Sound Business 

For the third consecutive year, Billboard has dropped the needle on Kogod, naming its business and entertainment (BAE) program one of the best music business schools for 2025. 

The recognition spotlights programs that connect coursework with the pulse of the industry, from music publishing and the streaming economy to live shows and brand development, “affirming that rigor and creativity can live in the same classroom,” says Kogod dean David Marchick. 

Kogod’s BAE program, rooted in the business fundamentals, was established in 2013 by Professor Emeritus John Simson, former CEO of SoundExchange and a longtime entertainment lawyer. Students take immersive trips to entertainment hubs like Los Angeles, Austin, and New York and visit labels, streaming platforms, venues, and agencies.

During the fall semester, Eagles in the Representing Talent class help stage Kogod’s annual concert with support from Gary Veloric, Kogod/BSBA ’82, and family. Genre bender Tinashe took the stage on November 14 at Bender Arena.

Darwin in the Dark

Last summer, a small team of AU researchers led by environmental science professor Steve MacAvoy ventured into southwestern Virginia caves to investigate how a species of amphipod (Gammarus minus)—a tiny, shrimp-like crustacean—is evolving in the absence of light.

The group—whose work was funded by the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias—included Kevin Wetherell, CAS/BS ’27; John Harding, CAS/BS ’26; and Will Farmer, CAS/MS ’19.

The team discovered that above ground, Gammarus minus feeds on decaying leaves in freshwater springs; in the dark caves, however, a scarcity of organic debris has led it to develop noticeably different mouthparts. 

This morphological shift “suggests the cave-dwelling amphipods may be turning into predators or scavengers,” MacAvoy explains, marking the beginning of a rare “evolutionary divergence.”

Wetherell, a biology major, collected samples and helped create a method for neutralizing rock and shell fragments with acid. “It was the most like a scientist I have ever felt,” he says. 

Award-Winning Truth

Mother Jones’ five-part investigative series “40 Acres and a Lie”—championed by Alexia Fernández Campbell, SOC/MA ’13, then a reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, and produced in partnership with SOC’s Investigative Reporting Workshop (IRW)—has continued to garner accolades a year after its publication.

Using data from the former US Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, the reporting team, which included the Center for Investigative Reporting, identified 1,250 formerly enslaved people who received land reparations after the Civil War that were later stripped away. They also found 41 living descendants—many of whom had no idea their ancestors received the land.

The series was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting; it also won an Edward R. Murrow Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, and a National Association of Black Journalists 2025 Salute to Excellence Award. 

Several Eagles contributed to the project: Sophie Austin, SOC/BA ’21; Ileana Garnand, SOC/MA ’23; and Audrey Hill, SOC-SPA/BA ’24. Hill, a former IRW fellow, says that while accolades are gratifying, the series’ true significance lies in the “important conversations about race and reparations” it’s sparking.

History, Distilled

On Constitution Day, September 17, Anita McBride, director of AU’s First Ladies Initiative, announced a bold initiative that will explore the resilience of American democracy and its unyielding—though uneven—quest for a more perfect union. 

In Pursuit will feature 70 essays about and by former presidents and first ladies across the political spectrum, parsed out on Substack over the next decade. Described by McBride, cochair of the project, as “a catalog of wisdom for future generations,” the essays explore successes and failures, crises and characters, offering lessons in leadership.

In Pursuit will launch on Presidents’ Day, February 16, with an essay about George Washington by George W. Bush. 

In addition to the Bushes, Obamas, and Clintons, authors include Chief Justice John Roberts; General Stanley McChrystal; Carla Hayden, former librarian of Congress; and Lonnie Bunch, CAS/BA ’74, MA ’76, secretary of the Smithsonian. McBride, who served as chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush from 2005 to 2009, will write about Bess Truman. 

Motherhood, Mythologized

President Grover Cleveland once honored the grave site of Mary Ball Washington as a “national shrine,” but the focus was rarely on the woman herself. In her new book, The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth-Century America, history professor Kate Haulman explores the fascinating afterlife of George Washington’s mother, revealing how she was used to construct the nation’s origin story.

Haulman argues that Mary Ball Washington was less a historical figure than a potent political one—the “Mother of Washington”—created after her death. This persona became the ideal for “republican motherhood,” an image of domestic virtue and pious simplicity promoted by nineteenth-century elites and a direct counterpoint to women mobilizing for causes like abolition.

Haulman also chronicles why the decades-long effort to erect Mary’s monument in Fredericksburg, Virginia, became a battleground for national memory. While she was widely revered, “a monument to a woman was paradoxical” because it went against the public expectation that memorials be reserved for men and political figures.

When America put the mother of a nation on a pedestal, Haulman argues, it was done less to honor a woman than to control an idea.

Tesla’s Trifecta 

In a year marked by shifting supply chains and evolving trade policies, the 2025 Kogod Made in America Auto Index has crowned a familiar champion. 

For the third year in a row, Tesla asserted its dominance, sweeping the top three spots on the 12th annual list created by Frank DuBois, professor emeritus in the Department of Information Technology and Analytics. 

The index—which evaluates vehicles based on domestic content, assembly location, and component sourcing—ranked the Tesla Model 3 Long Range as No. 1. The electric giant’s vertical integration saw the Model Y and Model 3 Performance tie for second and the Cybertruck and Model S share third.

Jeep’s Gladiator and the Dodge Durango rounded out the top five.

Policies for Belonging

Grace Benson, SIS/PhD ’24, has been awarded the inaugural Cosmos Scholars Prize—a $25,000 grant from the Cosmos Club Foundation—for her dissertation, “Policies for Belonging: A Global Comparison of Refugee Resettlement Programs.”

At a time when refugee programs worldwide are rapidly shrinking, Benson’s research offers a critical road map for global stability. She conducted a comparative analysis across 26 countries and over 1,200 data sources, which led to concretepolicy recommendations to improve the programs’ accessibility and flexibility.

The impact of her work is immense. “At this early stage in her career, Dr. Benson is already a leading scholar on refugee resettlement,” says SIS professor Boaz Atzili, who chaired her dissertation committee. “Her meticulously [thorough] dataset is a first of its kind.”

The prize money allows Benson to immediately apply her findings. She is using the funding for a consultancy with theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to analyze resettlement programs in 34 countries.

“It’s a really hard time to be working in this field,” Benson says, “so it’s great to be able to continue my work in this way that’s not tied to federal research funds.” 

SUGER Boosts STEM

Spending last summer on campus came with a sweet perk for 35 Eagles enrolled in the Summer Undergraduate and Graduate Experience in Research (SUGER) program.

The eight-week professional development initiative is a partnership between AU and the NASA DC Space Grant Consortium. SUGER convened students from eight science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to develop career skills, expand networks, build community, and maximize their time in the lab. 

“Part of a student’s growth as a scientist is doing the work, but it’s also learning how to present and ask the right questions,” says biology professor Meg Bentley, director of STEM partnerships and innovation in CAS. This skill development is key to building confidence and preparing students for the next stage of their academic careers.

The program culminated on July 30, when students showcased research on topics like long COVID-19 and the impact of climate change on walrus populations.

Sydney Moss, CAS/BS ’25, worked with environmental science professor Andressa Monteiro Venturini to discover how land conversion in the Amazon is leading to the loss of plastic-degrading microbes. Using bioinformatics, they found thatland-use change impacted the abundance of microplastic-degrading fungi more than moisture did.