Campus Humanities Calendar
Monday, January 26, 2026
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5:00Alice Campbell Alumni Center (601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana)Hear from Ambassador Shapiro as a distinguished diplomat and foreign policy expert with over two decades of experience in senior U.S. government positions. RSVP is required for this event. If you have not registered in advance, you will not be allowed into the event.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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7:00 - 8:00 pm
Exploring Textual Representations of Enslavement in Children's Books and Comics — Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas joins us virtually to explore visual representations of the Middle Passage in children’s picture books and comics, re-envisioning the slave ship as a metaphorical floating “dark forest”...
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7:00 pmG58 LCLB- Film Classroom
Lee Miller was an incredible photographer who was present at the liberation of some concentration camps. Trigger warning: some parts of this film display graphic images of survivors and victims of the Holocaust. 7 pm Holocaust Remembrance Day screening of Lee. Location TBD.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
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12:00 - 1:30 pmThe Humanities Without Walls Summer Bridge program supports PhD students in the humanities at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in exploring new career paths while making an impact in our community. Join us at this info session for more information about this opportunity!
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7:00 pmKnight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory, UrbanaAward winning experimental theater artists Holly Hughes (one of the NEA Four) and Katie Pearl are building a new performance about the Supreme Court and sexual violence and plan to premiere the piece in the fall of 2026.
Thursday, January 29, 2026
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12:30 - 2:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 424This informal group aims to bring together graduate students from across campus to share their enthusiasm for the thought-provoking scholarship that animates them as people. Bring your lunch and stop by to listen and chat!
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5:00 - 7:00 pmKrannert Art MuseumEleven faculty members from the School of Art & Design will be featured in the upcoming exhibition, Another Place: Storymaking the Entangled Prairie. The exhibition considers how people make and define place through stories, and how stories carry out a kind of labor, maintaining narratives about the places we live—and about us.
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5:00 - 7:00 pmKrannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Dr., ChampaignCelebrate opening night of the museum’s latest exhibition Another Place: Storymaking the Entangled Prairie | School of Art & Design Faculty, featuring new work by 11 artists. Enjoy a salon talk with the curators, music, and a dessert bar. *Parking nearby is free after 5 pm.*
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7:30Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Anna Sapozhnikov • Department of Dance
January Dance continues the Dance at Illinois production season, "Black on Black; A Celebration of Black Dance." The concert includes work by assistant professor, Alexandra Barbier, premiering a new characteristically humorous and experimental theatrical work.
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7:30 - 9:30 pmKrannert Center for the Performing ArtsJanuary Dance is directed by Assistant Professor Alexandra Barbier, who will also be premiering a new characteristically humorous theatrical work. MFA candidate Nik Owens premieres his thesis work, an athletic, probing romp into black queerness. Distinguished alumni guest artists, Laina Reese Werner-Powell and Ty Lewis round out this show, premiering new group works.
Friday, January 30, 2026
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3:00 - 5:00 pm
In her book Unbecoming Persons: The Rise and Demise of the Modern Moral Self, philosopher Ladelle McWhorter (U. of Richmond) describes the agony of trying and failing to be a good person. In a globalized capitalist economy, personhood makes unfulfillable demands.
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
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4:00Main Library 220 or Online
In "THE LIFECYCLE OF WRITING SUBJECTS: On Generative AI and the Future of Writing," Lauren M.E. Goodlad (Distinguished Professor at Rutgers) introduces generative AI in light of its concentrated political economy, long history of anthropomorphized machine “intelligence,”
Thursday, February 5, 2026
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6:05 - 7:30 pmKrannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Dr., Champaign
SPEAK stands for Song, Poetry, Art, and Knowledge. It is an open-mic public performance space at Krannert Art Museum curated by local artist, Shaya Robinson, featuring guest performers and welcoming all to the mic. *Parking nearby is free after 5 pm and on weekends.*
Friday, February 6, 2026
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11:30 am - 1:00 pmThe Corner, Main Library 220
Researchers will share work in progress from "The Virality of Racial Terror in U.S. Newspapers, 1863-1921," a Mellon-sponsored project. VRT uses digital humanities methods to trace the circulation of reports about anti-Black violence in US newspapers in the late 19th & early 20th centuries.
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2:00 pmGregory Hall 223
Please join us for an event in the Timbuktu Talks series with Aly Drame, a professor of history at Dominican University. His lecture will call attention to the need to better reframe the rise and development of Islam in the wider Senegambia, considering the role played by the Mandinka Muslim settlements in the Middle Casamance in this process through intermarriage...
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2:00 pmDepartment of History
Ismael M. Montana (Northern Illinois University) will give a lecture titled "Ahmad b. al-Qāḍī al-Timbuktāwī: Pilgrimage, Intellectual Exchange, and Condemnation of the Enslaved Religion of the Blacks of Tunis.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
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5:30 - 7:30 pmCampus Instructional Facility, Room 2035
A lecture in the Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age series featuring Brett Robinson(University of Notre Dame). Drawing on thinkers such as Wendell Berry, Paul Kingsnorth, and James Carey—as well as emerging experiments in digital fasting and community-building.
