Upcoming Events

Join this engaging conversation between 23rd United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Jenny L. Davis, professor in American Indian Studies and Anthropology and member of the Chickasaw Nation.

Admission is free, and no tickets are required.

Livestream: go.illinois.edu/CultureTalk

CultureTalk, an exploration of the ideas…

In this presentation, Ruth Behar will discuss her recent turn from anthropology to writing coming-of-age novels. These works of historical fiction feature Jewish Cuban and Sephardic young girls seeking to understand their identities and heritage and their quest for freedom and a home where all are welcome. Behar will discuss the borders and blurring between ethnography and fiction, and how her…

A young Quechua woman refuses to kill her alpaca, so both are killed by Shining Path militants. An elderly woman tearfully recounts the guilt she feels about her inability to prevent the killing, and grilling, of her donkey by Peruvian military forces. A man describes being forced to hang his dogs and burn his lands to save his family. This talk will explore these and other accounts of…

This talk addresses the following question: How should we undertake the fight for animal life and dignity in a world structured around the phobic avoidance and hatred of Blackness?

This talk illustrates the development of several types of robotic animal and insect ‘agents,’ from animal drones and ‘spys’ to artistic robotic/cyborgean animal installations. The aim is to begin to discern cases in which a possible animal ‘agency’ might provoke a rethinking of the human-technological-nonhuman-animal relationship and to think about how theatre and performance can be a staging…

As animal advocates have attempted to win policy advances through the traditional vehicles of legislation and regulatory action, they often have run into roadblocks within the relevant legislative committees and agencies. These barriers persist despite polling that shows the overwhelming majority of voters support such animal welfare measures. Accordingly, advocacy organizations have had to…