Mason Media Blog

As the percussion program in Mason’s School of Music continues to grow, a generous donation by a gifted musical luminary will help enhance educational experiences for students.

Timpani

Fred Begun, who served as the principal timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) from 1951 – 1999, has donated his entire library of musical scores and individual timpani parts to the university. The collection includes copious notes from composers and conductors during his tenure with the NSO, as well as autographed timpani parts. The School of Music hopes to have the collection in its possession by the end of the year.

“As one of the great musicians of his generation, we are honored that Mr. Begun has chosen Mason to donate his collection of materials used during his musical career,” says John Kilkenny, faculty member and percussion area coordinator in the School of Music. “This collection includes a wealth of personal musical advice that will be an invaluable resource to current and future students in the School of Music.”

Begun began his professional musical career on the timpani – also known as a kettledrum – in 1951 after graduating from the Juilliard School of Music. Throughout the years, he has appeared under the batons of conductors such as John Barbirolli, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Mstislav Rostropovich. He also holds the distinction of having given three world premiere concerto performances for timpani. His book, “21 Etudes for Timpani,” is used in music conservatories throughout the world.

To honor Begun’s legacy and commitment to performance and education, the School of Music and the College of Visual and Performing Arts developed a program that will offer more educational opportunities for students. The program is composed of the following elements:

• The percussion studio in the de Laski Performing Arts Building will be named the “Fred Begun Percussion Suite.”

• Scholarships named for Begun will be offered to outstanding percussion majors at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

• A Visiting Artist series will offer percussion majors the unique opportunity to work with world-renowned guest performers and educators. Guests will be in residence for one or two semesters each year.

For more information about Begun’s donation and the educational programs, contact Kilkenny at 571-286-2796 or jkilken1@gmu.edu.

Suzanne E. Smith

Associate  professor of history Suzanne E. Smith‘s book, “To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death” is one of three finalists for the nonfiction award in the 2011 Library of Virginia Literary Awards.

The Library of Virginia Literary Awards are given to outstanding Virginia authors in the areas of poetry, fiction, nonfiction (and, in the case of nonfiction, also by any author about a Virginia subject), and literary lifetime achievement. These are juried awards and winners in each category receive a cash prize and an engraved crystal book. Past winners include Barbara Kingsolver, Annette Gordon-Reed, Debra Nystrom, Lisa Spaar, Carrie Brown, Helon Habila, Deborah Eisenberg, Wesley Hogan, Scott Nelson, Melvin Ely, James I. Robertson Jr., Charles Wright, Constance Merritt, and R. T. Smith.

Smith’s book explores African American funeral directors’ reputations as both community leaders and con artists and how these two images created a tension that worked to create a legendary, sometimes notorious, status for funeral directors in African American culture.

Smith’s research interests include the relationship of popular culture, music and art to social protest; the study of film and collective memory; and the history of death in America. Her first book, “Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit,” examined Motown and its relationship to the black community of Detroit and the civil rights movement.

Smith has also contributed to various public history projects, including the film “Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring” for the American Experience series on PBS, and the series, “I’ll Make Me A World: African American Arts in the Twentieth Century,” from Blackside Productions. She has a PhD in American Studies from Yale University.

The 14th Annual Literary Awards Celebration will be held the evening of Saturday, October 15, 2011. All finalists for the awards series, as well as a complete list of nominees, is available here.

Take a trip to a winery for grape harvest and “crush” (think Lucille Ball). Learn about beer from a home brewer and historian on German brewing. Figure out how to sound smart at beer- and wine-tasting parties. Oh, and earn class credit.

A new class this year, Global Health Perspectives on Alcohol, will accomplish all of these goals and more. Housed in the College of Health and Human Service’s newly formed Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, the course will “investigate the impact of beer and wine in health and society from a global perspective,” according to the catalog.

In addition to a planned visit to the King Family Winery in Crozet, Va., other field trips will also be scheduled. They hope to hold many of the classes in downtown Fairfax, where the department is leasing the location of the old Metro Silver Diner.

“There will be a wine-tasting component and a beer-tasting component—we’ll try to understand the processes from a chemical point of view,” says Gabriella Petrick, associate professor in Nutrition and Food Studies. “In other words, what goes on in a winery or brewery?”

Associate professor Gabriella Petrick

And that’s just the half of it. Students will also learn the trends of beer and wine consumption and production in the Western world from a historical perspective, including studying Prohibition. Other areas of the world will also be covered, like alcohol consumption in Australia or the making of banana beer in Africa. Some readings will focus on the archaeological and early historical evidence of wine and beer production.

