Presentations

Christopher Eisgruber in conversation with Tom Ginsburg

Princeton University President and legal scholar Christopher L. Eisgruber is joined by UChicago’s Tom Ginsburg to discuss the common assumptions about free speech on college campuses. Eisgruber argues that most American colleges are largely getting free speech right, with students engaging in active and open debate on difficult and controversial topics. But the real crisis lies in how the condition of university life reflects the polarization of American society and the loss of constructive dialogue across different swathes of the population.

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

The Smart Museum of Art welcomes families

Families are invited to explore the Smart’s newest exhibition Theaster Gates: Unto Thee & create handmade instruments from everyday materials, with a special musical performance from 11 AM-12 PM by artist and musician Joe Rauen. Families will transform tools, toys, boxes, bits & more into objects that hum, drum, clang and chime!

Joe Rauen is an artist and musician who makes playable musical instruments from everyday items.

RSVP encouraged.

Register »

Gary Shteyngart in conversation with Ania Aizman

Award-winning Russian-American novelist Gary Shteyngart speaks with UChicago’s Ania Aizman about his new book Vera, or Faith: a poignant, sharp-eyed, and bitterly funny tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart. With his signature blend of psyche and style as he discusses, Shteyngart offers an entirely original literary perspective, merging memoir and satire to create contemporary characters informed by his upbringing in Soviet Leningrad, his Jewish heritage, and his marriage and child with a woman of Korean descent.

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

The Smart Museum of Art presents Theaster Gates's first solo museum exhibition in his hometown of Chicago.

A self-designated “keeper of objects,” the artist Theaster Gates investigates the value of things and their potential to hold layered meanings. He has been dedicated to investing in the care of these objects as a way to nurture stories and voices – often Black stories and voices – largely overlooked by history or institutional structures.

The exhibition Theaster Gates: Unto Thee is rooted in several core collections of objects that have been part of Gates’s artistic practice which he acquired through the University of Chicago, where he is Professor of Visual Arts. Ranging from the Department of Art History’s glass lantern slides and display vitrines from the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute), to paint-stained concrete from the floors of Midway Studios and wooden pews made for Bond Chapel, all objects have been discarded and identified as no longer needed. In creating new works with them over the years – and, as will be done again, in new installations at the Smart – Gates challenges that notion of stasis by instead excavating more histories, more stories. These installations will be accompanied by Gates’s more recent work including paintings, ceramics, film, and pieces incorporating the archive of the Johnson Publishing Company.

Rooted in materials and Gates’s interest in the process of making, Unto Thee embodies the relationships Gates has fostered within the University of Chicago, local communities, the South Side and broader Chicago. It underscores the artist’s unassailable belief in the potential of art to connect with and transform communities.

The exhibition is accompanied by a site-specific installation as part of the Museum’s Threshold Lobby Series, which will be on view through July 2026.

Learn more »

Exhibition

The student-designed exhibition Radical Posters: Women’s Graphics Collectives, located on the ground floor of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, showcases some of the recently-donated art and personal archives of the artist, historian, activist, and University of Chicago alumna, Barbara Morgan. Her materials formed the basis for a College Summer Institute project (Art and Activism: The Barbara Morgan Archives) carried out by a team of undergraduates, a graduate student mentor, and with the collaboration of archivists from the Regenstein Library and curatorial staff from the Smart Museum of Art.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Learn More »

Roxane Gay in conversation with Daisy Delogu

Gay discusses with UChicago's Daisy Delogu how politics, culture, and, of course, feminism have transformed since the release of her iconic text, Bad Feminist. Bringing her quick wit and razor-sharp criticism, Gay breaks down how the culture we consume becomes who we are and provides us with some hope for the next 10 years.

