While many of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences' students will travel abroad this winter, 20 of them are headed to places likes Israel, Palestine, London, Switzerland, Greece, and Turkey thanks to awards from Mason's Center for Global Education.

Martin Winkler adds to his impressive list of publications on Classics and cinema with a new study published by Cambridge University Press. Cinema and Classical Texts interprets films as visual texts and provides the first systematic demonstration of the affinities between Greco-Roman literature and the cinema. It examines major themes from classical myth and history such as the question of heroism and patriotism in war and the representation of women like Helen of Troy and Cleopatra as products of male desire and fantasy.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences announces a memorial service for Jeffrey Chamberlain, professor and chair of Modern and Classical Languages, who died in September. The memorial will take place on Wednesday, Feb.3, 2010, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts. Chamberlain served on the Mason faculty for 26 years.

Artistic performances by Mason students in the languages that they are learning, Polyglot Performances enters its third year. A celebration of linguistic diversity and multicultural understanding, this year's event honors the life of Jeff Chamberlain, department chair and associate professor of French, who recently lost his long battle with pancreatic cancer.

On Monday Nov. 9, 2009, students at George Mason University celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by tearing down a replica that was built on campus. The wall, complete with graffiti, was built by students as part of Freedom Without Walls – a series of events organized by Mason's faculty and students.

Esperanza Roman-Mendoza, associate professor of Spanish, was awarded the 2009 Teaching with Technology Award. She was one of six Teaching Excellence Award winners that were selected by the university through a competitive process in which they documented their educational excellence. Award winners received a $2,000 stipend and $1,000 to support their teaching and learning activities.

In fall 2009, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages will offer a new course in Arabic Media, FRLN 330. The course is designed to provide students with the basic skills and vocabulary required for understanding the language of newspapers, magazines, television and internet news.

Spanish professor Lisa Rabin supervised a class in the summer of 2009 that connected Mason students with residents of Culmore, a low-income area near Falls Church, VA. As shown in this video, Mason students taught immigrants and day laborers English as a second language.

Vassily Aksyonov, Professor Emeritus of Russian Literature and Writing, died on Monday, July 6, in Moscow. He was 76. According to news reports, he had been in the hospital since January 2008 after suffering a stroke. In December 2004, Aksyonov received the Open Russia Booker Prize, which is awarded for the best Russian novel of the year. His award, presented in Moscow, was for “Voltairiens and Voltairiennes,” a historical narrative about 18th-century Russia laced with hints and prophecies about contemporary political issues.

Mason's French Club offers students and exciting set of options, including meetings and parties with cultural food exploration, films and more.