Past Events

Blood and Treasure: Captives, Smugglers, and the Slave Ship, ‘Wildfire”

Introducing the C.V Starr Center’s new deputy director: Ted Maris-Wolf! Maris-Wolf’s talk about nearly three thousand enslaved Africans who were seized from slave ships by the U.S. Navy illuminates a crucial moment in history, when an otherwise indifferent president launched the nation’s strongest-ever attack on the international slave trade.

Maris-Wolf, who will join the Starr Center full-time in May, is currently Assistant Professor of History at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. His work has focused on law, race, and the idea of freedom in 19th century America, as well as on runaway slave communities, the transatlantic slave trade, and the threads of history and memory that connect the United States with the Caribbean and West Africa.
Neal Gabler: The Art of Biography

Neal Gabler is the 2013 Patrick Henry Writing Fellow at the Starr Center. Gabler is an author, cultural historian, screenwriter, producer, critic, and commentator who has been called “one of America’s most important public intellectuals.” From now until May, he is in residence in Chestertown with a writing and teaching fellowship at Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. Gabler has chronicled American politics and culture through the stories of extraordinary lives, writing prizewinning biographies of Walt Disney, Walter Winchell, and early Hollywood movie moguls. He has won many awards, including an Emmy, two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a frequent commentator on television and in the press. While in residence at the Starr Center, he will be working on a book about the late Senator Edward Kennedy and modern American politics. He is also teaching a semester-long course at Washington College, “The Art of Biography,” offered through the Department of English and the American Studies Program. Event video here.
Student Research Presentations

Participants in the Comegys Bight Fellowship Program who received stipends to support summer internships in high-level historical research gave presentations about their experiences.
Anatomy of an Election Series: Technology

A review in The New Republic called it “a timely, rare, and valuable attempt to unveil the innovations revolutionizing campaign politics.” Journalist Sasha Issenberg spoke about his recently published bookThe Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns about how today’s campaigns are run by teams of technicians using statistics, behavioral psychology and data-mining to determine just how millions of Americans will vote. Issenberg’s lecture was the second installment in the “Anatomy of an Election” series.
Clare Burson & Anna Solomon
Smartest Major on Campus - 2013
Neal Gabler: The Art of Biography (video)
DJ Obella in the Goose Nest

Obella Obbo ’14 DJ’d the night away on Satruday. The Goose Nest was open for business serving beer, wine and complimentary soft drinks.
Students Flock to the Goose Nest

The Goose Nest offers weekend entertainment in a club atmosphere, with food, beverages, games, and live music.

Throughout the opening weekend, the Nest hosted the music of alumnus Kentavius Jones, a night of karaoke, and two Super Bowl events.

The Goose Nest is open Sundays through Thursdays from 12:00 noon -12:00 midnight and from 12:00 noon - 1:00 a.m. on Fridays.
Welcome to the Goose Nest

The Goose Nest in Hodson Hall Commons underwent a transformation over winter break to include redesigned spaces for meeting, relaxing, and playing games.
Blitz Ball

The WAC Historical Society, Phi Alpha Theta, Art History Club, and International Relations Club hosted a 1940’s Blitz Ball! Students, faculty, and staff danced the fox trot, lindy hop, charleston, and some danced their own combination of dances all in the name of good historical fun. All proceeds went to the veterans.
Puppies on the Green!

Students in need of a break got a special treat thanks to the Student Events Board and the Kent County Humane Society. On November 15, several puppies invaded the Hodson Green for some late semester Pet Therapy.
Presidential Election 2012

On November 6, many students had the chance to vote in their first Presidential Election and watch as the results came in.
Sharing Secrets

On February 17, 2012, Service Council hosted a Post Secret event in honor of Mental Health Awareness week, posting over 100 secrets that Washington College students wrote throughout the week.
Louis Masur and Lincoln’s Hundred Days

Marking the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, acclaimed historian Louis Masur spoke about his book Lincoln’s Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union. His book reveals the political, moral and personal concerns that plagued Abraham Lincoln in the 100 days between September 22, 1862, when he first presented a formal draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, and New Year’s Day 1863, when he signed a much-altered final version of the executive order.
Pi Sigma Alpha Induction Dinner

The Political Science department hosted a dinner for current members and new inductees into the Pi Sigma Alpha honor society.
Class Gifts at Alumni Weekend 2012