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Steven Rings on listening for non-verbal eloquence

Associate Professor Steven Rings previews material from his new book What Did You Hear?: The Music of Bob Dylan. Steve will discuss the one instrument that necessarily stops the flow of Dylan's celebrated lyrics: the harmonica. As we will hear, this instrument creates “breathing room” in Dylan’s songs, a space to focus on sounding breath free of the word. In that breathing room, without the shiny objects of Dylan’s words to distract us, we can hear much: history, identity, emotion, and a kind of non-verbal eloquence—sounds that approach the condition of words, only to recede again into semantic indeterminacy.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register »

Exhibition at the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center

Since the emergence of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons and the digital text adventure Zork, both in the 1970s, gamers have been enchanted by the iconography and underlying structures of the fantasy genre—mages, castles, monsters, and rogues; fated quests and unlikely fellowships; magic spells and ancient riddles. But the relationship between fantasy and games is one of reciprocal influence: after all, both games and fantasy carve out separate worlds, imbuing them with rules, boundaries, goals, and roles. This exhibit charts how games and fantasy have converged over time, as exemplified by the heavily rule-oriented magic systems of the LitRPG genre and blockbuster games set in fantasy worlds such as the Hugo Award-Winning Baldur’s Gate III. Key examples from gaming and fantasy culture, including game manuals, character figurines, literary texts, film clips, and interactive game play demos, help to show how creators, players, and fans have developed a shared language for building and playing with imaginary worlds.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Learn More »

Exhibition

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts is proud to present Keila Strong’s Closet Chronicles. The exhibition will be on view in Café Logan, 915 E 60th, from October 3 - November 30, 2025.

Closet Chronicles is a mixed media art exhibit that explores the depth, beauty, and cultural significance of Black fashion across generations. This collection of 10–12 original works includes a blend of mosaics and paintings, using both silhouette and figurative forms to explore how style tells our stories.

Learn More »

Exhibition

Tongji Philip Qian’s “Alloyed Commitments” explores notions of access, legibility, skill, and structure within and between the pieces on view.

The exhibition includes work with conservation-grade and found papers, handwriting, leather, t-shirts, wall painting, and video, among numerous other media.

Learn More »

Sally Mann in conversation with Laura Letinsky

One of the most acclaimed artists of our time and New York Times-bestselling author Sally Mann joins UChicago professor Laura Letinsky to discuss the challenges and pleasures of the creative process — from the hazards of early promise to the role of luck, risk-taking, and when to say yes. Mann’s much-anticipated new book, Art Work, offers a spellbinding mix of wild and illuminating stories, practical (and some impractical) advice, and life lessons.

A book signing will follow this event. This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Eric Slauter previews exhibition at the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center

The story of the making of the Declaration of Independence often centers on its revolutionary authors, prominent politicians such as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and (above all) Thomas Jefferson. But the Declaration we know today is equally a product of generations of readers, individuals and groups who discovered different meanings among its self-evident truths. 

This exhibition, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the document in 2026, invites visitors to experience the responses to the Declaration in the age of the American Revolution, consider unfolding understandings over time, and explore conflicting interpretations individuals and groups have proposed at significant moments in history. 

Highlighting compelling and unique materials from the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, and attending to the special role debates in Illinois have played in shaping the meaning of the Declaration, the exhibition will provide visitors with fresh perspectives on one of the most important documents in the history of modern politics. As the nation approaches a significant milestone the exhibit offers a forum for reflecting on the multiple legacies of the founding document of the United States.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register »

Amitav Ghosh in conversation with Benjamin Morgan

Internationally acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh is joined by UChicago’s Benjamin Morgan to illuminate the topics that have been central to Ghosh’s work over the last 25 years: imperialism and decolonization, climate change, and the stories of ordinary people making lives amid these historical forces. The first English-language writer to receive the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honor, Ghosh helps readers understand the world in new and urgent ways. In his newest work, Wild Fictions, he provides a powerful refutation of imperial violence, a fascinating exploration of the fictions we weave to absorb history, and a reminder of the importance of sensitivity and empathy.

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Evan Narcisse in conversation with Simon Parkin

Join us at the Year of Games Kick-Off Symposium at the University of Chicago for a Saturday keynote conversation with Evan Narcisse, renowned journalist, comic book writer, and video game narrative designer. Narcisse will join journalist and author Simon Parkin for a live recording of Parkin’s podcast My Perfect Console. In this conversation the two will discuss the five video games Narcisse would like to immortalize on a fictional games machine. Through this prompt, the audience will hear about Narcisse's life and career through different eras and cultures of games and how he has built meaning from his experiences with game play.

