Speakers
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
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This talk examines how MBL used social media to mobilize mass anti-left sentiment yet failed to turn that energy into lasting political power. It argues that digital “indignation politics” can amplify outrage—but struggles to build durable institutions—helping explain the rise of Bolsonarismo’s more reactionary agenda.
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Sabrina Agarwal, PhD Department of Anthropology; University of California, Berkeley "What Remains: Postcolonial Legacies of the Anatomical and Anthropological Sciences"
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Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
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International Family Game Night September 15 | 4:30pm - 6:30pm | First Presbyterian Church, 302 W. Church St, Champaign
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Danielle Chynoweth (Supervisor, Cunningham Township) on Democracy.
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Museums hold objects that reflect cultural values, from everyday items to religious and ceremonial works. But how should museums interpret objects of hate? Join museum professionals for a conversation about the challenges of displaying charged objects and thoughtful ways to facilitate dialogue around difficult histories, emotions, and themes.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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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.
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“Sample Preparation Techniques for Optical Microscope” Dr. Kingsley Boateng Assistant Director of Bioscience Research Microscopy Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Thursday, September 17, 2026
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Join Women@NCSA on Thursday, September 17 @ 2 p.m. CT via Zoom for a free talk titled "WHY did they do that? Generational Differences" featuring Faith Bresnan Roberts, RN, MSN, NEA-BC.
Friday, September 18, 2026
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The Mosaic: A Welcoming Week Concert September 18 | 6pm - 8pm | Neil Street Plaza (Downtown Champaign Plaza), Neil St & Washington St, Champaign
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.
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Drop in for a tour given by our student gallery guides! Topics vary weekly. Free admission and all ages welcome. No reservation required.
Sunday, September 20, 2026
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Culture wars, including battles over how history is taught in public schools, reflect deeper struggles over what it means to be American and what rights citizenship entails. These conflicts have shaped American political culture since the 1960s.
Monday, September 21, 2026
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
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Speaker: Kate Smith, Northwestern University
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Economic, Social, and Environmental Aspects of Conservation Agriculture in Brazil. Tiago Santos Telles is a Researcher at the Instituto de Desenvolvimento Rural do Paraná & a Professor at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina.
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Cullen Buie, PhD Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology “High Throughput Gene Delivery Technologies for Applied Microbiology and Engineered Cell Therapies”
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Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Jonathan Rosa (Education, Stanford) on Semiotics.
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Please join us for the Game Studies and Design September Town Hall presentation titled, "Game Audio: A Composer's Perspective" with Benny Wollin, Music Composer and Sound Designer at Squish Studios. We'll also share information about the new MS in Game Development Program and opportunities to engage with The Studio at Illinois.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
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“Approaches to Live Cell Imaging with Leica Microsystems” Harold Vo, Confocal Sales Specialist, Leica Microsystems Josh Andrew, Account Manager, Thomas Scientific
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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Interested in exploring text mining, but not sure where to start? This beginner-friendly workshop introduces the fundamentals natural language processing (NLP) using AI-generated code to identify repetitious language.
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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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Join Us for a lively presentation, discussion, and practice session focusing on public speaking skills! We will provide tips about how to practice for common situations like conferences, posters sessions, interviews, and elevator pitches. Lunch available with registration.
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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.
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"One Big Hapa Family" is Jeff Chiba Stearn's journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family married inter-racially after his grandparents' generation. The film will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker and Jason Finkelman (School of Music), and a book signing.
Friday, September 25, 2026
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A half-day seminar featuring the stories scholars from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ukraine and Cameroon about the state of higher education and global academic freedom today.
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Friday Forum & Conversation Cafe: BENIVENIDOS: The Works and Murals of Jose Vazquez September 25 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
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Lynn Vavreck (UCLA) will explore why American politics can feel so difficult to change and what decades of survey evidence can tell us about what has shifted, what has stayed the same, and Americans’ views of the American Dream.
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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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For more than two decades, Emmy-nominated and award-winning animation and documentary director, author, and illustrator Jeff Chiba Stearns has used visual storytelling to explore the intersections of Japanese Canadian history, mixed-race identity, family, and culture. Jeff will reflect on using animation, illustration, comics, and film to make history accessible.
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Celebrate backyard bugs and bats at the free Central Illinois Bat Festival, featuring expert talks, guided hikes, family activities, vendors, food trucks, a costume contest, and an evening bat acoustic walk with a live ecologcation demonstration.
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Join us at the third annual Central Illinois Bat Festival — a free two-part celebration of bats, bugs, and science! This year, we’re celebrating backyard bugs and bats!
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Readings in theme with “Up Against Erasure,” with: Steven Bergmark + Mason McVeigh + Diana Towne; Gabriela Garcia.
Monday, September 28, 2026
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Lake Flato: Innovation & Craft Andrew Herdeg, FAIA
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
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Two days of conversation across the AI computing stack, from algorithms and data to tools, systems, and novel hardware.
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Speaker: Arnab Banerjee
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David Gottlieb Memorial Lecture Ikuro Abe, PhD Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo Professor, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama "Unusual Enzyme Reactions in Natural Product Biosynthesis"
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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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Two days of conversation across the AI computing stack, from algorithms and data to tools, systems, and novel hardware.
