Spring 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) hosts Undergraduate Research Symposia twice a year, showcasing the diverse range of research and creative inquiry conducted by WashU undergraduate students and mentored by WashU faculty. Visit the Spring 2026 Symposium webpage for more information. 

The symposia provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to share their work, engage in peer networking and cross-disciplinary conversations, and develop presentation skills. Any WashU student is welcome to present their project, including works in progress.

For students who are interested in getting started in research, the symposium is a great opportunity to learn about the process from your peers. All WashU community members are encouraged to attend! 

Key Dates

• Wednesday, February 4: Registration opens. Registration is required for all symposium participants; no students are automatically registered. Registration includes a tentative title and abstract.
• Wednesday, March 4: Registration closes
• Wednesday, March 11: Presenters notified of session assignment
• Wednesday, March 18: Deadline for presenters to confirm participation
• Wednesday April 8: Submission deadline - final title, abstract, and presentation file for online program due*
• Friday, April 17: Symposium from 10 am - 4:30 pm in Frick Forum (1st floor) and other locations in Bauer/Knight Halls

*All presenters must submit a presentation file (e.g., PDF of poster, slides, or exhibit) for the online program (see the Fall 2025 URS program). This file will be VISIBLE TO THE PUBLIC as submitted, so it is critical for students to discuss their submissions with their faculty mentors. If there are IP concerns and data cannot be publicly disclosed, students should coordinate with the OUR to protect sensitive information.

Global Pathways: A&S Grad International Alumni Panel

• David Balmaceda Marenco, PhD Education 2024, Visiting Lecturer of Spanish at University of Massachusetts Lowell
• Xiannong Zhang, PhD Economics 2022, Data Scientist at Google
• Yi-Ling Lin, PhD Anthropology 2021, Associate Director of Advancement at Indiana University

Lecture: Understanding Greek and Roman Manumission

Elizabeth A. Meyer, T. Cary Johnson, Jr. Professor of History at the University of Virginia, is a leading scholar of Greek and Roman history, specializing in legal epigraphy, documentary practices, and the social dimensions of law in antiquity. Her work has illuminated how inscriptions and legal texts shaped ancient societies, with particular focus on manumission and the transition from slavery to freedom.

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Closing Lecture: “Understanding Greek and Roman Manumission”

Abstract 
This lecture will compare what we know about Greek practices of consecration, manumission, and inscribing with what is known of contemporary Roman practice. Did the Roman presence in Greece in the Second Macedonian War and after have any impact on the frequency or contents of the legal actions pursued?

Seminar: Reconstructing Monuments with the Help of Inscriptions

Elizabeth A. Meyer is the T. Cary Johnson, Jr. Professor of History at the University of Virginia. A specialist in Greek and Roman history, her research focuses on legal epigraphy, documentary practices, and the social dimensions of law in antiquity. She has published extensively on Greek manumission inscriptions, Roman legal documents, and the cultural significance of writing in the ancient world.

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Seminar: “Reconstructing Monuments with the Help of Inscriptions”

Abstract
This seminar is designed as a practicum in understanding the relationship between the inscribed text and the stones on which these texts are inscribed—and what adding in the factor of 'where' and 'on what?' texts are inscribed can add to our understanding of the practices undertaken.

Recommended Reading

P. Funke, “Chaeronea,” in Brill’s New Pauly 

Sosin, J. D. (2023) "Manumission at Chaironeia," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 227: 81-96.

S, Peels-Matthey, Andrej Petrovic, Ivana Petrovic, “What is Sacred in the Sacred Regulations?” forthcoming in Meanings and Values of the Sacred in Greco-Roman Antiquity, Penn-Leiden Colloquium on Ancient Values XII.

Colloquium: Manumission in Hellenistic Greece

2026 Biggs Family Residency in Classics

The 2026 Biggs Family Resident in Classics will be Elizabeth Meyer of The University of Virginia. Professor Meyer specializes in Greek and Roman political and social history, particularly in relation to law. Her research explores the intersections of legal and documentary practices in the ancient world, with a focus on Roman law, literacy, manumission, and epigraphic traditions. Meyer's work sheds light on how legal and archival developments shaped broader societal structures in antiquity.

The Colloquium, Seminar, and Lecture will be followed by receptions.

Colloquium 

"Manumission in Hellenistic Greece"
Monday, March 23, 2026
4PM
Location: Umrath Lounge

Ancient Historian Panel

"Ancient Worlds: A Conversation with Leading Historians"

Tuesday, March 24, 2026
4PM
Goldberg Formal Lounge | 2nd floor of the Danforth University Center

Seminar 

"Reconstructing Monuments with the Help of Inscriptions"
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
4PM
Danforth University Center (DUC) 276

Lecture 

"Understanding Greek and Roman Manumission"
Thursday, March 26, 2026
4PM
Holmes Lounge

‘Unimaginable Atrocities’: The Neglected Catastrophe in Sudan and the History of Genocide in the Region

Please RSVP by following this link.

Political scientist and former international journalist Scott Straus will discuss the ongoing mass atrocities occurring in Sudan. He will place the atrocities in historical and regional context and explore the implications for contemporary policies of genocide prevention.

Censoring Education and Policing Minds – A Global Trend

Higher education is under unprecedented attack, from large public universities to small liberal arts and community colleges. This talk discusses why this is happening and links events in the United States to similar attacks on higher education in countries around the world. What does this global trend signal in terms of building thriving and inclusive democratic societies?

Please RSVP by following this link.

The James Baldwin Lecture - Achieving Our Country: Baldwin and U.S. Politics Today

James Baldwin Review is proud to present The James Baldwin Lecture at Washington University in St. Louis. James Baldwin Review is an annual, open-source journal that brings together a wide array of peer‐reviewed critical essays and creative non-fiction on the life, writings, and legacy of the African American writer James Baldwin. The prevailing themes of honesty, responsibility, vulnerability, and justice in Baldwin’s works are vital for our current political moment. In this spirit, The James Baldwin Lecture invites WashU and the St. Louis community to connect with the journal as a forum for the vibrant, multidisciplinary, and international community of Baldwin scholars, students, and enthusiasts.  

The inaugural speaker for The James Baldwin Lecture will be Hortense J. Spillers, Professor Emeritus of English at Vanderbilt University. Her lecture is entitled "Achieving Our Country: Baldwin and U.S. Politics Today."

mosAIcs & brAIns : the computational aesthetics of mosaic art

Symposium Schedule (please visit this link for abstracts and speakers' affiliations)

Monday, December 8th

08:30am: Coffee & light breakfast

08:50am: Opening remarks by Ralf Wessel, WashU Professor of Physics 

09:00am: Sue Giannotti, Contemporary Mosaics and the Artistic Process: Does AI Have a Place? 

09:30am: Kiyohito (Kyo) Iigaya, Neural and Computational Mechanisms of Subjective Aesthetic Valuation

10:00am: Sam Goree, Is There a Human-Centered Computational Aesthetics?

10:30am: Coffee & refreshments break

11:00am: Gabrielle Starr, Knowledge, Tools, and Art as Active Perception 

11:30am: David Crandall, Learning to See from Biased Experience

12:00pm: Group photo & poster session set-up

12:15pm: Lunch & poster presentations (please visit this link for poster abstracts) 

1:30pm: Karen Ami, Material Consciousness: Mosaic Art as Embodied Practice

2:00pm: Brady Roberts, Uncovering the Properties of Memorable Visual Designs

2:30pm: Ahmed Elgammal, AI Art from the Uncanny Valley to Prompting: Gains and Losses

3:00pm: Coffee & refreshments

3:30pm: Edward Vessel, Making Meaning from Art, and Getting Pleasure from Understanding

4:00pm: Brendan Weekes, Mosaic as Embodiment

4:30pm: Closing remarks

6:00pm: Dinner at Pastaria's deli & wine space (7734 Forsyth Blvd, Suite 2, Clayton, MO). Please email TheIncubator@wustl.edu to inquire, as space is limited.

Tuesday, December 9th 

10:00am: Join fellow attendees for a docent-led tour of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which houses one of the largest mosaic collections in the world. Please arrive early to the cathedral (located at 4431 Lindell Blvd), as the tour will start promptly at 10am. 

Please be advised that an RSVP is required to join us for meals, and symposium attendance may be capped. 

Fall 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium

Hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research, the Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium showcases the diverse range of faculty-mentored research and creative inquiry conducted by WashU undergraduate students. More details can be found on the Fall 2026 Symposium webpage. 

Undergraduate Research symposia provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to share their work, engage in peer networking and cross-disciplinary conversations, and develop presentation skills. Any WashU student is welcome to present their project, including works in progress.

For students who are interested in getting started in research, the symposium is a great opportunity to learn about the process from your peers. All WashU community members are encouraged to attend! 

A Counter-Imaginary to Authoritarian Power: Gender, Passion and other Psychosocial Formations

In-person registrations have reached capacity. Please see event details below for livestream registration.

Keynote lecture

4 pm, February 3
Hillman Hall, Clark-Fox Forum

Livestream registration (lecture)

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: The Ethics of Political Representation

The Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) presents Alex Guerrero (Philosophy, Rutgers) on "The Ethics of Political Representation: Electoral v. Lottocratic".

Rachel Brown (Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Detention and the Limits of Vision in David Taylor’s COMPLEX

Join the Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) for Ila Sheren (Art History and Archaeology, WashU)'s "Detention and the Limits of Vision in David Taylor's COMPLEX." 

Ben Levin (Law, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop will be held in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Measuring Belief Polarization

The Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) presents Esther Ng (Philosophy, WashU) on "Measuring Belief Polarization." 

Taylor Carlson (Political Science, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: The Erotic Interest in Privacy

Join the Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) for Brenda Dvoskin (Law, WashU)'s "The Erotic Interest in Privacy." 

Lori Watson (Philosophy, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop will be held in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Eliminating the Engines of Gender

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Ophelia Vedder (Political Science, WashU)'s "Gender Abolition and the Second Wave: Eliminating the Engines of Gender".

Alex Avery (Political Science, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Civil Society Brunch: Sex, Gender, and Sports

A central issue in the “culture wars” that characterize contemporary American politics is how sports ought to be organized: whether and how sports should be sex-segregated and, in particular, who should be included in women's sports.  This invites further questions, including whether we ought to have a separate category of women's sports to begin with, what values competitive sports currently embody and advance and if we might have sports that aim at different values, and what kind of knowledge about women and their bodies is emerging (or not) from sport science and medicine.  The Civil Society Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to present a public symposium featuring four WashU faculty: Zack Bowersox (Political Science), Marina DiMarco (Philosophy), Ophelia Vedder (Political Science), and Lucy Vollbrecht (Philosophy).  We’ll have lightning presentations from our four panelists about their research, followed by discussion with the audience.

This event is sponsored by the Frick Initiative and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

Civil Society Brunch: Democracy without Elections?

The Civil Society Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to present a public talk by Alex Guerrero, Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of Lottocracy: Democracy without Elections.  Professor Guerrero is a leader scholar of "lottocracy" (also known as "sortition"), whereby public officials or political representatives are selected at random.  

All are welcome; RSVP below if you plan to attend.  

Abstract: Democracy is in trouble. What is going wrong? What should we do?  In this talk, I will suggest that perhaps surprisingly, the problem is with the heart of modern democracy: the election. Elections are failing as accountability mechanisms. Elections provide powerful short-term incentives, leading elected politicians to downplay long-term catastrophic concerns. Elections create division where none need exist. The most powerful among us take advantage of this to control who is elected, what policies are enacted, and which problems are ignored. Policy complexity, citizen ignorance, elite capture and manipulation, algorithmically reinforced echo chambers, intensifying partisan division and distrust, and the dissolution of political community combine to render modern electoral democracies incapable of helping us solve the urgent problems we face.  Although electoral democracy may have been better than all systems that have been tried, the basic mechanism at its core-the election-is broken, and unworkable under modern political conditions.  We should move past the Churchillian shrug ("the worst system, except for all the others") and consider a new form of democracy: lottocracy.  Lottocratic systems include many new elements, but the most striking is the shift from using elected representatives to using representatives selected through lottery.  The second half of the talk introduces and discusses lottocratic systems, their potential advantages, and potential concerns.

This event is sponsored by the Frick Initiative and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

Resistance at the Crossroads: Heracles in German Postwar Literature

Abstract

In the long reception history of Greek mythology in the German literary and philosophical tradition, several canonical figures stand out for their political resistance, prominently among them Antigone, Prometheus, or Medea. Typically, Heracles has not served that function in the political aesthetics of German language authors. It is all the more surprising, then, how he emerges as an ambiguous figure of resistance in postwar German literature, when the persuasive power of mythology was met with skepticism on both sides of the iron curtain. In the works of Peter Weiss and Heiner Müller, Heracles is rather critically examined than posited as a model of heroic resistance. Against the historical backdrop of anti-fascist resistance against Nazism as well as in the political context of the Cold War and a divided Germany, both authors reflect their respective philosophies of history in an unlikely figure of resistance. The crossroads at which Heracles finds himself in their works is not that of vice and virtue, but that of oppression and liberation. 

 

André Fischer

André Fischer’s research focuses on 20th-century German literature, film, theater, and intellectual history.

Entitled to write: Identity and Poetic Authority in the Titles of Early Roman Epic

Abstract

Titles identify and distinguish texts, making them referable in writing or in speech. But there's much more to titles than designation. These paratexts are advertisements and guides to our consumption of literature, sites of authorial commentary that have much to say about the works they preface as well as about the writers who coined them. Ancient titles are a particularly precious kind of evidence, for they can shed light on lost literary works and those preserved only in fragments. In my paper, I will explore what the titles of early Roman epic can tell us about this highly fragmentary genre and, more broadly, about the beginnings of Latin literature and its practitioners. I will argue that seemingly straightforward titles like Odusia and Bellum Punicum enact a strategy of authorial self-fashioning whereby poets negotiated their author-ity - that is, their ability to write literature at and about Rome.

