AY1718 – Page 3 – University Honors Program Blog

2018 Strasser Prize Winners Announced!

March 26, 2018Competitions, General News

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Strasser Writing Prize competition! We have one first place winner, and two runners-up!

1st Place:

Ryan Steed
Freshman
“From Plato to Popper: Platonic Forms in Modern Science and Quantum Theory”
Written for Prof. Winstead’s Origins and Evolution of Modern Thought class

Runners Up:

Shea Savage
Sophomore
“Medusa: Villain or Victim?”
Written for Prof. Pollack’s Classical Mythology in Art class
Amit Gerstein
Sophomore
“Wrecking Balls and Sexy Thongs: Understanding Autonomy Within Female Sexual Empowerment”
Written for Prof. Aviv’s Enlightenment East and West class

Food for Thought with Professor Aviv

March 26, 2018Events, General News

Join us for our next Food for Thought this Friday, April 6th from 12-1 PM in the Club Room. This month, we’ll be hearing from Professor Aviv. Make sure to RSVP to save your seat!

Let’s Get Emotional: The Making of our Emotions according to Buddhist and Contemporary Psychology
In recent centuries many came to see emotions as the essence of what makes us human. My talk will review the history of emotions and how we understand them today. Since the 1960s, the dominant paradigm, based on the groundbreaking work of Paul Ekman, contended that facial expressions of emotions are universal and that six basic emotions can be observed across the cultural divide. More recently, however, a new theory challenged the universality of emotions and proposed instead a radical reformulation of what emotions are. Interestingly, this theory has an antecedent in a school of Buddhist philosophy originated more than 1,500 years ago. The main part of the talk will focus on this new theory and what these psychologists and Buddhist thinkers advise us to do in order to experience the richness of our emotions and live happier lives.

Spring 2018 Special Honors Verification Deadline

March 23, 2018Featured, General News

Graduating seniors, ensure your DegreeMap is a sea of green checks and blue waves: submit your Special Honors Verification Form to the UHP front office by 5PM on Friday, April 13th. This form is only necessary if you’re filling your Honors Thesis requirement by pursuing Special Honors in your major.

You’ll need to get your form signed by your school advisor (not Mary or Ben), so please don’t wait until the last minute to get started!

#HonorsProblems: To Intern or Not to Intern?

March 21, 2018General News, Student Voices

The following blog post was written by Peer Advisor Emily, a junior Elliott School student studying international affairs and Spanish and Latin American languages, literatures, and cultures. Emily is currently studying abroad in Argentina!
“So where are you interning this semester?”
The question everyone seemed to be asking me during that first week of my sophomore spring semester. I’d just returned from a relaxing, if not slightly boring, winter break at home, and so while I should have been feeling well-rested and ready for the semester ahead, instead I was frantically stressed. Why? Because I hadn’t managed to nail down a spring internship yet.
GW students, and especially Honors kids, are nothing if not ambitious and hardworking. It’s no surprise then that many students take advantage of the availability of awesome internship opportunities in the Foggy Bottom area during their academic semesters – which can be a unique and exciting experience. However, sometimes our ambitions and willingness to push ourselves actually work against us. Sometimes we feel pressure to take on too much even though we know deep down that we’re not going to be able to juggle it all at once.
This is exactly the predicament that I found myself facing at the beginning of that spring semester last year. One voice in my head (the driven, professionally-minded, go-getter in me) was convinced I needed an internship, while another voice (my slightly more rational side) kept reminding me that a more relaxed semester was just what I needed. The fall semester prior had been tough — I’d taken on a time-consuming leadership role in a student org, juggled membership in several other student orgs, and struggled through five difficult classes, all while trying to get enough sleep and spend time with friends. I’d ended the semester exhausted and burnt out, feeling like I hadn’t put my best effort into my academics or extracurriculars because I’d been spread so thin. So while a 20+ hour/week internship would certainly look good on my resume, I knew deep down that I needed a semester to get myself back on track.
After about two weeks of nervous contemplation, frantic last-minute application submissions and even a first-round interview, I finally decided that I would not intern that semester. Instead, I would invest myself in my classes (which I was already loving), my extracurriculars, my friendships and my sleep cycle. Essentially, I would allow myself a semester to be a normal college student, something that I believe is too often undervalued amongst GW students.
In the end, this decision was exactly what I needed. By the end of the spring semester, I felt invigorated mentally, physically and academically. Instead of being burnt out, I felt fully prepared for a busy upcoming summer of interning in DC. Perhaps most importantly, I proved to myself that it’s okay to trust my gut and say no to over-commitment, even though it often feels like the norm in college. This is all to say that while being an intern can be an exciting part of the GW experience, it’s important to enjoy being a college student, too. Learning where to draw your personal line between being ambitious and being healthy and happy is a lesson that will most certainly serve you in the future.