As part of Alumni Weekend, President Mitchell Reiss hosted a continental breakfast in Hynson Lounge during which class representatives presented gifts to the College.
Smartest Major Competition

The Student Events Board hosted the Smartest Major competition in the Egg. Student teams from Business Management, Chemistry, Economics, and Philosophy competed for a $500 to be awarded to the club of their choice.
The Ballad of Bob Dylan

Acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein offered an intimate and nuanced look at Bob Dylan, the legendary singer-songwriter and the most important lyricist America has ever produced. In his talk, Epstein framed Dylan against the background of four seminal concerts performed over four decades and explored the larger context of the artist’s life, from his meteoric rise as a young folksinger through his reemergence in the 1990s and his role as the éminence grise of rock and roll today. Washington College student Tim Meren ‘13 ended the evening with a performance one of his favorite Bob Dylan classics.
President’s Day Trivia

The SGA Academic Committee hosted President’s Day Trivia in Hodson Student Lounge with pizza, drinks, and prizes.
The Invisible Line: A Secret History of Race in America

One of the most persistent of the myths that Americans tell themselves about race is that the line between black and white is a matter of genetics rather than choice. Law professor and historian Daniel Sharfstein, with his book The Invisible Line, delved into the dramatic stories of three black families who responded to times of great racial upheaval by seizing opportunities to reinvent themselves as white. Sharfstein found an antebellum Southern family that – after covertly crossing the line from black to white – became wealthy sugar planters, slaveholders, and ardent Confederates.
Open Mic Night

The Office of Student Activities hosted an Open Mic Night in the Egg to kick off the spring semester.
Cleopatra’s Sisters Discussion Panel

Cleopatra’s Sisters hosted a panel focusing on women’s choices in the present and past, exploring experiences from different female perspectives.
Ian Bagg

The Student Events Board presented comedian Ian Bagg as part of Comedy Week 2011.
Sisters Exchange

Cleopatra’s Sisters celebrated the first Sister’s Exchange in Hynson Lounge with a signing of the Cleo’s constitution. Cleopatra’s Sisters is an organization of diverse women on campus dedicated to community service and advocacy for women’s issues.
International Dinner

The WC community gathered in Hynson Lounge to recognize the achievements of international students.
Guns, Gangs, and Cartels

Howard J. Wiarda, one of the nation’s most respected and influential scholars on Latin America and U.S. policy in the region, spoke on the topic of “Guns, Gangs and Cartels: Hemispheric Security in the New Millennium.” His talk was presented by the Louis L. Goldstein ’35 Program in Public Affairs.
American Grace

David Campbell’s study of America’s religious attitudes and institutions has revealed a surprising mix of polarization and tolerance. Offering a mix of historical sweep and detailed narrative, American Grace follows the decline of religious observance in the 1960s, its resurgence in the 1970s and ’80s with the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right, and the exodus of young people from organized religion in the 1990s. A reviewer for Publishers Weeklyapplauded authors Campbell and Putnam for persuasively arguing two apparent contradictory theses: “First, that a ‘new religious fault line’ exists in America, a deep political polarization that has transcended denominationalism as the greatest chasm in religious life; and second, that the culture is becoming so much more accepting of diversity that the first thesis will not tear the country apart.”
Enchantment Under the Sea Dance

Alumni gathered danced the night away in Hodson Hall Commons and reunited with old friends at the Jazz Club and Martini Bar.
50th Reunion Dinner

The 50th Reunion Class Reception and Dinner brought back the Class of 1961 and friends together in Hynson Lounge, followed by a social in the Hodson Hall Commons Study Lounge.
Ned Sublette

Ned Sublette, the 2011 Patrick Henry Fellow at the C.V Starr Center for the American Experience, returned to the Egg to give an encore performance as he neared the end of his fellowship at Washington College.
Relay for Life Survivor Dinner
Open House | Photos with George

During the Spring Open House, prospective students had the opportunity to take a photo with the iconic bust of George Washington.
Apollo Night

The third annual Apollo Night fundraiser for Autism and Diabetes brought students and guest artists together for a variety of performances.
Heads You Win!

The Student Events Board hosted Heads You Win, in which eleven students challenged each other to brave the cold for the longest amount of time while sustaining contact with the head of George Washington.