College of Humanities and Social Sciences

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

��AV 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 George Mason 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.”

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College of Humanities and Social Sciences

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First-year setter Tuana Ozarpaci is learning fast about the U.S. and Division I volleyball

Sarah Holland — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:52:52 +0000

First-year setter Tuana Ozarpaci is learning fast about the U.S. and Division I volleyball Sarah Holland Thu, 08/29/2024 - 15:52

The heavier volleyball used in NCAA Division-I play and the different feel from its international counterpart isn’t the only change to which ��AV’s Tuana Ozarpaci is quickly acclimating herself.

Photo by Rafael Suanes/Mason Athletics

Living in a foreign land, far away from home for the first time, the 18-year-old first-year setter from Istanbul, Republic of Türkiye, is taking a crash course, learning volumes both on the court and off as she settles in at her new home-away-from-home.

“It’s a whole new change, but it’s a good change,” said Ozarpaci, an economics and sports management major. “I just want to focus on my studies, volleyball, and my personal growth.”

Attending a university far from friends and family can have its challenges, but Ozarpaci is adapting well to her new environment and her new volleyball family.

In early spring 2023, Ozarpaci announced her intention to play for George Mason, becoming coach Megan Shifflett Bachman’s first commit for the incoming class of 2024. Ozarpaci chose George Mason over University of Texas, DePaul, and Loyola Marymount, citing the close relationship she had quickly developed with Shifflett Backman and current Patriots players via Zoom and her desire to find a new home preferably on the East Coast.

Ozarpaci had initially drawn the university’s attention with her impressive performance on the Turkish club team Galatasaray Sports Club, where she played in 414 sets across 133 matches and led her team with 1,000+ assists each season as the starting setter for the past three consecutive seasons.

Shifflett Bachman was on maternity leave when she heard of Ozarpaci’s decision to come to George Mason. “She was just one of those athletes who really stood out,” Shifflett Bachman said. “What she could do with the ball was impressive and immediately caught our attention.”

The number of international student-athletes playing Division I women’s volleyball has slowly risen in recent years, but they still comprise just under 6% of all Division I players, according to the latest NCAA statistics.

But Ozarpaci could play a key role for a George Mason team that looks to improve last year’s 9-21 record. Setters are the team’s quarterbacks, meaning they usually touch the ball on every play to set up teammates. Having a keen on-court awareness, knowing her teammates and accurately placing the ball are skills that are imperative for that position.

Ozarpaci will get her opportunity this fall, with the Patriots returning just one setter from last year’s team.

“Being a freshman—especially as an international student—is always going to be hard, no matter what,” Ozarpaci said. “But the coaches are making me feel safe and welcome while pushing me to improve and learn how to do things better.”

She had visited the United States with her parents and older sister before enrolling at George Mason, but the family had never been to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area before arriving in Fairfax on Aug. 1. Now, she is ready to brave this chapter on her own.

A huge basketball fan, Ozarpaci already plans on being a regular at EagleBank Arena this winter, at least when she’s not too busy with classes or sampling American culinary delights, such as Chick-fil-A and Dunkin, both on the Fairfax Campus. Ozarpaci has become a big fan of both.

“I’m loving it here, it’s beautiful, and I feel like I’m going to grow a lot,” Ozarpaci said.

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A relentless pursuit of excellence: 50 years of George Mason’s Forensics Team

Colleen Rich — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:34:19 +0000

A relentless pursuit of excellence: 50 years of George Mason’s Forensics Team Colleen Rich Tue, 08/27/2024 - 12:34

��AV aims to provide students with a transformational learning experience that helps them grow as individuals, scholars, and professionals. George Mason’s Forensics Team has been dedicated to this priority and providing opportunities for students for more than 50 years.

More than 140 team alumni gathered at Horizon Hall, traveling from 16 states and overseas, to celebrate five decades of excellence alongside current Forensics Team members. Photo by Eduardo Macedo/Office of University Branding

On Aug. 17, more than 140 team alumni gathered, traveling from 16 states and overseas, to celebrate five decades of excellence alongside current Forensics Team members.

George Mason’s intercollegiate speech team has represented the university at regional and national speech competitions since the early 1970s. They compete in a wide range of events designed to persuade or move an audience through public speaking or oral interpretation of literature.

For decades, George Mason has been regarded as one of the top forensics teams in the country. In 1979, the team won the American Forensic Association’s national championship. The team has placed among the top 10 programs at nationals 25 times in the past 33 years, and they have ranked second in the country for the past three years.

“Fifty years ago, a group of visionary individuals, Margaret Duffner, Bruce Manchester, and Sheryl Friedley, laid the foundation for what would become a powerhouse of talent and intellect,” said Dawn Lowry, current director of the team. “We honor their legacy and the countless contributions of students, coaches, and supporters who have carried the torch forward.”

Alumni and team members in attendance shared stories from their experience on the team: commitment to hard work, discipline, friendship, and above all—an enduring community.

At the reunion, Professor Emeritus Bruce Manchester announced a landmark gift to the Forensics Team. Photo by Eduardo Macedo/Office of University Branding.

“Looking back at my time as part of the Forensics Team, the experience prepared me for my career as a peacebuilder and conflict negotiator. I will never forget the lessons I learned, and I continue to learn every day,” said Manal Omar, BA International Studies ’96.

“Being part of the Forensics Team provided incredible formation for my personal and professional life,” said Victoria McDermott, BA Speech Communication ’90, JD ’93.

At the reunion, George Mason junior Freya Hutton treated alumni and guests to a performance in Impromptu Speaking. Hutton was given a quote and 90 seconds to craft his performance, which he did while on stage with nothing more than a pencil and small note card.

The quote Hutton received—“We are stronger together as a team than any one of us has to be as an individual”—was provided by Professor Emerita Sheryl Friedley, known to the team as “Docette,” who served as assistant director for 16 years.

He tackled the assignment with ease, which is a testament to his experience and skill. Hutton, a philosophy major, is a tournament champion in Impromptu Speaking and was a national finalist in Rhetorical Criticism at the 2024 National Forensic Association’s National Tournament.

This message was repeated by both alumni and students throughout the event. “The community behind our team is strong and palpable,” said Prem Ganesan, a George Mason senior studying economics. “I always have the opportunity to keep learning and to keep working toward improvement with our team.”

Ganesan exemplifies the team’s dedication to continued learning and a shared pursuit of excellence. They earned the prestigious title of National Champion in Poetry at the 2024 National Forensics Association National Tournament and secured five national titles across a variety of categories, in addition to placing as a finalist in several events.

Ganesan presented a poetry interpretation, an exploration of gender through the lens of reincarnation. Their performance was a powerful tribute to the strength of the team, the quality of their work, and dedication to this craft.

The Forensics Team celebration was accentuated by the announcement of a landmark gift to the team from Professor Emeritus Bruce Manchester and his partner of 46 years, James “Fred” Emory. This planned gift from Manchester and Emory is the largest commitment to date pledged by a George Mason faculty member. Their gift will establish endowments to support the director and assistant director of forensics positions and provide lasting support to the program.

Manchester reinforced how this team has, for decades, provided strength and community to countless George Mason students.

“The team was a place for people to be their authentic self and this created a positive experience that made a difference for so many,” said Nicolette Stearns, BA Speech Communication ’85, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’92.

