Campus Humanities Calendar
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
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Please join the University Archives for the first Women in Science Lecture Series of the year! On September 8 from 12 - 1 pm hear Dr. Krista Habing discuss her doctoral work on aging, skeletal muscle regeneration, and tissue engineering.
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Please join the Unit for Criticism and the Mellon Sawyer Seminar for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Chad Wellmon (Germanic Languages & Literatures, University of Virginia) on Theory in the University.
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
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Join us on the back patio to gather with the humanities community at Illinois.
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The Spurlock Museum invites you to contribute to the Unfinished Revolutions exhibit by creatively responding to the question, “What are you fighting for?”. Your response to the prompt, created on canvas, will be put on view in the exhibit and copied to be included in the exhibit zine.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
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The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 aims to raise awareness of the role of women in agrifood systems and the challenges they face. This presentation will discuss advances in understanding the empowerment of women farmers and addressing their needs. Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Research Fellow Emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
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Celebrate the launch of “Quinceañeras: Latinidades and Girlhood in Popular Culture” (University of Illinois Press). Edited by Jillian M. Báez (PhD ’09, communications and media, ICR), Diana Leon-Boys (PhD ’20, communications and media, ICR), and Institute of Communications Research Professor Emerita Angharad N. Valdivia (PhD ’91, communications and media, ICR).
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Prof. Keidrick Roy (Dartmouth College) speaks on the topic of his prize-winning book, American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism (Princeton, 2024), showing how Black intellectuals challenged ideas of “racial feudalism” inspired by the medieval past...
Friday, September 11, 2026
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Stop by on Fridays for our monthly Talk & Tour! Gain insights about the artwork on view in both special exhibitions and the collection galleries.
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Join the virtual Lightning Talks on Gender Research, "Talks on Fire: Big Ideas, Elevator Pitches". Preparing an elevator pitch regarding your research is crucial for networking, being on the market, and finding a job.
Monday, September 14, 2026
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Our Mr. Matsura is the story of Frank (Sakae) Matsura, the orphaned son of a samurai, who emigrated to Washington State in 1901, eventually settling in remote Okanogan County.
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Please join us for a talk by Prof. Neem, where he will examine the ideological challenges to scientific knowledge from both the left and right and their implications for the future of the American university.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
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Stuart Davis analyzes the rise of Movimento Brasil Livre and its use of social media activism. The lecture explores how online political mobilization generated public engagement but faced challenges in building lasting political structures and influence.
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Danielle Chynoweth (Supervisor, Cunningham Township) on Democracy.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
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In 1968, Alejo Hernández, a resident of Stanislaus County, California, sued the USDA because the county failed to implement the Food Stamp Program.
Saturday, September 19, 2026
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Join us for a special gallery talk with Catherine Weisener, artist, educator, and teaching professor in the School of Art & Design, as she explores themes, techniques, and the enduring impact of ceramics in conjunction with Centering Clay: Connection and Innovation in American Studio Ceramics.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Jonathan Rosa (Education, Stanford) on Semiotics.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
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Please join us for the first of 2 talks in the Center for Advanced Study Climate | Change Initiative's Victorian Culture and Climate Change series. Nathan Hensley (English, Georgetown U) will discuss how close attention to Victorian literature can recover a prehistory for the deeply felt sense of powerlessness many of us know all too well today.
Thursday, September 24, 2026
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Please join us for an opening reception to celebrate the acquisition of the first edition of Frankenstein and explore the life and career of Mary Shelley. Exhibit curator Lynne Thomas will give brief remarks, and refreshments will be served. This exhibit will be on display through Summer 2027.
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Join us for a reading by author Mary Helen Specht! Mary Helen Specht is the author of the forthcoming novel Mudlark (July 2026) and the novel Migratory Animals, a New York Times Editors' Choice and winner of the Texas Institute of Letters Best First Fiction Award and the Writers’ League of Texas Fiction Prize.
Friday, September 25, 2026
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Readings in theme with "Up Against Erasure," with: Andrea Giugni + Malina Infante + Nathan Metz; Lisa Low.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
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Readings in theme with “Up Against Erasure,” with: Steven Bergmark + Mason McVeigh + Diana Towne; Gabriela Garcia.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Lisa Saltzman (History of Art, Bryn Mawr) on Walter Benjamin.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
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Please join us for the second of 2 talks in the Center for Advanced Study Climate | Change Initiative's Victorian Culture and Climate Change series. Stephanie O'Rourke (Art History, U of St Andrews) discusses the relationship between new pictorial formats for representing landscapes and industrial mineral extraction in Victorian England.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Join us for an info session to learn more about the Humanities in Action program and receive insight into the application process.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Maryam Kashani (Gender & Women's Studies, UIUC) on Visual Theory.
Thursday, October 8, 2026
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Please join us for presentations by recent CAS Fellows. At 11am, Nicholas Jackson (Chemistry) discusses Designing Polymers in the AI Era and at noon, Stefan Vogler (Sociology) presents Police Consciousness and the Potential for Reform.
