Open House Schedule
Humanities Open House - Full Schedule
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Saturday, October 4, 2025
This event is free and open to the public, no registration required.
11:00 to 11:50 A.M. - RESOURCE FAIR
Location: Illini Union, Illini Rooms B & C (first floor) - Brunch provided
- Opening remarks: Deans Venetria Patton (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and Claire Stewart (University Library)
- No Strings Attached a cappella group
- Tables with 30+ academic units, student groups, and campus resources represented
12 to 12:50 P.M . - DEPARTMENT EVENTS
Location: Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics Building (LCLB)
Lobby/Atrium
- East Asian Languages and Cultures - Origami - Japanese paper folding; East Asian Calligraphy
- French and Italian - Midwestern Games in French and Italian
- Slavic Languages and Literatures - Write your name in clay using Cyrillic script
Lucy Ellis Lounge
Humanities Technologies, Evergreen and New
- Skeumorph Live Printing Demo - with Ryan Cordell (English). Learn about Skeumorph Press and BookLab
- VR Language Experience - Spanish and Portuguese: Immerse yourself in language learning using virtual reality to learn Spanish. Participants will be able to use a VR headset to interact with AI chat bots or chat with other users from around the world in an immersive 3D environment.
Image
- Display/demo of the wellness robot N1CØLE - African American Studies - N1CØLE the Emotional Support Robot is a collaboration between Jaimya Freeman, Keith Jacobs, and Dr. Ruby Mendenhall. She was initially created for the NAACP ACT-SO competition when Jaimya was in 7th grade. She was created to provide emotional support for youth. We programmed N1CØLE's “mind” from articles by Black psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and others.
Classroom 1120
12:25 to 12:50 p.m.: Germanic Languages and Literatures - A “Student Smörgåsbord” - Take in a lightning round of short presentations given by undergrads and faculty in the department (and members of the German Club and Scandinavian Club) on their varied academic and extracurricular experiences.
Location: Nevada Street outside LCLB south doors
Moo Mobile - Ice cream truck - Available 12:00–1:50!
Humanities Stage
“All the world's a stage”...including our own Quad!
Location: Foellinger Auditorium forecourt (rain location: Foellinger Auditorium lobby)
12:00 p.m.: Medieval Studies Program - Medieval York Play
acting troupe
What is a York Play? Performing annually in the English city of York from the 13th to the 16th centuries, local guilds staged Christian history from Creation to the Last Judgment over the course of one long summer day, beginning at dawn and ending at midnight.
The Medieval Studies acting troupe is made up of Illinois students, faculty, staff, and alumni. They recently participated in an epic production of the Corpus Christi Cycle at the University of Toronto, where they joined 17 other groups from all over North America to stage all 50 Middle English plays, performed on wagons pulled through the campus and staged at three different sites.
Read more about the troupe and today's performance!
12:30 p.m.: What You Will Theatre Company
The company will showcase the talents of their members in a series of monologues and short scenes from across premodern drama. About the company: What You Will Theatre Company is a registered student organization dedicated to Shakespearean and premodern performance. They put on performances each semester ranging from Shakespeare to medieval morality plays to Frankenstein. This semester, they will be performing The Tragedy of King Lear in early November. Check out their Instagram: @wyw_theatre_co.
1:00 to 1:50 P.M. - DEPARTMENT EVENTS
Location: Main Library
East Entrance / Library Gallery
- Information table
- Starting point for Humanities Open House activities
Classics Library (Room 225, second floor)
iShowThought: A Socratic Engagement: Students will have a conversation with philosophers about some of life's most basic questions through the online platform Mentimeter. Brought to you by the Philosophy department.
Literatures and Languages Reading Room (Room 200, second floor)
- Pop-up library and display featuring major works of global literature.
- Virtual reality tour of the Ancient World.
Media Commons (Room 220, second floor)
1:15 to 1:40 p.m. - Creative Writing Program readings
Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Room 346, third floor)
- The Sappho exhibition, “Sweetbitter: The Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Sappho” will be on view for our visitors. The ancient poet Sappho coined "sweetbitter" in one of her most evocative verses, still striking us to the heart nearly three millennia later. But who was Sappho? As with so many ancient figures, she is more legend than person today, her story told and retold even as her poetry continues to enchant and move us. A puzzle will also be available in the RBML Reading Room.
2:00 to 3:30 P.M. - ALUMNI PANEL, VIDEO CHALLENGE AWARDS, PRIZE DRAWINGS
Location: Lincoln Hall Theater
No Strings Attached a capella group to open with Alma Mater
Alumni panel - "What I did with my humanities major" - Jessica Berbey (English and Creative Writing '19; associate editor at DC Comics), Ben Branham (English '01; executive vice president of corporate reputation at Weber Shandwick, previously served as the CCO for The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey), Christina Brodbeck (History '01; currently a start-up investor, was a first designer/founding team member at YouTube), and Jennifer Mendez (East Asian Languages and Cultures '14; director, First Generation Student Initiatives at the Jeffries Center at Illinois). Latina/Latino Studies Professor Natalie Lira (also an alumna) will moderate.
Video competition winners screening and awards
Prize drawings (must be present to win!):
- iPad
- $100 gift certificate to CU Adventures in Time & Space escape room
- $50 gift certificate to The Literary book store