“In addition to learning public speaking and how to craft persuasive arguments, I learned how to be a supportive team member,” Stearns added. “I brought these skills to my work in training and consulting, and I was able to teach others.”

Stearns shared that George Mason Forensics became the foundation for her life, both personal and professional. Her teammates became her closest friends—they have shared life together for the past 40 years—raising kids, holding monthly dinners, and have even officiated each other’s weddings.

The outcome is clear. George Mason Forensics has achieved excellence in preparing our students to thrive, cultivating their sense of curiosity, and building lasting community for generations.

Topics

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Masonat50

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Historic gift speaks volumes about George Mason’s Forensics Team

Colleen Rich — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 17:34:55 +0000

Historic gift speaks volumes about George Mason’s Forensics Team Colleen Rich Fri, 08/23/2024 - 13:34

Decades of success for the ��AV Forensics Team are being rewarded through a landmark gift from Bruce Manchester and his partner and husband of 46 years, James “Fred” Emory. During Manchester’s tenure as director of forensics at George Mason, students won more than 10,000 individual and team awards in intercollegiate competition.

This historic planned gift from Manchester and Emory is the largest commitment to date pledged by a George Mason faculty member.

Professor Emeritus Bruce Manchester stands next to a photo of himself in the Horizon Hall exhibit: "Past, Present, Future: Mason's Core Remains Constant." Photo by Eduardo Macedo/Office of University Branding

Their gift will establish endowments to support the nationally recognized team in perpetuity. The pledge, in the form of a future bequest, will create endowed funds to support the positions of program director and assistant director, as well as provide lasting student support to the program through an existing endowed fund. Creating endowed faculty positions helps attract the best professors in the nation to George Mason to teach and lead this prestigious program.

“I could not have asked for a more rewarding career than I had at George Mason. I know how incredibly valuable the forensics program is to students, and I simply want to give back as much as I can to that program,” Manchester said. “As an educator, I want to make sure that George Mason students will always have the opportunity for a strong forensics education.”

Manchester arrived at George Mason in 1975, a time when the young university was eager to find exemplars of success to establish its reputation and credibility. He served as the director of the forensics program from 1975 through 1993, aided by assistant director Sheryl Friedley. The named endowed faculty positions honor Manchester, the George Mason team’s longest serving director, and Friedley, the team’s longest serving assistant director.

“I came here because I was fascinated by the idea of the challenge that George Mason was offering,” recalls Manchester, who is now retired and living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Here was a chance to be on the ground floor in a place that didn’t even have a communication degree, and to be directly involved in developing the degree program.”

Sheryl Friedley and Bruce Manchester, holding the trophy, and the winning Forensics Team members celebrate their national championship victory in 1979. Photo provided

The previous forensics director, Margaret Duffner, who started the program, had been affectionately called “Ma” by her students, Manchester says. “So when I got there, the team decided to call me ‘Doc’ since I had a PhD and was too young to be called ‘Pa’!”

Together, Manchester and Friedley put George Mason forensics in the national spotlight, winning the East Coast Championship an extraordinary 18 consecutive years. George Mason finished in the national top five for 16 of those years, including winning the American Forensic Association national championship in 1979. The pair coached a total of 119 national finalists.

Remarkably, the teams achieved these results even though at least half the team members over the years had no previous forensics experience, Manchester said. “In all the years I was director, we did not have a single student on scholarship for forensics. They were just regular students—they would see our recruiting signs on campus and decide to give it a try.”

“Forensics made them better speakers, better writers. They got better at their academics, their time management,” said Manchester. “If they were willing to put in the work and grow, I was willing to work with them. And I’m very proud of what they did and were able to achieve.”

Professor Emeritus Bruce Manchester (seated) gets a standing ovation at the Forensics Program's 50th anniversary celebration. Photo by Eduardo Macedo/Office of University Branding

“Cocurricular programs such as George Mason’s Forensics Team give students the opportunity to learn and collaborate across disciplines, to uncover insights and gain rich experiences that will contribute to their success after graduation,” said Ann Ardis, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “This extraordinary commitment from Manchester and Emory represents the ideals of how philanthropy can support teaching, students, and programs, to ensure support over generations.”

In the years since, the Forensics Team has continued its outstanding showings and is currently under the direction of Dawn Lowry.

After stepping down as forensics director, Manchester continued as a full-time faculty member in the Department of Communication through 2004, serving as associate chair. He was twice named Faculty Member of the Year by the ��AV Alumni Association and also received George Mason’s David J. King Teaching Award, among other honors. The Communication Department’s student award for outstanding academic achievement is also named in his honor.

For more than 20 years, Manchester was the vice chair of the American Forensic Association’s National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST) Committee. In 2004, the association permanently renamed its annual scholarly research grant as the Dr. Bruce Manchester Scholar Series.

Many of his Forensics Team members remain in touch with Manchester to this day. “Whether you were new to the team or a four-year veteran, the expectations were the same, and you were valued the same,” Manchester said. “We had a saying: ‘The most important thing is not to win, but to struggle.’ That was a motto we lived by. I wanted my students not necessarily to win, but to struggle—both on the team, and in the classroom. And if you do, I promise you that success will come from that.”

For 50 years, the team members have had as their highest goal a top five team award at the national championship. Manchester added, “As a result, teammates learn to count on each other, to help and support each other. The strength of George Mason’s Forensics Team is definitely its camaraderie.”

The gift from Manchester and Emory was announced at a reunion event marking 50 years of the forensics program at George Mason, which was attended by more than 140 alumni who traveled from 16 states and overseas.

“I feel so incredibly blessed to have experienced a career path and location for my work that was so fulfilling,” Manchester said.

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Communication student soars as an intern at the National Air and Space Museum

Colleen Rich — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 12:42:24 +0000

Communication student soars as an intern at the National Air and Space Museum Colleen Rich Wed, 08/14/2024 - 08:42

Sachita Pandey earned her bachelor's degree in media studies at Kathmandu University School of Arts in Nepal before coming to ��AV for her graduate studies. Pandey is working on a master’s degree in communication with a focus on strategic communication.

Graduate student Sachita Pandey worked as a social media and communication intern at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Photo provided

Throughout her career, she has been involved in research and development initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life for underprivileged communities residing in the remote corners of Nepal.

During the academic year, she serves at a graduate assistant at George Mason's Communication Center where students go to develop oral communication skills. This summer she took an internship at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Where is your summer internship, and what is your title?

I'm a social media and communication intern at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

What are your main responsibilities on the job?

I work with the museum’s Office of Communications on a variety of projects related to social media, press, marketing, and digital communications. I work closely with the social media and digital content teams to develop compelling content to promote the museum and share the museum’s collection and expertise with an ever-expanding digital audience. I craft long-form written content (blog posts), written social media content (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), and social media videos (Instagram Reels, YouTube). I also work with the larger Communications team on marketing museum programs, media and press relations, and filming projects.

How have your George Mason courses contributed to your success in your current internship?

In the Communication Department, every course places a strong emphasis on the skills of researching, analyzing, and writing, allowing students to prepare content across a wide range of topics. One course that stands out to me is COMM 690 Pop Culture and Health Communication, which I took last semester. This class enabled me to study and review current trends in the popular media landscape, and to be able to apply this knowledge practically during my internship while preparing creative content for various platforms is amazing!

