The Department of English Language and Literature hosted Professor W. J. Mitchell on 2 June 2009, who gave a lecture entitled "Extreme Social Environments: Gaza Primary Example".

 W. J. Mitchell is professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago. He is editor of the interdisciplinary quarterly journal, Critical Inquiry, which is devoted to critical theory in the arts and human sciences.

A scholar and theorist of media, visual art and literature, Mitchell is associated with the emergent fields of visual culture and iconology (the study of images across the media). He is known especially for his work on the relations of visual and verbal representations in the context of social and political issues.

Professor Mitchell has expressed his heart-felt connection to Palestine as a land and people. He has previously visited BZU, especially one year after the death of Edward Said, when he gave a keynote speech in honor of him.