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In January 2002, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media launched the September 11 Digital Archive. One of the first digital archives of its kind, it gave people a collective way to upload their stories online. In 2003, it became the Library of Congress's first digital acquisition.

Associate history professor Sam Lebovic has been awarded a prestigious and highly competitive Public Scholars Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The award will enable him to complete work on a new book on the history of the Espionage Act. 

The Center for Mason Legacies' newly created digital project, Black Lives Next Door: George Mason and Northern Virginia in an Age of Disparity and Opportunity, explores the formative years of George Mason College--Mason's parent institution--and its relationships with neighbors, near and far. Three exhibits—Campus, Community, and Education—reveal perspectives of another time and space.

On Mason's Access to Excellence podcast, President Gregory Washington speaks with Robinson Professor of U.S. History Spencer Crew about the role of museums in promoting social justice (photo, Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications).

Lincoln A. Mullen, an associate professor in the Department of History and Art History and one of the faculty directors of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, is working with the Library of Congress on the America's Public Bible project.

Roger Connor, MA History ‘09, PhD ‘20, curates the Vertical flight collection at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. NASM photo by Eric Long.

CHSS is proud to announce that faculty members Christy Pichichero and Melissa Broeckelman-Post have been selected to receive 2021 Presidential Faculty Excellence Awards.

Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, and Spencer Crew, Robinson Professor of U.S. History and former director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, met in a virtual discussion hosted by the Center for Humanities Research. Stefan Wheelock, associate professor in the Department of English, moderated.

Provost Mark Ginsberg has announced plans for in-person events to recognize graduation the week of May 10, 2021. Students must pre-register for the planned Patriot Procession and Mini Ceremonies by April 16.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has partnered with the Breman Museum, the Capital Jewish Museum, the Council of American Jewish Museums, Hebrew Theological College, the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools to document the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on American Jewish life.

In spring 2020, Mills Kelly, history professor and interim director, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, received word that he had been selected to receive the 2019 Gutenberg Teaching Award. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s ceremony was held virtually in mid-October.

College faculty members Sabine Doebel, Department of Psychology, and Kelly Schrum, Higher Education Program and Department of History and Art History, are among nine Mason faculty who received collaborative research grants.

With this summer’s Tokyo Olympics on hold, Mason Olympic scholar Chris Elzey examines the Games as an athletic, cultural, and political event as part of Mason's Access to Excellence podcast. Elzey is a faculty member in the Department of History and Art History and the director of the sport and American culture minor.

The Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) has launched a new digital archive entitled American Jewish Life. This project is a more particular collecting site linked to the center's larger Pandemic Religion project. The new site is the fruit of a partnership formed with six Jewish archives and institutions: the Capital Jewish Museum (opening in DC in 2022), Yeshiva University, Hebrew Theological College, the Breman Museum, the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, and the Houston Jewish History Archive at Rice University.

The Office of the Provost has announced the recipients of its Curriculum Impact Grants for 2020-21. Of eighteen interdisciplinary projects submitted, four of those funded include CHSS faculty in their teams.

University Libraries and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences are pleased to announce the newly established Center for Mason Legacies, dedicated to engaging student researchers in studying the past and present influences of the university’s namesake.

Students in ARTH 495/599 Curating an Exhibit successfully created an online resource shared with the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, displaying ragamala paintings.

Wendi N. Manuel-Scott, a professor the School of Integrative Studies and the Department of History and Art History, discussed the importance of Juneteenth as a political, civic demonstration of Black freedom.

College faculty members Kelly Schrum (Higher Education Program), Jessica Otis, and Nate Sleeter (both, History and Art History) have received a digital extension grant from ACLS to expand the World History Commons digital resource project.

JOHN WINTERS, who received his M.A. in History from Mason in 2013, will receive his Ph.D. from the City University of New York (Graduate Center) in June 2020.

In recognition of his career-spanning work in the scholarship of teaching and learning, Mills Kelly, history professor and interim executive director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, has been awarded the Gutenberg Teaching Award.

Kailea Swartz, who will graduate in May 2020 with a history B.A., has earned admission—and full tuition scholarships—to three different law schools: Temple University, Villanova University, and Rutgers University.

Mounir Alafrangy, BA History '10, is no stranger work in an isolated environment, after a forty-five-day experiment as an analog astronaut with NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog Mission XX. His experience informs anyone working remotely. Photo courtesy of NASA.

In a New York Times article about Vermont’s Rokeby Museum, Spencer Crews, Robinson Professor of American, African American, Public History, notes the importance of embracing differing views.

