Campus News

Mason Trailblazer: Nikyatu Jusu

Colleen Rich — Mon, 02 May 2022 17:25:40 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Nikyatu Jusu Colleen Rich Mon, 05/02/2022 - 13:25

In This Story

Mason professor and filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu. Photo provided

George Mason University professor and filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu has had a busy 2022.

In January, Jusu, assistant professor of directing and screenwriting in Mason’s Film and Video Studies Program, had her first feature film, “Nanny,” premier at the Sundance Film Festival, where she was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. Jusu is only the second Black woman director to win the prize, and the first horror director to do so.

In March, “Nanny,” which follows a undocumented West African nanny taking care of a privileged child on the New York’s Upper West Side, was acquired by Blumhouse and Prime Video for worldwide distribution.

But before she got to Sundance, Jusu was already creating a buzz. Variety named her to its “Directors to Watch” list, and IndieWire included her on its “22 Rising Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2022” list. She was also awarded the inaugural MPA Creator Award from the Motion Picture Association.

This was Jusu’s second time at Sundance. In 2019, her short vampire film “Suicide By Sunlight,” a project funded by the production grant "Through Her Lens" sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel, made its debut at the film festival.

Jusu's films have played at festivals nationally and internationally garnering her laurels and awards including a Directors Guild of America Honorable Mention. Three of her short films were acquired by and aired on HBO, her most recent being “Flowers.” This project was also awarded a Rooftop Films/Adrienne Shelly Foundation Short Film Grant.

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College of Visual and Performing Arts Film and Video Studies

'Parkland Rising' producers discuss documentary as part of Mason’s Visiting Filmmakers Series

Colleen Rich — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 09:00:32 +0000

'Parkland Rising' producers discuss documentary as part of Mason’s Visiting Filmmakers Series Colleen Rich Fri, 09/18/2020 - 05:00

On Valentine’s Day in 2018, a school shooter massacred 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the aftermath, student survivors spoke out about the prevalence of guns in U.S. society.

The documentary “Parkland Rising” tracks the grassroots movement that emerged and grew from the tragic school shooting into a shift in the national conversation on guns in the United States. The feature-length film is being showcased as part of George Mason University’s Visiting Filmmakers Series Online: Black Lives Matter.

In addition, director and producer Cheryl McDonough and Mason alumna Sara Ramaker, executive producer and chief operating officer of will.i.am's I.Am.Media, along with film subject and gun control advocate Cameron Kasky, will discuss the film on Monday, Sept. 21, between 1:30 and 3 p.m.

The Mason community can also register to watch the film for free between Saturday, Sept. 19 and Monday, Sept. 21.

“This documentary is about hope and change,” said Ramaker, who graduated from Mason in 1993. “These kids are making change, and we wanted to support them and help elevate their voices.”

The Visiting Filmmakers Series is sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. In addition to featuring “Parkland Rising,” the series featured cinematographer Dominic J. Jones and will feature filmmakers Elegance Bratton and Chico Colvard.

Since 1995, the series has helped connect the Mason community with visiting filmmakers from all over the world and traditionally features two to three filmmakers each semester who visit the campus to share their work and answer audience questions.

This past spring, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the series was forced to go online. Cynthia Fuchs, director of the Visiting Filmmakers Series and interim director of Mason’s Film and Video Studies program, noted that the online format allows more people to attend the series in a less formal atmosphere.

“’Parkland Rising’ documents the making of an ongoing movement,” said Fuchs. “In assembling this history, the film also looks ahead. Reaching across communities and causes, March For Our Lives—like and with Black Lives Matter—invites all of us to understand our intersectional experiences and relationships in order to work toward a more just future.”

McDonough said she’s glad to have the opportunity to showcase the film and the student survivors of the Parkland shooting. The film depicts a lie-in at a grocery store in Florida, the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., and efforts to register voters throughout the country, including a scene in Fairfax.

