Award for Scholarship

In 1996, George Mason University’s College of Arts and Sciences established an award to recognize an outstanding faculty member. Recipients of the annual CAS Award for Scholarship were faculty members whose recent research played an important role in the advancement of their disciplines and who were widely known as first-rate scholars and speakers. Each year the winners gave a public lecture highlighting their work and were honored at a gala event including a reception and dinner. Through the award and the event known as the Celebration of Scholarship, the college called attention to the value of the scholarly activities in which all faculty are engaged.

On July 1, 2006, after more than 30 years of growth and development, the College of Arts and Sciences separated into two new colleges: the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Science. For the first four years, the colleges continued this tradition. Each college presented an annual Award for Scholarship, and the faculty came together in a joint Celebration of Scholarship.

Since 2009, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences has continued the tradition alone. The lecture and dinner have evolved into a gala reception, and the college now also honors student recipients of the Dean's Challenge Award, the First-Sweitzer Scholarship, the Robert R. Thomas, Jr. Scholarship, and Mary's Scholarship for Homelessness Awareness and Advocacy.