2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, March 2, 2023

1965 - One of the most popular musical films of all time, "The Sound of Music", starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, premieres (Academy Awards Best Picture - 1966)

1989 - Madonna's "Like a Prayer" premieres on worldwide Pepsi commercial

1994 - Miami begins a Latin Walk of Fame, 1st star for Gloria Estefan

2016 - US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after nearly a year (340 days), setting an ISS record

2021 - Dolly Parton receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine she gave $1 million to help develop

‘I Don’t Take a Single Second for Granted’: Asian and Asian American Nominees on the Oscars. The New York Times.

De La Soul’s Music Is Finally Back. It’s a Bittersweet Victory. The New York Times.

The U.K. is experiencing historic strikes. These stories explain why. The Washington Post.

Image credit: Bella Kumar

This month’s newsletter features Bella Kumar (she/they), a sophomore from Sugar Land, Texas majoring in American Studies and Communication! In addition to working at the GW Innovation Center, Kumar is an avid activist and an organizer for Sunrise DC. Bella is currently taking “Modern American Cultural History” and “Examining America”, and is close with many of the department faculty, who she calls some of the best at GW! Bella’s coursework in American Studies, including theoretical, textual, and visual analysis, supports their interest in social movements and capitalist theory. Bella noted that her favorite class so far was Professor Anker’s “What is Democracy?,” a course that prompted her to both dissect governmental structures, and envision how to improve them.

Her interest in American Studies led to her start with Sunrise DC, a student movement to stop climate change and create sustainable jobs. A friend in class heard about their experience organizing movements in high school and recruited them to start a new campaign, No Fossil Fuel Money, which encourages GW faculty and students to refuse money from the fossil fuel industry. Bella served as Hub Coordinator for two semesters and is now on Sunrise DC’s War Room Committee. They also run the Funeral for Our Future movement, collecting student petitions and faculty pledges to organize a school-wide resolution against the influence of fossil fuel money on campus.

In addition to her activist roles, Bella’s position at the GW Innovation Center includes teaching sustainability, sewing, and fiber arts workshops. Their love for sewing drew them to the space, where they fell in love with the community and decided to start teaching. Coincidentally, she learned about the GW Innovation Center from a friend at Sunrise DC! She works with faculty and undergraduate students who are eager to learn new skills, as well as assisting engineers with prototypes and arts-minded students looking for a creative outlet.

Conversation with Assistant Professor Emily R. Bock
and photographer SHAN Wallace

"How to build a world (one kiki at a time)"

When: Thursday March 2, 2023; 7:00 PM
Where: Washington Project for the Arts (WPA)
2124 8th St NW

RSVP Here

This conversation between photographer SHAN Wallace and scholar Emily R. Bock explores the multiple registers through which a community of predominantly Black and queer artists, dancers, performers, and activists have come to build and sustain a world for and by themselves. Known alternatively as the ballroom scene or ball culture, this is a community decidedly organized around desire, support, and love. Importantly, this conversation doesn’t ask what the ballroom scene can do for us. Rather, we look to this incompossible community as guides for and theorists of collaboration and community building.

2023 Mergen-Palmer Distinguished Lecture Series:

"Queer Love on Barbary Lane: The Serial Experience of Coming Out of the Closet with Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City"

Professor Ramzi Fawaz
Romnes Professor of English
University of Wisconsin, Madison

When: Wednesday April 5, 2023; 4:00-5:30 PM
Where: 805 21st Street NW, Washington, DC
SMPA Building, Room B07

Register to attend!

Carrie Compere and the cast of the 2019 Seattle Repertory Theatre Production of SHOUT SISTER SHOUT! Photo by Bronwen Houck.

GW Culture Buffs: Shout Sister Shout! at Ford's Theatre

Join CCAS Dean Paul Wahlbeck for an exciting GW Culture Buffs experience! The afternoon will feature brunch, a conversation with Lauren Onkey, director of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and Professor Gayle Wald, and the musical performance Shout, Sister, Shout!

Registration is $60 and includes brunch with food and drink, the faculty talk, and your ticket to the performance (located in the balcony section). Due to limited space, tickets are limited to two per person. Please purchase your tickets by Friday, March 24.

When: Saturday April 1, 2023; 12:00-4:00 PM
Where: Clyde's of Gallery Place (Brunch);
Ford's Theatre (Performance)

Register Here

GW Philosophy 2023 Thacher Lecture:
“The Phenomenal Public" 
Professor Susanna Siegel, Harvard University

When: Friday, March 3rd @ 4:00 pm
Where:  Duques Hall, 151

No RSVP required.

Is it possible to perceive the public, or is it only possible to imagine it? The standard view is that you have to imagine it. I argue against this position, and make the case that the modes of mentality we use to get our minds around the public can make a difference to democratic political culture.

Associate Professor Tom Guglielmo recently presented a talk for the Gen. Raymond E. Mason Distinguished Lecture Series on World War II at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA. The lecture discussed his recent monograph Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military.

Current PhD candidate, GJ Sevillano, was recently nominated to be inducted into GW's chapter of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.

Call for Submissions: CCAS will be running a Research Showcase event for students from all CCAS undergraduate and graduate programs on April 11th 2023. The CCAS Research Showcase is an opportunity for all graduate and undergraduate students in CCAS programs to present their work to the broader CCAS community in a poster session. The abstract submission portal is here, and more information and abstract templates are linked on the event webpage // Deadline: March 3, 2023 by 5 PM EST.

Call for Applications: In 2023, the ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship Program, supported by the Mellon Foundation, will offer 22 two-year fellowships partnering recent humanities and interpretive social sciences PhDs with organizations advancing social justice and equity in communities across the United States // Deadline: March 15, 2023

Call for Submissions: The Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana annually invites submissions for its Prize Competition for the best undergraduate and graduate student papers on historic or contemporary communal groups, intentional communities, and utopias. Learn more about the submission process here // Deadline: April 1, 2023.

Call for Papers: The Society for US Intellectual History Conference has opened their call for papers for their upcoming annual conference being held in Denver, Colorado from November 9-11, 2023. View more about their submission guidelines here // Deadline: April 15, 2023.

Need Support?

What Services does the Center for Career Services offer? 
With summer internship applications opening, check out their website here. 

I noticed a Facilities issues in the building. Who do I contact? Can I do anything about it?
If you happen to notice an issue in the building, please email amst@gwu.edu with all relevant information and photos (if necessary). Anyone can submit a Facilities ticket using the portal here. In addition, if it is an emergency, please call 202-994-6706, option #2.

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