Check out the rest of the three day schedule of events at yearofgames.com.

Register »

This session is co-presented by University of Chicago Arts & Humanities Day and the Chicago Humanities Festival as part of the Year of Games Kick-Off Symposium at the University of Chicago.

The Year of Games is a university-wide initiative celebrating the vibrant culture of games and play at the University of Chicago. Taking place throughout the 2025–26 academic year, this collaborative effort will feature a dynamic series of events, exhibits, and activities. The Year of Games invites students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to explore how games shape culture, spark creativity, and foster connection.

Emily Crews, Pranathi Diwakar, Adam Green, and Na'ama Rokem on the history of Oak Woods Cemetery

The Oak Woods project is an initiative to encourage research, teaching, and public programming initiatives in connection with the historic Oak Woods Cemetery, located about a mile and a half south of campus, in Woodlawn/Grand-Crossing. Join us for a brief presentation about the rich history of the cemetery, and a report on the activities of the project.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register »

Stephen J. Dubner in conversation with Dean Deborah L. Nelson

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Freakonomics, author Stephen J. Dubner is joined by Deborah Nelson, Dean of the Arts & Humanities Division at the University of Chicago, for a wide-ranging conversation that demonstrates how the signature Freakonomics method is a robust and insightful analysis of the economic value in higher education and the humanities writ large. This dialogue will explore the intellectual and cultural history of Freakonomics, as well as discuss the arts and humanities within the marketplace of higher education, and as the cultural and economic impact of humanistic research and teaching.

This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Vanja Malloy and Galina Mardilovich offer guided tour of architectural and campus spaces at the University of Chicago 

Join Vanja Malloy and Galina Mardilovich, curators of Theaster Gates: Unto Thee, for a guided tour of architectural and campus spaces at the University of Chicago that have contributed to Theaster Gates's artistic practice. The tour will begin at the Smart Museum of Art and end at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. RSVP information forthcoming: this is an outdoor walking tour, so please do dress accordingly.

Registration is required due to limited capacity. RSVP links will be made public two weeks prior to the event.

Register »

Learn More »

The Neubauer Collegium hosts multi-disciplinary conversation on AI

Join us for a scholarly roundtable about the impact of AI on humanistic inquiry and research. The roundtable is part of a project underway at the Neubauer Collegium on Humanistic AI: Reimagining Humanistic Pursuits in the Age of Generated Media. It brings together leading researchers from multiple disciplines (literature, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, computer science) to collectively identify the challenges generative models present to these fields of study and how our disciplines might inform their development and deployment. Three members of the project will answer questions about their own research into AI and what the technology holds in store for the future of knowledge creation and discovery.

Speakers:
Maria Antoniak, University of Colorado
Atoosa Kasirzadeh, Carnegie Mellon University
Ted Underwood, University of Illinois

Moderated by Chris Kennedy (Linguistics) and Hoyt Long (Japanese Literature and Digital Studies), both at the University of Chicago.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register »

Featuring Opera Insights from UChicago Classics, Theater, and Music faculty

Chicago Humanities is partnering with Lyric Opera of Chicago to present Medea Opera Insights. Featuring distinguished professors Sarah Nooter, Martha Feldman, and David Levin from the University of Chicago’s acclaimed Classics, Theater, and Music programs, alongside the world-class artists bringing this rarely performed grand opera to life at Lyric, this event offers a rich blend of ancient storytelling and contemporary artistic insight. The conversation will shed light on how Medea, one of mythology’s most complex figures, is transformed through music and drama for the opera stage.
 
The event will open with a live musical excerpt from Medea. This will be followed by a 45-minute moderated panel discussion and will conclude with a 10-minute audience Q&A.

