English Department

Folklore professor traveled around the world in 90 days for research project

Shayla Brown — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 17:14:29 +0000

Folklore professor traveled around the world in 90 days for research project Shayla Brown Mon, 09/16/2024 - 13:14

��ӽ紫ý professor Lisa Gilman lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from the time she was born until she was 9 years old.

“I had a fantastic time there. I loved playing with my friends, eating the food, and listening to the music, but there was also war and conflict going on at the same time. I asked myself, how can those environments coexist?” she said.

Children learning art at Salama Africa in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp In Malawi. Photo by Lisa Gilman.

It was this question that encouraged Gilman to pursue her research of migrants and displaced people who have been affected by war and trauma with her project, “My Culture, My Survival: Arts Initiatives by Refugees for Refugees.”

Gilman, who has been working on this project for three years, was funded by a State Department Council of American Overseas Research Centers Multi-Country Research Fellowship to do 90 days of research in the 2024-2025 academic year.

“I'm really interested in using art as a way to talk about and explore politics, economics, and gender issues, specifically how people on the ground use art to actively interact with and respond to what's going on around them,” said Gilman, an English professor and director of the Folklore Program in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Members of Syrian women le choir Haneen rehearsing in Gaziantep, Türkiye. Photo by Lisa Gilman.

For Gilman, this can include professionally trained artists or people sitting around and singing out of tune together. “Even people cooking food from their culture and passing those skills down to their children is a creative cultural dimension of life,” she said.

The refugee camp in Malawi, one setting Gilman is researching, includes people from the DRC who fled conflict, which Gilman said “brought me back full circle to all of those childhood experiences.”

“My grandfather was basically a refugee and [the more] I'm working on this research, I realize how profound that is for me,” said Gilman.

Gilman is also conducting research with Uyghurs in France, Syrians in Türkiye, several groups in the United States, and Rohingya in Bangladesh

A product of this research is The Dzaleka Art Project, a community-based collaboration. Gilman coordinated with artists in the camp and ��ӽ紫ý students to produce a website and book manuscript project by and about artists living as refugees in the Dzaleka camp in Malawi. This summer, Gilman was able to travel across the globe completing the research she needs to write the book.

Designed to share the positive stories of the people in the camp, the website includes artists’ bios, images of their art work, and information about life in the camp and the status of refugees in Malawi.

The website was produced by Gilman’s student research assistant, junior information technology major Solomon Tejan Kanu. “I learned a great deal about the backgrounds and hardships of the migrants,” said Tejan Kanu, who as a child, immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone as a refugee.

“I heard so many tragic stories during my interviews, but also learned a lot about their artistic talents,” he said.

Tejan Kanu worked closely with other undergraduate and graduate students, including senior government and international politics student Brendan West, on the project.

“We conducted a lot of background research with Professor Gilman, finding communities such as Syrian migrants and Uyghurs in Europe,” said West, who joined Gilman as a research assistant in February of 2022.

Rwandan traditional dance rehearsal in the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. Photo by Lisa Gilman.

“She mentored me in an incredible way that positively influenced the direction of my professional career. Before this project, I didn't really understand the experience of migrants and permanently displaced people,” said West. “I'm definitely more interested in working in government on refugee policy in the future because of the impact this project had on my worldview.”

Gilman is currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where she is completing the book “My Culture, My Survival,” scholarly articles, and public-facing work that highlights the creativity, agency, and entrepreneurship of forcibly displaced artists from each of the five countries.

“This project is all about people; what they're doing with art and how they're talking about what art does for them and for others,” said Gilman. “We want to help tell their stories.”

Topics

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

English Department

Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

travel abroad

Students

Research

Festival management class puts students at the heart of cultural conservation and celebration in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Holland — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 16:00:36 +0000

Festival management class puts students at the heart of cultural conservation and celebration in Washington, D.C. Sarah Holland Tue, 07/23/2024 - 12:00

If you visit the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the last week of June, you’ll be greeted with the sights and sounds of a multicultural celebration at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Music and dance performances, cooking demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and education sessions: Every tent offers a view of the world from a different cultural perspective.

And for ��ӽ紫ý students in the cross-listed Folklore and Festival Management course, it’s the internship opportunity of a lifetime.

Supported by an Office of Student Creative Activities and Research Curriculum Impact Grant and led by Lisa Gilman, professor of folklore and English, Karalee Dawn MacKay, director of the arts management program, and Carole Rosenstein, professor of arts management, the course gives students hands-on, real-world experience in festival management.

