There’s a ton to do on campus in November. Here are a dozen academic events to keep you busy this month.
WHAT: Genome Day
WHEN: November 1st at 1-5 p.m.
WHERE: Orpheum Children’s Museum, downtown Champaign
ABOUT: Genome Day, hosted by the Institute of Genomic Biology, is an opportunity to educate the community about genomes, genes, DNA, and evolution. Although primarily for children of grade-school age, all members of the community were welcome to attend this free event. Exhibits and activities are designed to present energy use and production, environmental, health, and other fundamental research at the Institute of Genomic Biology in an approachable manner for all ages.
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WHAT: A Salute to Veterans with Captain Ian Gindes, piano
WHEN: November 2nd at 3 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Center, Foellinger Great Hall
ABOUT: An officer in the US Army National Guard, pianist Ian Gindes regularly performs in honor of members of the armed services, their families, and victims of terrorism and war. This afternoon concert of patriotic music and works by American composers features George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
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WHAT: Native Heritage Month: Noontime Performance
WHEN: November 3rd at 12 p.m.
WHERE: Illini Union Courtyard Café
ABOUT: All month, performances and events will be held around campus in honor of Native American Heritage Month. On November 3, the series kicks off with an Apache Crown Dance featuring Ronnie Preston.
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WHAT: Lecture: “The Archaeology of Island Hunger: The Famines and National Improvement Policy, 19th-20th century Inishark, Connemara, Ireland” by Ian Kujit
WHEN: November 6th at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: Hunger and famine have always been powerful drivers of economic and social change. Despite the recognition of hunger as a driver of change, however, researchers have yet to fully develop nuanced and detailed understandings of how the Irish famines of the 1840s and 1880s transformed small, rural communities throughout western Ireland. While the Irish famine was one of the world’s major humanitarian crises of the nineteenth to twentieth century, and the impetus for mass emigration to North America, researchers are only now starting to understand it as a local Irish social processes that resulted in the creation of 19th and 20th century national policies and the development of new institutions, such as workhouses, orphanages and poorhouses. Focusing on the island of Inishark, in this presentation Kujit explores the archaeology of the famines, and argues that national policies of land reform, with the reorganization of private property in the hands of islanders rather than remote landlords, fundamentally altered the organization of coastal Irish households and village.
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WHAT: Saturday Physics for Everyone: Building Mountains: How Forces in the Earth Raise Rock Miles into the Sky
WHEN: November 8th at 10:15 a.m.
WHERE: 141 Loomis Laboratory, 1110 W. Green Street, Urbana
ABOUT: The highest mountains on Earth rise almost to the heights that jet planes fly. It takes a lot of thrust to get a plane into the sky, and needless to say, a plane weighs much less than a mountain. What forces can drive the immense mass of a mountain range up against the pull of gravity? In this presentation, we’ll explore the causes of mountain building, and several related phenomena, including earthquakes, volcanism, continental drift, and sea-floor spreading. We’ll see that our planet is uniquely dynamic, for a reason.
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WHAT: Millercomm Lecture Series: From the Great War to the Bloodlands: Rethinking Europe’s History (Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale University)
WHEN: November 10th at 3 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 South Gregory, Urbana
ABOUT: Europe’s early 20th century was an era of unprecedented brutality in human history–the 16 million dead of World War I followed in short order by the 60 million casualties of World War II. Historian Timothy Snyder, the foremost scholar of the period, presents his path-breaking interpretation of Europe’s Bloodlands, offering a new theory of political violence in the modern times.
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WHAT: UI Steel Band and I-Pan Concert
WHEN: November 11th at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Center, Tryon Festival Theatre
ABOUT: These groups perform calypso, soca, jazz, and popular works.
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WHAT: The Great War Film Series: Good Soldier Schweik (1960)
WHEN: November 13th at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Auditorium, Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Dr., Champaign
ABOUT: This is a deft satire by Axel von Ambesser that undercuts the adage that a soldier must always obey orders, no matter what. At the heart of the story is Schwejk (Heinz Ruhmann), a canine salesman who is drafted into the army during World War I. The setting is Bohemia when it was under the sway of a combined Austro-Hungarian rule. Once Schwejk has his uniform on he so devotedly follows the very letter of the law, every order that is given him, that he comes off as a total idiot. Nevertheless, he manages quite well with this tactic, whether it is feigned or not.
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WHAT: Marching Illini in Concert
WHEN: November 16th at 3 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Center, Foellinger Great Hall
ABOUT: The Best Band in the Land heads indoors for this Dads Weekend concert featuring its signature tunes.
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WHAT: Spurlock Museum Guild Lecture and Performance Series: Maya Images: 1978 to 1986
WHEN: November 16th at 2 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: In celebration of the exhibit Artists of the Loom: Maya Weavers of Guatemala, guest curator Margot Blum Schevill and ethnographic photographer Jeffrey Jay Foxx will present a program of reflection upon images, memories, and knowledge gained in more than three decades of work among the Maya. As Jeffery states: “My mission has been to document the Maya and their way of life, not to turn them into my art form. That said, I tend to show the moments of beautiful light and gesture.”
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WHAT: Less Commonly Taught Languages Film Series: “Queen”
WHEN: November 20th at 6 p.m.
WHERE: Lucy Ellis Lounge, 1080 Foreign Languages Building
ABOUT: A Delhi girl from a traditional family sets out on a solo honeymoon after her marriage gets cancelled. Directed by Vikas Bahl.
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WHAT: Lecture: “Helen’s Treasures in the Abbey of Clairvaux: Relics and Monastic Devotion in the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade” (Anne Lester, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder)
WHEN: November 20th at 5 p.m.
WHERE: 1064 Lincoln Hall
ABOUT: This lecture is part of the Medieval Colloquium Series.
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We live near a major university and a community college. There are smart people that come here every week to talk to the general public about interesting topics. Here’s a sampling of the talks and events you can find in the not-so-ivy-covered buildings near you. These events are free and will fill your brain with yummy knowledge (and sometimes will fill your stomach with free eats).