“It may seem like this is a film about one tragic incident, but it’s really about the power of people to change their world through action and protest,” said McDonough. “Ultimately, while it is about a difficult and painful subject, the movie itself is quite inspiring, hopeful and rousing.”

Ramaker hopes that featuring the documentary and participating in Mason’s Visiting Filmmakers Series will inspire young people, especially artists.

“Our history really is taught through art,” Ramaker said. “We are living in an important time, and there are creative ways to tell our history as it is happening. If we inspire other young filmmakers and other artists to tell their stories, then we’ve done something right.”

President Washington updates Safe Return to Campus

Melanie Balog — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 00:35:08 +0000

President Washington updates Safe Return to Campus Melanie Balog Mon, 08/10/2020 - 20:35

Dear Fellow Patriots:

We are fewer than two weeks from the start of the Fall semester and soon will be welcoming many of our faculty, staff and students back to George Mason University’s campuses. We do so with a mix of excitement that accompanies every fall return to campus – and trepidation, because this is 2020 and the pandemic has changed just about everything.

My leadership team and I have been watching the ebb and flow of the COVID-19 virus in northern Virginia, and have determined that it is best to stay the course with our modified re-opening of campus, with continuing flexibility for faculty with respect to the format of their classes. Faculty members who will be delivering their curriculum in person or via hybrid experiences should continue to use the Safe Return to Campus Plan to guide their efforts.

Tracking pandemic conditions

While most public discussion centers on COVID-19 cases nationally and statewide, we are closely monitoring Northern Virginia pandemic conditions, because they give us a more accurate understanding of what is occurring in the communities in which we live and serve. Specifically, our decisions are driven by data from Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William counties.

One data point we track particularly closely is the Positivity Rate, the percentage of those receiving COVID-19 tests who test positive for the virus. Virginia’s seven-day rolling average as of Monday afternoon was 7.4 percent, while Fairfax County’s was 5.1 percent and dropping, and Arlington County’s was 4.2 percent.

Changing of conditions, change of plans

Unfortunately, Prince William County’s rates have headed in the other direction, and stood at 9.0 percent on Monday. And that trend has troubled us, particularly because we operate the Science and Technology Campus there, and many who work at Mason live in Prince William County. Therefore, we have made two decisions that affect classes this fall:

We will continue to provide faculty at all Mason campuses flexibility to offer their classes through face-to face, hybrid or fully online formats. By applying the public health and safety best practices set forth in our Safe Return to Campus Plan, we have confidence to deliver our academic programs as had been planned and given evolving circumstances. However, if individual faculty member circumstances have changed, and individuals want to request a change in their course format, they should immediately be in contact with their academic program chair/director and dean.
We will move to all-online instruction on November 30, following the Thanksgiving holiday. We have decided to do this upon recommendation of our Emergency Management Executive Committee and public health advisors, in order to minimize the risk of transmitting both COVID-19 and influenza, both of which are expected to begin seasonal surges around then.

Why not just keep campuses closed and go all online?

This is a very reasonable question, and one I am asked often, especially because many other universities have opted for online-only instruction, though no public university in Virginia is requiring all online instruction.

The reality is, there are no good solutions to carrying out our academic mission in light of the pandemic. Every solution carries a host of negative side effects that threaten people’s ability to stay healthy and safe, and to remain affiliated with Mason.

Quality of instruction – For many classes, online instruction is just as effective as in-person teaching; in fact, we are seeing excellence in online instruction that we could not have predicted pre-pandemic. But that is not universally true, for environments like laboratory learning, or for disciplines like the performing arts. Of course, we will adapt as necessary, but driving all courses to online environments is an option we will avoid until it is necessary.

Inclusion of international students – By going fully online, we could exclude international students from coming to our campus, because the federal government is refusing to process student visas for international students whose course content is all online.

