Center for Mason Legacies

A full transcript of the panel is available.

VA250

Alumni

doctoral students

91�� panel examines the complex legacy of its namesake during America’s 250th Anniversary

ckearney — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:25:36 +0000

91�� panel examines the complex legacy of its namesake during America’s 250th Anniversary ckearney Tue, 06/30/2026 - 16:25

91�� hosted a Virginia 250 panel discussion on its Fairfax Campus examining the legacy of George Mason, the founding father, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and slaveholder whose contradictions mirror the broader American story. The one-hour program, The Complex Legacy of George Mason, will premiere on 91�� YouTube channel and GMU-TV at 10 a.m. ET on July 2, 2026.

The discussion was moderated by Christopher Eck, executive director of Gunston Hall, George Mason's 18th-century estate on the Potomac River. He was joined by Carly Fiorina, national honorary chair of the Virginia 250 Commission and CEO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; George Oberle, historian and director of the Center for Mason Legacies at 91��; and Gregory Washington, president of 91��.

Throughout the conversation, the panelists examined how the same man whose words helped shape the language of universal rights—language echoed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and James Madison in the Bill of Rights—also enslaved more than 100 people and never freed them. Rather than avoiding those contradictions, the discussion explored how confronting difficult history is central to the mission of a public university.

Photo by Andani Munkaila/Office of University Branding

"This is what a university is for: to have these hard conversations," said Oberle, who co-founded the research initiative behind the Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial, the centerpiece of the redesigned Wilkins Plaza on the Fairfax Campus. "If you're not going to have them here, where are you going to have the hard conversations?"

Washington, who became the university’s eighth president in 2020, described the university’s decision to keep its namesake and use his legacy as a platform for learning, reflection, and dialogue. He also noted that freedom of expression remains a core university value rooted in Mason's own writings.

Fiorina connected the discussion to the broader goals of the nation's semiquincentennial—to educate, engage communities, and inspire civic renewal.

"Nostalgia is not history. Propaganda is not history," she said. "To know our country fully is the only way we can be true citizens and true patriots."

The panel was presented as part of Virginia's 250th anniversary commemoration, marking 250 years of George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the nation’s founding.

Watch The Complex Legacy of George Mason beginning at 10 a.m. ET on July 2 on the George Mason YouTube channel or GMU-TV. Additional airings on GMU-TV will be July 3, 8:30 a.m.; July 4, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and July 5, 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Learn more about the Center for Mason Legacies

Topics

VA250

Office of the President

George Mason collaborating with National Park Service to examine Revolutionary War from tribal nations' perspective

Katarina Benson — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 21:18:12 +0000

George Mason collaborating with National Park Service to examine Revolutionary War from tribal nations' perspective Katarina Benson Thu, 03/12/2026 - 17:18

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, 91�� is collaborating with the National Park Service (NPS) to make sure the contributions of all Americans are being recognized.

Gabrielle Tayac, an associate professor in the Department of History and Art History in the College of Humanities of Social Sciences, has received a grant from NPS to lead Phase Two of Tribal Nations and the Revolutionary War, a community-driven research project that will examine the Revolutionary War and its aftermath from the perspectives of tribal nations.

Tayac serves as the principal investigator and will assist the NPS in facilitating educational and interpretive strategies that will be implemented in sites around the Mid-Atlantic region and throughout the Northeast.

Gabrielle Tayac has received a grant NPS to lead Phase Two of Tribal Nations and the Revolutionary War. Photo provided

“My hope is that it will help everyone get a sense of deep connection and relationship to the lands we live on now, to the people who are still here and maybe who are not here and wonder what happened to them,” Tayac said. “To be better caretakers of our communities and places.”

The NPS grant runs through 2027 and coincides with America’s semiquincentennial celebration. Tayac is working with fellow Department of History and Art History professors C. Joseph Genatin-Pilawa and George Oberle, BA History ’96, MA ’98, PhD ’16, who also serves as a history librarian and the director of the Center for Mason Legacies (CML). Digital Humanities Librarian Alyssa Fahringer, who collaborates with Oberle in the CML, will also contribute to the project.

Tayac, who served as the inaugural curator historian at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and New York, will set up workshops in the Northeast region from the Chesapeake Bay up to Maine. These seminars will provide insight from historians, NPS park rangers, and Indigenous community scholars. Tayac and her George Mason colleagues will then produce digital work for historic sites and visitor centers.

