Rubenstein, Faculty Member of the Year, took time to find his calling

Melanie Balog — Fri, 12 May 2017 09:25:14 +0000

Rubenstein, Faculty Member of the Year, took time to find his calling Melanie Balog Fri, 05/12/2017 - 05:25

Richard Rubenstein

It’s right around 1958 and a young Richard Rubenstein is at a crossroads. He’s about to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard College but still has questions about his future. He goes to the campus preacher.

“I told him, ‘I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,’” he said.

His mother had set a high bar, Rubenstein said, telling him she thought he could be the first Jewish president of the United States.

The preacher spoke about “the calling,” an intense feeling of knowing exactly what one needs to do with one’s life. He assured Rubenstein he would experience it, too, when the time was right.

So he practiced law in Washington, D.C., for a few years before finding himself involved in the antiwar movement in Chicago during the explosive unrest of the 1960s.

That’s when a friend from the Black Power Movement suggested he come teach at Malcom X Community College.

“I walked into the classroom and ‘Bam!’ This is what the preacher meant, this is the calling,” Rubenstein said.

Research, teaching and writing form a holy trinity of sorts for Rubenstein, earning him great praise from his George Mason University colleagues who nominated him for the honor he now holds, Faculty Member of the Year.

He’s been teaching at George Mason since 1987. In those 29 years, Rubenstein has had a lasting impact on the students he meets and teaches.

Many alumni say he’s the reason they chose Mason, said Maria Seniw, director of development for the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and a Mason alumna.

“He understands which students would benefit from an education at S-CAR. He also understands what types of students will help S-CAR grow,” she said.

Rubenstein said teaching is a little like parenting; he views his students as sort of a quasi-family. He’s learned a great deal from his students, as many of them come from conflict-ridden places.

“They’ll teach you about conflict as much as you teach them,” Rubenstein said.

Conflict and resolution caught his interest at an early age. He describes his parents as “scrappy Truman liberals.” His mother was very political in the 1940s, a time when it was uncommon for women to voice their strong political opinions.

Discussing politics was also a way for him to bond with his father.

“It made me realize that conflicts are great, as long as it’s for a constructive purpose,” Rubenstein said. "This is exactly how the founders of our school, scholar-activists like John Burton and Jim Laue, felt about conflict. Constructive conflict is the road to social change."

Rubenstein was honored at the Mason Alumni Association’s annual Celebration of Distinction on April 25.

Nigerian first lady visits Mason, discusses Boko Haram, women and children’s health

Melanie Balog — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 17:11:37 +0000

Nigerian first lady visits Mason, discusses Boko Haram, women and children’s health Melanie Balog Mon, 08/08/2016 - 13:11

Nigerian first lady Aisha Muhammadu Buhari visited George Mason University on Thursday to discuss the need for changes to increase positive health outcomes for Nigerian women and girls.

Buhari, the wife of Nigerian President Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, spoke on the kidnapping and the attacks on Nigerian women and children by Boko Haram, an insurgency group that operated in the mountainous northeast region of Nigeria.

“The Boko Haram issue, it is a global issue attached to terrorism, which needs to be addressed globally,” she said, adding that, thanks to ideas and help from the international community, “we can now say we have successfully fought the Boko Haram insurgence.”

What they are facing now is the post-war situation. Many women and children have been rescued, but they are in terrible condition and suffer from malnutrition.

That’s why Buhari visited the Washington, D.C., region—to speak for the voiceless women in Nigeria who are suffering silently, she said.

“I and my entourage are in the right place where our voices will be heard,” she said. “Me being here tonight will change their condition forever.”

George Mason has about a dozen students as well as several faculty and staff members from Nigeria.

Mason PhD student Ernest Ogbozor, a Ford Foundation International Fellow in Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, said Buhari’s visit was important to him as a Nigerian native. The first lady’s Future Assured program, an initiative that aims to improve the health and well-being of women and children, has direct relevance to Ogbozor’s doctoral research, which explores the effects and response to Boko Haram in rural communities in the Chad Basin. His wife, Onyinyechi Ogbozor, plans to begin her master’s degree in nutrition and food studies this fall at Mason.

Buhari also talked about the education of girls in Nigeria and current plans to hold an international summit on the issue.

If girls are properly educated, then the infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria will decrease, she said.

“Once a woman is educated, she will know how to take care of herself,” she said.

Buhari was the guest of honor at a luncheon hosted by Mason’s Office of Global Strategy, Office of Admissions, the College of Health and Human Services, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Jamie Rogers

Rubenstein, Faculty Member of the Year, took time to find his calling

Nigerian first lady visits Mason, discusses Boko Haram, women and children’s health