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Department of English

Columbian College of Arts & Sciences

2025 English Newsletter

Message from the Department Chair

Antonio López

This year, we once again welcomed students back to campus with spirit and renewed energy to study literature and culture with our outstanding faculty. We gave a special welcome to those first-year students and newly declared majors who were joining us for the first time. We connected with them not only in our classrooms but in our suite on the 6th floor of Phillips Hall for events like a talk by the specialist in the humanities and technology, N. Katherine Hayles, and a reading by our Jenny McKean Moore Visiting Writer in Washington, Kat Chow. I continue to be proud of the many ways that English Department faculty have sought to support students and to cultivate a sense of community.

Fall 2024 was the last semester on faculty for our colleague Evelyn Schreiber, who is retiring. Arriving at GW in 1989, Professor Schreiber is the author of Subversive Voices: Eroticizing the Other in William Faulkner and Toni Morrison (2001) and Race, Trauma, and Home in the Novels of Toni Morrison (2010) as well as the editor of Healing Trauma: The Power of Listening (2018).

Also retiring at the end of the spring 2025 semester is our colleague Ormond Seavey. Arriving at GW in 1976, Professor Seavey is the author of Becoming Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and the Life (1988) and Henry Adams in Washington: Linking the Personal and Public Lives of America’s Man of Letters (2020) as well as the editor of Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Other Writings (Oxford, 1993). Both Professors Schreiber and Seavey have left indelible marks on the English Department, especially in the lives of the many, many students they have taught. We will miss them, and we thank them!

English staff, students and faculty are a mutually supportive group that fosters a diverse, inclusive learning environment. As always, I encourage you to have a look at our website and to stay connected to the department via Instagram and Facebook. There you’ll find evidence aplenty of exciting things happening in our classrooms and of events that you’d be welcome to attend. Thanks to those of you who have made donations to us—we are so grateful for your support. Please stay in touch. We love sharing stories of our alums and their career paths with our students, so please reach out with contact information.

Antonio López
Department Chair

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Department Spotlights 

Jones Edward
Professor of English Edward P. Jones

The Worlds of Century-Best Novelist Edward P. Jones

English Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones shapes worlds of fiction in his head. And now his work has been ranked among the century’s best. He placed two books on the New York Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. His 2003 novel The Known World ranked fourth. He was profiled in the CCAS Spotlight newsmagazine.

Alexa Alice Joubin has been an “early adopter” of AI in the classroom.
Alexa Alice Joubin has been an “early adopter” of AI in the classroom.

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Faculty Kudos

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Alumni Class Notes

  • Michael Bennett, BA ’02, is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He recently published his eighth monograph, Between the Lines: A Philosophy of Theatre (Oxford University Press 2024).
  • Eric Brichto, BA ’09, was promoted to chief accreditation officer at an organization that accredits healthcare management programs.
  • Suzanne Gibbons, BA ’63, is still living in the U.K. and enjoying it—despite the weather. She is very involved in community activities as well as a weekly cycling group.
  • Amit Goel, MA ’05, is an instructional designer at Purdue University Global. He has been in this field for almost 20 years and is happy to act as a mentor to any students who wish to learn more.
  • Madelyn Higareda, MA ’24, published her review of As You Like It (dir. Ellen McDougall, 2023) in the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare.
  • Yahia Lababidi, BA ’96, authored his 12th book, Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024). His forthcoming collection is titled What Remains to be Said: New and Selected Aphorisms (Wild Goose, 2025).
  • Jennifer Lighty, BA ’91, is a writer, mentor and traditional storyteller living on Hawai’i Island. Her work is focused on mythic rites of passage for modern people and grounded in the ancient lineage of Mū Hawaiian wisdom.
  • John LoDico, BA ’83, the former editor of GW’s Wooden Teeth magazine, is the senior director of communications for the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, which represents the state’s hospitals, health systems and many physician practices.
  • Katherine Mead, BA ’09, is a film and TV writer living in Los Angeles. Most recently she worked as a writer and producer on Apple TV’s sci-fi series SILO, starring Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Common and Steve Zahn.
  • Miriam Nichter, BA ’71, is a Professor Emerita at University of Arizona School of Anthropology.
  • Stacey Poliquin, BA ’90, was a longtime writer/editor for an international medical association. Fast forward 34 years and she is now an intraoperative neurophysiologist.

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