variety of research activities in the coastal bays, salt marshes and barrier islands of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
UVA Tibet Center
Established in 2008, this Center connects Tibetan Studies scholars around the world to advance collaborative research and offers Tibet-related courses, cultural programs, speaker series and community engagement.
Virginia Center for the Study of Religion
Drawing on the expertise of scholars at U.Va and beyond, it supports public debates and research projects on topics of religion of great public significance, from all the major religious traditions of the world. In so doing, it honors Thomas Jefferson’s belief that well-informed, respectful, and daring discussions are crucial for the well-being of civil society.
Virginia Center for Computer Music
Seeks to promote a creative atmosphere and to provide a wide variety of tools to aid engineers, programmers and composers with interactive computer music, multichannel digital audio and other areas of development.
Virginia Institute of Theoretical Astronomy
Founded in 1985, VITA is a center for research on theoretical problems in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Virginia within the Department of Astronomy. VITA is funded in part by research grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies
Now a full-fledged academic department in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the Institute promotes interdisciplinary and collaborative research and interpretation of the African and African-American experience in a global context, and administers UVA's undergraduate major/minor degree in African-American and African Studies.