Along with a term-length group project to plan their own festival, students also learn from guest speakers from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH), tour the CFCH offices, and complete applications for summer internships with the CFCH Folklife Festival.

Recently, the ��ӽ紫ý team established a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Smithsonian Institution to formalize the partnership.

“The Folklife Festival is an international, national, and local event: a confluence you’re only going to get in Washington, D.C., where every neighborhood and community is a mix of international, national, and local,” explained Rosenstein. “Being able to leverage the connections of our ��ӽ紫ý faculty to national agencies and institutions all over the region gives our students unique opportunities that will set them up for success.”

“We want the folklore and arts management fields to mirror the populations we work with,” said Gilman. “Mason has this incredibly diverse student body, and through this course and our MOU we are creating real pathways for these students to work in the arts and culture sector.

“This course is only one piece of it,” she further explained. “There’s a lot of potential for collaboration around research and education in the future.”

Arts management and folklore studies are both necessary perspectives in producing this kind of large-scale cultural event. But, as Rosenstein noted, the two fields don’t often interact in an academic setting.

“It’s a unique opportunity for graduate students, in particular,” she said. “As an undergraduate, you know, you’re in classes with a variety of majors all the time. But for graduate students with more focused studies, it’s not often they get to share and learn across areas of expertise. And it’s great career practice, because arts management and folklore professionals will be working together at the same institutions in their careers.”

“We get into deep discussions about how each program would approach these same questions and challenges differently, as well as looking at how we have the same motivations and goals but are perhaps using different terminology or theories,” said MacKay. “It’s amazing to see how much they learn from one another.”

Because of the cross-disciplinary nature of the course, students and faculty engage with all parts of festival production at a much deeper level. Students might consider the theoretical concepts behind ethical and equitable folklore conservation and presentation one day, and the next they’re debating how many bathrooms will be needed for the predicted crowds.

“That’s one of the amazing things about this course and the focus on planning a festival,” said Rosenstein. “It gives them the opportunity to go all the way from high-level theory to what’s happening on the ground at any given minute of the event.”

Everything in the course comes back to building and sustaining relationships. From vendors to sponsors to performers to guests, students learn how proper festival management leads to long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships that support the access and preservation of artistic, creative, and cultural expression.

“This class opens up folklore and arts management students to so many different career possibilities in the arts and culture,” said MacKay.

“It’s an important reminder for students that there are all kinds of creative life and expression everywhere you look,” said Rosenstein. “It’s not just in big art museums or symphony orchestras: you can find it in every community.”

This summer, we spoke with three of the students who worked on the Folklife Festival.

Stephanie Aitken

Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Master’s student in English with a concentration in Folklore Studies

What are you most excited for about interning with the festival?

Seeing it all come together. We’ve learned so much about it in class, and we’ve heard from so many guests who are directly involved in curating or producing the festival. So seeing it all come together in front of my eyes will be an incredible experience.

I’m not from this area, and I’ve never heard of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival before. Now I’m doing an internship. And I don’t think I would have gotten the internship without this class because of the connections we made to all these people related to the festival.

How did this course and the internship prepare you for a career in folklore studies?

I feel like public-sector folklore has grown more and more, especially with a more modern awareness of being respectful of cultures, reciprocity when engaging with cultures, particularly those of marginalized groups. So preparing students with those skills and that perspective is really valuable, and the opportunities it provides makes ��ӽ紫ý’s folklore program unique.

Chris Esswein

BA English and Economics ’24

What was your biggest takeaway from the course?

I did a dual degree in economics and English with the hope of going to law school. But there was this looming feeling that I was going to go to law school, end up working for a Big Law firm doing work that I hated, only to burn out and leave after a few years. But this class and the internship opened up a whole new world of opportunity to me. I care deeply about the ethics of representation and public folklore festival management. I could see job possibilities in law at the Smithsonian, or any number of other public or private arts programs. Even in the class, I felt like my practical way of thinking was embraced and encouraged: asking about permits, security, costs, etc. There’s a place for economics and law and the practical in the world of the arts, and maybe there’s nowhere that needs it more than those areas.

Noelani Talamoni

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Master’s student in English with a concentration in Folklore Studies

What are you most excited for about interning with the festival?

I’m Indigenous Hawaiian, and although I’m very aware of my culture and my background, I haven’t had the opportunity to really work with people in my community. And because the festival theme this year is Indigenous Voices of America, the internship gives me the opportunity to get closer to a part of my heritage that I hadn’t had before, and a chance to uplift my community. It’s also an opportunity to put my research and my classroom experience to use in a very real, tangible way.

What was the cross-disciplinary class experience like?

