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Calendar of Events

2026 Annual Public Lecture: Robin D.G.Kelley Freedom Dreaming in Dark Times
May
13

2026 Annual Public Lecture: Robin D.G.Kelley Freedom Dreaming in Dark Times

2026 Annual Public Lecture: Robin D.G.Kelley Freedom Dreaming in Dark Times

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We are honored to welcome Robin D. G. Kelley, a leading historian of social movements, cultural politics, and the Black radical imagination, for our annual public lecture. Kelley’s work explores how communities have struggled for freedom, how protest movements take shape, and how imagining new futures is itself a powerful form of resistance. His scholarship connects history to the present moment, offering tools to better understand protest, democracy, and the possibilities of social change—making his work especially relevant today.

This year’s lecture will feature Robin D. G. Kelley in conversation with Adom Getachew, Chair of Race, Diaspora & Indigeneity and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Together, they will engage in a dynamic dialogue on freedom dreaming, political struggle, and the global dimensions of Black intellectual and activist traditions.

This event is co-sponsored by International House.

CoSponsors: The University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, AAUP, The Pozen Center for Human Rights, The Office of the Provost, The Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Tabling + Pre-Reception | 5:00-6:00 PM CST

Main Event | 6:00-7:30 PM CST

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CSGS/CSRPC/RDI Year end BBQ
May
21

CSGS/CSRPC/RDI Year end BBQ

Join us at the CSRPC  as we gather to close out the academic year in community, reflection, and joy.

This end-of-year barbecue is an opportunity to celebrate the work, conversations, and connections that have shaped our year. Together, we’ve engaged critical ideas, supported meaningful research, and built spaces rooted in dialogue, equity, and cultural understanding. Now, we invite you to come together in a more relaxed setting to honor that collective effort.

Enjoy an afternoon of great food, music, and fellowship with students, faculty, staff, and community members.

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ROOTS UNBOUND: RETURNING OUR STORIES TO US
May
23

ROOTS UNBOUND: RETURNING OUR STORIES TO US

  • Green Line Performing Arts Center 329 E Garfield Blvd, Chicago, IL 60637 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

A Discussion about Adoption and Racial Healing

A Discussion about Adoption and Racial Healing featuring Dr. Gina Samuels - University of Chicago Professor and Director of the Roots Unbound Black Adoption Project - alongside performer and artist Gabriel Gutierrez The evening will showease poetry and visual art from local Illinois adoptees in Roots Unbound, alongside dance by Gabriel Gutierrez: a Chicago native, adult adoptee, reconnecting P'urhépecha Native, and founder of MOFundamentals, the only foster and adoptee-led dance program in the United States. Poetry and movement are woven into the performance itself, as storytelling and art come together to affirm lived experience, build connection, and imagine more healing futures.

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THE CORONER’S SILENCE
May
28

THE CORONER’S SILENCE

THE CORONER’S SILENCE

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In this talk Professor Terence Keel will discuss his new book, The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence. Through rigorous research–including critical records analysis, public health studies, and interviews with victims’ families–the book unmasks the systemic failures within forensic medicine. Keel shows how incomplete autopsy reports, mishandled medical documents, and strategically lost evidence effectively shield law enforcement from accountability. The Coroner’s Silence uncovers how the current system of death investigation operates as a mechanism of institutional safeguarding. By highlighting the structural powerlessness of coroners and their disconnection from the communities most affected by police violence, Keel demonstrates how bureaucratic processes can render human suffering invisible. Forcing us to confront and reimagine how we investigate, document, and understand deaths at the hands of state institutions, The Coroner’s Silence is a crucial intervention that challenges us to contend with the deeply ingrained mechanisms that perpetuate systemic violence.

Terence Keel is an award-winning Professor of Human Biology & Society, and African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has written widely about race, religion, life science, law, and democracy. Keel is the Founding Director of the Lab for BioCritical Studies—an interdisciplinary space committed to studying the interactions of society and human biology. Keel also serves as the Advisor for Structural Competency and Innovation within the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. In addition to The Coroner’s Silence, Keel is also the author of Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science and co-editor of Critical Approaches to Science and Religion.