How did you find your internship?

I found my internship through the National Air and Space Museum's website.

What is the most valuable lesson you learned as an intern?

Small talk is your pathway to strike up a conversation that will lead to you making genuine connections with people and will ultimately help you network. And as we all know, networking is very, very important!

What advice would you give other students about getting the most out of their internship?

Make coordination, management, and adaptability your best friends, and do not be scared to ask questions when in doubt.

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4-VA supports childhood working memory research collaboration

Colleen Rich — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 13:06:22 +0000

4-VA supports childhood working memory research collaboration Colleen Rich Thu, 08/08/2024 - 09:06

As an undergraduate, Sabine Doebel became fascinated by children’s thinking and how it changes with age. Now, as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at ��AV, she spends much of her time in the Developing Minds Lab designing studies to understand how young children learn to think.

Photo provided

Although these executive function skills are vital to children’s success in school and beyond, much remains unknown about their development. Particularly important for academic success is working memory—the capacity to maintain and manipulate information in mind, such as words, numbers, and other symbols. Working memory is often measured using tests including the Backward Digit Span, in which children repeat increasingly long sequences of digits in backwards order.

“I have always been interested in how experience may shape working memory skills,” said Doebel. She was particularly curious about how early learning experiences at home— specifically in the domains of literacy and numeracy—could foster growth in working memory span.

With the support of a 4-VA award, Doebel had the opportunity to share this new project idea with her colleague and mentor Angeline Lillard, a widely respected developmental psychologist and researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia (UVA).

“Our collaboration would not have taken off the way it did if it hadn’t been for Angeline, because she was the one who sent me an email about 4-VA,” said Doebel. “She said, ‘Have you heard of 4-VA? We should consider this option.’”

The core purpose of 4-VA is to improve efficiencies in higher education and research and promote collaborations among the Virginia public universities. So Doebel’s project, How Does Experience Support Working Memory Development?, was a perfect fit.

Doebel’s lab recruited and tested more than 100 children on four different variations of the backward span tasks. Parents also completed a detailed survey reporting frequency and variety in various home learning practices. At UVA, Lillard leveraged her own participant pool and school connections to recruit an additional sample of conventionally schooled and Montessori-educated children.

Doctoral student Nicole Stucke working with a student in the lab. Photo provided

Doebel enlisted George Mason students Jordan Hassani, BA Psychology ’23, and Nicole Stucke, PhD Psychology ’24, to collect the data. Hassani created the survey, tested the children, and coded the data. Stucke, who has functioned as the Developing Minds Lab manager, helped with testing. Other team members, including George Mason undergraduate Scarlett Bird-Guerra, BS Psychology ’23, were involved in community-based recruitment efforts.

UVA undergraduate Maksud Juraev and graduate student Abigail Kissinger led the UVA data collection efforts.

The team noted that the results were both as predicted and surprising. As expected, they found that children show larger backward spans for items that are relatively familiar—for example, performance on trials that involved the digits 1, 2, 3 was better than on trials involving 7, 8, 9.

However, while Doebel expected that children who engaged in more numeracy practices at home might show better performance on a backward span task involving digits, support was not found for this hypothesis. Instead, it was observed that children’s backward digit span was related to home literacy practices, and that this was true even after accounting for other home learning practices and age.

Doebel presented the findings at meetings of the American Psychological Association and at the Society for Research on Child Development. She and Lillard are also preparing manuscripts for publication in academic journals in the field.

Next up for the team is to dive deeper into Lillard’s connections in Charlottesville with Montessori schools to test whether children who are Montessori-educated show larger backward digit spans than children who are educated in conventional schools, as expected given the emphasis Montessori schools place on literacy and numeracy.

Doebel said the 4-VA support not only helped the project be successful but made a difference for the student researchers as well. “As a result of this funding, my students have progressed in their career trajectories—Jordan is now at the University of Maryland as a research coordinator in a National Institutes of Health-funded lab, and he’s hoping to gain admittance to a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology. He got that opportunity in part because he participated in this project where he engaged real research experience.”

The original project has also led to a further study that will investigate the role of language in working memory by exploring how bilingual children with varying degrees of exposure to numerical language perform on the backward digit span task. This project is led by Victoria Rabii, a PhD student in George Mason’s Applied Developmental Psychology Program. Funded by a Presidential Scholarship, Rabii is being mentored by Doebel and psychology professor Adam Winsler.

The goal of this project is to better understand how young children’s working memory performance may be affected by their proficiency with relative linguistic concepts. “Previously, when children scored low on the task, it was pretty common for this to be interpreted as indicating low working memory ability,” said Doebel. “But now things are changing a bit, and we are asking whether children may show better performance if they are more fluent with the specific content that is integral to the task.”

Personally and professionally, Doebel is grateful for the collaboration with Lillard. “Angeline has been a major mentor for me. We have published together previously, and we are always thinking about new project ideas that could lead to external funding. This likely never would have happened if not for 4-VA,” said Doebel.

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Podcast Ep 60 - Marking a decade of success at Mason Korea

Sarah Holland — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 20:02:41 +0000

Podcast Ep 60 - Marking a decade of success at Mason Korea Sarah Holland Fri, 08/02/2024 - 16:02

Marking a Decade of Success at Mason Korea

Ten years ago, Mason Korea opened its doors at the Incheon Global Campus in Songdo, South Korea. Now, the campus offers degrees in six undergraduate and two graduate disciplines to students from around the world. To recognize this anniversary, President Gregory Washington is joined by former campus dean Robert Matz and associate professor Gyu Tag Lee to discuss the growth of Mason Korea, the influence of Korean pop on global culture, and the future of Mason at the Incheon Global Campus.

Read the Transcript

Intro (00:04):

Trailblazers in research, innovators in technology, and those who simply have a good story: all make up the fabric that is ��AV. We're taking on the grand challenges that face our students, graduates; and higher education is our mission and our passion. Hosted by Mason President Gregory Washington, this is the Access to Excellence podcast.

President Gregory Washington (00:26):

10 years ago, Mason Korea opened its doors at the Incheon Global Campus in Songdo, South Korea. Now the campus offers degrees in six undergraduate and two graduate disciplines to students literally from around the world. To recognize this anniversary, I'm joined by campus Dean Robert Matz and associate professor Gyu Tag Lee. Dean Matz has served as the campus dean of Mason Korea since 2019. Under his leadership Mason Korea enrollment grew by an average annual rate of 12%. Additionally, he worked with faculty to establish an enhanced governance structure and he established an Industry-University collaboration foundation--the South Korean corollary to a US Office of Sponsored Programs. Associate professor of global affairs Gyu Tag Lee, who received his doctorate in cultural studies from George Mason in 2013, has been teaching at Mason Korea since 2014. He is one of the most foremost experts in the world on Korean pop music, colloquially known as K-pop, and is a committee member of the Korean Music Awards. Robert, Gyu Tag, welcome to the show.

Robert Matz (01:54):

Thank you. Glad to be here.

Gyu Tag Lee (01:57):

Thank you.

