Engaging Grounds

Details

Known for his luminous prose and searching explorations of intimacy, identity, art, and human connection, Greenwell's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and other leading publications. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Vursell Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he has taught at Princeton University, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and New York University. 

This event is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the reading.

The Rea Visiting Writer Series brings distinguished writers to UVA to share their work with students, faculty, and the wider community through the support of Elizabeth Rea and the Dungannon Foundation.

Speaker Details

In this lecture, Imhoff will share lessons from a lifetime of service as a self-described "change agent," exploring how planners, designers, and civic leaders can help communities navigate growth, preserve meaningful places, and address the challenges of a changing world. 

Kat Imhoff (BCP '80, MP '86) is the recipient of the UVA School of Architecture's 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award. A nationally respected leader in conservation and historic preservation, she has served as President and CEO of James Madison's Montpelier, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Montana, and Senior Conservation Fellow at the Piedmont Environmental Council. Throughout her career Imhoff has found herself front and center as a protector and storyteller for some of our nations most treasured land and historic sites. 

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From ancient Aramaic targumim to Amazon Prime, the practice of translating scripture for audiences without access to the original text has not ceased. Its arena, however, has changed dramatically. Before the movies, two millennia of interpreters have wrestled with a strange, ambiguous scene in 1 Samuel 19, where the Spirit of God overcomes Saul and his men: was it through agony, madness, ecstatic praise, or overwhelming grace? Through examining two strikingly different modern dramatic retellings, this talk reflects on what is at stake theologically when filmmakers represent the divine for the masses.

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Irshad Manji is the founder of Moral Courage College, which equips people worldwide to build cultures of collaboration in times of wicked complexity. A professor of leadership at New York University for many years, she now teaches with the University of Oxford’s Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights.

The recipient of Oprah Winfrey’s “Chutzpah Award” for boldness, Irshad is an internationally bestselling author. Her latest book Don’t Label Me is an entertaining primer on how to disagree, Jefferson-style.

Sponsored By:

Office of Citizen Scholar Development
Think Again UVA
Heterodox Academy at UVA
Fund for Free Expression and Viewpoint Diversity at UVA

Details

Writer's Eye is The Fralin Museum's annual ekphrastic writing competition, now in its 40th year! Public audiences are invited to respond in poetry and prose to works of art on view in the museum. 

You can submit your entry with our Writer's Eye 2026 Entry Form.

Program

● Phillip Richardson: Transmigration (c. 2010) — A lush marimba quartet exploring composite textures, harmonic resonance, and the reflective power of music.
● Hsiao-Lan Wang: Before Sunrise (2012) — An intimate, dialogue-driven work painting
the damp stillness and omnipresent swell of ocean waves before dawn.
● Emmanuel Séjourné: Departures (2005) — A marimba duet bridging a warm, melancholic chorale with a high-octane Latin dance.
● Emmanuel Séjourné: Gotan Concerto (2016) — A thrilling three-movement tour de force blending classical structures with tango grooves, meditative rolling textures, and expansive desert polyrhythms.

Use the event link to find out more about the performers.

Shuttle and Timing Details

Please note the complimentary shuttle departure times and plan accordingly.

3:30 PM Shuttle Departure from The Fralin Museum of Art

3:45 PM Session begins

5:00 PM Appetizers Reception

6:00 PM Shuttle Return to The Fralin Museum of Art

Questions? Contact Alexa Rodriguez (ar5km@virginia.edu) or Shelby Sinclair (dam5ha@virginia.edu).

For more information on Caribbean Studies programming at UVA, visit: https://iah.as.virginia.edu/caribbean-currents.

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Working Girls is a vivid, genre-defying documentary that traverses India to uncover the invisible yet essential work performed by women — from care work and domestic work to surrogacy and sex work. Filmed in Kolkata, Mumbai, Shillong, Latur, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, and Madurai, the film meets domestic workers, farmers, mothers, ASHA workers, dancers, and organizers whose labor sustains society but is rarely acknowledged.