I feel like we [folklore students and arts management students] learned a lot from each other that we can take into our careers. In our mock festival in class, for example, the arts management students helped me understand these very important, practical aspects of planning, like sound checking for musicians and land use guidelines for where stalls can be placed. And I helped them think through who we were inviting, what communities were being highlighted, how to support unheard voices. Cooperation and camaraderie are a huge part of putting together a festival. In my internship, I’m seeing how experts from multiple fields and backgrounds can work together effectively.

Study the tales and traditions of the world in the folklore program

Position yourself for a successful career through arts management

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Topics

Graduate Education

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folklore

Summer Internship

Smithsonian

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

English Department

Students

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Acclaimed author Tania James balances writing and teaching at Mason

Shayla Brown — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 21:05:06 +0000

Acclaimed author Tania James balances writing and teaching at Mason Shayla Brown Mon, 01/29/2024 - 16:05

Tania James is having an amazing year. Since her novel Loot was released by Knopf in June 2023, the accolades haven’t stopped.

In addition to being named to longlist for the National Book Award, the novel has been included in the Best Books of the Year lists by the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. And, in 2024, was selected as a DC Reads book by the DC Public Library and the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

I’ve been really surprised and grateful at how this book has been received,” said James, who teaches in ��ӽ紫ý’s Creative Writing Program.

Tania James. Photo by Elliott O'Donovan.

Although the novel is often described as historical fiction, James questions this label.

“For the most part, I didn’t approach this novel any differently than I would a contemporary novel,” said James, an associate professor in the Department of English in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “To my mind, historical fiction isn’t a genre with clear conventions in the way there are with crime fiction or horror fiction.”

James said the inspiration for Loot began with Tipu’s Tiger, an automaton of a life-size tiger that is mauling the throat of an English soldier. It resides in the Victorian Albert Museum in London and was commissioned by a South Indian ruler the late 1700s.

“Back in the day, you could turn a hand crank and the tiger would grunt and the soldier would groan. It was this darkly comic, sinister object that created a sensation in England. I found it fascinating,” said James.

Loot is set in 18th century India, England, and France, and follows a young woodcarver, Abbas, who is called by the Tipu Sultan to build the tiger, a prize of war, as a gift for his son. It is her fourth novel.

“Loot was the first time I wrote a novel while I was a full-time tenure track professor. I also had two small children, so there were all these new constraints on time, which taught me to be less precious about the conditions in which I can write,” she said.

Writing a novel also requires living with uncertainty for long periods of time, she added. “I was going through old notebooks, and it occurred to me how many different iterations this novel could have taken, some of them terrible and some of them just different.”

At Mason, James teaches fiction writing, and this semester she is focusing on writing novels in ENGH 608 Novel Writing Seminar.

When she came to Mason in 2016, James was mentored by fellow author Courtney Brkic, a professor in Mason’s Creative Writing Program.

Brkic said her mentorship of James was primarily about balancing teaching with her own writing.

“When you come into a new job, there's a tendency to want to tackle it all and volunteer for everything and not take care of your art, but for us in the MFA program, we're not academics. We're working artists,” said Brkic. “Sometimes the balance of serving our department, students, families and serving our art can be a difficult one to strike.”

“Tania is an outstanding teacher,” said Brkic, who invited James to guest lecture one of her classes. “One of the things I've always admired about Tania is that she's so good at seeing nuance in things and helping students to see that nuance. Not telling them, but helping them cultivate that muscle in their heads that helps them to become great writers.”

MFA student Connor Harding in James’s novel writing course echoed that praise of James as an exceptional teacher.

“She engages with people's ideas and asks interesting questions that generate great discussion,” said Harding. “The course definitely has a little bit of something for everybody, especially for people that want to generate writing beyond just understanding it,” Harding said.

“[Courtney] really helped me navigate a world that I wasn't familiar with. I’m constantly learning from her generosity and leadership,” James said.

“In terms of my own work as a writer, one of the beautiful things about being a teacher at Mason has been being in such close proximity to different opportunities that bring great writers to campus like the Visiting Writers Program,” she added.

In the program, faculty bring published writer to campus to do readings as well as run a masterclass. “I oftentimes sit in on those masterclasses for our MFA students because I find them helpful in terms of applying wisdom to my own work and teaching methods,” she said. “I aspire to be the kind of artist who, at some level, will always be a student.”

