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Mason Alert
Mason Alert: George Mason University will close today, Monday, March 16 at 1:30 pm, due to inclement weather. See Campus Status Page for further information: https://www.gmu.edu/campus-status.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences would like to congratulate Tamara Harvey and Jacqueline M. Burek from the Department of English for being selected for the 2026 National Humanities Center four-week summer residency program this June at the National Humanities Center in Durham, North Carolina.
Amanda Bryan is serving as the co-lead of the “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Teaching and Learning" initiative, a cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional project aiming to promote ethical integration of AI into educational settings.
Mark Oppenheimer, 2022 Distinguished Lecturer in Judaic Studies, returns to George Mason University on March 30, 2026, to talk about his landmark biography of Judy Blume. He will speak at 6:30 in Fenwick Library Main Reading Room. This event is open to the public.
Most Americans know the name Judy Blume because of her beloved classics: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; Deenie; and Summer SistersBut little is known about the real woman behind the iconic persona, and the unlikely journey of her literary ascension, until now.
In Judy Blume, journalist, historian, and longtime Blume aficionado Mark Oppenheimer pens a beautiful, multidimensional portrait of the acclaimed author through extensive interviews with Blume herself, invaluable access to her papers and correspondence, and thoughtful analysis of Blume’s beloved novels, including early, unpublished works that shed light on the pathbreaking writer she would become. Oppenheimer goes deep, exploring Blume’s middle-class 1950s upbringing, complicated childhood, varied relationships and marriages, unabashed sexual experiences, bouts of heartache and loss, and enduring legacy as a champion of free speech and contemporary literature. Oppenheimer peels back the curtain to reveal the woman behind the literary empire in all her complex, multifaceted glory—a true gift for anyone who grew up reading and loving these extraordinary books.
Holly Mason Badra recently published a multi-genre anthology showcasing the work of contemporary Kurdish women and nonbinary writers living all over the world. Sleeping in the Courtyard: Contemporary Kurdish Writers in Diaspora (The University of Arkansas Press, 2025) was recently featured in The Kurdistan Chronicle and elsewhere.
The Salem witch trials have been a popular subject for literary re-creation since the early nineteenth century. Lockwood’s research project, Tituba Indian: The History of an American Cultural Figure, will further her work on a monograph of the same title, examining how Tituba—one of the first women accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch hunt—has been represented since the end of the Civil War, when she was first portrayed as biracial.
