Research Seminar Schedule

Attend a research seminar

Seminars are open to all graduate students, faculty and staff of the University of Kansas and their guests. All seminars will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., unless noted otherwise. No prior registration is required. Please sign up below to receive emailed information about each seminar.

Papers for sessions are available as password protected PDF files.

If you would like seminar paper password information, email Hall Center Administrative Associate April Walton at hchseminars@ku.edu.

Join a seminar email list

You can sign up to receive email updates for individual seminars by completing one or more of the forms below: 

Seminar descriptions

Colonialism Seminar

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.

For more information, contact Robert Schwaller (History, 864-9435, schwallr@ku.edu) or Christine Bourgeois (French, 864-9074, cbourgeois@ku.edu)

CANCELED
Charlie Samuelson - French and Italian, University of Colorado Boulder
“TBA "

CANCELED
Pritha Prasad - English, University of Kansas
“TBA”

Disability Studies Seminar

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.

For more information, contact Ray Mizumura-Pence (American Studies, 864-2302, rpence@ku.edu) or Sherrie Tucker (American Studies, 864-2305, sjtucker@ku.edu).

Thursday, January 23, 2025
Lisa Dieker - Williamson Family Distinguished Professor in Special Education, University of Kansas
"The Intersection of Technology, AI, Learning, and Disability: Perspectives from a Professor, Teacher Educator, and Parent"

Thursday, February 27, 2025
Abby Breyer - English, University of Kansas
"Platforming Disability: Disabled Content Creators' Strategies for Digital Inclusion and Engagement".

Thursday, March 27, 2025
Delia Steverson - English, University of Alabama
"Black Disabled Ontologies in African American Literature."

Thursday, April 24, 2025
L. Favicchia - Office of Graduate Studies, University of Kansas
"Whalefall: Essays on the Fabricating Reality and the Feminine Death."

Gender Seminar

The Gender Seminar studies gender as a basic concept in humanistic scholarship and/or as a fundamental organizing principle in social life.

For more information, contact Marie Grace Brown (History, 864-9462, mgbrown@ku.edu) or Katie Batza (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, 864-2310, batza@ku.edu).

Thursday, February 6, 2025
Arlowe Clementine - WGSS, University of Kansas
“Resurrecting Pink Jesus: Ritual Making with Gilbert Baker”

Thursday, March 27, 2025
Alex Myers 
“Out of Silence: Using Fiction to Find History.”

POSTPONED TO FALL
Tiffany Gonzalez - History, University of Kansas
"Mexican American Women and Nixon's Administration"

Humanities Out Loud: Music, Theater, Literature & Culture Seminar

The Humanities Out Loud seminar seeks to link forms of cultural production that employ the medium of sound in the making, dissemination and/or interpretation of cultural expression. Music and other performing arts are a particularly dynamic area of culture because they emerge in public spaces and speak to identity, cultural difference, and power dynamics in inescapable ways.

The Humanities Out Loud Seminar is on hiatus at this time. Any future seminars will be updated here.

Medieval & Early Modern Seminar

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.

For more information, contact Jonathan Lamb (English, 864-2525, jonathanplamb@ku.edu) or Caroline Jewers (French & Italian, 864-9028, cjewers@ku.edu).

CANCELED
Jeff Persels - There will be an alternate event for presenter. Please contact the French, Francophone, and Italian department for any further information.

Thursday, March 27, 2025
Alex Myers 
“Out of Silence: Using Fiction to Find History.”

Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Jeremy Lopez - English, Monclair State University
“Camillo's Play: Pyrrhic Victories in Shakespeare’s The Winter's Tale.”

Nature & Culture Seminar

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.

For more information, contact Alex Boynton (Environmental Studies, ajboynton@ku.edu, 864-9648)

The Nature & Culture Seminar is on hiatus at this time. Any future seminars will be updated here.

Trans* Studies Seminar

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.

For more information, contact Marta Vicente (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, 864-2235, mvicente@ku.edu) or Abraham Weil (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, 864-2310, abraham.weil@ku.edu).

RESCHEDULED: Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Philip Duncan - Linguistics, University of Kansas
"Counterlanguage powermoves in trans* TikTokers Language Use"

Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Christopher C. Wilson - Art History, George Washington University
"Towards Creating a Queer and Trans Canon of Baroque Art"

Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Saturn Rage - Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Kansas
"The Coexistence of Trans* Joy and Rage: Radical Potentials of Affect as Resistance to Neoliberal Capitalism through Conceptualizations of Virginia Woolf's Orlando"