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Roots Unbound: Returning our Stories to Us
Jun
20

Roots Unbound: Returning our Stories to Us

  • Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center 202 S Broadway Ave, Urbana, IL 61801, USA (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

ROOTS UNBOUND : Returning our Stories to Us


Join us for the Roots Unbound Showcase on June 20th at 3:00 PM at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center for a community gathering honoring stories of identity, loss, healing, and return. The showcase will primarily feature dance by Gabriel Gutierrez, a Chicago native, adult adoptee, reconnecting P’urhépecha Native, and founder of MOFundamentals, the only foster- and adoptee-led dance program in the United States. Now based in Los Angeles, Gabriel is a hip hop artist and artivist whose work highlights the resilience of the foster and adoptee community through movement, drawing on narratives of foster-care memory, P’urhépecha, and street dance culture, manhood, houselessness, survival, and grief. Through performance and storytelling, the event will celebrate the power of art to affirm lived experience, build connection, and imagine more healing futures.

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Discussion with Gabriel Gutierrez, and Director/Founder of BlackAdoption Project & Roots Unbound, and Gina Miranda Samuels to follow the show.

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Research Bites: Eman Abdelhadi
Apr
29

Research Bites: Eman Abdelhadi

JOIN US FOR RESEARCH BITES

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Eman Abdelhadi is a sociologist and assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. She is a scholar of gender, religion, and migration who specializes in studying US Muslim communities. Her work has appeared in Social Forces, Gender & Society, and Socius, and her manuscript Impossible Futures: Why Women Leave Muslim American Communities is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press. Her scholarship has been featured in the Associated Press, NPR, and the Washington Post. Abdelhadi also writes a column on US Politics for In These Times Magazine. Along with M.E. O'Brien, she is co-author of the revolutionary science fiction novel Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052-2072, which came out in 2022 with Common Notions press and has been translated into French and Catalan.

Research Bites is a speaker series created to build community between the center's faculty affiliates and staff members in order to improve how we support and amplify one another's work.

Join the Research Bites listserv to attend and/or get updates on future events: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/researchbites. Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72-hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.

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Book Talk With Deborah Jiang-Stein
Apr
22

Book Talk With Deborah Jiang-Stein

  • 5733 South University Avenue Chicago IL 60637 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

EVENT CANCELLED


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Disrupt the "Not Telling": Unvarnished Dialogues on Tenure, Power, Equity, and Academic
Apr
21

Disrupt the "Not Telling": Unvarnished Dialogues on Tenure, Power, Equity, and Academic

Join us for a powerful panel discussion celebrating Disrupt the "Not-Telling": Gatekeeping Issues on the Way to Tenure and Promotion for Black Women at HBCUs, MSIs, and PWIs.

Scholars and contributors will explore the often unspoken realities Black women face in academia, including systemic gatekeeping, hidden expectations, and barriers to advancement. Through personal stories and research, this conversation centers storytelling as a tool for visibility and change while highlighting strategies for building more equitable and transparent pathways to success.

First 3 in person and first 3 online registrants will receive a copy of the book!

Register

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Robin D.G. Kelley’s essay “Black Study, Black Struggle”
Apr
15

Robin D.G. Kelley’s essay “Black Study, Black Struggle”

  • 5733 South University Avenue Chicago, IL, 60637 United States (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join us for a part three of our conversation series where we discuss Robin D.G. Kelley’s influential essay Black Study, Black Struggle, which reflects on the role of student activism in the wake of the Ferguson uprising and the broader movement against racial injustice.

In this essay, Kelley explores the history of campus protest, the tensions between reform and radical change, and the question of whether universities can truly serve as engines of social transformation. He also examines how political education, collective study, and community organizing have long shaped movements for liberation.

This conversation is part of our pre-reading discussion series leading up to our annual public lecture. Participants will engage key themes from the essay, reflect on the role of universities in movements for justice, and consider what it means to connect study with struggle in the present moment.

Light dinner will be served.

Pre-discussion reading: https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/robin-kelley-black-struggle-campus-protest/

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/robin-dg-kelleys-essay-black-study-black-struggle-tickets-1982976187156?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Journey After Justice: A Conversation With Jerome Morgan
Apr
8

Journey After Justice: A Conversation With Jerome Morgan

  • 5733 S UNIVERSITY AVENUE Chicago IL, 60637 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

From 20 Years Wrongfully Incarcerated to Building a Legacy of Freedom

19 years, 11 months, and 25 days vs. 12 years, 2 months, and 4 days.

