Henry Washington Jr. Graduates with Ph.D

    Seven weeks shy of his 26th birthday, Henry Washington, Jr. ("P.J.") successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, earning him a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. He also received Ph.D. minors in Theater & Performance Studies and Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. His dissertation, titled "Enfleshing the Criminal: Producing and Policing Black (Sexual) Difference in the Criminological Imagination," explored the prevalence of cultural precon
ceptions about blackness's supposed racial-sexual deviance in the historical construction of "the criminal" in the United States. In so doing, it scrutinized the ways that black people are often presumed criminal, with or without meaningful evidence, in the present day. His graduation ceremony was held at Stanford Stadium on Sunday, June 12, at 9:30 a.m.
    On July 1, he began his appointment as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Femenist, Gender, and Sexuality.
Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. This fall, he is teaching courses that explore how identity is constructed and the effects of that
construction on racial and gender minorities.
    Henry previously earned an M.A. in English, also from Stanford, and a B.A. from Duke University in Durham, NC. He is the son of Henry and Minnie Washington of Aliceville, AL.