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End of Ewing Era Since 1920 FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023

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Georgetown Launches New Center for Study of Slavery, Its Legacies

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

The center’s launch event featured a performance by a jazz quartet and a screening of the film “City of a Million Dreams.”

Emily Han

Academics Desk Editor

eorgetown announced March 17 the formation of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies (CSSL), an academic initiative for research and interdisciplinary work to strengthen the university’s understanding of its history with slavery. In 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus who ran the university sold 314 enslaved people, known as the GU272+, to financially sustain the university. The CSSL will engage with faculty and student research, teaching efforts and collaborative programs that support Georgetown’s promise to confront its roots in slavery. Adam Rothman, the founding director of the CSSL, said the new center builds upon several university initiatives, making learning about Georgetown’s past more accessible. “Georgetown’s history and

historical involvement with slavery was never a secret,” Rothman told The Hoya. “People have been writing about it for a long time, but it was not widely known by the Georgetown community or the broader public. So I felt that one of our most important obligations as a university was to try to make this history known and to teach it.” Rothman also curates the Georgetown Slavery Archive, a repository on the Maryland Jesuits, Georgetown University and slavery. The archive was created by the Archives Subgroup of the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation and is one of many initiatives by Georgetown to research the university’s role in perpetuating slavery and to make reparations for Georgetown’s past. Rothman said he is working to engage students and several academic departments in the CSSL, some-

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Following the departure of former Head Coach Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), Georgetown University hired former Providence Friars Head Coach Ed Cooley to lead the Georgetown men’s basketball team.

Hoyas Hope to Rebound With Cooley Nina Raj, Michelle Vassilev, Carrie McDonald & Oliver Ni Senior News Editors and Senior Sports Editors

d Cooley, the former head coach of the Providence Friars, promised that a national championship win is on the horizon for the Georgetown University Hoyas. After a record-breaking Big East losing streak over the past two seasons resulted in the departure of Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), the university appointed Cooley as the new head coach of the Georgetown men’s basketball program March 20. Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) and Georgetown Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Lee See CENTER, A7 Reed held an official press

conference March 22 introducing Cooley as the new face of the program. Cooley said his journey into such a prestigious leadership position as a Black man from a low-income background proves that anything is possible. “I coach from experience, humility and appreciation,” Cooley told The Hoya. “I do not take anything for granted. The fact that I am the head coach of Georgetown right now says that dreams can come true, regardless of your background, regardless of what you look like.” Cooley transformed Providence from a conference bottom feeder to a perennial powerhouse, posting a 242153 record over his 12 seasons leading the Friars and earning seven NCAA Tournament berths. The team’s continuous improvements culminat-

ed in a Sweet 16 appearance that earned Cooley the 2022 Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year Award, an honor given annually to the best Division I basketball coach. Reed said Cooley quickly emerged as the leading candidate to usher in a new era of Hoya men’s basketball following the heavily criticized tenure of Ewing. “We needed a leader, someone who understood our identity and could re-imagine Georgetown basketball to fit today’s unique basketball landscape,” Reed said at the press conference. “Coach Cooley has a vision for our program on the court, in the classroom and in the community.” DeGioia said Cooley facilitates a healthy environment for players, both on and off the court. “Ed’s a builder,” DeGioia said at the press conference.

“He builds teams. He builds community. He understands what it means for a team to be successful on the court and, most importantly, the role that athletics can play in the formation of the young men on his team.” Although speculation surrounding Georgetown’s new coach started months before Ewing’s departure, the official hiring process lasted a mere 48 hours, beginning when Providence exited the NCAA Tournament. Georgetown, with support from management and consulting firm CRG, negotiated with Cooley and Dennis Coleman, who serves as a senior counsel at Ropes & Gray law firm, before quickly finalizing the decision. For Cooley, a cohesive community requires a See COOLEY, A7

Famed Novelist, GU Grad RF Kuang Speaks on Campus Anya Markovitz Special to The Hoya

he last time Rebecca F. Kuang (SFS ’18) was in the ICC auditorium, she was a freshman taking an Economics exam. Eight years later, she’s giving a talk as a 26-year-old New York Times bestselling author in the same room. Kuang joined Georgetown students March 15 for a conversation on her books and time at Georgetown. The Georgetown University Lecture Fund, a nonpartisan student organization that arranges forums and hosts speakers on a variety of topics, held the event in collaboration with the Georgetown English department and the GU Center for Research and Fellowships, which connects students and alumni to fellowships and research opportunities. Rhodes Scholar Atharv Gupta (SFS ’23) moderated the event, which included remarks by Kuang followed by a Q&A session. Kuang specializes in epic fantasies, a genre defined by

fictional settings and plots, characters and themes with an epic nature. Despite not pursuing creative writing in an academic setting, she said she has always been interested in writing fantasy stories. “I just had always kept this weird, fictional diary,” Kuang said at the event. “Instead of chronicling things that were happening to me, I was writing about this fictional set of kids riding hoverboards in a post-apocalyptic world living in abandoned skyscrapers with some vague, dystopian, totalitarian government lurking in the background. I was basically writing fanfiction books about my own life.” Kuang graduated from the School of Foreign Service as a Marshall Scholar, joining a cohort of talented American students selected each year to pursue graduate studies at a UK institution. After graduating from Georgetown in 2018, Kuang received her MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is currently pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and

Literature at Yale University. At the event, Kuang said she came into Georgetown with the goal of working in politics or consulting, but her interactions with professors steered her toward other pursuits that better fit her skill sets. “For the first few years, I kept pushing myself into fields that I just wasn’t good at, and trying and failing,” Kuang said. “But Georgetown offers you so much flexibility to change your path at any point on the pipeline, and I had incredible mentors.” After a Georgetown professor encouraged her to take a gap year, Kuang spent a year in Beijing, where she wrote her first novel, “The Poppy War.” The first installment of a trilogy about empire, warfare and shamanism, “The Poppy War” is a Chinesehistory inspired epic fantasy. Kuang said much of the creative inspiration for her fantasy tales comes from her interpersonal struggles and family history. “Everything was a parallel See KUANG, A7

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Rebecca F. Kuang (SFS ’18) studied history at Georgetown University, going on to write several New York Times bestselling epic fantasy novels.

NEWS

OPINION

SCIENCE

SPORTS

‘Vietcetera’ Showcase Shines

The Fight for DC Statehood

Bird House Is Back

Departure of Coach Howard

A11/12

The Georgetown Vietnamese Student Association hosted its first-ever cultural showcase March 19.

Asher Maxwell (CAS ’26) and Brandon Wu (SFS ’24) argue that Georgetown students must mobilize for D.C. statehood.

After six years of renovations, the Smithsonian Bird House reopened with three new interactive aviaries.

James Howard, the head coach of the women’s basketball team, will not return for another season with Georgetown.

Honoring Women Leaders

End Contract with Aramark

The Future Is Biofabrication

Men’s Lacrosse Bounces Back

A11/12

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Irish prime minister, among other female leaders, spoke on campus.

Students representing the GU Prison Outreach call for the university to end their dining contract with Aramark.

Stella Peters (CAS ’25) shares how sustainable fabric alternatives could mitigate the pollutive nature of the fashion industry.

Published Fridays

The team won three consecutive games against the High Point Panthers at Cooper Field on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

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