Events
These are events sponsored wholly or in part by the Center for the Humanities for 2026-2027
SEPTEMBER
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
WRITERS AT WORK SERIES
Faculty Reading: Dr. Kathleen Forni and Dr. James Bunzli
Dr. Kathy Forni, a professor in the English department, specializes in medieval literature. Her research focuses on reception history: how medieval texts become part of the literary canon and how they are reinvented for modern consumption. Her books include Chaucerian Apocrypha: A Counterfeit Canon; Chaucer’s Afterlife, and Beowulf's Popular Afterlife in Literature, Comic Books, and Film.
Dr. James Bunzli teaches performance courses and directs Evergreen Players productions. Dr. Bunzli’s 30+ years of work on Solo Performance have yielded scholarly articles (The Drama Review, Theatre Annual), new work creation with other artists – and multiple pieces he has devised, written, and performed himself (Write a Will, Get Religion, 1973 Dodge Monaco Station Wagon, Time and the Means).
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
6:00 PM
OCTOBER
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2
Celebrate the Humanities!
CFH Annual Celebration of Teaching, Learning, and Research in the Humanities
- Nachbahr Award and Address
2026 Nachbahr recipient Dr. Amy Bree Becker, professor from department of Communication & Media, will deliver the Nachbahr address on the life of the mind, "Democracy Requires Comic Relief: The Need for Laughter and the Role of Humor in 21st Century America."
- 2026 Teaching Faculty Excellence Award
Dr. Sondra Guttman, professor from English department - Student Presentations from the CFH Summer Student Research Fellows:
Katelin Bondar, class of 2027
Charlotte Case, class of 2027
Sarah Flores, class of 2028
Georgia Gieschen, class of 2028
Cornelia Hetherington, class of 2027
Emily Hicks, class of 2029
Brennon Schifman, class of 2027
Dayna Singley, class of 2029
Katherine Lewandowski, class of 2027
Caroline Westervelt, class of 2027
Plus there will be an opportunity to learn more about a new program, the Humanities Student Conference Grant, which reimburses students up to $500 to attend conferences or other similar academic meetings related to the humanities.
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
FRIDAY OCTOBER 2
"Hope Amid Exile: Songs from the Prophet Isaiah"
Experience an inspiring evening of folk music with lyrics drawn from the timeless words of the Book of Isaiah!
Featuring
award-winning songwriter John Hermanson, Maren Hayes Marchesini, and Megan Makeever
Register on the Bridge.
Loyola Chapel
6:00 - 7:00 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9
Center for the Humanities Student Grants Info Session
Join us to learn what grants are available for Loyola students from the CFH!
We will discuss Student-led Seminars, Summer Research Fellowships, stipends for Summer Study programs, stipends for otherwise unpaid Internships, and Humanities Student Conference Grants. After the presentation by CFH Student grant coordinator, Dr. Brett Butler and past student recipients, there will be time for pizza and conversation.
Register on the Bridge.
Writing Department Lounge
Maryland Hall 038
4:15 PM
MONDAY, 12
"Aula de Flamenco/Introduction to Flamenco"
Come celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and learn about Flamenco, the artistic expression of southern Spain, and badge of identity of the Gitano (Roma) ethnic community!
There will be an introduction to this rich cultural tradition and a guitar, voice, and dance performance.
Loyola's Black Box Theatre
DeChiaro College Center
4:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, 14
"Public Health and the Human Experience"
A Conversation with Dr. Leana Wen
Dr. Leana Wen is a practicing physician, healthcare executive, and one of America's leading public health experts. She is a columnist for The Washington Post, where she writes a twice-weekly column on medicine and public health. Previously, she served as Baltimore City's Health Commissioner. She has authored two critically acclaimed books.
Fourth Floor Program Room
12:00 - 1:00 PM
THURSDAY, 22
"Everywhere and Nowhere: Disability and Contested Responsibility in America Slavery"
lecture by Dr. Jenifer Barclay
Dr. Jenifer L. Barclay, Associate Professor of History and Associate Director of the Center for Disability Studies at the University at Buffalo, is a leading scholar of disability and slavery in U.S. history.The lecture will introduce Loyola students and faculty to disability as a critical category of historical analysis alongside the more familiar categories of race, gender, and class. It will also raise important methodological questions about how historians locate marginalized people in archives that were rarely created to preserve their perspectives. Barclay’s visit will therefore contribute both to students’ knowledge of slavery and African American history and to their understanding of how historical knowledge itself is produced.