With biting humor, powerful music, and a deep dive into the histories of law and gender, Working Girls challenges dominant ideas about labor value, and visibility. Directed by Paromita Vohra and created in collaboration with the Laws of Social Reproduction project, building on their research, the film invites us to rethink what it means to work — and who gets to be seen as a worker.

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Beginning in 2020, communities across Virginia removed dozens of Confederate monuments that had stood for generations. The process continued this year with the removal of the remaining Confederate monuments from Virginia’s Capitol Square. The removals were supported by many and opposed by others, and decisions about the monuments unfolded through public debate, elected bodies, and at times, direct action. Communities across the Commonwealth continue to grapple with their legacy.

Suchak, a former Karsh Institute Practitioner Fellow in Democracy, documented many of these removals as they happened—from the Jefferson Davis Monument in Richmond to the final departure of statues from the heart of Charlottesville. Alongside Suchak’s photographs, a timeline traces the monuments from their installation in the decades after the Civil War through the debates, protests, government decisions and legal challenges that preceded their removal more than a century later.

Walk through the exhibition with Suchak and hear the stories behind his photographs, then stay for lunch and an open conversation about the questions at the heart of the exhibition: Who should shape public space, and how should people and events be memorialized going forward?

Sanjay Suchak is an American photographer and director known for his work with popular musical artists, global brands, and documenting issues of modern social justice.

His camera has taken him around the world as the photographer for the Dave Matthews Band and Public Enemy, as well as the video director for Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. Additionally, he has toured with Slightly Stoopid, the Grateful Dead, and Trey Anastasio.

His work from 2017–2024 covering the efforts to remove Confederate statues and memorials in the South is considered by many to be the most comprehensive look inside the process to remove the statues. The project concluded with him being granted permission to document the melting of the Charlottesville statue of Robert E. Lee. These photos and all his photojournalism work are represented exclusively by the Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

He has done commercial commissions for clients ranging from banks to universities to nonprofits. For 10 years, he was the senior photographer at the University of Virginia.

Suchak is a former Practitioner Fellow in Democracy at UVA's Karsh Institute of Democracy.

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Raging Moderates is a podcast hosted by Galloway and Tarlov that takes a centrist look at major political, economic, and cultural stories shaping the country. The podcast brings their distinct perspectives to conversations about the forces influencing American politics and society, with a focus on examining disagreements, competing viewpoints, and areas of common ground.

For more information, please contact Glenn Crossman, Center for Politics Programs Director, at gac4t@virginia.edu or 434.270.4738

Scott Galloway: An author, economist, and NYU Stern professor known for his sharp commentary on business, tech, and politics.

Jessica Tarlov: A Democratic strategist, political commentator, and co-host on The Five.

Details

Ecologies, Practices, Communities brings together artists across generations and geographies to explore the diverse ways by which artists cultivate the social, communal, and often intergenerational ecosystems that make sustained practice possible. Bringing together a diverse body of works, several of which were made specifically for this exhibition, it considers how art is not only produced, but lived – how it is supported, shared, and transmitted. As such, the exhibition invites a broader understanding of what it means to build a life in and through creative ecosystems, communities, and practices. 

The conception and curation of this project grew out of conversations between Christa Noel Robbins and Neal Rock, professors of Art History and Studio Art at the University of Virginia. Their collaboration began with a shared recognition: artists today are working within intensifying political and socio-economic pressures that shape, and often inhibit, what they make and how they survive. In their teaching and research, they return repeatedly to questions of agency, sustainability, and creative autonomy –particularly in climates that increasingly require artists to establish their own structures of support, circulation, and endurance. This exhibition takes those concerns as its point of departure. It is conceived as dialogic and responsive, shaped in collaboration with the participating artists. Its format remains intentionally flexible, open to alternative modes of dissemination and visibility, which move beyond more traditional curatorial models centered primarily on production and display. Instead, it asks what it means to foreground the conditions of practice itself. 

