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).
Awards
The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) was recently awarded the Renaissance Society of America’s Digital Innovation Award for 2026. The center received the award, which “recognizes excellence in digital projects that support the study of the Renaissance,” for its project, Death by Numbers, which focused on London’s historical Bills of Mortality, a series of weekly documents that recorded cause-of-death statistics in the city. award “recognizes excellence in digital projects that support the study of the Renaissance.” Associate Professor Jessica Otis, associate director of RRCHNM, accepted the award in February at the Renaissance Society of America’s Annual Meeting.
Kudos to Assistant Professor Jackie Poapst, Department of Communication, on winning the Dr. Neil Berch Coach Award—the Junior Varsity and Novice Coach of the Year award—at the JV Novice Nationals Debate Tournament last month. Poapst, George Mason’s Director of Debate, earned the award after the debate team won its first of two consecutive novice national championships this semester. Amberly Sun and Jordan Bridgers captured the Novice division national championship at the JV-Novice nationals at Fairmont State University. The following week, Denzel Bell and Camila Rosa-Perez Montes won the novice division championship at the American Debate Association Novice National Championship. Congrats to Jackie and the team!
Shout out to Nilima Hakim Mow, a PhD student in linguistics in the Department of English, on being selected as a recipient of the Scholars for the Dream Travel Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication! Mow received the award for her accepted presentation, "Invisible Conversations in Graduate Writing: Mentorship, Multilingualism, and Micro Exclusions." Congrats, Nilima!
Congrats to Professor Stephen Robertson, Department of History and Art History, for a pair of awards for his book, Harlem in Disorder. Robertson received the Angel David Nieves Book Award from the American Studies Association and receiving an honorable mention for the Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize from the American Society for Legal History. Congrats, Stephen!
March 16, 2026