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
4:30 - 6:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, 28
Cardin Conversations:
Robert A. Harris, PhD. and Elaine T. James, PhD.
Moderated by Robin Landrith, Loyola University Department of Theology
The first “Cardin Conversations” event will feature an interreligious dialogue on a sacred text shared by the Jewish and Christian traditions: The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Join Loyola's Department of Theology for an evening discussing the Book of Isaiah and its implications for Jewish Christian perspectives today.
Register on the Bridge.
McGuire Hall
6:00 - 8:00 PM
NOVEMBER
NATIONAL 2026 FRENCH WEEK - Between Friends and Enemies: Franco-American Relationships"
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 TO TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Event tbd
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Event tbd
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Event tbd
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9
event tbd
Check loyola.edu/frenchweek for times and other details. You may also contact the Department of Modern Languages.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10
"A History of Scientific Ableism: Disability and the Posture Services"
lecture by Dr. Beth Linker
Dr. Beth Linker, Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Professor in the Social Sciences and
Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the School of Medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania, will discuss her examination of the American concern with “bad posture”
from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century. Physicians, scientists, educators,
and public-health officials increasingly treated poor posture as a physical defect
and, at times, as a threat to both individual and national health. Linker shows how
posture science helped define what counted as a normal body and how those standards
became entangled with ideas about disability, race, gender, class, citizenship, and
fitness.
Knott Hall B03
4:30 - 6:00 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
WRITERS AT WORK SERIES
Amie Whittemore
"Person, Place, Thing or Idea: How Nouns Conjure Locale"
Whittemore is the author of four poetry collections, including Glass Harvest and Nest of Matches (both published by Autumn House Press) and the chapbook Hesitation Waltz (Midwest Writing Center, 2025).She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Her poems have won multiple awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize. The talk will encourage beginning and advanced writing students to tap into nature so their work might fully honor the places and people they know and love—but Whittemore's ideas will be inspiring to students in any discipline.
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
6:00 PM
DECEMBER
FRIDAY, 4
Modern Languages/Haig Film Series
"How to Clean House in 10 Easy Steps" (2026)
Film Screening and Q&A with director Dr. González Valencia
Loyola Notre Dame Library Auditorium
5:00 - 7:00 PM
MONDAY, 7
MODERN MASTERS SERIES
Alan R. Shapiro
Alan Shapiro is the author of 15 books of poetry (including Reel to Reel, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Night of the Republic, a finalist for both the National Book Award and The Griffin Prize), two memoirs, a novel, two books of critical essays, and two translations. Shapiro has taught at Stanford University, Northwestern University, Warren Wilson College, and from 1995-2021 he was the William R. Kenan, Jr Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina.
McManus Theatre
6:30 PM
JANUARY
Writer's Ball
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
6:00 - 10:00 PM.
FEBRUARY
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5
Center for the Humanities Student Grants Info Session
Join us to learn what grants are available for Loyola students from the CFH!
We will discuss Student-led Seminars, the new Student Conference Grants, Summer Research Fellowships, stipends for Summer Study programs, stipends for otherwise unpaid Internships, and the new Humanities Student Conference Grant. After the presentation by CFH Student grant coordinator, Dr. Brett Butler, and past student recipients, there will be time for pizza and conversation.
Writing Department Lounge
Maryland Hall 038
4:15 PM
Thursday, February 11
Chris Terry
"Resisting Backstory"
Chris L. Terry is author of the novels Black Card (Catapult, 2019) and Zero Fade (Curbside Splendor, 2013), and co-editor with James Spooner of the literary anthology Black Punk Now (Soft Skull, 2023). His recent writing has appeared in Rejection Letters, Razorcake, and the 120 Murders anthology.
Terry's talk centers on a new novel-in-progress that explores the effects of gentrification in a Black neighborhood. Terry will explore how the horror genre often reckons with history, and includes villains that are stuck in the past.
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
6:00 PM
MARCH
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10 and THURSDAY, MARCH 11
HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM COLLOQUIA
THURSDAY, MARCH 11
LOYOLA'S 2026 HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
McGuire Hall
6:30 PM
If you require additional accommodations, please contact Disability and Accessibility Services at das@loyola.edu.
APRIL
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7
2027 Hanna Geldrich-Leffman Colloquium on Language, Literature, and Society:
Wednesday, April 8
Fourth Floor Program Room
Andrew White Student Center
MAY
Contact
Bess Garrett
Program Administrator
esgarrett@loyola.edu
Dr. Mavis Biss
Director
mlbiss@loyola.edu