Meet Mason's Award-Winning Creative Writing Faculty

Topics

College of Humanities and Social Science

Women's History Month

Mason author gives voice to generations of Native American women

Colleen Rich — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:22:28 +0000

Mason author gives voice to generations of Native American women Colleen Rich Thu, 11/16/2023 - 10:22

Despite the pandemic, it has been an amazing year for Kelli Jo Ford. In addition to being named to Oprah Magazine’s list of Native American Authors to Read Right Now, the ��ӽ紫ý alumna’s debut novel, “Crooked Hallelujah,” was recently named one of the best books of 2020 by Publishers Weekly and is on the longlist for the 2021 Carnegie Medal for Fiction, among other accolades.

Kelli Jo Ford. Photo by Val Ford Hancock

“Crooked Hallelujah” is a novel in stories that follows four generations of Cherokee women over five decades. Ford will be discussing her book on Friday, Nov. 6, as part of this year’s virtual Fall for the Book festival. Find out more information about the event here.

It isn’t easy to launch a book in a pandemic, but Ford has been able to find a silver lining in the many virtual book talks and readings she has given.

“My mom and aunts get to attend as many of these readings as they want,” said Ford, who graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mason in 2007.

“And, on a normal book tour, I would have to be away from home,” she added. Home is in Richmond, Virginia, where Ford lives with her husband and fellow MFA alum, poet Scott Weaver, and their 7-year-old daughter, Cypress.

Ford, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, said she has “always been a scribbler” and wrote a lot of “really bad poetry” as a young person, but didn’t start writing seriously until her late 20s.

The first in her family to graduate from college, Ford was a student at Loyola University New Orleans when one of her teachers, author James Nolan, told her she was better at fiction. Then she found Mason’s MFA program.

Ford said that she really didn’t know a lot about getting an MFA when choosing Mason, but found what she needed here from her very first fiction workshop with Richard Bausch, who was the Heritage Professor of Writing at Mason at the time.

“[Bausch] is really good at helping students believe in themselves,” she said. “I needed that.”

Ford was looking to hone her craft, and she speaks glowingly of working with the late Alan Cheuse, who mentored her while at Mason.

“I wanted to work hard and have a critical eye,” Ford said. “Many of the lessons I learned from [Cheuse] I carry with me to this day.”

The world in “Crooked Hallelujah” is one that Ford found herself creating from that very first fiction class. In fact, the story “Bonita” dates back to her MFA days.

“I kept coming back to the same characters and places. Eventually, I realized, hey—maybe that’s because this is a book!” she said. “I tried to honor the characters and places by creating the world I was being led to create.”

“While I'm sure Kelli might often have wished for things to speed up a bit, I'm just endlessly impressed by the way she cultivated this book. She took the time to find the right form for it, made sure she found an agent who truly believed in her voice and vision, and revised and revised and revised,” said Mason English professor Scott W. Berg. “ ‘Crooked Hallelujah’ is a great book, a hard-earned nugget of pure gold, and I couldn't be happier for Kelli that it's finally out in the world and getting all this loud and well-deserved acclaim.

Topics

Alumni

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

creative writing

English Department

Native American

A ghostly education: Living and learning folklore through Mason's legends and lore

Sarah Holland — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 19:38:44 +0000

A ghostly education: Living and learning folklore through Mason's legends and lore Sarah Holland Thu, 10/26/2023 - 15:38

It was a dark and stormy night. Students gathered beneath the golden streetlamps of Mason Pond, the ground littered with leaves.

Students decorate the ��ӽ紫ý IV statue. Photo by Sarah Holland/Office of University Branding.

"They say the ghost of the dead will beckon you into the pond," says the storyteller, as the crowd "oohs" in excitement.

The hosts are members of Mason’s Folklore Roundtable—a student-run organization for folklore students and enthusiasts--and this was their second annual Campus Legends and Lore Walking Tour on Halloween Eve.

"I love ghost tours, because they let you explore an area and get to know its history," said Sarah Thompson, history major and Honors College student. Thompson was one of 40 participants for this year's event. "I'm excited to get to do this one at Mason."

The tour started at The Hub and took a winding route around the Fairfax Campus to hear about local and Mason-specific folklore. The bridge through the forests between The Hub and the Aquatic and Fitness Center leads to a discussion of the infamous Bunnyman Bridge of Clifton, Virginia; a visit to the Johnson Center parlays into the telling of the folktale of Old Man Johnson—a ghost said to follow Mason’s rowing team.

As the tour highlighted, Mason boasts multiple traditions and folk beliefs, such as annual bench painting and the supposed haunting of Mason Pond. The statue of ��ӽ紫ý IV has its own veritable library of folkloric associations: rubbing the toes for good luck, taking a photo with George at graduation, or avoiding stepping on the plaque for fear of not graduating.

At one of the most diverse public universities in the nation, these traditions help bring the campus community together with a shared sense of Mason identity.

“Part of folklore’s function is to connect people to space and place,” said Ang DiNardo, the current president of the Folklore Roundtable and a graduate student in the folklore program. “Mason folklore allows students to feel connected to the campus and part of the community. You see someone rubbing George’s toe for luck, and it makes you feel connected to that person, even if you don’t know them.”

The tour is also a unique opportunity for Mason students to learn about folklore as an academic discipline. Along the tour, folklore students explain basic terminology used in the field and discuss theories of folklore development and its impact. Tour guests walk away knowing the difference between a “legend” and a “myth,” while also being a little more wary of nighttime excursions to Mason Pond for fear of vengeful spirits.

Mason's Department of English in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences offers the only master’s level folklore program in the Mid-Atlantic region and is home to the Journal of American Folklore, the flagship journal of the American Folklore Society.

"Everyone has folklore, even if they don't know that's what it is," said Alice Christensen, anthropology major and member of Folklore Roundtable's leadership team. "It's valuable to have a name to put to what you do in your daily life."

Partway through the 2023 tour, participants got to participate in one of Mason’s many traditions: decorating George himself on Wilkins Plaza. To gather together and engage with folklore is to keep the traditions and practices alive, and to help the community thrive. “It’s folklore in action,” said DiNardo.

George, draped in a ghostly sheet and decorated with the tales and traditions described on the tour, will hopefully be the only ghost we see this Halloween.

Study the tales and traditions of Mason and more

Topics

Campus News

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

English Department

Department of History and Art History

Honors College

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

A linguistics scholar designs mysteries in the Library of Congress

Sarah Holland — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 17:30:40 +0000

A linguistics scholar designs mysteries in the Library of Congress Sarah Holland Thu, 09/07/2023 - 13:30

As long as she can remember, Kevynne Dimaano has been interested in linguistics—it's what drew her to ��ӽ紫ý, one of the only schools in Virginia with a linguistics program.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/��ӽ紫ý

Dimaano didn’t know, at the time, that her studies in syntax and language construction would lead down a path of speaking Mandarin and writing rebuses in a competitive summer internship for the Library of Congress.

Dimaano, majoring in English, worked with two departments at the Library of Congress: the Informal Learning Office (ILO)—a newer office dedicated to connecting kids, teens, and families to the collections and resources of the Library—and the Visitor Engagement Office (VEO). Her days were split between the two roles.

“I didn’t want to be in a cubicle all day, isolated from people. I wanted to interact with the public,” she said. Both offices gave her the opportunity to engage with guests in the library: answering questions, scanning tickets, and supporting events.

Working in a public-facing role comes with unique challenges. The Library gets up to 4,000 visitors a day, so Dimaano needed to problem-solve to help guests quickly. Her required language education in the Mason Core became an invaluable asset. “I took Mandarin,” she said, “and the library sees a lot of guests who speak Mandarin. Even though I’m not fluent, being able to communicate with them in their native language was really useful. And it was good practice!”

Apart from staffing the Young Readers Center and helping visitors, her role with ILO required the completion of a summer project of her choice. Using resources in the library, she decided to create an activity for the library’s mystery-themed family day in October.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“I love mysteries,” she said. “Rebuses had been suggested during the brainstorming, and as I learned more about them, I remembered doing them in elementary school and thinking ‘oh my gosh, I love these!’”

Rebuses were popular newspaper games from the 1930s and 40s: a language puzzle combining pictures and letters to form words the player has to decipher. With her linguistics education, Dimaano was well-suited to pick up the patterns and methodology of the pictograms in order to create her own.

“Looking back through the old newspapers was really interesting,” she said. “You see ads for things like wigmakers, or photos of people smoking indoors. The text is so much smaller, too, because this was the only place for them to put news back then and they had to fit everything in. It was like a time machine.”

But the summer wasn’t all work for Dimaano and the other interns. “We got a tour of the building when we started, and they took us up to the dome,” she said. “It’s was mind-boggling. The Capitol is right in front of you, and the view is amazing."

She also remembered vividly the day that Douglas Emhoff, second gentleman of the United States, came to visit the library. “There’s probably a photo of me behind him talking to my supervisor,” she said. “I almost ran into one of his Secret Service agents. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone.”

Dimaano has one more year at Mason, but if the library is hiring, she’ll be the first to apply. “It was an amazing experience. I felt so welcomed there,” she said. “To get to work with and meet people from D.C., different states, and different countries was really cool.”

Learn more about Linguistics at Mason

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This content appears in the Spring 2024 print edition of the Mason Spirit Magazine as part of "Career-Ready, Set, Go."

Family members paved the way for this Mason student

Shayla Brown — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 21:47:43 +0000

Family members paved the way for this Mason student Shayla Brown Wed, 08/09/2023 - 17:47

Alaina Ruffin will not be the first, second, or third, but fourth person in her family to graduate from ��ӽ紫ý.

“My mom and two older cousins, who are also Black women, came to Mason before me,” said Alaina Ruffin, who will graduate in August with her BA in English with a concentration in writing and rhetoric.

Recent graduate Alaina Ruffin (right) and her family of Mason alumnae. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding.

During her time as a student at Mason, Ruffin joined Mason’s NAACP chapter and acted as an officer of the chapter for three years. She was also an officer for the Black, African Heritage, and Caribbean Coalition and worked at the Center for Culture, Equity, and Empowerment.

“I’m actually really introverted. I wasn’t as involved in things in high school, so I really surprised myself with the extent to which I did things at Mason,” she said. “I put myself out there more than I previously would have, and I think that helped me become someone whom a much shyer teenage Alaina would be very proud of.”

Her mother, Dawn Woods-Ruffin, graduated from Mason in 2000, also with a BA in English with a concentration in writing and rhetoric, previously called technical writing and editing.

“I [originally] went to VCU, but it wasn’t long after that I realized I was unhappy with that choice,” said Woods-Ruffin.

In her third year, Woods-Ruffin transferred to Mason and joined the ranks of Mason’s commuter students, but still couldn’t decide on a major. She withdrew and decided to work in customer service full time. Her job evolved to writing training manuals, and she eventually found her path as a technical writer before re-enrolling at Mason.

^{“Sometimes a student may not have a direct path from high school to a chosen career. It wasn’t easy working full time and attending college, but like many Mason students, I proved it can be done,” said Woods-Ruffin. “I remember seeing Mason grow in not just the size of the campus but with its prominence as a premier school in Virginia.”}

“Mason welcomes people from all walks of life and oftentimes a [potential student] sees the great experience another family member had and decides that Mason is the place for them,” said Jennifer Robinson, JM ’02, associate vice president of alumni relations and executive director of the ��ӽ紫ý Alumni Association.

Ruffin’s older cousins, Rachael Woods-Cheytanov and Nicole Woods-Adkins, graduated in 2013 and 2001 respectively. Woods-Cheytanov earned a BS in health administration while Woods-Adkins earned a BS in management information systems.

During her time at Mason, Woods-Adkins was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and, like her younger cousin, was a member of Mason’s NAACP chapter.

“I surprised myself with how independent I became,” said Woods-Adkins. “I really enjoyed being close to D.C. where I could experience the area's historical landmarks, cuisines and night life. I was three hours away from home, but I was able to establish a community of lifelong friendships with people who also graduated from Mason.”

Woods-Adkins’ degree has allowed her to pursue career opportunities in IT and accounting. She currently works for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a nonprofit organization that focuses on investor protection. “Mason provided me with resources, internship opportunities and professors that shared their various experiences, which helped shape my career choices.”

Woods-Cheytanov knew that she wanted to work in the medical field but wasn’t sure exactly what career she wanted to work toward.

“During my time at Mason, I was able to take classes on everything from lab work to medical law. Those classes all shaped my interest in health systems and how they connect,” said Woods-Cheytanov. “I'm so grateful that I was able to really find my career path surrounded by professors who were such experts in the subjects they taught.”

Coming to Mason from Colorado, Woods-Cheytanov knew that attending Mason was going to be a big personal shift, but also knew she wanted to see more of the world.

“I'm most surprised at how easy it was to meet a more diverse group of people—in both the way we look and the way we think—that I honestly don't think I would have gotten anywhere else,” she said.

“[Mason also] brings so many international students that I don't think I would have had the chance to learn about different cultures and traditions anywhere else,” Woods-Cheytanov added.

Ruffin is interning at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights this summer and hopes to attend graduate and law school.

“I’m proud of working to make our campus community a place where all students can be heard and valued, because students are what gives universities meaning,” said Ruffin.

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The Write Stuff

Colleen Rich — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 17:59:45 +0000

The Write Stuff Colleen Rich Thu, 06/15/2023 - 13:59

Henry “Hank” Jones, BA English ’07, MA ’10, first dreamt of becoming a film and television writer in graduate school. He attended writing courses at film festivals, read scriptwriting books, and watched any movie he could on Netflix. “This was back when they still mailed DVDs,” he says.