Tayac, who collaborated on the 400th anniversary of Jamestown in 2007, hopes the project and the 250th celebration will serve as a focal point to “deepen those histories so that people can see them for a long time.”

“It is really critical it is done in a way that Native communities want their stories to be told,” said Tayac, who is an enrolled citizen of the Piscataway Indian Nation. “We also know that it has to be done in a way where the American public can really understand it, relate to it, and find the information relevant and intriguing to open up those conversations.”

George Mason alum and NPS regional cultural anthropologist Noel Lopez, PhD Cultural Studies ’18, serves as a tribal liaison officer for the National Capital Region. He said previous interactions with George Mason, such as collaborations on ecological study units with tribal communities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, have made the transition into the project easier.

“A lot of the work all of us do, whether it is anthropology or tribal liaison, a lot of it is around connections with people and connections with networks,” Lopez said. “All of this work we’re doing on both sides is relationship building. It is building trust with people.”

George Mason students will also play a role. Tayac will offer training and hands-on opportunities, including through an undergraduate course, History 397 Public History in Action, which she will teach in spring 2027. Students will pull from the tribal communities’ stories and transform those into projects for museums, historic sites, a cultural center, or a website.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity for this project to not only workshop in the relationships with Native tribal community representatives but also to bring it back into Mason,” Tayac said. “In real-time, my students can also have a hand in it. I think that’s really important, and it tends to make them really excited about history work, too.”

Topics

partnerships

innovative classes

Alumni

George Mason graduate student advances theater research through yearlong workshop at Folger Shakespeare Library

sbrown79 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:10:10 +0000

George Mason graduate student advances theater research through yearlong workshop at Folger Shakespeare Library sbrown79 Mon, 03/02/2026 - 10:10

This academic year, 91�� graduate student Samantha “Chevi” Chung has had a research opportunity that few have had by participating in a yearlong workshop at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The theme of Chung’s workshop is “Shakespeare and Black Performing Women,” which ties in perfectly with her thesis.   

George Mason is a member of the Folger Institute’s Consortium, so students and faculty have access to its wealth of scholarly resources. Chung is capitalizing on this collaboration and conducting research for her thesis, “Black Sheroic Couplets in Shakespeare, Black Female Actors Playing Eponymous Male Roles in Shakespeare's Plays from 1821 to 2025.”

Chevi Chung presents her research at the 2026 Black Lives Next Door event. Photo by Jerome Boettcher/College of Humanities and Social Sciences

“My favorite aspect of the workshop is that our conversations are just loaded with a lot of expertise,” said Chung, who is working on a master of arts and interdisciplinary studies (MAIS) in social justice and human rights degree. There is so much to glean from the amazing women I'm working with.”  

Her cohort includes actors, directors, theater practitioners, as well as theater scholars and researchers, and dives into the adaptations of Shakespeare works, Black performing women, and how people are conducting their Shakespeare-focused research. Workshops sessions also include guest speakers from different backgrounds and professions.

“Before my first semester at George Mason, I really didn't understand how to conduct my own research, but then I took Professor Rachel Lewis’s [WMST 630] Feminist Theories course. It really opened my eyes and brought so many new resources and methodologies to my attention,” said Chung, who is a first-generation student. 

Chung said Lewis helped her develop her thesis topic on the theory of gender performativity in Black women actors.  

Chung also credits faculty members Jessica Otis, associate professor of history and associate director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and MAIS Director Shayna Maskell for encouraging her to keep applying to the Folger workshop even after being rejected. 

“It was a good learning experience for me. I think failing forward is so important for growth and realizing that there will be rejections along the way,” Chung said.  

Chung (third from top left) with members of her cohort at Folger Shakespeare Library in D.C. Photo provided

During her graduate studies, Chung also had a summer internship with Maskell where she conducted qualitative research for Maskell’s book on the Riot Grrrl movement. Chung researched music, photography, and fan-made videos from the era, and coded what she found for Maskell’s use.  

Chung said her experience assisting Maskell helped prepare her for time in the Folger program.  

“Chevi played a key role in using the book’s theoretical framework in performance theory and feminist visual culture and applying it directly to the lived performances of Riot Grrrl bands,” said Maskell. “[She] analyzed archival footage and accounts of different performances and helped bridge the gap between abstract concepts and the reality of the stage. Essentially, Chevi helped turn raw data into a cohesive cultural narrative.”  