These are the numbers that frame a life interrupted—and a life reclaimed. After spending nearly two decades wrongfully incarcerated at Louisiana State Prison at Angola, Jerome Morgan emerged with a mission to transform his experience into a force for change.

Join us for a powerful conversation with Jerome, who now serves as a co-founder of Freed’em, an organization dedicated to mentoring youth in justice-impacted communities and cultivating the next generation of changemakers, mentors, artists, and advocates. Hear firsthand about his journey from exoneration to empowerment, and his ongoing work supporting both youth and exonerated men in New Orleans.

This event offers a rare opportunity to engage with a leader at the intersection of youth mentorship and restorative storytelling.

REGISTER: https://events.uchicago.edu/event/263875-journey-after-justice-a-conversation-with-jerome

Accessibility:
Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72 hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.

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From the River to the Sea to Every Mountain Top: Solidarity as Worldmaking
Mar
26

From the River to the Sea to Every Mountain Top: Solidarity as Worldmaking

Join us for a part two of our conversation series where we discuss an essay by historian and scholar  Robin D. G. Kelley. The essay explores the historical roots and political meaning of Black–Palestinian solidarity. Challenging the idea that solidarity is based solely on shared identity or analogy, Kelley traces connections to the global anti-imperialist movements of the late 1960s and the broader struggle to imagine new worlds rooted in liberation and justice.

This conversation is part of our pre-reading discussion series leading up to our annual public lecture. Participants will reflect on the essay’s key themes, consider the history of international solidarity movements, and engage in collective dialogue about what it means to build principled alliances in the present.

Pre-discussion reading:
https://online.ucpress.edu/jps/article-abstract/48/4/69/109629/From-the-River-to-the-Sea-to-Every-Mountain-Top?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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Research Bites: Selwyn O. Rogers, MD
Mar
25

Research Bites: Selwyn O. Rogers, MD

Join us for a Research Bites conversation with Dr. Selwyn O. Rogers! Read more about them and their work here: https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/find-a-physician/physician/selwyn-o-rogers-jr.

Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, is a widely respected surgeon and public health expert. As founding director of the University of Chicago Medicine Trauma Center, Dr. Rogers is building an interdisciplinary team of specialists to treat patients who suffer injury from life-threatening events, such as car crashes, serious falls and gun violence. His team works with leaders in the city's trauma network to expand trauma care on the South Side.


Dr. Rogers has served in leadership capacities at health centers across the country, including most recently as vice president and chief medical officer for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Rogers has also served as the chair of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine and as the division chief of trauma, burns and surgical critical care at Harvard Medical School. While at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), he helped launch the Center for Surgery and Public Health to understand the nature, quality and utilization of surgical care nationally and internationally.
Additionally, as executive vice president for community health engagement, Dr. Rogers works with faculty across the University of Chicago as well as members of the community to develop a multidisciplinary approach to trauma care and health disparities. His work will help enhance the understanding of social factors that affect victims of violence and underserved populations, in addition to identifying approaches necessary to achieving better outcomes for trauma victims.

Dr. Rogers' clinical and research interests focus on understanding the healthcare needs of underserved populations. He has published numerous articles relating to health disparities and the impact of race and ethnicity on surgical outcomes.

Research Bites is a speaker series created to build community between the center's faculty affiliates and staff members in order to improve how we support and amplify one another's work.

Join the Research Bites listserv to attend and/or get updates on future events: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/researchbites Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72-hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.

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Conversation Series: Robin D.G. Kelley’s essay “Renee Good’s Murder and Other Acts of Terror”
Feb
18

Conversation Series: Robin D.G. Kelley’s essay “Renee Good’s Murder and Other Acts of Terror”

Join us for an intimate pre-reading discussion in advance of our Annual Public Lecture featuring Robin D. G. Kelley. This session will center on Kelley’s powerful essay reflecting on the Minneapolis uprisings following the murder of Renee Goods, examining grief, protest, memory, and the long arc of racial justice struggles. Together, we’ll read, reflect, and engage in guided conversation to deepen our understanding of the political, historical, and emotional stakes of the moment — and to prepare for the broader themes that will be explored during the May public lecture. No prior expertise required; curiosity and thoughtful engagement are encouraged.

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Research Bites: Danielle Roper
Feb
11

Research Bites: Danielle Roper

Join us for a Research Bites conversation with Danielle Roper! Read more about them and their work here: https://rll.uchicago.edu/danielle-roper.