Exhibiting artists include: Caitlin Cherry, Angela Dufresne, Helen O’Leary, Neal Rock, Angelo Plessas, Anthony Shapland, Alexandria Smith, HK Zamani, Gina Osterloh with Annelise Duque & Samuel Lo.

Details

Writer's Eye is The Fralin Museum's annual ekphrastic writing competition, now in its 40th year! Public audiences are invited to respond in poetry and prose to works of art on view in the museum. 

Writer's Eye Drop-In tours will be held several weekends during the Writer's Eye season, and will highlight the 8 works of art selected for this year’s program. The tour will include guided observation, discussion, and written prompts.

You can submit your entry with our Writer's Eye 2026 Entry Form.

Speaker Details

Jenny Jones is a principal in the Terremoto Los Angeles office and the Fall 2026 Porter Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture. Jones grew up in Virginia and received her BA in Environmental Studies and her MLA and MUEP from the University of Virginia. She previously worked at OLIN and RIOS. Her work is rooted in ecology, localization, process, and community, working on private gardens, public parks, and schools in California and beyond. Jenny co-founded Test Plot, an ongoing experiment in stewardship and restoration of public landscapes, and also co-leads the Land & Labor internal working group at Terremoto.

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Join us at 5pm on Wednesday, October 28th for Professor Ogden's talk, located in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library auditorium. Free copies of the 2026-2027 NEA Big Read book, Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (Vintage Classics, 2009), will be given to the first 15 audience members to arrive. Copies of Professor Ogden's forthcoming book, Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe, will also be available for sale and signing.

This event is presented by the UVA Reading Collaborative and UVA Special Collections, and is part of “Commemorating America through 200 Years of Edgar Allan Poe” sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Performer Details

Founded in 1997, the Whethermen are the University of Virginia's oldest performing improv comedy group. This premier group formed after several performance-inclined students witnessed improv shows from other schools in a coffee shop (where Boylan Heights stands today) and decided that UVA needed an improv group of its own. Today, the Whethermen specialize in both long and short form improv, with scenes ranging anywhere from 5-30 minutes long. The Whethermen perform two major shows per semester at UVA as well as numerous other gigs, workshops, and intermissions throughout the year.  We also perform at festivals at colleges all across the United States. Don't ask us if it's going to rain. We don't know either. 

Details

Writer's Eye is The Fralin Museum's annual ekphrastic writing competition, now in its 40th year! Public audiences are invited to respond in poetry and prose to works of art on view in the museum. 

You can submit your entry with our Writer's Eye 2026 Entry Form.

Details

No advance reading necessary. There will be snacks (thanks to generous support from the Mead Endowment) and free books to the first ten attendees! Part of the bicentennial celebration of Poe at UVA, "Commemorating America through 200 Years of Edgar Allan Poe," presented by the UVA Reading Collaborative and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Details

This talk focuses on Vietnamese migration experiences within the United States over the last half century since 1975, triangulating the experiences of Southeast Asian refugees and migrants actively shaping their lives and communities across the East Coast, the Midwest, California, and the sunbelt South. It examines transnational financial, migratory and material flows among Vietnamese Americans, and how and why they have contributed to first, secondary and third wave migration patterns. Southeast Asian refugees resettled in the U.S. after the Vietnam War were scattered across the country as part of a dispersion policy intended to culturally assimilate newcomers. By the 1980s, catalyzed in part by auto-mobile affordances, many had moved to warmer climes with more concentrated Asian population nodes – in particular California. Since the 2000s, a third wave of migration has been fueled by new international migration as well as interstate migrants who feel priced out of California. Many are moving to new “ethno-burb” nodes of Asian settlements in the sunbelt South. I examine linkages of transportation, real estate, investment, and entrepreneurship within and across these migrant-scapes and settlements connected and shaped by mobile pasts and futures. I argue that Southeast Asian American subjectivities have been subconsciously shaped by longer histories of repeated displacements. Community formations are therefore modeled in part upon the specters of remembered and anticipated places, concurrently longing to establish roots and presence while collectively refusing external assignations of how to do so, a process of (dis)place-making. This unmoored lens offers insight into the complex trajectories of migrant aspirations and appropriations that contrast with the emplaced nuclear family centered assimilation models once envisioned by refugee resettlement policy makers.

