THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM

Wednesday, February 4, 2026
4:30-6:00 p.m.

Merve Emre, New Yorker contributing writer and the director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University will deliver a lecture on the implications of the democratization of criticism.

CONFERENCE

Thursday, April 3, 2025

As academic jobs dry up and the liberal arts model of the university comes increasingly under attack, what are the consequences for the future of literary criticism? This conference will bring together scholars, novelists, critics, and institution builders in the literary world to discuss the future of criticism in a period when traditional cultural institutions are either disappearing or transforming in ways that are not well understood.

IS THERE A MAINSTREAM MEDIA?

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Senior Economist editor and former editor of the New York Times Opinion page James Bennet will deliver a talk and Q&A on what the 2024 presidential campaign teaches us about the current state of media.

ELECTION 2024: IS THE NEWS MEDIA UP FOR THE JOB?

Former New York Times public editor and award-winning columnist and author Margaret Sullivan will join us at UChicago to survey the volatile course of the 2024 election in the news media.

THINKING AND ACTIVISM AFTER OCTOBER 7TH

Monday, April 1, 2024
4:30-6:30 p.m.

Two activists from Standing Together—the largest Jewish-Palestinian movement for justice, equality, and peace in Israel/Palestine—are coming to the University of Chicago to discuss the challenges of thinking, acting, and organizing for peace after October 7th.

SHOULD WRITERS TALK?

January 18, 2023
9 p.m. - midnight

Writers often get asked to do speaking engagements. Is this a good thing? Should we expect writers to be good speakers, or should we judge them by their written words alone?

AT THE LIMITS OF FORGIVENESS
March 27, 2023
5 p.m.

For the inaugural talk in the Public Thinking Lecture Series, Elizabeth Bruenig, a writer at The Atlantic and Pulitzer Prize finalist, comes to the University of Chicago to forgiveness as a social virtue.