Danielle Roper is Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. She holds a Ph.D in Spanish and Portuguese and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Her work on racial and queer performance, feminist activism, and racial formation in contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean has appeared in GLQ, Latin American Research Review, and Small Axe.  Her first book Hemispheric Blackface: Impersonation and Nationalist Fictions in the Americas was written with the support of the Neubauer Family Assistant Fellowship and is with Duke University Press (May 2025). 

Research Bites is a speaker series created to build community between the center's faculty affiliates and staff members in order to improve how we support and amplify one another's work.

Join the Research Bites listserv to attend and/or get updates on future events: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/researchbites Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72-hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.

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Ryan Jobson: Peasants and Capital: Dominica and the World
Jan
23

Ryan Jobson: Peasants and Capital: Dominica and the World

Ryan Cecil Jobson will discuss the new edition of Michel-Rolph Trouillot's bookPeasants and Capital: Dominica and the World Economy. He will be joined in conversation by Mark Hauser and William Balan-Gaubert. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

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Liminal Encounters: Counternarratives of Rohingya Refugees
Jan
23
to Jan 24

Liminal Encounters: Counternarratives of Rohingya Refugees

You are cordially invited to attend "Liminal Encounters: Counternarratives of Rohingya Refugees," an interdisciplinary symposium centered on the intersections between diaspora, statelessness, and borders. This event forms the third annual symposium of “Borderlands of Sonic Encounter,” Professor Philip Bohlman’s International Balzan Prize Project (2023–28). The symposium will unfold across two days: January 23–24. Day 1 will feature panel presentations and a keynote presentation by Tin Mar Oo at the Franke Institute for the Humanities. Day 2 will include a roundtable on documentary filmmaking and a workshop on Rohingya music at the Rohingya Culture Center of Chicago, as well as an evening performance of Rohingya songs featuring Hamid Ullah at the Bramble Arts Loft. Food and drink will be provided between the panels on Day 1 and between the workshop and the roundtable on Day 2. The evening performance will be followed by a reception. Scan the QR codes in the attached flyers for more details.

If you have any questions or concerns about the symposium, please direct your inquiries to Tomal (thossain@uchicago.edu) and Vicky (vickymm@uchicago.edu).

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New Years Day
Jan
1

New Years Day

Happy New Year!

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Christmas Day
Dec
25

Christmas Day

Center closed

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Research Bites: Anna Martine Whitehead
Dec
10

Research Bites: Anna Martine Whitehead

Join us for a Research Bites conversation with Anna Martine Whitehead!

Whitehead is a faculty member at Department of Visual Arts and Chicago-based performance artist who dedicates her time thinking about the relationships between marginalized bodies, systems of violence, and modes of perception. In addition to building performances, Anna Martine writes, gathers, creates still and moving images, and makes space to iter-a-tively address questions around protocols of theater, dance, and institutional knowledge. Using a transdisciplinary approach, they bring their body and others into contact with those instruments historically weaponized for both containment and liberation such as: architecture, language, and technologies of memory-keeping.

Research Bites is a speaker series created to build community between the center's faculty affiliates and staff members in order to improve how we support and amplify one another's work.

Join the Research Bites listserv to attend and/or get updates on future events: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/researchbites

Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72-hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.

Read more about them and their work here: https://dova.uchicago.edu/opc/anna-martine-whitehead

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Sip + Shop
Dec
4

Sip + Shop

Join us for Sip + Shop, a monthly gathering at the L1 Retail Store that celebrates local creative entrepreneurs with a curated shopping experience, good drinks, bites, and even better vibes. Each month, our Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Peter Gaona of Reformed School, invites guest entrepreneurs to share their work and connect with the community—it’s an easy, joyful way to #SupportSouthSideArtists.

As part of The Winter Lounge, our December Sip + Shop brings an extra dash of holiday spirit with ornament and wreath making activities! Featured entrepreneurs Raíces Plant Bodega and Indigo Child Apothecary to share their work and make new connections. Come sip, shop, create, and spread some warmth with us on the Arts Block.

 

All APL programs are free and open to the public. To help us continue to provide these programs and build a hub for arts & culture on the South Side, we appreciate donations of all sizes. Your support sustains the rich ecosystem of artists that make the Arts Block so vibrant. To make a donation, please visit our giving page.

