Speakers
Thursday, September 17, 2026
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.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
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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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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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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.
Friday, September 25, 2026
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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.
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.
Monday, September 28, 2026
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Lake Flato: Innovation & Craft Andrew Herdeg, FAIA
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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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."
Friday, October 2, 2026
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Friday Forum & Conversation Café: Acts of Radical Love: A Conversation with an Artist in Rebellion October 2 | 12pm-1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
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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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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CSGGE Lunch Series, "Gender Equity in an Inequitable Era" will host Shaimaa Khanam, Graduate Student in the Department of Communication. Her talk, "Audiences interpretations of gender problems based on Netflix show, Adolescence”, will take place on October 8th at 12pm in person at 306 Coble Hall and virtually. Lunch provided for in-person attendees.
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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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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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Friday Forum & Conversation Cafe: Breaking Chains, Building Futures: Pathways to Redemption, Education, and Excellence October 9 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
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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.
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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Women in Science Lecture Series: Professor Kelli Trei October 13 | 12pm - 1pm | Main Library Room 146 or Zoom
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by John Lurz (English, Tufts) on Poststructuralism.
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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Friday Forum & Conversation Café: LGBTQ Advocacy: Past & Present October 16 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
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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.
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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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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Friday Forum & Conversation Cafe: Beautiful Struggle: How One American High School Took on Systemic Racism October 23 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
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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.
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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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.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Thursday, October 29, 2026
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CSGGE Lunch Series, "Gender Equity in an Inequitable Era" will host Yeaseul Hur is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her talk, "When Women Are Ideal Workers: The Gendered Impact of Overwork on Wages and Promotion”, will take place on October 29th at 12pm in person at 306 Coble Hall and virtual.
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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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Friday Forum & Conversation Café: Fighting Oligarchy and Fascism in the 21st Century October 30 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
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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.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
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Professor Xiao Su presents innovative electrochemical approaches for addressing environmental challenges and improving water purification technologies. The lecture explores emerging research that advances sustainable solutions for water treatment and environmental remediation.
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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.
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
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Bruce J. Tromberg, the director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health, will give the Beckman-Brown Lecture on Interdisciplinary Science at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the auditorium of the Beckman Institute.
Thursday, November 5, 2026
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Join us for a lecture by Laura Chávez-Moreno, an associate professor of Chicana/o & Central American Studies and Education at the University of California Los Angeles about her book "How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America"
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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.
Friday, November 6, 2026
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Professor Stefania Chiarelli explores representations of water, rivers, and aquatic environments in Brazilian literature. Drawing on examples from Brazilian prose, the lecture examines how aquatic imagery shapes narratives, cultural memory, and literary interpretations of place and identity.
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Friday Forum & Conversation Café: Vine City as the World Trade Center: Subproletarianization as Structural Violence from Atlanta to Champaign November 6 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
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The Lemann Center Grad Forum showcases research conducted by graduate students whose work engages with Brazil. Through presentations and discussion sessions, participants share emerging scholarship, exchange ideas across disciplines, and strengthen connections within the Brazilian studies community at Illinois.
Wednesday, November 11, 2026
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Please join us for this community building event! We will share information about the new MS in Game Development, and showcase games we are building and playing right now. We will also hear from our guest speaker Jeremy Moncauskas, Senior Level Designer at WB Games.
Thursday, November 12, 2026
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Our November lecture will be on Thursday, November 12 from 12pm-1pm with Dr. Mary Caruso Dailey. Dr. Dailey earned her PhD in Chemistry in 2010 and is currently a Lead Product Development Specialist for 3M. She will discuss her research on adhesives for electronics bonding and experiences as a graduate student in Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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This event will highlight the collaborative project involving Emblematica (U of I), a digital library of emblem books, and Compositor (U of Birmingham), a database of printers’ ornaments. Dr. Hazel Wilkinson hypothesizes that “emblem-literacy” caused historical readers to engage with ornamented books in ways previously unaccounted-for in scholarship.
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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.
Friday, November 13, 2026
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Friday Forum & Conversation Café: Feeding our Neighbors: A Panel of Faith-Driven Organizations Fighting Food Insecurity in our Community November 13 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign
