Category Archives: Speaker/Author

Exhibition + reception celebrating university’s 50th anniversary

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All are invited to join the Libraries on Wednesday, May 25, from 4 to 6 p.m. for a program celebrating our latest exhibition and the university’s 50th anniversary. The event will take place in Fenwick Library, Room 2001, and will feature a presentation, reception, and time to tour the exhibition. RSVPs are welcome.

“We are Mason: A Student History” is curated by the Special Collections Research Center. The exhibition, which opened in April, will run through December 2022. “We are Mason” illustrates Mason’s first fifty years as an independent university, with a focus on Mason’s students. You can read more about the exhibition at the following:

African Americans in STEM: Speaker Series

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The Libraries is pleased to announce a new speaker series, African Americans in STEM, resulting from a partnership between the Mason Libraries’ Teaching and Learning Team and NEOACM. This new series will commence in Spring 2022 and continue over subsequent fall and spring semesters.

The first two events, which will be virtual, will take place on Monday, April 25 and Thursday, April 28, 2022.

Think Black: IBM’s First Black Software Engineer, Monday, April 25, 6 p.m. EST, Register here.

Clyde W. Ford is a software engineer, a chiropractor, and a psychotherapist. He’s also the award-winning author of twelve works of fiction and non-fiction. THINK BLACK, Clyde’s most recent book published by Amistad/Harper Collins in September 2019, is a memoir about his father, the first Black software engineer in America. It is an examination of a father-son relationship that traces Ford’s story as a system engineer at IBM, and his father’s life as the first Black software engineer hired by Big Blue. The story is both a memoir and an exploration of the slow change in race relations, compared with the lightning speed of change in technology. 

Telling Robot S.T.O.R.I.E.S., Thursday, April 28, 6 p.m. EST, Register here.

Cameron Hughes, Software Epistemologist and author of eight software development books including Robot Programming: A Guide to Controlling Autonomous Robot published by Pearson Education, will be presenting about the obligations and challenges of a software engineer in an age of machine learning hype. The talk is presented from the perspective of those who must program computers and robots to engage in activities that are typically associated with human beings. The presentation will cover the moral and ethical obligations of software engineers when charged with implementing strategies for complex problem solving that interface with the public. The presentation will discuss laymen-level definitions of Artificial Intelligence,  Machine Learning, Autonomous Robots, and Computer Ethics.   

Center for Mason Legacies: research discussion + reception on April 22

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The Center for Mason Legacies (CML) is pleased to announce an upcoming panel discussion and reception surrounding their research for Black Lives Next Door, to take place on Friday, April 22, 2022, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in Fenwick Library, Room 2001.

The panel discussion will feature George Oberle (director of the Center for Mason Legacies, history librarian, and assistant term professor), LaNitra Berger (senior director of Office of Fellowships and associate director of the African and African American Studies program), Anthony Guidone (doctoral student researcher), Eliza Buckner (undergraduate student researcher), and will be moderated by Rosemarie Zagarri (University Professor). The keynote will be offered by Spencer Crew (Robinson Professor).

Black Lives Next Door is an interdisciplinary project and collaboration between faculty and students to explore the environs surrounding the early years of George Mason College and its transition to a university. Initially supported by a Summer Team Impact Grant award from the university in 2021, the work is ongoing, and CML welcomes inquiries and partnership opportunities.

The April 22 event is hosted by the University Libraries and sponsored by an award from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Intellectual Life of the College Committee.

Artists’ Talk for Conjuring Presence – Nov. 15

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Join us for a virtual celebration at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 15 for the exhibit “Conjuring Presence” and hear from BFA and MFA artists at Mason and beyond! This discussion will be moderated by exhibit curator, artist, and Mason faculty Jessica Kallista. Register now via Zoom. Learn more about the exhibit here.

Special Event on Nov 16: The Iron Curtain

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On Tuesday, November 16, Mason Libraries and Mason OLLI (the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University) will host “The Iron Curtain,” a virtual event, from 3:30-5 p.m. This event is open to the Mason community, but registration is required – please register here to reserve your spot, and a Zoom link will be sent to you prior to the event.

A panel of selected OLLI members will discuss the pivotal years of the Cold War and their pervasive influence on American culture. The panel will be moderated by Samuel Clowes Huneke, assistant professor in the Department of History & Art History at Mason. The event will be recorded and added to the Special Collections Research Center’s (SCRC) Oral History Program collection.

“The Iron Curtain” marks the fifth annual special oral history collaboration between SCRC and OLLI. The program is funded by a Special Project Grant awarded to the University Libraries by OLLI Mason.

An associated exhibition, Looking Over Our Shoulder: The Cold War in American Culture, is now on view in the Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) exhibition space on the second floor of the Fenwick Library on Mason’s Fairfax campus. A corresponding digital exhibit is also available online. Read more here.