Details

Among the most celebrated works in the chamber music repertoire, Beethoven's quartets span a remarkable range of expression, innovation, and emotional depth. Whether you are a longtime chamber music enthusiast or discovering these masterpieces for the first time, this concert offers an opportunity to experience them performed by one of the region's outstanding string quartets.

The Ragged Mountain Quartet features violinists Daniel Sender and Benjamin Rous, violist Danielle Wiebe Burke, and cellist Clara Lee Rous. The ensemble includes University of Virginia music faculty members Daniel Sender and Benjamin Rous, as well as distinguished performers Danielle Wiebe Burke and Clara Lee Rous. Program

Visit here to see all concerts in the UVA Faculty Artist Series 

Schedule

3:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Drop-in Poetry Lounge
230 Shannon Library, Tanenbaum Room

• Make “exquisite corpse” poems and mixed media collages;
• Contribute to a magnetic poetry mosaic;
• Hear from our Writer’s Eye Contest participants;
• Make your own Objects of Poetry buttons;
• Tackle our challenging jigsaw puzzles while savoring gourmet refreshments from Feast;
• Walk away with poetry-themed swag.

5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Wine-and-cheese Reception in Honor of Caroline Willis
230 Shannon Library, Event Space

• Join us in celebrating exhibition participants and partners, including RBS alumna Caroline Willis, who loaned objects to our show from her collection.

5:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Gallery Tour and Q&A with Curators Barbara Heritage and Zoe Langer
Second Floor Gallery, Shannon Library

6:00 to 6:20 p.m.
Remarks by Special Guest Caroline Willis on her collection and the legacy of her grandfather’s library, featuring rare works from the Arts and Crafts Movement
Second Floor Gallery, Shannon Library

Details

Richard D. Johnson is an acclaimed pianist and cultural leader who has performed with Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Arturo Sandoval, and other jazz greats. A former U.S. Musical Ambassador, Johnson bridges jazz tradition and innovation through performance, education, and creative leadership.

Carol Morgan is a New York City–based jazz trumpeter, composer, educator, and author who studied at Juilliard, released seven CDs as a bandleader, and has toured extensively around the world. As both an artist and teacher, her goal is to help people discover and enjoy music more deeply.

Under the direction of Sharel Cassity, the UVA Jazz Ensemble continues its tradition as one of the nation’s most imaginative and forward-thinking collegiate jazz programs. Bringing together talented student musicians from across the University, the ensemble explores the rich traditions of jazz while embracing contemporary influences through performances that celebrate creativity, collaboration, and artistic expression.

Performer Details

Violinist Elizabeth Field is internationally recognized for her expressive performances on both period and modern instruments. Founder of The Vivaldi Project, she serves as concertmaster of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and has performed with leading ensembles across the United States, including Opera Lafayette and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with whom she recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. Her recordings on period instruments appear on the Hungaroton, Naxos, and Dorian labels. A noted educator, Field has held faculty positions at Sacramento State University and the University of California, Davis, and has presented master classes at universities nationwide, including regular appearances at The Curtis Institute. She earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Cornell University specializing in 18th-century performance practice and currently serves as an adjunct professor at George Washington University.

UVA faculty member David Sariti has built a distinguished career as both performer and scholar, with musical interests spanning four centuries. Known for bringing fresh insight to both familiar and overlooked repertoire, he has appeared as a recitalist at universities throughout the United States, performed as a concerto soloist, and collaborated extensively as a chamber musician. An advocate for contemporary music, he has championed works by composers across the Southeast, including UVA Professor Emeritus Judith Shatin.

Sariti is equally at home performing historical repertoire using period instruments and historically informed performance practices. He is a member of the early music ensembles Synnet and Baroque and Beyond and has performed with The Vivaldi Project, the Washington Bach Consort, and numerous other ensembles. A founding member of Mr. Jefferson's Musicians, he has presented widely on Thomas Jefferson's musical interests and is featured on the recording Music from the Jefferson Collection. An accomplished improviser, he has also collaborated with the UVA Jazz Ensemble, John D'earth, and the late Greg Howard.

Details

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) was one of the first American women to achieve prominence as a photographer. Trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, she studied photography upon her return to Washington, D.C., in the mid-1880s and opened a professional studio circa 1890. Her family's social position gave Johnston access to the First Family and leading Washington political figures and launched her career as a photojournalist and portrait photographer. Johnston turned to garden and estate photography in the 1910s. 

Decades later, Johnston created a systematic record of early American buildings and gardens called the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South (CSAS). This collection, created primarily in the 1930s, provides more than 7,100 images showing an estimated 1,700 structures and sites in rural and urban areas of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, and to a lesser extent Florida, Mississippi, and West Virginia. Johnston’s interest in both vernacular and high style structures resulted in vivid portrayals of the exteriors and interiors of houses, mills, and churches as well as mansions, plantations, and outbuildings.

The survey began with a privately funded project to document the Chatham estate and nearby Fredericksburg and Old Falmouth, Virginia, in 1927–29. Johnston then dedicated herself to pursuing a larger project to help preserve historic buildings and inspire interest in American architectural history. The Carnegie Corporation became her primary financial supporter and provided six grants during the 1930s on condition that the negatives be deposited with the Library of Congress. The Library formally acquired the CSAS negatives from her estate in 1953, along with her extensive papers and approximately 20,000 other photographs.

Speaker Details

Ghaith al-Omari, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship, is the former executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine. He served as advisor to the negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks in addition to holding various other positions within the Palestinian Authority.

Ned Lazarus is Teaching Associate Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School and an Israel Institute Teaching Fellow. A Conflict Resolution scholar, practitioner and evaluator, Ned has conducted evaluative studies of peacebuilding initiatives on behalf of USAID, USIP, the European Union and the US Department of State. Before entering the academic field, Ned served as Middle East Program Director for Seeds of Peace, based in Jerusalem, from 1996-2004. 

Details

 Meredith Martin is Professor of English at Princeton University and the Director of the Center for Digital Humanities; she is also the founder. She has published two books: The Rise and Fall of Meter: Poetry and English National Culture 1860-1930 and Poetry’s Data: Digital Humanities and the History of Prosody and her work has appeared in PMLA, Modernism/Modernity, Victorian Studies, Victorian Poetry, English Literary History, and Victorian Literature and Culture among other venues. She advocates for the humanities and historically informed reading practices in teaching poetry and critical data studies. She is especially interested in the translations, revelations, and shared infrastructures that create rigorous, innovative, interdisciplinary collaborative work. 

This event is sponsored by the UVA Department of English and the Digital Humanities Center, in collaboration with the Data Analytics Center. It is free and open to all.

Schedule

Speaker Details

Program

BACH  Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R (Benjamin Rous, violin)

HANDEL  Music for the Royal Fireworks

BRITTEN  Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33a

ENESCU  Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major

Speaker Details

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Her novels include As High As The Sky, Eager to Fly and 1958: Old Love Letter as well as the Runaway Women trilogy which includes The Truth, Simple and Dress Up. Her often-anthologised novellas can be found in collections such as The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China, Picking Beans and Spicy Food Relieves Sorrow. She also writes for younger audiences; the English translation of her YA novel Tilted Sky was published in 2024.

