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Battelle-Tompkins, Room 200 on a map
CAS Dean's Office 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016 United StatesCAS Events
Indigenous Peoples Day with Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs
Monday, October 13, 7:00 p.m. | MGSC 128
In conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Rule, Assistant Professor, Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies Department
In celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, join us for a compelling conversation with Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, award-winning Mohawk actor and filmmaker (Reservation Dogs, Rhymes for Young Ghouls). Drawing on her experiences in film, television, and advocacy, Jacobs will explore the power of storytelling, representation, and cultural expression in shaping public understanding of Indigenous communities. This event highlights the importance of visibility, voice, and creative leadership, offering insights into how art and activism intersect to advance Indigenous narratives and perspectives.
Register for Devery Jacobs
The event is open to all and participation is not limited based on any individual’s personal identity or characteristics, including but not limited to race, color, national origin (or shared ancestry), religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status. For reasonable accommodations needs or requests, please contact Maura Fox at mfox@american.edu.
Visiting Writers SeriesFree and open to the public
All events at SIS Founders Room
Please find author details and more at the Visiting Writers Series in the Department of Literature.
- Tania James, October 15, 7:00
- Emily Bazelon , November 12, 7:00
- David Means, December 5, 7:00
- Patricia Coral, April 1, 2026, 7:00
Disarming Girls
By Sarah Caroline Billings and Kallen Prosterman
October 16-26
Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre
Directed by Jenna Place
Tickets: Free for AU students with ID, $10 for alumni, staff, faculty, children (under 18), and senior citizens (55 and older), $15 general public
Disarming Girls tickets
Disarming Girls tells the extraordinary true story of Hannie Schaft, Truus Oversteegen, and Freddie Oversteegen—three young women who became unexpected heroes of the Dutch resistance in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. As they navigate the harsh realities of 1941, their conviction and cunning challenge traditional roles and redefine what it means to fight for justice. With a powerful ensemble cast bringing wartime Europe to life, Disarming Girls is a gripping exploration of sisterhood and the quiet strength that changes history.
Content: Violence, guns.
See all fall 2025 DPA performances.
Studio Art MFA Fall
Rotunda Show
Katzen Arts Center Rotunda
On view October 10–November 6
American University’s Studio Art MFA Program is pleased to present a collection of artworks from current MFA students. This diverse cohort of interdisciplinary artists creates works in painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, fiber arts, and printmaking, exploring vast themes of community, landscape, identity, and injustice. Learn more about the exhibition.
Reception: October 18, 4–7 p.m. Meet the artists and learn more about the program. Light refreshments will be served.
Right: Michael Dodson, Untitled, 2025. Screenprint on cotton, 29 x 11.5 in.
Center for Israel Studies Events
- Helen and Daniel Sonenshine Lecture
Pigs and the World Jewish Conspiracy: Meat and Jews in the Nazi Mind
October 22, 7 p.m. | John Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish History at Berkeley - Israel 30 Years after the Rabin Assassination
October 29, noon | Charles Freilich and Aaron David Miller - Book Conversation: Antisemitism, an American Tradition
November 12, 4 p.m. | Pamela Nadell, AU Professor and Jewish Studies Program Director, in conversation with students about her new book. - Meltzer Trone Conference on US Jews and Israel
November 16–17 | RSVP for conference events including The Diaspora Blues and History & Politics: A Special Relationship?
The 26th McDowell ConferencePhilosophical Questions of AI:
Technology, Society, and Ethics
October 23, 2025, 9:00 a.m.—5:30 p.m.
Butler Boardroom, American University
Keynote: "Person, Thing, Robot" by David J. Gunkel (Northern Illinois University)
Panel speakers: Neda Atanasoski, Peter Hershock, Gordon Hull, Leigh Johnson, Brian Jordan Jefferson, Matteo Pasquinelli
The conference is open to the public. No registration is required
McDowell Conference details
AU Theatre/Musical Theatre Conversation and 
Q&A:
Caroline Aaron
Thursday October 23, 1-2 p.m. | Katzen Arts Center, Studio Theatre
Open to all, no RSVP required
Caroline Aaron (CAS/BA ’74), actor, playwright, and published author, received her BA from AU’s Department of Performing Arts. She is well known for her role as Shirley Maisel on the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Ms. Aaron has been in over 100 films, working with top directors such as Nora Ephron and Mike Nichols. For example, she starred in 21 & 22 Jump Street, Just Like Heaven, Nancy Drew, Edward Scissorhands, Anywhere But Here, and most recently Between The Temples. Television audiences are also familiar with her work as her appearances have included Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, all the CSI’s, all the Law & Orders, Sex And The City, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. She is a recurring character on Episodes, Transparent, and Ghosts. Aaron is a member of the CAS Advisory Board.
2025 Mueller Linguistics LectureCultivating Peace through Educational Linguistics
Thursday, October 23, 4:30 p.m. | SIS Founders Room
Francis M. Hult argues that symbiosis between educational linguistics and peace studies is necessary for peace: not simply the absence of violence and war, but the positive presence of equitable social structures fostering universal human rights. Hult integrates the multidimensional Oxford Language of Peace Approach with the socially situated nature of language and education. By building on ecology of language and nexus analysis, he shows how language policy and practice can foster peace and how educators and stakeholders can act as agents of peace.
