Center For Mason Legacies
Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial
The EPGM project seeks to reconstruct the 18th-century experiences of enslaved children and adults on the Gunston Hall Plantation in order to raise awareness about the namesake of George Mason University.
Black Lives Next Door
The ongoing project “Black Lives Next Door” began during the summer of 2020. Six undergraduates, three faculty members, and two doctoral candidates conducted an
investigation into the early years of George Mason College, the universities’ institutional predecessor. Student researchers asked a series of questions about early institutional policies concerning Black students, African American campus life, and a campus culture of racial discrimination. The research team used an interdisciplinary methodological approach, and their findings revealed a troubling past despite the university's being the most diverse institution in Virginia today.
Mason Family Account Book
In 2012, the University Libraries acquired a Mason family manuscript account book documenting the business, family, and personal accounts of Stevens Thomson Mason (1760- 1803) and his son, Armistead Thomson Mason (1787-1819). Professors Cynthia Kierner and George Oberle co-taught a documentary editing course in Spring 2020 using the Mason family account book. Through this course, students began transcribing entries from the account book and conducting related biographical research of
the people in the account book. This transcription and research project is ongoing and will lead to a valuable, public online research tool.
Complicating Mason HUB
The Complicating Mason Hub represents a critically reflexive collection of records related to the Mason family and their tangled history of settler-colonial dispossession, enslavement, and commitment to political rights for a limited few. The Hub also includes the forthcoming George Mason University History Trail, which offers an interactive learning experience exploring the history of named buildings on campus, the complex backgrounds of the individuals they commemorate, and an examination of the origins of institutional traditions, while also acknowledging a diversity of people and histories that shaped these spaces.
Recent Research
Our purpose
Teaching Resources
We offer methods of research, teaching, and scholarship around the history of Northern Virginia, and serving as a resource for people interested in the complexities of the past and its relationship to the present.
Sharing Stories
We are guided by a non-bias methodology to create a digital repository that serves as a tool to connect and make legible myriad histories visible.
Our research services are centered around the communities of Mason, Northern Virginia, K12 educators, local government agencies, grant funding institutions and agencies.
