Campus Humanities Calendar

Centering Clay highlights the American Studio Ceramics movement (1940s–1970s) when individual potters shifted from factories and industrial ceramics production to personal studios where they could freely experiment with materials and develop their own techniques and glazes. A selection of artists includes Katherine Choy, Donald Frith, Marvin Lipofsky, and Jerry Rothman.

Celebrate opening night of Centering Clay: Connection and Innovation in American Studio Ceramics and meet our new director Stephanie Smith. Enjoy new exhibitions, live music by Ther'Up.Y, and a dance party in the galleries with DJ KamauMau. Parking nearby is free after 5 pm. The museum is free and open to everyone.

Please join the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory for our Fall 2026 Welcome Reception at Pizzeria Antica. The Director of the Unit, Dede Ruggles, will announce upcoming MCT speakers, Unit events, and more. All are welcome!

Join us for the Ebert Center’s first screening of the season: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), directed by Steven Spielberg and attributed as Stanley Kubrick’s final work. The film will be introduced by Ebert Fellows mentor Isaac Feldberg, critic at rogerebert.com. Food truck and concessions will be available at 6 p.m.

Attend the Ebert Center's first film of the season—a free screening of "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001), attributed as Stanley Kubrick’s final work. RogerEbert.com film critic and Ebert Fellows mentor Isaac Feldberg will introduce the film, which is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment...

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.

Join us on the back patio to gather with the humanities community at Illinois.

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).

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...

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Danielle Chynoweth (Supervisor, Cunningham Township) on Democracy.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Jonathan Rosa (Education, Stanford) on Semiotics.

Readings in theme with "Up Against Erasure," with: Andrea Giugni + Malina Infante + Nathan Metz; Lisa Low.

Readings in theme with “Up Against Erasure,” with: Steven Bergmark + Mason McVeigh + Diana Towne; Gabriela Garcia.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Lisa Saltzman (History of Art, Bryn Mawr) on Walter Benjamin.

Join us for an info session to learn more about the Humanities in Action program and receive insight into the application process.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Maryam Kashani (Gender & Women's Studies, UIUC) on Visual Theory.

“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).

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).

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by John Lurz (English, Tufts) on Poststructuralism.

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.

Professor Ángel García (English/Creative Writing) will read from his latest collection, Indifferent Cities.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Greta LaFleur (American Studies, Yale) on Gender.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Rob Rushing (European Languages & Transcultural Studies, UCLA) on Biopolitics.

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.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Chi-Ming Yang (English, University of Pennsylvania) on Orientalism.

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.

Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Thomas Davis (English, Ohio State) on Environmental Humanities.

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.

Justice in the Balance: Democracy, Rule of Law, and the European Court of Human Rights

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.

With Roderick Wilson (East Asian Languages and Cultures and History) and Anna Jungeun Lee (East Asian Languages and Cultures)

More information is coming.

Patricia Owens Book Talk: Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men.

March 25-26, more information is coming soon. Part of the Up Against Erasure event series.

More info is coming.

Gather with us in community to celebrate this year's HRI research prize recipients and to mark the close of another academic year!