Human toll for university faculty and staff – Closing the campus to all instruction would come at a significant financial loss to the university – a devastating loss if we were to re-close residence halls. Such measures would cripple the university’s ability to deliver on its education and research mission, not just for this academic year, but for years to come. The numbers of furloughs and layoffs that would be necessary to balance our budget would be staggering, made all the more challenging in an economy of 10 percent unemployment. Those employees’ ability to keep health insurance, pay their rent or mortgage, and meet basic living needs would be imperiled. Furthermore, the impact would extend beyond our campuses to surrounding communities where the affected employees live.

Should evolving public health conditions make it necessary to fully close our classrooms, or even our residence halls, of course we will do so. But each of us should be mindful of the devastating impact this will have, not just on the university, but on the people who rely on it for their education and their livelihoods.

The academic calendar remains the same

Classes will begin on August 24 and end on December 16 as scheduled, with all-online instruction starting on November 30, following the Thanksgiving holiday. As part of our effort to minimize the risks that increase in the winter months, we plan to hold Winter Graduation online.

Staff on campus

As the campus reopens, staff should work with their unit leaders to determine the proper balance of their work to be performed on campus versus from home. With the goal being to de-densify the campus and observe all health and safety protocols, every department has been required to submit its own safe return plan. As a general guideline, employees should avoid spending more than 50 percent of their time on campus. Social distancing rules will be in effect for all offices, just as they are in classrooms.

Residence halls will stay open throughout the semester

Mason’s residence halls will remain open under all of our planning scenarios. We will reduce occupancy from 6,200 students to approximately 3,350 students to achieve appropriate physical distancing. In the event of another Governor’s stay-at-home order, we anticipate considering residence halls to be our students’ homes away from home. We will take appropriate measures to keep them as safe, hygienic, and comfortable as possible, as well as offer appropriate public health and safety measures to the university employees who staff residence halls and dining facilities. In addition, University Life has planned a robust line-up of programming to ensure residential students continue to experience a full and satisfying on-campus experience.

Pre-move in testing required for all residential students

All students planning to live on campus in Mason’s residence halls have been recommended to self-quarantine two weeks ahead of their arrival. In addition, Mason has contracted with a vendor to provide comprehensive at-home testing kits to all students who plan to live on campus. Residential students are in the process of receiving and returning their test kits. Starting August 15, at move-in, every student will be required to have both a health screener green light as well as proof that they have taken a COVID-19 test to be cleared to stay in a Mason residence hall. We anticipate that residential students will be tested again periodically throughout the semester.

Daily health checks required for all who step onto campus

All students, faculty and staff who come to campus must complete an online health survey every day before arriving on campus. This tool – the Mason COVID Health Check™, an online health screening protocol developed by the College of Health and Human Services – will serve as a quick and effective way to track the health conditions of all students, faculty, staff and contractors who will work, study or live on campus.

Voluntary testing throughout the semester

Throughout the semester, students, faculty and staff working on campus will be asked to engage voluntarily in random COVID-19 tests. This protocol, recommended by Mason faculty experts and in collaboration with university leadership, will help to track the spread of the virus, should cases emerge. We encourage all members of the Mason community to agree to be tested if requested to do so. Working in partnership with our local public health officials, case investigation and contact tracing protocols also will be in place.

Safety measures being taken in our classrooms

Our classroom spaces will look and feel different this fall. Classrooms and instructional spaces have been modified such that seating has been spaced out to allow for six feet of distance between students; faculty have been allocated more space, up to 100 square feet. Some classrooms will have seats noting they should be left empty to ensure physical distancing; others will simply have fewer seats. High-contact surfaces will be cleaned and disinfected with an EPA-approved disinfectant twice each day during normal operation hours, in addition to regular overnight cleaning. In addition, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer stations are available in or near classrooms.

Reminders to do our part

Signage will be posted throughout campus to illustrate required physical distancing and point to hygiene practices such as frequent hand washing. All students, faculty and staff will be required to wear face coverings. Everyone will be given two reusable face coverings to use. And a multimedia communications campaign is planned to encourage all Mason community members to do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19.