Food for Thought w/ Prof. Buntman

March 20, 2018Events, General News

Join us for our next Food for Thought this Friday, March 23rd from 12-1 PM in the Club Room. This month, we’ll be hearing from Prof. Buntman, one of this year’s Faculty Fellows visiting us from the sociology department. Make sure to RSVP to save your seat!

Repression, Resistance and the Rule of Law in Shaping Prisons
Both states and prisoners use different ideas of law and justice to shape prison orders. Too often, considerations of prison life are viewed through either/or analyses. Depending on one’s point of view, we may see governments as imposing law versus prisoners resisting state order. Or we may see prisoners as criminals needing to be contained, punished, or rehabilitated by a legitimate state, versus prisoners as heroes rebelling against abusive authorities. Using diverse theories and cases, this talk looks at the way prisons are shaped not just by state rule but by prisoner response, including in ways law is used and changed by inmates and governments alike, underscoring the need for universal rules to protect all prisoners. The fact that the United Nations’ ‘Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners’ were revised in 2015 as the‘Nelson Mandela Rules’ underscores the role of resistance, including resistance through law and against law, to achieve at least minimum standards of treatment of all incarcerated people.

RSVP here!

UHP Symposium: George Washington: Representing the Character of a President

March 19, 2018Events, General News1 Comment

George Washington:
Representing the Character of a President

Join the UHP for a special symposium on Thursday, March 22 at 5 PM in the Special Collections Research Center (Gelman 702). UHPers from Professor Pollack’s “Classical Mythology in Art” course will present their research and light refreshments will be served.
Presenters will include Grace Barrett, Vincent Roselli, and Jan Yonan. Come support your fellow UHPers’ research efforts!

Senior Requirements Info Session

March 19, 2018Events, Uncategorized

What’s a UHPer gotta do around here to finish their Honors senior requirements??

Come by the Club Room on Thursday, March 29th from 6 to 7 for an info session about Honors senior requirements. Professors Ralkowski and Trullinger will be on deck to talk about the ins and outs of writing a thesis (from finding an advisor to picking a topic to actually writing the thang) and Ben and Mary will be there to discuss all things UHP requirements. There will be lots of opportunities to ask questions and eat (captain) cookies.

Seriously, just google “confused stock photo.” It’s hilarious and you’re welcome.

Juniors are (highly) encouraged to attend! If you can’t make it to this info session, you can make an appointment with Ben or Mary to talk senior reqs.

Call for Papers – Peacebuilding

March 19, 2018Events

Call for papers for international workshop
on 5-7 December 2018 in Antwerp (Belgium)
deadline for submission: 3 June 2018
On 5-7 December 2018 UCSIA organizes an international academic workshop on Peacebuilding at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
This is the third in a series of three workshops UCSIA is organizing to examine the problem of peace in light of contemporary global political and cultural conditions. What meaning does peace have today and what practices and institutions are taken to embody it? Does global public opinion value peace or does it favor the comfort of security?
A noble aspiration informs the practice of peacebuilding. Its animating idea is that the experience of war typically leaves such severe wounds that the achievement of a sustainable peace demands more than a mere ending of hostilities. Trust needs to be restored. Non-violent political processes need to be introduced again. Economic institutions and networks need to be re-established. If these structural issues are not attended to, it is the assumption, then violence is bound to erupt anew. It is relatively simple to enforce a negative peace, but more difficult to keep it. In order to durably keep the peace, it is crucial to build a positive peace. This is crucial but, as one readily understands, it is difficult. It requires commitment, patience and skill.
Peacebuilding is an international practice. This is not to deny that various grassroots actors engage in a myriad of activities that are intended to restore peace, to bring back together communities that had become alienated (and worse) during often long periods of war, or to revamp local economies. However, the very concept of peacebuilding is an invention of the international community, which consecrated it as a separate field of international policymaking by establishing the UN Peacebuilding Commission in 2005. The idea of peacebuilding is not just that a positive peace needs to be built. The idea is more particularly that the international community has a responsibility to help building it. It is unclear, and maybe unknowable, just how much ‘the international community’ has taken this responsibility to heart or just how successful its interventions are. But it is clear that a veritable peacebuilding industry has developed since 2005. Numbers of people, working in all kinds of international and non-governmental organizations, have become peacebuilding professionals.
Peacebuilding is not without its critics. Some criticism goes straight to the heart of the matter and argues that peacebuilding does not betray a noble aspiration but a hubristic one. It attacks the modernism of the notion. Peace can maybe grow or develop, but surely it cannot be built. Another important line of criticism concerns the relationship between international peacebuilders and local people. Peacebuilders have sometimes been charged with arrogance and with willful ignorance of local contexts. Peacebuilders bring a peace that local societies do not necessarily desire, or they intend to bring peace, but they end up inadvertently stoking conflict.
As happens so often, concepts that are true in theory do not necessarily work in practice. The purpose of this workshop will be to assess the theory and practice of peacebuilding.
Confirmed guest lecturers:

