The department recently established a fund to honor the accomplishments of Dr. Marion Deshmukh, who retired in 2015 after an illustrious 45-year career at George Mason University. The purpose of the fund is to support the research projects of faculty and students. We are pleased to announce that the generous contributions of faculty and alumni have enabled us to name the first two recipients of the award: Dr. Alison Landsberg and Dr. Yevette Jordan.
Dr. Landsberg will use the funds to support a research trip to the recently-established Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Landsberg is conducting research for a book project on the recent history of race in the United States, and plans to visit the museum to examine the ways in which the memorial and the museum engage visitors and narrate the story of race in America.
The Deshmukh fund will also support Dr. Jordan’s work on her book project on lynchings in the American South during the 1920s and 30s. She will use the funds to travel to northern Louisiana to conduct research on two lynchings in that area. She will interview surviving witnesses of the lynchings and the relatives of the victims, and will also collect relevant materials from local archives.
Dr. Brian Platt, the chair of the department, expressed great enthusiasm over the inaugural awarding of the funds. “The department’s national reputation has risen sharply over the last two decades, and Dr. Deshmukh was a driving force behind that rise. It’s especially rewarding that we can award these research funds in her name, and for the cause she did so much to advance.” Dr. Platt also noted that while the first two recipients are faculty, in the coming months the department will seek to undergraduate students as well. Undergraduate student research has become a priority within the department in recent years, and the Deshmukh award will be the first source of funding to support it.
The department continues to seek contributions to the Deshmukh Fund so that it can continue to support faculty and student research. To make a contribution, go to historyarthistory.gmu.edu, click “give,” and then select the “Marion Deshmukh Faculty and Student Support Scholarship.”
July 24, 2018