Dr. David Powers Corwin Oral History

Dr. David Powers Corwin Oral History

An oral history conducted with Dr. David Powers Corwin on the topics of LGBTQ+ history and Women and Gender Studies at Mason.

David Powers Corwin, Sage Prinstein, Kathryn Orlosky

Oral History conducted in-person at George Mason University, Enterprise 439

April 29, 2025

Sage Prinstein - Kathryn Orlosky - Honors 360 - Spring 2025

Sage Prinstein, Kathryn Orlosky

Dr. David Powers Corwin

George Mason University, Enterprise 439

[0:03 - 0:15] Sage Prinstein: Um, I really lost what I was about to, oh. Today is April 29th, 2025. This is an oral history with David Powers Corbin. My name is Sage Prinstein and we are conducting this interview from their office.



[0:18 - 0:28] Sage Prinstein: So, my first question for you is, where did you grow up and how did growing up there impact you, your identity, and then where did you go to school?



[0:28 - 0:48] Dr. David Corwin: Okay. So, I grew up in Front Royal, Virginia, which is about an hour west of here. It's where 66 ends. So, most people have heard of it, even if they haven't been there. And I went to a small Pentecostal Christian school there. And it did affect a lot of how I was brought up.



[0:48 - 1:19] Dr. David Corwin: one, just how you learn morality, how you learn ethics. And it's still in my brain. Like it's still in my, it's still in my crawl. It's still, I catch myself occasionally because right now I don't identify with any type of faith currently. And that was my first job was I worked at the summer camp there because originally, I thought I was going to be an elementary school teacher and that would have been a horrible idea. And so, then I worked at the grocery store there for eight years and worked my way up there.



[1:20 - 1:34] Dr. David Corwin: So, it certainly affected certainly being closeted that whole time as a queer person. Even though there were probably questions, there was no option but to be heterosexual, so no one asked you any questions, right?



[1:34 - 1:48] Dr. David Corwin: Any questions like that were behind the scenes. So, in some ways, those types of places are easy to hide, despite, and at the time when it's, I think a lot of people, their first reaction is, oh, that had to be horrible.



[1:48 - 2:00] Dr. David Corwin: Well, at the time, it didn't feel that way. It was a normal life. There was always something not right, though. There was always something. I grew more and more. It was a struggle to want to go to church and those types of things.



[2:01 - 2:35] Dr. David Corwin: And as someone that's an educator, getting up and going to school was never a problem. But I then went off to a Christian college. and so, Mason was the first place I came to that was not religious affiliated and I know you have a question about college, so I won't go into more detail there. That was the second half of this question. Oh, okay so sure so I went to Milligan it was college now it's university because one of my teachers from the school I went to pre-k through 12 went there. The school wasn't accredited there



[2:35 - 2:53] Dr. David Corwin: were no guidance counselors. We were, I'd say I grew up in a church basement because that's literally what it was. We were in a church basement. And so, I really had to rely on those types of shoulder tapping. And Milligan didn't care that it was, I didn't come from an accredited school. But I either had to go to a Christian college or go to community college because of that.



[2:54 - 3:26] Dr. David Corwin: And so, I picked Milligan because at the time, I wouldn't have said this at the time, but I did kind of want to get away from home when it was about five, five and a half hours away. So, no one's show up right um with unannounced and I did really enjoy the campus tour and all of that and despite it being another Christian institution where I faced a lot of homophobias um I though got a really good education as an English major that was a very inclusive group and so you you



[3:26 - 3:39] Dr. David Corwin: found your niches and today I mean right here is my best friend and that's right I mean I have him and many people at the end of the day, even though they have since fired a faculty member for being a lesbian.



[3:39 - 3:53] Dr. David Corwin: They have since, they won't publish any of my accomplishments in their alumni magazine due to the work I do. And so that's hard to watch. And certainly, the professors that loved me hate that too, definitely.



[3:54 - 4:29] Dr. David Corwin: But I got a really good interdisciplinary education, and it really set me up for success to do the work I do now.

Sage Prinstein: great thank you um if you'd like to tell us about like anything you do outside of work uh so hobbies and whatnot

Dr. David Corwin: okay so uh I'm a big reader I think that's key when you're an academic um I like to think my fiction writing is for fun because my academic writing is for work uh even though I love all of it I'm a big coffee shop brewery type of person I you can always catch me at one of those. I do love the beach and spending time with friends, particularly in that pocket of Tennessee.