This will be a Fall semester unlike any other we have experienced. The unknowns far outnumber the certainties. But together, we will continue to deliver on our academic mission, and I deeply appreciate the dedication and innovation of each and every one of you at this historic moment for George Mason University, the nation and the world.

With gratitude,

Gregory N. Washington, PhD

President

President Washington addresses Safe Return To Campus

Melanie Balog — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 11:15:33 +0000

President Washington addresses Safe Return To Campus Melanie Balog Thu, 07/09/2020 - 07:15

Dear Patriots,

Preparation is underway for what may be the greatest campus-wide challenge the George Mason University community has ever taken on – our safe return to campus.

We have no playbook – none exists to navigate any modern university through a global pandemic, much less the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.

So, like every university, we are in the process of writing our new playbook, observing the best public health expertise that exists – often from the Mason community itself – to address the unknowns that await in months ahead.

The quality of education you can expect to receive will not change. We will not retreat from our mission to provide the very best, most inclusive education possible, to create a more free, just, and prosperous world. And we will support the health and safety of our community in pursuit of that goal.

To stay focused on our mission, we just have to think like Patriots. That means bridging often-competing interests to find our own way forward, like insisting on both excellence and inclusion as a core value of who we are.

For this challenge, it means both committing ourselves to the health, safety, and well-being of everyone in our community and maintaining the most complete university experience possible, as circumstances allow.

It means finding excellence through online instruction and through in-person coursework – and knowing when it’s best to use which technique.

And it means having the discipline to act in ways that protect our own health and look out for the health and safety of our fellow Patriots.

Instruction

We will offer the same robust academic plan for this fall that we always do, in a mix of in-person instruction and online classes. We will start and end the semester classes on time, beginning August 24 and ending December 19.

Drawing on our knowledge that in-person instruction makes a difference, particularly in smaller learning environments, we will preserve this environment where we are able to. Students learn best through dialogue and experience, when they can interact directly with other students and have more direct access to faculty. At the same time, larger classes can be just as effective online, and for some the convenience makes a difference. We’ll develop excellence in blending both forms of instruction.

When in-person classes are best, we will observe public health best practices including social distancing in classrooms, enhanced cleaning procedures, and the requirement that everyone wear masks.

Coming back to campus

We know that bringing people back to campus is a major effort, and we will be conducting this effort in stages. Students who are living on campus will begin to come back in phases. Student staff will move in on August 8. Upper class students will move in between August 15 and 18. Freshmen will move in between August 19 and 21. Students will receive time slots from University Housing and Residence Life, and will need to follow those instructions closely.

Reducing campus density

The university you return to won’t look like the university you left. Everyone must wear face coverings in public places. Physical distancing will be required. We are reducing density in classrooms, residence halls and administrative offices. Supervisors will create safety plans and telework will remain an important component of work plans. Our goal is to greatly reduce the density on campus while providing outstanding service to our students.

A lot can change in the next six weeks. We will be working closely with the local health department, Virginia Health Department and through Centers for Disease Control guidelines to put the safest environment in place. We will also continue to work with renowned experts in public health who work right here at Mason to guide the way.

Public health and safety

The university will not reopen until public health officials deem it safe for us to return. We also will remain agile. Should circumstances change, we are prepared to pivot back to full online instruction.

Shared commitment to each other

Each of us will need to do our part. We must complete online training to understand the new environment on campus. Anyone coming to campus is required to conduct a daily self-health check.

And, I cannot emphasize this enough: If you feel sick or are symptomatic, stay home.

It is not possible to make our university 100 percent risk-free. But we can greatly minimize risk, and our new playbook has been written so that we can make that happen, even without knowing exactly how this year will play out.

Each of us should review the university’s Safe Return to Campus website. For those who want to go even deeper, feel free to read our Safe Return to Campus Plan.

Above all, get ready for an academic year like none other. We will move through this year together, stronger and wiser for our efforts.

Alright, Patriots. Let’s get to work!

