innovative classes

This fall, 25 students in Mason’s Honors College enrolled in a class focusing on the changing status of men in American history.

The topic of “cancel culture” is not new in the public discourse, but Mason communication professor Sergei A. Samoilenko believes he can take the discussion in a new direction.

For the first time, Mason is offering a class this fall to teach students the basics of wine and craft beverage management.

Students and faculty collaborated to create UNIV 381: Foundations for Building a Just Society, a three-credit class that fulfills two Mason Core requirements—global understanding and social/behavioral sciences—and is projected to evolve over time into a required course for all students.

More than 140 students are enrolled in the online anthropology class that “looks at the cultures where zombies and related folklore about the undead come from, and examines zombies from an ethnohistorical, medical anthropology, and anthropology of religion perspectives,” according to the syllabus.

When George Mason University students returned for the fall semester in late August, things looked a little different, but the excitement of a new semester was the same. Students in John Aler’s opera class were happy to be back on campus, especially now that their classroom was in the Center for the Arts.

Students learned how to fly drones equipped with sophisticated cameras and use a state-of-the-art FARO 3D Crime Scanner that captures high-precision 3D visuals, measurements and analysis of crime scenes. They worked alongside George Mason University Police, as well as the police departments from Fairfax City and Fairfax County. Burmeister credited their support and guidance for further enhancing the students’ experience.