[4:29 - 5:01] Sage Prinstein: Awesome, thank you. So, I'd loved if you could tell us about your journey that you took for academia to start teaching in higher ed.



[5:01 - 5:23] Dr. David Corwin: So great, so that that's long and complicated, but we'll get there. So, I was originally supposed to teach elementary school, and I got to my senior year, and I was right up to student teaching, and I dropped it. And it was just kind of one of those, I woke up one morning, it sounds dramatic, but I just woke up one morning and said, I can't do this anymore. And that, again, that sounds dramatic, but it really wasn't at the time. And I took intro to women's studies at Milligan, which we call it something different now, right? And so, and I found my thing.



[5:23 - 5:37] Dr. David Corwin: And I tell students on the first day of all my classes, if you can't find whatever you're doing in your life, if you can't go back and point to that moment where you find your golden orb, you need to question why you're doing it. And so, I wanted to teach that to other people.



[5:37 - 6:01] Dr. David Corwin: So also, though, I had to be realistic that I couldn't go. I could go in some debt, but I couldn't go in extreme debt for a master's. and I was a Virginia resident, and Mason has our MA in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in women and gender studies, which is what I have right up there, and I applied there, got in, and then did an MA in English at the same time.



[6:02 - 6:24] Dr. David Corwin: During that, I was a grad assistant in both the LGBTQ Center and the Women and Gender Studies Center, and then I thought I was going to do student life work, so I kind of pushed myself toward that, took higher ed courses as part of my degree that were related, and I got my first full-time gig here, which was being program coordinator for women and gender studies.



[6:26 - 6:45] Dr. David Corwin: And then I had that job, and I loved that job. And there's sometimes I really do miss that job. I loved being the first person you saw when you walked in and having a student staff team and getting to do everything from finance to advising to programming.



[6:46 - 6:59] Dr. David Corwin: I loved that job. Now, salary wasn't very sustainable long term, but I loved that job. And so, then I had, so I was really beginning my student affairs career is how I saw it.



[6:59 - 7:26] Dr. David Corwin: And I started the Ph.D. here in higher ed, and I made it a semester and switched over to writing and rhetoric, which I'll get to here in a minute. I continue, I taught a course usually most semesters in addition to my role, and I struggled with, if I had to give that up, to do a student affairs role, particularly if, you know, I left Mason or took a different role at Mason where there wasn't time for that.



[7:26 - 7:58] Dr. David Corwin: And Women and Gender Studies is the first program that fully integrated whether a Student Affairs Unit and an academic program And so growing up in that I kind of I still feel that the only way to do that work is to be working with both sides of the house as I like to call it but there was just something there that I originally just I knew I couldn't give up teaching and so the higher ed program didn't do it for me now it's funny I



[7:58 - 8:08] Dr. David Corwin: I teach in that program now because I still have that expertise and coursework and I have publications there. And I'm happy teaching those courses, but that trajectory was not for me.



[8:09 - 8:21] Dr. David Corwin: And writing and rhetoric is a very pedagogy-driven field and it's very interdisciplinary. Well, so that all happened and then we got a new dean in the college.



[8:21 - 8:35] Dr. David Corwin: and she came to my supervisor at the time and said, I keep having to approve David teaching because I'm not going to get into the long-complicated thing, but with staff teach, it is a long-complicated mess.



[8:36 - 8:50] Dr. David Corwin: And so, she said, I keep having to do this and it's not that it's a problem, but she said, it seems like your needs aren't getting met. So, it sounds like you need a faculty member with release time to do the administrative work rather than this staff position.



[8:50 - 9:03] Dr. David Corwin: So, I'm going to give this to you, but you've got to give it to David. And you could have bought me for two nickels when that happened. So, I moved over to faculty, and then they changed my title to associate director because we also had some transition in the unit at the time.



[9:04 - 9:18] Dr. David Corwin: And I had that job for three years. And throughout that, I'm proud of the work I did there. I built the LGBTQ minor during that. I built our intersectionality 101 curriculum with students.



