Wong explores the intersection of writing and visual art in the autobiographical work of Art Spiegelman, Faith Ringgold, Leslie Marmon Silko, and other American writers-artists who experiment with hybrid forms of self-narration.

Hear from a panel of experts - an acquisitions editor, a first-time author, and an author rights expert - about the process of turning your dissertation into a book. You’ll come away from this panel discussion with practical advice about revising your dissertation, writing a book proposal, approaching editors, signing your first contract, and navigating the peer review and...

In this talk, Alex Saragoza and Allan deSouza will hold a lively discussion on the relationships between art and migrations—both literal and metaphorical. Allan deSouza is a Bay Area multi-media artist. His photography, installation, text and performance works restage colonial material culture through counter-strategies of fiction, erasure, and (mis)translation. His work has been exhibited...

Barber Shop Chronicles, created by Nigerian-born, UK-based poet and playwright Inua Ellams, explores the diversity of black male identity through the rituals and verbal banter of the urban barbershop. The cast riffs on topics both personal and political—from sports to race relations to views about fatherhood and masculinity—as we eavesdrop on conversations in six different barbershops in London,...

Robinson reminds us that the Anthropocene is a name in a periodizing scheme, or in more than one periodizing scheme. He suggests that, to understand it more fully, we need first to discuss periodization itself. After that, Robinson considers whether it is possible to consider the conditions for creating a “good Anthropocene. Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is...

In collaboration with Cal Performances and the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, this lecture, presented by Ahmad Sikainga, will discuss the African Diaspora in relation to the performance The Routes of Slavery (1444–1888). Currently at the Department of History at the Ohio State University, Sikainga’s academic interests embrace the study of Africa, the African Diaspora, and the...

Lunch Poems presents Tyehimba Jess.

Sociologist and cultural critic Todd Gitlin is this year’s Avenali Chair in the Humanities. Gitlin notes that, in 1968, the American left felt poised on the brink of a revolution. That year was also, in the United States, the beginning of a massive political rollback on behalf of white supremacy and plutocratic revival, culminating decades later in the election of a virulent racist....

Nesbet’s historical novel for younger readers takes place during World War II in Springdale, Maine. It tells the story of eleven-year-old Gusta, who is sent to live in an orphanage run by her grandmother after her labor-organizer father is forced to flee the country.

Professor of English and Information Science Ted Underwood will lead a discussion on the findings of his distant reading study on gender and fiction.