Sincerely,

Gregory Washington

President, George Mason University

GMU-TV wins six Tellys for videos showcasing research, student programs

Colleen Rich — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 09:00:49 +0000

GMU-TV wins six Tellys for videos showcasing research, student programs Colleen Rich Tue, 07/07/2020 - 05:00

George Mason University’s GMU-TV was awarded six Tellys this year—two Golds, two Silvers, and two Bronzes—for excellence in the nonbroadcast/educational institution category for videos promoting the university’s research endeavors and programs. This is the most awards Mason’s television studio has won in one year.

Three of the awards went to Mason Research videos, which are part of a series GMU-TV created in collaboration with the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Impact and the schools/colleges.

“We are very excited to be brought in to partner on the research videos and are very happy with how they turned out,” said Richard Wood, general manager and executive producer of GMU-TV. “This kind of collaboration is a perfect fit. There are so many brilliant and talented people at Mason making real impact on our world, the opportunity to share their story to a wider audience is a privilege.”

A variety of GMU-TV staffers worked on the videos.

“Often we assign a lead producer and then other staff members serve as crew and in various roles from director of photography to editor,” said Wood, who has a BA in communication from Mason.

“The Mason Impact,” one of the videos winning a Gold Telly, was created by GMU-TV for the 2019 New Student Convocation in collaboration with the Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR). The team working on this video was Mike Kurec, Wood, Stacey Rathbun, Andy Riddle, and Jessica Riddle.

Also receiving a Gold Telly was “Concussion Biomarkers,” which is one of a series of videos that GMU-TV created for the Mason Research series. This video focuses on the work of Mason researchers Emanuel “Chip” Petricoin and Shane Caswell on diagnosing and monitoring concussions. Kurec, Wood, and Rathbun worked on this project.

Winner of a Silver Telly was another video in the Mason Research series, “The Enslaved Peoples of George Mason,” which focuses on the historical research being conducted by Mason students on the men, women and children enslaved at Gunston Hall. Wood, Rathbun, and Mike Aitken worked on this video.

A profile of Mason chemistry major Mosufa Zainab, “Mosufa: Fighting Superbugs,” also won a Silver Telly. Zainab, an OSCAR undergraduate researcher who was also featured in the "The Mason Impact” video, discusses how her experiences in her native Pakistan drive her research into better antibiotics. It was produced by the same team as “The Mason Impact” video.

Another video in the Mason Research series, “Prosthetics Research,” won a Bronze Telly. This video focuses on the work being done by Mason bioengineering professor Siddhartha Sikdar and his team at the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions to improve the function and quality of life of individuals with physical and psychosocial disabilities. Kurec worked on this video with Gloriana Wills.

“The Education Leadership Program,” a student recruitment video for the graduate program in the College of Education and Human Development, also won a Bronze Telly. The team on this project was Wills, Andy Riddle and Jessica Riddle.

“At its core, video is a storytelling medium and because of its ability to engage with an audience, video allows us to effectively communicate the implications of a Mason researcher's work well beyond the world of academia,” said Wood. “It also allows our team at GMU-TV to flex their creativity muscles while getting unfettered access to some of Mason’s greatest minds.”

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards honors video and television made for all screens and is judged by the Telly Award Judging Council; a group of leading video and television experts from some of the most prestigious companies in entertainment, publishing, advertising, and emerging technology.

Mason honors 2020 graduates with a virtual celebration featuring Stacey Abrams

Colleen Rich — Tue, 19 May 2020 09:00:16 +0000

Mason honors 2020 graduates with a virtual celebration featuring Stacey Abrams Colleen Rich Tue, 05/19/2020 - 05:00

Stacey Abrams
Photo provided

George Mason University honored the largest and most diverse graduating class in its history with a virtual Celebration of the Class of 2020 on May 22.

The online event recognized the graduates whose final semesters were impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and was livestreamed on GMU-TV. The celebration included remarks from Mason Interim President Anne Holton, a graduating student, and a special congratulatory message from Stacey Abrams, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, author, entrepreneur and voting rights advocate. In addition, the Green Machine performed.

