Department of English

The episode of The American Vandal recorded at Penn English featuring Whitney Trettien, Associate Professor of English, and Chris Newfield in conversation with Matt Seybold and introduced by Jim English, John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, is now online: https://theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/criticism-and-the-chatbot-bubble

A spirited discussion of the state of higher education, the history of criticism, and the future of literary knowledge production, recorded with a live audience at University of Pennsylvania’s English Faculty Lounge as part of the annual Penn English Department Lecture, delivered this year by Christopher Newfield.

Full Cast (in order of appearance): James English, Christopher Newfield, Matt Seybold, Whitney Trettien, Jenny, Zachary Lesser, Mark Algee Hewitt, Kerry McAuliffe, Eilis Lombard, Laura McGrath, Qing (Ruby) Liao

Date Recorded: October 22, 2025