Interdisciplinary Research Seminars

Hall Center seminars are open to interested faculty, staff and graduate students.

If you would like seminar paper password information, email hchseminars@ku.edu. You can sign-up to receive e-mail updates for individual seminars by filling out this online form.

Complete seminar schedules are available on the seminar schedule page.

If you are a seminar convener, you can fill out the seminar schedule and budget form here.

For other inquiries, please contact Hall Center Events Specialist April Walton at hchseminars@ku.edu.

Colonialism Seminar

The Colonialism seminar is co-directed by Robert Schwaller (History) and Christine Bourgeois (French, Francophone & Italian Studies).This seminar examines the history and legacy of colonialism in Latin America. Meetings provide an opportunity for a dynamic examination of hemispherical and transatlantic connections across four major themes: identity, territory, religion, and cultural production.

Disability Studies

The Disability Studies Seminar is co-directed by Ray Mizumura-Pence (American Studies), and Sherrie Tucker (American Studies). The Disability Studies Seminar will provide a much-needed forum for scholars to explore and share research on topics relevant to disability within and across the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Scholars within Disability Studies tend to recognize disability in terms of social construction and minority culture.

Gender Seminar

The Gender Seminar is co-directed by Marie Grace Brown (History) and Katie Batza (Women, gender and Sexuality Studies). The Gender Seminar studies gender as a basic concept in humanistic scholarship and/or as a fundamental organizing principle in social life.

The Humanities Out Loud: Music, Theater, Literature, and Culture

The Humanities Out Loud Seminar is co-directed by Araceli Masterson-Algar (American Studies) and Jonathan Mayhew (Department of Spanish & Portuguese). This seminar provides a forum for research that links music with other forms of cultural production employing the medium of sound, such as the oral performance of literary works. The goal is to explore a conception of the humanities oriented less toward the printed text and more toward performance.

Medieval & Early Modern Seminar

The Medieval & Early Modern Seminar is co-directed by Jonathan Lamb (English), and Caroline Jewers (French, Francophone & Italian Studies). The Medieval & Early Modern Seminar meets each semester to discuss original work relating to any aspect of the history, culture, literature, art, or society of any part of the world between c. 400 and c.1800.

Nature & Culture Seminar

The Nature and Culture Seminar is co-directed by Alex Boynton (Environmental Studies). Nature is our oldest home and our newest challenge. This seminar brings the perspective of the humanities to bear on past and present environmental issues. It includes research on the changing perception, representation, and valuation of nature in human life, on the reciprocal impact of environmental change on social change, and on the variety of ways we use, consume, manage, and revere the earth. Co-sponsored by Environmental Studies.

Trans* Studies Seminar

The Trans* Studies Seminar is co-directed by Marta Vicente (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies) and Abraham Weil (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies). The core focus of trans* studies, as defined by Susan Stryker and Paisley Currah, is the study of “transsexuality and cross-dressing, some aspects of intersexuality and homosexuality, cross-cultural and historical investigations of human gender diversity, myriad specific subcultural expressions of ‘gender atypicality,’ theories of sexed embodiment and subjective gender identity development, law and public policy related to the regulation of gender expression.” The Trans* Studies Seminar will study the modes of cultural, social, political, and linguistic production of knowledge that have assembled predominant hierarchical and binary divisions between male/female, straight/queer, human/non-human across history and cultures. In keeping with the evolving place of this field in various disciplines, we find that it is important to speak of trans* studies instead of “transgender” studies because of the exciting implications for broader humanistic inquiry that such an approach promises.