SPIRIT
S U M M E R 2019
A M AG A Z I N E F O R T H E G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y CO M M U N I T Y
Telling Untold Stories RESEARCH PROJECT LOOKS INTO LIFE AT GUNSTON HALL
H U M AN IT I E S’ H E AV Y H IT T E R S
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TELLING TALES—On April 8, 2019, at the invitation of the Mercatus Center, select students in the Mason 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has been adapted into a popular Hulu series and inspired a play and graphic novel. Atwood was on campus for an episode of Conversations with Tyler, a podcast in which Mason economist Tyler Cowen, BS ’83, explores the minds and methods of today’s top thinkers.
About the Cover Mason student Alexis Bracey looks at archival materials while working on the Enslaved Children of George Mason research project at Gunston Hall. Photo by Evan Cantwell. Illustration by Marcia Staimer.
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PHOTO BY RON AIRA
MFA in Creative Writing Program enjoyed a special audience with award-winning author Margaret Atwood, whose
Heavy Hitters 16 Humanities’ Last fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education recognized Mason as the eighth highest recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities funding in the past decade, with 37 projects receiving a total of more than $5.8 million. Almost all of that funding was awarded to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Department of History and Art History and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Back Moves Us Forward 24 Looking At a time when many universities are examining their histories, a group of Mason professors and students launched a summer project with the goal of telling the untold stories of those who were enslaved by the university’s namesake, George Mason IV. Their findings are collected in an online archive and have inspired additional research, university classes, and a campus memorial.
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Studying a Language—and Maybe Saving It, Too Only about 1,000 people can speak the Alaskan Native language Yupik, which makes it endangered. Mason linguistics professor Sylvia Schreiner is part of a National Science Foundation-funded project that is using technology to document Yupik’s rare linguistic properties and help support the community’s efforts to keep the language alive.
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46 From the Alumni Association President
13 M E E T T H E M A S O N N AT I O N
A L U M N I P R O F I L E S 44 Kristen Cavallo, MBA ’93
34 I N Q U I R I N G M I N DS 4 0 S H E L F L I FE 42 A LU M N I I N P R I N T
MASON SPIRIT
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47 David Crum, MPH ’16 49 Lee Glazer, BA Art History ‘84
MORE ON THE WEB When you see this graphic, follow it to the magazine’s website for more: spirit.gmu.edu. Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 1
FIRST WORDS HONOR OUR PAST, INSPIRE OUR FUTURE As my tenure comes to an end, I am proud of all that we have accomplished together to make George Mason University the extraordinary institution it has become. We have entered the ranks of the top-tier universities in the nation. We have expanded our programs and our campuses both nationally and internationally. We have created new facilities for biomedical research, environmental science, conflict analysis and resolution, public health, and much more. We have led the Common wealth of Virginia in enrollment growth and have helped attract one of the most iconic companies of our time, Amazon, to our neighbor hood. We have secured new major sources of funding for our research and have broken records in philanthropic support. Yet, for all these shared accomplishments, what I will treasure most from my time here is our culture of inclusion, our commitment to providing opportunities to talented individuals regardless of their backgrounds. I am proud that George Mason is recognized as one of the most diverse universities in the country. Students of all ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds choose Mason and, as shown by our graduation rates, thrive here. And it is to our culture of inclusion that I want to dedicate my closing Mason Spirit letter. As our diversity continues to grow, it is essential that we keep working to build a culture in which everyone can feel a strong sense of belonging. Cultures are shaped through shared narratives and practices, through rituals, and, meaningfully, through symbols. On a college campus, the names on our buildings, the design of our spaces, and the stories we choose to highlight carry enormous symbolic significance and can, over time, help shape and strengthen our culture of inclusion. Initiatives on Mason campuses illustrate how relevant these symbols can be.
highest-ranked African American in the federal government in his time, and an influential intellectual who joined Mason’s faculty early on and helped put our university on the map. Wilkins Plaza will soon be the apt home of a new memorial to the Enslaved People of George Mason. The idea developed from an undergraduate student research project that studied the lives of the people held in slavery by our university’s namesake, George Mason IV. Mason held more than 100 slaves at Gunston Hall while at the same time championing individual freedom for others. The memorial will help provide a more complete perspective of the complex and profound contradictions in the founding of the American republic, the lives of our Founding Fathers, and the role of the many oppressed people whose voices have been missing from our dominant historical narratives. The memorial will highlight what we know about a 10-year-old girl named Penny and Mason’s man servant, James. Penny and James will be represented near the Mason statue in an installation intended to elicit difficult but necessary conversations to work through issues of race and inequality. On our Science and Technology Campus, we have named our largest building in honor of Katherine G. Johnson, the trailblazing NASA mathematician who, as an African American woman, overcame racism and sexism to emerge as a pivotal leader in the early success of the U.S. space program. You might be familiar with Ms. Johnson’s story from the Oscar-nominated movie Hidden Figures (which happens to make a reference to George Mason University!). My hope is that Ms. Johnson’s tenacity and accomplishments amid adversity and discrimination will inspire each Mason student who steps foot in the building, especially women and students of color, to chart their path without limits. I remain deeply inspired by George Mason University’s mission to be an innovative and inclusive academic community committed to creating a more just, free, and prosperous world. That is the idea that binds us and that I hope will guide us into the future.
Ángel Cabrera President
Two years ago, we dedicated Wilkins Plaza in honor of the late Robinson Professor Roger Wilkins, a civil rights giant, the
In June 2019, Ángel Cabrera was appointed the 12th president of Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
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MASON SPIRIT
FROM OUR READERS
A MAGAZINE FOR THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY
spirit.gmu.edu MANAG ING EDITOR Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95 A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R S Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10 Rob Riordan, MPA ’19 C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R Sarah Metcalf Seeberg A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R Melanie Balog E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T Saige MacLeod CO NTR IBUTO R S Mariam Aburdeineh, BA ’13 Mary Lee Clark Kathleen Corcoran Damian Cristodero Nanci Hellmich John Hollis Katherine Johnson Dias, MAIS ’19 Art Taylor, MFA ’06 Preston Williams D E S I G N A N D I L L U S T R AT I O N Joan Dall'Acqua David Lewis Marcia Staimer P H O T O G R A P H Y A N D M U LT I M E D I A Evan Cantwell, MA ’10, Senior University Photographer Ron Aira, University Photographer Lathan Goumas, Photographer/Videographer Bethany Camp, Student Photographer Melissa Cannarozzi, Image Collections Manager PRODUC TION MANAG ER Brian Edlinski EDITORIAL BOARD Trishana E. Bowden Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations Frank Neville Vice President for Communications and Marketing Christine Clark-Talley Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Mason Spirit is published three times a year by the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations and the Office of Communications and Marketing. For the latest news about George Mason University, check out www.gmu.edu. George Mason University is an equal opportunity employer that encourages diversity.
A GREEN AND GOLD TALE
MASON SPIRIT
S P R I N G 2019
➤I➤ have run into several former George Mason College classmates since my time there (September ’64–August ’66) who have claimed to have chosen the green and gold now used by George Mason University. In fact, as a member of both the Student Assembly and the pick-up baseball team, I ran the selection committee to pick the colors so that we might be able to get baseball uniforms. I sent around to more than a dozen schools to get their decals for a selection to choose from. As was the case at the time, because it was a “commuter school,” interest in choosing the colors and other issues such as the school seal was tepid. Since we needed colors for our baseball team, I chose the chromatic green and gold of my father’s alma mater, the University of San Francisco. Therein lies the tale. In addition, on an ironic note, in the 50th Anniversary [issue], on the table of contents page, there is a picture of a student talking to others at a table in the Ordinary. I am the one standing. Lynne Decker George Mason College Student Assembly President, 1965–66
A 26TH WAY MASON IS MILITARY FRIENDLY ➤As ➤ a veteran, Mason alumnus, and a current member of the Mason faculty, I was pleased to read the article “25 Ways Mason Is Military Friendly” in the Fall 2018 issue. However, there is a “26th way” that you missed. Mason is home to one of only 22 Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOCs) in the nation. Hosted at Community Business Partnership (a sponsored program of the Mason Enterprise Center), the VBOC provides training and technical assistance to members of the military community (active duty, all-era veterans, reserves, National Guard, and military spouses) who are starting or growing a small business. We do this primarily through Boots to Business and Reboot workshops held at military installations and community centers in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. And our VBOC is award winning! We were recognized with the Boots to Business Instructor of the Year Award from the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2016, the Veteran Business Mentorship Award from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce in 2017, and the National Veteran Business Outreach Center of Excellence Award from the SBA in 2018. Mason truly is military friendly, and I am proud to be a part of that effort.
A M AG A Z I N E F O R T H E G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y CO M M U N I T Y
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YOU
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We want to hear from you. Letters to the editor are welcomed. Send correspondence to Colleen Kearney Rich, Managing Editor, Mason Spirit, 4400 University Drive, MS 2F7, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. Or send an email to spirit@gmu.edu. Need to change your address or update contact information with us? Or prefer not to receive the magazine in the mail any longer? Just let us know via email at development@gmu.edu.
Charles W. McCaffrey, MBA ’12 Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 3
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For New Advancement and Alumni Relations Leader, Plans Are as Big as Mason’s Potential
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hen Trishana Bowden arrived at George Mason University as the new vice president for advance ment and alumni relations, two things stood out. First, the Fairfax Campus was even bigger and better than she remembered from her hiring interview. Second, the dean of each school and college had a long list of priorities to raise money for—and they all wanted Bowden’s help. “That’s the way it should be,” says Bowden. “My first few weeks here, I met with every dean—and each one shared with me a plan for how their school will continue to grow. That ambition is what has brought Mason so far, so fast, in the first place.” Bowden, who joined Mason in March, is an experienced fundraiser and leader. From 2015 to 2018, she was vice president of advancement at Goucher College, where she helped to double giving in three years. Previously, she was the associate dean for external relations at the Uni versity of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law. She also served as associate dean for institutional advance ment at American University’s Washington College of Law. A Baltimore native, Bowden holds a BS in communication and media studies from Towson University. “Trishana brings with her an impressive track record of success in improving alumni relations and helping institutions meet their fundraising goals,” says President Ángel Cabrera. “We are excited that she has joined the Mason community.” Bowden will also serve as president of the George Mason University Foundation, the nonprofit organization that manages a $140 million endowment on behalf of the university.
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“Trishana has the right combination of vision and experi ence to lead the foundation and spearhead our fundraising efforts,” says Jay O’Brien, chair of the foundation’s Board of Trustees. “We know she will build on our current success and help take us to the next level in strengthening our donor relationships and developing new partnerships.” Bowden has outlined several areas where the university can capitalize on the success of the Faster Farther cam paign, which wrapped up in 2018. Increasing the permanent endowment is a big priority, Bowden says. “We’re competing for top students and faculty. We want to provide access to students who have aptitude and ability, but limited prospects. Endowment will help us recruit and retain outstanding faculty and support the needs of a growing population of students with limitless potential.” Another priority is improving alumni engagement. “I have met many Mason alumni in the past three months, and I am very impressed by the impact they are making in their professions and their communities,” says Bowden. “We have nearly 200,000 alumni now, and for those who are not yet engaged with their alma mater, I hope they will take another look at all Mason has to offer, be filled with great pride, and then get better connected.” Finally, Bowden emphasized the need to bring new donors into the fold. “People may not realize this, but most of our donors actually did not go to school here. They support Mason because of the benefit Mason brings to our entire community and the nation. Between our research, our students, and the way we are advancing the region, we have an incredible story to tell.”
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New Building Names Recognize a History-Making Woman and a Generous Corporate Supporter
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ull Run Hall, the largest building on Mason’s Science and Technology Campus in Manassas, has been renamed Katherine G. Johnson Hall, in recognition of the renowned NASA mathematician who overcame racism and sexism to emerge as an integral contributor to the early success of the U.S. space program. Mason will also create a scholarship in her name. One of three pioneering women portrayed in the 2017 Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures, Johnson performed the complex calculations and space craft flight path analysis that were instrumental to the early successes of the space program, from the Project Mercury missions of Alan Shepard and John Courtesy NASA/Langley Glenn to the Apollo 11 flight to the moon in 1969. Johnson, now 100 years old, has received several NASA awards, as well as Katherine G. Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2015. She has NASA facilities named in her honor. Founders Hall, one of two major academic buildings on Mason’s Arlington Campus, has been renamed Van Metre Hall in recognition of the generosity of the Van Metre Companies, a major regional builder that in 2009 donated 37 acres in Ashburn, Virginia, to the George Mason University Foundation through a subsidiary, Broadlands Commercial Development. Now valued at more than $20 million, the land is expected to eventually be sold to support university programs. The Van Metre Companies, founded in 1955 by Albert Van Metre, builds residential, commercial, and recreational facilities across Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., region. The company has provided philanthropic support to several of Mason’s colleges and schools over the past two decades. Both the company and the Van Metre family, through their respective foundations, have a record of community citizenship Courtesy Risdon Photography and support for local and regional charities, focusing on causes that include health, poverty, veterans, education, youth, the arts, From left, Trishana Bowden, vice president for advancement and alumni relations; Rick and animal welfare. Rabil, vice chair, president, and CEO of Van Metre Companies; Alison Van Metre Paley, a “Van Metre is known as a company of builders. By constructing trustee of the company; Beau Van Metre, Van Metre chair; and Mason President Ángel Cabrera at the Van Metre Hall dedication on May 13. homes and offices and recreational facilities, you have contrib uted impressively to the growth and the quality of life of our region,” says Trishana Bowden, vice president of advancement and alumni relations. “But we also think of you as builders in another sense. Through your philanthropy, you have helped to build a community that cares … and our community is a better place because of you.”