Filip Ejdus, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade
Atalia Omer, Associate Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Michael Pugh, Emeritus Professor, University of Bradford
Oliver Richmond, Research Professor in International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Manchester

The workshop consists of a two-day international meeting with specialized lectures and presentations and debates by invited senior and junior scholars. The aim is to offer a platform to scholars to present their research on the topic and exchange their ideas on research findings. Such a meeting may open up new multidisciplinary horizons to think about the topic. Presentations can summarize empirical research outcomes, but also historical, conceptual, methodological related contributions are welcomed for submission.
Researchers, doctoral students and other experts are welcome to submit their application until 3 June 2018. Full details on www.ucsia.org.
Organizing committee:

Tomas Baum, Director, Flemish Peace Institute
Etienne De Jonghe, former Director, Pax Christi International
Jorg Kustermans, Tenure Track Professor, Research Group International Politics, Dept. of Political Science, University of Antwerp
Tom Sauer, Head of the Research Group International Politics, Dept. of Political Science, University of Antwerp
Wim Smit, Director-General of Wereld Missie Hulp
Luc Braeckmans, Professor of Philosophy, University of Antwerp and Director of Academic Affairs, UCSIA
Dominiek Lootens, Theologian, Deputy Director of Academic Affairs, UCSIA
Barbara Segaert, Scientific Coordinator, UCSIA

Contact: Barbara Segaert, Project Coordinator, barbara.segaert@ucsia.be, T +32 (0) 3 265 45 94
More information: www.ucsia.org

Spring Small Group Meetings

March 19, 2018Events, Featured, General News

Welcome back! Now that spring break is over and the finish line is in sight, it’s time for one last round of freshman small group advising! You missed us, we missed you; it just makes sense.
For this round of small groups, we’ll be prepping for fall 2018 registration, talking through your upper-level Honors requirements, walking through the major declaration process, and more. This will also be a great opportunity to meet our still kinda new advisor Ben, if you haven’t yet!
All first year Honors students are expected to attend a session so make sure to sign up soon to get your preferred time slot! Meetings start Monday, March 26th and will be held in the club room.

RSVP for spring small groups here.

#HonorsProblems: Reflections of a Senior; or How I Learned the True Value of College

March 7, 2018General News, Student Peer Advisors, Student Voices

The following blog post was written by Peer Advisor Benji, an SMPA senior studying political communication.
We live in a society that wants to quantify every measure of our lives: Facebook tells me I have 1,060 friends; I have a 4.81 Uber rating; and my Fitbit reports that I didn’t get my 10,000 steps yesterday. As each new app, technology, or website measures a different portion of our lives, there is one pressing question that has evaded calculation – how do you measure the value of an education at the George Washington University?
Is it in hours spent in Gelman Library? – A lot.
Trips on the Vex? – A decent amount.
Dining dollars spent at Whole Food? – One too many.
There are a lot of different metrics – in the classroom and outside of it – that can be used to explain the value of attending GW, all of them impressive on a resume. While these numbers say a lot about the quality of this university, they don’t tell you much about the value of your time in Foggy Bottom. As much as these numbers can tell you how awesome college was, they could also make you feel inadequate. In our rush to put a number on everything – whether it be Instagram likes or grade point average – we end up in a cycle of needless competition. Instead of celebrating each other’s achievements, we compare ourselves to one another and judge those who don’t meet arbitrary standards.
So how do you gauge the value of a GW education?
You can’t – at least not by any conventional definition – because the value of a GW education is only realized when we cherish the things that cannot be measured, and celebrate the singular achievements of every individual.
Whether you are a senior on your way out or a freshman still getting lost around Foggy Bottom, each one of us takes a unique journey through college that is special to every single person in his or her own way. What transpires in your four years cannot be boiled down to one number. Not the power of the connections each student makes with their peers and their professors or the value of learning new ways of thinking, having ideas challenged, and gaining new perspectives.
So shrug off whatever preconceived notions you may hold about what college is supposed to be. Join a club – or don’t. Go abroad – or stay in DC. The story of college is not written in a blue book; there are no right answers, only right attitudes. No matter if you have two months of undergrad left or two years, embrace every moment of your singular journey. Therein lies the value of a GW education.