“[During this internship] I learned to challenge assumptions and not just accept the information given to me, but to validate it myself,” said Chung.   

The Folger workshop will conclude this April, Shakespeare’s birthday month, but Chung’s research into Black theater will continue.  

“Sadly, there are absences and silences in the Black theater archives, and we have to break through these and start asking questions,” said Chung, who is also conducting research within the Center for Mason Legacies under the guidance of George Mason faculty Wendi Manuel-Scott and George Oberle. “I’m determined to expand my knowledge beyond what it currently was, not just regarding Black theater archives, but Black history in general.”  

After graduating in May, Chung will pursue her PhD in theater and performance studies at the University of Maryland this fall.  

“It is an honor to be a part of this group. Beyond the wealth of knowledge I’m receiving, this is also an opportunity to build long-lasting connections and relationships,” she said. 

Explore Internships at George Mason

Topics

Graduation

internships

first-generation

Students

Theater

The un-forgotten founder: How George Mason’s legacy lives on

sholla4 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:21:05 +0000

The un-forgotten founder: How George Mason’s legacy lives on sholla4 Wed, 12/10/2025 - 14:21

“That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society...namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty...pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

The Virginia Declaration of Rights, penned by George Mason IV, begins with this bold proclamation. It’s a familiar opening: the Declaration of Independence, arguably the more famous document between the two, reads, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Yet George Mason’s name isn’t on the Constitution, despite his obvious influence. The first 3-D depiction of him in the United States wasn’t erected until 1996, on 91��’s Fairfax Campus. He is considered the “Forgotten Founder.”

Now, on George Mason’s 300th birthday, we come with a question: What is a legacy? What does it mean to be remembered?

Photo by Andani Munkaila/Office of University Branding

George Mason, the man, was born on December 11, 1725, in present-day Fairfax County, Virginia. His home, Gunston Hall, sits on the Potomac River less than 20 miles southeast of 91��’s Fairfax Campus.

From drafting Virginia's first constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights to declaring it the “Commonwealth of Virginia” instead of a state, Mason built the foundation of the place 91�� would first call its home. And his influence extends far beyond the commonwealth’s borders: his Virginia Declaration of Rights is said to have influenced the United States Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, as well as human rights declarations across the globe.

At the “The Un-Forgotten Founder,” an event hosted Dec. 8 by the Law and Economics Center at the Scalia Law School, panelists examined the complicated legacy of a man who, they believe, was unconcerned with how he might be remembered. He did not leave behind troves of primary sources as other founding fathers did; he stayed steadfast in his refusal to sign the Constitution because it did not include a Bill of Rights; he had no alliances or allegiances to any one school of thought.

Much of Mason’s life is hidden in the gaps between a small pool of primary sources. And in those gaps, we find echoes of a complicated and conflicted legacy: His firm pronouncement of inalienable rights for “all men” and rejection of the international slave trade did not extend to those enslaved people of Gunston Hall, for example.

Intellectual curiosity was one of Mason’s defining characteristics. And it is in the complexities of Mason’s life and legacy that we see the echoes of the founding father most strongly. That history becomes a pathway through which students can wrestle with big ideas, ask complex questions, and learn how to sit with contradiction and juxtaposition.

“The limited sources we had on Mason were an opportunity to use him and his legacy as a teaching tool, to help students learn and engage critically with the complexities of the past,” said George Oberle, director of the Center for Mason Legacies at 91��. In fact, the project that formed the foundation for the Center for Mason Legacies was a student-directed summer project: “The Enslaved Children of George Mason," which also inspired the Enslaved People of George Mason installation near his statue on Wilkins Plaza on the Fairfax Campus.

Because this is where the real learning begins for George Mason students. That insatiable thirst for knowledge, the unwillingness to accept what is simply because that is how it has always been: These same things that motivated Mason to pen the Virginia Declaration of Rights continue to push our students to new heights. To ask hard questions and to be unafraid of the complexities of the answers is how 91�� prepares its students to tackle the grand challenges of the 21st century.

Much has changed since Mason’s signature dried on those documents that shaped the future of the United States of America. Stepping into a 91�� classroom in 2025, the tableau unfolds: a commuter student from Fairfax sitting next to an international student, speaking to a U.S. Army veteran with a 20-year career who is working on a presentation with a first-generation college student.