As part of the event, each school or college had its own slide show, including personalized slides for graduates.

In surveys, the 2020 graduates noted a strong preference for a future ceremony at EagleBank Arena. With a traditional Spring Commencement not possible because of the pandemic, the virtual event was a way to acknowledge students’ achievements until an in-person ceremony can be safely held on campus. The virtual program will last about 20 minutes.

Holton has frequently noted how proud and impressed she has been by the resilience of the 2020 graduates, who pushed through the unexpected challenge to complete their degrees. The university shifted 5,200 courses online and extended the academic calendar so classes could be completed.

The 2020 graduating class is projected to include 9,719 degree earners and 744 certificate earners, from 83 countries and 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, Guam and foreign military installations.

A projected 50.5% of the 6,018 bachelor’s degree earners are part of minority populations—an all-time Mason high—and 32% of undergraduates say they will be a first-generation graduate in their family.

The graduating class reflects Mason’s standing as the largest producer of tech talent in the state. Thirty-five percent of the 2020 undergraduate degree earners are in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and 24% of the 3,528 master’s and doctorate degree earners are in STEM fields.

The top undergraduate majors are criminology, law and society; information technology; psychology; information systems and operations management; and computer science.

The top degree programs for the 3,222 master’s degree earners are curriculum and instruction, special education, data analytics engineering, education leadership, and business administration—the same five and same order as last year.

Of the 306 doctoral degrees to be awarded, the top five PhDs choices are education, psychology, economics, conflict analysis and resolution, and public policy.

The university will also award 173 law degrees.

Visiting Filmmakers Series at Mason goes online with more speakers and a wider potential audience

Colleen Rich — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 15:48:56 +0000

Visiting Filmmakers Series at Mason goes online with more speakers and a wider potential audience Colleen Rich Mon, 04/13/2020 - 11:48

Mason alumnus Mannon Butt with Halle Berry on the set of "John Wick: Chapter 3." Butt is the visiting filmmaker on April 14. Photo provided.

Since 1995, George Mason University has hosted a much-anticipated Visiting Filmmakers Series that connects the Mason community with visiting filmmakers from all over the world. The series has traditionally featured two to three filmmakers each semester who visit the campus to share their work and answer audience questions.

But this month, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the series was forced to go online. The switch has had its benefits, according to Cynthia Fuchs, director of the Visiting Filmmakers Series and associate director of Mason’s Film and Video Studies Program.

The Spring 2020 Visiting Filmmakers Series Online can reach more people in a virtual setting than it ever could with a campus event, she said. In addition, the series can afford more visiting filmmakers, as there is less cost connected to hosting a speaker online versus bringing someone to campus. In one month, Mason students and the general public can virtually meet more than a dozen filmmakers. In addition, the online sessions with filmmakers allow for a less formal atmosphere than usual, with filmmakers telling stories from their lives and answering questions about their experiences in the industry.

Sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts, among others, the online series is aimed at helping connect the Mason community and beyond to the arts during a time of increased isolation, Fuchs said.

Fuchs also said the online series is a way to help filmmaking professionals, including Mason alumni, who are currently on hiatus, hunkered in their homes while the industry is shut down.

Mason alumnus Mannon Butt, a filmmaker in Los Angeles, said he wants to use his online session on April 14 to help other people get into the industry.

“I want to tell them how important it is to be insistent and to encourage them to get to know as many people as possible in the industry,” Butt said. “And yes, I have a little more time to talk right now.”

Tony Marquez, BA Film and Video Studies ’12, answered questions virtually earlier this month as part of the series. Marquez, Butt’s roommate in Pasadena, California, is currently working on CBS’ “Young Sheldon." His goal is to direct television shows.

Marquez said he enjoyed giving advice and talking about his career during the hour-long question-and-answer session.

