Scholarly Seminars

The Borderlands and Latino/a Studies Seminar examines the interplay of Latino/a people, communities, and culture in the United States; transnational and comparative borderlands studies; migration studies; Latino/a gender and sexuality; changing urban landscapes as a result of Latino/a settlement; civil rights and social movements; Critical Indigenous Studies; and other related topics.

The seminar’s co-organizers are Emiliano Aguilar (University of Notre Dame) María Eugenia López-García (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez (University of Illinois at Chicago).

The seminar’s co-sponsors are Indiana University’s Latino Studies Program, Northwestern University’s Program in Latina and Latino Studies, The Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University, the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Latin American and Latino Studies Program.

The British Studies Seminar brings together scholars to discuss work that addresses the history of Britain and the British Empire from the early modern period to present day. The seminar is co-sponsored by the Graduate Cluster in British Studies at Northwestern, Northwestern History, and the Nicholson Center for British Studies at the University of Chicago. Claire C. Arnold (University of Chicago), Steven Pincus (University of Chicago), and Holly Swenson (Northwestern University) serve as co-organizers.

Presented by the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library, the Eighteenth-Century Studies Seminar is designed to foster research and inquiry across the scholarly disciplines in eighteenth-century studies. It aims to provide a methodologically diverse forum for work that engages ongoing discussions and debates along this historical and critical terrain.

The seminar is organized by Timothy Campbell (University of Chicago), Jason Farr (Marquette University), Lisa A. Freeman (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Alicia Caticha (Northwestern University).

The German Studies Seminar provides a forum for discussing papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and that reconceptualize the materials and conventions of German Studies as a field, including beyond the frames of the German language and nation state.

The seminar’s co-organizers are Alice Goff (University of Chicago), Dustin Lovett (DePaul University), Imke Meyer (University of Illinois Chicago), Sophie Salvo (University of Chicago), Anna Souchuk (DePaul University), and Lauren Stokes (Northwestern University).

The seminar is generously sponsored by Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago, the Department of Modern Languages at DePaul University, and the Department of History at Northwestern University.

The Labor History Seminar provides a forum for works-in-progress that explore the history of working class people, communities, and culture; class and state policy; unions and popular political movements; and other related topics. The seminar emphasizes works that deal with gender, sexuality, race, migration, and the social history of work.

The seminar’s co-sponsors are the history departments of DePaul University, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA).

Co-coordinators are Peter Cole (Western Illinois University), Colleen Doody (DePaul University), and Liesl Orenic (Dominican University), and Steven Reich (James Madison University).

The Lieb Newberry Milton Seminar is presented by the Center for Renaissance Studies and invites scholars to read and discuss pre-circulated papers on aspects of Milton studies. The seminar meets once each spring for a full-day discussion featuring works-in-progress by one junior scholar (not yet tenure-track) and one senior scholar.

The seminar is organized by Angelica Duran (Purdue University), Stephen Fallon (University of Notre Dame), Katarzyna Lecky (Loyola University), Regina Schwartz (Northwestern University), and Timothy Harrison (University of Chicago).

Presented by the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library, the Premodern Studies Seminar provides a forum for new approaches to classical, medieval, and early modern studies, allowing scholars from a range of disciplines to share work-in-progress with the broader community. The seminar’s 2026-2027 theme is “Premodern Ethics.” This year’s papers aim to explore both foundations and reconfigurations of ethics before 1800 in a global context.

The seminar is organized by Lydia Barnett (Northwestern University), Timothy Crowley (Northern Illinois University), Christopher Fletcher (Newberry Library), and Caterina Mongiat-Farina (DePaul University)

The Religion and Culture in the Americas Seminar explores topics in religion and culture broadly from interdisciplinary perspectives, including social history, biography, cultural studies, visual and material culture, urban studies, and the history of ideas. The seminar emphasizes how religious belief has affected society, rather than creedal or theological focused studies.

The Seminar’s co-organizers are Christopher Allison (Independent Scholar), James Krippner (Haveford College), Malachy McCarthy (Archival Resources for Catholic Collections), Kevin M. Schultz (University of Illinois), Shane Ulbrich (University of Notre Dame), and Michelle Nickerson (Loyola University Chicago).