The University’s largest college announced its graduation speaker lineup this week, tapping two seniors with hefty research backgrounds to speak on the National Mall next month.
Columbian College of Arts and Science seniors Paul Seltzer and Adam Bethke, both Luther Rice undergraduate fellows, will each address their classmates during one of the school’s ceremonies May 18.
Bethke, who will pursue a master’s of public administration at GW next year as a Presidential Administrative Fellow, credited the mentorship of GW faculty and staff and the University’s Honors program, which he said challenged him to draw connections between diverging areas of study. The former Fulbright Summer Institute scholar said his research helped make the difference at GW.
“I think undergraduate research experiences through the fellowships at the University have challenged me to think critically and expand on the knowledge that classes have taught,” Bethke, who is wrapping up a degree in criminal justice and political science, said.
Seltzer is a women’s studies major who helps run a campus blog promoting feminism. He touted his department’s support from an array of professors, including Jennifer Nash, who was also selected to speak at a graduation ceremony.
“It indicates that women’s studies, and liberal arts more generally, play an enormously important role in not just making knowledge, but using that knowledge to make a better world,” Seltzer, who is involved with the Progressive Student Union, said.
Students earning their master’s or doctorate degrees will hear from public policy student Simon McNorton. The England-native previously spent a year in Rajasthan, India as an Indicorps fellow focusing on education and social justice. In addition to his role as a senior policy fellow at the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, McNorton works with Teachers Without Borders.
The University also announced its professor speakers: American studies professor Jennifer Nash and sociology and international affairs professor Daina Eglitis for undergraduates, and history professor Denver Brunsman for advanced degree students.
“After four years of higher education, I want to remind graduates of an under-appreciated virtue: playfulness,” Nash, a law and feminism scholar, said. The three-time Harvard alumna’s most recent work looked at the portrayal of black female bodies in hard-core pornography.
Eglitis, a former Fulbright scholar, studies social stratification in post-Communism Europe, as well as income inequality among Western states.
Brunsman teaches a course at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, and said he plans to address the legacy of the University’s namesake.
“One of Washington’s greatest regrets in life was not having a formal education,” Brunsman said.