From a global health standpoint, students will investigate the issue of alcohol abuse and explore different cultural attitudes toward wine and beer consumption. But students will also evaluate research on the possible health benefits of wine and beer.

“People actually drank more 50 to 100 years ago in the United States,” says Petrick. “So we will be looking at the so-called ‘taboo’ of alcohol in this country.”

Interested in brushing up on your booze knowledge? Spots are still available for the fall semester. Contact Petrick here for more information. Prerequisites include that students must be at least 21 years old and have taken basic chemistry and/or microbiology.

The new telescope was lifted in pieces over Research I by crane and lowered into the observatory tower. Photo by Evan Cantwell, Creative Services.

This past weekend, Optical Guidance Systems helped George Mason University install a Ritchey-Chretien 32″ diameter telescope that will be the largest on-campus telescope in the region. A crane lifted the largest pieces of the telescope as high as nine stories over the building and into the observatory tower in Research I on the Fairfax Campus.

The telescope will be fully functional this fall, and will allow faculty and students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy to conduct research in planetary and atmospheric studies.

In the fall, the community will also be able to take advantage of this technology with night-time observing sessions twice a month, weather permitting. Professor Harold Geller will lead these community sessions, as well as conduct educational observing programs for local K-12 school children.

Educational and Outreach Uses of the Telescope:

• In-service professional development for teachers
• Community groups and organization tours
• School observing sessions
• Public night observing sessions
• Summer science camps

Research Uses of the Observatory and Telescope:

Even within the light-polluted skies of Fairfax, researchers can:

• Search for planets beyond our solar system
• Conduct studies of stellar surfaces and interiors with a high resolution spectrograph
• Search for supernovae
• Study planetary atmospheres

Susan Conard

Susan G. Conard, a research professor affiliated with the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science (GGS), the EastFIRE Laboratory and the Mason Center for Climate and Society in the College of Science at George Mason University, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Conard and other newly elected fellows are being recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum on February 19 during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.  Conard is among the honorees from the AAAS Section on Biological Sciences.

Each year the AAAS Council elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.”  The honor of being elected a Fellow of AAAS began in 1874 and is acknowledged with a certificate and rosette.

Conard is honored for her distinguished contributions to fire ecology, including  serving as president of the International Boreal Forest Research Association and as editor of the International Journal of Wildland Fie.  Prior to joining Mason, Conard served as the national program leader for Fire Ecology Research with the United States Forest Service.

Celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the Metro D.C. Dance Awards, the George Mason University Dance Company shared the stage with some of the most talented dancers and choreographers in the area in a night filled with spectacular performances.

This marked the first time that a college or university dance company has performed at the awards ceremony, which took place at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6. Some of the other performances that evening included the Suzanne Farrell Ballet; Next Reflex Dance Collective; and Urban Artistry.

Dance/MetroDC, a branch office of Dance/USA, the national service organization for nonprofit professional dance, presents annual awards to the best dancers, choreographers, designers and productions throughout the region in the past year.

Reprising their performance from the annual Gala Concert in March 2010 and clad in the Mark Morris Dance Group’s own costumes, the Mason dance students performed “Polka,” the final movement from Mark Morris’ masterpiece “Grand Duo.” The piece is set to Lou Harrison’s duet for violin and piano.

According to Elizabeth Price, director of the Mason’s School of Dance, the opportunity to perform at the Metro D.C. Dance Awards arose when Peter DiMuro, director of Dance/MetroDC, visited last year to guest teach a class. Impressed by the professional level of the students, he invited the Mason Dance Company to perform at the event.

“Having the opportunity to perform with some of the most talented dancers and companies in the area is a sign that we have been embraced as a part of the professional dance community,” says Price.

In a world full of aggressive drivers, playground bullies and celebrity scandals, a new course at Mason aims to bring back the lost art of civility.

The course called Professionalism and Civility was launched this fall and delves into the ever-increasing problem of bad manners and behavior in society. As one of only a handful of universities throughout the U.S. to offer such a course, students learn everything from making eye contact when speaking to someone to proper table manners.

“Having bad manners and behavior is something that has not only been tolerated, but has now become acceptable,” says Leslie Morton, Mason adjunct professor who teaches the course. “Etiquette, manners and civility are things that must be practiced and there are students here at Mason who are eager to bring back this lost art.”

Offered through Mason’s School of Recreation, Health and Tourism, other elements of the course include proper office behavior and appearance, cultural sensitivity, and “netiquette” – being respectful of others while online.