[9:18 - 9:33] Dr. David Corwin: It was very important to me that students started that, and then I kind of came in later. I developed a peer-to-peer leadership model that students, it's still in existence, and we've published that, and how that's a feminist practice.



[9:33 - 9:47] Dr. David Corwin: And so, I was proud of the work I did during that time. And so, I taught two courses a semester, and I did that. But I did face a little student affairs burnout. There's parts of it I miss, but it was during COVID was a lot of it.



[9:48 - 9:58] Dr. David Corwin: Um, I, we transitioned director. So, there was just a lot that happened in a relatively short amount of time. And I asked to move fully to the classroom.



[9:59 - 10:10] Dr. David Corwin: And so, they granted that request. And so, at first, I was teaching half here in integrative studies and half in women and gender studies. I eventually decided it was a much better fit to be here.



[10:11 - 10:22] Dr. David Corwin: And I still teach for women and gender studies occasionally. I teach for honors. I teach for English, the higher ed program. and that it made more sense for that to be than actually be split across two departments.



[10:22 - 10:37] Dr. David Corwin: And I don't regret that decision. I get to teach in all of my areas of expertise. I mean, my board here speaks volumes. I get to teach everything from writing to public speaking in this unit and in English.



[10:37 - 10:49] Dr. David Corwin: I get to teach violence and gender, temptresses and sexuality, intro to LGBTQ studies, research methods, because I have a certificate in methods. I really get a dessert bar of wonderful things.



[10:50 - 11:04] Dr. David Corwin: I get to teach students over and over who are in the major, and that's always fun, too. And so, it really was me just doing the work and doing it well that got me here.



[11:04 - 11:15] Dr. David Corwin: And so, I tell anybody that if you're willing to start maybe in the area that you didn't think was quite it, you might end up over where you want to be eventually.



[11:15 - 11:31] Sage Prinstein: That's great. Thank you. Can you tell us a little more about specifically when you were working with the LGBTQ plus students at Mason and specifically about how you started the LGBTQ studies minor?



[11:31 - 11:43] Dr. David Corwin: Sure. So, I'm still the Pride Alliance advisor. So, I still work with, I still have my feet wet in that work. I say, I try to be a hands-off advisor until they need me.



[11:43 - 12:03] Dr. David Corwin: But working with LGBTQ plus students outside of the classroom, I'll start there. Looking back, I actually had to talk about this recently with somebody, is learning student development and kind of queer identity development in action.



[12:03 - 12:36] Dr. David Corwin: I never took a whole course on that. I've done my own reading and whatnot. but I taught a course recently on that but we didn't have that when I was going through and so watching people once they're out or at least out in that space develop the who am I as now as a queer person because we talk about a lot how how parents and family go through a grieving process when they're when their children come out because they had one idea for their children and now it's



[12:36 - 12:53] Dr. David Corwin: something different, and even if they're totally supportive of their child, they still have this, right? So, watching students navigate that with their parents and being supportive of the student but also asking them to give their parents a little space sometimes, which is hard when you're 18.



[12:54 - 13:14] Dr. David Corwin: It's hard when you're 18, and so that was rewarding work, but emotionally tough work. Also, so then a lot of queer students go through, they want to do all the activist things all the time, and at times maybe overly critical of what's already being done.



[13:15 - 13:25] Dr. David Corwin: And so, working with students to not kill that energy, but to also say, you know, actually people have done a lot of good work here, you just don't know that because you just got here, right?



[13:25 - 13:36] Dr. David Corwin: And so, working with them about that. And then also just hearing students say, this is the first time I felt safe. I mean, while that's heartbreaking, also you've helped foster that space.



[13:37 - 13:47] Dr. David Corwin: I went to my first student wedding back in the fall, and they met in the LGBTQ center, and they had the staff there that none of us work in that space now.



[13:47 - 14:11] Dr. David Corwin: They had all of us there because they said they couldn't celebrate their union without us there. And so those moments are really cool to see, right? Also, working with LGBTQ plus students as they navigate, we're a state institution, and there's allowed to be protests that are anti-LGBTQ on the campus, and that's part of being a state institution.



[14:11 - 14:33] Dr. David Corwin: And for, you know, LGBTQ students, that's not just, that's not an acceptable answer, but that's the answer, right? And so how do you work with them to know that I always wanted them to know what their rights were and, you know, when to be cautious of when they're crossed and those types of things.