This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Michael K. Bourdaghs on Japanese popular music in the 1950s and 60s

The language conventionally used to describe the Cold War era—metaphors like "iron curtain" or "bamboo curtain"—suggest a world divided up into clearly distinct ideological realms. But when we trace the multidirectional flows of popular music during this period, we find songs, styles, and musicians constantly crossing back and forth over the supposedly impermeable barriers that separated the various ideological blocs and presenting us with a much more fluid and interactive model of cultural exchanges. This presentation focuses on the transnational circulation through which mainstream Japanese popular music in the 1950s and 60s engaged in lively interaction with all "Three Worlds" of the Cold War global imaginary and suggests a new roadmap for understanding Japanese cultural activities during the last half of the twentieth century. 

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register »

Stephanie Burt in conversation with Paula Harper

Harvard professor and poetry expert Stephanie Burt speaks with UChicago’s Paula Harper about the artistry — and the celebrity — of Taylor Swift. Through heartfelt critical appreciation, Burt analyzes Swift, her body of work, and the community that her art has fostered. Drawing from her 2024 Harvard course, Taylor Swift and Her World, as well as from her years as a Swiftie, Burt examines Swift’s particular form of genius — not the destructive genius of tortured poets, but the collaborative and joyful genius of an artist who has mastered her craft. Tracing a path through the Eras, Burt’s newest work, Taylor’s Version, shows what Swift has created, how it works, and why her songs will endure.

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. Pre-order Taylor's Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift through the Chicago Humanities Box Office and save up to 20% while supporting the Co-op. 

This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Steven Pinker in conversation with Jason Bridges

Steven Pinker, world-renowned cognitive scientist, Harvard professor, and one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today,” for a fascinating exploration of human psychology. With UChicago philosopher Jason Bridges, Pinker unravels how we think about what others are thinking about what we're thinking — a cyclical process that creates "common knowledge" and profoundly shapes our social, political, and economic lives. Discover how this hidden force explains life's most puzzling phenomena: why financial bubbles burst overnight, how revolutions emerge from nowhere, what drives diplomatic theater, and why complete honesty would make life unbearable.

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. VIP tickets will include premium reserved seating, a copy of When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows..., and access to a post-event meet and greet with Steven Pinker. Limited space available.

This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »

Jacqueline Stewart on the origins and ongoing work of the South Side Home Movie Project 

Dr. Jacqueline Stewart will share highlights from two decades of the South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), which she founded in 2005, and which now holds more than 1,200 reels of 16mm, 8mm, and Super-8mm footage shot by South Siders from the 1930s to the 1980s. The South Side Home Movie Project is dedicated to collecting, preserving, digitizing, exhibiting, and researching the rich tapestry of home movies created by Chicago's South Side residents. SSHMP is creating an unparalleled visual record to help ensure the vibrant cultures and evolving narratives of the South Side are preserved for generations to come and celebrated as a vital thread in the history of the city of Chicago.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Register »

Nick Offerman and Lee Buchanan in conversation with Leslie Buxbaum

UChicago’s Leslie Buxbaum hosts an evening of conversation and tomfoolery with the one and only Nick Offerman. Offerman makes his return to Chicago to discuss his newest work, Little Woodchucks, an illustrated woodworking guide with projects for the whole family. Combining Nick’s signature wry humor with joyfully illustrated project instructions, Little Woodchucks introduces young woodworkers-to-be to the satisfaction and good, clean fun of hands-on crafting. Illinois born and bred, Nick will also share stories of coming up in the ‘90s as an actor and carpenter for theaters like Steppenwolf and the Goodman, as well as his journey to iconic roles like Ron Swanson and Bill from The Last of Us. Joining Nick on stage will be his collaborator on the book, Lee Buchanan. She spent a decade running Nick's LA woodshop, designing and building furniture, and carving a whole lot of mustache combs.

Experience a live woodworking demonstration by Nick and Lee!

This event is presented in partnership with the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. All tickets include Little Woodchucks, which you pick up at the event by showing the book voucher in your receipt.

This is a ticketed event, please use link below to purchase your ticket through the Chicago Humanities website.

Register »