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Terri Cofer Beirne
Caroline Sutter
Rebecca Sutter
Lisa Gring-Pemble
Alexander Walters
Celebration of Distinction Honors Mason’s Best
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POINT OF PRIDE Mason has been named a “Best Value College” by Forbes. Mason was ranked
77th among the
top 300 colleges and universities. Mason was also recognized in Kiplinger’s “Best College Values" list.
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n Thursday, April 25, the George Mason University Alumni Association recognized its most presti gious alumni, the Senior of the Year, and the Faculty Member of the Year at an elegant dinner at Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park. This year’s Alumna of the Year is Terri Cofer Beirne, BA Government and Politics ’88. The incoming chair of the George Mason University Foundation Inc., Board of Trustees, Beirne was a gubernatorial appointee to Mason’s Board of Visitors from 2007 to 2011. The eastern counsel for the San Francisco-based Wine Institute, she also serves on the Chesterfield County Economic Devel opment Authority. Virginia Business named Beirne a legal elite in the field of legislative, regulatory, and administrative law in 2007, and she received the Virginia Wine Industry Person of the Year Award in 2009. Doctorally trained and credentialed family nurse practitioners Caroline Sutter, MSN ’01, DNP ’12, and Rebecca Sutter, MSN ’01, DNP ’12, are cofounders and current directors of the Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinics—and the recipients of this year’s Alumni Service Awards. The MAP Clinics function as active-learning labs for Mason students, while also serving vulnerable populations in Manassas Park and Fairfax County, Virginia. The sisters have been nationally recognized for their work in implementing and evaluating the model of community health care access and navigation used in the MAP Clinics. Both spent their early careers as registered nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington,
D.C., before coming to Mason for their master’s and doctoral degrees. Mason School of Business associate professor Lisa Gring-Pemble was named Faculty Member of the Year for her passion for teaching and researching. Since joining Mason in 2000, she has pursued teaching and research around global impact and engagement, argu mentation and persuasion, and political communi cation and legislation. Gring-Pemble’s drive for teaching has won her both a 2005 George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award and a 2017 Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR) Mentoring Excellence Award. She is deeply involved with sustainability initiatives as cofounder of the Honey Bee Initiative, as a member of Mason’s team in the Deans and Directors Cohort of the Global Responsible Leadership Institute (GRLI), and as Mason’s liaison to Ashoka. As the School of Business’s director of global impact and engagement, Gring-Pemble supports community partnerships and university-wide initiatives that engage students of all majors in social enterprise. Alexander Walters, BS Mechanical Engineering ’18, is Mason’s Senior of the Year. For his yearlong mech anical engineering capstone course, Walters and his team developed a storm drain inspection system, called Thunder Rat, for Mason’s Office of Facilities Manage ment. In December 2018, Walters completed his degree and secured a position at Lockheed Martin. —Saige MacLeod
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Scalia Law Receives Largest Gift in Mason History
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eorge Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School has received a gift of more than $50 million to support 13 new faculty chairs of approximately $4 million each. The bequest from the estate of the late Judge Allison M. Rouse and Dorothy B. Rouse is the largest gift received in Mason’s history and will create a permanent endowment—the Allison and Dorothy Rouse Endowment. “This is a transformational gift that will further strengthen our law school’s position among the best in the nation and will provide a strong foundation for our university,” says Mason President Ángel Cabrera. Judge Allison M. Rouse served four years in the U.S. Army in World War II before entering law school at the University of San Francisco, where he met Dorothy Barker, whom he married in 1952. They lived in Redwood City, California, and were associated with the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office for over a decade. In 1971, Ronald Reagan, then California’s governor, appointed Judge Rouse to serve as
an associate justice of the California Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Rouse retired from the bench in 1988 and worked for a decade as a private judge and arbitrator before he died in 2005 at age 86. Dorothy Rouse was born in San Francisco, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1946, and earned her law degree in 1949. She spent most of her career with the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office. She died in May 2018 at the age of 93. “Judge Rouse and Justice Scalia were both appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, and Mrs. Rouse was an enthusiastic fan of Justice Scalia,” says Dean Henry N. Butler. “Mrs. Rouse was proud to leave a legacy that supports the lasting scholarship and jurisprudence of Justice Scalia.” The Scalia Law School has 44 full-time faculty, a total enrollment of 525 students, and has been in the top tier of U.S. News & World Report’s rankings for 18 consecutive years. —Kathleen Corcoran
Alumni Fall Programs Come back to Mason to experience the beauty of the fall season at a variety of programs and events that will reconnect you with your alma mater.
Check out the fall lineup at alumni.gmu.edu/FallPrograms
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Giving New Life to Old Tunes
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tudents at Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media are revisit ing the past with ReSounding the Archives, a new database of sheet music and recordings. “It is bringing music from that pre-recording era back to life,” says Nicole Springer, former pro ject manager and assistant dean of the college. The project is a product of a 4-VA grant collaboration with the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Spearheaded by Mason, the project invited UVA students to select and study the pieces before sending them to Mason to be performed and recorded. Virginia Tech also provided selections and recordings. The database features World War I hits such as the 1917 song “When Yankee Doodle Learns to ‘Parlez Vous Francais’” and the 1918 tune “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” Select ions include the original sheet music, a student essay, and two recorded performances of the song: one live and one in studio.
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The database addresses the problem of finding historically accurate music that is also accessible. Currently, only works published before 1923 are in the public domain and free to use for personal and commercial projects. ReSounding the Archives is an entirely digitized database, and sheet music and songs are available to the public to freely use under a Creative Commons copy right license. Springer says they plan to expand the col lection and add music from other eras, includ ing the Civil War and World War II. She says she hopes the database can be a resource for creators looking to use historically accurate media in documentaries and presentations. In the future, selections will include lesson plans for K-12 teachers. Mason PhD student Jessica Dauterive, another project manager for the archive, hopes that teachers will find this free database help
ful. “Students already are living musical lives. It’s a big part of how people are navigating the world,” says Dauterive. “Being able to give them a different vantage point to think about history—so often it’s told through dates and static documents—this [archive] can help them to think about primary sources in new ways.” —Mary Lee Clark
Scholar Finds Refuge at Mason
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helling rained down in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine four years ago, when a war broke out between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian armies. Ukrainian scholar Ararat Osipian escaped the war zone after two months, moving to Western Ukraine and Bucharest until his city, Kramatorsk, was taken back by the Ukrainian Army. But when he returned to his home in Eastern Ukraine—just 15 miles from the front line—he knew he needed to flee again. Mason has been a haven for Osipian, who is the first endangered scholar the university is hosting through its membership in the New University in Exile Consortium. He’s thankful to be at Mason— remaining in Ukraine was extra risky based on his academic background, he says. “I have been doing research on corruption for 20 years,” says Osipian, who described his home country as teeming with corrupt authorities and
practices. “The Ukrainian authorities are not neces sarily comfortable having someone who does corruption [research] and is published widely in the West.” But the door was wide open at Mason. Osipian will continue his research at the Terrorism, Trans national Crime and Corruption Center. His most recent project looks at corruption in doctoral education in Ukraine, including sales and bribery used to obtain PhDs. He’ll also teach two classes in fall 2019. “Supporting academic freedom is fundamental to our purpose,” says Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government. “It is easy for us in the U.S. to forget how precious it is to have intel lectual freedom from fear of sanction or punishment.” —Mariam Aburdeineh, BA ’13
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Building Bridges About 20 members of Mason’s Engineers for International Development (EfID) designed and built a wooden bridge over a stream near a Civil War battlefield in Toms Brook, Virginia, about 70 miles west of the Fairfax Campus. Every year, EfID does one inter national project and a few projects closer to home. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club told them about the need for a bridge along the Tuscarora Trail. The bridge, which is made of pressure-treated wood, is about 32 feet long and 42 inches wide and is positioned six feet above the stream. The group bought the wood and other materials using money from grants, donations, and fundraising activities.
PHOTO COURTESY OF EFID
D I D YO U K N O W… Mason has formally launched a multidisciplinary institute to tackle one of the toughest issues facing the world—its future. More than 500 faculty members will be a part of the new Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), which will address Earth’s future, including the problem of global climate change. Conservation biologist Tom Lovejoy, University Professor in Mason’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, will serve as the institute’s scientific director.
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New Taco Bamba a Thank You to Mason
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My time at Mason was always filled with anticipation of what’s next in my life. To
he rock music was loud, the place was jammed, and Victor Albisu, BA International Studies ’99, was jumping from one corner of the restaurant to another. The owner and creative force behind Taco Bamba, Albisu opened the fifth location in December, and this one—which is in University Mall, the shopping center across the street from Mason’s Fairfax Campus—is a celebration of Albisu’s time at the university. “It means a lot,” says Albisu, who grew up in Fairfax. “My time at Mason was always filled with antici pation of what’s next in my life. To come back after all these years, it’s profoundly satisfying. It’s pro foundly humbling. It’s more, maybe, than I can articulate.” So he lets his food do the talking. What is he trying to say with a taco
come back after all these years, it’s profoundly satisfying. It’s profoundly humbling.
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—Victor Albisu
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that has a base of ramen noodles? “I cooked for my friends all the time, and I used to do these fun concoctions with ramen noodles,” he says of his college days. “It’s kind of an ode to what we used to do with very little means.” Albisu has been a fixture in the area’s culinary scene, with acclaimed restaurants Del Campo and Poca Madre in Washington, D.C., and his Taco Bamba taquerias in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. It’s a career arc perfectly suited for someone from a family with Peruvian and Cuban roots that, according to Albisu, “would be eating dinner and talking about tomorrow’s dinner.” Growing up, Albisu would make sandwiches in his mother’s store, Plaza Latina. He also developed an affection for tacos. “I’m inspired by the food of poverty, by the food of
the streets, the food of indigenous cultures,” he says. How does an education in govern ment, politics, and international rela tions fit in with all this? Albisu says he loves the subject matter and even worked in international development after graduation for a while. “But I didn’t have the patience at the time. I wanted to do something that had a bit more visceral reaction from people, and food was that way for me.” Even so, his Mason education has come in handy. Albisu is on the board of the World Central Kitchen and has worked for CARE and the U.S. State Department as a culinary ambassador. “Life finds a way of wrapping all your interests up in a way, if you let it,” he says. —Damian Cristodero
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With help from the Unpaid Internship Scholarship, psychology major Jennifer Lyon has been able to intern with the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., where she helps with social media management and government outreach.
Helping Students with Unpaid Internships
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nterning: it’s a rite of passage that, for many, is intrinsic to the college experience. The benefits of pursuing a dream internship can be substantial, including exposure to the field, to the workplace, and to a network of pro fessional contacts. Yet the practicalities of an unpaid internship, which can involve as many hours as a full-time job, stop many students from doing more than just looking at the position description. Enter Mason’s University Career Services and the Unpaid Internship Scholarship. Established in 2017 with a grant from the University Life Parents Fund, the scholar ship provides direct support to undergraduate and grad uate students pursuing unpaid internships in desirable fields such as the federal government, nonprofit organi zations, or medicine, to name a few. Scholarship funding means that students eager to take up an unmissable professional experience can do so, regardless of their financial situation. And the experience they gain is crucial to improving their employment out look after graduation. “We know that most employers are looking for 6 to 12 months of [related] experience, even for a fresh graduate with a bachelor’s,” says Kristin Leonato, associate director of strategic initiatives at University Career Services. So far, 50 students have received a total of $70,000 in scholarships for their unpaid internships. On Giving Day
in April, Alumni Association board members supported this program with a $10,000 matching gift, raising a total of $12,379. According to Leonato and Mary Claire Kraft, manager of employer outreach at University Career Services, the funding makes a real difference, given that the average cost of an unpaid internship to a student is about $6,000. That includes everything from transportation and housing to purchasing professional attire. Austin McManus, BA History ’17, MA History ’18, was one of the first students to benefit. The scholarship helped pay for his housing in Washington, D.C., where he interned for the History Office at the National Archives. McManus says that the internship was “an incredible experience that allowed me to apply my knowledge of public history in the classroom to a real history office environment.” Kraft says that this type of experiential learning is exactly what employers want to see. “When you give employers a list of all the different types of experiential learning that Mason students have the opportunity to participate in, they are nearly always going to pick direct experience on site in their industry as the number one preferred item on the resume.”
Support interning students with a gift to the Unpaid Internship Scholarship fund at giving.gmu.edu/ featured/unpaidinternships-fund. See more stories about students helped by the scholarship at spirit.gmu.edu.
—Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10
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Recent Rankings George Mason University has 11 graduate programs ranked amongst the top 50 in new rankings released by U.S. News & World Report this spring.
