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Dean Family Speaker Series

The Department of English at Wake Forest University is proud to host the Dean Family Speaker Series. This series has been endowed by a generous gift from the Dean Family, and brings national authors and scholars to our campus. It encourages critical conversations and dialogue related to the study of literature. All talks are open to the public, and everyone is invited to attend. Our recent speakers have included Nancy Armstrong, Lauren Berlant, Wai Chee Dimock, Robert Levine, Jean Marcus, Fred Moten, Marjorie Perloff, Michelle Stephens, Ivy Wilson, Shannon Winnubst, and more.

For further information about the Dean Family Speaker Series, contact director .

Events

  • Celebrating Olga Valbuena
    By Chris Brown, Chair of English The first warm day of this spring, as I made my way toward the library, I could see through some open windows into a classroom on the first floor of Tribble.  Students were seated in a circle at their desks, their rapt attention focused on the center of the […]
  • Congratulations to Newly Promoted Faculty!
    Congratulations to our newly promoted and tenured faculty! On Friday afternoon the College announced Derek Lee and Alisa Russell’s tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, as well as Guy Witzel’s promotion to Associate Teaching Professor. Congratulations, everyone!
  • Spring 2026 English Student Scholarships and Awards
    Congratulations to the recipients of the English Department’s 2025-2026 scholarships and awards! H. Broadus Jones Senior Award for Excellence in English Awarded to an outstanding senior major. Recipient: Anne Jones H. Broadus Jones Memorial Scholarship Awarded to an outstanding rising senior major. Recipient: Lucas Betancourt H. Broadus Jones M.A. Student Award for Excellence in English […]
  • Wake Forest Alum Caroline Hallemann Publishing New Biography this Summer
    English Department alum Caroline Hallemann (’11), now a writer and editor for Town & Country Magazine, will be publishing her first book with Penguin Random House this summer. The non-fiction dual biography, The Kennedys and the Windsors, comes out in June. For more information, visit the publisher’s website. “For nearly a century, two families […]
  • Leadership and Character Artist-in-Residence Event April 20
    On April 20, the Leadership and Character Program will welcome award-winning poet Dr. Pádraig Ó Tuama to campus for his talk Virtue and Verse: What Poetry Can Teach Us About Character. The event will be held in Porter Byrum Welcome Center at 5:30 PM and will be free and open to the public. Claim your […]
  • The Dillon Johnston Writers Reading Series Presents Dr. Christian Bök on March 24
    Join us in Hanes Gallery on March 24, 2026 for “The Hardest Pursuit of All — the Making of the Xenotext,” a presentation and reading by Dr. Christian Bök. The talk will take place at 5pm and will be followed by a reception and book signing. This event is free and open to the public. An […]
  • The Dean Family Speakers Series Presents Dr. David Alff
    On March 2, 2026, Dr. David Alff will visit us from the University at Buffalo to give his lecture “How to Identify a Road in Seventeenth-Century England” for the Dean Family Speakers Series. The event will take place at 5pm in Tribble Hall room A110 and will be free and open to the public. Professor […]
  • Medieval Studies Talk by Dr. Jennifer Lorden on November 11
    Dr. Jennifer Lorden, associate professor at William & Mary, will give a talk on Fiction and Belief in Early England on November 11th. The event will begin at 5:30pm in ZSR room 404, and will be free and open to the public. See the lecture description and speaker biography below, and join us at the […]
  • Holly Thompson Named the Storozynski Writer in Residence at Notre Dame
    We are excited to congratulate recent MA graduate Holly Thompson on her position as the 2025-2026 Storozynski Writer in Residence at Notre Dame University Reilly Center. The Storozynski Writing Fellowship, sponsored by the Health, Humanities, and Society (HHS) program in collaboration with the Creative Writing program, supports emerging writers whose work engages with themes such […]
  • Author Curtis Chin Public Lecture on October 20
    Curtis Chin is the author of the memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, he has written for CNN, Bon Appétit, and the Detroit Free Press as well as written comedies for network television. He is the director/producer of the documentary films “Tested,” “Vincent Who?” and “Dear Corky.” Join us […]