Mueller Lecture info & RSVP
Annual Department of Literature Colloquium Colloquium on Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun
October 29, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. | MGSC 307 & DMTI 111
Morning Session & Lunch (MGSC 307)
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Student presentations on Klara and the Sun
- 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Lunch and keynote address by Professor Despina Kakoudaki
Afternoon Session (DMTI 111)
- 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. Meet and Greet with Iris, the AI Teaching Assistant and Professor Aref Zahed
- 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. AI, Emotions, and Human Experience: A Dialogue between Literature and Computer Science Faculty with Professors Aref Zahed, Mike Treanor, Gary Kafer, and Arielle Bernstein
Zoey’s Perfect Wedding By Matthew López
October 30-November 1
Katzen Arts Center, Studio Theatre
Directed by Carl Menninger
Tickets: Free for AU students with ID, $10 for alumni, staff, faculty, children (under 18), and senior citizens (55 and older), $15 general public
Zoey's Perfect Wedding tickets
“Love is complicated. So is the seating chart.”
Zoey’s Perfect Wedding is a fast-paced, sharply funny comedy about what happens when a dream wedding turns into a full-blown disaster. Set entirely during the reception—from awkward toasts to drunken confessions—this riotous play explores friendship, expectations, and the chaos beneath the surface of “happily ever after.” As Zoey’s big day unravels in real time, secrets spill and relationships are tested, turning her perfect wedding into a perfectly unforgettable night.
Content: Strong, graphic sexual language. Drug and alcohol use.
Originally developed and produced at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company.
Zoey’s Perfect Wedding is presented through special arrangement with TRW PLAYS 1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.trwplays.com
Visiting Artists Series:
Fall 2025
All events 6:00 p.m. | Katzen 201
The Studio Art MFA program at American University presents visiting artists throughout the academic year. See the Visiting Artists page for more information.
- Hong Hong
October 30 - Hedieh Ilchi
November 6
Katzen Soundbites:
Katzen’s 20th Birthday Party
November 6, 12:35-12:55 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center Rotunda
Join us for a special edition of Katzen Soundbites to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Katzen Arts Center! Stop by for live music by the AU Jazz Combo, cake, activities from the AU Library Makerspace, and a special appearance by Clawed Z. Eagle.
Katzen Soundbites is the Music Library's series of lunchtime concerts in the Katzen Rotunda (lobby) featuring students and faculty from the Department of Performing Arts. Tickets are not required to attend this performance. See our full schedule of fall Soundbites performances.
Friction Fixing: Generative AI in the Writing Classroom
November 10, 2:30–4:30 p.m. | MGSC 128
Composition scholar Catherine Savini (Westfield State University) specializes in writing studies, writing across the curriculum (WAC), and information literacy. Her most recent work suggests that writing instructors "friction fix" AI by helping their students build good writing habits and giving assignments that AI is not well-suited for, rather than take a punitive approach to generative AI use. Savini's previous work includes "Looking for Trouble," about how student writers can respond to published pieces.
Co-sponsored by the Writing Studies Program, Jee Davis, and the AU Library.
American University Symphony Orchestra
Classics from the Romantic Era November 1, 7:30 p.m.; November 2, 3:00 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall
Matthew Brown, conductor
Tickets: Free for AU students with ID, $10 for alumni, staff, faculty, children (under 18), and senior citizens (55 and older), $15 general public
Romantic Era tickets
The American University Symphony Orchestra will play a variety of well-known classics from the Romantic era. The program will begin with Hector Berlioz' Hungarian March from "The Damnation of Faust," followed by Suite no. 1 excerpted from Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen." Audiences will experience the mysterious and contemplative beauty of the two movements of Franz Schubert's Symphony no. 8, the so called "Unfinished" Symphony, and "finish" (pun intended) with Finlandia by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
American University Symphonic Band
November 8, 3 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall
Matthew Brown, conductor
Tickets: Free for AU students with ID, $10 for alumni, staff, faculty, children (under 18), and senior citizens (55 and older), $15 general public
Band tickets
The American University Symphonic Band embarks on an exciting new chapter this season, exploring a vibrant range of vintage concert band works for the first time. In the decades following World War II, the repertoire for symphonic band expanded dramatically as composers embraced the medium and audiences grew.
This semester, the ensemble breathes new life into often-overlooked gems from the 1950s to the 1980s, presenting music that deserves a fresh hearing alongside beloved pre-war classics and bold contemporary works. Thanks to a major investment in newly acquired sheet music, the AU Symphonic Band is proud to launch a series of AU premieres highlighting mid-20th-century treasures that will enrich our programming now and in the semesters ahead.
American University Chamber Singers
Understanding a cappella November 8, 7:30 p.m.; November 9, 3:00 p.m.
Katzen Arts Center, Abramson Family Recital Hall
Daniel Abraham, director
Tickets: Free for AU students with ID, $10 for alumni, staff, faculty, children (under 18), and senior citizens (55 and older), $15 general public
The meaning of a cappella has changed greatly throughout the history of Western music. Literally translated from Italian as “in the style of the chapel [church],” its meaning has blossomed to include layers of music that span Renaissance polyphony, unaccompanied music of the nineteenth century, barber shop style, and contemporary a cappella harmony groups that often add vocal percussion or beatboxing in a style that intersects pop, rock, and gospel sounds. Join us for this broad exploration of a cappella in a program that will feature not only AU Chamber Singers but AU’s a cappella groups.