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Health Care Management
Antonin Scalia Law School
Schar School of Policy and Government
College of Education and Human Development
College of Health and Human Services
School of Business Part-time MBA: 32 College of Education and Human Development Special education: 16 Volgenau School of Engineering Industrial: 36 Computer: 77 Civil: 89 Electrical: 90 Biomedical: 91 12 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
Health Care Management College of Health and Human Services Public health: 78 Social work: 96 School of Nursing Doctor of nursing practice: 37 MS in nursing: 49 Schar School of Policy and Government Security Studies: 2 Public policy analysis: 32
Antonin Scalia Law School Part-time JD: 4 Intellectual property: 32 International law: 54 Trial advocacy: 76 Tax: 82 Health care: 86
@
MASON
M E E T T H E M A S O N N AT I O N
Jeremy Freer, MM ’10
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
Job: Associate Director, Green Machine Ensembles
Check out Jeremy Freer's playlist at bit.ly/jeremylist.
T
he Green Machine is impossible to miss, a monster en semble with students playing instruments ranging from trumpet and guitar to viola and even harp. Less conspic uous is Jeremy Freer, MM ’10. As associate director of the pep band, he’s been known to wear a green and gold helmet when he leads the ensemble. The helmet might disguise his face— but it can’t hide his talent.
FAVOR FOR A FRIEND: Freer had been teaching band at five elementary schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, when his friend, Michael “Doc Nix” Nickens, got the call to be director of the Green Machine Ensembles. “I knew he would need help with the admin side [and] with some of the artistic side,” Freer says. He started out on a volunteer basis, doing everything from writing the music charts to creating the Green Machine’s website. He earned his master’s degree and transitioned to a part-time position before becoming associate director in 2011. “Honestly, I never thought I’d be working in higher education. I just wanted to help my friend.” THE ENSEMBLE THAT IS AN ARMY: When Freer first came on board, the Green Machine comprised about 25 students who kept the whole thing going. Membership now tops 200, and
it’s a community that Freer is proud to be a part of. “It’s like an army—an army of positive, wonderful people.” MASTERING HIS DOMAIN: Freer started his path in music in the eighth grade, and the trumpet was his instrument—but arranging the music for the Green Machine means under standing the nature of the many instruments that make up the pep band’s unique sound. He credits his education in music theory and years of applied experience. NAME THAT TUNE: These days, students do much of the arranging of the Green Machine’s music, but Freer still has a hand in choosing the songs. “There’s two real categories of songs that I consider for the Green Machine, one being what’s hot right now—what’s everybody really excited about,” he says. “And then there’s the ones that you can use any time, [the ones that are] timeless.” WHAT’S WITH THE HELMET?: Freer says he’s happy to stay in the background, so that brings us back to the helmet. “I wanted to be the guy that you’d never know is there, but the one that’s making everything work.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 13
C R E AT I N G A N E W
T R AC K
OUR P ROGRE
SS O N LIN
E AT c o nstr
uc tion
.g m u .e
du
Center of Campus
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This past summer, construction began on the Core Campus Project, which will replace Robinson Hall with a six-story, 218,000-square-foot building with state-of-the-art classrooms and technology. The project also includes added green space, a larger and redesigned Wilkins Plaza, and necessary upgrades to modernize the university’s utility infrastructure. Check out the video at bit.ly/robinsonredo.
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 15
Humanities’ HEAVY HITTERS
When it comes to National Endowment for the Humanities funding, Mason is eighth in the nation. B Y M A R Y L E E C L A R K A N D CO L L E E N K E A R N E Y R I C H , M FA ’ 95
What do pilgrims, African American funeral directors, and Argentine musicians have in common? Not much at first glance, but each is the subject of a research project by a George Mason University professor who has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
L
ast fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education recognized Mason as the eighth-highest recipient of NEH funding in the past decade, with 37 projects receiving funding amounting to more than $5.8 million. All of the projects fall within the university’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS).
“The 10-year total for NEH funding to CHSS faculty is a great example of how Mason has been ‘punching above its weight’ for many years in advance of our recent reclassificat ion as a Tier 1 [R1] research university,” says Ann Ardis, dean of the college. A significant portion of Mason’s NEH funding, nearly $5.1 million, was awarded to the Department of History and Art History. By itself, the department received more funding than the entire humanities portfolios at top research universities such as Yale, Princeton, and Columbia, among 16 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
others, and—if ranked based on its funding alone—would come in at No. 13. The National Endowment for the Humanities is an inde pen dent federal agency. Created in 1965, it supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. NEH grants to the Department of History and Art His tory’s faculty have funded such research as Sun-Young Park’s study of the history of the architectural accommo dation of disability in modern France, and Suzanne Smith’s cultural history project that explores the central role of funeral directors in African American life and during the civil rights movement. (For a fuller list of individual faculty awards, see page 18.)
Over the past 10 years, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), housed in the Department of History and Art History, has brought in 61 percent of the univer sity’s NEH funding. One of the most recent awards supports digital revitalization and content upgrades for World History Matters, an online education resource for teaching world history. The project is led by Kelly Schrum, an associate professor in the college’s Higher Educa tion Program. “A major portion of the scholarship done at Mason is this kind of research,” says Brian Platt, chair of the Department of History and Art History. Yet there is a perception problem. When people think of research at a world-class university of Mason’s size, they often picture scientists in labs with microscopes, or researchers working with drones and other technologies. They aren’t imag ining a historian or literary scholar in a library or archive poring over documents. “But the univer sity is a space where that work gets done, and that research is a valuable form of knowledge production,” says Platt. “Humanities research is not usually fundable in the way that STEM [science, technology, engi neer ing, and mathematics] research is,” says Platt, and that fact makes the NEH support more important. “In those fields, there are sponsors who are willing to support the research because they see some sort of concrete application or commercial value to it. Humanities research
can only really take place in a university, because universities value knowledge that contributes to our understanding of humanity even when it lacks direct applications or brings no direct commercial benefit.” The RRCHNM, which is getting ready to cele brate its 25th year, is entirely grant-funded and has received an NEH grant almost every year since 2000, with funding totaling more than $6.2 million. In its 25 years of award-winning work, RRCHNM has developed more than 60 projects, including online resources for teachers, online collections, open-source software, and forums to develop knowledge and build community among those in the humanities working with digital technology.
the country by U.S. News & World Report. It’s the youngest program listed in the top 100. “There are lots of strong PhD programs with excellent scholars—and we have that, too—but the truly distinctive thing about Mason’s history program is the Rosenzweig Center and our digi tal history scholarship,” says Platt. “Our reputa tion has been made through our research in this field and the unique training our PhD students get in it. This has helped our graduates get jobs, and I think it has also contributed to Mason’s overall reputation as an innovative institution.” Anne Reynolds and Jason Jacks contributed to this article.
RRCHNM director Stephen Robertson believes the university’s success in winning these grants has everything to do with the quality of the scholars and staff employed at Mason. “What’s part of the ‘secret sauce’ here is that we can have a foot in both camps,” says Robertson. “If we were just web developers, we couldn’t get the history right to get that grant. If we were just historians, we couldn’t get the delivery right. It’s having both of those kinds of people here that lets us do innovative work for a whole range of audiences.” The university’s prowess in the humanities, par ticularly the digital humanities, has additional benefits. This work is part of the reason Mason’s doctoral program in history is ranked No. 44 in Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 17
Humanities’ HEAVY HITTERS
IN THE
Stacks
While not every NEH grant results in a book, many do. Faculty often use the year or summer away from teaching to write a draft of the book they are planning. History professor Matthew Karush used part of his fellowship time to travel to Argentina for research for his book Musicians in Transit: Argentina and the Globalization of Popular Music. Some projects even result in art exhibits. Carol Mattusch’s project led to a National Gallery of Art exhibit, Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, which was on display in 2008-09.
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
JOHN BURT FOSTER JR., English NEH: 2012 Book: Transnational Tolstoy: Between the West and the World (Bloomsbury, 2013)
MICHELE GREET, History and Art History NEH: 2012-13 Book: Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars (Yale University Press, 2018)
CYNTHIA A. KIERNER, History and Art History NEH: 2009-10 Book: Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)
18 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
MATTHEW B. KARUSH, History and Art History NEH: 2014-15 Book: Musicians in Transit: Argentina and the Globalization of Popular Music (Duke University Press, 2017)
CAROL MATTUSCH, History and Art History (Emerita) NEH: 1999-2000 Books: Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples (Thames and Hudson, 2008) and The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005)
JENNIFER RITTERHOUSE, History and Art History NEH: 2002 (summer stipend) Book: Growing Up Jim Crow: How Black and White Southern Children Learned Race (University of North Carolina Press, 2006) NEH: 2012-13 Book: Discovering the South: One Man’s Travels through a Changing America in the 1930s (University of North Carolina Press, 2017)
DEBRA LATTANZI SHUTIKA, English NEH: 2006 (summer stipend) Book: Beyond the Borderlands: Migration and Belonging in the United States and Mexico (University of California Press, 2011)
FORTHCOMING
BRIAN PLATT, History and Art History NEH: 2000 (summer stipend) Book: Burning and Building: Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890 (Harvard University Press, 2004)
STEVEN BARNES, History and Art History NEH: 2016-17 Book: Gulag Wives: Women, Family, and Survival in Stalin’s Terror SUN-YOUNG PARK, History and Art History NEH: 2017 (summer stipend) Book: The Architecture of Disability in Modern France SUZANNE E. SMITH, History and Art History NEH: 2013-14 Book: The “Happy Am I” Preacher: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux JOHN TURNER, Religious Studies NEH: 2018-19 Book: Out of Small Beginnings: Plymouth Colony and the Making of American Liberty ROSEMARIE ZAGARRI, History and Art History NEH: 2011-12 Book: Liberty or Oppression: Thomas Law and the Making of Empire in Colonial British India and the Early American Republic
SUZANNE E. SMITH, History and Art History NEH: 2006-07 Book: To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death (Belknap Press, 2010)
ROSEMARIE ZAGARRI, History and Art History NEH: 1997-98 Book: Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007)
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 19
Humanities’ HEAVY HITTERS
MAPPING EARLY AMERICAN ELECTIONS Mason history professors Lincoln Mullen and Rosemarie Zagarri and Sheila Brennan of Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media received NEH funding in 2016 to offer enhanced access to the early American election returns. The “Mapping Early American Elections” project provides a view of early American politics, with interactive maps and visualizations of congressional and state legislative elections from 1787 to 1825. Using the New Nation Votes collection at Tufts University—the only comprehensive record of elections in existence for the early American republic— the project also makes the electoral returns and spatial data underlying those maps available, as well as topical essays on the political history of the period and tutorials that show users how to use the datasets to create their own maps. earlyamericanelections.org
WORKING
Together Some NEH projects have Mason faculty working with scholars or mining archives at other universities.
DEALING WITH THE IMPACTS OF WAR Helping those who served in the armed forces learn to freely express their feelings is the goal of “Coming Home: Dialogues on the Moral, Psychological, and Spiritual Impacts of War,” a project directed by Jesse Kirkpatrick, the assistant director of Mason’s Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, with Edward T. Barrett, the director of research at the U.S. Naval Academy’s Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership. Using sources in philosophy, history, poetry, and literature as a backdrop, the NEH-supported project allows combat veterans to come together for two days to talk about what they have read. The readings, which focus on conflicts ranging from World War I to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, have proven cathartic for veterans previously unable or unwilling to openly speak about their own combat experiences.
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TRANSLATING THE “THEOLOGY OF INDIANS” Mason religious studies professor Garry Sparks is working with three scholars—Frauke Sachse, a linguistic anthropologist at the University of Bonn in Germany; Sergio Romero, a Guatemalan sociolinguist at the University of Texas at Austin; and Saqijix Candelaria López Ixcoy, a Maya linguist at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala City—on the NEH-supported project “The Theologia Indorum: A Critical Translation of Friar Domingo de Vico's Theology for and of the Maya, Volume I.” All four are fluent in K’iche’ and Spanish and are preparing a critical edition with English and Spanish translations of the first volume of the 16th-century Theologia Indorum (Theology of the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Indians), the first original Christian theology written in the Americas and the longest in an indigenous American language. Sparks previously received an NEH grant for his project, “Translating Kislak Manuscript 1015: A Priest’s Early Fieldnotes among the Maya,” to examine an anonymous set of texts also written in K’iche’ in the 16th century.
WORLD HISTORY COMMONS Mason professor Kelly Schrum was recently awarded an NEH grant to create an open educational resource titled World History Commons. Working in partnership with the World History Association and Adam Clulow of Monash University in Australia, Schrum’s team will build upon and enhance the existing online resources of World History Matters, the award-winning, NEH-funded collection of world history websites produced by Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and the Global History Reader, a collaboration between scholars at Monash University and Warwick University in the United Kingdom. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Funded through NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities, World History Commons will provide high-quality, peer-reviewed resources for teaching and research in world and global history.
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 21
PHOTO BY JON GOELL
Humanities’ HEAVY HITTERS
Roy Rosenzweig started the Center for History and New Media at Mason in 1994.
WIDE OPEN
Sources
For 25 years, Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has been developing online teaching resources, digital collections and exhibits, and open-source software, as well as training individuals, especially educators, in digital skills.
F
ounded in 1994 by Mason history professor Roy
“It’s one of our points of pride here that projects the center
Rosenzweig (1950-2007), the mission of the center
created more than 20 years ago remain available online,
has always been to use technology to democratize
which is not the case for most people because funders
history—to incorporate multiple voices, reach diverse
don’t help you do that,” says Robertson. “They help you
audiences, and encourage popular participation in
build it, they want you to sustain it, but they don’t fund
presenting and preserving the past.
you to sustain it. So it’s a huge challenge.”
