Elizabeth de Souza is a writer and educator whose work explores the intersection of culture, psychology and the arts. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from George Mason University, where she was awarded a full scholarship and Teacher’s Assistantship in 2008. In 2011 she was a finalist for the Ford Foundation Predoctorate Fellowship.
Excerpts from de Souza's senior thesis, "Sleeping in the Fire," have appeared in literary publications such as Callaloo Journal and Solstice Literary Magazine. One essay was a finalist in Cutbank Literary Journal’s 2014 nonfiction contest, and was also the runner-up in Solstice’s 2014 nonfiction contest. Other essays exploring the same themes are scheduled to appear in forthcoming issues of The Journal for Bahá’í Studies.
De Souza has taught various workshops and seminars at Franklin & Marshall College since 2011. Her most recent F&M project was partnering with then-Chair of the Psychology Department, Dr. Michael L. Penn, to curate an art exhibition at the Phillips Museum: Painting with Light: The Art of Bunch Washington. The programming she created for the exhibition included workshops and lectures given by a panel of distinguished writers, including two Pulitzer Prize-winners, as well as gallery events that blended live music, literature, and art scholarship into one dynamic experience. The exhibition was an outgrowth of her course “Sleeping in the Fire: Art, Culture and Mental Health” that ran for three semesters and used Bunch Washington’s life as a lens to explore the relationship between these topics.
De Souza first became interested in the intersecting nature of these topics in 2000, as a co-founder of a grassroots publication about playground basketball culture that evolved into Bounce Magazine. After helping to launch the magazine, she served for seven years as editor, photographer, and project manager. (Bounce was sold to a competing company in 2007). De Souza was first introduced to publishing in 1997 as an original staff member of Blaze magazine, a Vibe spinoff about hip-hop culture that was the largest magazine launch of that year. In 1999 she helped her journalist brother, Jesse Washington, launch Snowfire Publishing, a small family company that republished two rare art books: her father’s 1973 release The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual and The Art of Elizabeth Catlett by Samella Lewis.
Excerpts from de Souza's senior thesis, "Sleeping in the Fire," have appeared in literary publications such as Callaloo Journal and Solstice Literary Magazine. One essay was a finalist in Cutbank Literary Journal’s 2014 nonfiction contest, and was also the runner-up in Solstice’s 2014 nonfiction contest. Other essays exploring the same themes are scheduled to appear in forthcoming issues of The Journal for Bahá’í Studies.
De Souza has taught various workshops and seminars at Franklin & Marshall College since 2011. Her most recent F&M project was partnering with then-Chair of the Psychology Department, Dr. Michael L. Penn, to curate an art exhibition at the Phillips Museum: Painting with Light: The Art of Bunch Washington. The programming she created for the exhibition included workshops and lectures given by a panel of distinguished writers, including two Pulitzer Prize-winners, as well as gallery events that blended live music, literature, and art scholarship into one dynamic experience. The exhibition was an outgrowth of her course “Sleeping in the Fire: Art, Culture and Mental Health” that ran for three semesters and used Bunch Washington’s life as a lens to explore the relationship between these topics.
De Souza first became interested in the intersecting nature of these topics in 2000, as a co-founder of a grassroots publication about playground basketball culture that evolved into Bounce Magazine. After helping to launch the magazine, she served for seven years as editor, photographer, and project manager. (Bounce was sold to a competing company in 2007). De Souza was first introduced to publishing in 1997 as an original staff member of Blaze magazine, a Vibe spinoff about hip-hop culture that was the largest magazine launch of that year. In 1999 she helped her journalist brother, Jesse Washington, launch Snowfire Publishing, a small family company that republished two rare art books: her father’s 1973 release The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual and The Art of Elizabeth Catlett by Samella Lewis.
