Oberlin College

At Oberlin, your research matters, and who you are matters in your research.

This past summer, Gabriela Cantero ’28 worked as a Neuroimmunology Undergraduate Research Trainee at Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Her Oberlin classes prepared her for this rigorous work, specifically her Neuroendocrinology class with Director of Pre-Health Advising and Lecturer of Neuroscience Elliot Sommer.

"This class made me develop a more complex understanding of how hormones influence brain function, which further sparked my interest in studying the interactions between the nervous system and other physiological systems, including the immune system," Gabriela explains.

The liberal arts education style is a hidden advantage when approaching research, encouraging students like Gabriela to think about their subjects in a more encompassing manner.

"The liberal arts education has expanded the way I think about the purpose and impact of research," she says. "My STEM courses are giving me the necessary theoretical foundation to understand the lab work, while my humanities/social sciences courses have made me more aware of the social and structural factors that shape health. As I walk through the hospital, I often find myself thinking about the barriers that might prevent someone from ever reaching a place like this, whether related to access to healthcare, financial resources, or social support."

We believe this way of thinking is what's needed to create lasting impact.

Though only a year old, Oberlin's new Music Theater program has already seen massive success. It is built on a strong foundation of Oberlin alums who have made an impact on music theater, both on and off Broadway. Audiences continue to hum along to tunes by composer John Kander ’51 (Cabaret, Chicago) and are wowed by the master puppeteering in director Julie Taymor ’74’s The Lion King. Obies are also Tony winners: Natasha Katz ’81 has nabbed eight for lighting design, while Montana Levi Blanco ’07 took home one for costume design. Throughout the industry, Oberlin-trained performers, designers, and producers have risen to prominence, including actors Judy Kuhn ’81 and Will Chase ’92 and musician Seth Rudetsky ’88, to name a few.

Oberlin’s music theater program builds on this legacy. Launched in fall 2025, the program prepares students to join the professional world immediately after graduation. Its faculty members, all specialists in their respective art forms, train students in the trifecta of voice, acting, and dance. “These faculty members are working professionals, which makes a huge difference,” says Director of Music Theater Victoria Bussert, who brings decades of teaching experience along with 40 years of directing award-winning shows in Cleveland and internationally. “The industry embraced us immediately in our first year because people knew our work as a team.”

To learn more about the new Music Theater program, check out the Oberlin Alumni Magazine feature linked here: https://www.oberlin.edu/news/and-the-worlds-your-oyster

You know how the saying goes, Oberlin is where the heart is... or something like that. All that's to say, it is so special to see how the Oberlin spirit lingers with our alums. 🥹 Thank you to all who participated in Oberlin Everywhere!

As Oberlin College’s groundbreaking BA+BFA program enters its second year, its creative hub on campus is coming into view.

Construction is underway on the Oberlin Center for Media and Integrated Arts: a two-level, 12,700-square-foot multipurpose production space that will be completed in spring 2027 and debut the following fall.

Located in the former campus bookstore on College Street, at the intersection of Oberlin’s campus and community, the center will serve as the campus home for the BA+BFA, a dual-degree program through which students earn a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts in five years.

The center also allows for the much-needed expansion of Oberlin’s Cinema and Media Department, which will manage the space. In addition to supporting the growing number of cinema and media production courses, it provides opportunities to enhance the integration of video and digital media into courses across other practicing arts areas, such as dance, theater, and creative writing.

Read more about the exciting opportunities the Center for Media and Integrated Arts will provide here:

Center for Media and Integrated Arts Taking Shape | Oberlin College and Conservatory New Center for Media and Integrated Arts to debut in fall 2027.

Summer may be winding down, but campus is ramping up!

Have a cool club, event, or story you want to see featured on our social media? Send it our way! Our DMs are open, and we'd love to hear from you.

📸: Mike Crupi Photography

Sweet student views 🪟

📸: Rubin ’30

Andy Roshal ’26—who was president of the Oberlin Linguistics Society and taught at the Yiddish Tish on campus—had to choose between several scholarship offers to make a post-graduation plan. After considering their options, they ended up choosing to pursue studies through DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

"I applied for a DAAD scholarship, which provides me with funding to pursue a master’s degree in Germany, because I was excited about the prospect of combining my interests and continuing my studies at the intersections of German and Jewish culture as well as linguistics and literature. I’m so grateful for this opportunity, and I look forward to continuing to develop my research and teaching skills at the graduate level, and engaging with the global academic community."

This post-graduate study will expand upon research that Andy began here at Oberlin, where they pursued an individual major in linguistics, asecond major in creative writing, and a minor in German. Read more about how Oberlin shaped them as a researcher here: https://www.oberlin.edu/news/andy-roshal-26-earns-daad-scholarship

Part of welcoming our first-years to campus includes making sure they are introduced to all of the wonderful resources and spaces available here at Oberlin. During orientation week, the Allen Memorial Art Museum held an open house to welcome incoming students. Let's talk about the Allen and everything they do:

🎨 The Allen is FREE and open to the public 6 days a week.
🧑‍🎨 Their collections include both local and world-renowned artists.
🖼️ They even rent out original works of art for only $5 a semester, through the Art Rental program!

They host a number of events throughout the year—including more open houses, artist talks, workshops, and more. In fact, they're hosting an After Hours Art Party TOMORROW 9/10 from 6-7:30pm. More info here: https://amam.oberlin.edu/exhibitions-events/events/2026/09/10/allen-after-hours-art-party

📸: Alaina Battle

When you think about it, anything can be a book, from classic bound volumes to Star Trek fanfiction scrawled in indie zines from the 1960s.

Phoebe Dickinson ’26 explored this early Trekkie content—specifically, a story titled “Star Drek,” by Ruth Berman, first published in a cheaply printed science fiction fantasy zine called Pantopon—in a paper for her book studies minor. The course of study expanded her thinking around the world of books.

“You can think about, ‘Why was this book made, and who made it, and who was it made for?’” says Dickinson, a biology major who also earned an English minor. “It just opens up a lot more questions that you can ask about books other than just, ‘What do they say?’”

At Oberlin, those open-ended questions are at the heart of the book studies minor, an interdisciplinary program that asks students to look beyond texts and consider books as physical objects shaped by culture, history, and technology. Started as a weekend workshop organized by Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Laura Baudot and Donald R. Longman Professor of English and Comparative Literature Wendy Beth Hyman, the initiative has bloomed into a course of study that broadly intersects with majors such as anthropology, psychology, art history, East Asian studies, studio arts, and cinema studies.

Read more about the book studies minor here: https://www.oberlin.edu/news/between-lines

📸: Tanya Rosen-Jones '97