2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, October 9, 2025

🍂 HAVE A SAFE AND RELAXING FALL BREAK 🍂

1888 - Washington Monument opens for public admittance.

1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program which would become the Manhattan Project.

1986 - “The Late Show with Joan Rivers” premiers on Fox, making Rivers the first woman to host a US late-night TV talk show.

1987 - “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll” a documentary film of 1986 concerts celebrating rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry is released.

Students revise study times, habits after officials rolled back Gelman’s hours. GW Hatchet.

War and Peace, Alejandro Varela, and More: City Lights for Oct. 9–15. Washington City Paper.

The 40 best restaurants in and around D.C.
The Washington Post.

Sister Corita Kent Found the Sacred in the Profane. Hyperallergic.

Image credit: Sophia Escobar

This newsletter edition we spotlight Sophia Escobar, a senior double majoring in Political Science and American Studies with a minor in Mass Communications and Journalism. 

Sophia is a Civic House Alum, a selective first-year program at GW designed for students who are interested in engaging in their communities and developing themselves as active citizens. While a part of this program, Sophia was introduced to a culture of community building and service at GW, which has shaped her understanding of the definition of citizenship. Throughout her academic career at GW, Sophia has expanded upon her understanding of this concept. She has extensively explored and written about civil and political rights in the United States, focusing on reproductive access, queer rights, voting rights, race relations, and the politics of belonging. 

Sophia recently studied abroad in London where she expanded her studies to explore museum studies and their relationship to their surrounding communities. While abroad, Sophia worked with her professors to study America from an external lens, ultimately culminating in her essay, “Colonization and Travel Narratives: An Analysis of John Lawson and the Documentation of Indigenous Societies.” In this work, she conducted a close-reading of English naturalist John Lawson’s A New Voyage to Carolina and how it proliferated rhetoric for future American empire-building.

Outside of her studies, Sophia hosts a longstanding show with WRGW Radio, The Daily Dose, where she and her cohost present and discuss current news. To these discussions, Sophia brings an American Studies perspective to political news analysis and encourages supplemental discussion of American culture and history. She has also spent most of her college summers specializing in voter outreach and political campaigning. Sophia previously worked for Adam Frisch’s Democratic congressional campaign for Colorado’s 3rd district and last summer worked with TurnUP, a youth-led voter registration initiative, to engage young voters nationwide.

Currently, Sophia is pursuing a combined BA/MA degree in American Studies, taking graduate-level courses alongside her undergraduate studies. This semester, she is working on her senior thesis, in which she hopes to investigate the larger Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and how it connects to D.C.’s continuous fight for home rule.

CCAS Dean's Conversation Series
Boosting Trust In Health Science

CCAS Dean Paul Wahlbeck invites you to join him for a panel discussion on issues relating to scientific integrity, ethics and the role of science in medical treatments and advances.

Featured Panelists
- David DeGrazia, Elton Professor of Philosophy
- Cynthia Dowd, Professor of Chemistry and Chemistry Department Chair.
- Aleksandar Jeremic, Professor of Biology.
- Sheryl Jacobs (BA ’91, MA ’93), CCAS alumna and National Council member.

When: Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025; 5:15 PM
Where: USC, Amphitheater (800 21st Street NW)

Register here!

The Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom & Democracy
A Conversation with Dr. Molly Worthen

Join the Loeb Institute for a discussion with Dr. Molly Worthen (UNC Chapel Hill) on her new book Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump. Moderated by Eleanor Barkhorn.

When: Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025; 4:30 PM
Where: MPA, Room 305 (805 21st Street NW)

Register here!

GW Roundtable Discussion
A Complete Unknown
Elijah Wald

Join Elijah Wald, acclaimed author of Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties—the basis for James Mangold's 2024 biopic A Complete Unknown—for a wide-ranging conversation about Dylan, 1960s music culture, and the adaptation of a book for a Hollywood film. Wald will be in conversation with Prof. Libby Anker (American Studies), Prof. Loren Kajikawa (Music), and Prof. Gayle Wald (American Studies).