She has won the People's Literature Award and the Shanghai Literature Excellent Novella Award, and her works have been translated into English, Russian, German, Japanese and Korean. Originally published in 2021, The Unfilial made various top-ten lists  upon its release, including Douban’s 2021 Annual Reading List for Chinese novels and QQ Reading's 2021 Annual Top Ten Fiction Books

The Unfilial is a brutally honest view of family life in modern China, in four tales. With sharp-edged observation, Yao Emei shows that when a household crumbles, it’s always the women who are left picking up the pieces, but no one comes out looking good when caught in a vicious cycle of abuse.

The mirage of a picture-perfect home compels some to gamble away the family house, while others have to live with debts of a shameful past. Other stories include an account of trafficking at a maternity ward, and a mistress’ revenge on a serial adulterer. Come inside – or stare through the window – at your peril: after all, what’s a closet without its skeletons.

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Directed by faculty violinist David Sariti, the UVA Baroque Orchestra brings seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music to life through historically informed performance. Performing on period instruments from the University's extensive collection and at Baroque pitch, the ensemble explores the rich colors, textures, and expressive possibilities of music by composers of the Baroque era using the techniques and performance practices for which it was originally conceived.

Unlike most orchestras, the ensemble performs without a conductor, relying instead on careful listening, close collaboration, and shared musical leadership. This distinctive approach creates performances that are both dynamic and deeply engaging while giving student musicians an immersive experience in chamber music and historical performance practice.

Each year, the Baroque Orchestra collaborates with a distinguished guest artist through the Weber Endowment. These residencies enrich the ensemble's work with public masterclasses and performances by internationally recognized specialists in early music. Recent guests have included the Grammy Award-winning ensemble Quicksilver, Rebel Baroque, fortepianist David Breitman, and The Vivaldi Project.

Detailed program information will be available closer to the concert date.

Details

The design narrative begins with the Garden's Masterplan by Mikyoung Kim, the landscape architecture design lead, and Waterstreet Studio, the landscape architect of record. The Garden has deep roots in the University of Virginia School of Architecture, with A-School alumni serving on the board of directors, the design team, and as Executive Director. This meaningful local partnership is carried forward tangibly through collaboration with UVA Sawmilling, which gives new purpose to trees felled during construction, and through forward-thinking stormwater management designed to sustain the land for generations.

The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is more than a landscape taking shape. It is a testament to what community voice, intentional design, and ecological stewardship can cultivate together—a living legacy meant to outlast the generations that nurture it.

Details

Conductor Michael Slon, Director of Choral Music at the University of Virginia, has built a reputation for thoughtful programming and expressive performances that engage singers and audiences alike. An accomplished conductor, educator, and scholar, Slon has led the University's choral program in performances of major choral-orchestral works, intimate chamber repertoire, and music from diverse cultural traditions. His commitment to artistic excellence and collaborative music-making has helped shape the Chamber Singers into one of UVA's outstanding performing ensembles.

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Goldsmith, a leading scholar of constitutional law and executive power, will discuss the powers and responsibilities of the modern presidency and the constitutional principles that shape the executive branch. In addition to his scholarly work, Goldsmith served in the White House as special counsel of the Department of Defense from 2002-2003 and as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice from 2003-2004.

The Abraham Distinguished Lecture honors renowned constitutional law scholar Henry J. Abraham (1921–2020), who was the James Hart Professor of Government Emeritus at the University of Virginia.

The annual Abraham Lecture was established in 1999 by his students, colleagues, family, and friends to recognize Dr. Abraham’s profound contributions to judicial studies in political science. His life story of escaping the Nazis in 1937 at the age of 15, serving as a U.S. Army interpreter during WWII, and then devoting his life to the U.S. Constitution is as compelling as it is poignant. Previous lecturers have included Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Judge J. Michael Luttig, John Jeffries, Ted Olson, General William Suter, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Nadine Strossen, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Tinsley Yarbrough, Kenneth Feinberg, and journalists Linda Greenhouse, Joan Biskupic, Jan Crawford, Marcia Coyle, and Evan Thomas.

