Fall 2023 Schedule

Embodying the University’s commitment to extend Carolina’s resources to all citizens and community members across the state, Carolina Public Humanities offers engaging and innovative public seminars, lectures, reading groups, and other special events on a variety of topics and themes throughout the year. Our programs draw upon the humanities to nurture a deeper understanding of history and culture, enrich the life of the mind, and contribute to the development of a more humane world. To learn more about our upcoming programs, click the links for details.

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Weekend Seminars

• Digging Down and Going Up! The NYC Subway and the Airplane in the Transportation Revolution | Saturday, September 9th (9:00am-12:30pm)

• Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt: Erstwhile Enemies, Irksome Allies| Saturday, September 23rd (9:30am-3:00pm)

• Art, Music, and the Aesthetics of Power in Early Modern Europe | Friday, September 29th (5pm-8:45pm)

• Transformations and Decline in the Late Roman Empire | Saturday, October 28th (9:00am-12:30pm)

• What is Opera? | Saturday, November 18th (9:30am-3:00pm)

• Modern Civic Life and Public Health Across the Americas | Saturday, December 2nd (9:00am-12:30pm)

Great Books Reading Groups

• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer | Tuesdays, September 5, 12, and 19 (10:00am-12:00pm)

• “Mourning and Melancholia” by Sigmund Freud |Wednesday, September 27 (10:00am-12:00pm)

• The Screenplay as Literature: The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont, Adapted from the Novella by Stephen King | Tuesdays, October 3 and 10 (10:00am-12:00pm)

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Tuesdays, October 24 and 31 (10:00am-12:00pm)

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard | Wednesdays, November 8 and 15 (10:00am-12:00pm)

• The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky | Tuesdays, November 28, December 5, and December 12 (10:00am-12:00pm)

Humanities in Action

• Trouble at Carolina: The Complex Relations between UNC and State Governance | Wednesday, September 13 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• The Propagandists’ Playbook: How Search is Manipulated for Political Gain | Wednesday, September 20 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• Barriers to First-Class Citizenship Faced by US-Born Children in Mixed-Status Families | Wednesday, October 4 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• Black Women in Politics | Wednesday, October 11 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• Poverty in North Carolina and Beyond | Wednesday, October 18 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• The Democratization of AI: How Generative AI Will Change Our World  | Wednesday, November 1 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• The Rights of Nature: An Eco-Centric Vision for Saving the Planet | Wednesday, November 8 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

• Abortion Laws and Women’s Reproductive Health | Wednesday, November 15 (4:30pm-6:00pm)

Special Events

• WOMEN OF NOW Book Signing and Talk | Tuesday, August 29 (5:30-7:00 PM) NEW EVENT!

• Snapshot: Climate Exhibition Opening | Thursday, September 7 (5:00-7:00 PM)

• Take Two Tour at the Ackland Art Museum | Friday, September 8 ( 2:00-3:00pm) THIS EVENT IS FULL

• Langston Hughes’s 1931 Visit to Chapel Hill: The Scottsboro Case and Legal Lynching | September 19 (6:30-7:30 PM)

• The Ongoing Fight For Freedom: Stories of NC’s Black Veterans | September 21 (6:30-7:45pm) NEW EVENT!

• Private Booker T. Spicely Symposium | September 22 (9:00 AM-3:30 PM) NEW EVENT!

• Art and Literature at the Ackland Art Museum | Friday, October 6 (3:00-4:30PM)

• Consider This…Artificial Intelligence | Tuesday, October 24 (6:30-8:00 PM)

• Community Read & Conversation: By Hands Now Known | Wednesday, November 1 (6:00-7:30 PM)

  NEW EVENT!

• The Italian Baroque: Masters of Sentiment – Pre-Concert Lecture | Sunday, November 12 (2:00-3:00 PM) NEW EVENT!

• Community Read & Author Talk: By Hands Now Known | Saturday, December 2 (2:00 PM) NEW EVENT!

• Juan Álamo | Wednesday, September 27 (6:00-7:30 PM)

• Dawn Landes | Wednesday, October 25 (6:00-7:30 PM)

• Kate McGarry & Keith Ganz | Wednesday, November 29 (6:00-7:30pm)

Biodiversity Garden Parties

This NEW programming from Carolina Public Humanities and the Carolina Biodiversity Collaborative will pair scientists and humanists for a series of informal, interactive events in the wild spaces of the Triangle. UPDATE: We are going to move this programming to spring to allow for the best possible events during a naturally abundant time in North Carolina. Details will be in our Spring brochure and website. . Click here for a sneak peak.

State Outreach Events

• “Why is Our City Called Fayetteville?” : Lafayette’s Life, Ideas, and American Tour of 1824-25 with Lloyd Kramer | Friday, September 8 at 1:00pm | Fayetteville Tech Community College NEW EVENT!

• Indivisible with Sonny Kelly | Wednesday, September 6 at 6:00pm | Durham County Public Library

• Indivisible with Sonny Kelly | Tuesday, September 12 at 5:30pm | Fayetteville Technical Community College

• Indivisible with Sonny Kelly | Wednesday, September 13 at 1:00pm | Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington

• “Barbary Pirates”: Politics, Faith, and Violence on the Mediterranean Sea with Max Owre | Monday, October 9 at 5:30pm | Wayne Community College in Goldsboro

Carolina K-12 Events

• North Carolina & the Fire of Freedom | Tue., August 15 | 9:00 am – 5:00 pm | Raleigh, NC