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 . 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.
For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. Learn more |
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. Learn more |
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. Òùµ´ÉÙ¸¾ 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. Learn more |
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. |
Mar 5 |
Carrying Freedom: The Hidden History of the Purse in America Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. In this talk, historian Kathleen Casey discusses how purses functioned as portable private spaces—carrying tools of resistance, survival, and autonomy throughout the civil rights and gay liberation movements. Through vivid stories from her new book, The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America, Casey reveals how something as ordinary as a purse became an extraordinary vessel of freedom in the enduring struggle for equality.
For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Mar 9 |
Nusbaum Center at Night: Liberty, Lies, and Lazarus: The Statue We Think We Know Zoom 7:00 p.m. - 7:40 p.m. Beloved and iconic, the Statue of Liberty has long carried contested meanings. From abolitionist critique to immigrant hope, Robert Nusbaum Center Director Craig Wansink explores how this familiar monument became a canvas for competing visions of freedom—and why those debates still matter. Please register to join us for this virtual discussion. Registration Required by noon the day of. Register with kjackson@vwu.edu or 757.455.3129 |
Mar 12 |
Liberators or Occupiers?: Rethinking America’s First ‘Good War’ Brock Commons 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. In his new book, Splendid Liberators: Heroism, Betrayal, Resistance, and the Birth of American Empire, Joe Jackson examines the Spanish-American War as a formative moment when America’s identity shifted from republic to empire. Focusing on the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, Jackson traces how the language of liberation was used to justify U.S. expansion, blurring the line between freedom and authority, independence and occupation. This talk invites us to reconsider a war long framed as righteous and to ask what freedom meant then, and for whom. For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu. |
Mar 16 - 20 |
Spring Break |
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. |
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 - 12 |
VWU Theatre Presents Avenue Q, Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopex and Jeff Marx Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center VWU Theatre presents Avenue Q, Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopex and Jeff Marx. Book by Jeff Whitty. Based on the original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. April 9 through April 11 at 7:30 p.m.; April 12 at 2:00 p.m. AVENUE Q is a gut-bustingly hilarious modern musical focusing on a group of unique 20- somethings making their way in the big city, seeking their purpose in life. Although the show addresses humorous adult issues, it is similar to a beloved children's show; a place where puppets are friends, Monsters are good and life lessons are learned. Winner of the Tony "Triple Crown" for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, AVENUE Q is part flesh, part felt, and packed with heart. AVENUE Q is a laugh-out-loud musical that tells the timeless story of a recent college grad named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. He soon discovers that although the residents seem nice, it's clear that this is not your ordinary neighborhood. Together, Princeton and his new-found friends struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life. WARNING: Adult language, themes, and puppet nudity. Directed by Travis Malone, Music Direction by Cristina Loyola, Choreography by Stephanie Greeves & Desiree Frogosa |
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. Òùµ´ÉÙ¸¾ 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. Learn more |
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 Learn more |
Apr 14 |
Queer Virginia: New Stories in the Old Dominion Blocker Auditorium 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Drawing from , 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. Learn more |
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. Learn more |
