Prize-Winning Projects
- Finding Sarah Ann
- Fade to White – Ilda and the Right to Remain
- Bridgett Town: How Hostile Nostalgia Obscured its Memory and how Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space Could Bring it Back
- Separate, But Not So Equal
- Partus Sequitur Ventrum "That Which is Born Follows the Womb"
- The Retelling of the Spring Bank Resistance
- Jennie Dean's Community
- More Than Books: The Truth Behind Segregated Libraries in Northern Virginia
These projects were selected from among graduate and undergraduate student web exhibits created as course work for "Black Lives Next Door: Geographies of Inequity," taught in Spring 2023 by professors George Oberle and Wendi Manuel-Scott. A panel of four Mason faculty members selected three winners ($1,000 each) and an honorable mention ($500) from each group. In addition, the best graduate and undergrad projects received the Andy Smith Prize ($3,000), named for an African American man removed from his home in the 1960s after George Mason College acquired the land on which it sat.
Judging' criteria included a well-developed thesis with linkages to critical theories of Black geography, compelling engagement with a variety of primary sources, and a demonstration of critical care of Black life in Northern Virginia. Judges also looked for projects incorporating a strong visual narrative with images and maps. Prizes were made possible by a generous grant from LYRASIS.
Winning undergraduate projects were: Shemika Curvey, “Partus Sequitur Ventrum: That Which is Born Follows the Womb” (Andy Smith Prize); Tosin Olamrewaju, “The Retelling of the Spring Bank Resistance;” Sam Huff, “More Than Books: The Truth Behind Segregated Libraries in Northern Virginia;” and Jasper Ramsey, “Jennie Dean's Community” (Honorable Mention).
Winning graduate projects were: Annabelle Spencer, “Finding Sarah Ann” (Andy Smith Prize); Mandy Katz, “Fade to White – Ilda and the Right to Remain;” Kris Nohe, “Bridgett Town: How Hostile Nostalgia Obscured its Memory and how Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space Could Bring it Back;” and Stephanie Martinez, “Separate But Self-Determined: Black Education & Community in Occoquan” (Honorable Mention).
Selected students presented their projects on May 11, 2023, at a symposium in George Mason's Fenwick Library.