Emilia Barbiero

Barbiero is a philologist whose research interests focus on Roman republican literature and ancient epistolography. Her current project is a book on the letters in Plautus which seeks to discern how the playwright manipulates epistolary conventions to cause comic mischief and uses text as a prop in the oral medium of drama. It argues that the embedded letters in Plautus’ corpus represent the theatrical script, and therefore that they both demonstrate the textuality of the oeuvre and function metapoetically to cast an image of Plautus’ creativity within the play. Barbiero has published on various other Plautine topics besides letters, including the interaction of oratory and comedy, Plautus' conceptions of 'the new' and the mode of his translation. She has also written articles on Second Sophistic and late antique epistolography. Her future research plans revolve around the Catullan corpus and its ‘thingliness’.

Unable to attend in person?

Join via Zoom

Note: you will be admitted into the Zoom lecture when it begins.
Having tech issues?  Email gazzola@wustl.edu 

Fall internal grants deadline

Washington University provides significant internal funding to support and encourage research and scholarship at the university. These programs are intended to enhance the ability of WashU faculty and students to compete for external funding for their research or creative work. A variety of internally funded opportunities are offered through the Center for the Humanities. 

Fall funding programs include Faculty Fellowships, Collaborative Research Grants, Grimm Travel Awards and Summer Faculty Research Grants. Small Grants for Publication are offered on a rolling basis. 

Spring internal grants deadline

Washington University provides significant internal funding to support and encourage research and scholarship at the university. These programs are intended to enhance the ability of WashU faculty and students to compete for external funding for their research or creative work. A variety of internally funded opportunities are offered through the Center for the Humanities. 

Health as Performance: Hygienic Theater in Interwar Germany

Colloquium - Audience Participation as Archetype

Elizabeth Hunter is a critical theorist and digital maker exploring the future of live performance and emergent technologies. Her research asks what happens when we inhabit the space of a famous story, and the story seeps into our own.

Colloquium Series: Writing a Counter Narrative for Modern Korea: Borders, Borderlands, and Diasporas

This talk explores the possibilities of writing a counter narrative for Korea’s modern history—through borders, borderlands, and diasporas.  Korea’s history has often been told as a story of colonization/victimization on the one hand and freedom fighters/revolutionaries on the other, both perspectives emphasizing the power and gaze of an outside empire.  How do we invert this narrative to center native actors and the transregional dynamics in which they were situated?  I ruminate about reading against and with multiple imperial archives and the conundrum, for a time, of the lack of a Korean “archive.”  The talk offers a view of Korea’s northern borderlands at the turn of the 20th century, as well as the borders and migrants/refugees that suddenly came into being after decolonization (1945-50).

_____

Alyssa Park is the author of Sovereignty Experiments: Korean Migrants and the Building of Borders in Northeast Asia, 1860-1945 (Cornell University Press, 2019), which examines how questions of sovereignty—claims over land and subjects—became a central concern to multiple states as they confronted the unprecedented mobility of Koreans. Based on sources from Korea, the Russian Far East, St. Petersburg, and Manchuria, the book explores the history of the Korean community across Russia and China, illuminating the process by which this border region and people were claimed as belonging to surrounding states.

Dr. Park is currently working on a book about population displacement in the two Koreas. Through the lens of Korean “refugees,” it brings together the transnational histories of postcolonial Korea, nascent South Korean regime, and Soviet and U.S. occupations during the critical interregnum of 1945-50.

Dr. Park’s research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Center, Kennan Institute, Yale Council on East Asian Studies, Korea Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies / Mellon, International Research and Exchanges Board, and Fulbright-Hays. She earned an AB from Princeton University and a PhD in History from Columbia University. 

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Alice Lovejoy "Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War”

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Alice Lovejoy (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature)

"Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War”

This talk traces the chemical and industrial histories that, beginning in the 1910s, made the Eastman Kodak Company  a major military contractor, ultimately bringing the company to the Manhattan Project, for which Kodak operated the Y-12 uranium separation plant at Oak Ridge. Considering the materials from which film was made; the factories in which these materials were transformed into film, weapons, and countless other chemical products; the scientists and workers who transformed them; and the corporate, military, geopolitical, and environmental questions that surrounded these materials and their transformation, the talk traces a history of safety and danger—one that entangled the twentieth century’s two quintessential technologies: film and the atomic bomb.

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Lea Jacobs "Ford at Work: Making Young Mr. Lincoln"

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Lea Jacobs (University of Wisconsin Madison, Professor Emerita of Communication Arts)

"Ford at Work: Making Young Mr. Lincoln"

From John Libbey Publishing & Indiana University Press

John Ford at Work explores the evolution of Ford’s career in the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s as the system itself changed in response to the coming of sound and the business downturn of the Depression. Based upon a decade of 
research utilizing the studio files of Twentieth Century-Fox, RKO and Samuel Goldwyn it delineates the director’s collaborations with the producers, screenwriters, actors and cinematographers that had the most impact on his production practices. It traces the major literary, cinematic and musical sources from which he drew. It considers relevant changes in film technology and seeks to explain how they were incorporated into his style. Films analyzed include 4 Sons, The Black Watch, Arrowsmith, Air Mail, The Lost Patrol, The Informer, Judge Priest, Steamboat Round the Bend, The Prisoner of Shark Island, Wee Willie Winkie, Stagecoach and Young Mr. Lincoln. The book is illustrated with 300 black 
and white photographs. 

Lea Jacobs specializes in the history of the Hollywood studio system to 1960. She is the author of The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, Theatre to Cinema, The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s and Film Rhythm After Sound: Technology, Music and Performance. 

See leajacobs.net for more information.
eBook: 9780861969951, $31.99
Paperback: 9780861967575, $32.00
Available from Amazon and other booksellers and Indiana University Press, iupress.org

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Mark Minett "Origins/Stories/Conventions: Towards a Poetics of the ‘Golden Age’ of the Superhero Genre”

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Mark Minett (University of South Carolina, Associate Professor of English Language and Literature)

"Origins/Stories/Conventions: Towards a Poetics of the ‘Golden Age’ of the Superhero Genre”

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Patrick Keating “Postwar Cinematography and the Idea of Italian Neorealism”

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Patrick Keating (Trinity University, Professor of Communication)

“Postwar Cinematography and the Idea of Italian Neorealism”

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Annie Sullivan "Broadcasting Resistance: A History of Black Media Activism and Civic Life in 1960s Detroit”

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Annie Sullivan (Oakland University, Assistant Professor of English, Creative Writing, and Film)

"Broadcasting Resistance: A History of Black Media Activism and Civic Life in 1960s Detroit”

Broadcasting Resistance: A History of Black Media Activism and Civic Life in 1960s Detroit examines how Black media producers mobilized local television to advance Black liberation struggles and challenge white dominance over communication infrastructure in the wake of Detroit’s 1967 Rebellion. Drawing on newsprint discourse, archival materials, oral histories, and close textual analysis, this research uncovers largely overlooked histories of community-based television production that sought to articulate Black cultural values and political objectives to local audiences. By tracing the material labor and creative strategies of media activists operating with scarce resources, the project positions local broadcasting as a critical platform through which Black civil rights activism played out and expands our understanding of Black contributions to media history.  

A Conversation on Religion and the Environment: Academia, Community, Activism

St. Louis Reads Dante - Inferno 4

St. Louis Reads Dante invites readers of all backgrounds—curious newcomers and seasoned Dante enthusiasts alike—to join a monthly journey through Dante’s Comedy, one canto at a time. Held at Washington University in St. Louis, each session brings together undergraduates, scholars, and community members for a guided reading and discussion led by scholars from many different disciplines and research areas.

Whether you're discovering Dante’s epic poem for the first time or returning to it with fresh questions, this is a chance to engage deeply with a work that continues to inspire, provoke, and challenge across time.

The series concludes on Tuesday, December 2 with Professor Timothy Moore. Following the discussion, attendees will have the opportunity to explore a special showcase of manuscripts and rare objects related to Dante’s Comedy and medieval culture from WashU’s Special Collections.

St. Louis Reads Dante - Inferno 3

St. Louis Reads Dante invites readers of all backgrounds—curious newcomers and seasoned Dante enthusiasts alike—to join a monthly journey through Dante’s Comedy, one canto at a time. Held at Washington University in St. Louis, each session brings together undergraduates, scholars, and community members for a guided reading and discussion led by scholars from many different disciplines and research areas.

Whether you're discovering Dante’s epic poem for the first time or returning to it with fresh questions, this is a chance to engage deeply with a work that continues to inspire, provoke, and challenge across time.

The series continues on Tuesday, November 11, with Professor Nicolo Sassi. Following the discussion, attendees will have the opportunity to explore a special showcase of manuscripts and rare objects related to Dante’s Comedy and medieval culture from WashU’s Special Collections.

A&S Grad Fall Research Roundtable

Stop, Drop (In), and Write Fall Mini-Conference

Anti-Haitianism, Statelessness, and Religious Practice in The Bahamas

This talk explores how Haitian Protestant hymnody, liturgical dance, and prayer constitute embodied practices through which stateless Bahamian-born people of Haitian descent negotiate anti-Haitianism, remake selfhood, and cultivate a hybrid Christian habitus in The Bahamas.

Learn more about Dr. Louis Here

A House Divided: Translation, National Identity, and the Rise of Pluricentric Korean

The geopolitical division of the Korean Peninsula in 1945 also resulted in the rupture of many colonial-era (1910-1945) cultural movements, among them the Korean language reform movement headed by the Han’gŭl Society (Han’gŭl hakhoe). Many of the members of this influential society “went North” after 1945, contributing to an emergent North Korean language policy and planning regime that increasingly diverged from its South Korean counterpart. In this talk, I will demonstrate how the bifurcation of the Korean language movement and the development of disparate state ideologies in the Koreas eventually became established approaches to not only language and literature, but also the interpretation of pre-modern Korean history and its relationship to contemporary politics and national legitimacy. As a case study to demonstrate this divergence in the realm of literature, I examine two translations of The Tale of Unyŏng (Unyŏng chŏn 雲英傳, early seventeenth century) into vernacular Korean in South Korea (1960) and North Korea (1966). Looking beyond the classical paradigm of interlingual and intralingual translation as “translation proper” and “rewording,” respectively, I argue that translations of classical Korean fiction from Literary Sinitic (Hanmun) into vernacular Korean represented a form of transitional intralingual translation as each nation navigated away from active membership in the Sinographic Cosmopolis (Hanchakwŏn 漢字圈) and attempted to establish a new national literature and cultural identity.

Bio: Daniel Pieper is the Korea Foundation Lecturer in Korean Studies and the Director of Korean Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He specializes in modern Korean language and literary history. His current research focuses on the emergence of vernacular Korean as a discrete subject in the modern school, the textual differentiation process of cosmopolitan Hanmun and vernacular Korean, and the role of language ideology in directing language standardization in late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Korea. His forthcoming book (University of Toronto Press) is titled Cosmopolitan Memories, Vernacular Visions: The Roots of Modern Korea.

The Stern Family Lecture - Songs for the Brokenhearted: A Reading and Conversation with Award-Winning Israeli Author, Ayelet Tsabari

On Monday, October 27th at 6:00 p.m., Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES) at Washington University in St. Louis will host award-winning writer Ayelet Tsabari for a reading and discussion of her debut novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted (Random House, 2024).

Tsabari will introduce her novel, which was the winner of the 2024 National Jewish Book. Building on the success of her memoir The Art of Leaving and her story collection The Best Place on Earth, Tsabari’s novel explores the experiences of Yemini immigrants in Israel from its founding through the backlash to the Oslo Peace Accords. These episodes in Israeli politics and culture continue to reverberate today.

Tsabari will also speak about growing up Yemeni in Israel, about re-finding and reclaiming that identity through writing and through extensive research into Yemeni culture and traditions. She will share audio and images from her research into the Yemeni women’s songs that are a leitmotiv in the novel, and speak of some of the unique challenges she has faced writing about Israel in English, her second language. This lecture will explore the many ways in which a writer’s cultural background, mother tongue, and origins influence and inform her writing, in terms of both content and style.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held in Umrath Lounge on the Danforth campus of Washington University in St. Louis. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the main program at 6:00 p.m.

About the Book: Songs for the Brokenhearted traces intertwined stories of love, loss, and discovery spanning two transformative moments in Israeli history. One storyline begins in the early years of Israeli statehood in the squalor of an immigrant camp, where a forbidden love unfolds between the young Yaqub and the married Saida. The second, set in the volatile summer of 1995, follows Zohara, a disillusioned graduate student in New York, who returns to Israel after her mother’s death and uncovers startling family secrets hidden in recordings of her mother’s singing. Tacking back and forth between the early years of Israeli statehood and the mid-1990s, the novel explores intergenerational memory, the legacies of migration and displacement, and the complex bonds between mothers and daughters.

Critics have hailed the book as “a gorgeous, gripping novel filled with unforgettable characters” (Elizabeth Graver), and “an unparalleled triumph” in its portrayal of Israel’s marginalized communities (Ranen Omer-Sherman). With agile prose and unforgettable characters, Tsabari gives voice to experiences too often silenced, weaving together personal stories and broader histories of upheaval and survival.

Find more JIMES events at https://jimes.washu.edu/events.
Those with specific inquiries about this event can contact Julia Clay at jclay@wustl.edu.

Critical Race Theory at the Bottom of the Well: Derrick Bell’s ‘Grandchildren’ Reflect on the Future of CRT

This roundtable will bring together Adrienne Davis and two leading figures in Critical Race Theory, Robert Chang and Anthony Farley, for a powerful discussion on the future of CRT.

At the heart of the conversation is the ongoing work of articulating frameworks for understanding the complex intersections of Blackness, law, and American democracy.

• Anthony Farley is widely recognized in both law and the humanities for his groundbreaking article, The Black Body as Fetish Object, which engages Frantz Fanon to examine the sexual and other desiring pleasures that underlie anti-Blackness in the West.

• Robert Chang has written and litigated extensively on the ways law operationalizes anti-Black racism, and he and Adrienne Davis have co-authored works exploring intersectional frameworks that contrast their positionalities as a Black woman and an Asian American man.

Together, these scholars will reflect on Derrick Bell’s legacy and consider the path forward for Critical Race Theory in contemporary society.

