Honors College

Andersen Guske is a December 2020 George Mason University graduate

For political communication guru Lis Smith, working in politics is working to build a better world.

“There’s something grand about being able to shape American public life – to shape the policies that we live under every day,” she says to Robinson Professor Steven Pearlstein during the First Tuesday political talk series.

When a candidate chooses to run for public office, they are agreeing to place not only their policies, but also their character up for critique. 

People want to know who they are really voting for and the media will do its best to dig up all they can on what may lurk in their past. For that reason, the job of an “opposition media consultant” is imperative to have on the campaign team.

George Mason University’s Honors College launched a program this year to help cultivate an anti-racist community by creating a space in which students can discuss issues of racial and social justice. The program, called “Honoring Our Community,” involves encouraging honest conversations among groups of four or five students working with a facilitator. Students who volunteer for the program meet once a month during the academic year.

The just-released documentary investigates a growing movement of Native Americans hoping to reclaim their vibrant, rich identities through traditional foodways, despite facing generations of trauma inflicted on their communities by settler colonialism and genocide.

The political world is messy and frequently brutal, and the media swarms representatives and candidates constantly in search of failures to exploit. Those involved are accused of being corrupt, power-hungry, or underhanded, and the divide between parties often seems impossible to navigate. So, why would anyone willingly choose to run for an office?

What is the job of a political reporter in an age of widely spread “fake news”? “It is our job to tell the truth,” said Amy Gardner, who covers national politics for the Washington Post. Easy, right?

Sharing and consuming news has come a long way over the course of the past few political campaigns, where bias competes with accuracy for the spotlight, and every week seems to come with a new headline scandal that had been covered up by officials in public office. As Gardner detailed in her conversation with Mason Robinson Professor of Public Policy Steven Pearlstein in the First Tuesday series of webinars, many depend on newspapers to stay up-to-date with crucial information in a time where “all norms have been shattered.”

The Honors College seeks to instill life-long learning, curiosity, and critical thinking in motivated students across all disciplines. The Early Identification Program (EIP) is designed to close the access gap in higher education by providing resources and readiness support to prospective first-generation college students. By working together, we encourage success by offering holistic support for students' academic and personal achievement.

On September 22nd, Rebecca Pearcey joined Mason Professor Steven Pearlstein for what would the third conversation in his First Tuesday series of conversations with special guests who bring first-hand experiences in the world of politics. Pearcey shares her political insight drawn from her role as political director of the Elizabeth Warren campaign.