George Mason University senior Diana Kerr left Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax last month feeling enlightened.
On hand for the History and Humanities Fair, hosted by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) for students from City of Fairfax Schools, Kerr was one of several CHSS student ambassadors mentoring the students. But the anthropology major said they learned a lot from the elementary and middle schoolers.
“A lot of these kids had knowledge beyond their presentations, and they could answer questions I had. That was fun for me,” Kerr said. “I was impressed by how unique some of the projects were. A lot of kids where doing projects on things I didn’t know existed until high school or college.”
More than 50 students in third through eighth grade from Daniels Run and Providence elementary schools and Katherine Johnson Middle School displayed posters and presented on a myriad of topics from the Revolutionary War to the Egyptian pyramids to the history of Italian fashion.
The event sparked interest in history, literature, folklore, and the arts. Weekly study sessions were held at Katherine Johnson Middle School by history and social studies teacher Jake Welch to help students with their projects. The students also researched their selected topics at local libraries, museums, historic sites, and online.
“This is such a great way to get students engaged with the humanities,” said Debra Lattanzi Shutika, an associate professor in the Department of English and the director of the folklore program. “We need to convince kids earlier that this (the humanities) is a viable (career) path. It gets them excited about this work, gets them engaged with people from the university. Hopefully you plant some seeds and hopefully those seeds will grow.”
Photo by Jerome Boettcher.
Shutika served as a guest speaker leading up to the first fair last year, located at Providence Elementary School. Shutika approached the event co-organizers, Evelyn Foster, a seventh grader at Katherine Johnson Middle School, and her mother, Catherine P. Foster, about expanding to feature more schools this year.
“Doing self-directed research, especially at the elementary-school level, they don’t get a lot of opportunities to do that,” said Catherine, a former field archaeologist and museum curator. “They chose their topics, what they wanted to present. It was completely student run, student driven and you see it spans all of humanities. The turnout shows there is an interest. If we can continue to do it, especially with George Mason’s help, I think we can continue to do this for years (to come).”
Evelyn came up with the idea for a history fair in 2022 when she hosted friends in her backyard and they presented on research projects, with one of her friends even dressing up as the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I was thinking one day, ‘Science fairs are pretty cool. Why not make one about history?’” Evelyn said. “I am excited they get to be excited doing these projects. It definitely helps build public speaking skills and (working on) presentations.”
Along with Shutika, faculty and graduate students from the folklore studies program attended the fair as did CHSS Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Lisa Breglia and City of Fairfax Schools superintendent Dustin Wright.
City of Fairfax’s Office of Historic Resources and non-profit Historic Fairfax City, Inc. (HFCI)., were also on hand to provide information and activities for the students and their parents. Office of Historic Resources programs coordinator and George Mason alum Sean Redmiles, History MA, ’18, jumped at the chance to attend the fair and explain what he does for the City of Fairfax as a historian.
“(The fair) is so cool. This was the age that I got into history – middle school, late elementary school,” Redmiles said. “They can take the skills they learned here and eventually apply it to a career. I’m proof of that. It was awesome to see how good of a job they did with those projects and how much thought and critical thinking they put into them. So, it is just a good sign there is going to be plenty of people coming up in the histories and humanities in the future.”
March 16, 2026