We can’t know what future Mason envisioned when he penned the opening line in 1776—and who he believed deserved that future. But that’s the thing about legacy and history: Each new generation gets to look at the evidence with a fresh perspective. And with the groundwork laid by Mason in 1776, 91�� has become a place where “all men” means everyone is given the opportunity to embrace intellectual curiosity and create a legacy of their own.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Topics

George Mason

Antonin Scalia Law School

Dive deep into history with the Center for Mason Legacies

Honoring Native American Heritage Month with the Native American and Indigenous Alliance

jharve9 — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 13:17:44 +0000

Honoring Native American Heritage Month with the Native American and Indigenous Alliance jharve9 Sun, 11/19/2023 - 08:17

^{In 1990, a joint resolution designated November as Native American Heritage Month (NAHM), nationally recognizing what had previously been state-designated holidays. Throughout the month, Americans are encouraged to recognize and uplift the innumerable contributions, both past and present, of Indigenous people.}

91��’s student organization Native American and Indigenous Alliance (NAIA) is dedicated to promoting Indigenous culture, raising awareness of Native issues, and providing a safe environment for Native and non-Native students. We spoke with members of NAIA to hear about how they’ve found community here at Mason and their perspectives on the importance of NAHM.

"To me, my indigenous heritage means resilience. The Taíno were the first peoples encountered by Europeans and thus the first people that were assumed to be devastated and completely annihilated. Yet at the end of the day, we still exist in various different forms. We still exist."

Richard Lopez-Perez

Puerto Rican of Taíno descent

BA in Foreign Languages, concentration in Korean

"For me, my indigenous heritage is all-encompassing. Ever since I was a kid, up until now, it's something that I've, you know, constantly been raised in and educated under. It provides a sense of community, a sense of family. Coming to Mason really helped me expand upon my sense of pride and who I am. And it gave me a greater sense of family and belonging."

Justin Gray

Piscataway and Rappahannock tribes

BS in Information Technology

"Through the Native American and Indigenous Alliance at Mason, I discovered that being indigenous can have many meanings. I was taken aback to see that I wasn't alone, and that there are other people in my similar situation who are also trying to reconnect back to their roots. As an immigrant at a young age, the alliance has helped me find community on campus, as well as further connected me to my ancestors in Peru."

Macarena De La Cruz Velasquez

Peruvian

BA in Criminology, Law and Society

"Native American Heritage Month is a time to give a voice to people that are normally voiceless. We need to listen to the indigenous community at all times, of course, but this is a time where the general public can publicly platform Indigenous people, Indigenous students, activists, artists, all of it. I think that’s why it’s a very important time of the year."

Ozcollo Espinoza

Quechua Nation; Chichimeca, and Karankawa Kadla tribes

BA in Anthropology

The importance of Native American Heritage Month is that it’s a time for us to really uplift the native community. And that isn't specific to North American natives: there's the indigenous populations in South America, Europe, Africa, and all around. This month is about uplifting all those voices. We’re here to teach people that we're not some fairy tale in a textbook: We're still here. We're present. We're a lot closer to you than what you might think. We're still here, and we're so strong.

Sara Jefferson

Chickahominy Indian Tribe of Virginia

BA in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, concentration on interpersonal dynamics

You can view the full video on our Instagram: @georgemasonu

Uplifting Indigenous voices at Mason

George Mason partnership amplifies HBCU history and culture
April 8, 2026
George Mason partners with DoD agency to bring closure to the families of lost U.S. service members 
July 28, 2025
Public history students highlight local Indigenous communities
November 20, 2024
George Mason researchers receive NEH funding for Connecting Threads project
November 20, 2024
Counseling graduate student awarded fine arts fellowship
June 11, 2024

Mason alum Kelli Jo Ford gives voice to generations of Native American women

Named to Oprah Magazine’s list of Native American Authors to Read Right Now in 2020, Mason alum Kelli Jo Ford, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the author of Crooked Hallelujah, a “novel-in-stories that follows four generations of Cherokee women as they travel farther from their native Oklahoma.” Learn more about her.

Topics

Students

Native American Indigenous Alliance

Native American

Mason Libraries announces LYRASIS Catalyst Fund Grant for Center for Mason Legacies

ckearney — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 19:13:02 +0000

Mason Libraries announces LYRASIS Catalyst Fund Grant for Center for Mason Legacies ckearney Mon, 07/18/2022 - 15:13

Fenwick Library. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

A $39,500 grant from LYRASIS will advance an interdisciplinary project based in the George Mason University Libraries and College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The winning proposal, “Geographies of Inequity: Exploring the Hidden Lives Next Door,” draws on the Center for Mason Legacies’s Black Lives Next Door project, which was launched in 2021 with support fro the Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR), and Mason researchers George Oberle, LaNitra Berger, Benedict Carton, and Wendi Manuel-Scott.

