Dialogue

Honors College launches new YouTube series addressing global challenges

Colleen Rich — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 18:43:41 +0000

Honors College launches new YouTube series addressing global challenges Colleen Rich Mon, 03/27/2023 - 14:43

Hakeem Oluseyi and ��AV President Gregory Washington spent an hour exploring how fusion energy might transform the way we live, and how the Artemis moon project is a stepping stone to technological advances that will help us on Earth, to a rapt group of Mason Honors College students.

Visiting Robinson Professor Hakeem Oluseyi (right) was the first guest on the "Our Future, Transformed" YouTube series, hosted by President Washington (left). Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

“We do what appears to be impossible, but don’t be intimidated by it,” Oluseyi told the students about work in the sciences. “It’s just like everything else. It’s a step at a time. Know that you can do it and that hard work actually pays off.”

And the students couldn’t get enough, as they peppered the famous astrophysicist and Visiting Robinson Professor with even more questions after the formal presentation.

Watch the video

“These opportunities help light a fire with us as students,” Rosy Sultana, a senior computer science major, said of listening to a world-class expert unpack complex topics.

Sultana was part of an audience of Honors College students participating in the recording of two episodes of a six-part YouTube series titled “Our Future, Transformed: Mason Spotlights the World’s Grand Challenges.”

The six-part video series will feature faculty experts speaking about some of the most debated and significant topics of the day. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

“It’s just been an amazing opportunity to be able to hear from someone who is an expert in their field,” S Fagiano, a senior physics and math major, said, “to get more information and to be able to ask our weird questions about weirdly specific things that we might not have time to cover in class.”

Hosted by Washington, the series will feature faculty experts speaking about the key issues, implications, and solutions facing some of the most debated and significant topics of the day, including water policies in the West, police reform, problems at our Southern border, and getting more women into STEM fields.

The conversations are envisioned as a showcase for Mason’s multidisciplinary intellectual community and another example of how Mason creates and offers an environment for student engagement and dialogue with experts who can prepare them to tackle the world’s grand challenges.

“We need all of you to take up the mantle and to embrace these challenges and to go forth and to do great things with them. That is a big part of our future and our shared future,” Washington told the students.

The first two conversations, recorded in the Showcase space in Research Hall on the Fairfax Campus, featured Oluseyi, who also teaches in the College of Science, who used his time to address the subjects of fusion energy and the new space race, respectively. Full versions of the episodes, which will be published monthly, are available on Mason’s YouTube channel. Shorter versions will be distributed across social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

“It illustrates that Mason is always on the frontier of expanding our knowledge and that you have opportunities here,” said Abigail Walsh, a junior forensic science major. “We’re giving you the tools to go forth and do the research. Whatever you want to do, Mason is going to give you the resources to do it.”

Take a look at the full series

In This Story

Gregory Washington

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Melinda Burrell

Paul Snodgrass — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 15:35:28 +0000

Melinda Burrell Paul Snodgrass Mon, 07/11/2022 - 11:35

Biography

Melinda Burrell is a democracy and peacebuilding specialist who has spent 25 years living and working in conflict zones, from helping oversee the first post-war elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina to leading a humanitarian mission into Lebanon during the 2006 Israel/Hezbollah war. Her recent research explores how Americans experience talking across political divides. She now speaks and trains on the neuroscience of communication and conflict, and is a syndicated writer for PeaceVoice. As a board member of the National Association for Community Mediation, she helped early stages of the Trust Network, a group of American organizations that came together in October 2020 to prevent election-related violence and now is supporting community-led processes to address social cohesion and justice across the country.

Degrees

BA, cum laude, Amherst College
Master's of Arts of Law and Diplomacy (MALD), The Fletcher School
PhD, Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Nova Southeastern Florida University

Publications and Awards

What Can They Be Thinking? Fostering Dialogue Across Divides”, chapter in Peacebuilding in America, Rowman & Littlefield, 2020

“Quick Neuroscience Tips for Navigating Uncertain Times”, March 30, 2022, op-ed in OR, FL, IL, MD, LA

“Lessons from a War-torn Garden: SCARF and the Magic Ratio”, Jan 20, 2022 op-ed via PeaceVoice in papers in VA, DE, CA and elsewhere

Undergraduate takes her passion for peacebuilding to new heights at Mason

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Undergraduate takes her passion for peacebuilding to new heights at Mason Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 02/19/2020 - 00:00

Topics

S-CAR

School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Dialogue & Difference shows religion and politics aren’t off the table

Melanie Balog — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 06:23:44 +0000

Dialogue & Difference shows religion and politics aren’t off the table Melanie Balog Tue, 01/22/2019 - 01:23

There’s a familiar rule at most family gatherings: Don’t talk about religion or politics.

But for the past 10 years, the Dialogue & Difference class and project at ��AV have been turning that rule on its head.

“It’s not easy to convince people that on those topics it’s actually possible to have a conversation,” said Mara Schoeny, associate professor at Mason’s top-rated School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR). The course equips students with the skills to have challenging yet considerate conversations and learn from one another, she said.

The Dialogue and Difference Project has hosted 74 events since 2008, allowing 42 interns to facilitate dialogues. Photo by Michael P. Smith.