George Mason University is committed to protecting the health of its community. Its resources include up-to-date plans and procedures, identification of student health services clinics, and attention to its study-abroad programs.

TO BE RESCHEDULED ONLINE. A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch witnesses in an experiential and non-didactic sense a critical moment in geological history — bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species’ breadth and impact.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) invites full-time Mason faculty to apply for a faculty fellow position at the Center for the Fall 2020 semester.

In 2017, five undergraduate students received an OSCAR grant for a summer research project. Today, their research is transforming Wilkins Plaza.

Beginning with a deed book in the Campbell County, Va, courthouse, Bobbi Bowman's curiosity, diligence, and research skills have led her to piece together a remarkable family history.

Katie Hemphill (BA, History & English, 2006; MA, History, 2008) is currently an assistant professor of history at the University of Arizona. Her book, Bawdy City: Commercial Sex and Regulation in Baltimore, 1790-1915, is forthcoming in hardcover in February 2020 from Cambridge University Press. The Kindle version is available now. We checked in with Prof. Hemphill to learn more about her teaching and research.

In a video on the China Global Television Network, Kevin Matthews, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discusses Brexit and the impact that it will have on the United Kingdom's relationship with Europe and the United States.

Michael O'Malley, Matthew Karush, and Michele Greet have been awarded a total of $235,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In celebration of its 25th year, the Cultural Studies PhD Program at George Mason University will be presenting a symposium examining the cultural, political, and economic impact of Amazon.

As Mason's Center for History and New Media moves into its next quarter century, it continues to harness new technology to build upon its success and find new ways to democratize history.

The job market for humanities PhDs has been tough for decades, and it’s not getting any better. In part for that reason, a landmark 2011 American Historical Association report urged its members to think more broadly about employment options for History PhDs—not all of whom could or should become academics—and to adapt their curricula accordingly.

The Asia Dialogue site includes an article by Gerrit van der Wees, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discussing the outlook for January's presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan.

A professor of medieval literature offers some time-honored study tips from the world of medieval education.

History professor Cynthia Kierner discusses Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood, which explores how early American responses to natural and man-made calamities shape our societal reactions today.

Art history graduate student Paul Albert was part of a Mason team that took part in the National Gallery of Art's first datathon. The team used data science to measure the popularity of artists in the NGA's collections.

In a Washington Post article about Germany's attitudes on conversion therapy, history professor Samuel Clowes Huneke discusses LGBTQ history in East and West Germany.

The Department of History and Art History welcomed two new tenure-track faculty members this Fall.

With Good Reason, a radio program produced by Virginia Humanities, featured History professor Jennifer Ritterhouse discussing Sarah Patton Boyle, a 20th century Virginian who made a transition from segregationist to active desegregationist in the 1950s.

Department of History and Art History faculty member Kevin Matthews contributes to a Time website piece on the historical accuracy of the Downton Abbey movie released September 20.

Wendi Manuel-Scott, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, School of Integrative Studies, African and African and African American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Cultural Studies, discussed the complicated legacy of George Mason IV with radio station WRVA.

Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for two projects: DataScribe and Digital Methods for Military History.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University are pleased to announce that Mills Kelly has been named the new executive director of RRCHNM. This year RRCHNM is celebrating its twenty-fifth year, and Kelly has been a part of the Center for eighteen of those years. He joined the department and CHNM in 2001 to work with Roy Rosenzweig, the founder of CHNM.

Sean Sweeney, Chief Security Advisor for the Americas in Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Solutions Group, is this year's recipient of the Department of History and Art History's Outstanding Alum Award.

In a video presented by China Global Television Network America, Kevin Matthews, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discusses the UK elections for prime minister as well as Brexit questions.

Sun-Young Park and Robert DeCaroli, faculty members in the Department of History and Art History, have each received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies to pursue quite diverse research.

The Mapping Early American Elections website offers new visual representations of Congressional elections held from 1787 to 1825, including interactive maps, spatial data, and election results.

With regret and sadness, we note the passing of Marion Deshmukh on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Dr. Deshmukh was a giant at George Mason University whose broad impact on her field, her students, and campus was foundational.

As the National Museum of African American History and Culture searches for a new director, Spencer Crew, Robinson Professor of American, African American, Public History, steps in as interim director.

Mack Holt’s recent book wins accolades Last year Mack Holt, Professor Emeritus of French history, published his most recent book, The Politics of Wine in Early Modern France: Religion and Popular Culture in Burgundy, 1477-1630 (Cambridge University Press). Since its publication the book has received two major accolades.