As part of the course, students are not allowed to have their computers or cell phones on during class and often discuss poor behavior they recently encountered and ways to deal with it. In an assignment to teach tolerance, students were tasked with striking up conversations with people they didn’t know well or who had frustrated them in the past.

Starting in fall 2011, the course will be required for all tourism and events management students.

Have you ever wanted to see the ancient artifacts that lay hidden away in the vaults of the Smithsonian Institution?

In a unique partnership, Mason and the Smithsonian Institution will offer a master of arts in the history of decorative arts that will give students direct access to the vast collections of the Smithsonian museums. The degree program is the only one of its kind offered in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Exploring the National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History and the National Portrait Gallery, students will investigate American, European and global aspects of architecture and interior design, textiles and costume, and ceramics and glass.

Through hands-on examination of artifacts dating from the Renaissance, students will be prepared for careers as curators, historic site directors, authors and art educators.

“The history of the decorative arts has only recently begun to be treated with the critical eye it deserves, and this degree program emphasizes both research and practical job skills in a way that increases the potential for career opportunities for students,” says Robert DeCaroli, associate professor and director of Mason’s art history program.

“Mason will benefit greatly by having access to the incomparable resources and expertise that come with the unique partnership with the Smithsonian Institution.”

More information about the degree program can be found here.

Greg Mortenson spoke as the Mason Award winner during Fall for the Book. (photo by Laura Foltz)

This interview by Aisha Jamil was originally published in Broadside, Mason’s student newspaper, in a slightly different form. Greg Mortenson recieved the Mason Award at this year’s Fall for the Book Festival, which was held Sept. 19-24.

“The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family.”

Those are the words of Haji Ali, Greg Mortenson’s mentor in Pakistan, who also was his role model and inspiration for the title of Mortenson’s best-selling book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time.”

Mortenson, who has built more than 160 schools in the rural villages of Afghanistan and Pakistan, spoke last Friday, Sept. 24, at Mason’s The Center of the Arts regarding the challenges global education is facing today. He sat down with Broadside before the show for an interview.

AJ: Your original hardcover title was published as “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time” despite your protests. When you published the paperback version almost a year later, you had it changed to “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time.” Why?

GM: The publisher picked that subtitle and I didn’t like it. I do this [build schools] to promote peace. I don’t fight terrorists. Statistics show that one out of eight books make a profit so I was told that I need to have that title in order for my book to do well. I agreed with the condition that if the book did not do well in the first year, then the title will be changed from “fighting terrorism” to “promoting peace”.  The book sold only 20,000 copies that year. The subtitle was then changed in January of 2007 and my book has been the number two on the New York Times Bestseller’s List for 190 weeks.

AJ: True or false: ignorance is bliss.

GM: False. Ignorance breeds hatred.

AJ: What would you say to the Muslim clerics that have declared two fatwas (orders to kill) against you?

GM: The first word in the revelation of the Koran was “Iqra”, which means “to read”. What Allah said is that we should seek truth and get an education. I have talked to imams and nothing in the Koran says that girls can’t go to school. And finally, I would say that in the Hadith (teachings of the Prophet), it says that the ink of the scholar is greater than the blood of a shaheed (martyr).

AJ: What do you think about the mosque building near ground zero?

GM: I think it’s a constitutional right that we have freedom of worship and faith. We seem to fight about constitutional issues but the real issue is about tolerance, education and healthcare.

AJ: And the 9-11 Koran burnings?

GM: Burning the Koran shows the greatness of the Constitution.  The U.S. military burned Bibles in the Afghanistan that were written in Pashto and Dari because soldiers there weren’t allowed to give out Bibles. That shows our tolerance to be sensitive. But, there shouldn’t be a law saying that you can’t burn religious books.

AJ: Rallies seem to be the new norm these days. Have you ever considered having a rally for your cause?

GM: If I had a rally, it would be a rally for peace, education and tolerance. I have visited over 120 cities and I have seen more hope in those small communities than anywhere else. But, if there was a rally, it would be a rally hosted by kids and for kids. It has to be a rally that would effect change.

AJ: A school you built in the town of Olander, Afghanistan was attacked by the Taliban in 2007. Are all of your schools heavily guarded since then?

GM: No. No school has been shut down. Two schools have been attacked but in both cases, local militia came and killed some of the Taliban members and kicked others out. The militia leaders have their own orders to kill anyone who comes to attack these little girls or their schools.

AJ: And finally, a little off topic, but how does one know love in six days? You married your wife six days after meeting her. Have you considered writing a story about love?

GM: [Laughs.] I could write a story about love but my wife has asked me not to write about our personal lives. So, I respect that.

