Urbana Campus Research Calendar (OVCRI)

The Open SkAI conference is an annual four-day event to enhance and generate new Astro-AI research directions. Conference themes will include: Astro-AI research across survey astronomy, from stars and transients to galaxy formation, evolution, and the dark sector. We encourage researchers from all levels to apply to attend.

Join colleagues from across LAS for recurring hybrid writing sessions that provide dedicated time for manuscripts, grant proposals, books, creative projects, and other scholarly work. Build momentum through peer accountability, interdisciplinary community, and sustainable productivity practices.

During this hybrid event, join us to hear CWS faculty explore their favorite writing research keywords, the work these terms do in their own scholarship, and how these terms intersect or diverge across fields.

Research Resource Forum: Navigating Research Support in LAS Join the LAS Office of Research for a 45-minute hybrid session introducing the people, services, and processes that support research across the College. Learn how to engage with LAS and SPA throughout the project lifecycle, access key resources, navigate requirements, and connect with the research team.

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.

Celebrate the launch of “Quinceañeras: Latinidades and Girlhood in Popular Culture” (University of Illinois Press), co-edited by two alumni and an emerita professor from the Institute of Communications Research.

Join the editors of "Quinceañeras: Latinidades and Girlhood in Popular Culture"(external link) for a conversation celebrating the release of their edited collection.

Learn how Black thinkers in early America challenged ideas of racial feudalism inspired by the medieval past. Keidrick Roy is associate professor of Government at Dartmouth College and author of *American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism* (Princeton, 2024), a prize-winning study of how medieval legacies of haunt liberal democracy in the U.S.

Join us for a lecture with Keidrick Roy, associate professor of Government at Dartmouth College and author of "American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism" (Princeton, 2024), a prize-winning study of how medieval legacies of feudalism haunt liberal democracy in the United States.

Enjoy a guided tour, artmaking, and dinner! Activities will highlight "Fragmented Histories: Andean Art Before 1600" and "Stitching Ecologies: The Urbana-Champaign Crochet Coral Reef" exhibitions. Presented in Spanish and English. In conjunction with New American Welcome Center’s Welcoming Week.

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, September 11 – Micah Cameron-Harp, Assistant Professor, Kansas State University Impacts of intertemporal arbitrage on resource depletion: Evidence from Multi-Year Flex Accounts in Kansas

Stop by on Fridays for our monthly Talk & Tour! Gain insights about the artwork on view in both special exhibitions and the collection galleries.

Preparing an elevator pitch regarding your research is crucial for networking, being on the market, and finding a job. Please join us for this exciting cosponsored event by CSGGE and GWS to hear your colleagues who are minoring in GRID, GWS, or Queer Studies about their groundbreaking research.

Communities across the country, including here in Illinois, are facing proposals from data centers of daunting size. What was once a very large data center is now a small data center. This presentation aims to explain the boom in data centers, identify some environmental impacts to consider from them, and present on policy solutions with a Illinois state and local lens.

Faculty and graduate students are invited to register for this workshop with visiting scholar Keidrick Roy, to discuss part of a new project on ideas of patriotism in early Black America, on Friday, September 11th from 3:00-5:00pm. The paper will be circulated to participants about a week in advance. Location TBA. Refreshments served. Contact symes@illinois.edu.

The role of tenure and governance in multifunctional landscapes

Join colleagues from across LAS for recurring hybrid writing sessions that provide dedicated time for manuscripts, grant proposals, books, creative projects, and other scholarly work. Build momentum through peer accountability, interdisciplinary community, and sustainable productivity practices.

Our Mr. Matsura, a feature documentary film, is the story of photographer Frank Matsura who journeyed from his native Japan to live in rural Washington State in the early 1900s. The film presents a picture of the “frontier” that departs from the existing popular culture narrative and celebrates the singular contribution of a community-building immigrant artist in America.

Speaker: Jong Yeon Lee

Join an informal session focused on providing an introduction to the wide variety of data science research and instructional resources at Illinois for faculty and staff joining the university this semester. All disciplines and campus units are welcome. Hosts: John MacMullen, Executive Director, Office of Data Science Research (ODSR), and A.J. Schmidt, Data Science Program

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.