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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“Getting reliable quantitative images with Huygens: from Deconvolution and restoration to image analysis” Melvin Le Bihan Scientific Consultant Scientific Volume Imaging BV
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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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Lunch talk "Sexual Harassment and the Geography of Service Work in the US" will offer hybrid format with in-person in room 306 Coble Hall and via Zoom. Lunch provided with registration. This presentation, which is pulled from the opening chapter of working manuscript, Hands Off: A History of Fighting Back against Sexual Harassment in the American Workplace.
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Since the last time we discussed the AI related copyright lawsuits, a few more cases have been decided by district courts. We will conduct an overview on these recent developments, and see if we can identify some trends.
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MillerComm Lecture: Occupying America: War and the Infrastructure of US Power in a Globalizing World
Join us for a lecture by Justin Jackson titled "Occupying America: War and the Infrastructure of US Power in a Globalizing World."
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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.
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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.
Friday, October 2, 2026
Monday, October 5, 2026
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
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This panel brings together scholars and experts to discuss key issues surrounding Brazil's electoral process. Participants will explore the political landscape, major campaign themes, and the broader implications of the election for Brazilian society and democracy.
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Paul Plummer, PhD Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine; University of Tennessee “One Health Perspectives of Antimicrobial Resistance”
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Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
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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.
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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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“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).
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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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This inaugural event by the Borders of Sanctuary Working Collective presents a public facing panel that pairs Professor Willie Mack (Black Studies, University of Missouri) on Black migration with Devin Lowe from the Black Trans Travel Fund, which serves Black and Transgender migrants.
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.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
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The Education Justice Project is hosting a "reentry simulation" on Saturday October 10, followed by a panel of system-impacted individuals who will share their experiences of reentry and discuss the complex systems and barriers that can impact reentry after incarceration.
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Monday, October 12, 2026
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
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Join us for a conversation with current and former students who have taken active roles in community-engaged research and leadership. Three students/alums will be joined by their faculty mentors. Presented by the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity and the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, this session will be facilitated by Dr. Kevin Tan (Social Work).
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Kelli Trei (B.S. Microbiology, 1999, and MLIS, 2012), Associate Professor and Biosciences Librarian, University of Illinois Library, will discuss her background in microbiology and work as liaison to the Schools of Life Sciences: Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB) and Integrative Biology, (IB) as well as to the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.
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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 for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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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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Dr. Tingting Zhang, School of Labor and Employment Relations gives lunch talk, "Pushed out and Boxed In: Gendered Silence and Exit Orientation in China's Tech Industry" on Thursday, October 15th. She argues that silence in such environment is not a uniform response to constrained institutional conditions, but it shaped by the gendered social positions workers occupy.
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Professor Ángel García (English/Creative Writing) will read from his latest collection, Indifferent Cities.
Friday, October 16, 2026
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This presentation will introduce NautilIA, an interactive generative-AI roleplay game build through Google AI Studio designed to support French language learning through immersive, voice-based interaction. The presentation will first showcase the platform and its main features, then discuss how NautilIA was integrated into a French as a Foreign Language course.
Monday, October 19, 2026
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Greta LaFleur (American Studies, Yale) on Gender.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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“Where Science Meets Society: How Outreach Brings the IGB Motto to Materiality” Dan Urban Assistant Director of Outreach Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Thursday, October 22, 2026
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The three esteemed panelists will deliver lightning-round presentations centered around the topic of "AI and Sustainability." The three presentations will be followed by a moderated Q & A. The topics will include, but not be limited to: sustainable farming with AI; AI/data centers and water consumption; planetary boundaries and use of AI, environmental economics, and more.
Friday, October 23, 2026
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Please join us for a presentation and discussion with Amber Holkenbrink, Principal Experience Designer at Respawn Wisconsin. Amber Holkenbrink is a Principal Experience Designer currently working on Apex Legends. She has worked in the game industry for over 16 years and has contributed to the art, animation, and design of more than 30 titles.
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Please join us for the Game Studies and Design October Town Hall. This month's guest speaker is Amber Holkenbrink, Principal Experience Designer on Apex Legends at Respawn Entertainment. She has worked in the game industry for over 16 years and has contributed to the art, animation, and design of more than 30 titles, including Call of Duty: Warzone.
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Dr. Cromley will present on two studies comparing writing with Word vs. ChatGPT. Data were collected on during-reading and during-writing processes, essay scores, and learning posttests. The results of these studies will be presented and examined with a critical eye.
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MillerComm Lecture: Islam in France: Minority Religion, Laïcité, and the Politics of Muslim Identity
Join us for a lecture by George A Miller Visiting Scholar Youssouf T. Sangaré titled "Islam in France: Minority Religion, Laïcité, and the Politics of Muslim Identity."
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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.
Monday, October 26, 2026
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Following the election, this panel examines the results and their significance for Brazil's future. Speakers will analyze voting patterns, political shifts, and the potential impact of the election on governance, public policy, and democratic institutions.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
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Speaker: Hannah Manetsch
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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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Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
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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.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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.
Friday, October 30, 2026
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Join us for a lecture by George A. Miller Visiting Scholar Youssouf Sangaré. His talk examines the case of Chérif Ousmane Madani Haïdara and the Ançar Dine movement in Mali as a window into the dynamics of contemporary African Islam.