WashU Sociology's Fall 2025 Colloquium Series: Youngjoo Cha

Join the WashU Department of Sociology for our third installment of the Fall 2025 Colloquium Series, featuring Prof. Youngjoo Cha. 

Presentation Title: "How does parental leave shape perceptions of women and men as parents and workers? Survey-experimental evidence from South Korea, the US, and Germany"

Youngjoo Cha is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University - Bloomington. Her main research investigates how the trend toward long work hours and workplace norms prescribing long hours reinforce gender inequality, and under what conditions flexible work policies (e.g., flexible schedules, remote working, paid time off) can help to change these patterns. Her other research investigates how parenthood is associated with the gender pay gaps in various settings; the patterns and heterogeneity of hiring, promotion, wage outcomes of Asian-origin workers, particularly focusing on the role of stereotypes; the organizational, institutional, and market conditions that drive changes in organizational diversity; and how the pandemic has changed employees’ and employers’ perspectives on work. 

More about our guest: https://sociology.indiana.edu/about/faculty/cha-youngjoo.html 

Colloquia are open to a broader WashU audience; however, space is limited. 
Students who are interested in more advanced sociological inquiry are strongly encouraged to attend.

AFAS 5500: Global Black Studies: Approaches, Theories, and Methods - A Student Symposium

People1st: Civil Society Call to Release Civilian Prisoners Related to the War in Ukraine

Join us for a public lecture with Denis Shedov, a human rights activist and doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. 

At the start of 2025, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, human rights defenders, and civic activists from Ukraine, Russia, and around the world joined forces under one message: put people first. The People1st campaign calls for any peace negotiations around Russia’s war against Ukraine to prioritize the release of war captives — including unlawfully detained Ukrainian civilians, prisoners of war on both sides, Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia, and Russian political prisoners jailed for opposing the war.
Denis Shedov, board member of the Human Rights Defense Center Memorial, will present the campaign’s goals and findings, shedding light on the thousands of people whose freedom and return home depend on this effort. He will also share reflections on the campaign’s first year — its achievements, challenges, and plans ahead — and explain how anyone who shares its humanitarian mission can get involved.
 

In the midst of Russia’s ongoing full-scale war against Ukraine, People1st stands as the first public campaign uniting Ukrainian and Russian human rights defenders to pursue shared humanitarian goals.
 

A reception will follow. 

Weaving “Brocades”: Rules, Textuality, and Games of Reading

This talk centers on a set of word puzzles known as “brocades” to demonstrate how gaming, especially through its rules (dufa), expanded and reimagined the act of reading wen in early modern China. “Jin,” or “brocade,” as an umbrella term, refers to a series of creative applications of the Chinese writing system that mimic everyday objects, in which readers were required to follow a specific trajectory that imitated the process of weaving a piece of brocade. I trace the intricate transformation of the “brocade” puzzles from a hands-on game played across social echelons that required one to see the words and touch them with fingers; to a word diagram, whose animation mimics cosmological movement; and finally, to a word-only notational system encoding coordinates for chess pieces on a Go board. I argue that reading emerges as both material (engaging tactility) and algorithmic (encoding and decoding coordinates), ontological (reflecting on the act of reading itself) and epistemological (reading as a means of knowing the order and movement of the phenomenal world), simultaneously engaging with both the visible textual surface and the underlying structure. These puzzles complicate our understanding of literacy and reading, anticipating aspects of digital textuality in their emphasis on fragmentation, tactile interface, and structural coding.

Biography: Jiayi Chen is an assistant professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on early modern Chinese literature and culture, particularly their intersections with games, theater, visual and material culture, and the history of books and reading. Her current book project, tentatively titled Game On: Epistemic Play in Early Modern China, studies how the critical potential of games to model reading, learning, and thinking, thereby cultivating new epistemological perspectives for navigating reality. Her other research interests include early modern Chinese discourses on immersion, magic, and cultural exchanges in East Asia.

CANCELLED- Visiting Writer Mary Ruefle Reading from Essays and Poetry

Visiting Writer Mary Ruefle is the author of many books, including, most recently, The Book along with Dunce, which was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize, longlisted for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, as well as a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. She is also the author of My Private Property, Trances of the Blast, Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Selected Poems, winner of the WilliamCarlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has also published a comic book, Go Home and Go to Bed!

Books available for purchase through Subterranean Books.

Reading followed by reception and book sale.

Visiting Hurst Professor Rosa Alcalá Reading

Visiting Hurst Professor Rosa Alcalá has published several books of her own poems as well as translations of poetry by Latin American writers. YOU, her fourth poetry collection, was published by Coffee House Press in 2024. She has received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award, a Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Fellowship from Harvard, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Translation. Her book Spit Temple: The Selected Performances of Cecilia Vicuña was runner-up for the PEN Translation Award. She holds the DeWetter Endowed Chair in Poetry at the University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Creative Writing and Bilingual MFA Program.

Books available for purchase courtesy of Subterranean Books.

Reading followed by reception and book sale. 
 

Visiting Hurst Professor Rosa Alcalá Craft Lecture

Visiting Hurst Professor Rosa Alcalá has published several books of her own poems as well as translations of poetry by Latin American writers. YOU, her fourth poetry collection, was published by Coffee House Press in 2024. She has received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award, a Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Fellowship from Harvard, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Translation. Her book Spit Temple: The Selected Performances of Cecilia Vicuña was runner-up for the PEN Translation Award. She holds the DeWetter Endowed Chair in Poetry at the University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Creative Writing and Bilingual MFA Program.
 

POSTPONED: Humanities Career Spotlight: Panel on High School and Intermediate Teaching

Join us for a 90-minute conversation exploring the pathways from doctoral studies to careers in intermediate and secondary education. Our panel features three educators who will share how they prepared for roles in these settings — whether during or after completing their doctoral degrees — and offer insights into their current work.

Graduate Writing Commons

The Graduate Writing Commons is a weekly writing group is open to graduate students from all schools and departments who want to concentrate on a writing project. (All projects are welcome, from novel manuscripts, to articles, to dissertation chapters, etc.) Since many struggle to reserve time in our busy schedules for a focused writing session, this space is meant to build the structure and the community needed to come back to our own writing projects again and again. The bulk of each session will be devoted to giving writers a quiet, focused space to co-work.

Graduate Writing Commons

The Graduate Writing Commons is a weekly writing group is open to graduate students from all schools and departments who want to concentrate on a writing project. (All projects are welcome, from novel manuscripts, to articles, to dissertation chapters, etc.) Since many struggle to reserve time in our busy schedules for a focused writing session, this space is meant to build the structure and the community needed to come back to our own writing projects again and again. The bulk of each session will be devoted to giving writers a quiet, focused space to co-work.

Graduate Writing Commons

The Graduate Writing Commons is a weekly writing group is open to graduate students from all schools and departments who want to concentrate on a writing project. (All projects are welcome, from novel manuscripts, to articles, to dissertation chapters, etc.) Since many struggle to reserve time in our busy schedules for a focused writing session, this space is meant to build the structure and the community needed to come back to our own writing projects again and again. The bulk of each session will be devoted to giving writers a quiet, focused space to co-work.

Graduate Writing Commons

The Graduate Writing Commons is a weekly writing group is open to graduate students from all schools and departments who want to concentrate on a writing project. (All projects are welcome, from novel manuscripts, to articles, to dissertation chapters, etc.) Since many struggle to reserve time in our busy schedules for a focused writing session, this space is meant to build the structure and the community needed to come back to our own writing projects again and again. The bulk of each session will be devoted to giving writers a quiet, focused space to co-work.

Graduate Writing Commons

The Graduate Writing Commons is a weekly writing group is open to graduate students from all schools and departments who want to concentrate on a writing project. (All projects are welcome, from novel manuscripts, to articles, to dissertation chapters, etc.) Since many struggle to reserve time in our busy schedules for a focused writing session, this space is meant to build the structure and the community needed to come back to our own writing projects again and again. The bulk of each session will be devoted to giving writers a quiet, focused space to co-work.

Sin Fronteras: Mapping and Writing on Labor, Immigration, and Revolution in Southern California

Dr. Aguilar will be presenting on a new digital humanities archive, the Sin Fronteras (Borderless) Project, the first multimedia repository and public history resource to document and map the histories of labor and social movements in the US-Mexico borderlands from 1848 to the present. Using archival documents from his new book project, Inland Against Empire: Class Solidarity, Racial Terror, and the Mexican Revolution in Southern California, Dr. Aguilar will discuss the historical legacies of multiracial labor movements in the Inland Empire region of Southern California and its broader impact on global history. Dr. Aguilar’s research highlights the important role that public history can play in contemporary labor and social movements in the region and offer insights on how such resources can mitigate political polarization locally and globally.

Imaginative Fieldnotes: A Strictly No-Writing-Allowed Workshop

Curious to explore anticolonial methods for community-engaged research? Seeking new forms of inspiration that challenge academic norms? Wanting to connect with other faculty and students in a creative atmosphere off campus? The Department of Anthropology's Experiential Ethnography Studio (EES) is thrilled to welcome Dr. Elizabeth Chin for a hands-on, no-writing-allowed workshop that will inspire you to unleash your imagination and play with the boundaries of form and design in humanistic research practice. Join us with our partners at St. Louis ArtWorks to craft, learn multimodal app-based tools, and practice ethical and experiential methods for recording fieldnotes in the Delmar Loop neighborhood. 

Lunch is provided. RSVP here. 

The EES is generously funded by grants from the Center for the Humanities and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity.

Middle East / North Africa Film Series - Session Two: Captain Abu Raed

Join us for the second session of the Fall 2025 Middle East / North Africa (MENA) Film Series.

Captain Abu Raed (2007 / 102 min.) - Directed by Amin Matalqa

"When an old airport janitor finds a captain's hat in the trash, he gets pulled into the lives of children in his poor neighborhood. He weaves imaginary stories of his world adventures to offer hope in the face of their harsh reality."

The viewing will be facilitated by Dr. Younasse Tarbouni of the Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies department.

Middle East / North Africa Film Series - Session One: Wadjda

Join us for the first session of the Fall 2025 Middle East / North Africa (MENA) Film Series.

Wadjda (2012 / 98 min.) - Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour

"An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest."

The viewing will be facilitated by Dr. Younasse Tarbouni of the Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies department.

The Fire of Life: Energy, Ecology, and Evolution in Humans and Other Animals

Join us as we welcome Dr. Herman Pontzer,  Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health, Duke University Global Health Institute to campus! Dr. Pontzer is an American evolutionary anthropologist and author best known for his work on human metabolism, energetics, and evolution. 

Calories are the currency of life, needed to fuel everything from growth to immune function, movement to reproduction. In this talk, we'll discuss recent advances in our understanding of energy use in humans and other species. Metabolic adaptations have played a critical yet underappreciated role in the evolution of primates, including our own species. Comparisons of energy expenditure across populations have challenged traditional models, indicating that variation in lifestyle and daily physical activity do not necessarily correspond to differences in caloric needs. Measurements across the lifespan show distinct metabolic phases as we grow up and grow old. These advances in metabolic research provide a framework for future research in ecology, evolution, and health.

This event is free and open to all! A light reception will follow.

Autogestion in Motion: University Insurgents, Anarchist Ethics, and Mexico City Punk

Join us as we welcome Dr. Liv Stone, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University to campus!

Autogestión (self-management in English) is an ethical and political principle associated with radical horizontality. In most of the world it is associated with anarchist unions that operate workplaces without bosses. In Mexico City however, the term became attached to Zapatismo and was popularized in the 1990s as a means to bring the principles of indigenous governance to the urban context. Today, autogestión flourishes in the quiet radicality of Mexico City’s autogestive collectives, many of which are dedicated to art, music, zines, and urban autonomy, but reject the idea they are anarchist. Autogestión in Motion uncovers the true history of autogestión in Mexico City, involving the punk scene, Zapatista benefit concerts, and a massive student strike.

This event is free and open to all! A light reception will follow. 

Hurst Lecture - Good Uses for ‘Bad’ Literature: Genre and Criticism in Context

Hurst Lecture

Good Uses for ‘Bad’ Literature: Genre and Criticism in Context

Monday, October 27

4:00 PM

Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall

 Workshop

Serious on All Sides: Working on a Creative-Critical Continuum

Wednesday, October 29

11:00 a.m.

Hurst Lounge Duncker Hall

Critical and creative writer and performer Rosamond S. King’s work is centered on the sexualities, celebrations, and protests of Caribbean and African peoples. Her monograph Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination was named “Best Book” by the Caribbean Studies Association in 2015 and will be reissued in a new edition in 2026. King’s poetry collections include All the Rage and the Lambda Award-winning Rock | Salt | Stone. Her essays have appeared in LitHub, the Ms. blog, Sargasso, The Progressive, The Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, and elsewhere. Her readings and performances have been curated in theatres, festivals, and nontraditional venues around the world. King is the Carol L. Zicklin Endowed Chair to the Honors Academy at Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York. www.rosamondSking.black

 

Workshop - Serious on All Sides: Working on a Creative-Critical Continuum

Workshop

Serious on All Sides: Working on a Creative-Critical Continuum

Wednesday, October 29

11:00 a.m.

Hurst Lounge Duncker Hall

Critical and creative writer and performer Rosamond S. King’s work is centered on the sexualities, celebrations, and protests of Caribbean and African peoples. Her monograph Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination was named “Best Book” by the Caribbean Studies Association in 2015 and will be reissued in a new edition in 2026. King’s poetry collections include All the Rage and the Lambda Award-winning Rock | Salt | Stone. Her essays have appeared in LitHub, the Ms. blog, Sargasso, The Progressive, The Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, and elsewhere. Her readings and performances have been curated in theatres, festivals, and nontraditional venues around the world. King is the Carol L. Zicklin Endowed Chair to the Honors Academy at Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York. www.rosamondSking.black

 

 

International Writers Series: Dabin Jeong and Safa Khatib in Conversation

Engaged City Community Fellows Introduction

Peer Research Writing Group (1 of 4)

Are you working on graduate school applications, research papers, or fellowship proposals? The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is hosting a Peer Research Writing Group this fall – a supportive space to work alongside fellow students tackling similar projects.

