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February - 2026
Feb 5 |
Ethics Bowl Demonstration: Ethics in Business The Truist Lighthouse, Clarke Hall 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Virginia Wesleyan’s 2026 Ethics Bowl Team presents a public demonstration in advance of the statewide collegiate Applied Ethics Bowl sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. Students from seventeen independent colleges and universities in Virginia debate real-world dilemmas related to this year’s theme, Ethics in Business, examining tensions between corporate responsibility, community impact, and ethical leadership. Join us in supporting the team as they prepare for competition. |
Feb 9 |
Nusbaum Center at Night: America’s Quirkiest Civic Liturgy: The Very Odd Pledge of Allegiance ZOOM 7:00 p.m. - 7:40 p.m. Craig Wansink, Ph.D., shares "America’s Quirkiest Civic Liturgy: The Very Odd Pledge of Allegiance," on ZOOM. Registration Required by noon the day of. Register with kjackson@vwu.edu or 757.455.3129 Written as a marketing campaign, revised repeatedly, and once paired with a hand gesture that looked like a Nazi salute, the Pledge of Allegiance has a stranger history than most Americans realize. In this virtual talk, Robert Nusbaum Center Director Craig Wansink explores how a curious text became a sacred national ritual—and what its evolution reveals about freedom, loyalty, and American identity. |
Feb 12 |
Justine L. Nusbaum Lecture: High for a Higher Power? God, Drugs, and Religious Freedom Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 a.m. America guarantees freedom of religion—but what happens when belief pushes legal and cultural boundaries? Drawing on real cases involving psychedelic sacraments and religious-freedom claims, Brad Stoddard, author of The Production of Entheogenic Communities in the United States, examines how law, belief, and power collide in contemporary America, raising difficult questions about sincerity, authority, and who gets to define “real religion.” For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Feb 19 |
A Dream Deferred: Black Excellence, Voice, and Resistance Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Through spoken word, music, a Frederick Douglas historical reenactment, visual art, and student scholarship, this evening explores Black excellence as sustained moral pressure on a nation slow to fulfill its promises. Inspired by Langston Hughes’s question—What happens to a dream deferred? — the program examines freedom promised, postponed, and pursued across generations. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Feb 21 |
Marlins Day Open House VWU Campus 8:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Virginia Wesleyan University invites prospective students and their families to experience life as a Marlin at during Marlins Day Open House. This signature event is one of the best ways to explore all that VWU has to offer—academically, socially, and beyond. |
Feb 24 |
What You Learned About Sex and What That Tells Us About Religion and Race in the United States Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Evangelical purity culture has shaped American attitudes toward sexuality, education, and race in ways that reach far beyond religious communities. Sara Moslener, author of After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America, traces how evangelical Christians entered debates over sex education and formed powerful political alliances that continue to shape educational policy today. Examining purity culture helps us understand the roots of White Christian nationalism today and how it mobilized fears about sexuality and racial difference to gain political and cultural power. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
March - 2026
April - 2026
Apr 2 |
Are You Free to Trade? Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Are you free to trade? Can you sell your kidney? Choose any investment? Buy the house you want? Often, the answer is no. Economist Garrett Wood explores how markets, laws, and ethics shape the limits of economic freedom—and asks what those limits reveal about justice, power, and collective responsibility. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Apr 9 |
Freedom to Laugh: Comedy, Taboo, and the Line Between Humor and Harm in the Theatre Blocker Hall Auditorium 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Comedy can challenge power, expose truth, and sometimes cause harm. This panel examines humor at the edge—asking who gets to joke about what (and why that keeps shifting), when does humor liberate and when does it harm, and why does comedy feel safer behind a puppet, a character, or a fictional mask. If democracy depends on free expression, where does satire fit, and what freedoms does humor test, challenge, or stretch? Join Virginia Wesleyan Theatre Professors Travis Malone, Ph.D., and Sally Shedd, Ph.D., along with Judaic Studies Professor Eric M. Mazur, Ph.D., for a serious discussion about humor. And come to see Avenue Q (April 9-12), this spring’s mainstage theatre production in the Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center. Avenue Q is a wildly irreverent, puppet-filled musical that follows a group of twenty-somethings trying to figure out adulthood. For tickets, go to The Arts at VWU online. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Apr 10 - 11 |
Spring Alumni Weekend |
Apr 11 |
Marlins Day Open House VWU Campus 8:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Virginia Wesleyan University invites prospective students and their families to experience life as a Marlin at during Marlins Day Open House. This signature event is one of the best ways to explore all that VWU has to offer—academically, socially, and beyond. |
Apr 13 |
Nusbaum Center at Night: Glory, Glory, Ambiguity: The Strange Journey of The Battle Hymn of the Republic ZOOM 7:00 p.m. - 7:40 p.m. From abolitionist anthem to civil rights rallying cry, Robert Nusbaum Center Director Craig Wansink traces how a single song became sacred scripture, political propaganda, and a prayer for justice—revealing freedom as an evolving and contested American ideal. Please register to join this virtual conversation and explore how American freedom is not a fixed idea but an ongoing argument that every generation reclaims. Registration Required by noon the day of. Register with kjackson@vwu.edu or 757.455.3129 |
Apr 14 |
Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion Blocker Auditorium 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Drawing from Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion, Charles Ford brings to light LGBTQ+ stories long omitted from Virginia history—revealing how queer Virginians carved out spaces of belonging under hostile laws and social norms, demonstrating resilience, creativity, and courage in the pursuit of freedom, visibility, and equality. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Apr 23 |
Home Is a Poem: Poetry, the American Dream, and Unhoused Voices Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. As the nation marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, we are reminded that freedom—like the American Dream—is both a promise and a pursuit. This program features poetry written and performed by individuals who have experienced housing insecurity. Their words offer insight into what freedom feels like when home, stability, and voice are uncertain. The poetry is followed by conversation with Thaler McCormick, CEO of ForKids, and Robert Shoup, Founding Artistic Director of the Norfolk Street Choir Project, as they explore how art and music, community, and advocacy can help build futures grounded in dignity, belonging, and economic security. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
May - 2026
May 1 |
Academic Symposium / Spring Honors Convocation |
May 16 |
Commencement Ceremony |