Mason Media Blog

Poster for the 1954 film “Drei Vom Varieté” (Three from the Cabaret) directed by Karl Neumann. Image courtesy of University Libraries Special Collections and Archives

Mason’s University Libraries’ Special Collections & Archives recently acquired a collection of more than 7,500 posters and 3,400 photographs from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), more commonly known as East Germany.

Mason is the only university in North or South America to house such a large collection of cultural and political GDR posters, and the collection arrives at an important time in Germany’s history. The country will mark the 20^th anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany in October 2010.

The posters and photographs are divided into two groups. The first group documents East German film, theater, opera, visual art, politics, festivals, sports and recreation from the late 1950s through 1990.

The second collection includes posters relating to political persons, events and organizations from the former GDR from 1949 to 1990. The photographs primarily relate to the Berlin Wall, spanning the time from its construction through its demolition in 1989.

Through the integration of images and words, the posters reveal the oppressive conditions and hidden worlds of the East German playwrights, film directors, artists and rebellious politicians.

“This collection can be used in so many different ways by a variety of scholars and researchers who study general history, art history, military history, politics and the graphic arts,” says Marion Deshmukh, associate professor of history and art history.

“Most importantly, these posters help us understand how the remnants of this fallen regime are still present today as the two parts of Germany continue to integrate with one another.”

For more information about the collection, click here.

Image by br3akthru, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What causes childhood obesity? Mason College of Health and Human Services researchers Panagiota Kitsantas, Lisa R. Pawloski and Kathleen F. Gaffney believe that obesity risk factors begin even before a child is conceived.

Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, which followed thousands of children from birth through kindergarten entry, the researchers found that both white and Hispanic women who were overweight or obese prior to pregnancy were more likely to have children who were overweight or obese as toddlers and preschoolers than women who had a normal prepregnancy BMI.

“This study is exciting, as it clearly shows a link between a mother’s prepregnancy weight and the weight of her child. Therefore, prevention of childhood obesity begins earlier than we ever thought before. Interventions should be tailored that way, particularly among specific ethnicities, as these data clearly show,” says Pawloski, associate professor and chair of the Department of Global and Community Health.

To read more, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/3663.

Providing everyone from elementary school children to corporate adults with effective team building and communication exercises, The EDGE (energize, develop, grow, excel), Mason’s new challenge and team building course, recently partnered with the Integrated Design and Electronic Academy (IDEA) Public Charter School Military Academy in Washington, D.C.

This summer, eight high school students from IDEA headed out to Mason’s Prince William Campus to participate in The EDGE for a six week internship program, which ends Aug. 12. IDEA’s internship program aims to provide students the opportunity to develop and practice pre-employment and job etiquette skills.

During the internship, the students are building an orientation area near the Alpine Tower, one of the highest elements of The EDGE. When the project is completed, the orientation area will create a more fluid and enjoyable experience for participants who climb the Alpine Tower.

The main components of the project on which the students have been working include clearing a path from the Piedmont Trail to the Alpine Tower, constructing a harness and building helmet racks and benches.

“Partnering with IDEA Public Charter School and having the opportunity to help prepare these young people for the skills they will need to succeed in the workplace speaks to the mission of The EDGE,” says Susan Johnson, manager for Mason’s Center for Team and Organizational Learning. “After the internship program is complete, I hope the students view their experiences at The EDGE as an important stepping stone in their lives.”

In the midst of an abnormally hot summer, wildfires are a constant threat all across the country. Each year, fires in the United States destroy thousands of acres and threaten homes and businesses, making it crucial to study this phenomenon and track possible threats.

Dr. William Sommers, director of the EastFIRE Laboratory at George Mason University, studies the impacts of climate change on global fire while focusing on wildfires in the eastern U.S.

Founded in 2005, EastFIRE has quickly become an important wildland fire research lab and a unique university center focusing on the fire science needs in the eastern U.S. while studying fire as a global phenomenon. EastFIRE does more than research; it provides federal, state and local decision makers with near real-time satellite images of fire size and smoke conditions, along with environmental conditions and forecasts. 

Sommers is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service and from 1986-2000 served as its director of Forest Fire and Atmospheric Sciences Research. A trained meteorologist, Sommers is an expert on the unique environmental and monetary challenges of wildfire prevention, prediction and management in different regions of the country.

For more information, or to set up an interview with Sommers, visit his media sources page.

Students Michael Kane and Fiona Lu work on a project in their Bioinstrumentation by Design course taught by Nathalia Peixoto. Creative Services photo

Do engineers hold the key to cutting health care costs? By inventing new technologies that will help the sick and disabled to live more independently, they just might.

Bioengineering applies engineering tools and approaches to solve problems in biology and medicine and has already had a substantial influence on medicine.

Mason’s new bachelor of science in bioengineering will begin this fall, allowing students to be a part of the health care technology revolution. The program is the only undergraduate bioengineering degree available in Northern Virginia.

