On September 29, 2026, Lisa Saltzman delivered a lecture on Walter Benjamin’s “Theses on the Philosophy of History” (1942). Her work centered on discussions of Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus, its accession into Benjamin’s collection, and the ways in which it is presently exhibited. The talk was haunted by Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproductability, as multiple allusions were made by the speaker to the “aura” of...
Michelle Patiño-Flores is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology with minors in Art History and Museum Studies. Through visual ethnographic methodology, Michelle’s research investigates the nature of...
Evan M. Allgood (they/he) is a PhD student in the School of Information Sciences. Their research primarily focuses on transgender historiographic practices, the circulation and use of transgender...
The Fall 2026 Modern Critical Theory (MCT) Lecture Series at UIUC welcomed Maryam Kashani (Gender & Women’s Studies, UIUC) and her lecture on “Visual Theory” on October 6, 2026. During her presentation, she outlined the basic theoretical framework of the field of visual studies: its importance as an area of inquiry, how to recognize its mechanisms and functions, and how to theorize with it while remaining cautious. Kashani also shared examples from her own film work in Mississippi and exploration of the intersection of race and Islam in the United States.Kashani began by discussing her...
The inaugural lecture for the Fall 2026 Modern Critical Theory (MCT) Lecture Series, titled “Theory in University,” was held on September 8. Through an overview of three foundational moments in the history of the modern university in the West—namely Berlin around 1810, Urbana, Illinois around 1900, and Berkeley around 1950—Chad Wellmon (University of Virginia) offered what he later described, during the Q&A, as a theory of the university: an attempt to rethink what the university ought to be vis-à-vis what it has become in the United States today. He situated this question...
We invite you to attend the Fall 2026 MCT lecture series, featuring discussions on contemporary theory and its varied engagements. Lectures will be held every Tuesday from 5:15 to 6:45 PM.
'Tóbi is a PhD student in African, African American and African Diaspora history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His ongoing research situates the Obama Presidential Center within...
![Demonstrators gathered on the U of I Quad to protest the university’s investments in South Africa [1978]](/sites/default/files/2026-10/UIUC%20Demonstration%20Smile%20Politely.jpg)