Sabrina Agarwal, PhD Department of Anthropology; University of California, Berkeley "What Remains: Postcolonial Legacies of the Anatomical and Anthropological Sciences"

Join Resources for Researchers Office Hours on Tuesday, September 15, 1-2pm via Zoom for a session on collecting data with Qualtrics. Nathan Jeffery from CITL Data Analytics will walk through how to get started using Qualtrics for research data collection, followed by open Q&A. Whether you're new to the tool or have a specific project in mind, bring your questions.

Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.

Speaker: Oliver Wolff, Pfaff Group

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.

In 1968, Alejo Hernández, a resident of Stanislaus County, California, sued the USDA because the county failed to implement the Food Stamp Program. As a result of the lawsuit, the state government was forced to confront statewide hunger, especially in the counties that denied it. In this talk, Dr. Barragán Miranda will focus on writing from the margins of the archive.

“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

Speaker: Bernard Lidicky (Iowa State University) Title: Pattern Boost and Axplorer

Join colleagues from across LAS for recurring hybrid writing sessions that provide dedicated time for manuscripts, grant proposals, books, creative projects, and other scholarly work. Build momentum through peer accountability, interdisciplinary community, and sustainable productivity practices.

Speaker: Suman Bhomick (University of Illinois)

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.

PRESENTER Josephine Wee, PhD Associate Professor of Food Science Department of Food Science The Pennsylvania State University TITLE Of Friends and Foes: Microbial Ecosystems Governing Fermentation, Shelf Life, and Food Safety DATE Sept. 18, 2026 TIME 11 a.m. LOCATION 180 Bevier Hall

TBA

Join colleagues from across LAS for recurring hybrid writing sessions that provide dedicated time for manuscripts, grant proposals, books, creative projects, and other scholarly work. Build momentum through peer accountability, interdisciplinary community, and sustainable productivity practices.

Stop by and share your thoughts about Krannert Art Museum with our new director! Stephanie Smith will talk with visitors on a first-come, first-served basis.

Speaker: Kate Smith, Nothwestern University

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”

Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.

Speaker: Jinho Lim, Hoffmann Group

“Approaches to Live Cell Imaging with Leica Microsystems” Harold Vo, Confocal Sales Specialist, Leica Microsystems Josh Andrew, Account Manager, Thomas Scientific

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.

Join colleagues from across LAS for recurring hybrid writing sessions that provide dedicated time for manuscripts, grant proposals, books, creative projects, and other scholarly work. Build momentum through peer accountability, interdisciplinary community, and sustainable productivity practices.

Join a webinar focused on the ODSR multidisciplinary data science workshop support program. Learn about this competitive program that provides financial and in-kind support for new data science-focused activities. Share your collaboration interests and talk with potential partners about teaming up on a proposal. All disciplines and campus units are welcome.

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.

Friday Forum & Conversation Cafe: BENIVENIDOS: The Works and Murals of Jose Vazquez September 25 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign

Everything is social: Lessons from birds in winter

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.

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.

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.

Attend this onsite workshop at NCSA to learn how to use OpenACC API compiler directives to quickly develop GPU-capable codes using standard languages and compilers. Knowledge of either C or Fortran programming is required. Hands-on exercises will use Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Bridges-2 computing platform.

Join colleagues from across LAS for recurring hybrid writing sessions that provide dedicated time for manuscripts, grant proposals, books, creative projects, and other scholarly work. Build momentum through peer accountability, interdisciplinary community, and sustainable productivity practices.

Two days of conversation across the AI computing stack, from algorithms and data to tools, systems, and novel hardware.

Speaker: Arnab Banerjee

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"

Don't miss the final week of "Rest Lab 10: Path," curated by Kamila Glowacki and Ishita Dharap. On view through October 3.

Join Resources for Researchers Training for a deeper dive into Qualtrics. Nathan Jeffery from CITL Data Analytics will walk through specific features and functionality that help you get more out of the platform for your research. This session is brought to you by the CITL Data Analytics Group and the Office of the CIO. Bring your questions and use cases. FREE