President Gregory Washington (01:58):

So let's talk a little bit about Mason Korea and where it is. I know I gave a brief description early on, but describe the setup of the Mason Korea campus and its connection to the Incheon Global Campus.

Robert Matz (02:11):

Sure. So Songdo where the Incheon Global Campus is located is about 25 miles from Seoul and very close to the Incheon airport, just a 20, 30 minute drive. So it's an excellent location and we are on one of these global campus hubs, which we share with three other branch campuses of US and European universities. So there are four of us together here. At Mason Korea, we offer a full range of general ed courses, the Mason Core, six majors, two graduate programs, and we have about a thousand students. For our undergraduates, it is a three-one program, meaning they spend three years on this campus and one year on the Fairfax campus in the US or on one of our other US campuses. In terms of how we fit with Songdo, Songdo is one of the three districts that are the Incheon Free Economic Zone and these are zones that seek to promote international business. We support international businesses and the general internationalization of the Songdo area.

President Gregory Washington (03:30):

Outstanding. So what parts of the Mason Korea experience can students expect or what part of the George Mason experience can students expect when they attend Mason Korea?

Robert Matz (03:44):

So one of the things we're most proud of is that they can expect just about every aspect of the Mason experience. When people from George Mason come up to Mason Korea, one of the things they often comment on is how much it feels like they're on one of our US campuses. It's not only that courses are the same, curricula are the same, but we really try to infuse Mason Korea with the same cultural values, the same spirit that we find at Mason. So very much will seem familiar. There are some differences. We are smaller, so we do not have the range of majors or courses that the home campus has. And that's one of the nice things about students being able to spend a year at the home campus and take courses that we can't offer. But the other part of that small size is there's a very tight communal feel here. I, I sometimes say we're sort of also like a small liberal arts college in Ohio as well as a big research university. And of course the other difference is you're in Korea. And so for our US students, that means being in a very different country and for our Korean students, that means closer to home, which they also enjoy.

President Gregory Washington (05:04):

Uh, and my last visit there in particular, every time I come I'm just blown away with how the campus feels like George Mason in Fairfax, you know, we even got the statue of good old George standing outside of the building there as well. But the feel of the campus is a Mason feel, which I find to be pretty phenomenal, quite honestly, how that is replicated thousands of miles away.

Robert Matz (05:36):

It was done really intentionally by the people who've set it up. One of the features of how the campus is run here is that the dean and the associate deans all have counterparts back in Fairfax. All of our staff have counterparts back in Fairfax. They communicate with them regularly. We have a program to send staff from Mason Korea to the US campuses and we also regularly have faculty from the US campus come and teach at Mason Korea. And these features are unique to Mason Korea. The other international campuses don't necessarily do all these things and I think that's part of what helps us maintain a close identity with the home campus, which is very important to us.

President Gregory Washington (06:27):

Well you know, you spoke of these other universities and so what is the impact on our professors and their research and having faculty from different disciplines, different institutions and quite frankly different countries all inhabit the same set of facilities?

Robert Matz (06:47):

I think we have cross-disciplinary conversations both within the building and among faculty from other universities, from the other branch campus universities here, as well as cross-cultural conversations. But I think it'd be great to turn that over to Gyu Tag and ask him how he's found any kinds of relationships with other faculty from some of the other campuses.

Gyu Tag Lee (07:13):

Interestingly, in one of the Korean conference that I presented--it was last year I think--there was a also professor who taught at our neighbor. And I thought it was very interesting that though we didn't have a kind of very active relationship with the faculty in other campus here at IGC, but still we could see how we felt something kind of the very similar thing, kind of the very interesting experience here where faculty from different department, different discipline and I mean even different college working together at the very same building gave us a kind of opportunity to know each other. I mean not only between different university but even among ourselves in Mason Korea that we may not get on very opportunity easily in other campuses to know the professor or faculty whose major is very different from us, which gave us kind of the interesting opportunity to know what they are doing and what kind of the uh, research interest or academic field that they are in and how can we know each other to understand each other better. And also to know each other better in very different field, which has widened my information and knowledge what is going on in other fields of academia, which is kind of very inspiration also for me to know something different from my uh, own uh, academic background.

Robert Matz (08:50):

I'll just mention that one of the things we started to do over the last couple years is have an annual research showcase with all four universities and I think that's for students and faculty presenting their work. And I think that's been one other occasion where faculty across the universities here have been able to get to know one another.

President Gregory Washington (09:10):

So Gyu Tag, as a George Mason alum, you've actually experienced learning and teaching on both the Fairfax campus and the Mason Korea campus. So first of all, I want you to talk a little bit about the similarities and then I want you to highlight your techniques for balancing multiple different, different and perhaps sometimes opposing cultural practices in the two countries.

Gyu Tag Lee (09:37):

One of the similarity that I can find here in Mason Korea and the Mason Fairfax that I studied like 10 or more years ago, the biggest similarity that I found is the way how we feel the actual cultural diversity both here in Mason Korea as well as, I mean the thing that I felt in Fairfax, the cultural diversity or other kinds of diversity that I found Fairfax, which made me very surprising because I could not see this kinds of diversity when I studied here in South Korea, but when I came back to Korea and have worked here, I could see how Mason could bring this kinds of culture diversity or other kinds of diversity to here Mason Korea in Songdo, which made a big difference between let's say Korean colleges going Korean universities and American universities. So I think this is the very big opportunity for Mason Korea to introduce or to let Korean students or even Korean society know, to know how American university, of course there, there are many similarities between Korean, South Korean and American university, but how American university can show some kind of different world to Korean society as well as the Korean students.

Gyu Tag Lee (10:56):

I have been teaching a course called K-Pop: Korean Popular Culture since 2014, even till the very last semester, which is spring 2024. And there are always student from Fairfax and student from Korea almost half and half, or sometimes more American student than Korean student in that K-pop class. Though I have been teaching some other classes also there are like American student and Korean student and I could see that although they are studying at the very same classroom together, but I could see that there, there is a kind of the barrier between them because they do not know each other, not very well. So I try to make them more mixed. For example, I give, when I give a group work, I try to make a intentionally like half American student with the half Korean student in just one group. Not only just the group discussion in the classroom but also the group work or other kind of group presentation.

Gyu Tag Lee (11:57):

And with this kinds of opportunity they came to have a chance to know each other and they come to understand each other how they are different as well as how they are very similar as the very same age, which is their early, mostly early their twenties. Also I gave kind of the topic for them to discuss or to compare what is the difference or what is the similarity between US and South Korea. For example, when there was a COVID-19 and there is a very similar thing happened both in United States and South Korea, but government as well as the student had a very different experience about this COVID-19 in their own countries. So when they talked about this COVID-19 experience that they had in the United States and South Korea, they could get a chance to know what is the difference between US and South Korea, the cultural differences or other kinds of like political, economic, cultural context differences as well as the similarity between US and South Korea, which made them to feel more together as a Mason students.

President Gregory Washington (13:03):

Amazing. So it's interesting: DC, Maryland, and Virginia, if you look at that metropolitan area where all three of those entities kind of meet--we, we affectionately call it the DMV--that area is home to the third largest population of Koreans in the US and about half of those residents actually reside right here in Fairfax County. So you know, and this, this question's for both of you. Talk a little bit about the benefit of having a campus in Korea connected to such a large Korea population in and around George Mason proper here in Fairfax.