With a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Mills Kelly and his team will create a digital historical guide of the evolution of the Appalachian Trail over the past century.

With regret and sadness, we note the passing of Marion Deshmukh on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Dr. Deshmukh was a giant at George Mason University whose broad impact on her field, her students, and campus was foundational.

Catey Borden, a History major who graduated in May 2018, was recently named as a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Award. The award gives recent undergraduates the opportunity to live abroad and engage in daily cultural exchange with people in their host country. This is among the most prestigious of national academic awards for undergraduate students in the U.S. We recently asked Catey some questions about her upcoming experience.

"We still have to wrestle with slavery as an institution even if we were not complicit as an institution in the system of slavery," said Wendi Manuel-Scott.

Prof. Jane Censer delivers Presidential Address to the Southern Historical Association; Retires from Department of History and Art History

Susan Wood, Office Manager of the Department of History and Art History, has won the 2018 Mary Roper Award.

Andrew McMichael, an alum of Mason’s History B.A. (1993) and M.A. (1996) programs, has recently been named Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Auburn University in Montgomery, AL.

This new report notes that in 2018, none of the American winners were foreign-born individuals who immigrated permanently to the United States. But the United States did play an important role in their formation; nine of the twelve 2018 Nobel Laureates were either students, teachers, or research fellows at U.S. institutions of higher education at some point in their lives.

On 5 November 2018, Binghamton University professor Robert G. Parkinson delivered a lecture entitled “Making ‘the Cause’ Common: Fear, Prejudice, and the Making of the American Union” to the Department of History and Art History and the wider George Mason community.

While exploring newspaper clippings in the Fenwick Library archives, art history major Lana Mason found a piece of Mason history that sparked her interest, so she decided to dig deeper.

As part of her dissertation, history PhD candidate Stephanie Walters built her own datasets and digital networks to identify the role that loyalists played in the Virginia Revolutionary narrative.

On October 23, a group of George Mason University students in Dr. Christopher Hamner’s “History of the Civil War Era” course took a trip to an important historic site, right here on the Mason campus.

Matthew DiRisio, a student in the MA program in history, has published Lessons Learned: Battlefield Deception - From Alexander the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf, with co-author Spencer Beatty.

A recent Washington Post article features the research of Dr. Ray Clark, who completed his History PhD from Mason in 2016.

Honors College and history alumnus Desmond Moffitt (above) and LaNitra Berger, director of the Honors College's Office of Fellowships, are at the forefront of a push for more support for diverse Fulbright scholars teaching overseas.

Mills Kelly has officially begun his tenure as president of the the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL).

The center spearheaded the project to provide digital access to World War I era sheet music and new recordings of it, made by students.

In summer 2018, LaNitra Berger, an art historian who serves on the faculty and staff of the Honors College, orchestrated an unusual intense and varied trip for several Mason undergraduates to South Africa. The theme of the three-week program was Monuments, Museums and Memory in South Africa, and the organizing principle was exposure to a diversity of viewpoints on the nation’s past and future.

Congressman Lewis was a headline speaker at the annual college-supported four-day festival, which brought to campus and other nearby locales over 150 writers.

George Mason’s Department of Communication and the Insight Committee host the annual communication forum, Pathways to your Future, on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2018. The venue is Dewberry Hall in the Johnson Center on Mason’s Fairfax campus. Sports broadcaster, Lindsay Czarniak, gives the keynote address. All students are welcome to attend.

The abolitionist and iconic face of the Underground Railroad would be the first African American and first woman on a U.S. currency bill.

Tues 10/10 Johnson Center Cinema 7:30pm: Tamer El Said will present and discuss his film about Khalid (Khalid Abdalla), a 35-year-old filmmaker in Cairo, 2009, struggling to make a film that captures the soul of his city while facing loss in his own life. Free and open to the public.

On Thursday, September 28, Jeffrey Ryan, the author of Blazing Ahead: Benton MacKaye, Myron Avery, and the Rivalry That Built the Appalachian Trail, spoke to students in Professor Mills Kelly's course on the history of the Appalachian Trail.

Lincoln Mullen’s recent book, The Chance of Salvation: A History of Conversion in America (Harvard University Press, 2017), has just been awarded the “Best First Book in the History of Religions Award” by the American Academy of Religion.