A part of the Department of History and Art History,
The center has met this obstacle with the help of two
the center’s infrastructure is supported by the university,
NEH challenge grants in which they raised funds that
but the center itself is entirely grant-funded. Sixty-nine
NEH then matched. Those funds have helped create a
different public and private funders have supported its
$3.6 million endowment to sustain the online work
work, with the NEH being the second-largest source after
and keep it accessible.
the U.S. Department of Education. “Roy’s original vision was to use the technology to democ
“Everything we build goes up and anyone with an internet connection can access it. And they are going to be able to
ratize history—to empower people to do their own thing,”
access it for the foreseeable future,” says Robertson. “Our
says center director Stephen Robertson. “So nothing is
older projects are a testimony to the fact that no matter
licensed, including the software that we build, and abso
how dated a design might look, if information contained
lutely all of the sites are open access in order to reach as
is valuable, people will continue to use it.”
many people as possible.”
Through a charitable gift to the Rosenzweig Center
In the past decade, 45.4 million users have visited
endowment, you can help maintain its educational tools
sites the center developed with grants from the NEH.
and history resources for future generations. Visit advancement.gmu.edu/ihm02 to make your gift.
22 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
Histories of the National Mall makes visible the National Mall’s history for its millions of on-site visitors through a GPS-based website easily accessible by smartphone, and provides content and interpretation far superior to static guidebooks. The National Council on Public History selected the site as the Outstanding Public History Project for 2015. mallhistory.org
Graffiti Houses: The Civil War from the Perspective of Individual Soldiers was a K-12 teacher workshop offered by the center in 2016 that explored the Civil War through the lives of individual soldiers who left their mark in three “graffiti houses” in Northern Virginia. Workshop participants selected a graffiti item and pieced together the story of the individual who created it. Telling their soldier’s story in an online exhibit created with the center's Omeka software provided the educators an opportunity to develop skills using digital resources and tools. graffitisoldiers.org
Papers of the War Department 1784-1800 is a digital project that is making some 55,000 long-lost documents of the early War Department available online. By providing free and open access to these docu that allows users to transcribe them,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
ments and a center-developed tool the project offers a window into a time when the War Department’s responsibilities included relations with Native Americans and benefits for veterans and their families. wardepartmentpapers.org
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 23
looking back moves us As universities across the country are examining their pasts, George Mason University faculty and students have undertaken a research project looking at life at George Mason IV’s home, Gunston Hall.
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FORWARD BY MARY LEE CL ARK
M
uch of what Ayman Fatima knows about George Mason IV’s manservant James consists of educated guesses because historical records often left out enslaved people.
According to Fatima, James—who may have also gone by the name of Jammy—did everything for the founding father, including carry ing him around his home (Mason suffered from gout) and traveling with him to Williamsburg, Virginia, and to Philadelphia.
The narrative that the George Mason University student built about James is based on small puzzle pieces, such as wills and letters, or bills of sale that might detail the kind of clothes he wore. Even so, she says it is unclear what happened to James in the end. Fatima, who is double majoring in systems engineering and govern ment and international politics, discovered this information while working as a research assistant on the Enslaved Children of George Mason Project. The project’s goal is to tell the previously untold stories of those who were enslaved by the university’s namesake, George Mason IV, and it comes at a time when many universities are examining their histories.
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
Left to right, Professor Wendi Manuel-Scott, Kye Farrow, Professor Benedict Carton, Farhaj Murshed, Alexis Bracey, Elizabeth Perez-Garcia, and Ayman Fatima.
In 2016, inspired by Honors College student questions about the enslaved people of Gunston Hall, Mason School of Integrative Studies and history professor Wendi Manuel-Scott and Benedict Carton, Robert T. Hawkes Professor of History, applied for a grant through the university’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR) to dig into the past. They sought to find out more about those living at Gunston Hall, Mason’s historic home located in Mason Neck about 20 miles from the Fairfax Campus. (continued next page)
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 25
“What we discovered, as faculty and students, is that we still have to wrestle with slavery as an institution even if we were not complicit as an institution in the system of slavery,” says Manuel-Scott.
COURTESY OF PERKINS + WILL
BRINGING MISSING VOICES INTO MASON’S DIALOGUE
W
hen the heart of the university’s Fairfax Campus is dramatically remade two years from now, a thought-provoking new memorial will be at its center. The
Enslaved People of George Mason memorial, to be located on Wilkins Plaza near
the statue of George Mason IV himself, will provide a more complete account of the complicated legacy of Mason, a founding father who championed individual free dom while also owning slaves. The memorial, scheduled to be completed in 2021, will honor two of the more than 100 people enslaved at Mason’s home of Gunston Hall—a 10-year-old girl named Penny and Mason’s manservant, James. The memorial is designed to place the hidden voices of the enslaved in dialogue with the traditional voice of George Mason, while creating a space for students and others to reflect and share their own voices. “The three elements provide a space for us to think about the past, the present, and what it means to engage in difficult dialogue,” says Mason history and School of Integrative Studies professor Wendi Manuel-Scott, co-director of the Enslaved People of George Mason project. “Our intention here is to give visitors an opportu nity to see the fullness of George Mason, the enslaved laborers he held, and their contributions to who we are as a nation.” In addition, four quotes will be added around the bottom of the George Mason statue to convey his conflicted role in American history. Wilkins Plaza is an apt home for the memorial and the Mason statue—the late Robinson Professor Roger Wilkins was a civil rights leader known for his insightful writing and speaking about the history of race in America. A fountain that will also be part of the memorial will be embedded with a quill and a Wilkins quote: “We have no hope of solving our problems without harnessing the diversity, the energy, and the creativity of all our people.”
—Preston Williams
Manuel-Scott and her colleagues have launched a campaign to raise up to $500,000 in private contributions to build the memorial. View renderings of the design, and learn how you can contribute at giving.gmu.edu/enslaved_people_memorial_fund. 26 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
The stories gathered by the students have been compiled in an online archive, also called the Enslaved Children of George Mason (ECGM). The project has sparked a number of classes at Mason that integrate this research and the ideas it explored. Manuel-Scott says she hopes that the students’ work shows other students and the community the power of expanding the historical narrative and the value of adding voices— especially from individuals who are rarely heard—to traditional narratives like those of George Mason and the Founding Fathers. Fatima agrees. “It is important for our campus community to recognize that our university’s namesake enslaved blacks and that his Declaration of Rights did not extend to those he enslaved— because we can only begin to move forward once we have accepted our past,” she says. “Through the ECGM project, we can start doing that at Mason. I chose to join the project so that I could be a part of this important work.” Fatima and four other students—global affairs major Alexis Bracey, history major Kye Farrow, criminology, law and society major Elizabeth Perez-Garcia, and applied statistics major Farhaj Murshed—started with the project in summer 2017. Perez-Garcia studied the women in Mason’s life, including his wife and mother, and also found very little documen tation about their lives. She finally found a court case at the Library of Congress that involved Anne Mason, George Mason’s mother, regarding property questions after Mason’s father died. Locating the document wasn’t easy—PerezGarcia needed to apply for a special library card to look through the special collections material. She says even the librarians weren’t aware of that document, given that it was rare for women to deal with legal matters at that time. “It goes to show how there are these little nuggets of informa tion hidden in places like the Library of Congress that are just labeled as ‘other’ or ‘not important,’” Perez-Garcia says.
PHOTOS BY EVAN CANTWELL
Murshed delved into the diet and medical treatment of enslaved people at Gunston Hall, and Farrow investigated how laws governing individual liberty affected enslaved individuals. Bracey looked at the enslaved children of Gunston Hall, the Mason family’s relationship with the slave trade, and the culture of the enslaved community. The project did not stop at the summer’s end, as the Enslaved Children of George Mason Project was the start of a wider exploration of the lives of Mason and those around him. Fenwick Library history librarian George Oberle, BA History ’96, MA History ’98, PhD History ’16, who helped the students with their archival searches, teaches an honors course and history classes that integrate the project’s findings. Through this class, an online journal called Mason’s Legacies (masonslegacies.org) has been started with items and exhibits added by students and invited scholars that dive deep into Mason’s history. Oberle says the site will provide students the opportunity to use the Mason family as a lens to explore slavery, westward expansion, and other aspects of American history. Manuel-Scott, Carton, Oberle, and several of the students made a presentation about both the project and a planned Enslaved People of George Mason memorial (see sidebar) at a Board of Visitors meeting this past spring.
“One of the things that this project does is confront the full legacy of our namesake in a way that speaks to who we are as Mason, in a way that’s courageous, in a way that exempli fies what we do best as a university,” says Julian Williams, Mason’s vice president of compliance, diversity, and ethics. “And that is to turn student questions into action, into work with faculty members, and to make that into something that’s long-lasting.” Preston Williams contributed to this feature.
Take a walk at Gunston Hall with the student and faculty researchers behind the Enslaved Children of George Mason project at bit.ly/ECGMspirit.
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 27
Studying a Language— AND
maybe saving it, too
The research that a Mason professor and students are doing today may help preserve a language for tomorrow.
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B Y A R T TAY LO R , M FA ’ 0 6
T
he Alaskan island of St. Lawrence sits in the Bering Sea, closer to Russia than to the Alaskan mainland by a difference of almost 100 miles. The tiny town of Gambell on the island’s northwestern coast sits “on the edge of the continent,” says Sylvia Schreiner, assistant professor of linguistics at George Mason University. “Looking west from the beach,” Schreiner explains, “you’re looking across the International Date Line at tomorrow in Siberia.” This remote island boasts the world’s densest concentration of people fluent in Yupik, an Alaskan Native language. Only around 1,000 people can actually speak it, according to Schreiner, so the language is considered endangered—a result of generational shifts, national aims toward English-only education that began in the 1950s and ’60s, and the influx of English-language culture through radio, TV, and the internet. “While perhaps 90 percent of elders are fluent in the language, probably more like 5 to 30 percent of children under 18 are fluent, with variance for the ages in between,” Schreiner explains. “The younger generation is just as interested in watching popular (English-language) videos, shows, and movies as kids are back on the mainland.” Last year, Schreiner and Lane Schwartz, a colleague from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, where Schreiner had worked prior to coming to Mason), were awarded a National Science Foundation grant for their study of Yupik and its rare linguistic properties and to help support the community’s efforts to keep the language alive. The grant supports a team of researchers from Mason and UIUC for a period of three-and-a-half years. Their mission draws on both Schreiner’s specialty—documentary and formal linguistics—and Schwartz’s—computational science and computational linguistics. While their collaboration began in 2017, the roots of the project stretch back into Schwartz’s own childhood on the island in the 1980s. His parents had been offered (continued next page)
Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 29
teaching jobs there, and his classmates came to school speaking Yupik; they learned to speak English in their classes. Today, however, many of the island’s schoolchildren are speaking English first and only learning Yupik as a second language. “As an adult, Lane knew that the language was endangered, and he wanted to see if the village would be interested in having a couple of linguists try to lend a hand in the main tenance and revitalization process,” says Schreiner. “As Lane’s background is in computer science, he was interested in building computer tools for the speakers—things like a digital dictionary, a spellchecker, e-books—as well as in making a better record of the language.” Schwartz approached Schreiner about being the docu mentation expert on the project based on her experience in endangered language documentation from her work on an NSF-funded project on Scottish Gaelic, work she continues now.
“In terms of linguistic theory, I study how words and sentences are formed in different languages; in terms of practice and outreach in my career, I had been wanting to do more work on endangered languages. I found that Yupik seemed to have a lot of interesting grammatical features that might help me answer some of the theoretical questions I pursue in my research program.” The core research team includes Schreiner and Schwartz, research assistants Emily Chen at UIUC and Benjamin Hunt and Giulia Masella Soldati at Mason, and several other volunteers at Mason who transcribe audio, digitize materials, and more. In the summer of 2018, Schreiner, Schwartz, Chen, and Hunt spent several weeks on the island, and Schreiner and Schwartz returned for 10 days around Thanksgiving. Their field research included gathering stories and background information in English and in Yupik and strengthening their understanding of how the language works.
Research assistants Benjamin Hunt and Emily Chen review data between inter view sessions with Yupik speakers.
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From left, researchers Lane Schwartz and Sylvia Schreiner with research assistants Benjamin Hunt and Emily Chen on the mountain overlooking the village of Gambell, Alaska.