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Research Bites: Janelle Goodwill
Nov
15

Research Bites: Janelle Goodwill

Join us for a Research Bites conversation with Janelle Goodwill!

Janelle R. Goodwill is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Janelle earned her MSW, MS in psychology, and PhD in social work and psychology from the University of Michigan. She completed her undergraduate studies at Michigan State University. Goodwill founded and directs of the Positive Urban Research and Prevention of Suicide Experiences (PURPOSE) Lab. 

Research Bites is a speaker series created to build community between the center's faculty affiliates and staff members in order to improve how we support and amplify one another's work.  

Join the Research Bites listserv to attend and/or get updates on future events: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/researchbites

Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72-hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.


Read more about them and their work here: https://crownschool.uchicago.edu/directory/janelle-r-goodwill

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Research Bites: Samantha Coleman
Oct
29

Research Bites: Samantha Coleman

  • Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join us for a Research Bites conversation with Samantha Coleman!

Samantha Coleman, PhD, serves as the Associate Director of Leadership Development for the Harry L. Davis Center at Chicago Booth. Coleman is a leadership expert whose clinical background deeply informs her work in executive coaching, organizational consulting, leadership development, and higher education. With a PhD in Organizational Leadership and years of experience as a licensed therapist, she brings a keen understanding of human behavior, emotional intelligence, and resilience to her roles. Now the Senior Associate Director of Leadership Development at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, she designs transformative learning experiences that empower leaders at all stages. Her “heart” and “legacy work” is as co-founder of Black to the Beginning, LLC. As a late discovery adoptee (LDA), she blends storytelling and advocacy to ensure the Black Adoption Experience is accurately conveyed for holistic understanding of this nuanced family dynamic. '

When she's not leading groups of Booth alums in leadership development, she's also a recent published author and the co-founder of "The Black Adoption" podcast, which both details her own story of being a Black adoptee of Black parents, but also aims to center other Black voices who have experienced similar circumstances.

Read more about them and their work here: https://intranet.uchicago.edu/en/news-and-events/news/2023/11/staff-spotlight-on-dr-samantha-coleman

Research Bites is a speaker series created to build community between the center's faculty affiliates and staff members in order to improve how we support and amplify one another's work. Join the Research Bites listserv to attend and/or get updates on future events: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/researchbites

Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact Tierra Kilpatrick 72-hours in advance at kilpatr3@uchicago.edu.

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Inaugural Public Art Project featuring Yvette Mayorga
Jun
20

Inaugural Public Art Project featuring Yvette Mayorga

CSRPC is proud to partner with Arts & Public Life (APL) in the university’s first Public Art Project.

The project will feature Chicago artist Yvette Mayorga who has been commissioned to fabricate and install large-scale work(s) of art on the Arts Lawn, APL’s outdoor green space on the University of Chicago’s Arts Block.

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More Beautiful, More Terrible at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
May
8

More Beautiful, More Terrible at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row is a counter narrative, a sustained act of resistance, an exhibition that reveals the intimate experiences, transformative ideas, and beautiful dreams of people facing the stark realities of life and de facto life sentencing in Illinois. These sentences are commonly described as death by incarceration because they condemn people to confinement until their death. Nevertheless, as contributing artist, Reginald BoClair, states, “Though sentenced to die in prison, we are alive.”

Through personal narratives, artistic expressions, compelling installations, and poetic verse, this exhibition shines a light on the people who inhabit 'life row.'

The U of I exhibition features select works from the original Chicago exhibition along with artistic works and programming from Project 9161— an initiative led by Dr. Rachel McMillian in the College of Education (UIUC) that explores the world of Afrofuturism, visionary narratives, and abolition through the lenses of Black system-impacted scholars.

More Beautiful, More Terrible was originally created by the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project's Think Tank (at Stateville Prison) and the Beyond Prisons Initiative in 2023-2024. It was co-curated and co-organized by Alice Kim and Aaron Hughes.

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Book Talk: Love in a F*d Up World
May
7

Book Talk: Love in a F*d Up World

Join Dean Spade and CSRPC Faculty Affiliate Eman Abdelhadi in conversation around Spade's new book Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together. This event will take place at Haymarket House, and will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.

**This in person event will be live-streamed through Haymarket Books. Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the video on the day of the event. Haymarket House is a fully accessible space and we will have ASL interpretation during the program. 

