2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, February 19, 2026

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

1963 - “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan, widely credited as the start of second-wave feminism, is published.

1968 - Children’s educational TV program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuts.

1974 - The 1st American Music Awards are held, Helen Reddy and Jim Croce win big.

1992 - John Singleton at age 24,  becomes the youngest and first Black director nominated for an Oscar for his movie, “Boyz n the Hood”.

Independent museums bolster Black history preservation as federally funded exhibitions face rollbacks.
GW Hatchet.

The 37 best things to do in D.C. this weekend and next week. The Washington Post.

Ahead of a “Mammoth” Smithsonian Show, Nick Cave and Bob Faust Open Up About Collaborating as a Couple.
Art in America.

Image credit: Jim Deutsch

This newsletter edition we spotlight Jim Deutsch, who received his PhD in American Studies from GW in 1991 and who has since continued to teach classes on American film and folklore as a part-time faculty member with the department. After receiving his BA in American Studies from Williams College, Jim decided to explore more of the United States in order to better understand the country and its people. This led to approximately sixty different jobs in different places, including newspaper reporter in Indiana and Mississippi; park ranger/forest ranger in Alaska, Arizona, and Mississippi; census enumerator in Washington, DC; librarian in Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Virginia, and Washington, DC; and (perhaps most memorably) monorail operator at Walt Disney World. Along the way, he also received Master’s degrees in American Studies at the University of Minnesota and in Librarianship at Emory University.

With his PhD in hand, Jim wanted to expand his horizons and to see more of the world, which led him to teach American Studies classes at universities in Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Poland, and Turkey. Following his time in Norway, Jim took what was supposed to be a one-year position with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, but which lasted twenty-one years, to curate and/or coordinate public programs and exhibitions on the Apollo Theater, Baltic Nations, Building Arts, California, China, Circus Arts, Hungary, Mekong River, Migration and Immigration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Peace Corps, Native Americans, US Forest Service, Ukraine, White House Workers, and World War II.

Jim is currently working at the Smithsonian as content coordinator for The Promise of a Nation: Commemorating 250 Years of Patriotism, Resilience, and Aspirations, a book due to be released in April 2026 to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. At the same time, he enjoys presenting at academic conferences around the world (last month in Toronto and Annapolis; this month in Sofia, Bulgaria; next month in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Washington, DC) and writing on a variety of American Studies topics (most recently articles on “La Virgen de Guadalupe” and “Foodways in the Hobo Jungles”). Admitting that he has never been one to “settle down,” Jim looks forward to promoting the gospel of American Studies in many future arenas.

Refusing the Politics of Elimination:
A Rasquache Ethos of Abundance
2026 Mergen-Palmer Distinguished Lecture, Part I

Prof. Cristina Beltrán's lecture, titled "Refusing the Politics of Elimination: A Rasquache Ethos of Abundance,” argues that countering the Right’s politics of violence, domination, and scarcity requires cultivating democratic imaginaries that promise not only justice, but also pleasure, joy, beauty, and delight. Rather than mirroring conservative logics of dehumanization and removal that conflate freedom with the power to subjugate, this talk argues for a defiant, non-eliminationist ethos of what Beltrán refers to as affective abundance. Overflowing with feeling and embracing the excessive and contradictory feelings that subjects feel about one another and the world we share, affective abundance is a civic orientation that acknowledges both the violence of colonialism, conquest, and slavery alongside our shared encounters with justice, solidarity, and freedom dreams.

When: Monday, February 23, 2026; 4:00 PM
Where: Duques Hall, Room 359

RSVP here!

Ten Photography Lessons for a Dead President
For Freedoms & The Corcoran School at GW

This evening of conversation with Marina Berio will center her recent artist book Ten Photography Lessons for a Dead President, an epistolary reckoning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 and Berio’s family stories of incarceration. The event will open with a reading and presentation, followed by a conversation with Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD, of Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. Together they will explore family photography, visual history, and the role of creativity in incarceree resilience, situating the project within an urgent context of state power, surveillance, and exclusion. 

When: Wednesday, February 25, 2026; 6:30 PM
Where: Corcoran School (500 17th St NW)

RSVP here!

Carceral Renderings
GW University Seminar Series

This GW University Seminar Series is convened by Dr. Anna Jayne Kimmel and Professor Sidney Williams, MFA. Each session challenges normative narratives of the prison-industrial-complex through interdisciplinary methods of the arts and humanities. The workshops of 2025-2026 extend the conversation established in 2024-2025, the inaugural iteration which culminated in the world premiere of REND, a play from Kenneth Reams, produced in collaboration with Howard University and Voices Unbarred. 

Seminar 1: Understanding the Prison as a Site of Hidden Warfare and Abolitionist Possibility (February 5, 2026)
Seminar 2: On Carceral Shifts: Collaborative Editorial Methods (February 20, 2026)
Seminar 3: Artistic Due Process: Collaboration Across Carceral & Cultural Barriers (March 3, 2026)

RSVP here!

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!

Prof. Tom Guglielmo was cited by The Hill in the article “U.S. Back to the future: Trump’s restrictions echo the Immigration Act of 1924.”

Alum Bess Matassa (PhD ‘13) recently published Star Charting with Duke University Press!

Call for Applications: The Anacostia Community Museum seeks a part-time contract research assistant to support the museum’s program of exhibitions and online content development. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Feb. 19, 2026.

Call for Applications: CCAS's Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellowship is currently accepting applications. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Feb. 27, 2026.

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

Need Support?

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.