2024 American Studies Newsletter
Message from the Chair
Department Spotlights
Faculty Kudos
Alumni Class Notes
Message from the Chair
Greetings to alumni and friends!
One of my responsibilities as chair is to serve as chief cheerleader for the department. I try to keep track of faculty, student and alumni accomplishments and to broadcast them near and far. My bullhorn may not be the loudest, but I try.
Faculty and students are on campus, and so their exploits are easy (and fun) to follow. You can read about them in the lengthy Kudos section of this newsletter.
But you alumni require a bit more work. It usually involves rummaging around the Internet and making delightful discoveries. Did you know that so-and-so is an endowed chair at the University of Pennsylvania? A high-profile Hollywood talent agent? The recipient of a prestigious book prize? A new curator at the National Museum of American History? The list goes on, as the class notes suggest.
Thank you, American Studies graduates, for making the department proud!
Best,
Tom Guglielmo
Chair, Department of American Studies
Department Spotlights
Alumnus Eric Darnell Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 List
Eric Darnell, BA ’16, earned a spot on the 2024 Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, showcasing 600 outstanding professionals under the age of 30 across 20 diverse career fields. He is a talent agent at WME, where he works with notable clients such as actor Denzel Washington, director A.V. Rockwell and writer Janine Nabers. As the first Black agent in his department, Darnell is dedicated to helping his clients, particularly those in the Black community, break barriers. He was featured in GW Today.
A Semester’s Journey through 20th-Century American Culture
In her Modern American Cultural History course, Gayle Wald draws on her talents as an interdisciplinary scholar to present George Washington University students with an extraordinary amount of material, beginning with Black women blues singers of the early 20th century and ending with the current culture wars over history and identity. Her class was profiled in GW Today.
Faculty Kudos
Libby Anker's course Politics & Film was awarded “Best for Fun Course” by The GW Hatchet. She has also made numerous appearances on Al Jazeera, interviewed historian Timothy Snyder on freedom and authoritarianism for C-SPAN, was featured on CNN discussing patriotism and was interviewed by The New York Times on Doug Emhoff as Cultural Icon.
Dara Orenstein won a New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship and a Frederic D. Weinstein Memorial Fellowship from the UT-Austin Ransom Center for her new book project on the Twin Towers.
Melani McAlister published her latest book Promises, Then the Storm: Notes on Memory, Protest, and the Israel–Gaza War with MACK Books. She has also appeared multiple times on Al Jazeera to discuss American politics.
Gayle Wald was appointed to the Committee of Scholars for the forthcoming Smithsonian American Women's History Museum. She was also interviewed and featured in The New York Times article “How 100-Year-Old Ella Jenkins Revolutionized Children’s Music” for her biography of Jenkins, which comes out in spring 2025.
Alumni Class Notes
- Colin Anderson, PhD ’22 was recently promoted to a tenure-track position as assistant professor of history and law at The University of Tampa.
- Sara Awartani, PhD ’20, a tenure-track assistant professor in the University of Michigan’s Program in American Culture, published the article “And We Reject: Meditations on Gaza, Solidarity and Latinx Studies” with NYU's The Latinx Project.
- Sophia Balemian-Spencer, BA ’18, is an employment policy attorney at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. In this position, she advocates for stronger workplace protections for domestic workers across the U.S.
- Rebekah Beaulieu, BA '03 was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Alliance of Museums.
- Valerie Bronstein, MA ’93, had the pleasure of watching her twins receive their master’s degrees at GW in May 2024: Ariel Bronstein earned her MA in American studies and Zarah Bronstein earned her MA in Women’s & Gender Studies.
- Ashley Brown, PhD ’17, was awarded the Herbert Warren Wind Award from the United States Golf Association for her monograph Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson.
- Lindsay Greer Davis, PhD '18 won the Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Awards for Innovation in Undergraduate Education from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
- Thomas Dolan, PhD ‘21 will be writing an institutional history of the last 40 years of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), as well as revising two earlier volumes of history. Founded in Cairo in 1906, but currently based in New York City, the AGBU is the largest Armenian philanthropy and a mainstay of Armenian relief work for the last nearly 120 years.
- Polly Gregory, BA ’16, is a costume designer in Los Angeles, Calif. Her latest film, Falling Stars, is streaming now. She has been a costumer on the Oscar-nominated film from Steven Spielberg The Fabelmans, as well as Park Chan-wook’s The Sympathizer.
- Maggie Unverzagt Goodard, MA ’14, accepted a position with the University of Kansas as a tenure-track assistant professor of museum studies.
- Diana Hidalgo, BA ’22, has worked as a paralegal in immigration law for a little over 2 years. She is currently in the process of applying to law schools. She hopes to become an immigration attorney to help vulnerable communities.
- Khalid Jaboori, BA ’01, since graduating in 2001, went on to receive his MD from GW School of Medicine. He served 11 years in the U.S. Army and has spent 9 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. He is currently a captain serving as a flight surgeon.
- Kaitlyn Kirkman, BA ’21, upon graduating GW, completed her master’s degree in film and media production from American University. She currently works as an editorial coordinator for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- Jane Loeffler, PhD ’96, retired from teaching architectural history at University of Maryland but continues to write reviews and assess proposals related to embassies for publishers. Now an artist, she paints mostly landscapes and produces popular items from calendars to coloring books.
- Zaynab Quadri, PhD ’22 has accepted a year-long fellowship at Yale University.
- John Sawicki, MA ’73, has been retired since 2010, after a 30-year administrative career at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
- Nancy Solomon, BA ’79, MA ’85, recently retired from her position as founding director of Long Island Traditions, a position she held for three decades.
- Marilyn Wanner, BA ’76, followed her BA with a master’s in clinical social work and had a career as a psychotherapist, retiring in 2019. She continues to approach travel, learning and life from a multidisciplinary, complex, intellectual and experiential perspective.