Robert Matz (13:50):

I think one of the great benefits is that, as I mentioned, our undergraduates spend a year, usually their senior year on the Fairfax campus and on the one hand there's probably no better place or certainly one of the best places to experience America is in the capital city of America. So they're getting a quintessential American experience. At the same time, when I talk to them, I always reassure them, don't worry, you're gonna have really easy access to Korean culture, to Korean foods. You can go to the local H Mart, plenty of Korean barbecue, Korean chicken, Korean people. So you'll have a little bit of the feeling and taste of home as well. And in fact, as I prepare to, to leave for the US from this position, I also feel reassured that there will still be those aspects of Korean culture. And then I think it's also great for our US students, they have Korean friends, they obviously, they know global Korean culture, but they go to Koreatowns in Annandale or Centerville. They also are surrounded by Korean culture and are interested in it. And then they say, Hey, I want more. I'll spend a semester studying in Korea.

President Gregory Washington (15:11):

That's really cool.

Gyu Tag Lee (15:12):

I mean yes, uh, that's true. So just like Robert mentioned since there is a big Korean community in Fairfax or DC or Maryland, uh, Washington DC Metropolitan area, many Fairfax student coming to Mason Korea to study. They already know much about Korean culture, including like Korean pop culture, which is very getting popular these days as well as Korean food. Or some of them already know some Korean words, languages or some very like basic words including or aannyeong-haseyo or kamsahamnida. I I I, I was very surprised when I firstly met those like Fairfax student and to see they already know much about Korean culture, but still they want to know more about it when they come to Mason Korea because they can get more direct experience visiting some interesting places or even going to K-Pop concert or going to the other experiential learning with professors or other student in our Mason Korea as one of the part of our program, which also give them more opportunity to know even better about Korean culture that they already knew some of it.

Robert Matz (16:21):

And I would just add some of them come with much more Korean than that. We had a student come from the Northern Virginia area who pretty much taught herself, while she was in high school, Korean over by YouTube. And in her first semester I think won our international business districts contest for the best foreign speaker of Korean.

President Gregory Washington (16:43):

Outstanding.

Robert Matz (16:45):

Yeah, her accent is, for those of us who struggle, is is remarkable. Really good.

President Gregory Washington (16:50):

So the US State Department classifies Korean as a category four language, which means it's essentially the highest level. They estimate that it will take a native English speaker 88 weeks or 2200 classroom hours to reach professional working proficiency. This kind of dovetails directly into the conversation, uh, Dean Matz, you just brought forward and given the fact that I still believe that it, I know it used to be the case, but I still believe that George Mason offers the only Korean language program in Virginia, if I'm not mistaken. How do you both compare Mason Korea and George Mason's Korean language and culture? How do you compare those two in helping students gain professional working proficiency?

Robert Matz (17:50):

When George Mason language students come up, they have a range of Korean courses they can take here at Mason Korea, but they also get to practice their Korean in the community and that certainly helps them. Although because we're an international business district, they actually have to work at it. There's a lot of English here. They gotta be kind of bold and say, no, I wanna talk to you in Korean because otherwise people will speak with them in English. The other way they get that proficiency outside the class is we have an internship program for students to work in jobs where they have to use Korean. So for example, some of these are office positions within Mason Korea where translation is required and so they will do some of the translation for us.

President Gregory Washington (18:41):

So Robert, you've been learning Korean as well, if, if our conversations yield anything, so what is it like to be back in the classroom as a student and as a professor?

Robert Matz (18:53):

I really loved it. I became a professor because I loved being a student and that love never really goes away. We talk about the commitment to lifelong learning at Mason and I really believe in it. One of the things when I am giving advice to students at a convocation speech or something, I I tell them to try and learn everything. Don't think of some things as requirements. You just never know where you'll use something you learned. And also that just learning how to learn is a great thing. So I surprise myself when I'm in the Korean classroom. I feel like I'm a 21-year-old student again. Uh, although I don't think I have the plastic brain of a 21-year-old. But, uh, but I very much enjoy it.

President Gregory Washington (19:40):

Okay, so spill the beans: what, what are we talking about grade wise? How did you do?

Robert Matz (19:47):

I got a C plus.

President Gregory Washington (19:48):

Really?

Robert Matz (19:49):

Really?

President Gregory Washington (19:51):

Wow.

Robert Matz (19:52):

Yeah. Um,

President Gregory Washington (19:54):

It must have been, it must have been a pretty hard course.

Robert Matz (19:58):

Uh, I understand that Korean is a category four language

President Gregory Washington (20:01):

Robert Matz (20:03):

And it was, and I am gonna retake it when I come back to the US I will retake that course, but you know, I enjoy it.

President Gregory Washington (20:12):

Do you feel that you are proficient enough to get around the community and you know, and get yourself out of an emergency situation if you had to utilize basic services and the like?

Robert Matz (20:26):

I definitely feel more competent in Korean than even a couple of years ago. So things are a little easier. I understand signs a little better. I can usually explain to people what I want in a very basic Korean, uh, so it helps. But really I'm learning Korean because I love the culture, I love language. So that's really what pulls me to it.

President Gregory Washington (20:54):

So this

Robert Matz (20:54):

If, if my life depended on it, I might be in trouble.

President Gregory Washington (20:59):

, I hear you. If your life depended on it, you'd be surprised how much you knew. So according to the Modern Language Association latest census: enrollment in courses other than English dropped by 16.6% overall between 2016 and 2020. One of the very few exceptions to this is Korean, where enrollments grew by 38.3% from 2016 to 2021. And that now puts Korea in the top 10 relative to language enrollment. Some of this growth is attributed to the growth and a popularity of Korean pop music or K-pop among American students. So Gyu Tag, as a K-pop expert, what do you see as the appeal of K-pop music among American students?

Gyu Tag Lee (22:00):

As I've been teaching K-pop related courses for several years and there have been many like US students taking that course, we had um, many opportunity to discuss what makes them to fall in love with K-pop because most of them decided to come to Mason Korea to study because they were already K-pop fans. So, uh, I could see based on their own opinion as well as like my own analysis, I could see that there are two strengths for K-pop to be popularized among US student as well as like global audience. One is the thing which can be considered as the hybrid, uh, character of K-pop, which means that K-pop is very kind of global pop music, but still it is very local, which means that K-pop has some kind of like general or universal characters that could appeal to wider global audience, but still it is different from let's say American pop music or other kinds of global pop music because still it's very Korean or still it is very local.

Gyu Tag Lee (23:09):

So when we listen to K-pop music, I believe all of you have listened at least one K-pop song, maybe Gangnam Style or others. But you could see that it is not very Korean traditional or ethnic music that you might expect before listening to K-pop actually it. Which means that it is actually a part of global pop music, which is not a very ethnic traditional one. But it does not mean that it is only the very, let's say copycat or imitation of American pop music because it has strong Korean characters including Korean lyrics or some kind of very melody lines, very Korean type or the way how it is represented by their musician. Usually call this K-pop idols with their like choreography with the way how they perform on the stage or with the way how they show their own style in visual or audio image, which makes it a bit different from American pop music or other kinds of global pop music.