GMU Professor Hüseyin Yılmaz publishes Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought

Emma Lyons was one of 15 college students nationwide to receive a scholarship to attend the Presidential Sites Summit in Washington, D.C., hosted by the White House Historical Association. ​

Platt will assist Mason President Ángel Cabrera on projects related to faculty engagement. His top priority, he said, is to facilitate communication between the faculty and the administrative sides of the university.

Sun-Young Park's book is part of the University of Pittsburgh Press’s series on “Culture, Politics and the Built Environment.”

For over thirty years, Harry Butowsky worked as a historian for the National Park Service while teaching part-time for the Department of History and Art History.

Dan Martins (MA, '16), has just published an article in the Naval War College Review (vol. 71, no. 4). The article, entitled, "The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Joint Chiefs," was based on a research seminar paper he wrote under the direction of Professor Martin Sherwin.

Dr. Jacqueline Beatty, who received her History PhD from Mason in 2016, has accepted a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of History at York College of Pennsylvania. She will begin her position at York in fall 2018.

World History Commons receives NEH Award

Dr. Alison Landsberg and Dr. Yevette Jordan are the first two recipients of the newly established Dr. Marion Deshmukh Award. This award honors the distinguished accomplishments of Dr. Deshmukh and the inaugural awarding of funds will support research for two book projects.

In an oped in TheAtlantic, history professor Lincoln Mullen offers context to the U.S. Attorney General's use of Romans 13 as support for Trump administration immigration decisions.

In Art Daily, Steven Barnes, faculty member in the Departments of History and Art History and Russian and Eurasian Studies, comments on the implications of alleged destruction of Gulag records by the Russian government.

At its degree celebrations, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences sends off its doctors, masters, and bachelors with an enthusiastic salute.

At a Human Rights Day commemoration in Taipei on December 10th 2017, Dr. Gerrit van der Wees and his wife Meichin were honored by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen for their work in support of human rights and democracy in Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Fall for the Book continues the literary tradition of the Well Library, with the induction of the work of Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, Jennifer Ritterhouse, and Rick Davis into its collection.

Over the spring break Dr. Michele Greet traveled with eleven students from her Mexican Muralism seminar to Mexico City. The trip was part of GMU’s new initiative to embed study abroad into regular semester classes, and received a competitive “global discovery” grant to cover half of the students’ travel costs. The seminar focuses on the study of the murals (wall paintings) executed in Mexico City during the years following the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) until the 1950s, with an emphasis on works by the so-called Big Three: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco.

Three History MA alumni have published books as part of Savas Beatie’s new series: The Emerging Revolutionary War.

Curriculum impact grants, designed to encourage innovative programs with interdisciplinary, cross-unit curriculum, offer students new ways to consider some of the most critical issues facing our society. College faculty are involved with eleven of the newly funded programs.

Meet Atif Qarni, Virginia's 19th Secretary of Education, who brings to Richmond his very direct classroom experience, his sense of public service, and a history MA (and teaching degree) from George Mason University.

In a Washington Post article about the questionable sources of the carpet used in Washington, D.C., Metro train cars, history professor Zachary Schrag reveals the system's surprising rationale for carpeting the cars.

In an article in the New York Times, Meredith Lair, director, MAIS, and faculty member, Department of History and Art History, recalled the Tet offensive of 1968 and how news of it changed Americans' perceptions of the conflict in Vietnam.

In the context of the Cleveland Indians' decision to deemphasize their Chief Wahoo logo, history professor C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa discusses the continuing controversy over sports logos that depict Native Americans.

MA History student Michael Tricomi talks about his internship in the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon.

Charles H. Byrd, II, MA History '04, has shown extraordinary tenacity in earning his doctorate at the University of Oxford.

Mason alum Lisa Struckmeyer (BA, History, 2012) is raising awareness of artifacts important to African American and women's history in Prince William County that have made the Virginia Association of Museum's list of Virginia's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts.

Rebecca Erbelding, a 2015 alum from our History PhD program, has published the book, “Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe.”  The book is published by Doubleday.

Dr. Vanessa Schulman is a specialist in the art and visual culture of the United States. She received her PhD in Visual Studies from the University of California, Irvine, in 2010, and has published her research in the academic journals Invisible Culture, American Periodicals, and Early Popular Visual Culture. 

In the Yakima Herald, Christopher Hamner, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discusses the importance of continuing relevance and perspective in teaching about the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.

Internationally published photographer Jan Rosseel's work has been influenced by the books of history and cultural studies Professor Alison Landsberg; she has contributed a featured essay to the brochure that accompanies his thee-year exhibition.

