Research Seminars @ Illinois

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Tailored for undergraduate researchers, this calendar is a curated list of research seminars at the University of Illinois. Explore the diverse world of research and expand your knowledge through engaging sessions designed to inspire and enlighten.

To have your events added or removed from this calendar, please contact OUR at ugresearch@illinois.edu

Tropical Polar Bears: A Story of Competing Colonialisms in the Great Acceleration

Event Type: Lecture
Sponsor: Center for Advanced Study (CAS)
Location: Levis Faculty Center, Rm 210
Date: Oct 31, 2025 3:00 pm
Contact: Masumi Iriye
E-Mail: iriye@illinois.edu
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Originating Calendar: Campus Humanities Calendar; In 1978, the tropical city-state of Singapore received three polar bears, starting a dynasty of polar bears that ended in 2018. Within the lifespan of these tropical polar bears, the planet has undergone rapid and exponential growth in economies, human populations, agricultural intensification, deforestation, and the burning and consuming of carbon and chemicals--all indelibly changing every surface of the globe. How might the life histories of polar bears narrate the story of twentieth and twenty-first century competing colonialisms in the Great Acceleration? This paper is based on ongoing archival and ethnographic research in Singapore, Canada, and the US.

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