When: Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025; 5:30 PM
Where: Lehman Auditorium, SEH 1200

Register here!

DC History Center and Charles Sumner School
Class Action Reads! Model Schools in the Model City
Professor Amber N. Wiley

Join the DC History Center and Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives for a book talk about the history of Black public education and school architecture in the nation’s capital.

Education is essential for social equality, and Black Washingtonians recognize that for the American Dream to apply to them, their children need a quality education. In Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital, author Amber N. Wiley (PhD '11) explains how DC school buildings became a physical realization of Black liberation, agency, and their right to exist as citizens of the United States.

Event is free and open to the public.
Registration is highly recommended.

When: Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025; 6:00 PM
Where: DC History Center (801 K Street NW)

Register here!

GW Corcoran Visiting Artist & Scholars Committee
An Evening with Millie De Chirico

Millie De Chirico is a podcaster, film programmer, writer, and historian based in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the chief programmer of TCM Underground, the beloved late-night cult movie franchise on Turner Classic Movies, and currently co-hosts the weekly film podcast, Dear Movies, I Love You. Join us for a conversation with Millie about the progression of her career, her interest in cult classics, and how she champions accessibility and diversity through film.

When: Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025; 6:15 PM
Where: Smith Hall of Art, Room 114 (801 22nd St NW)

Register here!

Nerd from the Future Podcast!

Alum Ramzi Fawaz (PhD '12) is debuting a new podcast! 
Nerd from the Future is explicitly intended for both non-academic and scholarly audiences. It aims to make the university and its intellectual gifts available to everyone, hence the tagline: It's time the university came to you. New weekly episodes will be available for listeners starting Monday, September 8, with bitesize supplements on following Wednesdays. 

The first episode features Prof. Melani McAlister! Take a listen here! Likewise, the most recent episode also features Prof. Libby Anker! Take a listen here.

The LSU Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to award a Boyd Professorship to Prof. John Maxwell Hamilton (PhD ‘83). Since its establishment in 1953, only 79 faculty members across the LSU System have received this title.

Alum Rebekah Beaulieu (BA '03), the current Louise Taft Semple President and CEO of the Taft Museum of Art, was recently interviewed by the American Alliance of Museums about the recent shift to a four-day work week at the museum.

Call for Papers: Researching D.C. history? Apply to present at the 2025 Albert H. Small D.C. History Symposium! Click here to learn more // Deadline:
Oct. 19, 2025. 

Call for Applications: ACLS invites applications for Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships, which provide a year of support for doctoral students preparing to embark on innovative dissertation research projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Oct. 29, 2025.

Call for Papers: The International Nineteenth Century Studies Association (INCSA) invites proposals for its second biennial conference. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Oct. 31, 2025.

Call for Applications: Dumbarton Oaks is currently accepting applications for a range of academic and semester fellowships. Click here to learn more //
Deadline: Nov. 1, 2025.

Call for Papers: The LGBTQ+ History Association is currently seeking papers for its fourth conference, the Queer/Trans History Conference* 2026 (#QTHC26), to be held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from June 2 to 5, 2026. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 1, 2025.

Call for Applications: The Newcombe Foundation is accepting applications for the Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, which supports doctoral candidates in their final year of writing, who are working in areas of religion, ethics, values, or morals. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 1, 2025.

Call for Applications: The Spring Academy on American History, Culture & Politics is an annual, one-week interdisciplinary conference for PhD candidates at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA). Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 15, 2025.

Call for Applications: The American Council of Learned Societies invites applications for the 2025 competition of the ACLS Digital Justice Grants Program. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 20, 2025.

Call for Papers: Critical Ethnic Studies is currently accepting submissions for a special issue devoted to the transnational exploration of caste domination and anti-caste social movements and theories, with emphasis on the interrelation of caste and race in the history and geography of empire. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Feb. 2, 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.

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.