In an op-ed in the New Haven Register, Peter Stearns, Provost Emeritus and University Professor of History and Art History, writes about America’s shifting attitudes towards shame.

Two Mason history students, Ayman Fatima and Alexis Bracey, recently participated in an important conference at the University of Virginia. The conference was entitled, “Universities, Slavery, Public Memory, & The Built Landscape Symposium October 18-21, 2017.”

Each year the Department of History and Art History recognizes one of its alums with its Outstanding Alum Award. This year’s recipient was Sharon Deane, who works for the Department of Defense to promote public understanding of the Vietnam War.

A New Exhibit of Buddhist Art Robert DeCaroli, Professor of Art History at Mason, is serving as one of three curators of a major new display of Buddhist art (“Encountering the Buddha”) that recently opened at the Smithsonian’s remodeled Sackler Gallery. The exhibit runs from Oct. 14 to Nov. 29, 2020.

With the big-budget sequel, Blade Runner 2049, in theaters this weekend, Brooke talks with Alison Landsberg, a professor of history and cultural studies at George Mason University.

Fall for the Book’s 19th annual festival at George Mason -- and locations around Northern Virginia -- runs from October 11-14, and welcomes a robust list of poets, historians, novelists, memoirists, children’s authors, YA writers, and more.

Robert DeCaroli is co-curator of an exhibition entitled “Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice across Asia” at the Freer|Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Intuition in Washington DC.

Funded by Mason's Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR), history department faculty members Benedict Carton and Wendi Manuel-Scott led a team of students in exploring the largely untold story of George Mason's enslaved people.

The DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival previews their seventh annual run (October 2nd) with a showcase of Palestinian performance artists covering storytelling, musical ensemble, and theater. The cultural production, a contemporary expression of the colorful Palestinian diaspora, celebrates Palestine as a vision for the future as much as an object of commemoration.

Named for Provost Emeritus and University Professor Peter Stearns, the new center is a one-stop destination dedicated to digital learning and teaching excellence.

9/11 6pm: Almost Sunrise follows two Iraq veterans, tormented by depression for years after they returned home, as they embark on an extraordinary journey, a 2,700 mile walk across the country from Wisconsin to California, in order to reflect on their haunting experiences of war and to save themselves.

In the Washington Post, Zachary Schrag, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discusses the costs and benefits of a naming rights plan being considered by Washington's Metro system.

Dr. Kurt Knoerl, an alum of the department’s History PhD program, has earned a tenure-track position in the Department of History at Armstrong State University.

Ho's "Creating Distinctions in Dutch Genre Painting" was published by Amsterdam University Press.

Stearns's new book, "Tolerance in World History," "draws together the many discrete studies of tolerance to create a global and comprehensive synthesis."

Gonzaba won the prestigious fellowship for LGBTQ students.

Terri Pous of Buzzfeed has a discussion with Mason provost emeritus and professor of history Peter Stearns and others about the current climate of foreboding in American culture and places it in its context within our history and in doing so illustrates that things are not quite as dire as we may think.

Jennifer Reeder has published two books on the history of Mormon women since receiving her PhD in 2013.

Each year the Department of History and Art History names recognizes one of its alums with its Outstanding Alumni Award. This year’s recipient was Matt Salter (BA History 2000), an accomplished DC-area consultant.

The mood in EagleBank Arena was lively on May 18 and 19, as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences held its degree celebration ceremonies. Congratulations again to all of our graduates! We are pleased to welcome you to an impressive community of alumni, made only stronger by the class of 2017.

Filter presented a research paper on the 19th-century "White Zulu Chief" he wrote for Professor Benedict Carton's course.

An NEH grant-funded project led by Sheila Brennan, Matthew Karush, and Michael O'Malley will work with the Library of Congress’ National Jukebox and the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Cylinder Audio Archive.

Celeste Tường Vy Sharpe has created the first history dissertation in the country to be presented in an entirely digital format.

This semester students in "The Museum," an art history course taught by Jacquelyn Williamson, an assistant professor in the Department of History and Art History, have an unusual assignment. For their final project, students are incorporating a semester-long 3D printing project.

History professor Mills Kelly has been elected president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, an association dedicated to the trans-disciplinary study of the ideas and practices that drive teaching and learning within and across the academic disciplines.

Undergraduate history major Maari Weiss talks about her internship at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration.

The George Mason University PhD student wanted to enroll in History 688: Digital Storytelling, but Salamone, who is visually impaired, wanted to make sure he would be able to do the course work and that the professor, Kelly Schrum, would be willing to make the curriculum more accessible to him.