“It felt good to give back to the community that helped shape me.”

Horror films bring a global perspective

Colleen Rich — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 09:00:00 +0000

Horror films bring a global perspective Colleen Rich Mon, 10/28/2019 - 05:00

October is the month when most people indulge in their favorite scary movies, but for some students at George Mason University, horror is their homework.

FAVS 300 Global Horror Film is a three-credit course that explores the horror film genre with an international lens, and looks at the social and political contexts behind the creation of the films. The class fulfills the Global Understanding requirement in the Mason Core so it attracts students from all majors. Film and video studies (FAVS) majors have the option to do a creative final project and make a video instead of writing a final paper.

The course covers topics from vampires, zombies, slasher movies, and aliens to horror parody and Alfred Hitchcock. Whole weeks are devoted to Japanese, Korean, Iranian, and Latin American horror. Recent screenings for the class have featured Tomas Alfredsson’s “Let the Right One In” and Andrzej Zulawski’s “Possession” mixed in with clips from George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” and Brian de Palma’s “Carrie,” depending on the discussion topic that week.

The class is not for the faint of heart—there is a lot of film theory.

This semester there are two sections taught by FAVS adjunct faculty members and filmmakers Samirah Alkassim and Maillim “May” Santiago.

This is Santiago’s second semester teaching the course. She said she enjoys exposing students to films they wouldn’t ordinarily encounter.

“I try and bring in a lot of underappreciated, horror-specific films,” said Santiago, who also does a horror film podcast, Horrorspiria. “It's a really interesting genre to look at through the social lens. I like bringing that globalization angle and having frank discussions about it and how they feel about it.”

Samirah Alkassim

Many students in the classes are already horror fans. Computational and data sciences major Jared McDonough said he has read a lot of horror, but this is his first film class.

“I wanted to try out some parts of the horror genre that I hadn’t been exposed to,” he said.

Film and video studies major Thomas [student prefers to use first name] is one of the students choosing to do a video for his final project. His video is about vampires and will explore LGBT themes.

“During our vampire class, there was a lot of a discussion about hidden lives,” said Thomas. “I plan to explore that aspect in this video.”

The three- to five-minute video isn’t an easy project. Filmmakers have to turn in a film treatment early in the semester and provide a budget and shooting script when the video is completed. The project must reference some aspect of horror covered in class. They also have a screening of the videos at the end of the semester, and the instructors award extra credit to classmates willing to work on the productions.

Maillim "May" Santiago

Alkassim and Santiago are also working on book on the same topic with Ziad Foty of Catholic University, who has taught Mason’s Global Horror Film class in the past. The book is an edited anthology incorporating many of the readings the instructors already use along with some original essays.

“We all feel like there are some gaps in the scholarship about horror cinema, gaps really specific to areas in the world,” said Alkassim, who writes about Arab cinema. “And that is not because there are no horror films in those areas, but because most of the scholarship is Western based.”

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts Film and Video Studies

Campus News

Mason Trailblazer: Nikyatu Jusu

In This Story

Topics

'Parkland Rising' producers discuss documentary as part of Mason’s Visiting Filmmakers Series

President Washington updates Safe Return to Campus

Tracking pandemic conditions

Changing of conditions, change of plans

Why not just keep campuses closed and go all online?

The academic calendar remains the same

Staff on campus

Residence halls will stay open throughout the semester

Pre-move in testing required for all residential students

Daily health checks required for all who step onto campus

Voluntary testing throughout the semester

Safety measures being taken in our classrooms

Reminders to do our part

President Washington addresses Safe Return To Campus

Instruction

Coming back to campus

Reducing campus density

Public health and safety

Shared commitment to each other

GMU-TV wins six Tellys for videos showcasing research, student programs

Mason honors 2020 graduates with a virtual celebration featuring Stacey Abrams

Visiting Filmmakers Series at Mason goes online with more speakers and a wider potential audience

Horror films bring a global perspective

Topics

Explore Film and Video Studies