2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, March 21, 2024

1685 - Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Germany.

1973 - The first Met Gala with a theme is held, honoring designer Balenciaga.

2006 - The first ever tweet is sent out by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

2022 - Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin.

U.S. Sues Apple, Accusing It of Maintaining an iPhone Monopoly. The New York Times.

Large Grocers Took Advantage of Pandemic Supply Chain Disruptions, F.T.C. Finds. The New York Times.

NCAA men’s tournament in full swing with round of 64.
The Washington Post.

Photo Credit: Abby Osborne

This newsletter edition we spotlight Abby Osborne, a senior majoring in art history and political communication. Abby is one of the American Studies Student Administrative Assistants.

While at GW, Abby has held two internships. First as a media relations intern for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and second as a communications and marketing intern for The Phillips Collection. Abby is currently writing her senior honors thesis on Collier Schorr and New Queer Cinema. She will present her research at Corcoran’s NEXT Festival this semester.

Her thesis examines how Schorr’s photography—particularly her series South of No North—blends documentary reality and fantasy to allow her subjects to dominate space and exist within the complexities of their identities. Abby uses the films of New Queer Cinema as a tool to reveal new interpretations of Schorr’s photography as work that reconstructs queer history and memory. This aligns Schorr's work with other queer photography and films created during the AIDS crisis that decentered cisgender heterosexual institutions and audiences.

One of the highlights of her time at college has been participating in GW’s student-run radio station, WRGW. Since her spring semester of sophomore year, she hosts her Sunday show "Needle Drop" with Bridget Smith. Each week, they select a film and analyze its music supervision while playing the soundtrack. During her senior year, she became co-Personnel Director of the station where she matches “interns” to radio shows and hosts events to welcome new members to the station.

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.
**12 seats remaining!!**

2024 David and Sherry Berz Endowed Lecture
GW Department of Religion

"Shaping our Collective Worlds: Lessons from
Yogacara Buddhism"
Prof. William Waldron, Middlebury College

Prof. Waldron will present core insights from one of the most influential schools of Buddhism: the Yoga-Practitioners School (Yogācāra, 3-5th c CE). He will focus on two of these insights, starting with “collective worlds.” These collective worlds are social with cultural constructs that we are constantly re-constructing together. The companion insight is they recognized that most of these constructive processes occur outside of our conscious awareness. These insights give us tools to understand our “worlds,” our cultures, more clearly and critically, so that we can intentionally construct them in more inclusive and compassionate ways. Waldron will outline how Yogācāra Buddhists came to see all this and suggest some of its implications for our radically pluralistic world.

When: Thursday, March 21, 2024; 5:30 PM
Where: 1957 E Street, Room 113

2024 WGSS Yulee Symposium

"Hungry Translations: Yearning for Justice"
Prof. Richa Nagar

Richa Nagar is Professor of the College in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her multi-lingual and multi-genre work blends scholarship, creative writing, theatre, and activism to build alliances with people’s struggles and to engage questions of ethics, responsibility, and justice. 

When: Wednesday, March 27, 2024; 5:00-8:00 PM
Where: 1957 E Street, Room 113

Register Here.

The Latino Voice in News and Politics Series
GW Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute

Julie Chávez Rodríguez in conversation with Ed O'Keefe, Senior White House & Political Correspondent

When: Wednesday, March 27, 2024; 6:00 PM
Where: Jack Morton Auditorium (805 21st St NW)

Register Here.

International Transgender Day of Visibility
Talk & Screening

GW's Allied in Pride will be hosting an International Transgender Day of Visibility Talk and Screening. The event will feature GW American Studies Professor Emily Bock, who will speak about the history and culture of underground ballroom culture and the impact of queer and trans communities in these spaces. The event will also be screening an episode of the show Pose (2018), while also providing free pizza and drinks.

When: Sunday, March 31, 2024; 11:30-1:00 PM
Where: Funger Hall, Room 108

Register Here.

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.

American Studies major Max Cohen and their band Home Remedies released their second single for their upcoming album Goodnight Moon. Listen to "Cable News" and "Those Things" now. The full album drops April 26, 2024.

Prof. Gayle Wald was recently featured in GW Today highlighting unique methodologies in the course Modern American Cultural History.

Call for Papers: The National Women's Studies Association has opened their call for paper submissions for their 2024 Annual Conference. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Apr. 1, 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 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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What We're Listening To:
"Hounds of Love" - Kate Bush
"Burning Down the House" - Paramore (Cover)

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.