- Spring 2021
Spring 2021
Why Academics Need to be Part of the Farmers’ Protests in India?: University Honors is proud to co-host a webinar on the historic farmers' agitation currently underway in India. Other participating institutions are: University of Amsterdam, School of Cultural Analysis; University College London; British Association of South Asian Studies; and The Scholars at Risk Network.
Saturday, February 27, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Recording available here
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Honors Faculty Research Series: Dr. Jean-Pierre Reed (Associate Professor, Sociology) discusses his new book, Sandinista Narratives: Religion, Sandinismo, and Emotions in the Making of the Nicaraguan Insurrection and Revolution with John Foran (Professor, Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara). The work examines the cultural, ideological, eventful, and emotional factors behind the Nicaraguan insurrection and revolution.
Tuesday, March 2, 5:00 to 7 PM.
Recording available here
- Fall 2020
Fall 2020
HearTomorrow: A free online lecture by Benji Kanters promotes awareness of the increasing problem of noise and music-induced hearing loss. Kanters has 45 years of experience in the music and audio industries and will present new strategies for promoting hearing conservation. Read more here. Email honors@siu.edu for the ZOOM link and write “Sound Workshop” in the email subject line.
Friday, Aug. 28th, 1 -P.M.
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Book Launch: Celebrating a new anthology by Honors Faculty, Dr. Jeffrey Punske (Linguistics), coedited with Nathan Sanders and Amy Fountain, Language Invention and Linguistics Pedagogy. (Oxford University Press). Read more
Thursday, October 15, 5:00-6:00 PM with discussion to follow. To join in, request a zoom link from honors@siu.edu.
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The Fall 2020 Glassman Lecture will feature the artist, Ben Lowder. Titled, Temples of Little Egypt, the art exhibition and installation at Bucky's Haven on the SIU Carbondale campus draws together sacred geometry, ancient wisdom traditions, and the legacy of Buckminster Fuller into a holistic narrative to guide our collective trajectory toward an abundant and integrated future. Read more
Professor Jay Needham's, Nature of Sound Honors Seminar builds on Ben Loweder's installation. Listen here.
Wednesday, October 28, 5:00 PM: Meet the artist virtual talk and showcase.
Several limited capacities “Meet the Artist” events will take place at Bucky’s Haven: October 27th, 28th & 29th (RSVP only). Contact Elizabeth Donoghue at elizabeth.donoghue@siu.edu for more information
Recording of the Glassman Lecture
- Spring 2020
Spring 2020
Discovering Dunham: A Lecture Exploration with Laurie Goux In celebration of Black History Month, Laurie Goux will give a lecture exploration, in which she will speak about Katherine Dunham’s work as a choreographer and political activist and explore the movements of the Yanavalou, an Afro-Haitian ritual dance that Dunham drew upon in her choreography.
Thursday, February 6th, 4-6 PM, Furr Auditorium
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The Tenney Distinguished lecture, Climate Change: Understanding the Role of Humans will be delivered by Dr. Justin Schoof, Professor Geography, Director, School of Earth Systems and Sustainability. Read more
Thursday, February 20th, 6-8 PM, Guyon Auditorium
In the news
Did you miss the lecture, check it out here!
Tenney Lecture 2020 Climate Change from Saluki World on Vimeo.
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Breaking News February 20, 2020: Interim Chancellor John Dunn signs the Second Nature Climate Commitment. This would not have happened today without the engaged leadership of students on campus and the Sustainability Office. Four Honors students are standing behind the Chancellor in this picture! Thank you, Gage Mofield, Cecilia Albert-Black, Carly Kasicki, Kirsten Gard. And, not pictured -- Jacob Bolton and Grant Depoy.
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Survival Cluster Faculty Showcase: Dr. Kenneth Stikkers (Professor, Philosophy); Dr. David Lightfoot (Professor, Plant Soil and Agricultural Systems); Dr. Logan Park (Associate Professor, Forestry Recreation and Park Management); Dr. Alfred Frankowski, (Assistant Professor, Philosophy); and Dr. Jean-Pierre Reed (Associate Professor, Sociology) will present on their research-teaching about the year’s theme, Survival. Read more
Tuesday, March 3rd, 4-6 PM, Guyon Auditorium
- Fall 2019
Fall 2019
Survival Cluster Student Showcase: Survival and the Arts (Professor Laurel Fredrickson) is having a showing of Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow on December 5th at 6 PM In Morris 724. Innovations in Sustainability (student-generated by Carly Kasicki & Jacob Coddington); Forests and Humans (Professor Cade Bursell); and Survival Stories (Professor Pinckney Benedict) will showcase work and make presentations, on December 6th from 5:30-7:CPM in the Morris Library Guyon and Rotunda.