We ask that all in-person attendees wear masks in the event space during the program for the health and well-being of the speaker and other guests. We will have a reception afterwards with light refreshments and books available for purchase.**

This event is cosponsored by Pilsen Community Books and In These Times. 

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Remembering a Legend : Karen Lewis, with Elizabeth Todd Breland
May
6

Remembering a Legend : Karen Lewis, with Elizabeth Todd Breland

In 2012, Karen Lewis led the Chicago Teachers Union to a historic strike, challenging the city’s powerful mayor and paving the way for an unprecedented wave of teacher strikes in the decade that followed. 

But Lewis’s life took her in rich and surprising directions long before she landed in the CTU President’s office. I Didn’t Come Here to Lie, written in collaboration with historian and education expert Elizabeth Todd-Breland, tells Lewis’s story in full for the first time, capturing her lively wit, her charisma, and her commitment to building the schools and communities teachers, students, and families deserve.

From her childhood on Chicago’s South Side to her teen years organizing Black Power walkouts, from her education at Mount Holyoke and Dartmouth to her years in Oklahoma and Barbados and her stints in medical school and film school, readers follow Lewis through a life full of exploration. Wherever she was, she maintained a strong commitment to building fairness. She found her calling in the classroom, teaching science for more than twenty years before becoming a union leader in Chicago.

Up until her untimely death from brain cancer in 2021, Karen Lewis was spirited, unshakeable, and fierce. She remains a model for current organizers and teachers doing the day-to-day work of building a better world. I Didn’t Come Here to Lie is a testament to one of the true revolutionaries of her generation.

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Eve Ewing New Book Launch, "Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of Racism"
Apr
29

Eve Ewing New Book Launch, "Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of Racism"

Come hear Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity Eve Ewing discussing her new book, Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.

In the book, Ewing thoroughly examines how U.S. schools are intentionally imbued in an ethos of separation and inequality.

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"In Their Hands" Film Screening with Ronnie Carrasquillo and Filmmaker Dan Protess
Feb
12

"In Their Hands" Film Screening with Ronnie Carrasquillo and Filmmaker Dan Protess

Join us for this screening of the new documentary about Ronnie Carrasquillo's 47-year fight for freedom and the politics of parole. A community conversation with Ronnie Carrasquillo, Dan Protess (filmmaker), Matt Epperson (Smart Decarceration Project), and Alice Kim (Beyond Prisons Initiative, CSRPC) will follow the film. 

Snacks provided. 

Co-sponsored by the Crown Family School of Social Work, Smart Decarceration Project, Beyond Prisons Initiative at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture, and the Prison+Neighborhood Arts/Education Project

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UChicago Fireside Chat with Ruby Bridges in Commemoration of MLK Day
Jan
29

UChicago Fireside Chat with Ruby Bridges in Commemoration of MLK Day

Continuing a rich tradition at UChicago, this year’s MLK Commemoration Celebration features a conversation with Ruby Bridges.

Bridges is a civil rights icon, activist, and author; 2025 marks 65 years since she, at the age of six, became the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school alone in Louisiana. Her walk to the front door of the school was immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With and her story changed the course of American history.

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Abolition and Carceralities Study Group
Jan
29

Abolition and Carceralities Study Group

In this new study group, we aim to cultivate an interdisciplinary, intellectual community invested in research questions and methodologies related to carceral systems, the carceral state, and oppositional formations that seek their abolition. This is a space for graduate students, fellows, instructors, faculty, and others to convene and discuss our works in progress, commiserate about challenges associated with an abolitionist approach in academic research, and explore/exchange emergent modes of abolitionist praxis.

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Abolition and Carceralities Study Group
Jan
15

Abolition and Carceralities Study Group

In this new study group, we aim to cultivate an interdisciplinary, intellectual community invested in research questions and methodologies related to carceral systems, the carceral state, and oppositional formations that seek their abolition. This is a space for graduate students, fellows, instructors, faculty, and others to convene and discuss our works in progress, commiserate about challenges associated with an abolitionist approach in academic research, and explore/exchange emergent modes of abolitionist praxis.

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Story Space and Time
Jan
8

Story Space and Time

These workshops are an open environment for listening, creating, and sharing stories while centering communities of color. This is a place for everyone, no university affiliation required. We are so excited to have you in our story space! 

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