2108 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Thursday, October 22, 2026

Spring 2027 Schedule of Classes is live!
Undergraduate Courses // Graduate Courses

Graduate Registration begins Nov. 5 
Undergraduate Registration begins Nov. 9

1883 - New York's original Metropolitan Opera House has its grand opening with a performance of Charles Gounod's opera "Faust."

1979 - Walt Disney World welcomes its 100 millionth guest

2012 - Cyclist Lance Armstrong is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after being charged with systematically using illicit performance-enhancing drugs.

Father-daughter GW alums open stroopwafel sweet shop in Georgetown.
GW Hatchet.

Review: A new $724 million museum is a visually stunning train wreck.
The Washington Post.

Baltimore on Film: “Flashback” at the BMA.
BmoreArt.

Image courtesy of Justin L. Mann

This newsletter edition, we spotlight Justin L. Mann, a GW American Studies PhD alumnus and current Associate Professor of English and Black Studies at Northwestern University. In addition, GW American Studies will host Prof. Mann for the upcoming 2026-27 Mergen-Palmer Lecture, Part One, on Monday, November 2!

Mann’s first book, Breaking the World: Black Insecurity and the Horizons of Speculative Fiction (Duke University Press, 2026), explores how Black speculative fiction offers a unique perspective on the United States’ approach to security since the Reagan administration. Drawing on Black feminist theory, critical race theory, and queer of color studies, Mann examines how Black writers and artists challenge systems of surveillance, control, and security through creative expression. His research spans the works of Octavia E. Butler, Colson Whitehead, N. K. Jemisin, and Janelle Monáe, as well as popular franchises such as Marvel and DC.

Through these works, Mann introduces the concept of "worldbreaking," which explores how Black speculative fiction challenges existing systems of power and imagines alternative futures. Rather than focusing solely on the threats Black communities face in an increasingly securitized world, Breaking the World highlights the power of Black collective imagination and resistance. The book positions speculative fiction as an important form of Black radical thought and a means of envisioning possibilities beyond existing structures of security and control.

Mann is currently working on his second book, Black Audacity: Daring to Dream after Civil Rights, which examines the role of Black dreams and aspirations following the civil rights movement. Drawing on novels, political memoirs, Broadway musicals, films, and children's cartoons, the project explores how Black cultural expression has imagined possibilities beyond the limitations of integration. He is also developing a third project focused on the aesthetics and biopolitics of Black muscle.

His scholarship has appeared in academic journals including MELUS, Feminist Theory, Surveillance & Society, and American Quarterly. His research has also received support from the Huntington Library and Princeton University's Department of African American Studies.

Learn more about Mann's research and publications at justinlmann.com.

Getting Lost in the Dark:
Speculations on Black Insecurity
GW American Studies, Mergen-Palmer Lecture

Join us for part one of our 2026-27 Mergen-Palmer Distinguished Lecture Series featuring Prof. Justin Mann. Prof. Mann's lecture, entitled “Getting Lost in the Dark,” analyzes two texts, Victor La Valle and Dietrich Smith’s graphic novel Destroyer and the Russo Brothers Captain America: The Winter Soldier to show how Black speculative fictions reimagine the possibilities, limits, and potential ends of the American security state.

Justin L. Mann (he/him) is an Associate Professor and scholar of Black feminist literary and cultural studies at Northwestern University. His book Breaking the World: Black Insecurity and the Horizons of Speculative Fiction (Duke University Press, March 2026) argues that Black speculative fictions are an essential but overlooked archive for understanding the United States’ security ambitions since the Reagan administration. His work has appeared in American Quarterly, MELUS, GLQ, Feminist Theory, and ASAP.

When: Monday, November 2, 2026; 5:00 PM
Where: 725 21st St NW, Corcoran Hall, Room 101A

RSVP here!

Albert H. Small DC History Symposium
The GWU Museum and Textile Museum

Join us for the Albert H. Small D.C. History Symposium showcasing emerging scholars and their cutting-edge research on Washington, D.C. Held in honor of Mr. Small, who donated his vast collection of D.C. prints, maps, books and ephemera to GW in 2011, this symposium invites you to engage with the next generation of D.C. scholars as they continue to explore and share the city’s story.  

After the student presentations, American University professor M. J. Rymsza-Pawlowska will deliver a keynote address on the 1976 bicentennial in Washington, D.C. A reception will follow for in-person attendees.

When: Wednesday, October 28, 2026; 6:00 PM
Where: 701 21st St NW, GW/Textile Museum & Online

RSVP here!

How Can We Build Human Morality into AI?
2026 GW Philosophy Griffith Lecture

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used to make many life changing decisions in medicine, law, transportation, the military, business, and other areas. Critics object that using AI in these areas is inhumane and too likely to lead to harm, unfairness, and other moral wrongs. I will admit these dangers but reply that these decisions can be made safer and more ethical by building human moral values into the AI decisionmaker. Our team does this by surveying human moral judgments at two levels and then correcting for ignorance, confusion, and partiality. To show how our methods work in practice, I will demonstrate our websites, report initial empirical findings for kidney allocation and dementia, and finally discuss potential future applications to criminal law, transportation, business, and the military.