Gyu Tag Lee (24:09):

So it is very similar quite but not exactly the same with the American pop music, which could appeal to US audience as well as global audience. And the other thing that I can find is that K-pop is something like very fan made participatory culture or music, which means that it was not made by industry only or it was not made by government plan, but made by fans active choice that some of them found K-pop on YouTube or other kinds of social media as a way of like watching music video or other kinds of parody video. And they found it very interesting. Then it became very viral with all those audiences who accidentally found K-pop very interesting. So it think kind of the word of mouth became kind of very stronger mostly by fans power to become a global phenomenon that also could attract US student coming to our campus to study to and to know more about K-pop but also the other Korean culture, which means that K-pop is now becoming a kind of gateway for them to introduce other Korean culture including language history, food, et cetera.

President Gregory Washington (25:29):

How, how would you classify the music? Like if you were to take the US equivalent in say K-pop is like blank music in America, how would you define it?

Gyu Tag Lee (25:44):

I think that K-pop is very similar in some respect kind of--there's a very big similarity between K-pop and I should say Latin pop. I mean it is very local kind of thing. When you listen to Latin pop sound, you could see wow it is very Latin with this lyrics with the musical style, but it does not mean that it cannot be a part of US music. So K-pop is very, that kind of music. It is very local Korean pop music, but still it is not very different from American things. So if I say in one word, blah blah music and I could see that K-pop is very hybridized, global pop music that could appeal to USA audience as well as global audience.

President Gregory Washington (26:27):

You know, it's interesting but I see it, it has some elements of Korean culture as you highlighted, but if you really, you know, kind of close your eyes and don't think about the words, the rhythm, the beat, it's pop music.

Gyu Tag Lee (26:46):

Yes, that's true. And one thing I would like to also focus is that K-pop has been very much influenced by African American music such as R&B, hip-hop or soul music. So one of our George Mason faculty, Crystal Anderson actually wrote a book about how K-pop has been very influenced by African American pop music. The book title that she wrote was Soul in Seoul. I think it was always very interesting because when we listen to K-pop, just like you mentioned Dr. Washington, it is very pop music but especially I can see big influence of African American music styles such as R&B, hip-hop or soul in K-pop, which is very interesting then, which makes us to see how K-pop has been a kind of the playground for Korean or other global audience to see local American and other kinds of global pop music all blended together.

President Gregory Washington (27:43):

Yeah, I mean you, you're absolutely right. People don't realize that, you know, American pop music has strong connection as it roots to soul and and R&B music as well. So all of those pieces are kind of coming together in a very unique way in K-pop. While I was there, I was there not too long ago as you know, I think it was uh, about a week now I've been back. But while I was there, something unique was going on in pop music there in Korea that we don't experience here in the US and that is that a number of its male pop stars, you know, had to go off and serve in a military and had compulsory uh, military service. And I think K-pop star Jin completed his military service and was actually just completed it last week or about that time and was actually getting reintegrated back into the music. Is that a phenomenon that you're seeing?

Gyu Tag Lee (28:49):

It actually shows the characteristics of K-pop as being local, which means that all those: Yes, just like you mentioned, Dr. Washington, all Korean males who are in their 20 have to join the military service as a mandatory service. And even the very famous global pop star cannot be an exception. So I could see how they are very Korean, which means that it is very Korean culture, though the music or other kind of thing is very global or American influence or global influence pop music. So it cannot be fully separated from Korean cultural or social context.

President Gregory Washington (29:29):

So Robert, you've often said that it's important to distinguish between globalization as Americanization and globalization in its ideal form, right? You see it as a two-way exchange and learning experience. How does Mason Korea embody the globalization ideal of a two-way street?

Robert Matz (29:56):

Oh, I think it really does. And we've been talking about that. The students who come from the US, on the one hand, part of the reason they're coming is because of the outflow of Korean culture worldwide as part of the processes of globalization including to the US. And so when they come they are even more wanting to learn about Korean life, Korean culture, and they see aspects of the Korean state, how Koreans govern themselves. That is a learning experience for them. I think a really important learning experience. And that's part of being global Mason, that they are seeing this other world. At the same time, our Korean or other international students are learning about the US through some of the ways we teach, through the content of what we teach. So it really is a two-way street. And I remember the international business district, the International Free Economic Zone rather signed an MOU with all of the IGC universities, the ancient global campus universities and some other organizations within Incheon clearing the, IFEZ as a multilingual city, a dual language city, English and Korean.

Robert Matz (31:15):

And within Incheon, the broader area that the, if a district is located, there was some concern about this, there was maybe a worry that people would have to learn English or that things would become Americanized. And one of the things I really believe is that as IFEZ and Songdo, Incheon opens itself up more to uh, the US to our US students coming over here, they're coming over really wanting to learn Korean. One of the great things, uh, I think one of the really, going back to what it's like being a student in Korean classes here, of course I'm not with the Korean students who don't need to take these classes. I'm with the US students who come over and it's just wonderful seeing their passion to learn Korean. And quite remarkable too because you know, Korean is spoken by, there are 51 million Korean citizens roughly. It's not a worldwide language in the way say Chinese is or Russian, but here are all these students from the US who are really sitting down trying to learn this quite difficult language. And I think that's part of the two way street.

President Gregory Washington (32:31):

Understood, understood. So I think this connects directly to the IGC or the Incheon global campus, 'cause one of the goals of the IGC is to nurture the next generation of global leaders in education, economics, industry, culture and the arts. So how do you feel that Mason's presence in South Korea contributes to this goal?

Robert Matz (32:57):

I think in a couple ways. First, there's knowledge exchange as we, uh, seek to leverage US expertise both here and from the US campuses in the service of Korean industry and government. But I think even more profoundly, we're doing it through our educational programs and we are really helping to create students who are global leaders, who are multilingual and multicultural. They have multicultural competencies and that's, as Korea again continues to want to be very international. They want students trained who can move across cultures. And that's one of the things we're doing here. And I, and I've talked about the passion of our US students to learn Korean, but I'm also just in awe every day of our Korean students who are doing a full college curriculum in their second language and doing it very well.

President Gregory Washington (33:59):

So, you know, this is interesting you know, we always talk about how these cultures intermix and we talk about the popularity of K-pop on a global scale, but Gyu Tag, how is it actually perceived in Korea and how does that connect to this whole goal of Mason contributing to culture and the arts as, as expressed, uh, by the IGC

Gyu Tag Lee (34:32):

When firstly K-pop became internationally known or internationally popular? It was firstly in East Asia in late 1990 or early 2000 then outside East Asia since the early 2010, especially the big hit, after the big hit of Gangnam Style. Interestingly, not many Korean people actually believed that Korean culture, including K-pop and other kinds of Korean culture or Korea itself, could be recognized by, internationally, by people living outside East Asia. It was very first time for Korea to be actually a part of the big global, although it has been a part of big global, but still South Korean people themselves did not really feel that they are actually the part of big global world. But when K-pop has become popular in United States, in Latin America or in Europe or other parts of the world, Korean people can see how Korean culture can appeal to the wider global audience and how Korean as a country including their language, their history and other things can be the very thing that could draw attention from the international or other like other countries or outside Korea itself.