“Bioengineering is all about using technology to help people overcome disease, ease pain and improve the quality of life,” says Joseph Pancrazio, director of the bioengineering program and professor of electrical and computer engineering. “It’s also about contributing to fundamental understanding of biological systems through engineering and computational tools. Our students will have the opportunity to be part of this, and, whether they discover the next pacemaker or biomarker, or ensure that patients are receiving a safe and reliable exam, they will have affected the lives of people in need of these technologies.”

To read the full article, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/3549.

Kathryn Jacobsen. Photo courtesy of Kathryn Jacobsen

Bullying among teenagers is a global problem that can take a toll on teens’ health, Mason researchers have found.

In their ongoing work, Kathryn Jacobsen and Lila Fleming have examined the health effects of bullying in adolescent boys and girls from lower- and middle-income countries.

Lila Fleming. Photo courtesy of Lila Fleming

Jacobsen is an associate professor and Fleming is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Global and Community Health in the College of Health and Human Services. Fleming is also a PhD student in environmental science and policy.

They explain that bullying includes actions intended to harm or embarrass another person: teasing, spreading rumors, deliberately excluding them from group activities and using physical violence.

Their research was based on data from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS), which was developed by the World Health Organization to assess self-reported student health and risk behaviors.

To read the full article, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/3449.

To read a Washington Examiner article featuring this research (“New research shows bullying is rampant in the DC Area and globally too”), visit http://cli.gs/qmHMdh.

Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs of The Center for History and New Media (CHNM) received one of 12 Google Digital Humanities awards announced this week.

Over the next two years, these awards will help fund research projects that focus on applying quantitative methods to specific fields within the humanities. In the case of CHNM, Cohen and Gibbs submitted the proposal, “Reframing the Victorians,” which will use Google Books and CHNM’s own tools and software to re-examine Victorian literature and determine if the stereotypical description of Victorians as optimists is actually true.

The research team will look at the claims of popular Victorian critic Walter Houghton and his book, “The Victorian Frame of Mind,” in which he states that most Victorians were very optimistic, and therefore in written texts used many more optimistic terms such as “light,” “sunshine,” and “hope.” However, because the author used only a very small group of works to test this theory, scholars have never been able to thoroughly assess this theory in a widespread fashion.

“The vast digital library of Google Books presents for the first time the possibility that we can conduct a comprehensive survey of Victorian writing—not just the well-known authors, but tens of thousands of lesser-known or even forgotten authors—to see if the Victorians truly did use the kinds of words and phrases that Houghton thought were indicative of their character,” says Cohen.

Google has worked to digitize more than 12 million books in more than 400 languages. Digital humanitarians can use text-analytic techniques to analyze massive amounts of literature, like those in the Google Books corpus, and identify trends over selected periods of time, by language, geography and topic.

The Center for History and New Media will also use their own software product, the open source tool Zotero that helps researchers gather and organize resources, and then annotate, organize and share the results of their research. Zotero already integrates well with Google Books, and the research team plans to incorporate both innovative tools in their research proposal to make the work of other scholars even easier.

Read more about the grants and CHNM’s work in the article by Inside Higher Ed.

George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) has made the Consumer Reports GreenerChoices useful links list for Climate and Energy Basics.

The center has made great strides this year with its Six Americas report which surveys and polls Americans on their opinions about climate change. Director Edward Maibach is also working on a National Science Foundation grant related to television weathercasters. He recently conducted the largest and most representative survey of television weathercasters and news directors.

Using this data, Maibach and his research team will next conduct a field test of 30-second, broadcast-quality educational segments that TV weathercasters can use in their daily broadcasts to educate viewers about the link between predicted (or current) extreme weather events in that media market and the changing global climate.

Ultimately, the team hopes to answer key research questions supporting efforts to activate TV meteorologists nationwide as an important source of informal science education about climate change.

Joshua Lawton-Belous

While most people will be watching the parades this Fourth of July, Mason alumnus Joshua Lawton-Belous, BA History ’10, will be a main part of the festivities.

To recognize his efforts and the contributions he has made to the City of Fairfax, city officials chose Lawton-Belous as the Honorary Grand Marshal of the 2010 Independence Day Celebration. The event takes place in the Fairfax Historic District on Saturday, July 3, beginning with a parade at 10 a.m. An evening show of fireworks will conclude the celebration.

As a U.S. Army veteran, Lawton-Belous understands the challenges faced by members of the military when returning home from active duty. After six years in uniform and two tours in Iraq as a medic, he returned to the Northern Virginia area and has been making a difference in the lives of veterans ever since.

Some of the contributions Lawton-Belous has made to help veterans include founding the nonprofit organization Education for Virginia Veterans which lobbies Virginia legislators on behalf of the state’s military personnel and veterans and leading the efforts to create Mason’s Office of Military Services and other veteran-related programs at the university.

Serving as the president of Mason’s Student Veterans Association, Lawton-Belous spearheaded the third annual Veterans 5K Run/Walk to raise money for the Veterans Scholarship Endowment. He also initiated the Student Veteran Mentor Program to connect student veterans with mentors who are former or current military students or members of the local community.

To read more, click here.