2026-2027: Memory, Mind, and Morality
Our 2026-2027 series will explore the ethical dimensions of memory. Rather than treating memory as a passive record of the past, the series examines it as an active, interpretive process that shapes how individuals and communities understand responsibility, identity, and justice. Because remembering is inseparable from forgetting, the yearlong program offers opportunities to reflect on how acts of remembering and forgetting—and the choices they entail—shape the moral contours of our lives.
Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar: Vigil
The Mudd Center is a proud co-sponsor of Lifelong Learning’s 2026 Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar
Vigil Featuring Author George Saunders
September 4-5, 2026
Maya Lin
Talk Title: Memory, Monument, and the Natural World
September 17, 2026, 5:15 pm, Lenfest Hall 201, Keller Theater
Renowned architect and artist, Maya Lin, will launch the Mudd Center’s year-long series, “Memory, Mind, and Morality.”
In her keynote address, Lin will present works from her remarkable body of memorials, reflecting on how her deep concern for the environment has shaped her aesthetic vision. She will examine iconic projects such as the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, DC and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, alongside her multi-sited Confluence Project in Washington State. Lin will conclude by discussing her final “memory work,” What Is Missing? — a global, diachronic project confronting biodiversity loss and climate change.
This event is co-sponsored by Art History, the Art Museum, the Lenfest Center, and the departments of Philosophy and Sociology and Anthropology.
Dr. Sven Bernecker
Talk Title: Carrying the Blame: The Memory Conditions of Responsibility Over Time
October 22, 2026, 5:15 pm, Stackhouse Theater
Holding someone responsible for a past deed sometimes require that they, in some sense, still remember it. But in which sense? Theories of personal identity since Locke lean on episodic, autonoetic memory — recalling the act from the inside. Does blameworthiness travel the same track? Or does it persist through a different kind of memory, one that outlasts our capacity to relive what we did?
JT Torres
Talk Title: Remember Me: Ethical Implications of How Griefbots Shape Social Memory
November 16, 2026, 5:15 pm, Harte Center 128
How we remember lost loved ones is how we honor them. Since memory is never the exact replication of past experiences, the stories we tell about those we lost are creative acts with ethical import. What happens when these stories become products in the form of Griefbots? What happens to our identity when technology replaces social memory? JT Torres, Director of the Harte Center, draws from his research and writing to explore these questions.
A Lenfest Event: A Teen Odyssey
The Mudd Center is a co-sponsor of the Lenfest Center’s 35th Anniversary Celebration
A Teen Odyssey
April 3-4, 2027
The Mudd Center
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Washington and Lee University
209 Mattingly House
Lexington, VA 24450