Speakers

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

In a follow up to the September 15th Facilitating Dialogue around Objects of Hate, this program examines how visual artists create works that interrogate, reimagine, or repurpose objects and imagery associated with hate.

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.

Dialogues in Ethical Research, or simply referred to as Dialogues, is a graduate student gathering within the Ethos of Care community of practice. These informal, roughly 90-minute sessions build on the main Ethos of Care workshops, giving graduate students room further develop and elaborate dialogue takeaways from main Ethos of Care sessions.

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.

Join the CSGGE Lunch talk by Dr. Emily LB. Twarog from the School of Labor and Employment Relations. The talk, "Sexual Harassment and the Geography of Service Work in the US" will take place on Thursday, Oct. 1st 12pm CST in-person at 306 Coble Hall, 801 S. Wright Street and online via Zoom. Lunch provided for in-person attendees with registration.

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.

Arpit Dwivedi ('22 Ph.D. MechSE) and Arnav Mishra ('17 B.S. CS, '18 MCS), moderated by Vidhi Chavda a MechSE and ILEE student.

Join us for a lecture by Justin Jackson titled "Occupying America: War and the Infrastructure of US Power in a Globalizing World."

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

Please join us for the 2026 Cullin Memorial lecture on Monday, October 5, 4pm: How is AI changing our understanding of human identity? And what can studying race and religion tell us about minds and machines? Dr. Sylvester Johnson (Northwestern) examines the intersection of religion, race, and technology to propose a novel approach to grasping the implications of AI.

Join us for a talk in the Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Jr. Lecture Series with Jennifer Nájera, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside. Her talk examines the intersections of immigration, higher education, and activism through a case study of undocumented student activists in southern California.

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.

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

Diane Kelly, the Louis Round Wilson Distinguished Professor in the School of Data and Information Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present "From Finding Information to Feeding the Machine: A Brief History of Interfaces for Online Information Search Systems." A reception will follow the lecture in room 126.

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.

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.

“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 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 Forum & Conversation Cafe: Breaking Chains, Building Futures: Pathways to Redemption, Education, and Excellence October 9 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign

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).

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.

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.

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).

Women in Science Lecture Series: Professor Kelli Trei October 13 | 12pm - 1pm | Main Library Room 146 or Zoom

Higher Education Under Attack. Panelists include: Sean McDonald, co-founder of Digital Public, where he focuses on data governance design; Shawn Gilmore, a Teaching Assistant Professor in English and co-author the the recent AAUP report; and Terri Barnes Professor in the History and Gender & Women's Studies Departments.

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

Join us to celebrate the new books of three history PhD alumni: Latinx Encounters: How Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans Made the Modern Midwest by Juan Ignacio Mora (PhD, ’21, history); White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago by Michael Staudenmaier (PhD, ‘16, history)...

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.

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

Friday Forum & Conversation Café: LGBTQ Advocacy: Past & Present October 16 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign

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.

This lecture traces the emergence of Mizrahi Jews as go-betweens within the shifting political, linguistic, and cultural geographies of the modern Middle East.

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

Dr. Maria Hadjipolycarpou, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Classics and Director of Modern Greek Studies will give lunch talk, "Class, Gender, and Secularization in Costas Montis’ Afentis Batistas and the Other Things" on Thursday, October 22nd.

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.

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

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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

As faculty navigate writing instruction in the AI era, how can instructors ensure students develop and strengthen writing skills on their own, without the assistance of AI tools to complete assignments? Learn about Fall 2026 pilot project incorporating four writing assignments at the CBTF for a large online, non-majors section of JOUR 200: Introduction to Journalism.

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.

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 Forum & Conversation Café: Fighting Oligarchy and Fascism in the 21st Century October 30 | 12pm - 1pm | University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St, Champaign

Youssouf Sangaré (George A. Miller Visiting Scholar) will examine the case of Chérif Ousmane Madani Haïdara and the Ançar Dine movement in Mali as a window into the dynamics of contemporary African Islam.

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.

Despite demographic and urban decline in post-Roman Europe, the need to assemble groups of people remained strong: gatherings enabled the exchange information, attracting large numbers was a proof of legitimacy, and rulers envisioned themselves as heirs to crowd-filled ancient Rome. How can the history of the crowd a inform us about the early medieval world?

Please join us for this talk by Professor Shane Bobrycki (University of Iowa), author of The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages (2024).

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.

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

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.

Taiwanese artist Yao Jui-Chung and critic Kao Chien-Hui engage in a conversation about Yao's practice within Taiwan's layered histories of migration, colonialism, martial law, and contested boundaries. A reception precedes the talk at 4:00 PM. Presented in tandem with Ink Shower: Contemporary Taiwanese Artists Reimagine Tradition at the Krannert Art Museum.

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"

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.