When: Friday, October 30, 2026; 4:00 PM
Where: Duques Hall, Room 152

Demo-ing, Sampling, Lip-Syncing:
Commercial Misogynoir in Post-Disco EDM
GW Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Join WGSS for a lecture with Visiting Assistant Professor, Dr. Eva Pensis. Across the late twentieth century, the popular music industry faced a series of scandals in live performance with the widespread use of lip-syncing. Following the advent of recorded sound, the commercial use of lip-sync in the popular music industry sought to divide the recorded performance from the performer with the aim of controlling both, most often eliding the visual presence of African American musicians while profiting from their sonic contributions. Framed by the media theorist Moya Bailey's concept of "misogynoir," this presentation considers the case of Black Box, an Italian post-disco house music band from the 1980s who stole and misattributed the vocal demos of Martha Wash (a noted musician and vocalist from The Weather Girls and Two Tons o’ Fun) for their debut album. The ensuing crisis of representation that lip-syncing indexes forms the basis for this talk's investigation into the popular music industry's predation on African American women's song following the infamous demolition of disco and the digital quest to strip sound from song.

When: Wednesday, November 4, 2026; 4:00 PM
Where: Rome Hall, Room 205

RSVP here!

Inside Gaza: Film Screening & Discussion
Institute for Middle East Studies

The Institute for Middle East Studies is proud to announce a screening of the award winning documentary Inside Gaza, followed by remarks from film director Hélène Lam Trong and featured journalist Mai Yaghi. Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and the Israeli reprisals that followed, international journalists and media have no access to the Gaza Strip. Agence France-Presse journalists, who were permanently stationed in Gaza, were among the last independent witnesses to the abuses committed in the hellscape that Gaza has become. Featuring previously unseen footage and testimony from reporters Mai Yaghi and Adel Zaanoun, as well as photojournalists Mahmud Hams and Mohammed Abed, Inside Gaza delivers a powerful account of conditions on the ground, underscoring the vital importance of a free and independent press.

When: Monday, November 9, 2026; 5:30 PM
Where: ESIA, 1957 E St NW, Room B17

RSVP here!

Visible Ink: Writing Black Women's Literary Biography
GW English Department

Dana A. Williams is the professor of African American literature and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. A specialist in contemporary African American Literature, she earned her B.A. in English from Grambling State University in Grambling, LA in 1993; her M.A. in English in 1995 from Howard University; and her Ph.D. in English (with a specialization in African American Literature) from Howard University in 1999. As a recipient of the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar award in 1999, she was a visiting research fellow at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Before returning to Howard University as a faculty member in 2003, Dr. Williams taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for four years. In 2008-09, she was a faculty fellow at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. Dr. Williams assumed the chairmanship of the department in 2009, serving three terms in that position. In 2019, she was appointed as interim dean of the Graduate School and then named dean in 2021, becoming the first female dean of the Graduate School. 

When: Thursday, November 12, 2026; 5:30 PM
Where: Duques Hall, Room 152

Current PhD student Lins Derry will speak on a panel titled "AI Beyond the Screen: Refusals, Criticisms, and Embodiment" at the 2026 OneGW Summit: Many Voices. The event is slated for Wednesday, October 28 from 3:00pm-3:50pm. The session will take place in USC, Room 302!

Alum Maaike Ravesteijn (BA '14) was recently featured in a GW Hatchet article highlighting the opening of their new Georgetown shop serving up Dutch stroopwafels.

Call for Applications: The American Battlefield Trust has an opening for an intern in their Communications and Policy department in their Washington, D.C., office. Click here to learn more // Deadline: to be filled ASAP.

Call for Papers: The Post45 Graduate Symposium seeks graduate-level works-in-progress related to post-1945 media, arts, literature, textual or visual objects, digital platforms, politics, and culture. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Oct. 25, 2026.

Call for Papers: PopCon invites proposals around Reflections: Looking Back, Listening Again, Writing about Music and the histories/futures of writing, criticism, journalism, scholarship and storytelling about popular music. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 1, 2026.

Call for Applictions: The Special Collections Research Center of the George Washington University Libraries is pleased to invite applications to the biennial Kiev Judaica Collection Fellowship Program for the 2026-2027 academic year. Click here to learn more // Application review begins Nov. 3, 2026.

Call for Papers: The Rutgers Art Review is currently accepting graduate-level papers and digital projects for their next volume. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 6, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) invites applications for its annual Spring Academy on American Culture, Economics, Geography, History, Literature, Politics, and Religion to be held from April 5-9, 2027. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 15, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 15, 2026.

Call for Papers: IASPM has released a special call for papers for their JPMS Dolly Parton Special Issue. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 20, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Huntington Library is now accepting applications for both short-term and long-term fellowships. Click here to learn more // Deadline: varies.

Call for Applications: The Newberry Library is currently accepting applications for both their short-term and long-term fellowships. Click here to learn more // Deadline: varies.

Call for Applications: The Institute for Critical Social Inquiry (ICSI) at the New School for Social Research is accepting fellowship applications for our 2027 Summer Seminars (June 6-12, 2027). Advanced graduate students and faculty are eligible to apply. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Jan. 1, 2027.

Need Support?

Like what you see? Have spotlights, kudos, events, or opportunities that you would like to share? We want to hear from you! Navigate to our feedback form using the link below, or more simply, forward your tip to amst@gwu.edu.