Friday, February 13, 2026
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1:00 - 5:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 210How does recognizing the fundamental entanglements of humans and the more-than-human world impact notions of "justice"? Drawing on perceptions from diverse communities, disciplines, and social, political, and historical contexts, this symposium will provide a space for us to grapple with the question: What might a more just world or worlds look like in the 21st century?
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3:00 - 5:00 pm223 Gregory Hall
Northwestern University philosopher Sandford Goldberg explores how we might modify or expand Stalnaker’s Common Ground framework to capture the normative dimension of inquiry and conversation. Goldberg suggests that we should make room for normative expectations both within common ground and about common ground, with far-reaching implications for epistemology.
Sunday, February 15, 2026
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8:30 am - 3:00 pmChapel of St. John the Divine, 1011 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL
Join in the fun as Urbana’s newest period instrument ensemble, directed by internationally renowned harpsichordist Charlotte Mattax Moersch explores the musical puzzles in Bach’s great masterpiece, The Musical Offering, along other gems of the Baroque.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
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1:00 - 2:00 pmSkeuomorph Press & BookLab
Wagner's talk, “'As Usual You Have Produced Yet Another Installment Worthy of Archiving': The Persistence of Obsolescence in Queer Information & Media Technologies," uses archival object case studies to call attention to how data exists within the objects of queer history...
Thursday, February 19, 2026
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4:30 pmIllini Union Bookstore | Author's Corner
A reading by Callie Siskel made possible by the Robert J. and Katherin Carr visiting author series. Callie Siskel is the author of Two Minds, forthcoming from W. W. Norton, and Arctic Revival, selected by Elizabeth Alexander for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship.
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5:15 pmPlym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall
On February 19, Carlos Alberto Torres, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and former director of UCLA's Latin American Center, will give a lecture celebrating the extraordinary humanitarian career of Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The lecture will take place at 5:15 PM at the Plym Auditorium in Temple Buell Hall with reception to follow.
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5:15 - 6:45 pmPlym Auditorium, Temple Hoyne Buell Hall
On February 19, Carlos Alberto Torres, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and former director of UCLA's Latin American Center, will give a lecture celebrating the extraordinary humanitarian career of Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in which he analyzed the analogous relationship of colonizer and colonized to that of teacher and student.
Friday, February 20, 2026
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3:00 - 5:00 pm223 Gregory Hall
While the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy increases over time, in some systems entropy decreases in parts of the system while increasing in others. A zebra resists or exploits the second law by shunting extra entropy into its environment. Philosopher Heather Demarest (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Thursday, February 26, 2026
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4:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 422Erin Brock Carlson’s research centers the relationships between place, technology, and power, focusing on how communities work together to address complex public problems through communication and community organizing. She uses community-based and participatory approaches in her research.
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5:30 pmKnight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory, Urbana
Chicago-based artist Oscar Joyo will discuss his vivid and colorful public murals, underscoring the purpose of art and understanding the power of art to create narratives and tell stories about the history of place, the significance of the present, and the hopes for the future. He will also share details of his local engagement with students from Stratton Elementary School
Monday, March 2, 2026
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11:00 am - 1:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 208, 919 W. Illinois St
Join us for talks from our recent Associates and Fellows. At 11am Yi-Cheng Wang (Food Science & Human Nutrition) discusses the development of self-powered light-based sanitizers to enhance food safety and at noon...
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
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7:30 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 422Dr. Justin R. Garcia is an evolutionary biologist and sex researcher. He is executive director and senior scientist at the Kinsey Institute, Ruth N. Halls Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and adjunct professor of medicine at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
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3:30 - 5:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 300The Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity and the Humanities Research Institute host the annual campus celebration of International Women's Day with “12 Women Who Changed the World: Untold Stories.”
Thursday, March 5, 2026
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All DayLevis Faculty Center, Room 210The 24th annual Women’s and Gender History Symposium will take place March 5-7, 2026. This year’s theme is Gender and Labor. This year's conference will feature graduate research and keynote speakers Dr. Arunima Datta and Dr. Eric McDuffie. You may now register here!
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6:00 - 7:30 pmKrannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Dr., Champaign
SPEAK stands for Song, Poetry, Art, and Knowledge. It is an open-mic public performance space at Krannert Art Museum curated by local artist, Shaya Robinson, featuring guest performers and welcoming all to the mic. *Parking nearby is free after 5 pm and on weekends.*
Friday, March 6, 2026
Saturday, March 7, 2026
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8:30 amLevis Faculty Center, Room 210This informal group aims to bring together graduate students from across campus to share their enthusiasm for the thought-provoking scholarship that animates them as people. Light refreshments will be provided. This edition of Scholarship Out Loud will be part of the 2026 Women’s and Gender History Symposium.
