2026-2027 Dialogue Across Difference
Let’s Talk Raciolinguistics: Language, Race, and Racism in Global Context
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.
Faculty/Staff Dining Room, CC302 (hybrid)
Dr. Eva Michelle Wheeler presents raciolinguistics as a framework for understanding how racial and linguistic categories are historically produced and socially constructed. Drawing on examples from the Dominican Republic, Portugal, Cape Verde, and beyond, she invites the audience to question assumptions, reflect critically on their positionality, and envision language as a tool for liberation.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/96494069868
Dialogue & Connection: A Restorative Justice Approach
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 10:30 a.m.
Heineman Ecumenical Center
Experienced restorative practitioner Paul Gerlitz will facilitate a shared experience, during which we will demystify individual and collective processes of being restorative. This workshop will invite participants to empathy and curiosity to be our leading edges in both building community and engaging conflict.
Reconnecting in a Burned-Out Academy
Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 10:30 a.m.
Alumni Room, McCarthy Center (hybrid)
Faculty burnout is rooted in both individual strain and cultural patterns that erode connection. Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark defines burnout and highlights how strengthening relational ties and practicing clear boundaries can interrupt burnout cycles and rebuild collective resilience.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/94605250872
Staging Belief: Performance, Identity, and Campus Encounters
Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 12:30 p.m.
Heineman Ecumenical Center (hybrid)
Dr. Tuffy Love Andrews returns to examine her experiences with campus tensions between secular students and street evangelists through “Bible Drag.” Framing evangelism as performance, she explores spectacle, identity, and monetization, revealing shared dynamics with the art of drag. By unpacking these parallels, participants rethink public expression, conflict, and community.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/94605250872
Alan Feldman Week of Poetry: A Reading with Edgar Kunz
Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.
Heineman Ecumenical Center (hybrid)
Edgar Kunz, a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow and Framing¬ham native, is the author of Tap Out and Fixer, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Focused on both literal and figurative forms of fixing, Kunz’s identity-based poetry explores working-class life and expressions of blue-collar masculinity. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Poetry.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/92315306821
Algorithms and Indignation in American Political Culture
Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 2:30 p.m.
Alumni Room, McCarthy Center (hybrid)
Hating the other side – affective polarization – has been rising for 20 years, but that consistency masks important transformations in political life, especially among young adults. Dr. Sarah Sobieraj shows how changes in political information, social well-being, and media consumption have coalesced, forming hidden but influential “emo chambers” that convert discomfort into indignation, eroding our openness to new perspectives and respectful dialogue.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/92315306821
Swiacki Children’s Literature Festival
Thursday, November 5, 2026 from 3:30 t0 8:30 p.m., McCarthy Center
The annual celebration of children’s books featuring renowned authors and illustrators includes book signings, a gallery exhibit, lectures, and workshops. This year, we welcome to campus author Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars). Free admission for FSU students (registration required). For festival details, schedule, and admission fees, visit: www.framingham.edu/sclf
Between Two Worlds: Deaf Culture, Language, and Cultural Mediation
Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. Alumni Room, McCarthy Center
Experience the award-winning film CODA, followed by a discussion with guest speakers. Explore Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and the role of cultural mediation in bridging communities. Join us for an engaging conversation about language, identity, and communication across difference.
Arthur Nolletti Jr. Film Series: I’m Still Here
Monday, November 16, 2026 at 4:30 p.m Heineman Ecumenical Center
Based on a true story, I’m Still Here follows Eunice Paiva, a mother and lawyer confronting her husband’s disappearance under Brazil’s military dictatorship. Director Walter Salles transforms one family’s fight for truth into a searing portrait of memory, denial, and courage. Join us for a discussion after the film.
Arthur Nolletti Jr. Film Series: The Stranger and the Fog
Monday, February 22, 2027 at 4:30 p.m
Heineman Ecumenical Center
At a moment when war is darkening headlines, this film offers audiences a shared human space in which Iranians are humanized, not othered. Directed by Iranian New Wave filmmaker Bahram Beyzaie, The Stranger and the Fog is a poetic, dreamlike, deeply psychological, near-allegorical film that confronts issues of identity and violence.
Posters 101: Resistance is a Language
Monday, March 8, 2027 at 12:30 p.m., Forum, McCarthy Center
Josh MacPhee, designer, artist, and archivist, co-founded Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and Interference Archive. This event explores iconic symbols as a shared visual language of resistance and solidarity. Participants will remix historical imagery to create original posters and leave with prints and resources. Join this collaborative workshop on March 8, International Women’s Day.
Linda Vaden-Goad Authors & Artists Series
Tuesday, March 23, 2027 at 4:30 p.m, Alumni Room, McCarthy Center (hybrid)
Professor Demetrios Brellas, a zooarchaeologist, discusses his recent research in Greece, where he is involved in analyzing both animal and human remains to reconstruct past lives. Professor Ben Watanabe introduces the Sports Stylebook, which aims to meet the unique needs of modern sports content creators in today’s media landscape.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/98503810199
Who Gets to Decide? Free Expression and Academic Freedom Under Pressure
Wednesday, April 7, 2027 at 4:30 p.m. Heineman Ecumenical Center (hybrid)
At a moment when free expression and academic freedom feel increasingly fragile, how do we defend them—and who gets to decide their limits? Experts from PEN America and FSU will explore what free expression and academic freedom mean in a democracy, and how universities can uphold these values while building genuinely inclusive communities.
Hybrid Link: https://zoom.us/j/96829107750
Professor Joseph M. Adelman is the Chair of the Arts & Ideas Committee.
