2026 English Newsletter
Message from the Department Chair
This fall we welcomed new and returning students back to study literature and culture with fresh energy in our classrooms and in our suite on the sixth floor of Phillips Hall.
We also welcomed our Visiting Assistant Professor Lesley Thulin. She specializes in 18th-century British and Anglophone literatures, British Romanticism and disability studies, with interests in the history of medicine, race and empire, gender and critical theory.
In fall 2025, Professor Jennifer Green-Lewis announced her retirement. Arriving at GW in the early 1990s, Professor Green-Lewis published Victorian Photography, Literature, and the Invention of Modern Memory: Already the Past (2017); Teaching Beauty: Delillo, Woolf, and Merrill (2008) co-authored with Professor Margaret Soltan; and Framing the Victorians: Photography and the Culture of Realism (1996).
We bid a final farewell to Emeritus Professor Maxine Clair, who died on September 5, 2025, at 86. The first in her family to earn a college degree, Professor Clair gave up her career as a medical technician to pursue a career in creative writing. Her first book was Coping with Gravity (1988). After joining the English faculty of GW, she published Rattlebone (1994) and October Suite (2001), which was funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship. She retired in 2008. Professor Clair is survived by four children (Stephen Bridges; Adrienne, Michael and Joe Clair), seven siblings, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Online obituaries are available under “Dignity Memorial” as well as in the Washington Post (September 20, 2025) and the New York Times (September 25, 2025).
We look forward in the spring to readings by Emeritus Professor Tom Mallon of The Very Heart of It: New York Diaries (2025) and Professor Jung Yun of All the World Can Hold (2026) and many other joys.
Patricia Chu
Department Chair
Department Spotlights
Poetry in Motion: Sebree Writes Outside the Lines
In her poetry and her classroom, English Professor Chet’la Sebree challenges the stories we tell ourselves about art, artificial intelligence and how to make sense of an uncertain world. She was profiled in the CCAS Spotlight newsmagazine.
Student Storytellers Free Imprisoned Voices
In her digital storytelling class, English’s Emma Wu connects students like senior Inioluwa Jobi with D.C. inmates through a pen-pal project for reclaiming memory and humanity. The class was featured in the CCAS Spotlight.
Mitchell Documentary Featured in Forbes
Professor David Mitchell was featured in a Forbes review of his documentary film Disposable Humanity.
The feature-length documentary traces the journey of director Cameron Mitchell through Poland and Germany, with a team including his parents, disability studies scholars David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder. The film tells the story of the Aktion T4 genocide as narrated by memorial directors, disabled people and relatives of T4 victims, and how the development of gas chamber technologies in German-run psychiatric institutions led to the creation of the Nazi death camps in Poland. Resisting the perpetrators’ perspectives, the film memorializes this forgotten history from the perspectives of the disabled people killed and their survivors.
Please visit Disposable Humanity on Facebook and Instagram for more details. The film was directed by Cameron S. Mitchell. Its executive producers are Cameron S. Mitchell, David T. Mitchell and Steve Way and it was produced and researched by David T. Mitchell. It features a cast of memorial directors, tour guides and other experts.
Department Kudos
- Samuel Ashworth was quoted by The Washington Post in the article “A famous chef’s autopsy tells the story of his career.” He authored the article “Everything TV Taught You About Autopsies Is Wrong” for The Atlantic.
- Kavita Daiya authored the entry “Partition Migrations” in The Sage Encyclopedia of Refugee Studies, Volume 2.
- Holly Dugan was quoted by Marie Claire in the article “The Rise of Unlikeable Fragrance: How Women Are Reclaiming Perfume as Power.”
- Jennifer James was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Editors of American Literature.
- Alexa Alice Joubin was quoted by EdTech Magazine in the articles “AI-Powered Teaching Assistants Can Drive Student Success” and “AI-Powered Teaching Assistants Can Drive Student Success.”
- Yahia Lababidi, BA ’96, authored the poetry volume Palestine Wail (Daraga Press).
- Joshua Lawson was quoted in the Washington Post article “We asked strangers around D.C. what they’re reading. Here are their picks.”
- Lisa Page authored the Washington Post book reviews “Decades after Stella got her groove back, Terry McMillan just gets better” and “Josephine Baker, in her own words, amplifies her renown as provocateur.’’
- Chet'la Sebree was quoted by US News & World Report in the article “Fall Is Books’ Biggest Season. Expect Some Long-Awaited Returns.”
- Jung Yun was quoted by Publishers Weekly in the article “David Means Wins PEN/Malamud Award.”
Alumni Class Notes
- Jill Ehnenn, PhD ’01, is a professor and chair of the Department of English and Film Studies at The University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB, Canada.
- Isabelle Giuttari, MA ’24, published her debut novel, written as Isabelle Engel, with Macmillan Publishers.
- Jamie Koff, BA ’93, left Foggy Bottom to pursue a career in the fashion industry in NYC and hasn’t looked back since. She started as a production coordinator at J.Crew then grew through the ranks at Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Jeans and DKNY Jeans to name a few. In 2006, she founded FABRIC TO FINISH, the industry’s first start up fashion incubator. Now going into its 20th year, she has been responsible for launching nearly 100 independent fashion brands and continues to be a driving force in NYC’s fashion industry. She has such fond memories of her experience in the GW English Department, most specifically her time studying under Professor Gail Pastor.
- Dakota Kollar, MA ’25, works with young students at Salt Lake Community College as their professor, instructing them in their introductory course to College Writing.
- Peter Rose, BA ’74, retired after nearly 40 years at law firms, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone. He wrote a novel (The Good War of Consul Reeves) and is serving on the boards of the NAACP and the Poetry Society of America.