In January, Schreiner and Hunt presented a paper, “The syntax of negation in St. Lawrence Island/Central Siberian Yupik,” at the 2019 meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. During the spring, the entire team split up their time in the area, to include working on digitization at the Alaska Native Language Archive in Fairbanks, work they are continuing this summer. “In between trips,” Schreiner says, “we work on organizing and analyzing the data, building the computer programs and tools, and doing clean up and postprocessing of the scanned materials for digitization.” While scholarly interests drive much of their work, both Schreiner and Schwartz are also committed to working with community members and village councils to pursue their own goals to preserve the language—a commitment that hasn’t always been part of the history of linguists work ing with Native, First Nations, and Aboriginal communities. “It’s important to us to direct our research in such a way that we are benefiting the community at least as much—if not more—than linguistics or computer science as a whole,” says Schreiner. “For a language with a handful of speakers left and no written description, the immediate goal for the community and for language scientists may be as extensive documentation as possible—such that future generations could reconstruct from the records some semblance of the original language. For a language with a healthier number of speakers, and a decent amount of existing documentation, the focus may instead be on creating effective pedagogical materials for younger generations, to ensure continuation of the language.” With only around 1,000 fluent speakers, St. Lawrence Island Yupik falls somewhere in between those two situations. Both the community and the researchers see today as a critical time for the language, and the community itself has formed a language revitalization group to generate ideas and build initiatives. “We see our role as something like facilitators,” says Schreiner. “We have access to resources that community members do not, and we can put those resources to work for the benefit of the language and its speakers. Along the way, we are benefiting language and computer science as well.”
LEARN SOME YUPIK
aa
[ahh]
‘yes’
nakaa(n) [nah-kah(n)] ‘no’
saa-mi [sah-me] ‘I don’t know.’
Yupigestun liisupigtunga.
[you-PEE-guhs-toon lee-soo-PEEKH-
toong-ah] ‘I really want to learn Yupik.’
Pinighsin?
[pee-NUHCH-sin]
‘How are you/are you well?’
Pinightunga. [pee-NUHGH-toong-ah] ‘I’m fine/good/well.’
Igamsiqanaghhalek.
[ih-GAHM-suh-QAHN-uh-HAH-luhk]
‘I am grateful.’ In the pronunciations, there are some special sounds:
kh = your tongue is in the position to make a ‘k’, but you hold the sound (like German ‘ich’)
g = your tongue is in the position to make a ‘g’, but you hold the sound ng = like the ‘ng’ in ‘walking’ q = a ‘k’ in the far back of your mouth ch = your tongue is in the position to make a far-back ‘k’, and you hold the sound (like German ‘Bach’)
gh = your tongue is in the position to make a far-back ‘g’, and you hold the sound
To get a closer look at the electronic dictionary the researchers are working on, check out this video at bit.ly/MasonYupik. Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 31
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
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Rolling on the River Last summer, Volgenau School of Engineering students geared up in waterproof field boots, hats, and bug repellant to participate in a week-long course, Environmental Assessment and Watershed Process, held at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation in Front Royal, Virginia. During the day, they waded into the streams and tributaries of the Shenandoah River and reached under rocks to find crayfish and other critters that signal the health of the stream. They measured nitrogen, phosphate, turbidity, and flow with sensors and then returned to the labs in the evening, where they used computational methods to develop a model of the region’s watershed. Their projects characterized the current state of the watershed, as well as threats to the water quality and ecology. The course will be offered again in August 2019.
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PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
INQUIRING MINDS
Swimming with the Fishes
I Every time we tested it, something new came up. It was daunting at times but also interesting. —Blazej Horyza
t swims like a fish, turns like a fish, and dives like a fish—but it’s not a fish. For their capstone project in fall 2018, three Mason Engineering seniors created a robotic fish that can navigate water through wireless commands. “We designed and built the robotic fish from scratch,” says Blazej Horyza (pictured above), BS Computer Engineering ’18. “It’s about four feet long, weighs 17 pounds, and performs as we wanted it to perform.” Eventually, marine biologists and environmentalists will use robotic fish to track aquatic life and monitor the conditions of the ocean, rivers, and lakes. “If there is a disastrous event, such as an oil spill, we can deploy the robotic fish to investigate,” says faculty supervisor Feitian Zhang, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The team, which includes Sergio Cruz, BS Computer Engineering ’18, and Morteza Eskandari, BS Computer Engi neering ’18, calls the yellow-and-black robot Bumblebee or Goldilocks. It has three battery-powered electric motors to generate tail movement, an onboard computer, magnetometer (compass), water pressure sensor, video camera, accelerometer, and a buoy with a wireless antenna inside. The user sends commands to the buoy through a private wireless network on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Those directions are transmitted to the fish’s onboard computer via a tethered cable. Horyza says the project had its challenges, such as programming the private network and waterproofing the body of the fish. “Every time we tested it, something new came up. It was daunting at times but also interesting.” In the next few years, Zhang plans to work with other students to build on this concept, with the goal of creating a school of robotic fish, which will be equipped with sensors that can collect data on such information as temperature, algae, and dissolved oxygen content. —Nanci Hellmich
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RESEARCH
Almost Heaven
H
istory is often told through the narratives of prominent men and women, while the stories of everyday people go unrecorded. That is why students from Mason’s Folklore Studies Program are doing their part in collecting histories that might otherwise be forgotten. For 10 days in summer 2018, students traveled to south western West Virginia, the heart of coal country, and completed fieldwork in Mingo, Logan, and Kanawha counties. Emily Hillard, West Virginia’s state folklorist, helped connect students with people in the area. English Department chair Debra Lattanzi Shutika led the project. She is also director of Mason’s Field School for Cultural Documentation, which is a collaborative project with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Folklorists study what they can collect, such as legends, myths, stories, and oral histories. In a world where people no longer keep diaries or extensive written records, the
collection of stories is important, says Lattanzi Shutika. The students traveled to several small towns, where they conducted interviews and made observations. The stories and information the students collected were sent to the West Virginia Regional History Collection in Morgantown, West Virginia, where the materials will be made available to the general public. Anthropology major Alex Bridges says recording these ordinary histories that may otherwise be lost was impor tant to her. “Since I’ve done so much work with archaeol ogy, I know how much information gets lost, and I know how frustrating it is in the future. Yes, the big things get saved, but the majority of what happens in a society— the day-to-day mundanities, the voices of individuals— is barely recorded, or lost entirely.” Lattanzi Shutika hopes to return to West Virginia in 2020 with another group of students to make deeper connections in the area.
“The majority of what happens in a society— the day-to-day mundanities, the voices of individuals—is barely recorded, or lost entirely.” —Alex Bridges
—Mary Lee Clark
Could Your Commute Be Hurting You?
L
PHOTO BY LATHAN GOUMAS
ast semester, Mason professors and students from the College of Health and Human Services, the Volgenau School of Engineering, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences began collect ing data for a study: “Gestational Exposure to Traffic Pollution in the D.C. Metro Area.” The research project, funded by a Provost’s Multidisciplinary Research Award, is looking at women’s exposure to traffic pollutants during their commutes. Monitors placed in the personal vehicles of women commuters measure fine particulate matter—an air pollutant that can be at high levels near roadways and becomes a health concern when it enters the body.
“This is one of the first studies to look at women commuters,” says Jenna Krall, an assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health who is leading the study’s data collection. “The reason this project is focusing on women specifically is because there has been recent research indicating that pollution exposures during pregnancy may lead to adverse health outcomes.” Preterm birth, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and low birth weight are among the adverse health effects Krall referenced. Master of public health student Nada Adibah has been heavily involved in recruiting study participants and has been working in the lab to change out the monitor filters. She’s one of several graduate and under graduate students taking an active role in data collection and lab work. After collecting pollution exposure measurements, Mason experts in psychology and reproductive epidemiology will analyze the data, and engineering faculty will help the team develop technology based on the findings. The team hopes this study will facilitate future studies to estimate the effects of traffic pollution on pregnancy-related health outcomes, such as low birth weight in newborns. —Mariam Aburdeineh, BA ’13 Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 35
INQUIRING MINDS
D I D YO U K N O W…
$149m Mason reported an all-time high of $149 million in sponsored research expenditures for fiscal year 2018, a PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
32 percent increase over the previous year. Expenditures in 2019 are trending even higher.
Suited for Arctic Waters and Beyond
M
ason mechanical engineering professor Jeff Moran (pictured above) and researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a plan to triple the survival time for divers in unforgiving environments, such as Arctic waters. “[The] current wetsuits we have for diving in very cold conditions are fundamentally limited,” says Moran, an amateur diver. “Hypothermia becomes a serious risk after 20 to 30 minutes. We saw room for improvement.” Standard wetsuits are made of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that is filled with pockets of air that account for most of the material’s volume and half of the heat that escapes. When the wetsuit is placed inside a pressure tank filled with a heavy, inert gas, such as xenon or krypton, for several days, the heavier gas replaces the air within the neoprene, and that greatly enhances the wetsuit’s thermal insulation properties. “The fundamental idea is to replace air with a better insulating gas,” says Moran, who worked closely on the
project with MIT professors Jacopo Buongiorno and Michael Strano. “The main impact of this materials technology is delaying the onset of hypothermia for the warfighter,” says MIT graduate student Anton Cottrill. “You can modify a current wetsuit using the process that we have developed to essentially double the time that a diver can spend in frigid waters before the onset of hypothermia.” Not only does the treated wetsuit material become a better insulator, but it also becomes easier to put on and move around in because the treated versions are 40 per cent thinner, says Moran. Working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy SEALs, the team plans to com plete a stable long-term version of the wetsuit and begin human trials. They’ve already applied for a patent to protect their work. Their findings were published in the June 2018 edition of the journal RSC Advances. —John Hollis
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RESEARCH How Did Our Planets Form?
Scoring High with NIH
M
ason biosciences doctoral students Catherine DeMarino, Alex Barclay, and Michelle Pleet were happy with the grant proposals they submitted to the National Institutes of Health, but given the competitive pool of applicants, they didn’t have any expectations. So imagine their surprise when the students received extremely high scores that put them within the top 15 percent or higher of all applicants. And one of them, DeMarino, did so well that she landed a nearly $75,000 grant to continue her research. All three students wrote their proposals based on the research they did with extra cellular vesicles (EVs), a particle that every person’s cells make. DeMarino suspected that the drugs that HIV patients currently take might contrib ute to how EVs help the virus in the brain, and she worked on identifying other drugs that can inhibit the process. Barclay identified a protein in EVs that is responsible for reactivating HIV in longterm patients and was working to understand what that protein specifically does in a cell and how it affects other proteins. Pleet found that viral proteins in EVs may be responsible for the quick spread of the Ebola virus in an infected person, and she researched ways to stop that process. All three graduated in May, and while the road was difficult, the camaraderie they formed in the lab made it all meaningful. “It’s tough being a PhD student. You don’t get a lot of sleep,” DeMarino says. “But if you have really great people around you, it makes it a little easier.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10
T
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
he New Horizons spacecraft’s exploration of the dwarf planet MU69, located 5 billion miles from Earth and a billion miles past Pluto, could reveal how the planets in our solar system formed, says Michael E. Summers, a professor of planetary science and astronomy in Mason’s College of Science and a member of the NASA/New Horizons team. “This is like going back in history four-and-a-half billion years and examining and seeing what the stuff was that came together to form the planets,” he says. New Horizons reached MU69—nicknamed Ultima Thule, a term used in medieval times to signify a place beyond known lands—in the early morning of January 1, 2019. Summers was at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, monitoring and analyzing the data, which began coming in when the spacecraft was about 30 million miles from its destination. One surprise: The light shining off MU69 doesn’t vary in inten sity as it does for NASA/JHUAPL/Southwest Research Institute/Roman Tkachenko rotating planets. “It could be that MU69 is just uniform in brightness, or perhaps it is a close double planet—two small planets that are just touc hing each other. It is certainly a mystery,” Summer says. He calls the continuation of the New Horizons project, which visited Pluto in 2015 to much fanfare, “pure discovery science.” Summers doesn’t expect the project to generate the global excitement of Pluto, but at a time when government funding for scientific research is being cut, New Horizons is a reminder of what science can accomplish. “This is exploration,” he says. “This is just pushing the frontier of what we know.” —Damian Cristodero
From left, Michelle Pleet, Alex Barclay, and Catherine DeMarino
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PHOTOS BY RON AIRA
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SHELF LIFE
Recently published works by Mason faculty
Ideals of the Body: Architecture, Urbanism, and Hygiene in Post revolutionary Paris Sun-Young Park, assistant professor, History and Art History In this book (University of Pittsburgh Press, May 2018), Park reveals how anxieties about health and social order, which manifested in emerging ideals of the body, created a uniquely spatial and urban experi ence of modernity in the postrevolutionary capital, one profoundly impacted by hygiene, mobility, pro ductivity, leisure, spectacle, and technology.
Can American Capitalism Survive? Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won’t Make Us Poor Steven Pearlstein, Robin son Professor, Public and International Affairs In this book (University of Pittsburgh Press, May 2018), the Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist chal 40 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
lenges the theories being taught in business schools and exercised in board rooms around the country. Pearlstein maintains that as a country we’re missing a key tenet of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: Without trust and social capital, democratic capitalism cannot survive.
the research-based strat egy, the various interest groups engaged in educa ting their communities on how to make the transi tion, and the behind-thescenes tensions between the National Association of Broadcasters, media com panies, the Federal Com munications Commission, and the U.S. Congress.
Moral Thought in Educational Practice
From Analog to Digital Television: The Greatest Public Relations Initiative in TV’s History David K. Rehr, professor, Schar School of Policy and Government This book (Page Publishing Inc., September 2018) explores how the digital television transition took place by detailing how the campaign was initiated,
Hugh T. Sockett, professor, Schar School of Policy and Government By analyzing research on the moral and intellectual qualities in curriculum, this book (Routledge, October 2018) reveals the primacy of the moral in various educational settings. With an additional emphasis on morality as it pertains to teaching as a vocation, the book examines the objectives of teacher education and offers an account of moral purposes within the knowledge base for teaching.
Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation and Resilience: A Bioarchaeological Perspective Daniel H. Temple, asso ciate professor, Anthro pology, and Christopher M. Stojanowski (Eds.) The chapters in this volume (Cambridge University Press, Novem ber 2018) explore the different ways that huntergatherer societies around the world adapted to changing social and ecological circumstances while still maintaining a predominantly huntergatherer lifestyle. Couched specifically within the framework of resilience theory, the authors use contextual ized bioarchaeological analyses of health, diet, mobility, and funerary practices to explore how hunter-gatherers re sponded to challenges and resisted change.
Biodiversity and Climate Change: Transforming the Biosphere Thomas E. Lovejoy, University Professor, Environmental Science and Policy, and Lee Hannah (Eds.) In this all-new sequel (Yale University Press, January 2019) to the 2005 volume, leading experts in the field summarize observed changes, assess what the future holds, and offer suggested responses to the physical and biological impacts of climate change.
The Avalanche Path in Summer Susan Tichy, professor, English In her third collection (Ahsahta Press, January 2019), Tichy offers an
No Longer in the Dark homage to both the litera ture of mountaineering and her beloved Colorado Sange de Cristo Mountains. Like the contradictory forces convened in its title, these poems evoke both place and time, a history and the rupture of history, in a landscape structured by word and rock.
personal and interpersonal growth, and in conflict resolution and other situations of great change.
More News Tomorrow
Peacebuilding Through Dialogue: Education, Human Transformation, and Conflict Resolution Peter N. Stearns, University Professor, History and Art History (Ed.) Published in collaboration with the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dia logue, this volume (George Mason University Press, January 2019) examines the many dimensions of dialogue as a key driver of peaceful personal and social change. The essays collected here consider dialogue in the context of teaching and learning,
Susan Richards Shreve, professor, English In her 16th novel (W. W. Norton & Company, June 2019), Shreve tells the story of a daughter’s quest to understand her mother’s mysterious death. On the morning of her 70th birth day, Georgianna Grove receives an unexpected letter that calls her back to Missing Lake, Wisconsin, where her mother was murdered 66 years earlier. Her father had confessed to the murder the next morning and was carted off to a state penitentiary. Haunted by the night that took both her parents away and determined to unearth the truth, Georgie takes her reluctant family on what will become a dangerous canoe trip to Missing Lake.
L
ouise Shelley, the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair and a University Professor at Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government, directs the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), which she founded. Her newest book, Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy Is Threatening Our Future (Princeton University Press, November 2018), was written during her time as an Andrew Carnegie Fellow and while at a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center residency.
What inspired you to write this book? After I finished Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism (Cambridge University Press) in 2014, I felt that there was much that I had not touched in this book that was worthy of much deeper analysis. I understood that illicit trade is a key facilitator of many of the most destabilizing phenomena in the world—the perpetuation of deadly conflicts, the proliferation of arms and weapons of mass destruction, and environmental degradation. Yet all this malicious commerce is not linked exclusively to organized criminals or terrorists. There are not enough criminals to do this much harm to the planet. Behind it are many corrupt officials, and states themselves. I decided to write a book that continued the analysis where I left off. Little did I realize that it would take nearly two years to learn enough about the cyberworld and environmental studies for me to complete my analysis. And the cyberworld plays a large role in dark commerce. The profound transformation of illicit trade since its origins in ancient times has been facilitated by the internet and social media. Drug and human trafficking are now the major forms of illegal commerce, but they were not criminal prior to 1800, nor was there significant drug trade. Now there are also many other important forms of dark commerce that operate in the tangible world, such as arms, art and antiquities, and the ubiquitous counterfeits. And there is an ever-expanding illicit trade in the very commodities that we need to sustain life on the planet—water, wildlife, trees, and fish. Between one-quarter and one-third of the wild-caught fish entering the United States are illegally obtained. We are all part of the problem. You’ve said that this book is only the first step. Please explain. The book has served as a platform to get the ideas across—to make people realize the urgency of a threat that they have not thought about before. The complex ideas of the book may be hard to absorb, and the topic may be depressing—but its message and the needed response can be communicated. I have participated in fora for Congress and discussions of the book have taken me to radio and television, as well as inter national think tanks. I have been interviewed not only by NPR on Marketplace and PRI [Public Radio International], but [I’ve] reached more general audiences through C-SPAN and syndicated radio shows. I hope that this is a wake-up call. The window to address these challenges is short, and we all need to be part of the solution. Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 41
ALUMNI IN PRINT
Recently published works by Mason alumni
Count Girls In: Empowering Girls to Combine Any Interests with STEM to Open Up a World of Opportunity Katianne Williams, MFA Creative Writing ’03, and Karen Panetta Chicago Review Press, August 2018 The authors, both STEM professionals, present compelling research in an accessible style. The book provides specific advice and takeaways for each stage of schooling, from elementary school through college, and includes com prehensive STEM resources. Williams is an awardwinning contributor to IEEE’s Women in Engineering magazine and writes for NerdGirls.com.
The Boys from Hicks Drive—Vienna, Virginia: True Adventures of Growing Up During the 1960s and 70s in the Best Small Town in America Richard B Speight, BS Biology ’77 Game 7 Publishing LLC, December 2018 This collection of true stories features the adventures and mishaps of six lifetime friends. Follow along as they find clever ways to entertain themselves, frequently with disastrous 42 | S P I R I T. G M U. E D U
results, in those nostalgic times before video games, cable television, mobile phones, and the internet.
Black Men in Law School: Unmatched or Mismatched Darrell D. Jackson, JD ’90 Routledge, March 2018 Grounded in critical race theory, Black Men in Law School refutes the claim that when African Ameri can law students are “mis matched” with more selective law schools, the result is lower levels of achievement and success. With personal narratives and counter stories, Jackson demonstrates the inadequacy of the mismatch theory and deconstructs the ways race is con structed within American public law schools. Jackson is a professor at the University of Wyoming College of Law.
Man Out: Men on the Sidelines of American Life Andrew Yarrow, PhD History ’06 Brookings Institution Press, September 2018 Man Out examines the often-ignored struggles of tens of millions of Ameri can men in work, family, physical and mental
health, fatherhood, mass incarceration, and civic participation. The book draws on a wide range of data and existing research, interviews, a national online survey, and indepth fieldwork. Yarrow, a longtime reporter with the New York Times, has taught postWorld War II U.S. history at American University, worked for several think tanks and advocacy orga nizations, was a political speechwriter, and has con sulted for a number of international organizations.
Rough Ground Alix Anne Shaw, MFA Creative Writing ’99 Etruscan Press, July 2018 Rough Ground is a transla tion of Ludwig Wittgen stein’s Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus from philosophical treatise to poetic text. In his work, Wittgenstein argues that language sets the limits of what can be meaningfully said and thought. Shaw is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Dido in Winter (Persea 2014) and Under tow (Persea 2007), winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize. She is also a visual artist.
Border Crossing Amy Schmitz, MFA Creative Writing ’97 National Federation of State Poetry Societies, June 2018 Winner of the 2017 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Compe tition, Schmitz’s collection of poems begins in Africa, where she served in the Peace Corps, and crosses both cultural and na tional borders. Schmitz has previously won awards from Poetry International, the Women’s National Book Association, and the CNY chapter of the National League of American Pen Women.
In the Beginning: A Look at Our World through the Lens of Environmental Science Christopher Farabaugh, MS ’05, PhD Environ mental Science and Public Policy ’08, and Timothy Farabaugh Lighthouse Press, April 2018 This book examines the first creation story in Exodus and details how the Old Testament was written. Farabaugh currently serves in managerial and leadership roles focused on genetic toxicology in the drug develop ment industry.
PAT R I O T P R O F I L E
Alexandria Petrassi YEAR: Graduate Student MAJOR: Creative Writing, Poetry HOMETOWN: Chicago, Illinois Growing up, poet Alexandria Petrassi, MFA ’19, would fill notebooks with a mixture of lyrics, quotes, sheet music, photographs, drawings, stories, and poetic lines. She started writing more formal poems around age 13 but says she has always been fascinated with the relationship between sound and image. “I think I may have been writing poetry without a name for it for most of my childhood. It’s interesting to think back on it now, at the end of my MFA, and realize that I’m still using this type of accumulative creative process.” A Day in the Life: During her time at Mason, Petrassi has been involved with the student-run literary journal So to Speak. Starting as a poetry reader in her first year, then assistant editor, and finally as editor in chief, Petrassi has done it all. She describes the job as “challenging and nonstop.” From managing contests, hosting meetings, altering submission guidelines, drafting newsletters, copy editing, and of course running the publication process, Petrassi has barely had a moment to catch her breath. “When I came in [as editor in chief], I realized that the publication was more important than I was. I’m in service to the journal. I’m not there to further myself, but to put the cause first.” What’s So to Speak?: Founded in 1993 by an editorial collective of women MFA students, the journal has been a dynamic showcase of intersectional feminist writing and art that addresses issues of significance in the lives of all marginalized people and their many intersections. Petrassi says that the journal prides itself on “shaking up the norm of being a writer because there are so many people that need to be heard.” Standing Out: With more than a dozen student-run publications at Mason, So to Speak has been able to make its mark. Coming in as what Petrassi describes as a “midtier literary journal,” So to Speak has sparked an amazing response. What really sets So to Speak apart from other journals is the publication’s investment in giving back. The editors have organized fundraisers to benefit the Washington, D.C., LGBT community center Casa Ruby, and Ayuda’s legal fund, which supports immigrants surviving domestic violence and other unstable living situations. Petrassi stresses that writing should be connected to the world and have an impact. On Choosing Mason: Petrassi has always wanted to teach, and she says Mason’s Creative Writing MFA Program provides a wonderful path into teaching writing and literature. The many opportunities in publishing available to students were also a big draw. “In the end, I think the primary reason I chose Mason for my MFA was the sense of community among the students. It’s really special, and I noticed it immediately during my first visit.” —Saige MacLeod
PHOTO BY RON AIRA
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CLASS NOTES
THE JOURNEY TO
D
CEO
espite her years of experience, Kristen Cavallo, MBA ’93, never interviewed for a CEO position prior to returning to the Martin Agency, a leading Richmond, Virginia-based advertising agency.
Cavallo was named Martin’s first female CEO in December 2017, after allegations of sexual misconduct against a former senior leader. The significance of this particular moment is not lost on her. “It was a challenging time for the agency. A company and brand I cared deeply about was in a time of crisis,” she says. “I hoped my relationship with the company would be beneficial, and my years away would give me a clarity toward problem-solving that would be additive.” Cavallo decided to pursue an MBA to advance her career. After graduating, Cavallo moved to Boston to work for the ad agency MullenLowe. She then moved on to Arnold Worldwide, where she pitched a Volkswagen campaign that put her on Martin’s radar. She stayed with the Martin Agency for
WE BELIEVE THAT WHEN YOU IMPACT CULTURE, YOU IMPACT SALES, AND WE WORK HARD TO CREATE IDEAS WITH SIGNIFICANCE AND POSITIVE INFLUENCE.
13 years, then went back to MullenLowe and served as chief strategy officer and chief growth officer for North America. She returned to Martin seven years later. With the agency reeling from the effects of sexual misconduct allegations, Cavallo immediately assessed and instituted change, a task that might have seemed nearly impossible one year ago when she accepted the CEO position. “We believe that when you impact culture, you impact sales, and we work hard to create ideas with significance and positive influence. I hope that’s a legacy I leave,” she says. Throughout her career, as she advanced in the industry, she acknowledges not seeing a lot of women in leader ship positions. “If there’s the sense that you have to see it to be it, there were not many opportunities for that. But I was fortunate to have male bosses who pushed me forward.” Because supervisors can serve as role models and help employees develop their careers, Cavallo says picking a good boss is even more important than picking a bigname company or brand to work on. She advises young professionals to choose a boss who advocates for them, provides constructive criticism, and invests in their development. “I think sometimes we get caught up in working for the company or the brand ‘of the moment.’ But the biggest impact on your career is the person who is evaluating and championing you on a daily basis,” she says. While Cavallo has endless goals for improving the Martin Agency, the mother of two always sets a personal goal of doing one impossible thing a year. Last year, Cavallo and her children trekked to their seventh and final continent, Antarctica. The year before, she and her son climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. This year, in honor of her 50th birthday, she aims to complete 50 acts of service with 50 different organizations. “I relish the idea of figuring out what my impossible task is for every coming year and then doing it,” Cavallo says. —Katherine Johnson Dias, MAIS '19
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class notes 1970s
Gary Campbell, BA Psy chology ’77, went to work for MCI in 1978 and recently retired as advisory engineer for Verizon after more than 40 years in telecommunications. He has received numerous awards and eight patents during his career. An amateur radio operator, Campbell is a charter member of the Radio History Society. He is active in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the City of Allen Community Emergency Response Team. He has been married for 41 years to his wife, Anne (Woolson) Campbell, BA Psychology ’77, also a Mason graduate. They met at a Mason Psychology Association party in 1975. They live in Texas and have three children and nine grandchildren. Donald Jenkins, MA Psychology ’78, had his first book, The Lost Civil War Diary of John Rigdon
King, released in October 2018 by Arcadia Publish ing/The History Press. Before writing his book, Jenkins was employed for 32 years with the Common wealth of Virginia.