More than 500 students have taken this course that brings together international and American students to discuss controversial issues. The collaboration makes the class powerful, said adjunct professor Leila Peterson, who runs the course with Michael Smith, an English language instructor from INTO Mason.

“Multilingual students are a rich resource for promoting cultural understanding, but domestic students don't often have opportunities to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds on a deep level,” Smith said. “[This] class creates such opportunities.”

This fall students discussed gun control, immigration, gender equality, the Muslim world in the West and freedom of speech. Each semester the topics change, but the structure remains the same.

The first part of the semester is about relationship building and learning how to create a safe space, said Peterson. Next, students facilitate difficult conversations with their peers using the skills they’ve learned. The final part of the semester is learning how to apply what they’ve learned in their everyday lives.

Key parts of that include learning how to listen, how to speak up about individual views and ultimately arriving at conversations with a desire to learn instead of debate or win an argument.

“The one thing I really like about this class is that there’s no problem that’s too complex,” said S-CAR senior Kyle Ferris. “If you set up the right conditions and approach it the right way, then you can really have a conversation about things that most people would think are unresolvable.”

Students also learn more about themselves in the process.

“I thought I was a really open-minded person, but in hindsight, I thought so one-sidedly and not dynamically [about the cultures and topics we discussed],” said Nora Malatinszky, a junior at S-CAR. She said learning how to communicate effectively and in a streamlined way is one of her main takeaways from the course.

International students benefit in similar ways, with the added bonus of gaining a stronger mastery of American culture and the English language by taking a course with native English speakers.

For those who want to be part of the conversations but can’t attend the class, a series of dialogues is open to the wider campus community: the Dialogue & Difference Project, which promotes cultural, political, and social understanding much the same as the course does. The project, led by associate professor Patricia Maulden, has organized 74 events since 2008 and has given 42 interns, like 2018 graduate Amadu Koroma, opportunities to facilitate dialogues.

Knowing people can have these difficult conversations in a productive way is a great thing, said Ferris. “It gives you optimism for how to approach conflicts in the future.”

School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution students join INTO Mason students from around the world to discuss race, religion and the U.S. election. File photo by Evan Cantwell.

Susan Allen

admin_alpha — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 23:24:01 +0000

Susan Allen admin_alpha Tue, 10/20/2015 - 19:24

Henry Hart Rice Chair and Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Carter School
Director of Graduate Programs, Carter School

Contact Information

Email: sallen29@gmu.edu
Phone: 703-993-3653
Campus: Arlington
Building: Arlington: Vernon Smith Hall
Room 5108A
Mail Stop: 4D3

Biography

Susan H. Allen is the Henry Hart Rice Chair of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Director of Graduate Programs, and directs the Center for Peacemaking Practice at ��AV's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She is a scholar-practitioner of conflict resolution. Her main focus is on reflective practice, action research, and research that emerges from practice contexts. She has substantial expertise in interactive peacemaking, intermediary roles and coordination amongst intermediaries, evaluation of conflict resolution initiatives, and theories of change, indicators of change, and evaluation in conflict resolution practice. She has engaged long-term in conflict resolution in the South Caucasus, as well as contributing to a variety of conflict resolution initiatives in other regions of the world.

Susan Allen joined the Carter School core faculty in 2005 after two years teaching International Peace and Conflict Resolution as Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at American University. This was a return to the Carter School. Dr. Allen’s Ph.D. (2000) and M.S. (1995) degrees are from the Carter School. Between graduate school and joining the faculty at the Carter School, she co-founded and directed the Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT) and served as Senior Program Associate for the Conflict Resolution Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, GA.

Susan Allen’s current research centers on interactive peacemaking. Her work has been supported by the US Institute of Peace (Peace Scholar award, Grant program), the One Foundation, USAID, the UK Conflict Pool, the US State Department, and the William and Flora I. Hewlett Foundation, Compton Foundation, Catalyst Fund (with ACT), and US State Dept (with ACT).

Susan Allen serves as Associate Editor of the journal International Negotiation, on the Editorial Board of Conflict Resolution Quarterly, and Advisory Board of Caucasus Edition. She is on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT). She previously served on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, including as Chair of the Board in 2005.

Honors and Awards

Fulbright Scholar, Republic of Georgia, 2019-2020, 2022
Mary Lynn Boland Award, ��AV

Degrees

PhD, Conflict Analysis and Resolution, ��AV
MS, Conflict Analysis and Resolution, ��AV

Susan Allen in Mason News

Remembering Rosalynn Carter
November 27, 2023
Carter School is No. 1 for conflict analysis and resolution
November 21, 2023
Carter School Partners with U.S. Department of State to Provide Research on International Conflicts
November 10, 2023
Collected Resources on the Ukraine Invasion
April 7, 2022
Point of View Statement on Conflict in Ukraine: Negotiate Peace Now
March 30, 2022

Dialogue

Honors College launches new YouTube series addressing global challenges

Take a look at the full series

In This Story

Related News

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Melinda Burrell

Biography

Degrees

Publications and Awards

Undergraduate takes her passion for peacebuilding to new heights at Mason

Topics

Dialogue & Difference shows religion and politics aren’t off the table

Susan Allen

Contact Information

Biography

Honors and Awards

Affiliations

Media Appearances

In the News

Degrees

Susan Allen in Mason News