George Mason University's Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence are designed to recognize exceptional teaching, research and scholarship, social impact, and diversity and inclusion. The college is extremely proud that two of our faculty members are recipients of these awards.

Hannah Matangos presented a poster titled "The Christianization of Pagan Ritual Space in Byzantine Athens" which won an award at the CHSS undergraduate research symposium.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the May 2017 degree celebrations will be led by two outstanding alumni: chief historian for the White House Historical Association, Edward Lengel, and Lt. Col. Suzanne Devlin, a former acting chief of police for the Fairfax County Police Department and the current supervisor of safety and security for Loudoun County Public Schools.

Professor Wendi Manuel-Scott will be the inaugural recipient of the prestigious Alcalde Family Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion.

Under the direction of Professor Michele Greet, art history students created the exhibit "Evoking Place: Fifty Years of Landscapes from the Art Museum of the Americas."

Larrie Ferreiro, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History and in the Volgenau School of Engineering, was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his book, "Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It."

Lebovic's book "Free Speech and Unfree News" won the 2017 OAH Ellis W. Hawley Prize, which is given annually for the best book-length historical study of the political economy, politics, or institutions of the United States.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to announce that two of its faculty members' projects have received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The United States’ dominant role in the economic world, conflicts in the Middle East, and other major world events can all be traced to a single event that happened 100 years ago this month—America’s entry into World War I.

Ben Cowan has received a book prize for his book, "Securing Sex: Morality and Repression in the Making of Cold War Brazil."

An associate professor in the Department of History and Art History, Greet specializes in twentieth century Andean art, as well as Latin American artists in Europe. Greet was previously serving as ALAA’s vice president and began her three year term as president at the organization’s annual conference in February 2017.

GMU’s History and Art History Department placed 44th in the latest US News and World Reports ranking of the Best History Graduate programs in the country. This represents a jump of over twenty spots since the last ranking two years ago.

Mason was fortunate to earn a place in his marvelous life. Wilkins spent nearly two decades teaching history and American culture at Mason, writing books and helping to put a then-fledgling university on the map.

Her lecture was titled "The 1928 Christmas Day Murders in Eros, Louisiana: Race, Gender and Class Dynamics of White Supremacy."

Suiter has been working on "Project DAPS: The Desegregation of Arlington Public Schools."

Her new book follows journalist Jonathan Daniels's tour through the South in 1937.

Steven Barnes is hosting two events in Slavic Studies, while Wade publishes a new edition of his well-known book on the Russian Revolution.

George Mason historians, particularly Professor Zachary Schrag, have played an important role in amending federal regulations that will make it easier for historians and journalists to conduct oral history interviews.

The revised and expanded third edition introduces new approaches to the political, social and cultural history of the Revolution, incorporating people and places too often left out of the story, including women, national minority peoples, peasantry, and front soldiers.

On Thursday, February 9 The Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University, in conjunction with the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, hosted a town hall titled “Perspectives on the Immigration Ban.”

Benjamin L. Huggins (PhD, 2008) published "Willie Mangum and the North Carolina Whigs in the Age of Jackson."

Panelists Dr. Toni-Michelle Travis, Dr. Peter Stearns, and Mr. Abdallah Hendawy will discuss the implications of the inauguration on international students and the world on Thursday, February 2, 2017 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in Dewberry Hall.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has received a Discovery grant to plan "Hearing the Americas."

Mason students visited a Civil War redoubt (earthen fortification) located on the university's campus. Though covered with underbrush, the structure remains intact and is clearly visible—a valuable historic structure, right under our noses, tucked behind a parking lot on the Mason campus.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) is thrilled to announce a new program with the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Foundation to begin The Networked Curator initiative.

Leon won the fellowship from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a project titled "As Justice and Charity Demands: An Examination of the Enslaved Persons Owned (and Sold) by the Maryland Province Jesuits, 1717-1838."

Undergraduate history major Amy Glen was an intern at the Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center.

Published by Duke University Press, the book is history of the transnational careers of seven of the most influential Argentine musicians of the twentieth century.

In an article about verifying the veracity of news sources found online, the Smithsonian Magazine notes Mason history professor Mills Kelly's 2008 course in which students created fake websites about a historical figure.

The journal, which is edited at George Mason University, has been publishing for fifty years.

The project documents the encounter and evolving relationship between the secular/Orthodox state and the Islamic regions, groups, individuals, and ideologies on the territory of the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries.

Mills Kelly's new course in the History and Art History Department combines the beauty and deep history of the Appalachian Trail with digital media.