Come with whatever you are working on — grad school applications, fellowship proposals, research papers, your thesis, or any other writing project. We will have a focused work environment, snacks, and peers going through the same processes!

Schedule (Wednesdays, 4:30-6:30 PM):

• October 29 – Eads 203
• November 5 – Lopata House 21
• November 12 – Eads 203
• November 19 – Eads 203

See you there!

Peer Research Writing Group (2 of 4)

Are you working on graduate school applications, research papers, or fellowship proposals? The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is hosting a Peer Research Writing Group this fall – a supportive space to work alongside fellow students tackling similar projects.

Come with whatever you are working on — grad school applications, fellowship proposals, research papers, your thesis, or any other writing project. We will have a focused work environment, snacks, and peers going through the same processes!

Schedule (Wednesdays, 4:30-6:30 PM):

• October 29 – Eads 203
• November 5 – Lopata House 21
• November 12 – Eads 203
• November 19 – Eads 203

See you there!

Peer Research Writing Group (4 of 4)

Are you working on graduate school applications, research papers, or fellowship proposals? The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is hosting a Peer Research Writing Group this fall – a supportive space to work alongside fellow students tackling similar projects.

Come with whatever you are working on — grad school applications, fellowship proposals, research papers, your thesis, or any other writing project. We will have a focused work environment, snacks, and peers going through the same processes!

Schedule (Wednesdays, 4:30-6:30 PM):

• October 29 – Eads 203
• November 5 – Lopata House 21
• November 12 – Eads 203
• November 19 – Eads 203

See you there!

Peer Research Writing Group (3 of 4)

Are you working on graduate school applications, research papers, or fellowship proposals? The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is hosting a Peer Research Writing Group this fall – a supportive space to work alongside fellow students tackling similar projects.

Come with whatever you are working on — grad school applications, fellowship proposals, research papers, your thesis, or any other writing project. We will have a focused work environment, snacks, and peers going through the same processes!

Schedule (Wednesdays, 4:30-6:30 PM):

• October 29 – Eads 203
• November 5 – Lopata House 21
• November 12 – Eads 203
• November 19 – Eads 203

See you there!

From Variable Stars to Dark Matter – The Expanding Legacy of Henrietta Leavitt

Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s early twentieth-century discovery of a relationship between the brightness of certain stars named "Cepheid variables” and the duration of their brightness cycles transformed astronomy. By showing that a star’s intrinsic luminosity could be inferred from its variation period, Leavitt provided the first reliable method for measuring astronomical distances beyond our galaxy and established the foundation for what became known as the cosmic distance ladder. Her work made it possible to determine the accurate scale of the Milky Way, identify other galaxies beyond it, and eventually measure the expansion of the Universe itself. In this colloquium, Dr. Tansu Daylan and several members of the AstroMusers research group in the Department of Physics will follow the developments stemming from her discovery, beginning with her meticulous analysis of variable stars and tracing how precise photometric measurements enabled a deeper understanding of stellar evolution, including the formation and cooling of white dwarfs. The discussion will then move outward to the galactic scale, where Leavitt’s relation revealed the immensity of space and led to the recognition of galaxies as dynamic, independent systems. Finally, the colloquium will examine one of the most significant frontiers of modern astrophysics—the detection of dark matter—whose gravitational effects determine the rotation of galaxies, the binding of clusters, and the growth of large-scale cosmic filaments, even though it emits no light of its own. Across these themes runs a single unifying idea: careful observation and the disciplined use of light as data remain central to how astronomers uncover both the visible and hidden structure of the Universe.

 This event will take place in Seigle Hall, Room 206. Download a campus map here.

Dr. Tansu Daylan is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and leads a research program focused on atmospheric characterization of exoplanets and the astrophysical signatures of dark matter. He is the Principal Investigator for one of the Wide Field Science Programs of NASA's upcoming Roman Space Telescope. Members of his AstroMusers research group, Aavik Wadivkar, Bryce Wedig, and Dr. Chris Cappiello, work on contemporary astrophysical problems. Aavik is an undergraduate majoring in astrophysics, doing a research project on planets transiting white dwarfs. Bryce is a fourth-year PhD student in physics working on cosmic gravitational lenses, and Chris is an Ed Jaynes postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics focusing on particle properties of dark matter. 

Dr. Chris Cappiello is an Edwin Thompson Jaynes Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics. He received his PhD in 2021 from Ohio State, after which he was a postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, before joining the Department at WashU in 2024. His research focuses on dark matter theory, finding new ways to use particle detectors, telescopes, and astrophysics generally to search for dark matter.  Although he is a theorist, Chris has collaborated with experimental groups in the past, identifying new models of dark matter that their detectors could search for.

Bryce Wedig is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Physics studying dark matter using space telescopes. He studied physics and philosophy at Kenyon College and philosophy of physics at the University of Cambridge.

Aavik Wadivkar is a sophomore undergraduate student studying Astrophysics and Philosophy. He's involved in exoplanet research, searching for planets orbiting around White Dwarfs and contributing to ExoCore, a NASA-funded curriculum of open science for the field of exoplanets. He also acts as President of WashU Satellite, an undergrad-led engineering design team that develops and builds satellites and space-ready science missions for WashU research. He's passionate about the intersection of science and philosophy and how we understand the world around us.

Learn more about the upcoming Performing Arts Department production of Silent Sky and get tickets here!

Kling Undergraduate Honors Fellowship information session

WashU sophomores in the humanities and humanistic social sciences are invited to apply for the Center for the Humanities Merle Kling Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program. This 20-year-old program selects a cohort of five to seven ArtSci sophomores who want to conduct independent research in the humanities or humanistic social sciences. The humanities center provides a significant stipend each semester as well as a weekly writing-intensive seminar here at the center. 

Roundtable on Tyson’s Military History

Breakfast provided!

Restricted Reading: What Book Bans Mean for Health and Justice

Faculty works in progress survey

Looking for feedback and a forum to meet new colleagues?

Inspired by faculty interest in sharing work in progress, the Center for the Humanities is piloting a new opportunity in spring 2026 for humanities and humanistic social sciences faculty in Arts & Sciences. Small groups of faculty across disciplines will meet regularly during the spring semester to engage with one another’s work.

International Humanities Prize nomination deadline

The Center for the Humanities invites nominations for the 2027 Washington University International Humanities Prize from WashU departments and programs in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

The prize is awarded biennially to a person who has contributed significantly to the humanities through a body of work that has dramatically impacted how we understand the human condition. Past recipients have included internationally recognized scholars, essayists and public intellectuals.

Click on the button below for more details and to access the nomination form.

St. Louis Ancient Philosophy Workshop

Ancient Worlds: A Conversation with Leading Historians

Co-sponsored by the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics, the Department of History, and WashU Global, Office of the Provost

Join us for an extraordinary discussion with five internationally renowned historians of the ancient world. WashU’s own William Bubelis (Associate Professor of Classics) and Chris Erdman (Assistant Professor of Classics) will facilitate a lively conversation with our distinguished panel:

Panelists

Roger Bagnall (Washington University in St. Louis)
Roger Bagnall is one of the world’s foremost experts on papyrology and the social and economic history of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique East. Formerly Jay Professor of Greek and Latin at Columbia University and founding director of NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Bagnall has authored seminal works including Egypt in Late Antiquity and The Demography of Roman Egypt. His research has transformed our understanding of everyday life in antiquity. 

Suzanne Marchand (Louisiana State University)
Suzanne Marchand is Boyd Professor of European Intellectual History at LSU and a leading scholar of modern European cultural and intellectual history. Her acclaimed books—such as Down from Olympus and German Orientalism in the Age of Empire—explore the reception of antiquity and the history of the humanities. A Guggenheim Fellow and past president of the German Studies Association, Marchand’s current work examines the long afterlife of Herodotus. 

Elizabeth Meyer (University of Virginia; 2026 Biggs Family Resident in Classics)
Elizabeth Meyer, T. Cary Johnson Jr. Professor of History at UVA, specializes in Greek and Roman political and social history, ancient law, and epigraphy. Her influential books include Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World and The Inscriptions of Dodona. Meyer’s research illuminates documentary practices and legal culture in antiquity, bridging material and intellectual history. 

Jonathan Price (Tel Aviv University)
Jonathan Price is the Fred and Helen Lessing Professor of Ancient History at Tel Aviv University. His scholarship spans Greek and Roman historiography, Jewish history under Rome, and epigraphy. Author of Jerusalem under Siege and numerous studies on Josephus and internal conflict in antiquity, Price brings a global perspective to the study of ancient societies and their texts. 

Michael Scott (University of Warwick)
Michael Scott is Professor of Classics and Ancient History and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) at Warwick. A prolific author and broadcaster, Scott has written widely on ancient Greece and Rome, including Delphi: Centre of the Ancient World and Ancient Worlds: An Epic History of East and West. He is well known for his BBC documentaries and his commitment to making the ancient world accessible to all.

Why Attend?

This unique event brings together leading voices in ancient history to explore how the ancient world continues to shape our understanding of culture, politics, and society. Don’t miss the chance to engage with scholars whose work spans continents and millennia.

Refusing Sustainability - Race, Health, and Environmentalism

Event generously sponsored by the Transatlantic Forum, the Department of Anthropology, the Center for the Study of Race, Ethncity, and Equity CRE2, and the Department of History.

This event will take place in McMillan Hall (Room G052) at 4:00pm on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.

2026 African Film Festival

All screenings are free and open to the public.

2026 Morrell Lecture in Asian Religions: Conflict over the Identity and Future of Korean Buddhism: The Buddhist Purification Movement, 1954–1970

Immediately after liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, celibate Korean Buddhist monks sought to abolish the Temple Ordinance instituted by the Japanese Governor-General’s Office in 1911 by rejecting the practice of clerical marriage and reinstituting celibate monasticism, repealing the Japanese-style system of control over monasteries and temples, and reorienting the Korean Buddhist Order towards the propagation of Sŏn Buddhism. Their attempts were unsuccessful until, on May 20, 1954, the celibate monks Ha Tongsan 河東山 (1890–1965) and Yi Ch’ŏngdam 李靑潭 (1902–1971) appealed to President Syngman Rhee 李承晚 (1875–1965), whose regime had stabilized with the cease fire in the Korean War and who heartily assented to the “de-Japanification” of Korean Buddhism. This became known as the “Buddhist Purification Movement” (Pulgyo chŏnghwa undong 佛敎淨化運動). Refusing any compromise with the married majority of Korean monks, the celibate minority used connections to the presidency, government organs, and the media to advance their case. From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, the married and celibate monks were grid-locked in fierce litigation in South Korean courts. Because the succeeding regime of Park Chung Hee 朴正熙 (1917–1979), the judicial courts, and the Korean population on the whole were sympathetic to the cause of the celibate monks, ultimately the married monks willfully separated themselves from the celibate monks and organized the T’aego Order 太古宗 of Korean Buddhism on May 8, 1970. The celibate monks’ unrelenting emphasis on reestablishing celibate monasticism, their unyielding tenacity in assuming administrative control over the Chogye Order’s 曹溪宗 major monastic complexes, and their persistent championing of Chinul 知訥 (1158–1210) as the founder of the Korean Sŏn tradition functioned as immovable ideological pillars enabling the ultimate success of the celibate monks.

This event is free and open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow. 

Richard was raised in Los Angeles, California, and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Korea Pusan Mission from 1988 to 1990. He double majored in Asian Studies and Korean at BYU, graduating in 1993, and later earned a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures (with emphasis on Korean and Chinese Buddhism and early Korean History) at UCLA in 2001. He was a Fulbright Senior Researcher at Dongguk University in Korea from 2007 to 2008, He taught in the History Department at BYU-Hawaii from 2008 to 2018. His wife of 17 years, Younghee Yeon McBride, passed away from pancreatic cancer in February 2018. They are the parents of two sons, David and Sean. 

Introducing: Affect Theory

NEW DATE

Are you interested in learning about affect theory and would you benefit from a beginner friendly introduction? Join the Center for the Humanities for an introductory workshop led by Rebecca Lester, professor of sociocultural anthropology and assistant vice provost of faculty affairs and diversity. 

“Introducing: Affect Theory” is the latest installment in a series of workshops meant to help faculty, graduate students and postdocs explore ideas and approaches. Your ideas are welcome — see registration page!

The Task of a Comparatist

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Tagore’s Concept of World Literature: A Comparatist Genealogy

In a talk he gave in 1907, five years before he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Rabindranath Tagore famously said: “In Bangla I shall call it Visva Sahitya (World Literature).” What are the afterlives of this statement in the history of comparative literature? What role does translation play here? In what relation is Tagore’s concept of world literature to other comparatist genealogies? How did Tagore conceive of world literature in relation to his own work, for example The Home and the World?

ONLINE ONLY- The Resilience & Recovery of Former Child Soldiers

What happens to children who experience the unimaginable? How do they build lives after war? And what can their stories teach us about resilience, recovery, and the power of human connection? Through a decades-long longitudinal study following former child soldiers in Sierra Leone from adolescence into adulthood, Dr. Theresa S. Betancourt has demonstrated how rigorous, ethically grounded research can illuminate pathways to resilience and inform interventions that honor cultural contexts while achieving meaningful impact. This event explores the long-term impact of war on child development, the ethics of cross-cultural trauma research, and how evidence-based interventions can support recovery in the most challenging circumstances.

This event is co-sponsored by the School of Public Health and Program in Public Health & Society. It is part of the WashU Ideas, Discourse, and Exploration (WIDE) Speaker Series.

RSVP

Zoom link

Book Talk with Karma Frierson: Local Color and Blackness in Veracruz, Mexico

The African & African American Studies Department invites you to a book talk with Dr. Karma Frierson on Thursday, March 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM. 

In this talk, Dr. Frierson will discuss her forthcoming book, Local Color, an ethnographic exploration of how Blackness is culturally expressed and understood in the Gulf Coast port city of Veracruz, Mexico. Drawing on research that centers music, dance, and cultural programming, she examines how Afro-Caribbean heritage is understood as collective and deeply rooted, yet not always tied to formal racial identification within Mexico’s broader discourse of mestizaje.