Two other center projects—the Enslaved Children of George Mason, an undergraduate research initiative which started in 2016, and Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial, a work of public history recently unveiled on the Fairfax Campus—have been instrumental in shaping “Geographies of Inequity.”

“The Center for Mason Legacies will use the LYRASIS grant to create an interdisciplinary social justice methodology that incorporates digital humanities and historical research in local communities and fully engages our students in valuable transformative work,” said Manuel-Scott, associate director of the center and professor of integrative studies and history.

LYRASIS is a nonprofit member organization serving and supporting libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations around the world.

The “Geographies of Inequity” project has also received the LYRASIS Catalyst Fund’s Sandy Nyberg Award, which recognizes “the highest levels of innovation” in publishing, writing, preservation, and other categories. The fund provides support for new ideas and innovative projects from the LYRASIS membership, with a goal to “expand opportunities to explore, test, refine, and collaborate on innovations with potential for community-wide impact.”

“The collaborative and creative energy that materializes when faculty and librarians work together results in substantative educational experiences for students,” said John Zenelis, dean of the University Libraries.

The 2021-22 Catalyst Fund grant competition was international in scope, with finalists including Cambridge University, University of Virginia, Université du Québec à Montréal, and University of North Carolina System.

Topics

University Libraries

Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial to be dedicated

ckearney — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:08:11 +0000

Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial to be dedicated ckearney Mon, 03/28/2022 - 12:08

It was the summer of 2017, and five 91�� students and three faculty members were beginning their research into the children enslaved by George Mason IV, the university’s namesake.

Wendi Manuel-Scott, a professor of integrative studies and history, and one of the faculty members on the project, recalled how the students at one point “began to talk about how it would be awesome if years from now they came to campus and there’s a plaque that honors the enslaved people held by George Mason.”

As it turned out, they got much more than a plaque, as what was the Enslaved Children of George Mason project led to the Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial, a focal point of how the university is addressing its identity as it relates to a complicated Patriot.

“The purpose of the project was to raise awareness about George Mason IV, the man, the patriot and the slaveholder,” Manuel-Scott said. “Our goal was to focus on expanding our community’s understanding of Mason, and to focus on the people he owned and what they thought about freedom.”

The memorial on the Fairfax Campus (see the video) is the centerpiece of the newly renovated Wilkins Plaza, named for the African American civil rights leader, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and beloved Mason professor.

One panel is dedicated to to Penny, an enslaved girl given by Mason to his daughter. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

It will be dedicated at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, April 4, as part of the university’s 50th anniversary celebration.

“I started that project the summer after my sophomore year, and it sounded cool to have research that maybe would contribute to a memorial on campus," said Mason alum Kye Farrow, BA History ’19, MS Management ’20. "But it was really difficult at the time to see how it would get there. So, yes, still today, I'm absolutely amazed the work we did went to the product that's there today."

Other students on the project were Alexis Bracey, BA Global Affairs ’19; Ayman Fatima, BS Systems Engineering, BA Government and International Politics ’21; Farhaj Murshed, BS Statistics ’20; and Elizabeth Perez-Garcia, BS Criminology, Law, and Society ’19.

It was important each student came from a different academic discipline, Manuel-Scott said.

“Each brought a different way of seeing and thinking, and a different way to analyze and explore records,” she said. “That interdisciplinarity created a richness in terms of the project.”

Mason faculty Gabrielle Tayac and Wendi Manuel-Scott gather water from the Potomac River to use in the fountain on Wilkins Plaza. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

The project was launched by Manuel-Scott; Benedict Carton, a faculty member in History and Art History; and Mason alum George Oberle, Mason’s history librarian and a term faculty member in the Department of History and Art History.

All are leaders in the Center for Mason Legacies, an interdisciplinary and collaborative research center established by the University Library and College of Humanities and Social Sciences that encourages student research to preserve and examine the legacy of George Mason IV and the people he enslaved.

The Enslaved People of George Mason project “shows that Mason is striving to be an exemplar institution in relation to the idea of promoting student inquiry and being open to where that goes and takes us, even if it’s not always a happy story,” Oberle said.

