GWU English Graduate Student Association 2026 Symposium

Info: Panel #1: Disability Aesthetics and the Technological Mediation of Mental Life
Faculty Discussant: Prof. Holly Dugan
Moderator: Nayoung Bishoff

• Abhishek Rao/Alliance University/Assistant Professor
“Tech-driven Cognitive Urbanism: Rethinking City Design for Aging and Neurodivergent Populations in Context of Durga Puja, Kolkata”

• Hyeonsu Kim/Chungbuk National University/MA student
“The Aesthetics of Silence: Epistolary Technology and Psychosocial Disability in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”

• Isaiah Thomas Washington/Cornell University/PhD student
“Black in Flesh and Chrome: Madness and Double Consciousness in Interpretations of DC Comics’ Cyborg.”

• Mario Valori/University of Pisa/MA
“Branches, Flags, and Fragile Minds: Visual Novel Engines and the Computation of Female Trauma.”
• Paromita Patranobish/Mount Carmel College/Assistant Professor
“Disordered Eating and Technologies of Consumption and Control in Carlos Miralbella-Davis’s Swallow (2019).”

Info: Faculty Discussant: Prof. Maria Frawley
Moderator: Priyanka Sharma

• Hicham Diouane/Abdelmalek Essaâdi University/Lecturer of English for Communication “The Bookseller as Algorithm: Literary Prototypes and Schizophrenic Self-Programming in Jalal Barjas's The Bookseller's Notebooks.”

• Kayla Laws/The George Washington University/MA student
“Machines of Survival: Disability, Technology, and Agency in Toni Morrison’s Sula.”

• Ashten Vassar-Cain & Jess Petrazzuoli-Gallagher/Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance/Graduate Students
title not provided; on Pennhurst Community Archives, digitization, privacy/visibility, data-center threat.

• Oana Marin/Lucian Blaga University/Assistant Professor
“The Digital Crip: Intimacy, Identity, Legacy, and the Posthuman Archive in Virtual Performance.”

• Acacia Gabriela Varela/George Mason University/MA student
“Radical Joy in a Fragmented World.”

• Emily Bues/The George Washington University/MA student
“Murderbot: Pain as Humanity.”

Info: Faculty Discussant: Prof. Jonathan Hsy
Moderator: Kayla Laws

• Javor Stein/University of Massachusetts Amherst/BA
“Race, Language Disability, and Fugitivity in an Age of Biopolitical Risk”

• Suarjan Prasai/University of Toronto/PhD student
title not provided; on generative AI counseling/mental health support and racial biases in algorithmic systems and public health

• Deanna Holroyd/Akita International University/PhD and Assistant Professor
title not provided; on ADHD management apps (ADHDNumo; Inflow ADHD), self-tracking, gamification, neoliberal self-optimization

• Abhishek Rao/Alliance University/Assistant Professor
“Adverse Effects of AI on Human Creativity and Workplace Efficiency.

• Daniel Hollinger/San Francisco State University/MA
“Film Pedagogy through Disability Aesthetics.”

• Michaela Reed/Georgia College & State University/MFA
“Navigating the Simulacrum: Confluence of the Organic and the Inorganic through Human-Robot Interactions in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream

Info: Faculty Discussant: Prof. David Mitchell
Moderator: Stephanie Herrera

• Amos Elwell/The George Washington University/MA student
“Childhood Sexuality, Intellectual and Developmental Disability, and The Future of Consent: Sexual Objectification in Poor Things.”

• Jamie Lewis/University of Georgia/MA/
“Sexy Simulacra: Posthumanist Love in The Mad Scientist’s Daughter and Annie Bot.”

• Sean Zou/Duke University/MFA student
“Operational Images of Incarceration: Farocki’s Pr*son Images and the Procedural Legibility of Mind.”

• Sohini Chatterjee/Western University/PhD student
“Being Neurodivergent and/or Disabled and Queer and/or Trans in India: Exploring Hopeful Resistance of Digital Storytelling in ‘Skin Stories’”

• Ryn Yee/MA/ Independent Scholar
“Mated, Alienated, or Captivated: Immersive Technologies and Mental Health in Star Trek.”

Info: Keynote: Prof. Lauren Goodlad: We Have Always Been Action Theorists: Toward an Interdisciplinary Theory of Language for the Age of Generative AI
Faculty Discussant: Prof. Alexa Alice Joubin
Moderator: Shangke Zhao
Lauren M. E. Goodlad is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, editor of Critical AI and chair of the Critical AI @ Rutgers as well as a faculty affiliate of the Center for Cultural Analysis (CCA), the Rutgers British Studies Center, and the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Gelman Library Room B108, 2130 H Street Northwest, Washington, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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