2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052
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Interested in Summer classes? View our suite of offerings here: In-Person // Online
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1789 - The first US Congress begins regular sessions at Federal Hall in New York City.
1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is signed in Washington, D.C.
1975 - Microsoft is founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
1983 - NASA’s Challenger Space Shuttle was launched from Florida on its maiden voyage.
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| Are you in the dark about the eclipse? Take our quiz.
The Washington Post.
Geismar launches GWPD accountability group, seeks to reverse arming decision by spring 2026. GW Hatchet.
Can’t Make It to the Whitney Biennial? Stream These Films Online Instead. Hyperallergic.
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| Daniel Landsman (BA '15) Works to Eradicate
Extreme and Excessive Prison Sentences
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Photo Credit: Daniel Landsman
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| This newsletter edition we spotlight Daniel Landsman (BA ‘15), an American Studies alumni currently serving as the Vice President of Policy for Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM).
FAMM is a DC-based nonprofit founded in 1991 by people whose loved ones were sentenced to harsh federal mandatory minimums. The organization has now expanded across the country to create a fairer and more effective justice system at both the state and federal levels. Daniel’s current work focuses on eradicating extreme and excessive prison sentences through FAMM’s Second Chances Agenda. This agenda acknowledges the disastrous effects of long prison sentences, especially in communities of color.
FAMM is working to create a justice system that values individual accountability and dignity through shorter prison sentences while still keeping our communities safe. Daniel has also pushed to expand Second Look laws at the federal level as well as in Washington state, Virginia, and California. Second Look laws allow the courts or a parole board to review a person’s sentence after serving a set period of time (often 15 years). Additionally, Daniel has worked on legislation in California and Oregon to expand compassionate release processes. These processes allow judges to release seriously ill, elderly, or physically incapacitated people from prison.
Daniel has been a major advocate for shrinking the US prison population through compassionate justice-oriented legislation. Daniel credits the American Studies Department and his time at GW with first exposing him to the deep, systemic failures of our criminal justice system.
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| 2024 Mergen-Palmer Distinguished Lecture
"Just When You Think It's Over:
On Normporn and Neverending Bereavement"
Professor Karen Tongson
Chair of Gender & Sexuality Studies,
& Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies,
English and American Studies and Ethnicity,
University of Southern California
When: Monday, April 8, 2024; 4:00-5:30 PM
Where: 2201 G Street NW, Washington, DC
Duques Hall, Room 251
In this lecture, Professor Karen Tongson discusses her new book Normporn, a meditation on letting go of grief that began on an intimate scale of (self) examination and expanded to a broader political and cultural inquiry into the television that soothes queer viewers—sometimes against our better aesthetic and political judgment. In the wake of the book’s release, however, new traumas both personal and global emerged, posing a challenge to the author’s cruel optimism about the “end” of cycles of loss and bereavement. The presentation is an honest assessment of the world bound by the book, and what shattered its resolutions.
Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us is available via NYU Press.
Register Here.
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| Fight Against Gentrification Panel
GW Socialist Action Initiative and Stomp Out Slumlords will be hosting a panel discussion on the history of the tenant's rights movement in DC, and one of its landmark legislative victories—The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA)—and the ongoing fight to protect it and affordable housing. Dinner will be provided, along with dates for those breaking their fasts during the event.
Panelists include:
Amanda Huron, Associate Professor at the University of the District of Columbia and author of Carving Out the Commons: Tenant Organizing and Housing Cooperatives in Washington, D.C
Silvia Ellis, a tenant leader from the Aspen Street Cooperative
Rob Wohl, a tenant organizer with Stomp Out Slumlords
When: Monday, April 8, 2024; 6:30 PM
Where: 1957 E St NW, Room 113
Register Here.
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| | 14th Biennial Symposium: The Architecture of Food
The Latrobe Chapter SAH & DC Preservation League
Boozy brunch, spongy injera dinners, empanada midnight snacks—modern residents of the nation’s capital enjoy a dynamic food center, noted for its variety of culinary experiences and foods authentic to the region, including half smokes, mumbo sauce, and crabcakes. Less explored is how this culinary geography intersects with the built environment, and how those intersections have changed over time. From farms and agricultural homesteads that supplied historic markets to ethnic food enclaves fostered by DC’s role as the capital, the city is an experiment in democracy, architecture and flavor.
When: Sat & Sun, April 6-7, 2024
Where: CUA School of Architecture, DC
Register Here.
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| Global Reactions to the Partition of Palestine
and the 1948 War
Max Ticktin Memorial Lecture
Prof. Derek J. Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. His books include Jews and the Military: A History (2013), Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (2020; German ed. 2022); and Zionism: An Emotional State (2023). He is currently writing a book titled The War for Palestine, 1947-1949: A Global History. He is a past president of the American Society for Jewish Research, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford.
Launched in 2017, the annual lecture is named after Rabbi and Professor Max Ticktin, including former ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer, Prof. Max Waxman, Prof. Mira Sucharov, the novelist Ruby Namdar, and Prof. Shaul Magid.
When: Wednesday, April 17, 2024; 4:30 PM
Where: Gelman Library, Room 702i.
Register Here.
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| Robin Bernstein (MA '99) Book Talk
Freeman's Challenge: The Murder That Shook America's Original Prison for Profit
Robin Bernstein is the Dillon Professor of American History and professor of African and African American studies and studies of women, gender, and sexuality at Harvard University. She is the author of Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. Bernstein will be in conversation with Marcia Chatelain, an American academic who serves as a professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. In 2021, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History for her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, which also won a James Beard Award.
When: Sunday, May 5, 2024; 1:45 PM
Where: Politics & Prose (5015 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington, DC, 20008)
This event is free with first come, first served seating.
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Current BA student Maureen Rafter was recently featured in GW Today highlighting her work as a Luther Rice Undergraduate Fellow.
Alum Sara Awartani (PhD '20) recently received correspondence from an incarcerated individual noting the impact of her work on solidarity between Puerto Rican and Palestinian activist movements.
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Call for Papers: Humanities and International Relations Graduate Conference is currently seeking abstracts for the 2024 Conference. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Apr. 15, 2024.
Call for Applications: Tudor Place is seeking a summer intern in their Education Department. Course credit and a stipend are both available. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Apr. 30, 2024.
Call for Applications: Democracy House is accepting applications for their Young Leaders Summer Institute. Click here to learn more // Deadline: May 10, 2024
Call for Papers: Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas has opened their call for papers for volume XVI entitled "Science, Medicine, and the Visual Arts in Dialogue: The Ibero-American Context, Then and Now." Click here to learn more // Deadline: May 15, 2024
Call for Papers: NeMLA is currently accepting session proposals and abstracts for their 2025 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA. Click here to learn more // Deadline: May 15 & Sept. 30, 2024.
Call or Volunteers: Smithsonian's 2024 Folklife Festival is seeking student volunteers for this summer's festival from June 26-July 1. Click here to learn more.
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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.
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