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“Sister Rosetta’s Stone”
Read all about why this gravestone matters at the website for Professor Gayle Wald’s Shout, Sister, Shout! An excerpt: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering gospel musician and instrumentalist, finally has a gravestone marking her resting place at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Since her passing in 1973, the gravesite of Sister Rosetta had been a barren…
Michael Chabon and Me
by J J Cohen Among my favorite perks as chair of the GW English Department is the chance to spend time with visiting novelists. Because so much of my own writing proceeds through slow research and diligent translation — through processes that seem like patient peering through a microscope — I’m fascinated by how a…
“The Gas Chamber and the Metro: Space, Mobility, and Disability”
As announced previously, on Friday October 23 at 5 PM, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson will deliver the inaugural GW English Distinguished Lecture in Literary and Cultural Studies. She will be introduced by Wang Visiting Professor of Contemporary English Literature José Muñoz. GW President Steven Knapp will give the university welcome. Professor Garland-Thomson is a founder of Disability…
Howard Jacobson’s Newest Novel
Lots of us remember last year’s visit to GW of English novelist Howard Jacobson, our 3rd British Council U.K. Writer-in-Residence, and author of the witty and wonderful Kalooki Nights. Well, the “Jewish Jane Austen” (or, as he might prefer, “English Woody Allen”) has a new novel, The Finkler Question, recently published in Britain. Click here…
Dog Days Update
Definitions of “dog days” differ from source to source. In common parlance, “dog days” refers to the sultry days of late summer, when the dog star, Sirius, rises along with the sun. The online etymology dictionary notes that in Europe, the period between July 3 and August 11 traditionally has been thought of as “the…
Plotzfest: The Schedule
We’re looking forward to greeting colleagues and friends from near and far for our fabulous Plotzfest conference in honor of Professor Emerita Judith Plotz on Friday. The fun begins at 10 am in the Marvin Center, Continental Ballroom, and continues throughout the day, with a culminating reception at 4 pm in Phillips 411. Please join…