[14:33 - 14:45] Dr. David Corwin: So overall, that, I loved planning Pride Week when I did that. I loved the lavender cording ceremony, which is tonight. I always loved planning that.



[14:46 - 15:00] Dr. David Corwin: Now, in the classroom and developing the minor, so it felt like it had been on the table for so long before I came along. We had an LGBTQ focus in the Women and Gender Studies minor, and that didn't show up on a transcript, unfortunately.



[15:01 - 15:26] Dr. David Corwin: And so, one positive of that is students that maybe their parents could wrap their head around Women and Gender Studies. they couldn't wrap their head around LGBTQ studies because that might signal something So that was one positive for students that had that And so we kept that in case we didn't get rid of it when we got the LGBTQ minor But it seemed just like we had the time We were given a curriculum impact grant from the provost's office to do it.



[15:27 - 15:37] Dr. David Corwin: And everyone was really supportive. I mean, I can't – there's lots of people that have all these roadblock stories. I think we waited until the right time is what happened.



[15:37 - 15:55] Dr. David Corwin: I think we made sure could we have done it five years ago before maybe, but we would have faced more resistance at the time. So, it went pretty well. I think now with current feelings about LGBTQ studies nationally, numbers are certainly down.



[15:56 - 16:31] Dr. David Corwin: And where, you know, I thought students would maybe resist more, but everybody's scared. They don't know what to do. Like, you know, it's all unprecedented for them. so building that that was a that's been a hallmark of my career is building the LGBTIQ minor and watching students benefit from that and getting to declare the first student and uh teach them uh throughout their time and some students that are very near and dear to me uh completed that minor uh so I uh yeah that's been huge and even revising it since then you know what did we what are we doing as the field changes that we should be doing better and so that that's all been very rewarding and it's been great to see how students have been affected by it.



[16:31 - 17:07] Sage Prinstein: That's awesome. Another question I would like to ask is about any colleagues mentors you've had people who you've looked up to and the impact they've had.



[17:07 - 17:42] Dr. David Corwin: So, I say from undergrad the three women that taught me everything I know Pat Magnus, Ruth Lavender, and Heather Hoover they taught almost all of my English classes but one. One of them I had 13 times for classes because small school that's what happens and they're still good friends. I mean I will see some of them this weekend when I go to Tennessee. They're friends when I need them to be friends, mentors when I need them to be mentors and they tell me what I don't want to hear occasionally and I hear it a little bit better from them than some other people because the beginning of our relationship with them grading my papers. So, then Mason people. So, I've, I am very blessed to have a lot of wonderful Mason colleagues. As far as mentors, Kelly Dunn down the hall, she's not the executive



[17:42 - 18:15] Dr. David Corwin: director anymore, but she was, and she's the one that helped me through the transition of moving to integrative studies. One person said to me one time, she's the epitome of a boss, and that's correct. Everybody wants Kelly Dunn to be their supervisor, and if you don't, you're probably the problem, and so she's very strategic. She's very supportive, and you know, her area might not be my area, but she never discounts anybody. Everybody is, she's very inclusive and has done a lot of



[18:15 - 18:48] Dr. David Corwin: good work in this unit. So, she's one. Yvette Richards Jordan in Women and Gender Studies, she's the one that called me and said I had gotten into the program, and I had her in class, and then I had a class with her, and then she was on my thesis committee, and we're still very good friends, because she's an excellent scholar, and I look up to her for that reason, and she, There's been a couple times she's defended me when maybe people could have been a little nicer in certain spaces.



[18:49 - 19:02] Dr. David Corwin: The two others, Michael Maloof in English. So, he taught my Virginia Woolf class and a couple others. And he really thought I was great.



[19:02 - 19:14] Dr. David Corwin: And it was nice to think, you know, that without me going out of my way, but he pushed me at the same time. He pushed me to be better. He's still a good colleague and supporter of me.



[19:15 - 19:26] Dr. David Corwin: Anytime I've asked him to come to anything, like if I've gotten an award or anything, he and Yvette both always show up. And then I would be remiss not to say my dissertation advisor, Heidi Lawrence, who is also in English.