This event offers an opportunity to engage with questions of race, culture, identity, and belonging across national and diasporic contexts, and to reflect on how Blackness is lived and articulated beyond dominant racial frameworks.

This event is sponsored by the African & African American Studies Department, Romance, Languages and Literatures, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity,  and Center for Humanities

Judith Butler Reading Group

Crafting Your Humanities Resume

You’ve diligently put together your academic CV throughout your time as a humanities graduate student, but now you realize this format won’t work for most jobs beyond the professoriate. Join this session to gain tips and insights on how to translate your research activities, teaching and other traditional academic labors into skills and assets visible to a broader range of employers.

It’s never too early to plan your next move, so this session is open to grad students at any level.

Humanities Undergrad Mixer

Join us for our first-ever Humanities Undergrad Mixer! Hang out with other undergrads interested in humanities, eat good food, win a limited edition hat, and design your own buttons with our Center for the Humanities staff. We’ll also have information about how the Center can support you as well as about upcoming events of interest. (For example: Did you know that we are hosting Judith Butler on February 3?)

CCHP: Trump, Venezuela, and the Return of the Monroe Doctrine

"Trump, Venezuela, and the Return of the Monroe Doctrine"

Americans were shocked by the Jan. 3 raid on Venezuela and by the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. But the incident represents the return of something very old to U.S. foreign policy. Read more: "The Return of the Monroe Doctrine"

This lecture is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be provided. More information to come!

The location will be in Hurst Lounge (located on the second floor of Duncker Hall). Visit our interactive map and look for "Duncker Hall", which is adjacent to Ridgely Hall and the Beaumont Pavillion.

_______________________________________________

For more information, please contact Professor Krister Knapp via email at kknapp@wustl.edu, or via phone at 314-935-6838.

Refusing Sustainability - Race, Health, and Environmentalism

A conversation with  Dr. Elana Resnick, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California - Santa Barbara, about her new book Refusing Sustainability, the connection between racialized labor and waste in Eastern Europe, and the future of environmentalism and health. 

Event generously sponsored by the Transatlantic Forum, the Department of Anthropology, the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity CRE2, and the Department of History. 

Ancient Historian Panel

WashU's two ancient historians, William Bubelis, Associate Professor of Classics, and Chris Erdman, Assistant Professor of Classics, will facilitate a discussion with this panel of visiting ancient historians.

Artist Talk: Ballaké Sissoko, kora

Master kora virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko will be joined by Professor of Music Patrick Burke and Senior Lecturer in African and African American Studies El Hadji Samba Amadou Diallo in a conversation about the kora and its significance in West African musical traditions.

Biographies

Ballaké Sissoko

After the success of Djourou, the Malian virtuoso returns for an intimate tête à tête with his kora – intimate yet simple and majestic.

On his last album Djourou, Ballaké Sissoko explored new horizons by inviting musicians as varied as Salif Keita, Arthur Teboul (Feu! Chatterton), Camille, Oxmo Puccino, Vincent Segal and Patrick Messina, Piers Faccini to collaborate with him. The highly praised release was a demonstration of the art of musical conversation, Ballaké style, that plaited new strands into the long cord or ‘djourou’ that links him to other musicians and to the history of the kora. There’s no doubt that Ballaké owes his taste and talent for the musical encounter to his consummate listening skills. But they’re also the fruit of the long conservations he never tires of having with his own instrument.

During these strange and paradoxical ‘solitary dialogues’, he makes his kora speak and reacts to the emotions it arouses in him, letting his imagination and his fingers fly off to landscapes that are both magnificent and unknown. It’s there that his qualities as an improviser can be accurately measured, qualities that he began cultivating long ago in the shadow of the venerable elders of the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali, when he was still a young boy. Taking time off from the Djourou sessions, Ballaké recorded these eight instrumental pieces in the intimate confines of the Chapelle Sainte-Apolline in Belgium. Together they proclaim, without need for further evidence, the heights of mastery and freedom that this discreet giant of global music has scaled in his forty-year-long career.

Though two of the pieces also feature on Djourou, the new album gathers together all eight of them in a musical conversation between a master, made of flesh and spirit, and his ‘double’, made of string and wood. It’s a captivating, intimate and authentic testament, recorded in one afternoon, in which Ballaké takes us on a journey, a meandering trip full of majesty that borders on the sacred and touches serene meditative uplands as well as plains criss-crossed by Manding warriors straight out of the epics of a country of whom they are the pride. Ballaké is that country’s best ambassador. He was recently invited by the famous COLORS studio in Berlin to play ‘Nan Sira Madi’, the song that opens the new album. As for the title ‘A Touma’, take it to mean ‘this is the moment’: the moment for Ballaké to share the fruits of his maturity, and for us to discover and be blown away.

The CD and vinyl editions of ‘A Touma’ will be available exclusively to Nø Førmat! subscribers.

Patrick Burke

Patrick Burke received his B.A. in music at the University of Pennsylvania (1996) and his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2003). Since 2004, he has been a professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on such topics as the history of jazz and popular music, music of the African diaspora, and the methods and theories of ethnomusicology.  In 2013-14, he was a Guest Scholar at the University of Oslo, Norway, and he served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Musicological Society from 2013 to 2018.  In past years, Prof. Burke has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Head of Musicology in the Department of Music.

Prof. Burke's research centers on jazz and popular music in the United States, with a focus on the relationship between music's performance and reception and the formation of racial ideology.  His work has been supported by fellowships from the American Musicological Society, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Social Science Research Council, and the Center for the Humanities at WashU.  Prof. Burke is the author of Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street (University of Chicago Press, 2008) and Tear Down the Walls: White Radicalism and Black Power in 1960s Rock (University of Chicago Press, 2021). He was also project director, researcher, and writer for the digital humanities project Music and Racial Segregation in Twentieth-Century St. Louis: Uncovering the Sources (link below).  Prof. Burke’s current research addresses the role of the Norwegian shipping industry in establishing Western ideas and stereotypes about music of the global South during the Age of Empire. In addition to his academic work, Prof. Burke is a guitarist and composer.  He has also performed in a Javanese gamelan and on the amadinda, a Ugandan xylophone.

El Hadji Samba Amadou Diallo

Support

In collaboration with St. Louis Classical Guitar
 

WashU Department of African & African American Studies

Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.  

Website for the Missouri Arts Council
Website for the Regional Arts Commission

Livestream Gathering: Judith Butler Lecture

ICUR abstract planning

Panel Discussion: The Political Economy of Translation

What is the place of translation in the contemporary literary system? In what relation is the funding and publication of translation to contemporary geopolitical events? How do literary institutions, including universities, value the labor of translation? How do we conceive of translation as a mode of authorship? We asked our three panelists—acclaimed translators who translate from/into Bosnian, Farsi and Arabic—to answer these questions and others and engage in conversation with each other and the audience.

Panelists

Mona Kareem (left) is an assistant professor of Arabic literature at Washington University in St Louis. She is the author of four poetry collections and the translator of Ra'ad Abdul Qadir, Octavia Butler, and Ashraf Fayadh. 

AJ Javaheri (center) is an Iranian born and raised literary translator, translating to and from English, Farsi and Kurdish. She holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the university of Iowa and she is currently a second year PhD student in Comparative Literature, International Writers Track, at WashU. Her focus is translating contemporary Iranian literature, mainly fiction and poetry, from Farsi.

Ena Selimović (right) is a writer and translator. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from WashU in 2020. Her work has appeared in Words Without Borders, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Paris Review. She has been awarded fellowships from the American Literary Translators Association, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her most recent translation is Maša Kolanović's Underground Barbie (Sandorf Passage, 2025).

Department of Music Lecture: Brian Wright, Associate Professor of Music History at University of North Texas

Title

Paul McCartney’s Evolution as a Bass Player: From Emulation to Innovation  

Abstract

The Beatles’ global popularity was the single most significant development in popular music of the mid-to-late 1960s, so much so that it is difficult to fully convey the immensity of their impact. Over the course of their short career, they had seventeen No. 1 hits in the UK and twenty in the US. Millions and millions of young people bought their records, and their commercial success was so vast and unprecedented that it fundamentally altered the direction of both the British and American music industries. To this day, fans and historians continue to obsess over the trajectory and significance of the Beatles’ career. Yet relatively few have specifically explored Paul McCartney’s development as a bass player. 

Building on the work of Jack Hamilton and Andy Babiuk, this presentation chronicles the wider cultural, social, and technological factors that shaped McCartney’s bass playing across the Beatles’ recorded output, from their early days in Hamburg up through Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). It contextualizes McCartney as part of a wider generation of young British musicians who were drawn to the perceived rebelliousness of American popular music, especially African American music. It then charts how McCartney evolved from imitating American pop styles to developing his own melodic approach to bass playing—a process that Andrew Kellett describes as “adoption, emulation, creativity.” Ultimately, this presentation highlights both McCartney’s musical ingenuity and the inherent complexities of his cross-cultural borrowings, revealing the process through which he became the most famous bass player of the 1960s.

Biography

Brian F. Wright is Associate Professor of Music History at the University of North Texas, where he specializes in the history of American popular music. He holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from Case Western Reserve University and is a former research assistant for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archive. His book-length history of the electric bass, The Bastard Instrument, received the 2025 ASCAP Deems Taylor / Virgil Thomson Book Award, and his work has appeared in the Journal of the Society for American Music and the Journal of Popular Music Studies, as well as in Vintage Guitar and Bass Player Magazine.

Department of Music Lecture: Walter Parks, guitarist, composer, storyteller based in St Louis

Title

"The Story of Finding Style by Honoring Roots– An Art's Journey From Hometown to The World Stage"
 

About

Performer, historian and writer Walter Parks shares the bounty of his Library of Congress-archived research on three genres of music from Southeast Georgia’s Okefinokee Swamp – hymns, hollers and reels. This entertaining and educational workshop with performance examples and relevant stories also encompasses originals, reimagined Southern U.S. spirituals and Richie Havens classics.  Walter will discuss how researching the art, music, and culture of the area from which an artist comes can inform the artist's style.

Walter toured and recorded the world over with Woodstock legend Richie Havens – performing at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden and at The Glastonbury Festival in England.  In 2014, Walter was the sole accompanist of Judy Collins at her Lincoln Center tribute to Pete Seeger. Walter is the leader of two Americana roots groups – Swamp Cabbage (electric-folk/rock) and The Unlawful Assembly (reimagined spirituals).
 

Biography

Walter Parks is both entertaining and educational, presenting historic music, original music, and stories that preface songs in a contemporary way. Walter toggles between hollers, spirituals, Appalachian reels, Delta blues, work songs, swamp jazz, and even bits of opera, all delivered with Walter’s northeast Florida swampy feel. At every show, Walter tributes Woodstock legend Richie Havens, with whom he served as sideman for 10 years, performing worldwide in Madison Square Garden, The Glastonbury Festival, and Carnegie Hall, amongst other prestigious venues. Walter was recently invited by The Library of Congress/American Folklife Collection to archive his research work on the music made in southeast Georgia’s Okefinokee Swamp. Now based out of St. Louis, Walter has recently co-written with Stan Lynch, former Tom Petty drummer, and has performed at various venues with R&B drum legend Bernard Purdie and at Lincoln Center with Judy Collins. Walter tours solo, with his trio Swamp Cabbage and with The Unlawful Assembly, a group that reimagines historic spirituals, propelled by drummer Steven Williams and female vocalist Ada Dyer, who’s currently on the Bruce Springsteen world tour. Walter was a founding member of The Nudes, a popular folk duo, with cellist Stephanie Winters.  

Department of Music Lecture: Mvstermind, Damon Davis, and Blvck Spvde

Title

"Music in St. Louis"

About

Associate Professor Christopher Stark moderates a panel discussion on St. Louis Music with musicians Damon Davis, Blvck Spvde, and Mvstermind.

Biographies

Damon Davis

Damon Davis is a post-disciplinary, Emmy Award-winning artist who works and resides in St. Louis, Missouri. In a practice that is part therapy, part social commentary, his work spans a spectrum of creative mediums to tell stories exploring how identity is informed by power and mythology. He is well known for his solo exhibition, Darker Gods in The Garden of Low Hanging Heavens, which premiered in St. Louis in 2018 and went to Art Basel Miami later that year. The exhibit explored the surrealist manifestations of Black culture by constructing new mythologies in response to tropes of Blackness.

Davis is the founder and creative director of music collective/ label FarFetched. Filmmaker Magazine selected him and Sabaah Folayan as part of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film 2016” for their work co-directing the critically acclaimed documentary Whose Streets? chronicling the Ferguson uprising of 2014. In 2020, critic Ben Davis cited his project All Hands On Deck, which captured the hands of people who shaped and upheld the Ferguson movement, as one of the “100 Works of Art That Defined the Decade.” He is a Firelight Media, Sundance Labs, TED, and Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow.

Blvck Spvde

Blvck Spvde stands as a multi-talented artist with a storied career spanning decades in both the realms of music and fashion, earning him a profound level of recognition within underground circles. Notably, he has received accolades and admiration from some of your beloved artists.