The memorial includes the iconic statue of Mason. A new pedestal includes four quotes which highlight the different aspects of his life, including the penning of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the foundation of the U.S. Bill of Rights. But Mason also enslaved more than 100 people at his Gunston Hall plantation and did not free any upon his death.

Memorial panels are also dedicated to Penny, an enslaved child given by Mason to his daughter, and James, Mason’s personal attendant. A fountain contains stones in a pattern that symbolize an African custom of gathering and prayer.

To acknowledge an altar that was constructed next to the Potomac River by the enslaved at Gunston Hall, and to acknowledge that the land on which the university was built was originally inhabited by indigenous people, water from the Potomac River will be poured into the fountain.

“It’s a way to interconnect the worlds, between the place of enslavement, the place of difficulty, but also a place that’s life-giving,” said Gabrielle Tayac, an associate professor of public history at Mason, and a Piscataway tribal citizen. “To pour the water into the fountain that recalls those connections and all of those hopes and dreams and memories the people had, it’s a way of awakening and blending those intentions.”

Said Carton: “Our project sought to guide students’ sense of moral duty, as they branched out to discover hidden histories. This duty is focused on reconstructing the everyday humanity of enslaved people whose lives had deep meaning, despite the cruelties of enslavement.”

“The moral duty,” he said, “is in the learning.”

Topics

Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial

Masonat50

Campus Improvements (Construction)

Wilkins Plaza

diversity

Mason students documenting the history of Black life at Mason and in the local community

ckearney — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 15:14:09 +0000

Mason students documenting the history of Black life at Mason and in the local community ckearney Mon, 02/21/2022 - 10:14

As part of an effort to research and record local history, 91�� graduate and undergraduate students, along with faculty, have begun documenting Black students who attended Mason and the Black communities that once existed in Fairfax County.

This fall, the Black Lives Next Door website went live with initial research exploring the early years of George Mason College and its transition to a university in 1972. The project, conducted under the auspices of the Center for Mason Legacies, is an ongoing interdisciplinary collaborative effort to highlight voices that history has suppressed.

“This project reflects what we believe, the importance of researching and understanding the past, the importance of showing just how messy history is,” said history librarian George Oberle III, director of the Center for Mason Legacies, assistant term professor and Mason alum. “What we’ve learned is that Mason, while one of the most diverse destinations of higher learning in the U.S., has a haunting past.”

Oberle, Benedict Carton, associate professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and LaNitra M. Berger, associate director of the African and African American Studies Program and senior director of fellowships in the Office of Undergraduate Education, are the founders and primary supervisors of the Black Lives Next Door Project.

The website has a section titled Black Student Biographies, which includes individual stories of Black students in the early days of Mason and the struggles they faced. One biography describes Irma R. Willson’s battle in the 1960s for enrollment in the college and then to change the campus environment. Another section delves into racial ridicule at Mason. In addition, the website has a section describing the School Street neighborhood, a Black community that used to exist near Mason.

“I hope that the legacy of this project is that we recognize what happened in our history and highlight problems from Mason’s past and the community’s past that maybe people don’t want to recognize but should for the sake of recognizing and honoring the erased Black history of Fairfax,” said Veronica Mata, a senior majoring in government and international politics who participated in the research.

The project was inspired by a New York Times opinion piece “Black Lives Next Door” by legal scholar Richard Rothstein, who called for more studies of “comprehensive racial inequity” at the local level, said Berger.

“Now that Mason is turning 50, it’s a good opportunity to look backwards like this and embrace the past, both the good and the bad, as part of the discussion of what Mason will like going forward,” said Berger.

Over the summer, six undergraduate students, two doctoral candidates and faculty members examined the early years of George Mason College, the institutional predecessor to Mason. The group, which received funding through the Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR), attended a two-week research seminar and then probed into primary source material to answer questions about how segregation affected the college and its community and what happened to the Black communities that were once part of the Northern Virginia landscape. Speakers, including Marcia Chatelain, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Georgetown University historian, helped hone the students’ research skills and inspire them in their work. Rothstein also spoke to the students in the fall after the site was published.

Anne Dobberteen, a doctoral candidate in history and a digital humanities graduate research assistant, was one of two graduate students working over the summer to help guide the undergraduate students in their research. She found particularly interesting how few Black students attended Mason as recently as the early 1970s and how far they had to commute to attend.

