Campus Humanities Calendar
Thursday, October 9, 2025
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The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is excited to invite you to our premiere Beyond Borders: Global Collaborations for Mental Health Research and Services Conference on October 9 and 10, 2025 in Champaign, Illinois. Coinciding with World Mental Health Day, our theme is: From local to global, encouraging creative solutions to transcultural mental health challenges.
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Please join us for the University Archives' monthly Women in Science Lecture Series, Oct 9, from 12 -1 pm. Dr. Karen Terio, Professor and Interim Assistant Director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and Chief of the Zoological Pathology Program, will present “Wildlife Pathology: Dead animals tell tales”
Friday, October 10, 2025
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The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is excited to invite you to our premiere Beyond Borders: Global Collaborations for Mental Health Research and Services Conference on October 9 and 10, 2025 in Champaign, Illinois. Coinciding with World Mental Health Day, our theme is: From local to global, encouraging creative solutions to transcultural mental health challenges.
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In honor of LGBTQ+ History month, come by Spurlock for guided explorations of some of our exhibits and collections that document LGBTQ+ histories and cultures. Drop in any time between 4:00 and 6:00. Free admission. Everyone is welcome.
Saturday, October 11, 2025
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You are invited to enter a playful, restorative greenspace inside the museum. Soft artificial turf covers the gallery floor, inviting visitors to slow down and stretch out. By creating a visual and tactile interruption in typical museum spaces, Rest Lab 8: Greenspace, provides a calm, grounding atmosphere for people to gather.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
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In September 1985, almost 80,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium on the UIUC campus to hear the first Farm Aid concert. Over 50 musical acts came together to raise awareness of the economic crisis facing American family farms. Our exhibit curator will offer a guided look at the exhibit commemorating Farm Aid's 40th anniversary. Free admission. No registration required.
Monday, October 13, 2025
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Angelica Waner, assistant professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese argues that Zapotec literary magazines published in Mexico City and Oaxaca across the 20th century can be read as sites of autonomy for Isthmus Zapotec intellectuals.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
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Join us for a lecture in the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age Speaker Series with John Durham Peters, the María Rosa Menocal Professor of English and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Yale University.
Thursday, October 16, 2025
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The Center for Writing Studies is happy to host Dr. Toby Beauchamp! He will be giving a lecture titled "Embracing Trans Regret under Authoritarianism." Please join us on Thursday, October 16th!
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Nadine Naber (Gender and Women’s Studies, Global Asian Studies, University of Illinois Chicago) will present the lecture “Radical Mothering as Prison Abolition Pedagogy in Chicago” as part of the Story & Place event series.
Friday, October 17, 2025
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This symposium will explore artistic production, practices, and the agency of printed media before 1750 as they intersect with themes of sexuality and gender. Keynote speaker will be Dr.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
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The Rural Midwest in the 1980s and After by Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, a Distinguished Professor of History at Iowa State University, where she has taught since 2000.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
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Join this collaborative session with HRI and the Writers Workshop for tips and guidance on preparing your HRI Graduate Fellowship application.
Thursday, October 23, 2025
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Scheide Librarian Emeritus (Princeton) Paul S. Needham will discuss the history and production of the Catholicon, and present his findings that it was printed not from movable type, as previously thought, but instead from two-line castings — a discovery that continues to incite vigorous discussion in the field.
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Fredrik Jonsson (History, U of Chicago) proposes a fundamentally new interpretation of Britain's fossil energy economy between the first and second industrial revolutions 1750-1914.
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Lecture by Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Associate Professor of History, University of Chicago. Professor Jonsson will discuss his work on some of the historical dimensions of the climate crisis.
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Join John Doe, co-founder of the legendary band X, for a conversation about the band’s appearance at the inaugural Farm Aid concert in Champaign in 1985. Our conversation with John Doe will be a chance to reflect on the inaugural Farm Aid concert ...
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
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Ayelet Tsabari’s National Jewish Book Award winning, novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted, traces the story of the history of Yemeni Israelis through a fictional family. Tsabari visited UIUC in 2019, and was interviewed for Ninth Letter.
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Ayelet Tsabari, author of the award-winning novel, Songs for the Brokenherted, thanks to generous support from the Einhorn family, 5 pm-6:30 pm, Alice Campbell Hall
Friday, October 31, 2025
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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...
Monday, November 3, 2025
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Erik McDuffie ( African American Studies and History) on his book The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, the US Heartland, and Global Black Freedom. Part of the Story & Place event series.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Thursday, November 6, 2025
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Anna Hunt (Professor of German) “Quick! Somebody Get Me A Doctor of German Philosophy,” HGMS workshop, English 109, 4 pm-5 pm.
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Prof. Ryan Low (University of North Dakota) ~~ In fourteenth-century Provence, the volume of written contracts increased from thousands each year to million, involving even the region's most remote rural communities and serving the interests of marginalized actors, including women, peasants, and religious minorities.
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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.
Sunday, November 9, 2025
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This concert by Urbana's newest period instrument ensemble directed by Professor Emerita Charlotte Mattax Moersch, celebrates the elegance and grandeur of the French Baroque, with works by Leclair, Couperin, and Rameau.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
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Gillen D’Arcy Wood will present his new book about the Victorian-era voyage of the HMS Challenger. From 1872-1876, its naturalists explored the oceans, encountering never-before-seen marvels of marine life. They had no way of knowing that the incredible undersea aquarium they were documenting was on the verge of catastrophic change.
Monday, November 17, 2025
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Women have largely been written out of the ancient world. Dealing with the silences of the archive requires new and innovative tools, and in this talk, Dr. Emily Hauser surveys the many different approaches she has taken across her fiction and non-fiction writing to recover women.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Friday, December 5, 2025
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Campus Fellowship applications are due.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
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Come and celebrate the semester’s end with hot apple cider, sweet and salty treats, and some of our favorite winter-themed materials from the RBML vault. Make a button, relax with a coloring sheet, and leave with a live-printed linocut card! This event is part of the library's Reading Day De-Stress Fest; it is open to the public and refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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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.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
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How 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?
Friday, February 13, 2026
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How 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?
Thursday, February 19, 2026
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Medical Humanities lecture with Justin Garcia from the Kinsey Institute
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
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International Women’s Day celebration with speakers from the campus and community.
Friday, March 6, 2026
Monday, March 9, 2026
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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.
Friday, March 27, 2026
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HGMS annual conference, 9a-5pm. Location TBD.
Monday, March 30, 2026
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Story & Place event series: Anke Pinkert Book Talk 4pm
Friday, April 3, 2026
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
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U.S. Poet Laureate (1993–95); Creative Writing, University of Virginia Cohosted with the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
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Annual Armenian Genocide Event Helen Makhdoumian (Postdoc, Vanderbilt University). Time and location TBD
Thursday, May 7, 2026
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Prizes for Research Ceremony and Reception