What is RSS and How Do I Get It?

You may have heard about “subscribing” to so-called “RSS” feeds. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary (not Radioactive Swimming Squirrels) and is a way of getting content from web sites that update frequently. Subscribing to an RSS feed allows you to access the newest content from different blogs in a condensed format. Many web browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have an RSS subscription built into their Bookmarks features. You can also get a RSS feed reader for the platform of your choice – be it web browser, desktop, or smart phone!
In order to stay on top of the latest UHP Blog posts and news, you should subscribe to our RSS feed – as well as our other social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. It’s not like radioactive swimming squirrels will come and get you…

Study Your Passion, Get $500 To Do It [SURE Award]

Did you know that Honors students have the exclusive opportunity to win up to $500 for their research? It’s true!  Apply to the UHP/Sigelman Undergraduate Research Enhancement Award (SURE) and we might just cut you a check.
We know “Undergraduate Research Enhancement” doesn’t sound that exciting (well, to most people at least, but you are UHPers), but what you can actually do with that money is pretty sweet. Some of last year’s winners used it to buy high tech equipment to learn about Climate Change for their class project, figure out childhood speech patterns, or study Christianity and homelessness.  Others — like Jonathan Robinson – combined the money to help him get to a conference in Chicago to present on his work on the Federal minimum wage.  The possibilities are endless, but the deadline to apply this semester is October 26, 2012.

Keep reading for more info, or read about the award here.

What's Up Alum? – Michael Bennett


Michael Y. Bennett CCAS/UHP ’02 graduated from the University Honors Program with a major in English. Michael is an assistant professor of English in drama at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is the author of three books, all published by Palgrave Macmillan: Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd (2011); Words, Space, and the Audience (2012); and Narrating the Past through Theatre (forthcoming October 2012). His is currently under contract with Cambridge University Press to write The Cambridge Introduction to the Absurd.
I began my four years in the UHP at GWU as an English major, but I wanted, ultimately, to go to medical school. My plan proceeded without a hiccup through my freshman year. But one day during my sophomore year, during Organic Chemistry, I had an epiphany and realized that I needed to do something more creative. I spent the next year and a half searching for that something. Continue reading “What's Up Alum? – Michael Bennett”

Phi Beta Kappa Communications Coordinator

The Phi Beta Kappa Society

Coordinator of Communications

Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most widely known honor society. It celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. The Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large, including a Visiting Scholar program, a Lecture Series, digital and print publications, and more.
The Coordinator of Communications will be responsible for all internal and external digital communications at the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Responsibilities include but are not limited to: social media management, e-newsletters, e-fundraising, and video and audio development. The ideal candidate will be enthusiastic, energetic, and creative. Excellent oral and written communication skills are imperative.
Continue reading “Phi Beta Kappa Communications Coordinator”

Free Concert, Free Food, Free Learning!

Alumni weekend is just around the corner! While you have yet to actually earn a diploma, the University is allowing you, in good faith, to attend some of these amazing events. Maybe now you’ll actually go to class, encouraged by the post-grad promises of Earth, Wind and Fire.
The weekend of September 27-30th, alumni will return and you can get a glimpse of your future after you leave the Foggy Bottom cocoon. Our own Professor Peter Caws will be delivering a lecture on the philosophy of modern politics. There will be service opportunities, a Taste of DC event and a concert by Earth, Wind and Fire.
Students can get into some of these events for free by registering HERE.
Professor Caws’ lecture will be on Saturday, September 29th from 9:30-10:45am. Held in the Marvin Center Amphitheater, the lecture, entitled Left, Right, and Center: The Shifting Ground of 21st-Century Politics, will “take a good-humored look at the current political scene from a philosophical point of view, asking how the contrast between left and right has changed over time and how some of the markers of these positions now play out in relation to one another. The old ideal of a loyal opposition curbing the excesses of the ruling party and cooperating in bringing policy back towards a stable center is in danger of succumbing to intractable ideological conflicts. How seriously should we take these conflicts and how can they be defused? Philosophy suggests that we should all be a little less sure of how right we are, and a little more ready to embrace one another’s worries and uncertainties.”

Make sure to come out and enjoy all Alumni Weekend has to offer!