Hank Jones. Photo by Van Green

His study of the craft has paid off, with writing credits that include shows such as Motown Magic, Family Reunion, The Neighborhood, Grown-ish, Bel-Air, Truth Be Told, The Game, Black-ish, The New Edition Story, and Dear White People. He is currently a writer and producer on ABC’s Will Trent.

Jones, the first African American Mason alumnus to write for a dramatic network television series, says the road to success was not easy. “I faced self-doubt, doubt from others, poverty, joblessness, breakups, isolation...I can keep going.”

He recently shared what he’s learned from his journey and what’s next.

What were your career goals when you enrolled at Mason as a freshman in 2003?

I transferred to [Mason] after changing my major from communications (advertising) to English. My freshman composition instructor at my previous college told me I needed to focus on writing as a career. I still wasn’t sure what type of writing—and I knew I loved movies—so I concentrated on film and media studies with the thought of being a movie critic/entertainment journalist.

Which actors have been the most fun or interesting to work with?

Anthony Anderson was great on Black-ish. That guy can do anything you ask in a scene. [He would say] “Can I play ping-pong? Sure! I won a tournament.” “Break-dance? You know I used to be a semi-professional break-dancer, right?” He really was. Google it. Outside of work, Anthony would throw parties or pay for a table at a party and invite everybody out—even the assistants (me). It was always a great time.

Jenifer Lewis was amazing to work with, too. She was never not funny, and she told the best stories. Other greats include Erika Christensen, Wood Harris, Michael Rappaport, Regina Hall, and Lala Anthony.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to break into TV writing?

Write from the most personal place you can with your samples. Don’t worry about what you think audiences might like or what’s hot right now. Your truth will always be more interesting and evergreen—and that’s what people will respond to the most. Afterwards, revise your script until you hate it. Once that’s done, submit it to any writing contest or program. Sundance, American Black Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Film Independent’s Episodic Lab, and Project Involve are all great options. This will get you the attention you need to get into TV writing—especially if you’re doing it from outside Los Angeles.

What can we expect from you next?

2023 is the year I get both feet into the feature [film] world. I have a few projects I’m writing and hoping to sell. I’ll keep y’all posted!

Check out Mason's English Program

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Poetry is alive and thriving at the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center

Shayla Brown — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 19:32:48 +0000

Poetry is alive and thriving at the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center Shayla Brown Mon, 06/12/2023 - 15:32

Poetry Daily has two homes. Online, it lives at the url poems.com, where it provides a diverse range of poetry to 570,000 readers across the globe. But its physical home, where it is staffed by many Mason students, is the Watershed Lit: Center for Literacy Engagement and Publishing Practice at ��ӽ紫ý.

Martin Mitchell, Victoria Mendoza, and Nick Ritter making chapbooks for the students at the JDC. Photo by Evan Cantwell/OUB

Within Poetry Daily lives Poetry Alive!, a project initiated by Mason alumna Nicole Tong, MFA ’07, in her position as Fairfax’s first poet laureate.

“I always wanted to use ��ӽ紫ý as a central part of this project. The first iteration of the program had two components: to amplify the message that poets and poetry are alive and thriving, and to use Mason students as mentors for young poets just starting to develop an interest in writing,” said Tong.

Now in its second year, Poetry Alive! is conducting a workshop with the Fairfax Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) under the center’s BETA program, a year-long therapeutic program for male residents aged 14-17.

Peter Streckfus making chapbooks for students at the JDC. Photo by Evan Cantwell/OUB.

“This new program brings young poet-teachers directly into the lives of young people who want to find language for their own stories and who may want to see those stories and their connections with others in a new light as they move forward,” said Peter Streckfus, a co-director of Poetry Daily, one of Tong’s original collaborators on the project, and an associate English professor with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“The goal of the program is to give the students who live and reside in the JDC more confidence, security and an ability to express themselves in a way that they weren't exposed to before,” said Megan Brooks, a second-year MFA poetry student working with the teenage boys at the center.

For Nick Ritter, a first-year MFA poetry student also working in the program, it was the idea of Poetry Alive! that drew him to Mason.

“I really wanted to teach incarcerated folks if I got the opportunity to do so,” said Ritter. “Having the balance between the pedagogy and the poetry lessons allows me to find different ways to get at the heart of what we're trying to do, which is to give a space for the students to feel safe expressing themselves in different ways.

Martin Mitchell and Victoria Mendoza making chapbooks for the students at the JDC. Photo by Evan Cantwell/OUB.

