Join your colleagues for a coffee hour in the Horizon Hall 6th floor kitchen for refreshments and socializing to welcome in the new academic year!

Welcome to the start of a new academic year! This is a great time to make sure your bio pages are accurate and up to date. Don't know where to start? Check out this resource from the CHSSWeb team.

Kick off the semester strong at the CHSS social, presented by the CHSS Staff and A/P Faculty Advisory Council, on Thursday, September 4 in the 6th floor kitchen of Horizon Hall.

Please join us virtually on September 17 to learn more about CHSS marketing resources. You'll meet the CHSS Marketing and Communications team and learn where to find templates and logos, how to share content in the CHSS Digest and on CHSS social media channels, how to update your website bio, and more!

Save the date for the October Town Hall meeting on Thursday, October 23 at 1 p.m.

Study leaves for tenured instructional faculty, funded by the provost, provide paid leave during one semester or academic year to support scholarly research, teaching, and/or creative activity. Applications for study leave for the 2026–2027 academic year must be submitted by October 10 at 5 p.m.

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has recently announced its 2025–26 fellowship and grant competitions. ACLS offers programs that promote research across all fields of the humanities and social sciences. 

The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers is an international fellowship program open to academics, independent scholars, journalists, creative writers, translators, and visual artists whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Hosted by the college’s Cultural Studies Program, the fall colloquium welcomes renowned political economist Branko Milanovic, award-winning evolutionary anthropologist Agustin Fuentes, Pulitzer Prize winning author Greg Grandin, and groundbreaking cultural studies scholar Nick Dyer-Witheford.

The $25,000 grant is funded through the American Historical Association as part of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program.

Through an ongoing collaboration with the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), postdoctoral research fellow and alum John C. Winters is exploring new ways of locating the missing remains of American service members.

Jack Smith, former Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, will address the challenges of maintaining the rule of law in today’s political and legal environment, at the 2025 Wilkins Lecture on Tuesday, September 16.

Check out Fall for the Book this October 7–11! Northern Virginia's oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, the event features in-person and virtual events, and welcomes more than 70 authors, poets, essayists, memoirists, editors, and many enthusiastic readers. Click through for the complete lineup of authors and events.

George Mason University’s Creative Writing Program joins Watershed Lit and George Mason’s University Libraries in presenting the Fall 2025 Visiting Writers Series.

Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University, has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in philanthropy.

Welcome to our monthly compilation of good news, gathered from CHSS faculty and staff!

Congratulations to the 2025 Celebration of Distinction awardees from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). These outstanding CHSS alumni will be recognized on Thursday, September 18 at the 2025 Celebration of Distinction.

The humanities and STEM go hand in hand for Ryanne Mardini, advisor and scholar support for Pathways to STEM with Envision by Worldstrides.

Alumni Dave Alpern and Chris Helein, BA Speech Communication '91, featured in new Netflix series for their work with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Boettke, Department of Economics, explains why AI can't compute the complexity of free markets.

In op-ed, Maksymchuk, a Ukrainian-American poet and scholar-in-residence at Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, discusses the perception America is safer than war-torn countries.

Larrie Ferreiro, Department of History and Art History, explains how war of American independence was important to "balance of power contests" among Britain, France, and Spain.

Gerry Stegmaier, BA History '92, is recognized for his work on prelitigation and advisory services related to business strategy for privacy-by-design, data-protection, and intellectual-property challenges.

Stillhouse Press Publicist and Marketing Manager Taylor Schaefer, MFA '25, discusses Stillhouse Press's work as a teaching press and publisher that focuses on projects off-the beaten path.