[19:26 - 19:40] Dr. David Corwin: She was tough on me. But she's the one, like, if I really want real feedback, that's who I ask. Because she gives the right mix of being supportive and also the critical feedback you need, and she's become a really good friend. So that was a lot of people, but that is who makes up David's board of directors when I need a decision made.



[19:40 - 20:01] Sage Prinstein: That's awesome. Thank you. Next question is, I want to ask about events, national, historical, that have happened during your time at Mason, and how they've affected your role as an educator.



[20:02 - 20:16] Dr. David Corwin: Okay, great question. And so, the 2016 election is the first one I remember. And coming to work emotionally numb, we did not expect that.



[20:16 - 20:28] Dr. David Corwin: I did not go home that night expecting that. And I was still living in Front Royal at the time, and so saw some responses, let's just say, on the way to here.



[20:29 - 20:42] Dr. David Corwin: And then you have to come in, and we were having safe space events for students, and here's the thing with now elections, regardless of who wins, are now traumatic experiences for students.



[20:42 - 20:58] Dr. David Corwin: And that's kept up since then. And now it's a whole different level of student engagement. You know, you want them to keep going to class and keep going, but then you also are the things they care about are under attack, right?



[20:59 - 21:11] Dr. David Corwin: So that one really changed. how I thought about student life work. Then the SCOTUS decision in 2022.



[21:13 - 21:27] Dr. David Corwin: It's that overturned Roe versus Wade. I happened to be our director had taken a sabbatical for the summer, and I was the director of Webinar Judges Day, so I had to handle all that. And I was, I mean, I was 20 couples.



[21:27 - 21:38] Dr. David Corwin: Like, I was young and was creating the safe space, places, communicating with people, right? And so, it was also during the summer.



[21:39 - 21:52] Dr. David Corwin: So, I was surprised how many students took the resources, though, with it being summer. And the conversations we were having were really good. And certainly, TBD with the 2024 election.



[21:52 - 22:08] Dr. David Corwin: I mean, it's certainly affecting students, whether or not they feel safe. whether or not they feel safe in classes about their identity. I've been noticing that. Sometimes it's a trigger for them, and sometimes it's safe space, and that's tough to navigate as an instructor, certainly.



[22:12 - 22:34] Dr. David Corwin: Also when Pulse happened, that was certainly another one that students really struggled with and that they, when they thought about safety and whether or not to have security at Pride moving forward, and that continued debate, really, I felt started out of that and continued.



[22:35 - 23:08] Dr. David Corwin: So, yeah, those are the ones that come to mind. Okay. And I know there's some overlap, but I want to know about any local events that have happened home Mason in Nova that have impacted you whether it in your family your career or whatever So certainly there when I think about local events certainly there always the local story you hear and it happens to be a trans woman of color that was killed, right?



[23:08 - 23:19] Dr. David Corwin: And it's a very small text in the newspaper article. Those are the ones that I think about and encourage students to do projects around.



[23:19 - 23:44] Dr. David Corwin: I have an assignment in violence agenda where they have to find a local case like that that happened and kind of do an analysis of it. Those have been, and then, of course, thinking about media literacy with students when they see an article and how it's written if the person is black versus if the person is white, particularly when crime is committed.



[23:44 - 23:59] Dr. David Corwin: and those types of things. Certainly, at Mason, there was a lot of feelings when Brett Kavanaugh taught at the law school. There was a lot of, well, he was not convicted.



[24:00 - 24:13] Dr. David Corwin: And so, you know, should the president have upheld the law school's decision and then how students felt in a post-MeToo world about that, that certainly has been, that's one that sticks out in my mind quite a bit.



[24:13 - 24:25] Dr. David Corwin: that period of time. Students were really on top of it as far as how they felt about that whole situation. And that happened not too long after I got the full-time role here.



[24:27 - 24:53] Dr. David Corwin: And so that was more localized, certainly. And there's been a variety of black student manifestos. There was an Asian student manifesto at one point and hearing some of those students and their perspectives and working with them on what can we do and then what can we really not do.



[24:53 - 25:31] Dr. David Corwin: And so that was watching that and that was very early on too for me. Then another one was the Mason student group around the Koch brothers and gifts to the university and then we made national news about that. Some of those, I mean a couple of those students were in my classes and I didn't know it because they were very secretive about it and then when everything came out I didn't feel like I could support them by one-on-one more at that point but those all happened very close together and so it did feel like the local became the national almost because there was several things like that right along and our heads were in that rather than maybe some of the other stuff that was going on nationally.



