There’s plenty to do on campus during this short month. Here are a dozen academic events to check out in the coming weeks.
WHAT: Community Cinema: Illinois Public Media/Independent Television Services Documentary Film Series: Las Marthas
WHEN: February 4th at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: Dating from the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the annual debutante ball in Laredo, Texas is unlike any other. Las Marthas follows two Mexican American girls carrying this gilded tradition on their young shoulders during a time of economic uncertainty and political tension over immigration.
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WHAT: SPEAK Cafe: “Black Like Me: My African Memoirs”
WHEN: February 6 at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Palette Cafe
ABOUT: SPEAK Café is an open-mic public space for hip-hop, activism, and black power expression. It is organized and moderated by Aaron Ammons.
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WHAT: Lecture: Dr. Ellen Quillen, “Brains: Evolutionary History and Modern Disease”
WHEN: February 6 at 3 p.m.
WHERE: 109A Davenport Hall 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana
ABOUT: This event is hosted by the Department of Anthropology.
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WHAT: Heirlooms, Artifacts, and Family Treasures: A Preservation Emporium
WHEN: February 8 from 1 – 4 p.m.
WHERE: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: Organized by the Preservation Working Group of the University of Illinois, this informational event welcomes visitors to meet and talk with preservation specialists whose expertise ranges from antiquities to modern digital media. Have you ever wondered how to preserve that old film of family memories or take care of Grandma’s quilt? Bring your small, hand-held items to the Museum or come with images of larger items and have your preservation questions answered by the presenting experts.
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WHAT: Lecture: Susan Leigh Foster (Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance and in the School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA) – “Performing Authenticity and the Labor of Dance”
WHEN: February 13 at 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: This danced lecture interrogates the explicit body presented in performances of competition dance on television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance. I look specifically at how dance serves in these spectacles as guarantor of authenticity and of a rigid set of gendered identities. Invoking neo-Marxist theories of affective labor, I show how dancers on these programs enact a cycle of alienation and hyper-devotion to the practice of dance, one that replicates the endless drive to consume that marks our contemporary moment. By looking closely at the expressions of surprise, gratitude, and praise for others that the dancers must perform, I consider how the competition’s protocols re-produce the lack of distinction between motivated and unmotivated relationships that is pervasive in our culture.
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WHAT: VOICE Reading Series
WHEN: February 13 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Gelvin Noel Gallery
ABOUT: The VOICE Reading Series showcases readings by fiction writers and poets in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Creative Writing MFA program.
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WHAT: Saturday Engineering for Everyone Lecture – “Hey Nemo, Can you hear me now? Underwater acoustic communications for humans”
WHEN: February 15 at 10:15 a.m.
WHERE: 151 Everitt Lab, 1406 W. Green St.
ABOUT: Part of an ongoing lecture series, this event will take place from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. While it will contain some technical information, this talk is geared towards non-engineers.
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WHAT: School of Art + Design Placemaking Lecture – “Contesting Conceptual Art” by Dr. Luke Skrebowski
WHEN: February 17 at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Auditorium
ABOUT: The School of Art + Design Placemaking Lecture Series is the marquee series of the Visitors Program and is designed to showcase notable national and international artists, designers, and scholars whose work or point of view is engaging and topical.
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WHAT: Lecture – Dr. Leslie Seltzer, “Social Experiences, Social Hormones, and Their Effects on the Developing Brain”
WHEN: February 20 at 3 p.m.
WHERE: 109A Davenport Hall, 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana
ABOUT: This event is hosted by the Department of Anthropology.
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WHAT: Winter Tales
WHEN: February 22 at 2 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: Join us for one of the Museum’s most popular annual events, a concert of American Indian tales, told during the winter months, the traditional time of telling. This year’s featured teller is Tchin (pronounced ‘chin). He is a nationally known, multi-award winning, multitalented Blackfeet/Narragansett artist. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and lived in rural Virginia and Rhode Island where he received his early schooling. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. He is an accomplished metalsmith, author, flutemaker, educator, lecturer, folklorist, musician, entertainer and clothes maker. Winter Tales concerts are sponsored by an endowment from Reginald and Gladys Laubin.
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WHAT: Inside Scoop Series: Taking the Humanities Public, A Conversation with Mark Leff & Rebecca Ginsburg
WHEN: February 26 at 5 p.m.
WHERE: Intersections Living Learning Community, Saunders Lounge, 131 PAR
ABOUT: Rebecca Ginsburg is a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the director of the Education Justice Project, the campus’ prison education program. She received her Bachelors degree in English from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, her JD from the University of Michigan Law School, and a PhD in Architectural History from the University of California at Berkeley. It was while she was a graduate student at Berkeley that she first became involved in prison education. At the University of Illinois, she is on the faculty of the Department of Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership and the Department of Landscape Architecture. She teaches courses on the Atlantic slave trade, the history of prisons, and education and social justice. She is currently working on a book project about the Education Justice Project.
Before and since his recent retirement from the UIUC History Department, Mark Leff has taken his interests in U.S. political and social history on the road, including teaching gigs in the IPRH-supported Odyssey Initiative (Champaign-Urbana community outreach) and the OLLI program for retirees, along with workshops for high school teachers and the Education Justice Program.
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WHAT: Artist Talk: “Not Ready to Make Nice: 28 Years of the Guerrilla Girls”
WHEN: February 27 at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Auditorium
ABOUT: “Not Ready to Make Nice: 28 Years of the Guerrilla Girls” will provide the opportunity to hear from and interact with one of the founding members of the Guerrilla Girls collective. This artist talk is a component of the current exhibition “Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls in the Artworld and Beyond” and will expand upon the important historical and current work of these highly original, provocative, and influential artists who champion feminism and social change. This artist talk is free and open to the public.
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We live near a major university and a community college. There are smart people that come here every week to talk to the general public about interesting topics. Here’s a sampling of the talks and events you can find in the not-so-ivy-covered buildings near you. These events are free and will fill your brain with yummy knowledge (and sometimes will fill your stomach with free eats).