Summer 2016
  • American flag illustration

    Armies on the March

    The Ups and Downs of a Presidential Campaign and the Army of GW Alumni Along for the Ride

Plate of food

Fasting for Love

When the flame of an old tradition gets snuffed out, should it be rekindled—or reengineered?

imaging photograph

'Google Maps' of the Miniscule

A new imaging facility brings the nanometer and atomic worlds into focus.

The Fight and Fury of the Z-Man

Iconic photographer and eternal San Franciscan Michael Zagaris, BA ’67, has shot rock gods and all-stars, stood up to The Man and almost died twice. He’s spent his life doing everything you always wanted to do, and now that he’s getting older ... absolutely nothing’s changed.

 

More from the summer issue



Seyyed Hossein Nasr in profile

Found in Translation

In the decade that it took a renowned Islamic scholar to produce an English-language Quran thick with commentary, he became less of a tourist and more of a local inside the pages of the holy book.

 

 

Jennifer Rizzotti

New Coach Answers the Big Questions

Former UConn, WNBA standout discusses the state of women’s hoops

President Knapp

President Knapp Announces Final Year

GW President Steven Knapp announced in June that he will not seek to renew his contract as president when it expires at the end of July 2017, after a decade at the helm.

olga murray

A Sunny Cheery and Deeply Tarnished "Heaven"

Thirty years ago, an alumna found Nepal to be a place where the people smile “in the face of … terrible things,” and since has dedicated herself to lightening their load.

air force class

War Stories

For nearly two decades, Ken Samuelson, BA ’53, has interviewed vets about combat, life and loss.

 

 

Cory Booker taking the stage at commencement

Sen. Cory Booker to Grads: 'Be the Light' Against Darkness

On a bright and unseasonably chilly May morning following weeks of rain, U.S. Sen. Cory A. Booker (D-N.J.) and members of the GW community gathered to celebrate the end of the university’s 195th academic year.

 
a high-speed train

The Engine of High-Speed Rail

California bullet train CEO Jeff Morales, BS ’83, works to lay a foundation of steel and public support en route to the nation’s first fast-track railway.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess

5 Questions on Dancing (When Everyone is Watching)

Professor Dana Tai Soon Burgess, MFA ’94, was recently named the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s first-ever choreographer-in-residence.

a scene from a steel mill featuring a large amount of sparks

Bookshelves

Brooke C. Stoddard, MA ’73, explores the metal that undergirds American might—a story thousands of years and thousands of degrees in the making.
 Plus: A history of psychiatry, an inside look at the Navy SEALs, and more.

 

graphic illustration of a skull

About Death

Retiring professor Pamela Woodruff, BA '76, MPhil '92—who for decades taught the popular class "Attitudes Toward Death and Dying"—addresses 
the inevitability 
that’s not taxes.

 

 

a soccer player on mount vernon

The Full-Pitch Press

A look at the defense that almost didn’t work.

a closeup image of the kimono

Stitches in Time

The narrative of NASA biochemist Iwao “Vance” Oyama—who received a master’s degree from GW in 1960—and his wider family is captured by his daughter Denise Oyama Miller in a quilt called “Connecting Threads."

 

a painting of fields from a high vantage point

Flying Colors

Marian Osher, MFA '72, conquered her fear of flying through art. The result, which hovers between abstraction and realism, will be on view in an exhibition at the Virginia Science and Technology Campus.

university yard on a nice spring morning

Class Notes

Read updates from alumni and submit your own.

two women posing for a photo

'Your Generosity Amazes Me'

During the 2015-16 school year, donors contributed more than $13 million to Power & Promise scholarship fund.