1980s
Daniel Leedy, BA Govern ment and Politics ’80, was elected to a fourth term as judge of the County Court at Law of Austin County, Texas.
Anne Altman, BS Market ing ’82, retired as IBM’s head of the federal sales division. She worked at the iconic technology giant for nearly 35 years, beginning in 1981 as a “co-op”—a work program for college students. Jennifer Santley, BA English ’82, contributed an oral history account of a Woodburn Road commu nity, known familiarly as the Neck, which was pub lished in the book Fairfax County Stories: 1607–2007.
Tape recordings and trans criptions are on deposit with the Northern Virginia Folklife Archive at George Mason University. Chrys Sbily, BA Government and Politics, English ’84, was honored as a 2018 PRWeek “Champion of PR.” The ceremony was held in New York and recognized women who “ensure results, exceed business goals, and achieve creative excellence” in the communications field. The annual awards are part of PRWeek’s Hall of Femme event. Suzanne Connole, BS Early Education ’85, achieved National Board Certification in Reading. Patrick Knittle, BS Accounting ’85, recently became CFO of Against the Grain Gourmet, a Vermontbased manufacturer of gluten-free bakery prod ucts available in more than 10,000 retail locations nationwide and in Canada.
John Armstrong, BA Economics ’87, is the author of A Thought-out Faith: Christianity as the Best Explanation, published in July 2018 by Invictus Maneo Press. The book explores whether the belief in and practice of the historic Christian faith can be considered a rational and coherent response to the way things are, or whether it requires an eyes-closed leap into the abyss of supercharged legend and sophisticated forms of wish fulfillment. Armstrong currently resides in Northern Virginia and continues to write, blog, speak, and engage in respectful, openended dialogue on issues related to worldview analy sis, philosophy, theology, and socio-cultural issues. Kenneth Clarke, BS Public Administration ’87, is the founder and operator of the Nairubbean, a product of African and Caribbean roots and a refreshing up date to the concept of
relaxation therapy. The Nairubbean is a mobile energy therapy and massage business that combines distance and hands-on energy healing with traditional massage therapy to provide a safe, discreet, and relaxing environment in a brandnew RV, “the NRG mobile.” Bryan Wayne Galentine, BS Finance ’89, best known for penning the country hit “What If She’s an Angel,” was diagnosed with ALS— Lou Gehrig’s disease—in 2017. Faced with the pos sibility of losing his ability to speak or sing, he quickly hit the studio to make his first ever full-length album, While You Wait. The first single, “Simplify,” features country stars Big and Rich and James Otto on back ground vocals. The record is available at iTunes and all digital streaming outlets, or at www.bryanwaynemusic. com. A portion of the profits will be donated back into the ALS community. (continued next page)
What’s New with You? We are interested in what you’ve been doing since you graduated. Moved? Gotten married? Had a baby? Landed a new job? Received an award? Submit your class notes to alumni.gmu.edu/whatsnew. In your note, be sure to include your graduation year and degree. Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 45
DEAR FELLOW
Patriots I
t’s been a great year for Mason alumni. This year we welcomed 9,994 new graduates to our alumni community, which now totals a worldwide network of more than 200,000. Wow—it’s amazing how much we have grown. Attendance at our Homecoming indoor tailgate doubled this year. Survey feedback was very positive overall, and a good indicator that we are moving in the right direction.
The Alumni Association Board has adopted a new strat egic plan that will keep us on target for our priorities, which are to strengthen our active population and cultivate tailored engagement opportunities, all while amplifying our alumni brand and pride in alumni achievements. In April, we celebrated our 43rd annual Celebration of Distinction, which honors accomplished alumni across each school and department, as well as four overall Alumni Association awards: Alumnus of the Year, the Alumni Service Award, Faculty Member of the Year, and Senior of the Year (see story on page 6). Congratulations to all the award winners. You are among our finest, and we are very proud of you all. It is an exciting time to be an active member of the Alumni Association. I would like to thank all of our volunteer board members who thoughtfully and dili gently work to keep our association strong and who donate their time, talent, and treasure for the overall good of the university. The next time you are on the Fairfax Campus, whether as a volunteer, speaking to a class, mentoring a student, or just visiting, please be sure to stop by our office in Northern Neck. During normal business hours, someone is always there to greet you and offer whatever assistance you may need while on campus. We hope to see you! Together We Thrive, Jen Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94 President, George Mason University Alumni Association
Patrick Jones, MA Music ’89, previously the assistant vice president for aca demic affairs, online learning at Drexel Univer sity, has been named chancellor at Penn State Schuylkill. As chancellor, Jones will be responsible for the quality of academic programs in teaching, research, and service; strategic planning; budget ing; philanthropy; faculty and staff development; outreach; and community and alumni relations at the campus.
1990s
Elisabeth Murawski, MFA Creative Writing (Poetry) ’91, published her third collection of poems, Heiress, in September 2018. Published by Texas Review Press, it was a runner-up for the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.
Robert Scott Weeren, BS Accounting ’91, was pro moted to chief executive officer at BrandMuscle, the innovator of the Brand Muscle Integrated Local Marketing Platform. He will oversee company growth initiatives and lead overall operations. Gina Healy, BS Accounting ’93, has been honored as one of Intelli gent Insurer’s 2018 “Influ
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ential Women in Re/ insurance.” Now in its fourth year, the award recognizes the most suc cessful women working in risk transfer around the globe. Rhonda Vetere, BA Speech Communication ’93, is the author of Grit & Grind, her second book. A seasoned C-suite technol ogy veteran, Vetere knows firsthand that there’s no such thing as a perfect, struggle-free life. Grit & Grind uses real-life stories of how Vetere and her team navigate the volatile tech industry and illustrates her simple practice for building confidence in her abilities—no matter what the challenge. Michelle Katz, BS Public Administration ’94, has been named the new chief health information officer and senior vice president of communi cations of F1 HealthIT. Richard Killion, MPA ’94, was appointed by New Hampshire Governor Christopher Sununu to a four-year term on the board of trustees of the Community College Sys tem of New Hampshire. Rich is the cofounder of Elevare Communications, a strategic communica tions firm in Concord, New Hampshire. He has served
CLASS NOTES
as a senior advisor for governors Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and Tim Pawlenty. Joseph Cox, BS Account ing ’97, was selected as the new head of internal audit for the Institute of International Education. Jay Norton, BS Mathe matics ’98, has been pro moted to associate vice president at Dewberry in Fairfax, Virginia. Norton is
the firm’s director of pric ing and a member of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the National Contract Manage ment Association, and Toastmasters International.
2000s
Caroline Kelleher, MEd Special Education ’02, has taught language arts and
special education at the middle and elementary levels in Herndon, Virginia, since 1991. She recently accepted an opportunity to teach secondary English at the Fairfax County Juvenile Deten tion Center in a program that builds skills and inspires change for stu dent inmates. Kelleher and her husband, Kevin, live in Lovettsville, Virginia,
with their three children and cat. She is an advo cate for students, a friend to those in need, and loves to take long walks. Maria Clarke, MEd Curric ulum and Instruction ’04, is the founder of God fathering Worthy Causes, a nonprofit organization that supports efforts in Latin America to aide dis advantaged children and
homeless animals. GWC was created in 2017 from Clarke’s desire to make a difference in Colombia, her country of birth. The organization has helped spay and neuter more than 500 dogs and cats, provided funds to help feed homeless animals, and helped save more than 300 animals by pay ing for veterinarian bills. (continued next page)
ALL CREATURES GREAT AND VERY, VERY SMALL
N
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
ot everyone can say they’ve encountered a snow leopard at close range, but David Crum, MPH ’16, can. Before coming to Mason, Crum was a veterinarian at a practice that specialized in treating exotic animals, where he saw everything from weasels to one very special big cat. “The exam was exactly the one performed on a domestic house cat— except this cat had bigger teeth,” Crum says. “I remember how soft her fur was and how lucky I was to see such a magnificent animal up close.” Though he enjoyed the work—and the patients—he decided to shift careers. He looked to Mason’s public health master’s program for that next step. “The professors were top-notch and the core curriculum provided a means to expand upon my veterinary education,” he says. Of his professors, Crum singles out Dr. Kathryn Jacobsen as having a particularly positive impact. “She made epidemiology accessible and demonstrated how it can be used in practice. I still have her notes and use them to this day.” Now, as Maryland’s state public health veterinarian, Crum focuses on critters that
are a bit smaller and not as exotic. “[I] manage and direct the epidemiologic and scientific surveillance, analyses, and control of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases in Maryland,” says Crum. Vector-borne diseases include those transmitted by insects, such as Lyme disease carried by deer ticks, while zoonotic diseases (like rabies) are passed on directly by animals. While much of his day includes communica tion and coordination between his office and the local health jurisdictions in Maryland, Crum also conducts field investigations. During these inquiries, Crum runs the gamut, from testing animals carrying zoonotic diseases to following up with individuals who may have been exposed—although those patients are of the human persuasion. It all fits into Crum’s interest in the One Health approach, which explores the inter connectedness between the health of animals, humans, and the environment. For Crum, Mason was the missing link that brought his interests full circle. “Mason provided a great foundation in epidemiol ogy and provided a means for me to make the transition to public veterinary practice.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10 Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 47
CLASS NOTES
D I D YO U K N O W… GWC also supports dis advantaged children by sending school materials for children in need and helping to provide gifts and meals to children of low socioeconomic status during the Christmas holidays. Azuka Boutcher, BA Spanish ’07, has created her own dance-style work out called Kazaxé. Located in Springfield, Virginia, Kazaxé emphasizes dance and cardio as a way to maintain physical and men tal health, holds charity fundraisers, and has become a popular local brand.
Melissa Sizemore, BS Accounting ’07, was recently elected partner in the financial management practice area at Cotton & Company, which she joined in 2007 as a staff auditor. Melissa is an active member of the Association of Govern ment Accountants and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. Jona Colson, MA English ’08, is to be published in Ploughshares, an awardwinning literary journal. Colson’s first poetry collec tion, Said Through Glass, won the Jean Feldman
Jeopardy! has seen a recent spate
Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers’ Pub lishing House. His poems appear or are forthcoming in the Southern Review, Massachusetts Review, Subtropics, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. He teaches at Montgomery College in Maryland and lives in Washington, D.C. Erin Schaible, MPA ’08, was named the City of Fairfax’s first female police chief. She previously worked for 28 years with the Fairfax County police in a wide range of roles and responsibilities, including patrol officer,
of Patriot pride—Lee Glazer, BA Art History ’84, appeared on the show this past October, and Siobhan Fabio, BA Government and International Politics ’12, competed in January.
assistant commander at the McLean and Reston district stations, and captain of the Franconia District Station. Sean Eddy, BA Anthropol ogy ’09, led the marketing and growth strategy team
at Eddy Alexander of Roanoke, Virginia, in win ning 13 awards for superior marketing achievements in 2018. The firm’s awards included a Best in Show Thoth Award from the Public Relations Society of
2019 -20 G E O R G E M A SO N U N I V E R S IT Y A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N B OARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT Jennifer Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94
Ray Wotring, BA Government and International Politics ’05
LAMBDA Aléjandro Asin, BA Sociology ’11
PRESIDENT-ELECT Sumeet Shrivastava, MBA ’94
ALUMNI CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVES BLACK ALUMNI David Atkins, BS Decision Science ’90
ANTONIN SCALIA LAW SCHOOL Jesse Binnall, BA Communication ’01, JD ’09
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Anthony DeGregorio, BS Physical Education ’84, MS Physical Education ’89
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Becky Anderson, BS Accounting ’10
VICE PRESIDENTS Tyree Carlson, BS Social Work ’96 Franziska Moeckel, BS Marketing ’07 TREASURER Gleason Rowe, BA Global Affairs ’11 HISTORIAN Mariana Cruz, BS Civil and Infrastructure Engineering ’11 AT-LARGE DIRECTORS Phil Abbruscato, BA Government and International Politics ’15 Yoshie Davison, MSW ’09 Molly Grimsley, BA Art (Studio) ’81 Harry Hink, BS Physical Education ’85
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COLLEGE OF VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Position vacant COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Betty Ann Duffy, MSN Nursing Administration ’08 VOLGENAU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Rob Walters, BS Computer Science ’88
SCHAR SCHOOL OF POLICY AND GOVERNMENT Colin Hart, MA International Transactions ’93 LATINO Rolando Flores Santos, BA Global Affairs ‘18 COLLEGE OF SCIENCE Taylor Sargent, BS Physics ’14 COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Ashley Phayme, BA Communication ’08
CLASS NOTES
America National Capital Region, the coveted national Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil Award for Issues Management, and the Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Econo mic Development Council. Colleen Freyvogel, MEd Special Education ’09, was recently awarded a fellowship for her work with Agora Cyber Charter School’s Special Educa tion Department. The goal of the Pennsylvania Fellowship Program for Special Education Leaders is to build the knowledge and skills of special edu cation administrators to ensure success for all stu dents with individualized education programs. Patrick Kunze, MBA ’09, earned the Leadership in Government, Advocacy, or Policy Award from the U.S. Green Building Council, National Capital Region, for his dedication to sustainability in build ing design. He is the senior principal at GHT Limited. Monica Hawkins, PhD Environmental Science ’09, published the book Raising Girls Into Extraordi nary Young Women. The book is a blueprint parents can use to raise their daughters to be articulate, (continued next page)
PHOTO BY RON AIRA
A ROOM WITH A VIEW
L
ee Glazer, BA Art History ’84, came to Mason at a time when the Fairfax Campus was little more than a cluster of brick buildings tucked into the woods. But that sleepy exterior belied the activity taking place.
room for the London home of shipping magnate Frederick Leyland, who was the artist’s first important patron. Charles Lang Freer bought the room in 1904 and had it reassembled, first in his Detroit mansion and eventually in the museum that bears his name.
