Upcoming Events & Programming
Guest Lecture: Dr. Mary Anne Franks, Sept. 15th 2026, 4 pm
Weird Science: How Male Fantasies Fuel AI
Sexual gratification. Servile assistance. Emotional validation. Sycophantic affirmation. Many of the disturbing and destructive uses of AI technology reflect longstanding male fantasies of control and exploitation of women. But while AI abuses such as deepfake porn are disproportionately perpetrated by men and boys and disproportionately targeted at women and girls, the impact of dehumanizing and deceitful technological practices endangers everyone. When technological advances are fueled by unchecked resentment and unjustified entitlement, they will ultimately self-destruct.
Dr. Mary Anne Franks, is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School. An internationally recognized expert on the intersection of civil rights, free speech, and technology, Dr. Franks also serves as the President and Legislative & Tech Policy Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, the leading U.S.-based nonprofit organization focused on image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). She has drafted model IBSA legislation that has served as the template for multiple state and federal laws and regularly advises lawmakers and tech companies on privacy, free expression, and safety issues. She is the author of two award-winning books, Fearless Speech (2024) and The Cult of the Constitution (2019). She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her doctorate from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is the recipient of the 2026 NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award, a 2026 Faculty Fellow of the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, and an Affiliate Fellow of the Yale Law School Information Society Project. She is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court and the District of Columbia. Add Event to your Google Calendar. Add Event to your Outlook, Apple, or Other Calendar
Public Debate: Fairfax County Schools’ Inger Logan and Avi Saraf on AI Companions, October 1st, 4pm
Oct. 1, 2026 Public Debate, Inger Logan and Avi Saraf, on the Resolution: Schools should actively discourage student use of AI companions. 4pm in the Weatherly Wing, Seacobeck Hall.
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Guest Lecture: Darrell West, “Countering Disinformation in an AI-Driven World”, 4–6 p.m, 116 Monroe Hall, October 15th 2026
Darrell M. West is a Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He holds the Douglas Dillon Chair in Governance Studies. Previously, he was the John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University.
West is the author of a number of books including Lies That Kill: A Citizen’s Guide to Disinformation (Brookings, 2024 with Elaine Kamarck); Power Politics: Trump and the Assault on American Democracy (Brookings, 2022); Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (Brookings, 2020; with John Allen), Divided Politics, Divided Nation: Hyperconflict in the Trump Era (Brookings, 2019), The Future of Work: Robots, AI, and Automation (Brookings, 2018); Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance, (Princeton University Press, 2005), and Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2013), among others.
He is the winner of the American Political Science Association’s Don K. Price award for best book on technology (for Digital Government) and the American Political Science Association’s Doris Graber award for best book on political communications (for Cross Talk). His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, and Korean, and he has delivered lectures in numerous countries around the world.
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Guest Lecture: Mona Sloane, Oct. 21st 2026, 4pm
Mona Sloane will present “Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life” on Oct. 21st, 2026 at 4pm in the Weatherly Wing of Seacobeck Hall.
Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life — We usually talk about AI as a technology with social consequences. Mona Sloane argues it’s something else: a new kind of social infrastructure, one that installs prediction as an organizing principle of social life. Drawing on her new book Predicted (University of California Press, 2026), she shows that. AI’s effects aren’t downstream of engineering decisions. AI systems grow out of social practices, institutional logics, and professional authority—and then remake them. That matters because the prediction paradigm forecloses debate before it starts, settling questions about our shared future in places most of us never see. Making those arrangements visible is what puts them back up for discussion. This talk is an argument for recouping collective deliberation in the age of AI—about which futures with AI we want, and what innovation is actually for.
Mona Sloane, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Media Studies at the University of Virginia. With her research group Sloane Lab she studies how AI gets embedded into everyday life. Her book Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life came out in May 2026 with the University of California Press. monasloane.org
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Braver Campus Conversation on Data Centers, Nov. 18th 2026, 6pm, Lee Hall 411
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