Life/Support

“Life/Support” may immediately suggest emergency measures undertaken to prevent death: an apt metaphor for the present condition of our democratic institutions. Yet life as we would wish it is more than just not dying. Rather, to support life is to provide the basis for its thriving. Life/Support invokes both crisis thinking and utopian thinking, bare minimums and luxuriant flourishing, just hanging on and making things better. It thus stands for everything that makes our lives possible—air and food and water; everything that makes our lives meaningful—learning and healthcare and civil rights; and everything that makes meaningful lives sustainable—public investment, self-governance, and a shared sense of purpose. These are ideals which "Life/Support" aims to uphold, improve, and champion.

All events are 5:00-6:30 pm in Humanities Rm 1008 unless otherwise noted. Dates and times of HISB events are subject to change. Please continue to check our website for updates and detailed event information, registration for specific Zoom events, and how to log in.

Fall 2026 at a Glance

Date	Event
September 1	Reading by Marlon James/CFT, The Disappearers, with Miwa Messer - Reading by Marlon James/Creative Writing, Film and Television and conversation about his latest novel with Poured Over podcast host, Miwa Messer Part of the Creative Writing, Film and Television IMAGINE series and the HISB Faculty Lecture series, 7:00-9:00 pm in 1006 Humanities. Co-sponsored by HISB.
September 8	Faculty Fellows lecture by Simone Brioni/EGL, Displaced Frames: Filmmaking, Migration, and the Question of Belonging.
September 9	Faculty lecture by Nancy Tomes/HIS,Zones of Devastation: Writing Long Island into the History of September 11, 12:30-1:50 pm. Part of the "In the Shadows of the Twin Towers", a yearlong commemoration marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
September 10	Film showing of documentary, 9/11: An American Requiem. This event is free and open to the public as part of Stony Brook's WTC Health & Wellness Program. RSVP is recommended. Part of "In the Shadows of the Twin Towers", a yearlong commemoration marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11. 7:00 pm at the Staller Center for the Arts main stage.
September 14	Presentation by Molly Todd, Managing Editor of the Oral History Review, Title: Oral History Work In & With Communities: Essential Tools for Documenting Long Island Perspectives on 9-11. Part of the "Pressing Matters" lecture series and "In the Shadows of the Twin Towers" A yearlong commemoration marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
September 15	Faculty Book lecture by April Masten/HIS, Diamond and Juba’s “Great Public Contest”: A Faculty Book Talk Extravaganza, with dancer Jason E. Bernard, violinist Gabe Teracciano, and banjoist Ayodele Maakheru, 6:00-7:30pm.
September 22	Presentation by Floridalma Boj López/UCLA, Indigenous Archives: The Maya Diaspora and Mobile Cultural Production, 2:00-3:30pm. Part of the "Pressing Matters" lecture series.
September 23	Two-day conference - Toni Morrison: Editorial Legacy and Literary and Artistic Freedom. Co-sponsored by FAHSS, the English Department, the College of Arts and Sciences, and HISB. 12:00-4:00pm.
September 24	Two-day conference - Toni Morrison: Editorial Legacy and Literary and Artistic Freedom. Co-sponsored by FAHSS, the English Department, the College of Arts and Sciences, and HISB. 11:00am-6:30pm.
September 30	Faculty Book lecture by Sohl Lee/ART, Decolonization and Democracy: Art, Protest, and Political Imagination.
October 6	Panel discussion, Beyond Boundaries: Translation as Research and Practice, An Interdisciplinary Roundtable featuring Simone Brioni/EGL, Nancy Hiemstra/ WGSS, Valentina Moro/PHI, Rita Nezami/AFS and DWR, and Eriko Sato/AAAS. Respondent: Loredana Polezzi/LCS, 12:30-1:50pm.
October 7	Reflections on the Vanderbilt Report, a roundtable discussion of the Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Science, commissioned by Vanderbilt University and Washington University-St. Louis, 12:30-1:50pm. Part of the "Critical University Studies" initiative at HISB.
October 14	Sir Run Run Shaw/CAS lecture by Marita Sturken/New York University - Memorials, Museums, and Architecture in the Post-9/11 Era. Co-sponsored by HISB. Part of the "In the Shadows of the Twin Towers", a yearlong commemoration marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 9/11 25-year Anniversary Remembrance.
October 15	Faculty Book Lecture by David Heska Wanbli Weiden/EGL, Wisdom Corner: Life and Death on the Rosebud Reservation. Fiction author Kellye Garrett, respondent.
October 20	Faculty Fellows lecture by Susannah Glickman/HIS, Science and Technology have No Constituency: A Labor History of US Scientific-Military State Transformation.
October 21	Presentation Skills Workshop - Humanities GDP Session for Grad Students, featuring Molly Lotz/The Graduate School. Title TBD.
October 28	Haunted Humanities, 12:30-1:50pm. Sponsored by the Humanities Institute and the Department of Undergraduate Education
November 3	Zoom lecture by Katherine Tycz/The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Curating Objects. Zoom registration TBA.
November 3	Faculty Fellows lecture by Ryan Mitchell/DRW, Doing It With a VCR: Training Sensation and the Material Erotics of Early Safer Sex Pornography.
November 9	Presentation by Emily Winderman /University of Minnesota, Back-Alley Abortion: A Rhetorical History. Part of the "Pressing Matters" lecture series.
November 16	Lecture by Samantha Kelly/Rutgers University, Recovering the Ethiopian Pilgrim-Scholars of Sixteenth-Century Rome: Traces and Erasures. Sponsored by The Center for Italian Studies, and part of the HISB "Histories to Recover" initiative.
November 17	Faculty Fellowship lecture by Lena Burgos-Lafuente/HLL, Left, Right, Left: Translation, Militancy, and Diplomacy in the Spain–New York–Caribbean Triangle.
November 18	Faculty Book lecture by Angela Jones/WGSS, Sex In Public, discussing her new book, Sex in Public: The Transformative Social Power of Our Erotic Lives. Co-sponsored by WGSS.