A late September field trip found 18 Global Politics Fellows from George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences venturing to the famed think-tank, the Wilson Center, in Washington, D.C.
After lunch at the Wilson Center cafe, the students met with program coordinator Elinor Harty, a former intern who provided insights to working with the think tank’s scholars and practitioners. She added that she is a Mason Honors College graduate herself, having earned her bachelor’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies with a minor in Conflict Analysis and Resolution in 2017.
The Mason connections at the Wilson Center continued as the students met with John Dale, an associate professor of sociology who is also a fellow in the science and technology innovation program at the center. Dale discussed his research on his project, “Outsmarting Ourselves? The Digital Transformation of Human Rights.”
The visit concluded with a talk with Jonathan Hunt, a research scholar in the center’s Kennan Institute, as he described current global nuclear weapons policies and how they came to be in the state they are in.
That Mason grads Harty and Dale work at the Wilson Center is not unusual, said Cecily A. Nowaczyk, an Arlington Fellows Graduate Assistant who helped put the visit together. Because of the proximity to Washington, she said, “many great organizations and departments employ our alumni and students…In giving the current students opportunities to network with these affiliated organizations off-campus, it gives an invaluable experience that can help make their career goals possible.
“Off-campus visits broaden the students’ collegiate experience and builds connections for life.”