December 5th and 6th, 2019
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Race, Rape and the Ultimate Scapegoat: In anticipation of the Department of Theater's production of To kill a Mocking Bird. Written by Harper Lee and Directed by Segun Ojewuyi, the Honors Program hosted a discussion featuring Dr. Jyotsna Kapur (Professor, Cinema, and Photography), McCall Logan (MFA Student in Playwriting, Instructor, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies), Caleb R. McKinley-Portee (Ph.D. Student in Communication Studies, Representative for Africana Studies), and Victoria Estes (Theater Undergraduate studying Dramaturgy and Playwriting). The title of the panel was taken from Tracey Owens Patton and Julie Snyder-Yuly, Any Four Black Men Will Do: Rape, Race, and the Ultimate Scapegoat, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 37, No. 6 (Jul. 2007), pp. 859-895
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November 12th, 4-6 PM, Morris 112
The Charles D. Tenney Lecture, Fall 2019 features a film screening and discussion with the filmmaker. Anand Patwardhan will screen Vivek/Reason a documentary epic that traces the rise of authoritarianism in India and resistance to it. A rare opportunity to meet one of the world's leading documentary filmmakers and experience the power of cinema as the maker and keeper of history on the side of struggles for democracy and justice. In the press
October 21st, 2019: Screening and discussion 4:00-6:00 PM, to be followed by a reception; Guyon Auditorium, Morris Library.
A Review of Reason by Jyotsna Kapur in Jump Cut, No. 59, Fall 2019
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The Nancy and Michael Glassman lecture will be delivered by Kurt Przybilla, a celebrated inventor, and educator, known for his media-based interactive projects that teach children complex math principles. He is particularly known for his invention of “Tetra Tops,” the world’s first spinning top with more than one axis of spin, featured in the New York Times and the Smithsonian Institute.
Przybilla will speak on Fuller’s “World Game,” a concept that Fuller proposed in the 1960s here at SIUC as “…a tool that would facilitate a comprehensive, anticipatory, design science approach to the problems of the world.”
October 9th, 2019: Guyon Auditorium in Morris Library on Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception.
October 8th, 2019: "Build a Geodesic Dome" Join Kurt Przybilla, in constructing a geodesic dome from locally sourced bamboo in the Morris Library quad from 2:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m.
October 7th, 2019: Meet the Inventor Workshop. Przybilla will conduct a workshop with 6th, 7th, and 8th graders on geometric construction, 4-5:15, Student Center Ohio Room.
In the press
Recording of Kurt Przybilla's Glassman's lecture
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From Fall 2019, some University Honors Seminars have been organized around a themed cluster. Our Fall 2019-Spring 2020 theme is Survival. The Inaugural Faculty Showcase and Student Awards ceremony highlights students on their accomplishments, as well as provides faculty with the platform to share what their students are studying throughout the semester; including our first student-generated course.
October 1st, 2019: Inaugural Faculty Showcase and Student Awards, 3:00 pm until 5:00 pm, Guyon Auditorium in Morris Library
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The University Honors Program collaborates with campus colleagues to celebrate a month around Labor and Art. From August 29-September 27, there will be a poetry reading, presentations, screenings, and an art exhibit. Check it out here
- Spring 2019
Spring 2019
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Buckminster Fuller's Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth legacy:
February 5-9, 2019:
The Honors Program collaborated with MCMA, Morris Library, Sustainability Studies, School of Architecture, and two RSOs—Sense and the Honors Assembly to organize the First Tenney Lecture of 2019 on Buckminster Fuller, especially honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of his Spaceship Earth; a work he wrote on our campus. In fact, the Foreword to the book was written by Professor Charles Tenney.
Event Poster
Our main guest for the Buckminster-focused Tenney Lecture is David McConville, a media artist, researcher, and educator who serves as the Chairperson of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and is co-founder of Spherical, an integrative design and research studio based in Oakland, CA. Recording of David McConville's Lecture, An Invisible Revolution
Kurt Przybilla, from the Buckminster Fuller Institute conducted a workshop, “The Geometry of Thinking."
Patricia Ravasio, who wrote The Girl from Spaceship Earth joined us as well, introducing Fuller's ideas to students on campus.
