Our 2026 Regents’ Lecturer events in Art History with the artist Walead Beshty are scheduled, for Mondays November 2, 16 and 30, in Royce Hall 306. All events will begin at 5:00 PM Aesthetics, an open seminar Walead Beshty Artist and theorist Walead Beshty will lead a series of three open seminars organized around his forthcoming book, Worlds of Appearance: An Introduction to Aesthetics in Practice (University of Chicago Press, 2026), exploring the foundations of aesthetics, its use in reflexive disciplines in the field of art, and its emergent forms. The seminars are open to all and each session will…
Join us for the Inaugural Richard Yarborough Lecture in Black Literature, established as part of the Bunche Center Director Lecture Series honoring the intellectual, scholarly, and institutional contributions of former leadership of the Ralph J. Bunche Center. Reception: 6 p.m. Program: 7 p.m. The evening will feature a conversation between Dr. Richard Yarborough, Professor Emeritus of English and African American Studies at UCLA, and Dr. Valerie Smith, President of Swarthmore College, moderated by Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. This lecture honors Dr. Yarborough’s distinguished contributions to Black literary…
Since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza, difficult questions about when criticism of Israel or support for Palestine becomes antisemitic have moved to the center of public life and political debate. Amid growing antisemitism and fierce disagreement over what is or isn’t antisemitic, what is needed now more than ever is a clearer and more sophisticated understanding of antisemitism and how it relates to Israel-Palestine. In The Question of Antisemitism, Dov Waxman provides precisely that, presenting an authoritative guide to today’s contentious debates about antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Israel-Palestine. Dov Waxman is…
This Workshop explores the cultural, religious, and intellectual legacy of Daisetsu Teitaro (D. T.) Suzuki (1870–1966), the preeminent figure who introduced Zen and Mahayana Buddhism to the modern Western world. This event brings together scholars, curators, and practitioners to discuss and reflect on Suzuki’s polymath contributions and their enduring, cross-cultural impact. Discussions will span a broad range of topics, including interpretations and evaluations of Suzuki’s Buddhist philosophy and translations, archival discoveries of his lecture manuscripts and interpersonal correspondence, and his connections with Japanese American communities and local religious institutions. Generously funded by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies, this one-day…
This year’s annual UCLA Department of Art History Graduate Symposium will be held at the Hammer Museum’s Nimoy Studio on Friday, November 13, 2026. This year’s theme is Bodies Under Duress: Violence, Pressure, and the Visual. Across art and visual culture, bodies have served as both the objects upon which power is exercised and the means through which its effects become visible, imaginable, and contested. Bodies Under Duress invites scholars to consider how visual and material practices register the forces exerted upon bodies, while also asking not only what happens to bodies under violence, but how violence is made possible,…
Ancient Near Eastern Narratives: Making a Case for the Epistemic Function of Myth in Text and Image Beate Pongratz-Leisten (New York University) Wednesday December 2, 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time Royce Hall 306 and Via Zoom Registration Link: https://forms.gle/aNCt12TXFDrfwULP7 Join Livestream Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/96272801601 Throughout its history, Assyriological scholarship has turned to exploring many facets of ancient epistemology, including lexical lists, divinatory knowledge, medicine, mathematics, pharmaceutical knowledge, legal compendia, and commentary literature. Two domains of knowledge production conspicuously have remained left out of the picture: mythic narratives and the image. The book Myth, Text, and Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: A…
In this workshop Sheila Murnaghan will discuss lines 646-92 of Sophocles’ Ajax (the “deception speech”) for a commentary she is preparing for the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics (green and yellow) series. A section of the commentary will be pre-circulated in advance (please RSVP here by Thursday, October 22nd).
Friday, October 9, 2026 4:00 – 6:00 PM Law Building, Room 1447 RSVP HERE Join us on Friday, October 9, 2026, for a colloquium with Desmond Hogan, Princeton University. The talk will take place from 4:00 – 6:00 PM with a reception to follow at the Shapiro Law Courtyard. Kant’s Awakenings In a famous biographical reflection on the origin of his epochal Critique of Pure Reason, Kant writes that Hume’s analysis of causation “first interrupted my dogmatic slumber and gave a completely different direction to my researches in the field of speculative philosophy” (Prolegomena 4:260). We encounter strikingly similar language…
