W&L’s Mudd Center to Explore ‘Memory, Mind, and Morality’ in New Series The Mudd Center’s 2026-2027 lecture series will address questions of memory and how the acts of remembering and forgetting can shape the moral contours of our lives.

The ethical dimensions of memory are at the heart of the Washington and Lee University Roger Mudd Center for Ethics’ 2026-2027 series, “Memory, Mind and Morality.”

Through lectures, conversations and workshops, the Mudd Center will treat memory not as a passive record of the past, but an active and interpretive process inextricably bound to forgetting. Through this lens, the program invites reflection on how the acts of remembering and forgetting — and the choices they entail — shape the moral contours of our lives.

Central to the series’ investigation are questions central to both personal and public life. What do we owe one another through acts of remembrance? Which histories are preserved, commemorated or silenced? How do personal and collective memories inform moral responsibility? How should we evaluate emerging technologies that preserve, recreate, alter or erase memory — and when do such innovations enhance human flourishing and when might they undermine authenticity, autonomy or dignity?

Learn more about this year’s theme by visiting the Mudd Center website.

Tom Wolfe Weekend: Memory and Moral Reckoning

The lecture series kicks off with the 21st annual Tom Wolfe Weekend, co-sponsored by the Mudd Center and W&L’s Office of Lifelong Learning, from Sept. 4-5. This year’s seminar will feature George Saunders, whose novel “Vigil” has been named a New York Times bestseller. Saunders will present the keynote address at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 in University Chapel, followed by a book signing in Washington Hall.

The weekend’s programming will also feature a lecture by Melissa Kerin, director of the Mudd Center, at 10:15 a.m. on Sept. 5 in Huntley Hall, Room 327. In her lecture, titled “Memory and Moral Reckoning in George Saunders’ ‘Vigil,’” Kerin will examine the philosophical tension at the heart of Saunders’ novel: If life unfolds as an “inevitable occurrence,” what place is there for moral reckoning? She suggests that the novel’s persistent return to memory raises an essential question of why memory, if it does not shape our moral trajectories, can so profoundly structure human experience.

“Saunders creates memory-scapes that are like fever dreams, enmeshing characters in an endless expanse of time and space that folds in on itself and stretches out morphing identities and compelling readers to analyze the role and meaning of memory,” Kerin said.

Saunders’ keynote address and Kerin’s lecture are free and open to the public. More information about Tom Wolfe Weekend programming and a full schedule of events can be found online.

The Mudd Center was established in 2010 through a gift to the university from award-winning journalist Roger Mudd, a 1950 graduate of W&L. By facilitating collaboration across traditional institutional boundaries, the center aims to encourage a multidisciplinary perspective on ethics informed by both theory and practice. Previous Mudd Center lecture series themes have included “Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities,” “Race and Justice in America,” “The Ethics of Citizenship,” “Markets and Morals,” “Equality and Difference,” “The Ethics of Identity,” “The Ethics of Technology,” “Daily Ethics: How Individual Choices and Habits Express Our Values and Shape Our World, “Beneficence: Practicing and Ethics of Care,” “The Ethics of Design,” “How We Live and Die: Stories, Values and Communities” and “Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Ethics.”