A Month of Julius Caesar: April -May 4, 2019:
In conjunction with SIUC's Theater Department's production of Julius Caesar, Professor Avrahm Oz will deliver the keynote address. But, we have a month-long set of activities planned in collaboration with the Departments of English, Cinema and Photography, Languages, Culture and International Trade, and the Classics Club.
April 9th – May 5th, In collaboration with the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Mass Communication and Media Arts; Morris Library; Departments of English, Classics, Cinema and Photography; and three RSOs—the Africana Theater Lab, Classics Club, and the Honors Assembly.
Julius Caesar has captured the popular imagination again today. Segun Ojewuyi (Professor, Department of Theater) interprets Julius Caesar, with the working tagline "the audacity of hate" and Avrahm Oz (Professor Emeritus, Theater, University of Haifa and the Tenney Distinguished Speaker) takes his cue from Brutus, to deliver the lecture, Fashion it thus: The battle of narratives and political assassination. Both bring home the contemporary relevance of Julius Caesar and challenge us to think about the compelling power of hate, fear, friendship, and betrayal in politics and our complicity in it.
Film screening (Julius Caesar, 1953), opera singing, and discussion led by Professors Walter Metz (Cinema and Photography), Anne Fletcher (Theater), Mont Allen (Classics), and Patrick McGrath (English). A surprise addition was Briana G. Sitton, who is pursuing an MFA in the School of Music, singing from Giulio Cesare (1724), the opera by George Frideric Handel. Hosted by the Classics Club. April 9, 6:00-9 PM, Faner Auditorium Read More
Caesar and Classics Trivia and Role Play Night: UHP Conference Room (Morris 112), Monday, April 22nd from 5-7 PM. Light refreshments are provided by the UHP.
The Charles D. Tenney Distinguished Lecture: Fashion it Thus: The Battle of Narratives and Political
Assassination by Dr. Avraham Oz, Professor Emeritus of Theater at the University of Haifa, Israel. May 1st, 2019 at 4:00 PM. McLeod Theatre, Free and open to the public, Reception to follow. Read more
Caesar Salad & Julius Caesar： A Final Dialogue: Friday, May 3rd from 12:30-1:30 PM, Honors Conference Room (Morris 112). Come enjoy a bowl of Caesar Salad and talk-back with Professor Oz.
Show-times for Julius Caesar (Directed by Segun Ojewuyi):
Honors Student and Highschooler Matinee Special: May 2nd, 2019 at 10:00 AM. Free for UHP Students.
Other show dates: May 2nd, 2019 – May 4th, 2019 at 7:30 PM. Sunday Matinee, May 5th, 2019 at 2:00 PM.
Translating Shakespeare, Pre-show lecture by Avrahm Oz: Sunday, May 5, 1:00 PM. The Christian H. Moe Laboratory Theater, Communications Bldg.
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Our students do us proud at the Honors Council of Regional Illinois Conference, February 2019.
Back Row: Grant Depoy, Jacob Bolton, Adam White, Jessica Jurak
Front Row: Abby Sellek, Rachel Stuckel, Dr. Melinda Yeomans (Associate Director, UHP), Emily Buice.
Presentation titles:
- Grant Depoy and Jacob Bolton, The Saluki Spaceship Initiative: Evergreen Model
- Jessica Jurak, Improving Early Detection of Cancer Using Laser Ablation-Resonance Enhanced Photoionization Mass Spectrometry (LA-REPMS)
- Adam White, Recent Advances and Discoveries in RNAi Technology
- Abby Sellek, Insights for Developing Millennial Leaders: How to Cultivate Character and Inspiration
- Emily Buice, From Foreign to Familiar: Mac & Cheese’s Journey to America’s Comfort Food
- Rachel Stuckel, Spanish/English Bilingualism in the United States: How Cultural Awareness and Education Could Help Latinos Form a New Identity
"Having the opportunity to travel with a group of intelligent and kind Honors Program affiliates was inspiring, fun, and helpful! I had fun interacting with students with diverse interests that all coalesce into aiding humanity and Earth. Happy to be here!"
Jacob A. Bolton
Honors Themed Cluster showcase: 
We are proud to welcome Elisabetta Matsumoto as our distinguished speaker for the Charles D. Tenney Distinguished Speaker Spring 2023 in collaboration with the Yellow Moon Gyroid Installation.
We are proud to welcome Sujan Shrestha as the Charles D. Tenney Distinguished Speaker Spring 2023.
We are proud to welcome Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba as our distinguished speaker for the Fall 22 Glassman Lecture. The lecture will also be live on zoom. To register: rb.gy/5yw9qa Read more
Honors Faculty showcase