Mvstermind

Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin challenges the box of being a successful “Independent Music Artist” and opens up a world of creative storytelling. Through the power of music, voice, and experiences he leaves an intentional mark of community. His work has impacted MLS Franchises, as seen in RollingStones, as he is cemented in stone in his hometown as an entrepreneurial hero. Born and bred in Saint Louis, Missouri. Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin is the new proof of concept of what is possible in your own “backyard” as a musical entrepreneur. Inspired by possibility, his distinctive approach and sound leave the fingerprints of a true “Mastermind.” As an artist, Muhammad creates music under the moniker “Mvstermind” writing, recording & producing music for the soul’s ignite with his collaborators & friends. Born in the midst of diverse musical tastes, Mvstermind fuses sounds from all genres, paying homage to his musical memories. Age 12 is when he first began to produce music. “I selfishly create music for me, FIRST” he states, music is his therapy & motivation to be GREATER, sharing his creative expressions with the world with an intention for it to serve as the same. From streaming services to Apple TV web series “City Flavor” and national stages across the country, Mvstermind’s music has the likes of NPR, Complex, & the world buzzing for more. His touring and performances have had him share stages with the greats, such as Snoop Dogg, Chance The Rapper, Lupe Fiasco, Travis Scott & more. As a producer Mvstermind has been catching the wind in the film/media world. Received recognition from the likes of the Berlin Film Festival for his involvement with “Summer in Saint Louis”. Working with collaborators such as “My friends and I” Mvstermind produces music, scores, and voiceovers, for artists, films & commercials that have touched the globe. Mvstermind’s dedicated music hustle evolved over the years and helped him develop a keen sense of business acumen. His impact along with partnerships has served as an essential component of the Saint Louis ecosystem. For instance, his partnership with Dr. Scholl’s resulted in a custom-designed “Mvstermind” eco-friendly tennis shoe, which was available in Zappos and Kole’s and is now currently sold out worldwide. Being a creative visionary and a man of his word, his business approach grew his name and impact over the years, resulting in him being able to create a 1 of its kind moment. In 2022 he was appointed The Director of Musical Experience for MLS’s new expansion team “Saint Louis City SC”. A role in which he created and pitched to the owners himself. As stated by the team’s CXO - Mat Sebek “There’s nobody better than Mvstermind,” he says. “We could have done a nationwide casting call, but he’s right here.” Here Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin curated the franchise's first-ever musical philosophy to represent its CITY on a global scale. Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin is a true product of his community, therefore his urge to build platforms to assist and inspire others is purely innate. His platform “Mvstercamp” was created to enrich the artist community across the globe with programming designed to discover themselves spiritually & creatively, all while building up business acumen to be discovered. This past fall they incubated 95 in total performance artists through a six-day artist boot camp that resulted in a performance at the nationally recognized “Music at the Intersection” music festival. As much as Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin believes in Saint Louis, so does Saint Louis. In 2022, Mayor Tishaura Jones appointed October 2nd to be the official “Mvstermind Day” in the City of St. Louis… Giving proof of what we are all witnessing. - “May we all strive to be GREATER” - Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin

Christopher Stark

Christopher Stark, whose music The New York Times has called, "fetching and colorful," has been awarded prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation, Chamber Music America, the Barlow Endowment, and the Fromm Foundation at Harvard. Named a "Rising Star" by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his music and arrangements have been performed by ensembles such as the Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and members of the St. Louis Symphony. In 2012, he was in residence at Civitella Ranieri, a fifteenth-century castle in Italy, and in June of 2016, he was in residence at the Copland House. Recent highlights included performances at the 2016 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the 2016 NY Phil Biennial. In 2018, he lived in Bergen, Norway, where he worked with musicians from the BIT20 Ensemble, and in 2020, he was a resident artist at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy as the Aaron Copland Fellow in Music. His film score for the feature-length film Novitiate premiered at Sundance in January 2017 and was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics. His debut CD, Seasonal Music, was released in 2019 on Bridge Records.

Department of Music Lecture: Varun Chandrasekhar & Bryce Noe

Varun Chandrasekhar, PhD student in Music Theory

(Conference: International Association for the Study of Popular Music-U.S. Chapter)

Title

“CAN I STILL GET INTO HEAVEN IF I KILL MYSELF”:
La Dispute and Emo’s Suburban Whiteness

Abstract

Varun's research reframes discussions of "freedom" in jazz cultures through a lens of Sartrean existentialism. Building upon Sartre's claim that freedom is the anxious reality of being forced to take action in an objectively meaningless world, Varun argues that jazz represents the freedom of enduring the absurdities of the racialized existence of its musicians. Varun then applies these insights to explicate the life and music of the jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, arguing that Mingus's eccentric, exaggerated, and enigmatic actions demonstrate the anxious existence of the jazz musician.

In addition to his work on jazz, Varun also studies pop-punk and emo music, highlighting the ways the genres respond to the depressing state of neoliberal decay. In the Spring of 2026, Varun will host "A Conference...But It's Midwestern Emo," the first conference dedicated to the study of emo music.

Varun has had articles published in the journals Jazz and Culture, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, and Musicology Now, and reviews published in The Journal for the Society of American Music, The Journal of Jazz Studies, and The Journal of Musicological Research. Varun has presented his research at a litany of national and international conferences, including all three major music conferences (AMS, SMT, SEM), Cultural Studies Conferences, Jazz Studies Conferences, and Popular Music Studies Conferences. Varun's research has been supported by WashU's Center for the Humanities Graduate Student Fellowship and WashU's American Cultural Studies Department's Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellow. He is also an affiliate of WashU's Center for the Study of Race, Equity, and Ethnicity.

Bryce Noe, PhD student in Musicology

Title

"The 'Death' and Revival of Freestyle Skateboarding"

Abstract

Bryce studies choreography and sound in sport settings. In particular, he examines sporting spaces and events as sites whereby knowledge—both semantic and somatic—is transmitted sonically. Additional research interests include disability studies, popular music, and urban musicology. Prior to graduate study at Washington University in St. Louis, Bryce earned his Master of Music degree in Musicology at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. His master’s thesis, “Freestyle Soundscapes: An Acoustemology of Freestyle Skateboarding Contests,” is an exploration of freestyle skateboarders’ engagement with music and sound during contests as well as the (sub)cultural and gender politics embedded within such sporting spaces.

Department of Music Lecture: Naomi André, Professor of Music at UNC Chapel Hill

Title

"Engaging Opera: Stories from Black experiences and Spanish Language Latin Diasporic Opera"
 

Abstract

This presentation explores how leading artists are centering new voices and stories on the operatic stage. Inside and outside of the opera house, living creatives (composers, librettists, singers, and administrators) are shaping how culture can articulate and represent lived experiences. They bring to life experiences from the past that provide a deeper context for how we think about the present. Belonging to a shadow culture of artistic activity that has been hidden from mainstream view, in this paper I examine operas that had Black composers, librettists, and singers involved with the compositional process. (Denyce Graves, Nkeiru Okoye, Sandra Seaton, and Damien Geter). A portion of this talk will also explore another operatic shadow culture of Spanish-language works from the Latin Diaspora by Manuel de Falla, Daniel Catán, Osvaldo Golijov, and Gabriela Lena Frank. Seen together, operas involving interracial compositional teams from a wide range of racial, ethnic, and cultural experiences animate histories from the past and shape a new vanguard in opera for an artistic vision that has a new relevance for the present.

Biography

Naomi André is the David G. Frey Distinguished Professor in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan in Afroamerican and African Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Residential College.

Her publications include the books Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement and Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera and co-edited collections Blackness in Opera; African Performance Arts and Political Acts; and The Music of Mzilikazi Khumalo: Language, Culture, and Song in South Africa. Actively engaged with performance today, she has worked with opera companies, symphonies, and is a founding member of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN). She was the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera (2019-2024) and has served on the Boards of the American Musicological Society, the Kurt Weill Foundation, and Detroit Opera.

Department of Music Lecture: Steve Lamos, Associate Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and English Department at UC Boulder

Title

“Writing With Emo Nostalgia: Navigating Pasts, Presents, and Futures”
 

Abstract

This talk explores how researchers, teachers, and students can “write with” the unfolding embodied experience of nostalgic music, especially emo music, as a means to navigate past experience, present feeling, and future challenge.   It combines insights from musicology (e.g., Robinson; Brett) with insights from rhetoric and composition (e.g., Adams; Ceraso) to analyze two case studies of such writing: first, a personal example exploring how writing with a live drumming performance can generate a particular kind of presence and mindfulness; second, an example from a student writer highlighting how writing with a studio recording can help to navigate both past trauma and present-day healing.  Finally, the talk explores the potential benefits of writing with emo in a world critical of the value of a college education in general and of education in humanistic endeavors in particular.

Biography

Steve Lamos is an Associate Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and English Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His publications include the book Interests and Opportunities: Race, Racism, and University Writing Instruction in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Pitt UP), winner of a 2013 “Special Commendation” from the Conference on College Composition and Communication; the essay “Toward Job Security for Teaching-Track Composition Faculty: Recognizing and Rewarding Affective-Labor-in-Space,” winner of the 2016 Richard C. Ohmann prize from College English; and work in College Composition and Communication, College English, Journal of Basic Writing, Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, The CEA Critic, and elsewhere.

Lamos’ current book project is tentatively titled Resonant Rhythms: Drumming, Writing, and Professing a Literate Life.  It explores intersections between his academic work and his work as the drummer and trumpet player for the indie / emo band American Football.  American Football has been lauded as a particularly influential “Midwest Emo” artist by Rolling Stone, Spin, New Music Express, The Guardian, Alternative Press, Pitchfork, NPR, and many others.

The Transatlantic Forum Presents: Dr. Perig Pitrou

Join the Transatlantic Forum as they welcome Dr. Perig Pitrou to campus! Dr. Pitrou will be giving a talk on his work The Anthropology of Life. His project of “Anthropology of Life” involves an epistemological endeavour which articulates the different approaches used to tackle the topic of life (Ecologies of Life, Science and Technology Studies, Anthropology of Biopolitics and Forms of Life). 

The Transatlantic Forum Presents: Roundtable on the Book "A Matter of Detail": Anthropology, Philosophy, and Aesthetics

Join the Transatlantic Forum for a roundtable discussion on the book A Matter of Detail: Anthropology, Philosophy, and Aesthetics featuring Dr. Perig Pitrou (EHESS, Paris), Dr. Sandra Laugier (Paris | Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Dr. Andrew Brandel (University of Chicago). 

A Matter of Detail inspires new ways of thinking about detail by bringing anthropology, philosophy, art history, and aesthetics into direct conversation. Co-editors Brandel, Das, Laugier, and Pitrou challenge a long-standing assumption that the history of detail begins with European modernity and follows a teleological course from an object of scorn to a sign of the good. In its place, they offer a history of attention to detail that draws on classical and vernacular histories and traditions found in grammar, ritual, and poetics around the world. Emphasizing detail as a method and moving between its usage as a noun (detail) and a verb (detailing) enables them to tell stories about the reassembly of detail across accidents, contingencies, and unintended consequences.
From this vantage, the book argues that details are not always small and insignificant. Rather, there is a dynamic relationship between the minute and the grand, detail and surface, which makes the proliferation of details threatening to the idea of an authoritative and integrated imagination of the whole. This expanded context generates ways of conceiving detail as a conceptual and moral mode of self-formation and being toward others, both human and non-human.

Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Healthcare for Everyone

Dr. Khameer Kidia: Division of Global Health Equity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Co-Sponsored by The Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies; Public Health and Society; Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity; and the Center for the Humanities.

Pelagie X

Friday, February 20th, 2026

4:00 pm 

Umrath Lounge

St. Louis Reads Dante - Inferno 8

St. Louis Reads Dante invites readers of all backgrounds—curious newcomers and seasoned Dante enthusiasts alike—to join a monthly journey through Dante’s Comedy, one canto at a time. Held at Washington University in St. Louis, each session brings together undergraduates, scholars, and community members for a guided reading and discussion led by scholars from many different disciplines and research areas.

Whether you're discovering Dante’s epic poem for the first time or returning to it with fresh questions, this is a chance to engage deeply with a work that continues to inspire, provoke, and challenge across time.

The series concludes on Tuesday, April 21 with Professor Robert Henke. 

St. Louis Reads Dante - Inferno 7

St. Louis Reads Dante invites readers of all backgrounds—curious newcomers and seasoned Dante enthusiasts alike—to join a monthly journey through Dante’s Comedy, one canto at a time. Held at Washington University in St. Louis, each session brings together undergraduates, scholars, and community members for a guided reading and discussion led by scholars from many different disciplines and research areas.

Whether you're discovering Dante’s epic poem for the first time or returning to it with fresh questions, this is a chance to engage deeply with a work that continues to inspire, provoke, and challenge across time.

The series concludes on Tuesday, March 17 with Professor Eric Brown.

St. Louis Reads Dante - Inferno 6

St. Louis Reads Dante invites readers of all backgrounds—curious newcomers and seasoned Dante enthusiasts alike—to join a monthly journey through Dante’s Comedy, one canto at a time. Held at Washington University in St. Louis, each session brings together undergraduates, scholars, and community members for a guided reading and discussion led by scholars from many different disciplines and research areas.

Whether you're discovering Dante’s epic poem for the first time or returning to it with fresh questions, this is a chance to engage deeply with a work that continues to inspire, provoke, and challenge across time.

The series continues on Tuesday, February 17 from 5 PM - 6 PM with Professor Julie Singer.

The 1776–1789 Connection: Transatlantic Revolutions and the Birth of Human Rights

The French Connexions center will host an exceptional afternoon of programming in the presence of His Excellency Laurent Bili, Ambassador of France to the United States.

3:00 PM: Exhibition "1776-1789" and guided visit at Olin Library, featuring WashU’s original copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and a selection of French Enlightenment-era materials that shaped the revolutionary rights tradition. (Reserved to French Embassy Delegation and WashU students in French studies, then open to the public).

4:00 PM: Opening remarks by the Ambassador of France to the United States.

Keynote lecture and roundtable in CLARK FOX FORUM, featuring professor Vivian Curran, Vice President of the International Academy of Comparative Law and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh : “Revolutions of Rights: The U.S. Declaration and the French Declaration in Conversation.”

Professor Curran will deliver a keynote on comparative law and the transatlantic rights tradition

Followed by a round-table conversation with Professors Leila Sadat, James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, WashU School of Law and Iver Bernstein, Professor of History, African and African-American Studies, and American Culture Studies,WashU. Moderated by Lionel Cuillé (director of the French Connexions center).

The discussion will examine how the American and French revolutionary moments continue to shape contemporary understandings of human rights and constitutionalism.

5:30 PM: Reception to follow in Clark-Fox Forum.

With the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, WashU Law School, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, the Center for Human Rights, the Gephardt Institute, Global Studies, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, the Weidenbaum Center, Les Amis, and the Foyer Foundation.

