Mariam Aburdeineh

On February 24, the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution hosted “One Year After: Ukraine War Analysis and Prospects,” an all-day virtual event to discuss the effects of the war and potential post-war contexts.

The event featured Romantsova Oleksandra, executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, the first Ukrainian organization to win a Noble Peace Prize. The recognition, which the human rights organization received in 2022, was due in part to their work documenting war crimes against civilians in occupied areas of Ukraine.

In writing the Virginia Declaration of Rights, U.S. Founding Father George Mason IV took a stand for individual rights. His ardent defense would later inform the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s Bill of Rights—documents critical for securing liberties.

But a challenging irony rests in Mason’s words versus his actions.

The first time Katherine Ashby saw her artwork installed at Gunston Hall, the historic home of U.S. Founding Father George Mason IV, it was surreal. “I had never done something that felt that important or that had been installed physically,” the senior painting major from George Mason University said.

It’s been a year since George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution touched base in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their goal? Accompany locals in creating their own sustainable peace—something the country has not experienced in more than 30 years.

Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem, and Charles Davidson, PhD ’19, Carter School research faculty and alumnus, visited the Congo in October 2022 to check in on the “Peacemaking + Initiative,” funded by Milt Lauenstein, and assess the direction for its next phase.

Over the summer, 24 students from George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School delved deep into issues of constitutional law, separation of powers, and national security in Padua, Italy—a place of inspiration for many of these ideals. The two-week study-abroad trip was co-taught by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and National Security Institute Founder and Executive Director Jamil Jaffer.

Honors College student Emily Synoski, who graduates this month from Mason with a biology degree, has also participated in Georgetown University’s competitive CORE pre-med program, where she and her team pitched an idea to deliver opioid overdose treatment to houseless populations via drones.

In late September, 18 undergraduates from the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation‘s (SMSC) Wildlife Ecology and Conservation program tagged monarch butterflies on their journey south to help researchers better understand their grand migration.

Schar School assistant professor Saskia Popescu is named a senior fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks. She’s also being celebrated by the university as a distinguished alumna.

It’s common to think of Indigenous peoples as living in the past. We may think of them around Thanksgiving or in old films and books. But Native Americans are very much here and now, said Jeremy Campbell, and after decades of struggle, that’s starting to be recognized.

In 2018, U.S. legislation granted federal recognition to six tribes in Virginia. A George Mason University team has been partnering with two of them, the Upper Mattaponi and Chickahominy nations, as they embark on being sovereign nations.

By the time Enayah Smith stepped on George Mason University’s campus for the first time as an enrolled student this fall, she was already more than a third done with her four-year degree.