Gyu Tag Lee (35:56):

And Mason Korea can be some kind of the very example how Korea could accept the culture or the system which is not their own, but try to learn something from the American university, American education system, or other kind of American culture and to blend or to hybridize with this local context to make something new or create something new, which has both characteristics, which is the very advantage of American thing, the advantage of Korean thing that could be very creative advantage that had not existed before. So K-pop and Mason Korea has a very similar character that they can create something based on two different culture but making something similar but still very different thing that has not been expected by anyone.

President Gregory Washington (36:52):

You know, it's changing and it's expanding and scaling way beyond K-pop. Right? When I was in Korea and we were talking to Korean leadership there they not only talked about K-pop, but they also talked about K-food, they also talked about K-culture. Right? And so you're seeing this expansion and scaling of all things Korea into the global diaspora. What, what are your thoughts on that?

Gyu Tag Lee (37:21):

I think it was very interesting, just like I mentioned a bit earlier, of course it was K-pop first, but when global audience including like American audience came to know about K-pop and came to fall in love with K-pop, then many of them try to find some other Korean thing, which means that K-pop is only the very gateway for them to know more about Korean culture. Just like you mentioned Dr. Washington such as Korean food or other Korean history as other Korean culture. For example, Netflix series, Squid Game, which is kind of this series globally popular like a couple of years ago was a very interesting, uh, opportunity for global audience. Not only to know about Korean TV series, but also to know more about Korean culture that was described in the series such as Korean traditional games, even other kinds of everyday food that was not introduced to international audience.

Gyu Tag Lee (38:20):

But now they come to know more about Korean culture by those things. And when even they come to have interest in Korea, then they also try to visit Korea to see what is actually going on. Not only about tasting the food, the actual ethnic Korean food in Korea, but also to know more about Korean culture, Korean history, Korean language. So I think it is very interesting thing that K-pop or other kinds of Korean pop culture is showing the very diversity of Korean culture or the other attractiveness of Korean culture that is also working well on international audience that makes also South Korea as a part of the global world that was not expected by Korean themselves.

Robert Matz (39:11):

I would just add that when students come, they can enjoy the food that they've gotten a version of back in the US. They also experience things that you can't experience on Netflix or at your local Korean restaurant. For example, the way space is organized in Korea, because Korea is a small country relative to its population, there's much more public space. There aren't many private yards the way we have in the US but there are beautiful parks. And Korea is also a very safe country. Parks do not close at sunset as often parks in the US do, but rather they light up at night and there's this wonderful kind of festive feeling. It's a real experience that you can only get by being here or some parts, but you can only get by being here.

President Gregory Washington (40:05):

Well Robert, as we start to wrap up here, what have you learned from your time as campus dean that you hope to bring back to the Fairfax campus?

Robert Matz (40:17):

I would say, first of all, I've also brought a lot that I learned in Fairfax to Korea. I very much value the time that I, I worked in the US but I think what I learned here even more is the need to take risks and keep going. We're small and we have to grow and we, it's very complex. Sometimes you just gotta say, yeah, we're gonna try that and if it doesn't work exactly right the first time, we'll figure it out on the second pass because you gotta be nimble here. And so I, I think I've gotten even a little more confidence to just go ahead and do stuff.

President Gregory Washington (40:58):

Outstanding. Outstanding. So Gyu Tag, what could the United States learn from South Korea regarding educational policy, culture and music?

Gyu Tag Lee (41:13):

I mean, first of all, if there is something that US could learn from Mason Korea and Korean education or Korean society, it could be something like--of course I know that America is a country of cultural diversity and just like I mentioned, is this the very strength that Mason Korea has provided to Korean student who did not have much experience about this kind of cultural diversity. But still, I could see when US campus, our Mason actually opened their campus here in Songdo, there are a lot of things that US university, even the university with diversity, Mason did not know much about Korea itself. Although there are many Koreans or Korean Americans who have studied Mason, including myself, who was an alum of the George Mason. So it could be a great opportunity for US or US education to know about what is the actual diversity that could be a part of US education system that they could learn here from local Korean context and how could they embrace all kinds of Korean students or other kinds of international students to make them as one altogether.

Gyu Tag Lee (42:32):

So I think it will be a great experience for US university to make these kinds of altogether university outside US setting and the music. I mean it is very interesting that these days when I see the newly debuted K-pop band, there are some musicians, members of the newly debuted K-pop band who is not Korean, who is not East Asian, but even like US people, including with the very diverse ethnic backgrounds including African American, Hispanic, East Asian, or Indian American, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I think it is very interesting that although K-pop began as a Korean music with all Korean musicians, now it's actually getting really global with people with diverse backgrounds. So K-pop can be actual real global music with all kinds of diversity, still maintaining some kind of Korean cultural aspect, which could be the very future of K-pop thing, or which could be the thing that can show how the actual globalization can be achieved to other country, including United States.

President Gregory Washington (43:45):

So Robert, as we start to pull all of this together, right now we have an increasing number of American universities who are partnering with Korean campuses, an increasing numbers of American students who are now studying abroad in Korea. So how is the US higher education system influencing South Korea's higher education system and what do you think is the path forward?

Robert Matz (44:12):

So that was one of the reasons that Mason Korea and the other IGC universities were established to provide a model, a different kind of model for education. So part of it is, you know, the way that we educate more dialogic and more participatory than Korean universities. But the other part is along the lines that Gyu Tag was talking about, that we really emphasize diversity. And that's something that Korea is very much grappling with right now, just as we are in a different way in the US trying to imagine what a multicultural Korea looks like and how to integrate immigrants into Korean society. And I think in the end, even more than pedagogy, when the Korean government like the Korean, the Incheon, education department looks to us, they're interested in what we say about pedagogy, but they're really, I think even more interested in how to create a multicultural society.

Robert Matz (45:22):

So that I think is one of the values or characteristics that we are bringing to Korea that Koreans are looking at. Well, I was just gonna say also, when I think about what we have to learn from the Korean educational system, Korea is a great place to be a professor. The value of education in Korea is really high. I think they have the highest or one of the highest percentages of college educated population in the world. And to be a professor in Korea is to be really respected and learning is really respected. You know, I think that that's a model for us.

President Gregory Washington (46:02):

Outstanding. Outstanding. So where do you hope to see Mason Korea in 10 years? I'm gonna ask it from you and I'm gonna ask it of Gyu Tag as we wrap up.

Robert Matz (46:15):

I hope in 10 years that we will go from a thousand to 2000 students also, that we will increase the number of students from the US doing study abroad here. Of course, increasing that number of students means some new programs. And I think academic programs, I think we especially want to add some academic programs that relate very well to some of the target industries in Incheon, for example, in the biosciences and in information sciences. And also there for expanding our relationships with Incheon and Korean industry and organizations. And I hope that we continue to have this close relationship between Mason Korea campus and the US campus, including faculty continuing to come over from the US campus. And I hope when I retire, whoever is running the show here will have me aboard to teach them English courses.

President Gregory Washington (47:12):

. Outstanding, outstanding. Gyu Tag?