Monday, March 9, 2026
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5:00 - 7:00 pmAlice Campbell Alumni Center (601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana)
Please join us for the launch of Black, Jewish, and Beautiful: Contemporary Blewish Voices (Syracuse University Press, 2026). This anthology, co-edited by Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, Sara Feldman, and Brett Ashley Kaplan, brings together impactful perspectives from diverse Blewish/Black Jewish landscapes in the U.S. and globally.
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5:00 - 6:30 pmTBD
Blewish And Beautiful: Contemporary Black Jewish Voices roundtable with TaRessa Stoval, Marc Perry, David Wright Faladé and other contributors to the Blewish And Beautiful volume co-edited by Sara Feldman, Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, and Brett Ashley Kaplan.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
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11:00 am - 1:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 208 919 W. Illinois St, Urbana
We are delighted to showcase the work of some of our most productive and creative faculty in this informal series of intellectually and spiritually invigorating presentations. You are invited to drop in when you can to learn about the exciting projects undertaken by our faculty.
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
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12:00 - 1:30 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 210, 919 W. Illinois St
CAS Associate 2024-25 Merle Bowen (African American Studies) discusses her research that brings to light untold stories of African-descended communities in Atlantic Canada. With support from the Center for African Studies and the Department of African American Studies.
Friday, March 27, 2026
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9:00 am - 5:00 pmLevis Faculty Center 210
HGMS annual conference, 9a-5pm. Location TBD.
Monday, March 30, 2026
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12:00 - 1:30 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 424This informal group aims to bring together graduate students from across campus to share their enthusiasm for the thought-provoking scholarship that animates them as people. Bring your lunch and stop by to listen and chat!
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4:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 210Story & Place event series: Anke Pinkert Book Talk 4pm
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
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4:00 - 6:00 pm
Join us to celebrate the book launch of Richard (Chip) Burkhardt's The Leopard in the Garden: Animal and Human Lives in Paris at the First Public Zoo of the Modern Era (U of C Press, April 2026). Professor Burkhardt will share some highlights of the book, then participate in a panel discussion with local and visiting scholars.
Thursday, April 2, 2026
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4:30 pmIllini Union Bookstore Author's Corner
A reading by alumni of the creative writing program, Jessica Tanck and Matthew Gavin Frank. This event is made possible by the Robert J. and Katherin Carr visiting author series.
Friday, April 3, 2026
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9:00 am - 5:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 210, 919 W Illinois St
Jesse Oak Taylor (U Washington), Jonathan Howard (Yale U), Sarah Dimick (Northwestern U), and Min Hyoung Song (Boston College) join UI faculty in a series of talks and a concluding roundtable, which together will take up the question of how the study of literary history can contribute to our understanding of both the causes of and potential solutions...
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
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7:00 pmKnight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St. Urbana
Award-winning Palestinian artist and filmmaker Basma al-Sharif will present early and recent film works, Morgenkreis/Morning Circle (2025, 20:31minutes), which follows a father and son in their intimate rituals as they prepare to start the day and head to kindergarten; Capital (2023, 19 minutes)...
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
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4:30 pmTBD
A reading by Stephen Markley, made possible by the Robert J. and Katherin Carr visiting author series. Stephen Markley is the author of The Deluge, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as an Editor's choice. His previous books include the critically acclaimed bestseller Ohio, as well as Publish this Book and Tales of Iceland.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
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12:00 pmBruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (1212 W Nevada St., Urbana)Undergraduates of any major are invited to this informal lunch talk with Rita Dove. Dove served as US Poet Laureate from 1993–1995. She was a winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry and the 2023 honorary National Book Award.
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7:30 pmAlice Campbell Alumni CenterJoin us for a free public reading by award-winning poet Rita Dove. Dove served as US Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995, and was a winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry and the 2023 honorary National Book Award.
Thursday, April 16, 2026
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11:00 am - 1:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 210, 919 W Illinois St
Join us for presentations by our recent CAS Associates. At 11am Ramón Soto-Crespo (English) discusses the origin of Puerto Rico's ecological literature and at noon, Alison Bell (Evolution, Ecology, & Behavior) presents the evolution of family life in a small fish.
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4:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 210, 919 W Illinois St
Join us for a discussion with GAM Visiting Artist Paul O'Mahony, Founder and Director, Out of Chaos Theatre (London, UK).
Monday, April 20, 2026
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5:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 208
Book launch of Ethan Madarieta's Land's Language: On Mapuche Memory, Translation, and the Territorial Aporia.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
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All DayTBD
Annual Armenian Genocide Event Helen Makhdoumian (Postdoc, Vanderbilt University). Time and location TBD
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5:00 pmTBD
Annual Armenian Genocide Event, featuring Helen Makhdoumian (Postdoc, Vanderbilt University)
Thursday, May 7, 2026
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4:00 - 6:00 pmLevis Faculty Center, Room 422
Prizes for Research Ceremony and Reception