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Thursday, March 5, 2026

View our Summer 2026 course offerings here! Registration begins March 16!

1750 - First American Shakespearean production, an altered Richard III, is performed in New York City.

1841 - First continuous filibuster in the US Senate begins, as the Democratic minority attempts to run out the clock on a bill to establish a national bank.

1971 - “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin is first performed live at Ulster Hall, Belfast.

Artist confronts family history, Japanese Internment through art. GW Hatchet.

Primary Results Offer Warning Signs to Incumbents in Both Parties. The New York Times.

A Crafty Show About State Fairs Stares Down the White House. Art in America.

Image credit: Clara Nam-Lee

In this newsletter edition, we highlight Clara Nam-Lee (she/her), a second-year PhD student in American Studies and a Provost’s Fellow of Academic Excellence. An immigrant from New Zealand and Korea, Clara’s scholarship is deeply focused on questions of race and belonging. She is a Cold War historian who works in the fields of visual studies, Asian American studies, and memory. She earned her A.B. in History with Honors at the University of Chicago in 2022. 

Prior to coming to GW, Clara worked as a full-time teacher of AP English Language and Composition with American Studies at Culver Academies, a private boarding school in rural Indiana. There, she developed her passion for education and fostering critical thinking in and out of the classroom—although she is extremely happy to be back to urban living!

Clara’s interest in the Korean War and public memory grew out of her experiences as a Korean American immigrant growing up around the U.S. Clara’s dissertation investigates visual representations of the Korean War in relation to the creation and maintenance of public memory in the late twentieth century. Particularly, she is interested in how memory mutates through the medium of visual and performance arts. This summer, she hopes to conduct field work in Atlanta, GA to support a dissertation chapter tentatively titled, “(Re)Living the Forgotten: Memory, War, and Re-enactment as Imperial Nostalgia.” The chapter focuses on a 2000 ceremony held at the now defunct Fort McPherson, GA to celebrate the “250th birthday [of the] U.S. Army, 50 years Korean War, and 25 years Vietnam Conflict.”

Clara’s scholarship and research has been shared through presentations at the American Studies Association Conference and at the University of Virginia’s Graduate Symposium. Some of her work can be read in the department’s brand-new academic journal, (In)Dependence: A Journal of American Studies, of which she is also editor-in-chief.

Outside of school, Clara has recently learned how to ride a bike, and can now be found happily zooming around the city. She is also an avid baker and enjoys creating new recipes to share with her friends.

The First 40 Years:Ineligible Parents, U.S.-Born Children, and the Struggle for Birthright Citizenship
Metro Washington Workshop on Immigration & Race

Join MWWIR on Friday, March 20th for a presentation from Dr. Hardeep Dhillon, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. During this session, Dr. Dhillon will explore the persistent, decades-long quest to deny birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants, beginning with the early nativist attacks that tested the 14th Amendment in the first 40 years after its ratification. 

When: Friday, March 20, 2026; 12:00 PM
Where: Foggy Bottom

RSVP here!

Film Festival & Teach-In On U.S. Prisons, Policing,
and Abolition
AMST GSA & Beyond Walls Film Festival

When: Monday, March 23, 2026; 2:00 PM
Where: Gelman Library, 7th Floor, Teamsters Room

Institute for Middle East Studies Annual Conference
Tech Futures: The Science of Life, Death, and Ecology in the Middle East

When: Friday, April 17, 2026; 9:00-4:00 PM
Where: 1957 E St NW, Room 602

RSVP here!

Current PhD candidate Matthew Marciello will speak on a round table titled "Why the History of Medicine Needs Trans and Intersex Studies" at the 2026 American Association for the History of Medicine / American Association for the History of Nursing Annual Meeting. Additionally, In July, Marciello will present their paper titled "Who Counts as Intersex? Definitional Debates and Intersex Numbers in American Intersex Sexology and Activism" on a panel they organized titled "Beyond Binaries in LGBTQI+ Histories of Sexology: Bi, Trans, Intersex" at the 2026 European Society for the History of Science/ History of Science Society Joint Meeting at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Current PhD student Khadijah Akeem-Cox recently published a book review of Abolition. Feminism. Now. in the journal The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research.

Call for Papers: The Oxonian Review is currently accepting pitches for cultural criticism, memoir, and non-academic essays. Click here to learn more // Deadline: ongoing.

Call for Applications: The Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) announce the 2026 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship to encourage and support research using the Eudora Welty Collection and related materials at the MDAH. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 6, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia Art in American History Award is currently accepting submissions. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 6, 2026.

Call for Papers: The Black Queer/Trans Studies Graduate Conference at Princeton University is currently accepting papers in May 2026. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 15, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum is accepting applications for their Summer 2026 Internships. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 16, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Mellon Scholars Summer Program is currently accepting applications. The program supports emerging scholars interested in African American history. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 18, 2026.

Call for Applications: CCAS's Research Showcase is currently accepting abstracts for the research showcase taking place on April 15, 2026. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 20, 2026.

Call for Applications: Democracy House’s Young Leaders Summer Institute is currently accepting applications for Summer 2026. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Apr. 19, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Museum at Eldridge Street is seeking a Freelance Festival Coordinator for their upcoming street festival. Click here to learn more // Deadline: rolling.

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