Gyu Tag Lee (47:16):

Yes. In 10 years, I mean actually Robert mentioned that Mason Korea has worked something like liberal arts colleges and I really like that characteristics. But still, I also hope that in 10 years there will be more graduate school here in Mason Korea because graduate school is always very necessary for more researchers, creative researchers. Of course we have doing our researches with our best effort, but graduate school could be the thing that we also can make our Mason Korea not only as a, I mean very academic college, but also as a research institute. And the other thing I would like to say about Mason Korea in 10 years is that Mason Korea could be the hub for study of East Asia and East Asian culture and society, even politics and other economy as well. Because South Korea is a great geographical location between China and Japan. But what also we can see East Asia and all part of Asia, the very broad uh, perspective, which could be our advantage to make Mason Korea as a part of like study hub of like East Asian studies. So I hope that in 10 years, Mason Korea could work as a kind of hub for East Asian studies as well.

President Gregory Washington (48:38):

Well, this is outstanding, outstanding. I hope both outcomes come to fruition.

President Gregory Washington (48:44):

Well, that's about all the time we have. I want to thank you both for joining me and thank you Robert for your five years of dedicated service to Mason Korea.

Robert Matz (48:56):

Been a pleasure.

President Gregory Washington (48:57):

And cheers to both of you for 10 groundbreaking years of Mason Korea and we hope to see many more in the years to come. So I am Mason President Gregory Washington. Thank you all for listening and tune in next time for more conversations that show why we are all together different.

Outro (49:22):

If you like what you heard on this podcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu for more of Gregory Washington's conversations with the thought leaders, experts, and educators who take on the grand challenges facing our students, graduates, and higher education. That's podcast.gmu.edu.

Access to Excellence Podcast Episodes

Podcast Ep 60 - Marking a decade of success at Mason Korea
August 6, 2024
Podcast Ep 59 - Cybersecurity and the global threats of tomorrow
July 5, 2024
Podcast - Ep 58: What will become of the Amazon?
April 22, 2024
Podcast - Ep 57: Catherine Read, mayor of Fairfax City, Va., is outspoken, unfiltered
March 25, 2024
Podcast - Ep 56: A view from the pulpit
February 16, 2024

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George Mason’s summer forensics camp created a pathway for this rising sophomore

Shayla Brown — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 18:54:29 +0000

George Mason’s summer forensics camp created a pathway for this rising sophomore Shayla Brown Wed, 07/31/2024 - 14:54

Samuel Dalachinsky could have attended college tuition-free in Florida. But his experience at the George Mason Institute of Forensics in the summer of 2022, before his senior year of high school, convinced him to look at ��AV.

Samuel Dalachinsky. Photo provided.

“[The summer institute] definitely helped build a bridge to transition from high school into college for me, so I had a lot of hope in the university,” he said.

For 20 years, the Institute of Forensics has been helping high school students from around the United States practice and improve their speech and presentation skills to become tournament ready. George Mason has one of the top forensics teams in the country and regularly lands in the top five nationally. This is year they placed second out of almost 60 schools at the American Forensics Association Tournament.

The summer institute also brings awareness about the university’s forensics program to potential future students as about 20% of high school students who attend this camp subsequently attend George Mason.

“The camp was such an important experience to me. It let me find this way to radically embrace my identity,” he said.

George Mason’s reputation for inclusiveness in the LGBTQ+ space was supported by Dalanchinsky’s experience at the summer institute.

“I came to camp with the intention of writing an angry piece about how I was feeling, and they showed me all of these beautiful poems written by trans people. It made me reevaluate the way I was thinking about things,” said Dalanchinsky, who is an Honors College student.

College of Humanities and Social Sciences faculty members and forensic team coaches Dawn Lowry and Tyler Watkins, who is also a George Mason alum, mentored Dalanchinsky while he was at the camp.

“Dawn really uplifts me and gives me so much confidence,” said the psychology major. “She had known me for about a week and said that she already knew she wanted me on the [George Mason] team.”

Dalanchinsky’s family had invested in Florida’s Bright Future Scholars program, which would have guaranteed him free in-state tuition, he said. But the forensics team coaches helped him find scholarship opportunities that made it possible for him to attend George Mason, as well as offering him financial aid.

“The coaches definitely helped me out a lot with the scholarship application process,” said Dalanchinsky.

Dalanchinsky, who wants to combine his major in psychology with social justice topics, specifically LGBTQ+ rights, has found the routines and practices taught at the institute helpful in preparing speeches. Dalanchinsky uses research topics and information from his classes at George Mason to write his speeches, which allows him to practice the application of psychology to the LGBTQ+ community, which he hopes to one day do professionally, he said.

“George Mason is very open-minded when it comes to picking your own topics of research and speech,” said Dalanchinsky. “Speech has not only given me confidence with public speaking or communicating with others in general, but also a lot of research abilities, which I think is very important.”

Dalachinsky appreciates the coaching he’s received since joining the George Mason team. “The coaches are very quick to tell you if you come off as a little too quiet, and they get it out of us really quickly,” he said. “They’ve also helped me with networking, and I've gotten to meet some really interesting people throughout the speech circuit.”

Dalachinsky is considering graduate school at George Mason. “I’d love to do graduate assisting coaching for Dawn and Tyler. I think it would be great to continue my education here,” he said.

Start your journey at George Mason

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George Mason researcher debunks popular narrative about ancient human ancestors

Colleen Rich — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 19:46:53 +0000

George Mason researcher debunks popular narrative about ancient human ancestors Colleen Rich Mon, 07/29/2024 - 15:46

Did Homo naledi bury their dead? A Netflix documentary says yes, but new research published by ��AV anthropology professor Kimberly Foecke says no.

Kimberly Foecke. Photo provided

In 2023, researchers working in South Africa on new finds regarding the hominin Homo naledi reported what they claimed to be evidence for deliberate burials by the small-brained species. They conducted extensive media engagement presenting this claim to the public, including a popular Netflix documentary Unknown: Cave of Bones that further amplified the claims. But Foecke, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and fellow researchers have found that the research did not stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Foecke’s paper “No Sedimentological Evidence for Deliberate Burial by Homo naledi—A Case Study Highlighting the Need for Best Practices in Geochemical Studies Within Archaeology and Paleoanthropology,” which is open access in the journal PaleoAnthropology, describes methodological missteps leading to the original conclusion and shows that there is in fact no evidence that Homo naledi buried their dead.

Foecke set out to provide a scientific critique of a specific body of research and to illustrate the need for adherence to methodological and reporting best practices when utilizing geochemical sedimentological techniques. She explained that she attempted to replicate the findings in the original research, which sought to use differences in soil chemistry to identify a burial pit, but she discovered a vast web of errors.

From poor research design through misapplication of simple statistics, the problems continued to multiply. Foecke and her team, which included Alain Queffelec of the Université Bordeaux in France and Robyn Pickering at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, re-analyzed the original data and discovered that none of the soil differences indicating a burial were actually present in the data.

From there, Foecke decided that a broader paper was needed. In addition to correcting the narrative about Homo naledi, she wanted to provide a resource outlining for researchers the correct procedure for using these types of methods to analyze archaeological sites.

“I hope that this work is able to instill some skepticism in the public when it comes to archaeological research in the public eye,” said Foecke, who is also an archaeometry specialist in the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “We see so often flashy shows with charismatic archaeologists presenting huge claims about the past, but we must hold scientists who communicate with the public accountable to the science itself and ensure that we as a field are doing good work.”

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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 ��AV 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 George Mason 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 George Mason 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 George Mason’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.