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Join us for a reading by poet Philip Metres! Philip Metres (he/him) grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, the grandchild of Lebanese refugees and migrants and the descendent of Irish famine survivors. Metres has been called “one of the essential poets of our time,” whose work is “beautiful, powerful, magnetically original.”
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“Staying with the Trouble of Preservation: The Ambivalent Politics of Deletion in Digital Societies.” Presented by Nanna Bonde Thylstrup (Art and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen).
Friday, October 9, 2026
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This is a panel discussion with artists and scholars on Everett’s Erasure. Each panelist will provide a different window into what’s beyond Erasure or what reading Erasure inspires (broadly conceived).
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CAS Professor of Psychology Brent Roberts draws from the science of personality development to discuss the following questions: How important are my genes for my personality? What effect did my parents have on who I am? Does my personality matter for love, work, and health? And “am I stuck with my personality or can I change?" A reception follows this CAS Annual Lecture.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by John Lurz (English, Tufts) on Poststructuralism.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
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Join us as we highlight the incredible work of each of Humanities Without Walls' Reciprocity and Redistribution Grand Research Challenge projects in four virtual showcases over the 2026-27 academic year. During each event, 2-3 teams will present their projects and share a bit about the centrality of reciprocal and redistributive methods to their work.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
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Professor Ángel García (English/Creative Writing) will read from his latest collection, Indifferent Cities.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Greta LaFleur (American Studies, Yale) on Gender.
Friday, October 23, 2026
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In this CAS/MillerComm presentation, GAM Visiting Scholar Professor Sangaré (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales - INALCO) treats Islam in France as a case study in the state management of minority religion in a secular republic. Hosted by the Department of History.
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Join us for a professional development presentation from a visiting literary agent! Rayhané Sanders will give a glimpse at the nuts and bolts of publishing, working in publishing, query letters, and other aspects of the literary trade. This will include some do's and don'ts and plenty of time for questions and answers.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
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The techniques for making texts have changed across multiple media and historical contexts since antiquity, but a regular feature of the work of authors and scholars through all those changes is the reliance on helpers or amanuenses. Dr. Ann Blair (Harvard) will discuss the factors that have made them both invisible and occasionally visible, and the kind of work they did.
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Rob Rushing (European Languages & Transcultural Studies, UCLA) on Biopolitics.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
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Professor Gillen D'Arcy Wood (English and Earth Science & Environmental Change) will discuss his book, The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans’ Decline.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Chi-Ming Yang (English, University of Pennsylvania) on Orientalism.
Thursday, November 5, 2026
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Representatives from the HuMetricsHSS Humane Metrics Initiative will present on the values-based frameworks they’ve developed to guide all kinds of scholarly processes. The session will include time for audience questions.
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Join us for a reading by Illinois Alumni, Chekwube Danladi, Chris Vanjonack, and Weston Morrow!
Thursday, November 12, 2026
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Emblematica (Illinois) and Compositor (U. of Birmingham) are databases that use digital technologies to explore the early modern text-image interface. Join Dr. Hazel Wilkinson (Birmingham) to learn how historical readers used “emblem-literacy” to engage with ornamented books in ways previously unaccounted for in scholarship.
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Thomas Davis (English, Ohio State) on Environmental Humanities.
Wednesday, December 2, 2026
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Join us as we highlight the incredible work of each of Humanities Without Walls' Reciprocity and Redistribution Grand Research Challenge projects in four virtual showcases over the 2026-27 academic year. During each event, 2-3 teams will present their projects and share a bit about the centrality of reciprocal and redistributive methods to their work.
Thursday, February 11, 2027
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Justice in the Balance: Democracy, Rule of Law, and the European Court of Human Rights
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Join us for a reading by author Carmen Maria Machado! Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House, the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods, and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties.
Friday, February 19, 2027
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Following an introduction to the book proposal and publishing process, this presentation and panel will also cover recent experiences by faculty and editors in this important component of humanistic scholarship. Co-organized by the Humanities Research Institute and OVCRI’s Office of Research Advising and Project Development.
Thursday, February 25, 2027
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With Roderick Wilson (East Asian Languages and Cultures and History) and Anna Jungeun Lee (East Asian Languages and Cultures)
Wednesday, March 3, 2027
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More information is coming.
Thursday, March 4, 2027
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Patricia Owens Book Talk: Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men.
Thursday, March 25, 2027
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March 25-26, more information is coming soon. Part of the Up Against Erasure event series.
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Join us for a reading by author Brandon Hobson! Dr. Brandon Hobson is a 2022 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. His novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Friday, March 26, 2027
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March 25-26, more information is coming soon. Part of the Up Against Erasure event series.
Thursday, April 1, 2027
Thursday, April 15, 2027
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More info is coming.
Thursday, May 6, 2027
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Gather with us in community to celebrate this year's HRI research prize recipients and to mark the close of another academic year!