“We're working with young boys, and there are a lot of masculinity conventions that make it difficult to just express oneself. My role as a teacher is to give them tools [to do that], but also to demonstrate expressing myself,” said Ritter. “Sharing my own writing amongst them [helps] to make them more comfortable, and I've noticed the boys being excited to share their writing with each other.”

As poet laureate, Tong launched the program with initial support from ArtsFairfax, which gave Poetry Daily a new grant earlier this year to continue their efforts in the community.

“As we continue to learn new ways that Poetry Daily can sustain itself as an organization, we also want it to have an impact in the community,” said Sally Keith, a co-director of Poetry Daily and professor of poetry at Mason. “It's been hard because it's a website, so how do you make a website do that work? For that reason, the Poetry Alive! JDC project has been a really rewarding application. It’s a tangible example of how poetry can change a community.”

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New lab gives students access to best practices for writing, communication

Shayla Brown — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 17:24:16 +0000

New lab gives students access to best practices for writing, communication Shayla Brown Tue, 11/08/2022 - 12:24

In This Story

Heidi Y. Lawrence

Shelby Broberg, Susan Lawrence, Melissa Broeckelman-Post, and Heidi Lawrence Photo by John Boal

The Lab for Writing and Communication, like many other great creations, is the result of a group of dedicated people asking the question ‘what if?’

“That was the beginning of our vision,” said Susan Lawrence, director of the Writing Center and associate professor at ��ӽ紫ý. “What if the Writing Center and the Comm Center were in one place?” she asked with Melissa Broeckelman-Post, professor and basic course director of the Communication Department.

“Very soon thereafter, Heidi [Lawrence] came along and said ‘what if we build a research engine into this?’”

The lab, on the second floor of the Johnson Center, hosted a grand opening on Nov. 2.

“The primary function of what happens here is the writing consultation and the communication consultations for the students,” said Heidi Lawrence, associate professor of English. “It’s a space for them to bring projects, questions, future goals and aspirations and for them to workshop those pieces with consultants.

The Communication Center primarily focuses on helping students with speeches and oral presentations and the Writing Center focuses on written projects.

“The ultimate goal as we grow is to serve every student in the university,” said Communication Center consultant Sarah Strunk, a senior in film and video studies.

“Sharing our space makes things more active because we’re all together,” said Alice Christensen, a junior anthropology major and Writing Center consultant.

Writing Center consultants Laura Pixley and Shelby Rothberg describe the Lab’s services to a guest at the open house Photo by John Boal

“I can talk to a communication consultant and get some strategies that I wouldn’t be able to get from another writing center consultant, because that’s not part of our bubble, but I can learn from them and they can learn from us,” Christensen said.

Susan Lawrence and Shelby Broberg work together to help the center run and to help students, whether they’re working on written or oral communication goals, said Strunk.

Broberg, director of the Communication Center, joined the program in May.

“It just makes sense to have the Writing Center and Comm Center together because the things that we do work well together,” said Broberg. “There are times when we refer people to them in the middle of a session or they refer their clients to the Comm Center.”

Clients of the Lab for Writing and Communication get 30- to 45-minute consultations. Walk-ins are also accepted if a consultant is free at the time.

All consultants have standard university trainings as well as professional development throughout the year focusing on an array of topics, such as balancing the student communicators’ individual goals and learning preferences with best practice to shape a session that works well for the student, said Christensen.

“We talk through specific scenarios to get them thinking about how to work with different types of students,” said Ivan Moore, the Lab’s accessibility specialist, who assists in consultant education.

“The big thing we want to focus on when we’re consulting is transfer of knowledge,” said Christensen. “I want this student to leave better equipped to help themselves, so they don't have to keep coming back to me for help.”

“When students talk to a knowledgeable peer about their writing project, the disciplinary learning—the learning about the subject matter—gets deeper,” Susan Lawrence remarked. “It’s about the writing, but it’s not only about the writing. In consultations, students explore and scrutinize their ideas more fully, and I wish more people knew that.”

Communication Center consultant Fadzi Sambana tells guest Raymond Davis about the Lab and its services Photo by John Boal

In addition to housing consultations with student communicators, the lab is a site for research. Heidi Lawrence noted that “We want to make research opportunities available to our student consultants, and we want to apply the knowledge we’re building here with community partners, and to bring that expertise from the community back into the lab.”

“We want to help students empower themselves through their own language use,” said Susan Lawrence. “That is what we’re about.”

To book an appointment, use the online scheduler to login or register, and gain access to the calendar to see which consultants are available at certain times. Meeting options include in-person, Zoom sessions, or written feedback. Clients have access to consultant bios in order to see who might be the best fit for their academic needs.

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