Aisha Jamil is a senior communication major at Mason with a concentration in journalism. She is an intern in the Office of Media and Public Relations.

When doctors have bad news to break to their patients, how can they do it in a way that’s clear but also comforting, supportive and helpful?

Melinda Villagran, associate professor  of communication at Mason, and her co-writers, developed guidelines for clinicians to help train them on the best way to give bad news. The set of guidelines, called COMFORT, is not a checklist. It is meant to be interactive and adaptable based on the needs of the patient and his/her family.

Below is the breakdown of COMFORT guidelines. You can also find more information in the Communication Currents article online.

Communication- Clinicians should use clear and familiar language when breaking bad news. The emotional discomfort associated with delivering bad news can lead clinicians to use vague or unfamiliar language that masks the true meaning of a negative diagnosis. Vague terms such as “Your condition seems to be terminal” are used, instead of saying “there is no cure for your illness.” Delivering bad news requires verbally and nonverbally direct communication that makes sense to the patient. Otherwise, patients can leave the doctor’s office without fully understanding the reality of their healthcare situation.

Orientation- A patient receiving bad news can have unrealistic expectations about a cure for their disease. Realistic expectations for treatment should be clearly stated in plain language so there is no confusion about treatment goals. Orienting patients to the reality of their condition helps prevent unwanted treatments and unrealistic expectations about recovery.

To ease the discomfort of delivering bad news, clinicians may use statements about expectations to reveal the biomedical aspects of a negative diagnosis (i.e. “I expect you will experience symptoms including …”), but mix those statements with expressions of hope such as, “I am hoping to ease your pain by giving you medication.” Patients who are clearly oriented to the reality of their health status have the opportunity to make decisions accordingly.

Mindfulness- Clinicians should pay attention to what is happening in each moment, and respond to the changing needs of the patient during a bad news discussion. Mindfulness means avoiding distractions, both verbally and nonverbally, when delivering bad news. Actively listening and maintaining eye contact can show the patient you are truly present. The patient should be the center of attention; bad news interactions should never occur in a busy hallway. Clinicians sometimes use terminology such as, “the cancer has metastasized,” out of habit. Mindfulness helps clinicians think before they speak, and rephrase the statement to say, “The cancer has spread to other parts of the body.” Bad news interactions are no time to put your mind on autopilot by using a script or rehearsed checklist.

Family- Families should be included in conversations when doctors break bad news to patients, since families provide support to the patient. It is common for a family member to be present when a serious diagnosis is delivered, so clinicians need to anticipate their presence. This can be achieved by acknowledging the family member as a good source of support for the patient, and by integrating the family members into the conversation after breaking the bad news. Although the patient’s needs are the most important consideration when breaking bad news, clinicians can build trust and understanding with family members by actively engaging them in the dialogue as it occurs. Practicing in advance how to talk to the patient without a family member in the discussion can be unrealistic if a family member will be present. Family members can be strong allies to comfort a patient receiving bad news.

Ongoing- Stressing there will be ongoing care can avoid a feeling of abandonment by patients after hearing bad news. A clear finding from this research is that the results of bad news require ongoing dialogue and medical attention. Breaking bad news is not a one-time event. By continually communicating with patients, clinicians can provide more clarification about the diagnosis, especially if the recovery will not be quick. Each visit, the clinician should give a very brief summary of the recent past, present and future treatment plans and expected goals for treatment options. This can be achieved in a few short sentences, but by offering a treatment summary, the patient remains aware that the process is ongoing and members of the clinical team have an overall treatment plan.

Reiterative- Reiterative communication refers to the need to restate bad news messages over and over to avoid false hopes for a cure as treatment progresses. The meaning behind the reiterative messages will be the same, but the way it is stated may be changed. For example, instead of discussing only the most recent test results’ new developments, a clinician might say, “Now you remember last time we discussed…” to quickly restate the facts about the diagnosis and treatment plan. Clinicians can answer questions, provide feedback, and reinforce the bad news diagnosis to help patients come to terms with the situation.

Team- Patients receive care from a team of medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, chaplains, psychologists, and social workers. Communicating as a team to the patient, and with each other, helps avoid mistakes, and helps reassure patients and their families that they will be receiving proper care. Electronic medical records can be useful to share information among team members about a patient, but since patients cannot see these records, clinicians need to constantly keep the patient updated through face-to-face dialogue. Every health care team member should reiterate the facts of the diagnosis to make sure the patient continues to have realistic expectations about their condition.

Using COMFORT to share bad news with patients and their families can decrease opportunities for confusion or miscommunication, while at the same time increasing chances for understanding and trust in communication.