[25:31 - 25:54] Sage Prinstein: Awesome. Thank you. How did, current or past, Mason administration or federal administration changes impact your work directly past what you've already told us?



[25:54 - 26:06] Dr. David Corwin: So as far as Mason administration, very little has affected my work. There's been conversations, certainly with the Just Society's Mason Core requirement.



[26:06 - 26:21] Dr. David Corwin: It was decided we would not do that after all. I mean, I was going to get more students and courses that way, right? But nothing was taken away from me necessarily in the moment there, even though I'd done some labor to get some of my courses that designation.



[26:21 - 26:33] Dr. David Corwin: But anyway, so Mason administrations for the most part, I've not had that. I certainly had more supportive supervisors over time than others, particularly in the student affairs world.



[26:34 - 26:50] Dr. David Corwin: Then, as far as federal administrations, I mean, I'm putting a grant proposal together with some other colleagues, and I had to totally de-gender my bio, and it was a very boring, not-me bio for this federal grant.



[26:51 - 27:02] Dr. David Corwin: And so that's one that I'm starting to see. I don't usually do that type of work, and now I'm starting to see it come into play. And it's going to be interesting.



[27:03 - 27:15] Dr. David Corwin: Last semester was the first semester I ever had a student write at a teaching evaluation that my queer identity got in the way of my instruction. And that's a rhetorical issue at the end of the day.



[27:15 - 27:26] Dr. David Corwin: And it was a class of gender and sexuality, which was funny. And so that stuff did not get said until recently to me. Now, I'd heard the horror stories. I know the research, but Mason, we just didn't have a culture of that. And so, it's going to be interesting how that continues.



[27:27 - 27:44] Sage Prinstein: Okay, thank you. Moving past the past at Mason, what are you doing now, and what is kind of your next chapter going forward?



[27:44 - 28:01] Dr. David Corwin: Oh, that's a great question, and if you could answer it for me, that'd be great. So, I have delved my head quite a bit into research, particularly I have a project on the Menendez Brothers and the gendered rhetoric and the media coverage of that case.



[28:02 - 28:14] Dr. David Corwin: And I've been doing more and more work on I have a chapter on the Golden Girls coming out and how that was queer theory before we had the terms. And so, I've been diving my head into that because that is something I can control.



[28:14 - 28:30] Dr. David Corwin: I can control my research. And, you know, I can put it, those avenues are staying there right now, and those are important. So those, certainly when I think about courses, the student population is changing, and that's also affecting enrollment.



[28:31 - 28:53] Dr. David Corwin: And while that may be upsetting for some of my courses, it's exciting for some others, and thinking about where I move in the next direction with that. So, I think the next chapter is also thinking about which of my courses are staying and which are going just because of student interest and what new opportunities can be there.



[28:53 - 29:08] Dr. David Corwin: I am more involved in my professional associations now than I used to be, so now I have a position in the Southwest Pop Culture and American Culture Association, specifically with pedagogy and pop culture, and I'm very excited about starting that soon.



[29:08 - 29:22] Dr. David Corwin: And so, my hope is to, I love Mason, I love my students, but that my work externally that affects the work I do here, that I am putting more energy into that than I once was. And so that's all exciting.



[29:22 - 29:40] Sage Prinstein: That's great. Thank you. And then just lastly, is there anything else that you want to address or revisit? it?



[29:40 - 30:13] Dr. David Corwin: For people that are looking for something to do about the current world, education’s huge. Education's now a form of resistance. And maybe it always has been, but it really is now. Being an educated consumer, sitting in the seats of the classes that certain people don't want there as a form of activism. So, when you have a choice, think about it. Like, because we can't, I can all say that LGBTQ studies, gender studies, and the umbrella needs to be here, but they really only believe students and student interests. And so that's where, I know that puts more pressure on



[30:13 - 30:25] Dr. David Corwin: students, but it is the reality. So, you know, when you're thinking about taking this class over this class, keeping stuff like that in mind, and remaining an educated consumer. That's awesome. Thank you so much.



[30:25 - 30:27] Dr. David Corwin: Of course. I hope that's

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