The Department of History and Art History is celebrating the work of Professor Emerita Marion Deshmukh by establishing the Marion Deshmukh Faculty and Student Scholarship Support Fund.

The 2016 Outstanding Achievement Awards recognized thirty-five faculty and staff who had been “Elected for Success” by their colleagues.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) at George Mason University is pleased to announce the public beta release of Omeka S (1.0). The software expands the web publishing capacity for cultural heritage materials.

This semester, classes in the Department of History and Art History have examined issues raised in the presidential election from a variety of contexts. Prior Election Day, the public was invited to join in!

IIR co-hosts discussion with Middle East Institute about the contributions made by immigrant artists to the United States

Wendi Manuel-Scott will moderate a dialogue with thought leaders Laurie Robinson, Earl Smith, Rita Chi-Ying Chung and Shirley Ginwright on policing and crimes against people of color, including current issues and the national climate, for this semester's President's Freedom and Learning Forum.

Professor Jacquelyn Williamson has published a book with Brill about a new cult complex at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt.

Peter Stearns has published a new book, "The Industrial Turn in World History," with Routledge.

Robinson Professor of History Spencer Crew worked behind the scenes for many years to bring to life the exhibits in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened September 24.

On September 26, 2016, Professor Serena Zabin of Carleton College will present a talk, "The Boston Massacre: An Intimate History," which examines the social and familial circumstances surrounding the event, offering insight into of the direct causes of the Revolutionary War.

Jane Turner Censer begins two years as an officer of the organization, first as vice president in 2016-17, then in 2017-18 as president.

Fall for the Book brings writers, readers, and scholars together like no other event in the region. In its eighteenth year, Fall for the Book is a weeklong literary festival with events taking place on Mason's Fairfax campus and at other venues across the region between September 25 and September 30.

A research project which Mason undergraduate history major Scott Saunders contributed to has been featured on the blog of the American Historical Association.

On Thursday, September 8, 2016, the Department of History and Art History hosted its annual Undergraduate Welcome Reception at University Career Services. The focus of the event was an animated discussion of the benefit of internships for History and Art History Majors.

A Mason history alumna solves a mystery about W.E.B. DuBois and a portrait of Frederick Douglass.

In a Washington Post article, Robinson Professor of Public Affairs Steven Pearlstein describes the challenge of convincing incoming students' parents of the value of liberal arts education. The college's senior associate dean Robert Matz contributes, leading the effort to promote humanities and social sciences degrees.

Professor Williamson, a specialist in the history of ancient Egypt and of gender in the ancient world, talks about her research and classes in an interview with Ben Cowan.

Ben Cowan has won a prestigious fellowship to work for a year at the Library of Congress on his next book, "Mundane Magic."

Stephen Robertson and Jennifer Rosenfeld led two summer teacher institutes focusing on the Civil War through the lives of soldiers who left their mark in Northern Virginia landmarks now known as "Civil War Graffiti Houses."

Lincoln Mullen and Patrick Murray-John both created digital projects using millions of newspapers for a National Endowment for the Humanities challenge.

Mason's Spirit magazine features Mason historian Sam Lebovic's work, which traces the role of the press in America, its history, and factors that affect press freedoms.

"They arrested them not for themselves supposedly being criminals, but just for having been married to this person who was arrested and in almost in every case, someone who was arrested and executed."

In this profile of a student in the Department of History and Art History, Professor Suzanne Smith interviews Carrie Smith about her internship at Gadsby's Tavern Museum in Old Town Alexandria.

Last spring, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) launched—in collaboration with the Smithsonian Associates—a unique online program for a graduate certificate in digital public humanities.

Craddock, BA History ’00, accepted the Chronos Prize for Most Inspiring Screenplay by an Established Filmmaker for “American Exodus,” an action story based Tubman’s life as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Cynthia A. Kierner is working on a book tentatively titled “Inventing Disaster: the Culture of Calamity from Jamestown to Johnstown.” The project traces the origins of how government, corporations, media, clergy, philanthropic groups and the general public imagine disaster and appropriate responses to it and looks closely at how these entities acted and interacted in an Atlantic and British imperial context over the course of the long eighteenth century.

In this lead article, Jane Turner Censer explores the forty-year intimate friendship between two Virginia female novelists. In a relationship that changed over time, Rives and Glasgow shared intellectual and literary interests and insights into love, beauty, and religious experience as they each sought literary fame and personal fulfillment.

The Department of History and Art History awarded six PhDs in eastern European as well as colonial, nineteenth-century, and twentieth-century U.S history.

