Simon Nicholson is professor who teaches in the School of International Service and specializes in global environmental politics. Before his academic home was in the Global Scholars office, he worked in the Galapagos with cross-curricular graduate programs, on a cruise ship headed around the world, and at a law school in New Zealand. Professor Nicholson [...]

Alison Thomas is a professor in the AU Department of Literature, teaching college writing and creative writing, including a humor-centric writing colloquium for Spring 2013. Her recent nonfiction work, “A Telescope at the Sky,” was featured in Best American Essays 2011. In addition to teaching at AU, she is involved with 826DC, a branch of [...]

Sally Shelton-Colby, former diplomat, has worked all over the world—literally. After her Fulbright in Paris, she worked for the US Senate and then for the Department of State as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Latin America. Shelton-Colby moved back to Paris to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, then moved to Mexico to [...]

The Smithsonian Institution is the standard to which all museums are set. The dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum, the steam engines in the National Museum of History, the Spirit of St. Louis in the Air and Space Museum and the paintings at the National Gallery of Art have drawn tourists to DC for decades. [...]

Just got back from study abroad? Struggling to express your transcendental experience with words? Need a great closer for your travel blog? Consider AWOL’s handy, travel-sized abroad experience template to deflect the onslaught of nosy inquiries from friends and family. Just follow the steps below and let AWOL provide the informative, detailed, and sometimes condescending [...]

Are you tired of the same old shelves at Kramerbooks? Confused by the organization at Capitol Hill Books? Intimidated by the speakers at Politics and Prose? Then sigh no more, dear reader, for Washington wasn’t named the most literate city in America for the second year in a row without due reason. Resident AWOL Overbearing-But-Well-Intentioned [...]

Whether it’s composting with worms or taking care of AU’s beehive (yes, we have bees!), International Development Professor Eve Bratman is always looking for ways to live more sustainability. This “green pirate” makes a yearly pilgrimage to Brazil for her research. Earlier this year, she asked the provocative question, “Is DC a Third World City?” [...]

To avoid offending our readers, AWOL has decided to publish the following piece with a few changes. Originally a commentary satirizing the conditions of AU dorms by advising how to raise a child in the residence halls, we have slightly altered the following article to enhance its commentary, correctness and humor. The word “child” has [...]

“This show is brought to you by the letters H and R and the number 57,” drawls Jimmy “June Bug” Jackson as he strolls toward the stage. “Let’s give it up for our guest drummer, Emily!”  He situates himself behind his tarnished brass drum set, where a recent SPA alumus sat moments before. June Bug [...]

At American University, students have formed a bold new coalition in response to insulting rumors that students do not live in the DC Metro area, but simply study in their adopted city. The coalition will prove that AU students are capable of escaping campus, thriving in Washington, DC and contributing to the city’s culture. Motivated [...]