Colonial Incarceration and its Legacies in the Philippines

Drawing on the administrative archive of San Ramón Penal Colony (Zamboanga, 1869), this talk explores how the Spanish Empire’s penal colonies project in Mindanao disciplined and archived indigenous bodies through the colonial gaze. It considers how these forms of carceral governance persisted after 1898 and continue to shape institutions such as the Manila City Jail and the Iwahig penal farm in Puerto Princesa (Palawan).

Guest Speaker: Aurélie Vialette, Associate Professor at Yale University

2026 Rava Lecture Series Presents: Patrick Bringley

‘Sweet Willie Rollbar’s Orientation’ Screening and Talk with Brent Hayes Edwards

Sweet Willie Rollbar’s Orientation is an experimental film shot in 1972 by the saxophonist Julius Hemphill, the poet K. Curtis Lyle, the actor Malinke Elliott and other members of the Black Artists’ Group of St. Louis. Made in part with funding from WashU, the film is an astonishing document of the post-Black Arts moment, a series of fragmented, surreal “trickster tale” vignettes set in the detritus of the St. Louis ghetto.

RHINO 50th Anniversary Reading

Half a century of voices, stories, and verse—RHINO Poetry is celebrating 50 years! Join us at Bel Air Social in the Central West End for an afternoon reading with poets Apollo Chastain, Joanne Diaz, Kristin Emanuel, and Alex Mouw. Whether you’re a longtime fan of the journal or just enjoy a good party, all are welcome to come celebrate five decades of poetry with four fabulous poets. Questions? Please reach out to Laura Evers at e.laura@wustl.edu.

Books for purchase provided by Left Bank Books. 

Photo credit: Naoko Fujimoto

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Revisiting Enclaves of Resistance

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Clarissa Rile Hayward (Political Science, WashU)'s “Revisiting Enclaves of Resistance: A Constructivist Account of Deliberation’s Epistemic Value”.

Chad Flanders (Law, St. Louis University) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Who's Afraid of Imprecise Sexes?

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Marina DiMarco (Philosophy, WashU)'s “Who's Afraid of Imprecise Sexes?”

Anya Plutynski (Philosophy, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Black Feminist Prosecutions: Linguistic Violence and Grammatical Justice

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Adrienne Davis (Law, WashU)'s “Black Feminist Prosecutions: Linguistic Violence and Grammatical Justice.”

Rachel Greenwald Smith (English, St. Louis University) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Legislative Vetoes as Political Theater in Late Roman Republican Lawmaking

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Chris Erdman (Classics, WashU)'s “Legislative Vetoes as Political Theater in Late Roman Republican Lawmaking.”

Randy Calvert (Political Science, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in Seigle Hall 103.

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: On Vegetables and Vermin: The Politics of Insect-Plant Encounters from the Early Modern to the Anthropocene

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Daisy Reid (Center for the Humanities Post-Doc, WashU)'s “On Vegetables and Vermin: The Politics of Insect-Plant Encounters from the Early Modern to the Anthropocene.”

Bernadette Myers (English, WashU) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

Workshop on Politics, Ethics, and Society: Domination and Dehumanization

Join us for the final Workshop in Politics, Ethics, and Society (WPES) session this semester. We will discuss Lori Watson (Philosophy, WashU)'s “Domination and Dehumanization.”

John Lawless (Philosophy, Illinois State University) will serve as discussant. This read-ahead workshop takes place in the Weidenbaum Center seminar room (Seigle Hall, Suite 170, Room 152).

Email wupoliticaltheory@gmail.com to receive the paper and RSVP for lunch—all are welcome!

The Black Rep Show: The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body

Join Lisa B. Thompson, acclaimed playwright and author of The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body, and Adrienne Davis, William M. Van Vleck Professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, for a post-show discussion reflecting on this powerful new work.

Hailed as a joyous, raucous, and spiritual experience, The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body is also a deeply moving love letter to Black women and their families. Together, Thompson and Davis will explore the themes of the performance, including embodiment, care, survival, and the ways Black women continue to create meaning, joy, and connection in the face of ongoing challenges.

This conversation invites audiences to think critically and tenderly about Black feminist thought, performance, and the enduring truth that—despite it all—we are still here.

Annual Stanley Spector Lecture: Democratizing Railroads and the Cultivation of a New Postwar Japan

Democracy was not the inevitable outcome for Japan after World War II. The new constitution set up a legal framework for a democratic system, but after years of authoritarian rule, changing people's attitudes and daily practices to match legal transformations was a major challenge for the builders of democracy in 1945. By training workers and revising labor management structures for changed social conditions, institutions of everyday life like the national railway agency contributed to the popular mindset deemed essential to democracy. Because these institutions were present in people’s daily lives all across Japan, the ideas they championed —which often focused on their own institutional interests—helped shape the resulting system that emerged.

Reception to follow.

Professor Abel is a historian of modern Japan with interests in democratization, technology, infrastructure, sports, and international relations. Her current research focuses on postwar Japan to examine the ways in which institutions of daily life (such as the national railway, the public broadcaster, the police, and Parent-Teacher Associations) work to instill democratic practices and attitudes in a population. Her latest book, Dream Super-Express (winner of the 2024 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize), views 1960s Japan through the window of the bullet train, showing how infrastructure operates beyond its intended use to perform cultural and sociological functions. 

2026 Grigsby Lecture Series Presents: Turks, Ottomans, and World Conquest in the Medieval French Imagination

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

5:30 PM (refreshments beginning at 5:00)

Umrath Lounge

Dr. Markus Cruse is a scholar exploring the relationship between writing, performance, travel, and material culture in the Global Middle Ages and early modern period. He is the author of Illuminating the Roman d'Alexandre (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264): The Manuscript as Monument, as well as the forthcoming monograph The Mongol Archive in Late Medieval France: Texts, Objects, Encounters, 1221-1422, which is the first comprehensive history of contact between France and the Mongols.

Please join us on this journey through the world of medieval intercultural communication. All are welcome!

Herodotus and the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ in the Nineteenth Century

Recent discussions about the great battles of the Persian Wars presume that the idea that ‘despotic’ Eastern and ‘free’ Western civilization are destined to clash was born 2500 years ago, in Herodotus’ Histories.  This paper rejects any such claims to continuity in European thinking about these Wars, and shows that for centuries, readers of The Histories were quite unconcerned with this line of thought.  Even in the nineteenth century, when a ‘Whiggish’ reading of the Wars came to the fore, many continued to find other aspects of Herodotus’ work more interesting, and contested the Whiggish view.  The paper concludes with a discussion of the myriad audiences for ancient history in the nineteenth century, and the legacy of diverse orientations and fascinations they left behind. 

Suzanne L. Marchand is the Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University. Now writing a book about the history of Herodotus’ many readers, 1700 to the present, tentatively titled Herodotus and the Instabilities of Western Civilization, Suzanne Marchand continues to be interested in the history of the humanities, especially classical studies, art history, anthropology, history, and theology in modern Europe, as well as in the history of porcelain and related topics in the history of material culture and consumption in Central Europe. 

Sponsored by History, The Classics Department, and the Department of Philosophy

Baldwin-Buckley Debate at Cambridge Union, 1965

To commemorate the five-year anniversary of Belonging in Opera, CRE² and the James Baldwin Review will host a screening of the historic 1965 Cambridge Union debate over the motion “Is the American Dream at the Expense of the American Negro?” Though their debate took place over sixty years ago, its themes remain relevant today and animate the March 19th performance The Tongue and the Lash.

A discussion with Nicholas Buccola, Ph.D., author of The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America, will follow.  

The debate is 60 minutes in length and there will be a Q&A Section following the screening. Lunch is provided. Please RSVP below.

Symposium Poster Design Workshop

Join us for an interactive poster design workshop where you'll explore content and design principles using examples from different disciplines. We’ll review practical strategies that illustrate how a well-designed poster can make presenting your research easier. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and receive tips to help you craft a clear, engaging research poster for the symposium. Plus, enjoy some snacks and connect with fellow students.

Please RSVP to help us plan.

Critical Perspectives on Minneapolis and the Current Moment

Tyson History Project Roundtable

Explore the complex history of the land on which Tyson Research Center sits, and the humans who have made use of its terrain and ecological features over thousands of years.

Join this roundtable discussion featuring a team of researchers, including archivists, historians, and undergraduate students, studying the history of this site through Indigenous presence, extractive practices, and military occupation.

Humanities Career Spotlight on Grant Writing and Research Development

Join us for a 90-minute conversation exploring the pathways from doctoral studies to careers in grant-making and research development. Our virtual panel features three humanities/social science PhDs who will share how they prepared for roles in these settings — whether during or after completing their doctoral degrees — and offer insights into their current work.

Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care

The 1776–1789 Connection: Transatlantic Revolutions and the Birth of Human Rights

Our French Connexions Center of Excellence will host an exceptional afternoon of programming in the presence of His Excellency Laurent Bili, Ambassador of France to the United States, and a delegation from the Consulat de France in Chicago

Sumers Welcome Center

4:00 PM: Opening and introductions
Opening remarks by Lionel Cuillé, Director, French Connexions Center, introducing His Excellency Laurent Bili, Ambassador of France to the United States, and the Consulat de France delegation.

Address by Ambassador Laurent Bili

Keynote lecture: “Revolutions of Rights: The U.S. Declaration and the French Declaration in Conversation.”
Vivian Curran, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, introduced by Leila Nadya Sadat, James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, Washington University School of Law.

4:40 PM: Roundtable discussion
Roundtable with:
Iver Bernstein, Professor of History, African and African-American Studies, and American Culture Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Leila Nadya Sadat, James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, Washington University School of Law

5:00 PM: Public Q et A
Questions and answers with the audience.

5:30 PM: Clark-Fox Forum: Reception
Reception to follow.

With the support of: the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, WashU Law School, the Center for Human Rights, the Gephardt Institute, Global Studies, the Weidenbaum Center, Les Amis, and the Foyer Foundation.

2026 STL Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

2026 St. Louis Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

More information can be found here
 

Christina Carney - Disreputable Women: Black Sex Economies and the Making of San Diego

McKenzie Wark - The Cis Gaze and Its Others

Performing Community: A Roundtable on the Transformational Potential of Theatre

The Department of Anthropology's Experiential Ethnography Studio (EES) and the Performing Arts Department are delighted to welcome Dean E. Patrick Johnson (Northwestern University), Dr. D. Soyini Madison (Northwestern University, emerita), Dr. Judith Hamera (Princeton University), and Dr. Renée Alexander Craft (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) in conversation with Ron Himes of The Black Rep for a roundtable discussion on performance as a bridge between scholarship, community, and social justice. In celebration of the prolific scholarly and creative works of our panelists and in anticipation of The Black Rep's 50 season, we will discuss: How does performance structure our identities, social lives, cultural attitudes, and the circulation of power? What imaginative and transformational potential does theatre, dance, and other forms of performance unleash? How might we center performance, its histories, and its lessons in our scholarly, activist, and community-driven practice? Dr. AJ Jones, Director of the EES, will moderate the discussion and Q&A.

*with support from the Center for the Study for Race, Ethnicity, and Equity (CRE^2).

Experiential Ethnography Studio Open Studio Hours

Experiential Ethnography Studio Open Studio Hours

Experiential Ethnography Studio Open Studio Hours

Experiential Ethnography Studio Open Studio Hours

Building Bridges Speakers' Series - Tenimbè Ouattara

Tenimbè Ouattara is known as Coach T in the area. He was born and raised in Ivory Coast CI (Côte d’Ivoire). Outtara moved to the US in 2015 and went through all the migration journeys from having a Visa to being a Temporary resident, then Permanent resident to US citizenship. Coach T shares his story and experience as a first generation of youth immigrant in the United States, building US-African bridges through Soccer. This is a Real-life Story of Courage, Perseverance and Building Bridges.

Organized by: Dr. Tarbouni, Director of the Safe Asylum Politics and Pathways Program

Facilitated by the Team of TAs and Undergraduate Internship Course: Ale Santana, Riya Pant, Nyrah Dhariwal, Mazie Drummond

Sponsored by JIMES Dept. & A&S First-Year Programs.

Contact Hanah Ryan rhannah@wustl.edu or jimes@wustl.edu 

Medicine & Society Keynote Address: Dr. Tanya Luhrmann

Join us as we welcome Tanya Luhrmann, Ph.D. (Albert Ray Lang Professor in Anthropology, Anthropology Department, Stanford University) to campus to deliver the Medicine & Society keynote address titled "Voices". 

How do we know what is real? Voices (auditory hallucinations) are experiences in which someone has a thought that they feel is not their thought but a “real” voice from outside. This work draws on data from extensive fieldwork and from hundreds of interviews conducted across multiple countries to examine the prevalence and variability of these experiences. Dr. Luhrmann will discuss what we know about the difference between the voices found in psychosis and in the general population, and the evidence that three factors (trait, practice, culture) facilitate voices in the general population. Most fundamentally, Dr. Luhrmann will argue that voices teach us something about consciousness more generally: that we have contradictory intuitions about our own thoughts which are elaborated or ignored by local culture, and that these intuitions facilitate this felt sense that a mental event has qualities of something real in the world.

Tanya Marie Luhrmann is the Albert Ray Lang Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department, with a courtesy appointment in Psychology. Her recent work has been on voices, visions, felt presence and other remarkable events in psychiatric illness and in religious experience. She has done ethnography on the streets of Chicago with homeless and psychotic women, and worked with people who hear voices in Chennai, Accra and the South Bay. She has also done fieldwork with evangelical Christians who seek to hear God speak back, with Zoroastrians who set out to create a more mystical faith, and with people who practice magic. She has written about psychiatry.

She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003, received a John Guggenheim Fellowship award in 2007, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022. In 2027 Norton will publish Voices.

Distinguished Visiting Scholar: Dr. David Tumusiime - "Protected Areas and People in Uganda: Moving Towards Win-Win?"

Join us as we welcome David Tumusiime, Ph.D. (Professor and Director, Makerere University) to campus to deliver a Distinguished Visiting Scholar address titled "Protected Areas and People in Uganda: Moving Towards Win-Win?"

