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March - 2026

Mar 26	Panel Discussion: Unchained Waters: Freedom and Control in a Thirsty World Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Access to clean water is more than a human necessity, it is a question of freedom, power, and justice. This interdisciplinary panel examines water as both a force for liberation and a tool of control. From communities transformed by the digging of a single well, to regions destabilized when water becomes weaponized, to racial and social inequities exposed by crises like Flint, Michigan, this conversation asks: How can water be a pathway to freedom rather than a barrier to it? Panelists include VWU Professors Elizabeth Malcolm, Ph.D., (Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences); James Moskowitz (Political Science); Levi Tenen, Ph.D., (Philosophy), and Andrew Reese of the Thirst Project with VWU Student Laila Jones ’26 serving as moderator. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

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 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.