“It was a vibrant intellectual community that seemed worlds away from suburban strip malls and sub divisions,” says Glazer, who was one of the 50 Mason Exemplars recognized at the Alumni Association's 50th anniversary celebration in 2018. “The [art history] faculty at that time was young—they had been trained by some of the old masters of the discipline, but they also had the benefit of coming of age just as a more socially engaged, more rigorously theorized approach was coming to the fore, so their students got the best of both worlds.”
But it was Glazer who worked to restore the Peacock Room to match its appearance in Detroit in 1908, when it was filled with more than 250 ceramics from all over Asia. “By presenting the room according to Freer’s aesthetic vision,” she says, “we were finally able to make visitors understand why an extravagant Victorian dining room is part of an Asian art museum.”
That ethos of building bridges between worlds followed Glazer all the way to the Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler, which she joined in 2007 as curator of American art. Under her helm, she focused on creating exhibitions that showed the links between the American collection and the gallery’s overall identity as an Asian art museum. One of her most memorable achievements at the museum involved the Peacock Room. On view continuously since the Freer opened in 1923, the Peacock Room has long been a key part of Washington, D.C.’s art scene. James McNeill Whistler designed the
Recently, Glazer was appointed as the founding director of the Lunder Institute of American Art at Colby College in Maine, where she says, “[The] work will be as much about making connections and breaking down boundaries as it will be about producing provocative new work.” It’s a mission based on a love that Glazer found decades ago at Mason, poring over slides of masterpieces and visiting the nearby National Gallery of Art on weekends. “I signed up for [now Professor Emeritus of History and Art History] Carol Mattusch’s Survey of Art History second semester of freshman year to fulfill a humanities requirement and I was hooked. I liked the combination of aesthetic pleasure and deep historical thinking.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10 Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 49
CLASS NOTES
their three young children and two rescue dogs.
POINT OF PRIDE Of Mason’s spring 2019 graduating class of 9,994, 34 percent reported being the first in their family to earn a bachelor’s degree.
self-confident, intelligent, and extraordinary young women and leaders. Hawkins is a wife, mother, sports fan, and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She has been a mentor, tutor, coach, and motivational speaker to numerous youngsters.
2010s
Robert Gehl, PhD Cul tural Studies ’10, published his second book, Weaving the Dark Web, with MIT Press. Gehl is currently an associate professor in the depart ment of communication at the University of Utah.
Jerry Sparks, CERG Lead ing Technical Enterprises ’11, PE, PMP, CFM, has been promoted to senior vice president at Dewberry. Sparks is a senior water resources engineer and directs the firm’s resilience solutions group, which includes work for the Federal Emergency Man agement Agency’s Office
of Resilience. Sparks is a member of the Project Management Institute and the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and serves on the executive board of trustees of the ASFPM Foundation. Lily Belt Maley, BA Relig ious Studies ’12, recently accepted the position of chief marketing officer and head of brand at Visme, a software company in the design and brand manage ment space. An accom plished brand strategist and marketing professional, Maley looks forward to representing Visme as a speaker and writer on the subject of brand manage ment. Maley’s career has been shaped by her breadth of expertise in design, code, and business strategy, and she loves to promote and encourage young women building out their tech nical skillset for career growth. Maley lives in Reston, Virginia, with her husband, Matthew, and
Adrienne Oliveira, MEd Education Leadership ’12, moved to California after graduation to continue her teaching career. After her first child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Oliveira found herself battling with the school district in his transition to school. She changed careers and decided to become an advocate for other families trying to navigate the special education system. Oliveira has had another son and is busy taking care of her little boys in addition to working in advocacy. Carl Aldrich, MA History ’13, is manager of the his toric Fielding Garr Ranch at Antelope Island State Park, an island of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. He oversees the care and maintenance of six buildings constructed between 1848 and 1920, a collection of tractors and farm equipment, several artifacts, and a natural wetlands area that hosts a large variety of birds. He lives with his family on the 23,000-acre island, often opening the front door to
find bison, pronghorn, and world-class deer. In 2019 he celebrates five years with Utah State Parks. Jeffrey Donahue, MBA ’13, is the director of the procurement department at Pension Benefit Guar anty Corporation. In his new role, Donahue will oversee the procurement process and acquisition solutions that support the agency’s mission. In addi tion to an MBA, Donahue has a bachelor’s degree in management from the U.S. Air Force Academy. Breanne Kretzschmar, BA Integrative Studies ’15, wed Stuart Kretzschmar on September 30, 2018, at the historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Virginia. The couple are enjoying newlywed life with their puppy, Tito. Arlena Newson, MPP ’16, is a policy analyst for the U.S. Air Force. Newson assists with the facilitation of the secretary of the Air Force’s publication reduc tion initiative, a two-year project expected to end by fiscal year 2019. “This project means a lot to me because I used to tell the
other airmen (while I was active duty) that I wanted to be the secretary of the Air Force. It is truly an honor to be on this project working with the secretary to make policies comprehensible for the average airman.” Jada Mabry, BS Manage ment ’17, is currently pur suing a master of arts degree in organizational leadership at Regent Uni versity. Mabry will gradu ate in December 2019. Karen Wrightsman, PhD Education ’18, was hired as an advisor for the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. Wrightsman works in the Washington, D.C., office of the Institute for International Educa tion, which administers the program. Jania Leonardini, BA Accounting ’19, has been hired by the U.S. Depart ment of Defense for a position to begin after graduation, after being an intern at DoD for the last two years.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Class Notes are submitted by alumni and are not verified by the editors. While we welcome alumni news, Mason Spirit is not responsible for information contained in Class Notes.
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CLASS NOTES
Obituaries John W. Shreves, BA History ’68, d. October 29, 2018 Marthaan Fenton, BA Psychology ’71, d. December 26, 2018 Gerry Elizabeth Mull, MEd Elementary Education ’72, d. October 29, 2018 L. M. Redmond, BSN ’76, d. January 19, 2019 Gloria J. Rickel, BS Business Administration ’76, d. December 21, 2018 Marilyn L. Butler, BS Business Administration ’77, d. December 16, 2018 Lillian M. Maxwell, BA Government and Politics ’77, d. October 18, 2018 Debbie D. Mueller, BS Elementary Education ’77, d. December 23, 2018
Gwen E. Fehringer (Goldman), BS Social Work ’82, d. January 16, 2019 Donna L. Burnett, BA Area Studies ’83, d. January 7, 2019 Mary Hasty, BA Area Studies ’83, d. June 8, 2018 Robert A. Briggs, BS Chemistry ’84, d. January 10, 2019 Arthur P. Capobianco, BIS ’84, d. January 1, 2019 Maureen F. Rumford, BA Sociology ’84, d. October 27, 2018 Marc S. Toloczko, BA English ’85, d. December 15, 2018
Charles H. Byrd II, MA History ’04, d. January 8, 2019
Margaret Powell, MA History of Decorative Arts ’12, d. January 21, 2019
Jason D. Barden, BA International Studies ’96, d. January 25, 2019
Mana C. Weigand, BA Management ’06, d. December 7, 2018
James A. Foreso, BS Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies ’96, d. November 30, 2018
Laurie A. Villani, MA New Professional Studies ’07, d. January 11, 2019
Laura Ann Fowler, BA Psychology ’14, CERG Public Management ’17, d. February 8, 2018
Byron L. Perez Morales, BS Decision Science and Management Information Systems ’99, d. October 27, 2018 Penny V. Toro, BS Business Administration ’99, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’11, d. November 21, 2018
Helen E. Klima, MEd Special Education ’09, d. October 22, 2018 Caitlin M. Kurylo, MS Peace Operations ’11, d. December 15, 2018 Owen T. Lucas, BA Anthropology ’12, d. January 18, 2019
Sarah L. Jones, MA Communication ’15, d. August 30, 2018 Kevin R. Wetzel (former student), d. November 20, 2018 Avery B. Kranski, BS Cyber Security Engineering (former student), d. December 31, 2018
Jewell S. Emswiller, BIS ’87, d. December 30, 2018 Carol J. Smiley, BIS ’87, d. November 20, 2018
Charles J. Roppolo, JD ’77, d. November 20, 2018
Sheila E. Norman, JD ’88, d. December 11, 2018
Jane M. Seeberg, BA Government and Politics ’77, d. December 8, 2018
Alan C. Schultz, MS Computer Science ’88, d. January 20, 2019
Delores B. Simmons, BS Social Work ’78, d. November 6, 2018
Dorothy L. Birdzell, BS Finance ’89, JD ’93, d. December 17, 2018
Mary E. Marshall, BA Government and Politics ’79, d. January 22, 2019
Stanley Louis Le Borne, BA Art (Studio) ’89, d. September 10, 2017
Abigail M. Lippincott, BA English ’80, d. December 7, 2018
Craig M. McComb, BA Decision Science ’90, d. September 17, 2018
Albert A. Defazio, MBA ’81, d. October 23, 2018
Madelyn A. Birdzell, BA English ’93, d. December 14, 2018
Brian J. Hillock, BS Biology ’81, d. November 29, 2018
Douglas H. French, BS Electrical Engineering ’93, d. December 9, 2018
F A C U LT Y, S TA F F, A N D F R I E N D S Marion Fishel Deshmukh, Professor Emerita of History and Art History and former chair of the Department of History and Art History, died on April 13, 2019. She was 74. Deshmukh received her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her MA, MPhil, and PhD from Columbia University. Her career at George Mason University began in 1969, and she taught for 45 years, specializing in German and European history and German and Austrian art history. In that time, she served as chair of the department for 11 years. In 2013, the university named her Mason’s Faculty Member of the Year. In addition to her long teaching career, Deshmukh served on numerous boards in the Washington, D.C., area, and she received several grants for her research, including a Fulbright Fellowship and a J. Paul Getty Research Grant. Her book Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany was published in 2015. Following her retirement, the Marion Deshmukh Faculty and Student Scholarship Fund was established to provide history and art history faculty and students with funding to support their research and scholarly projects. Memorial gifts may be made to the fund by contacting the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations at 703-9938850. Deshmukh is survived by her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. Summer 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 51
MASON MEMORIES
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
An elegy, not quite true to the form, to Robinson A
Do you fondly remember certain places within the Mason commu nity that exemplified the “college experience”? Did a specific Mason professor or mentor influence your life and career? If so, tell us about it. Send your submission to spirit@gmu.edu. Please keep submissions to a maximum of 500 words.
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It was there, in its solid bricks-and-mortar way, one of the most modern of the buildings on campus, back when most of us wrote with pencils and pens on paper, and those of us who wrote professionally got by with things called typewriters. Robinson, named for Northern Virginia businessman Clarence J. Robinson, the owner of Robinson Terminal, which lies at I-395 and I-495, not far from campus. A man who was early among the region’s businessmen to give money to the fledgling university, Robinson also gave advice to one of Mason’s earlier presidents, George W. Johnson, that if he built the buildings, the faculty and students would follow. So Robinson Hall, the biggest building on campus, bore his name, and Mason itself burst into a growth spurt that swept it from minor regional college, to regional university, to major national institution. Robinson A, home for so long to the English Depart ment on the fourth floor, also to science labs from which spilled the fumes of formaldehyde during dissection classes; home to the School of Nursing on the third floor that grew and got its own new building just recently.
Robinson, home to classrooms and faculty offices on the second and first floors; home to the Writing Center on the first after it outgrew space on the fourth and moved down but stayed within the building until just recently, when everything and everyone moved out of Robinson A to make way for the destruction. Robinson A that overlooked the tearing down of “shortterm” modules that had themselves been there for more than a decade, to enable the building of the Johnson Center, to become the new center of all things campus, across from Robinson A, that for so long served as the crossroads—home to programs and departments; to conference rooms where policies got debated; to offices for tenured faculty and term faculty and adjuncts in shared spaces; to classrooms for freshman classes and seminar rooms for about-to-leave graduates. Robinson A, that now shakes with the shifting ground. Robinson A, that now yields to her unacceptably aged infrastructure. A building of the 20th century too big and too expensive to equip for the 21st. William Miller, MFA Creative Writing ’87, is the former director of Mason’s Creative Writing Program. He retired in 2018.
4400 University Drive, MS 3B3 Fairfax, VA 22030
PHOTOS BY RON AIRA
WHAT'S GREEN AND GOLD AND ON THE ROLL? Branded Mason Shuttles! You may have already spotted them in Northern Virginia traffic. Featuring Mason students Karina Carvalho, Will Sidaros, and Andrew Simpson, the shuttle wraps were designed in house by Mason's Creative Services staff. Design by Joan Dall'Acqua. Photos by Ron Aira.