Welcome to our monthly compilation of good news, gathered from the college's faculty and staff! Would you like to include your own news or a colleague's? Send us your details on the CHSS Brag Points form (which also collects information we can share with Mason's Office of University Branding).
LaNitra Berger, associate professor of history and art history and director of the African and African American Studies Program, is participating in the March on Washington Film Festival’s World Premier of Rohkaya Diallo’s film ONE STRUGGLE, highlighting the powerful & historic solidarity between the Jewish and Black community. ONE STRUGGLE demonstrates how icons like Martin Luther King, Zora Neale Hurston, Julius Rosenwald, Franz Boas and many others have combated racism and anti-semitism as one shared struggle. One of the many events taking place during the March on Washington Film Festival, this screening will be held Tuesday, September 26th in the Washington, D.C. Edlavitch Jewish Community Center. Come at 6:30 p.m. to enjoy a pre-reception and stay after the film for a discussion panel featuring Berger and the director herself, Rokhaya Diallo. Don’t miss out on this powerful and inspirational event!
Jeffrey Grim, assistant professor of higher education, examines the differences in admissions practices between selective institutions in the UK (Oxford and Cambridge) and the US (Ivy League institutions) in his recent paper “The Power of Professors and Professionals: How Professions Shape Organizational Systems in Elite University Admissions,” which has been published in Professions and Professionalism. While both the UK and US admissions systems are socially stratified by race and class, Grim and his co-author Anna Mountford-Zimdars of the University of Exeter shed light on how admissions selectors are making decisions on very different criteria because of their professional background. Read more about Grim’s research paper.
Congratulations to Xiaomei Cai, associate professor of communication, who has accepted the appointment as CHSS’s Director of Faculty Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, and Chrystal George Mwangi, associate professor of higher education, who will lead the CHSS Faculty Network for new faculty and post-docs. Both will serve in these roles for the 2023-24 academic year.
I-O Psychology doctoral student John Aitken writes about his MITRE internship focused on reducing household waste, how his education impacted his work, and his advice for fellow student researchers. Read what he has to say.
September 18, 2023