Winston Churchill referred to Uganda as “The Pearl of Africa” in 1907. Reasons for this reference included the wide array of beautiful and unique life forms – including birds, insects, reptiles, and primates. In contemporary Uganda, most of these life forms are protected and conserved in the country’s chain of Protected Areas (PAs). These constitute an important natural heritage, but also increasingly identified as a vital resource for local and national development for example through the associated tourism activities as is identified in Uganda’s national development plan and Vision 2040. However, impacts of establishing and maintaining these areas has for long been a contentious issue and a recognizable threat to conservation efforts. Over the years, several efforts have been made at many a Ugandan PAs to deliver win-win outcomes for conservation and local people. This talk will examine the extent to which this outcome has been achieved.

*Supported in part through funding from the office of the Provost: Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program

Book Talk with Gabriela Wiener: Reading Beyond Desire and Revolution

Gabriela Wiener, a Peruvian writer, poet, and journalist, will virtually join the Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Latin American Literature Reading Group for a thought-provoking discussion of her most recent publication, Atusparia (2024). Described as "exquisite," "satirical," and "lightly futuristic," Atusparia forces us to come face-to-face with the interwoven complexities of neoliberalism, unsatiable extractivism, indigenous revolts, and what it means to desire and love against this background. Having received the Premio Ciutat de Barcelona de Literatura en Lengua Castellana, for this publication, Gabriela Wiener continues to solidify her standing as one of the most influential Peruvian writers of contemporary times. 

This hybrid event is free and open to all (WashU community members and local, national, and international audiences). Please R.S.V.P. here. 

This event is sponsor by Revista de Estudios Hispánicos and the Center for the Humanities at WashU. 

Book Description:

“Keeping up with Wiener is one of the few luxuries we have left.” - Alejandro Zambra

A left-wing politician and victim of lawfare finds herself behind bars in a high-security prison deep in the Amazon. She calls herself Atusparia, after a nineteenth-century Peruvian indigenous leader and the staunchly communist school where she studied during the waning days of the Cold War. But love in the times of capitalism devolved into a spiral of drugs and frenzied sexual encounters that led her astray from her ideals, until she felt called back to her roots. A pilgrimage on foot to Lake Titicaca inspired her to rename herself after the revolutionary heroine of her youth.

No precedents come to mind for Gabriela Wiener’s latest novel. Atusparia is sui generis: satirical, auto-fictional and vaguely futuristic. Somewhere between social realism and poetic fantasy, Wiener takes her craft to new heights and shows us, in this post-indigenist “great Russian novel,” how hierarchies and power struggles can corrode freedom movements from the inside.

Source: Penguin Random House

A Difficult Language: Aymara Media, Linguistic Labor, and Urban Indigeneity in Bolivia

Join us as we welcome Karl Swinehart. Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Anthropology, UCLA) to campus! 

Aymara is a difficult language in more ways than one. The language’s difficulty is sometimes embraced by Aymaras themselves. Its cultivation affords forms of expertise and authority for language professionals and diverse Aymara cultural interventions foreground its difference from Spanish and other European languages. Bolivian Aymaras’ insistence on keeping the language in the public sphere poses difficulties to a colonial status-quo and to those who would rather not accommodate, much less learn, this or any other Indigenous language. Drawing on analyses of Bolivian media and research among Bolivian Aymara-language educators and media professionals, this talk examines these dynamics and their impact, both on the Aymara language itself and on the unequal terrain of Bolivia’s plurinational, multilingual society.

The Incubator Unbound: Storytelling

Event Panelists:

_{Salma Abdalla, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Co-Director of the Global Health Futures Innovation Research Network, WashU}

_{Cat Allman, Vice President, Open Source at Digital Science and Co-Organizer of Sci Foo Camp}

_{Christopher Schaberg, Director of Public Scholarship and Professor of Practice in English, WashU}

_{Betsy Sinclair, Assistant Vice Provost of Digital Transformation and Professor of Political Science, WashU}

_{Focusing on broad themes and contemporary challenges, The Incubator Unbound brings together experts from diverse fields for an unscripted, public conversation that explores wildly divergent approaches and perspectives, sparks new intellectual connections, and inspires bold collaborations among all in attendance. We are grateful to the staff and educators at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum for their collaboration on The Incubator Unbound event series. Questions? Please reach out to us at TheIncubator@wustl.edu}

_{4:00pm- Doors open to the Kemper Museum (Please be aware that the museum is closed on Tuesdays, but will be open for this event.)}

_{4:10-5:00pm- Introductions and discussion, followed by Q&A}

_{Please stay afterwards for snacks and libations, conversation with The Incubator, panelists, and fellow attendees, as well as viewing art relevant to the event's theme.} 

_{The Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures (The Incubator) is a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan and was created to catalyze and support bold collaborations that foster the future of scholarly inquiry.}

The Changing Hats of Teaching: How AI Can Support a Very Complicated Job

Dr. Gabriel Guillén

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California

Workshop:  Friday, April 3, 2026, at 1 pm in Eads 103

The Changing Hats of Teaching: How AI Can Support a Very Complicated Job

This workshop introduces Brisk Teaching and other AI tools through the lens of the “three teaching hats”: curriculum developer, classroom performer, and assessment mentor. Participants will explore how AI can support intentional lesson design, enhance student tasks and real time classroom improvisation, and provide meaningful formative feedback. Attendees will experiment with concrete language activities, reflect on benefits and limitations, and leave with practical strategies to use AI as a thinking partner across planning, teaching, and assessment.

*************************************************

*The Ginger Marcus Foreign Language Learning Speaker Series at Washington University in St. Louis is sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature and Thought; the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies; the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. 

Workshop on Grant Writing Essentials for Humanities Graduate Students

Lunch provided; please RSVP below

Roundtable: Queering Reproductive Justice

Please RSVP by clicking on the button below.

Join the Reproductive Justice Graduate Student Working Group for a roundtable discussion on queering reproductive justice through an interdisciplinary approach. Speakers will include Tamara Lea Spira, author of Queering Families; Carly Thomsen, author of forthcoming book Reproductive Justice, Queerly; co-creator of the Queer Birth Project Katherine Sobering; obstetrician-gynecologist Aileen Portugal; and feminist health communication scholar Robyn Adams. 

Transduction Workshop: From Graphics to Poetry

Modernism and Home, with Notes on Method

GLOBAL HUMANITIES LECTURE

The exploration of home is one of the most attractive, exciting and challenging investigations for a comparative scholar: It necessitates bridging spaces, disciplines and methodologies. In this talk, Sanja Bahun will discuss the ways in which a range of modernist artists and thinkers both nourished and responded to significant paradigm shifts in our thinking about home at the beginning of the 20th century and reflect on the opportunities and challenges of using comparative methods to discuss them.

Time in Literary Studies

GLOBAL HUMANITIES LECTURE SERIES

In this workshop, we will discuss Sanja Bahun’s article “On Transience, Presence and Anticipation: Notes Towards a Palimpsestic Approach to Temporal Literary Study, with Reference to 1915.” This article concentrates on issues arising from our engagement with synchrony and diachrony in global literary and art scholarship, and on the use of anniversaries as purported ‘points of puncture’ that may bridge these two modes of scholarly enquiry. 

WashU & Slavery Edit-a-Thon!

The St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement (SLIDE) enables you to search many different historical records about enslavement, enslaved people, and enslavers in greater St. Louis, Missouri that are physically scattered across different archives at once. 

The SLIDE team is working on developing an interactive map of slavery in St. Louis. This edit-a-thon invites WashU students, staff and faculty to participate in the creation of this map by helping trace the parcels of all property holders identified on a highly detailed 1857 map. This will make it possible to link information from SLIDE and other sources to the landscape of greater St. Louis, historically and today. No experience required. Free pizza and snacks.  

RSVP requested for planning and walk-ins are welcome. 

The Dead of Chaeronea: Unearthing a Lost Battlefield

Join us for the George E. Mylonas Lecture in Classical Art and Archaeology with Maria Liston, professor emerita, Anthropology and Classics Departments, University of Waterloo, Ontario.

In 338 BCE, the ancient Greek world changed forever when Battle of Chaeronea pitted the forces of Philip II of Macedon and his young son Alexander the Great against a powerful alliance of Greek city-states. This lecture will uncover the human cost of the battle by examining the skeletal remains of two elite forces: the legendary Sacred Band of Thebes and the Macedonian cavalry. Through their injuries, we gain a vivid, almost forensic glimpse into how these warriors fought, suffered, and died on one of history’s most decisive battlefields.

This lecture is presented in partnership with the St. Louis Art Museum; the Hellenic Government–Karakas Family Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis; the Departments of Classics and Art History and Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis; and the Classical Club of St. Louis. The Mylonas Lecture is made possible by the generosity of the William Tragos family.

Maria Liston

Professor Maria Liston recently retired from the Anthropology and Classics Departments at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. She is a bioarchaologist who studies human remains from Greek archaeological sites including Kavousi, Crete, the Athenian Agora, ancient Corinth, Thebes, and the UMSL excavations at Iklaina in the Peloponnese. Professor Liston specializes in the study of infectious diseases and battle trauma.

Zine Your Research - Part 1

What would your research look like as a zine? In this two-part workshop, humanities graduate students will explore zines as a hands-on, analog medium for reaching audiences beyond the academy — learning their history, aesthetics, and DIY ethos before applying those tools to their own research. In the second of two sessions, participants will produce their own zine that translates a piece of their dissertation into something visual, tactile, and genuinely accessible to new readers.

Zine Your Research - Part 2

What would your research look like as a zine? In this two-part workshop, humanities graduate students will explore zines as a hands-on, analog medium for reaching audiences beyond the academy — learning their history, aesthetics, and DIY ethos before applying those tools to their own research. In the second of two sessions, participants will produce their own zine that translates a piece of their dissertation into something visual, tactile, and genuinely accessible to new readers.

Indigenous Health Summit

We are excited to announce an indigenous health summit hosted at the Washington University Medical School campus. The aim of this symposium is to bring together students and faculty members with dedicated interests in improving health outcomes in indigenous communities.

Highlights of the event will include student poster presentations, selected student oral presentations, a faculty panel and group discussion, and a plenary speaker session. 

Please fill out this Google form to indicate interest in attending and to be added to future e-mails regarding this event: Interest Form Link

Please direct any questions to Meagan Chriswell at cmeagan@wustl.edu and Mansi Garneni at g.mansi@wustl.edu

The Struggle of Visibility: Black Activism and Citizenship in Current Italy

Join us for a talk with Black Italian activist, Kwanza Musi Dos Santos. Her talk, titled "The Struggle of Visibility: Black Activism and Citizenship in Current Italy," will explore the intricate networks of activism that work towards disarming and erasing racial discrimination in Italy. This event is free and open to all. You can join us either in-person at Ridgley 122 or virtually via Zoom. 

Please RSVP via email to obtain the zoom link (elenad@wustl.edu). 

On Kwanza Musi Dos Santos 

Kwansa Musi Dos Santos is an Italian and afrobrazilian expert of DEI, trainer, and consultant. She is specialized on antiracism, environmental justice and intersectionality, and currently works with profit and non-profit organizations all over Europe.  

After a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations at Roma Tre University, an Erasmus exchange experience in Jena University (Germany), she attended a master's in management of cultural diversity at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.  

She is a member of the Advisory Board at the European organization "Union of Justice," an independent, people of color (POC) led organization dedicated to racial justice and
climate justice. 

She is also co-founder of the inter-cultural Association "QuestaèRoma", created in 2013 and led by a group of young Italians of color aimed to erase any form of discrimination through culture, politics, social awareness and art. 

Recently, she has been teaching with doc Camilla Hawthorne and Angelica Pesarini about Black Italy at the previous three editions of the Black Europe Summer School in Amsterdam and she was featured on Vice News Documentary about “Black Lives Matter in Italy”.

"Sade’s legacies in the 20th century: The Marquis, feminism, and comics"

You are invited to a lecture by Dr. Valentina Denzel (Michigan State University) "Sade’s legacies in the 20th century: The Marquis, feminism, and comics".

When? Monday, March 30th, 2026, 4:00-5:30 PM

Where? Whitaker Hall 218

RSVP: Dr. Andi Ghaderi: ghaderi@wustl.edu

Valentina Denzel is an Associate Professor of French Literature (17th and 18th century) at the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University. Her fields of interest are Italian and French Literatures (15th – 18th century), Queer and Gender Studies, Querelle des femmes, the libertine novel, travelogues, and popular cultures. In her book Les mille et un visages de la virago. Marfisa et Bradamante entre continuation et variation, Garnier Classique 2016, she analyzes the evolution of the representation of the woman warrior in French and Italian literatures from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment by taking into consideration the political and historical context of this evolution and the symbolic value of the woman warrior in each specific time period. Valentina’s second book project examines the impact of the Marquis de Sade on the punk and post-punk movements, as well as on punk-porn feminism and comic books in France, the UK, and the US.

Organized by Dr. Andi Ghaderi (RLL/French) with the support of the French connexions center, the Salon, and the Center of Humanities.

Fanny and Adolfo Rizzo Endowed Lecture Series

Please join us for this year's Fanny and Adolfo Rizzo Endowed Lecture. Professor Miguel Martínez from University of Chicago will deliver a talk titled "The Walls of Imagination. Fictions of Containment in the Spanish Colonial Philippines" on March 26 at 5:00 pm in EADS 216.

Light refreshments will be provided.

CCHP: Assessing the War in Iran

The war in Iran is already having immense impact on the US, Israel, Iran, the Gulf States and the wider Middle East.  As the conflict continues to evolve and reshape the geopolitical landscape, this talk will assess the origins, stakes, and potential consequences of the unfolding war.  In particular, it will explore the historical context behind the current conflict, the strategic interests driving events on the ground, and the implications for regional stability and U.S. foreign policy going forward. 

Read this recent op-ed written by Prof. Krister Knapp in The Source: What the Roman Republic can teach us about Trump’s war in Iran

This lecture is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be provided.

The location will be in Busch 100 (located in Busch Hall. Visit our interactive map and look for "Busch Hall", which is adjacent to Brookings Hall and January Hall.

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For more information, please contact Professor Krister Knapp via email at kknapp@wustl.edu, or via phone at 314-935-6838.