University of Iowa graduating senior Isa Holtze will deliver the address for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Commencement ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025.

When Sage Johnson steps onto the stage at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, Dec. 21, she will do something she has never done before: sing the national anthem alone, in front of thousands. For the music therapy major, the moment feels both meaningful and surreal.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is pleased to recognize the scholarship and achievement of our students graduating in December 2025 with distinction and honors.

Our most popular articles of 2025 have a theme: human excellence in the art and science disciplines at Iowa. From Grammy awards to NASA satellites, CLAS faculty, staff, and students continue to innovate into the future.

Dean Sara Sanders and Kevin Kregel, executive vice president and provost, will confer degrees at the ceremony, which includes graduates in CLAS and University College. Isa Holtze, from Olympia, Washington, will be the student speaker. Holtze will be graduating with high distinction with a degree in cinema.

CLAS biologist Andrew Forbes’ lab, with a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, is revealing the unknown ecological world of parasitic wasps.

Isabel Muzzio, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, wants to answer how memories are stored, whether they can modified, and what sustains them over time.

The annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention, held in Washington, D.C., included talks, presentations, and education development by students and faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Through a series of five-minute presentations on cultural foods and their meaning and use in different religions, students and faculty from the department broke bread to support the community.

CLAS poet, French translator retains inspiration from Engle’s model of ‘literary citizenship.’