“Black students were dispersed throughout the region at that time,” Dobberteen said. “It was still a very white college at that time.”

Honors College senior Kyler B. Buckner’s research led him to former Mason professor Robert Houston, considered a “revolutionary” by Mason College administration in the late 1960s for protesting the Vietnam War and running teach-ins on societal racism.

“It was the 1960s and Virginia, so I expected to learn there was racism,” said Buckner, a sociology major. “What was unexpected was finding that there were people trying to do something about it, resisting.”

Berger hopes that the work Mason is doing inspires other colleges and universities to similarly research the hidden lives and suppressed voices within their own communities. As part of that effort, Berger and others have started a social media campaign: #blacklivesnextdoor.

Meanwhile, said Berger, research at Mason is ongoing, and they are always seeking sources of funding.

“I’m so proud of these students and what they’ve accomplished with their high-quality work,” Berger said. “It’s rewarding to watch students get so excited about learning and conducting research of consequence.”

Topics

Students

Masonat50

Black Lives Next Door

Black African Heritage

Spirit Fall 22

Mason librarian receives national I Love My Librarian Award

ckearney — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 18:55:20 +0000

Mason librarian receives national I Love My Librarian Award ckearney Tue, 01/11/2022 - 13:55

George D. Oberle. Photo provided

91�� history librarian and alum George D. Oberle, BA History ’96, MA ’99, PhD ’16, is a winner of this year’s I Love My Librarian Award.

The director of the Center for Mason Legacies and an assistant term professor, Oberle is being recognized by the American Library Association (ALA) for his amplification of historically underrepresented voices and the dedication he brings to uncovering and teaching about hidden histories. He is one of 10 librarians selected for this recognition from more than 1,300 nominations from library users across the country.

"After reading the nominations, I am frankly overwhelmed," said Oberle about the award. "The letters are so moving to read, and I feel so lucky to be able to work with so many wonderful people in a place where I received (most of) my degrees. I am still taking it all in."

Applying his dedicated scholarship in history and his commitment to social justice, Oberle has transformed his campus community and its understanding of Mason’s and its namesake’s racial history through his work establishing and leading the Center for Mason Legacies, an interdisciplinary and collaborative research center housed in the university’s Fenwick Library that seeks to preserve and examine the legacy of George Mason IV, his ancestors and heirs, and the people he enslaved.

“Based on the testimonials we received in support of George’s nomination for this award, it is a truly apt recognition; his students and his colleagues—both in CHSS and in Fenwick Library—really do LOVE their librarian!" said Ann Ardis, dean of Mason's College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). "Through his generous, resourceful support to students and colleagues, and through his commitment to scholarly research, he has had an immeasurable impact at 91�� and to the community beyond. We are so proud to see his work recognized.”

Oberle’s work with the center has culminated in numerous educational resources for the Mason community, including a robust website with an array of primary source materials and a memorial recognizing the individuals enslaved by George Mason in the center of campus.

“Dr. Oberle’s work with the center is remarkably pointed and relevant to these times as he and the teamwork toward uncovering our hidden histories, expanding our historical record and knowledge of both the past and the present, documenting current racial tensions, and seeking a more just future,” wrote Dean of Libraries and University Librarian John Zenelis.

Zenelis continued: “He works directly in the spaces combating erasure and suppression and inspires students and faculty alike as he does so. In these efforts, he embodies not only the time-tested tradition and unique role of libraries in society as knowledge-preservers, but also the knowledge-creation and discovery-learning traditions of research universities.”

“By his example and his accomplishments, George has shown that what starts as a small library project can indeed grow into an important asset supported by the entire university,” wrote Wally Grotophorst, Mason's associate university librarian for digital strategies and systems.

Oberle and this year’s nine other honorees will each receive a $5,000 cash prize, a $750 donation to their library, and complimentary registration to ALA’s LibLearnX. The virtual award ceremony will take place during the conference at 3:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, and will be available to stream live on ALA's YouTube channel.

Since the award’s inception in 2008, library users have shared more than 20,000 nominations detailing how librarians have gone above and beyond to promote literacy, expand access to technology and support diversity and inclusion in their communities. Information regarding previous award winners can be found on the I Love My Librarian website.

Carnegie Corporation of New York generously sponsors the award. The New York Public Library also supports the award. ALA administers the award through its Communications and Marketing Office, which promotes the value of libraries and librarians. 

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