David Turk says George Mason University's proximity to Washington, D.C., provides job opportunities for history majors.

In this profile of a student in the Department of History and Art History, Professor Suzanne Smith interviews Erika Walser about her internship at the Manassas Museum.

John Lemza, a recent graduate of the PhD program in history, has recently published "American Military Communities in West Germany: Life in the Cold War Badlands, 1945–1990."

Adriana Ospina, who received her MA from the Art History program in 2013, has received an NEH grant to support an exhibition she is organizing: Converging Cultures: Asian Diasporas and Latin American and Caribbean Art from 1940 to the Present.

Two GMU historians, Chris Elzey and David Wiggins, have won the award for "Best Edited Collection" from the North American Society for Sport History for "D.C. Sports: The Nation's Capital at Play."

Jerry Prout, an alumnus of the PhD program in the Department of History and Art History, has recently published a book titled "Coxey’s Crusade for Jobs: Unemployment in the Gilded Age."

In a Washington Post article on President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Hiroshima, Christopher Hamner, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, describes how textbooks addressing the bombings have changed.

Ruth Kohn, a Holocaust survivor, spoke to the students in Harry Butowsky's class on the history of World War II.

Pam Smith received her MA in 2014 from the Department of History and Art History. She and several other collaborators have recently published an edited collection titled "The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North."

Professor Michael O'Malley was recently interviewed by the radio program Knowledge@Wharton about Harriet Tubman being selected for the new $20 bill.

Congratulations are in order for several members of the department whom the Organization of American Historians (OAH) has named Distinguished Lecturers. The most recent honor goes to Meredith Lair, who joins seven other historians from George Mason.

Dr.Jennifer Ritterhouse's spring 2016 class, "The 1920s and the Making of the Modern US," enjoyed an engaging fieldtrip to the Library of Congress.

On April 18, the Department of History and Art History held its annual award ceremony to celebrate the academic achievements of its students over the past year.

The book is a consideration of "modern" revolutions, those that seek to bring about changes to society that implement a new ideal, as opposed to a reversion to any system in place before. “The idea of revolution is only going to run out of steam when people stop believing in positive changes that can be made here on Earth,” Censer explains.

Ben Cowan has published "Securing Sex: Morality and Repression in the Making of Cold War Brazil" with the University of North Carolina Press.

The Guardian has included Suzanne Smith's "Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of America " as a top-10 books on the 1960s.

The Vox.com website has featured an interactive map, prepared by Lincoln Mullen, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, that depicts the spread of slavery in the United States from 1790 through 1860.

Brennan, Mullen, and Zagarri will map American elections from 1788 to 1825, and enable citizens as well as academic researchers to ask their own questions about past elections.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has launched "A Liberian Journey: History, Memory, and the Making of a Nation."

On March 16, 2016, the Washington, D.C., subway shut down for 29 hours to allow inspection of its electrical system. In Politico, Zachary Schrag, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discusses the system's tenuous financing through the federal government.

History MA student Michael Williams was an intern at public television station WETA, where he wrote about history for the Boundary Stones blog.

Sam Lebovic has published his new history of press freedom, "Free Speech and Unfree News: The Paradox of Press Freedom in America" (Harvard University Press, 2016).

The Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) hosted Tom Gjelten, correspondent for National Public Radio and author of A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story, at the April colloquium. Mr. Gjelten shared his insights on how the landscape of America has changed over the past fifty years with the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, as told through the experiences of families in one suburban county in Virginia.

PhD student Eric Gonzaba has won the Student Project Award from the National Council on Public History for his project, Wearing Gay History: A Digital Archive of Historical LGBT T-Shirts.

Sheri Huerta, a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Art History, will be giving a talk as part of Loudoun County's Black History Month program.

Mason History major Desmond Moffitt has been selected as a Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute Fellow to study nonprofit leadership at Princeton University this summer.

Professors Carol Mattusch, Chris Gregg, and Richard Mason have offered instrumental contributions to a cutting-edge traveling exhibition, Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, currently on display at the National Gallery of Art.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media will develop a new tool, called Tropy, for historians and other scholars to organize their photos taken in the archives.

Mason Ph.D. Jerry Prout will be publishing his first book, Coxey’s Crusade for Jobs Unemployment in the Gilded Age, this Spring

While contributing to the American Historical Association's plenary session addressing Confederate monuments, Jane Censer, faculty member in the Department of History and Art History, discussed the origin of many Confederate soldiers' memorials.