2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, October 10, 2024

SPRING 2025 SCHEDULES ARE LIVE! CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

1824 - Guadalupe Victoria takes office as the first President of the United Mexican States.

1845 - The U.S. Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland.

1965 - The Supremes appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

2014 - Malala Yousafzai is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at age 17 for her activism for the right of education for all children.

When Harlem Was ‘as Gay as It Was Black’.
The New York Times.

If Initiative 83 Passes, It Needs Money to Take Effect. But the Council Isn’t Guaranteed to Fund It.
Washington City Paper.

How Alvin Ailey Redefined Modern Dance.
Hyperallergic.

Photo credit: Dr. Sara Awartani

This newsletter edition we spotlight GW alum Dr. Sara Awartani, Assistant Professor of American Culture and Latina/o Studies in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan. Awartani previously spent two years as a LSA Collegiate Fellow at UM before transitioning to their current tenure track position. 

Dr. Awartani is a proud GW American Studies alum, receiving her PhD in 2020. Her dissertation, “Solidarities of Liberation, Visions of Empire: Puerto Rico, Palestine, and the U.S. Imperial Project, 1967-1999,” was awarded the Virginia Sánchez Korrol Dissertation Award from the Puerto Rican Studies Association. She is currently working on her first book project, which is based on her dissertation, with the Justice, Power, and Politics series at the University of North Carolina Press. Prior to attending GW, she graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a BA in History from the University of Florida. She is delighted to now serve on the UF Department of History’s Advisory Board and remains a proud Florida Gators fan!

A month after defending her dissertation, Dr. Awartani moved to Cambridge, MA to begin her time as a Global American Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. In addition to her fellowship, Awartani was a Lecturer on Harvard’s Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, an experience she attributes as a life and career changing opportunity. Outside of her professional work, she spent her time in Cambridge avoiding being chased down by turkeys on the sidewalk!

In addition to her academic and professional work, Awartani is a major college football fan! She recently completed a challenge of baking 100 pies, a project she began while revising her dissertation prospectus. Dr. Awartani celebrated this achievement just this past Thanksgiving, enjoying a pumpkin cheesecake pie at her home in Ann Arbor!

Threats, Hot & Cold
Department of Philosophy's Griffith Endowed Lecture

Join the Philosophy Department for a lecture by UMD Professor Hallie Liberto. There are a variety of traditional ways to distinguish between types of threats. There are some threats that are conditional and some that are unconditional (or categorical). There are some that are linguistic and others that seem to work by evincing danger. There are threats that are mere warnings about one's future behavior, and others that are something more committal—like a dark version of a promise. In this project, Liberto investigates two distinctions that do important work in determining the philosophical properties of threats, like their illocutionary force (if any) and their normative power (if any).

When: Friday, Oct. 18, 2024; 4:00 PM EDT
Where: Duques Hall, Room 359

REND: A New Play with Testimonies from Death Row
Corcoran School of the Arts & Design

Join GW faculty members Dr. Anna Jayne Kimmel and Sidney Monroe Williams, MFA, for a staged reading of REND, a new play authored by Kenneth Reams. Stitching together testimonies from death row, REND amplifies the interconnected stakes of mental health, boyhood, and masculinity. Kenneth also interrogates the ethics, impact, and legacy of U.S. capital punishment through artistic and aesthetic intervention. While the performance is free to the public they strongly encourage registering for the event prior. 

When: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024; 5:00 PM EDT
Where: Flagg Building, Gallery 1

Register here!

Register via email at imes@gwu.edu

Modes of Cognition: Implications for AI
GW Department of English

Professor N. Katherine Hayles will offer a set of criteria by which a system may be judged to be cognitive or not, testing it against minimally cognitive biological lifeforms such as unicellular organisms and plants. The candidate criteria should admit implicit and nonconscious cognition and distinguish between adaptation and cognition. The criteria will then be applied to AIs, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs). The talk will conclude with examples of how well LLMs are able to understand and interpret a complex literary text, Henry James “The Figure in the Carpet.”

When: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024; 11:30 AM EDT
Where: Myers Room, GWU Museum & Textile Museum

Register here!

Prof. Vanessa Northington Gamble was quoted by NPR in the article “Black hospitals vanished in the U.S. decades ago. Some communities have paid a price;” and by KFF Health News in the article “Shuttered Black hospitals have lingering impact.”

Call for Papers: The Graduate Consortium in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality at MIT is currently accepting papers for their upcoming student conference "Liberatory Practices for Worlds in Crisis." Click here to learn more // Deadline: Oct. 30, 2024

Call for Applications: The University of Minnesota's Department of American Studies is accepting applications for their President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 1, 2024

Call for Applications: The Department of History at Creighton University invites applications for a full-time, tenure track Assistant Professor specializing in African and African Diaspora history, with preference given to those who have a special interest (in research and/or teaching) in science, medicine, or legal studies. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 15, 2024

Call for Applications: The Huntington Library will begin accepting Research Fellowship Applications for the 2025-2026 fellowship year for Long-Term Fellowships, Short-Term Fellowships, and Travel Grants/Exchange Fellowships. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 15, 2024

Call for Applications: The Newberry Library is currently accepting applications for their 25-26 long-term and short-term fellowships. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 15, 2024 (long); Jan. 3, 2025 (short)

Call for Applications: The U.S. Institute of Peace is seeking applicants for the Peace Scholar Fellowship. This annual cohort program supports dissertation completion of doctoral candidates with projects related to peace and conflict, broadly defined. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 20, 2024

Call for Applications: The Massachusetts Historical Society will sponsor dozens of research fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year, ranging from short-term support to long-term residency. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Varies by Fellowship Type

Call for Papers: UVA's English Department Graduate Symposium is currently seeking abstracts for their upcoming symposium themed "Space and Place." Click here to learn more // Deadline: Jan. 3, 2025

Call for Applications: The Cosmos Scholars Prize will support postdoctoral scholars from local universities. The program selects a few outstanding recent scholars who may receive a prize of up to $25,000. Click here to learn more // Deadline: rolling basis

Need Support?

What We're Listening To:
"Barefoot in the Park feat. Rosalía" - James Blake
"Cut Me" - Moses Sumney

Like what you see? Have spotlights, kudos, events, or opportunities that you would like to share? We want to hear from you! Navigate to our feedback form using the link below, or more simply, forward your tip to amst@gwu.edu.