UVA Public Service Fair

Date: Wednesday Aug 26 
Time: 4:30-7pm (drop-in)
Location: Newcomb Hall Ballroom & Commonwealth Room
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Public Service Opportunities 101! Explore service and leadership opportunities at UVA! Attend an info session with ROTC, Public Service Pathways, Student Engagement, the Center for Community Partnerships, Madison House, and Student Council, or drop by our program tables to learn how to get involved.

Lemniscata: Artist Talk

Date: Friday Aug 28
Time: 3:30-5pm (you must stay until the talk ends)
Location: Ruffin Gallery, UVA Art Dept
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Ruffin Gallery at the UVA Department of Art presents Lemniscata, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Sasha Fishman. 

Lemniscata: Opening Reception

Date: Friday Aug 28
Time: 5-7pm (drop-in)
Location: Ruffin Gallery, UVA Art Dept
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Ruffin Gallery at the UVA Department of Art presents Lemniscata, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Sasha Fishman. 

UVA Arts Annual Welcome Picnic

Date: Sunday Aug 30
Time: 6-8pm (drop-in)
Location: Arts Grounds (Culbreth Rd)
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Free picnic, live music & arts tabling sponsored by UVA Arts. Come learn about Visual & Performing Arts & Architecture opportunities at the University and within the community.

SDAC (Student Disability Access Center) Open House

Date: Monday Aug 31
Time: 8am-12pm (drop-in)
Location: Student Health and Wellness Multipurpose Room (1st floor)
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

SDAC will be having an Open House for incoming students to drop in for assistance with: Applying for SDAC Accommodations, Sending Notification of Accommodation Letters,Setting up approved SDAC Assistive Technology and Notetaking Services, and Requesting SDAC Testing Services. 

Fall Faculty Reading with Anna Beecher and Sumita Chakraborty

Date: Monday Aug 31
Time: 5-6:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Bryan Hall, room 229A
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

The Creative Writing Program at UVA invites you to a Faculty Reading with Anna Beecher, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, and Sumita Chakraborty, Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing.

Workshop with Patricia Murrieta-Flores: Towards the Development of Decolonial Technologies

Date: Wednesday Sept 2
Time: 12-2:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Shannon Library, Scholars' Lab Common Room (308) 
Tickets needed? Please register online.

This workshop explores what it would mean to design decolonial technologies at a moment when artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how knowledge is produced, circulated, and valued.

Open House at Robertson Media Center

Date: Thursday Sept 3
Time: 12-2pm (drop-in)
Location: Clemons Library, Robertson Media Center
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Lights, Camera, Action! Join us for a showcase of our creative studio spaces and production equipment at the Robertson Media Center!

Patricia Murrieta-Flores: Teaching machines to read the Conquest of America: Unlocking 500 years of real data from the colonial archive with AI

Date: Thursday Sept 3
Time: 4-5:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Wilson Hall, room 142
Tickets needed? No. Just show up! 

A Digital Humanities + AI Lecture

Touchstones of Democracy: After the Declaration

Date: Thursday Sept 3
Time: 12-1pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Bond House
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Starting at 11:30am lunch will available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Jilarti (Brolga), an award-winning live performance by Pedro Wonaeamirri

Date: Thursday Sept 3
Time: 5:30-6:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Rotunda, Upper West Oval Room 
Tickets needed? No. Just show up! 

A short Q&A and light refreshments will follow the performance.

Education Abroad Fall Fair

Date: Wednesday Sept 9
Time: 11am-3pm (drop-in)
Location: Newcomb Hall Ballroom
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Join the ISO for the Education Abroad Fall Fair! Learn about the many different study abroad programs available for UVA students. Meet UVA faculty program directors, program providers, and host universities. We hope to see you there! 

Speaking in Code: Winnie E. Pérez Martínez

Date: Wednesday Sept 9
Time: 11-11:50am (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Shannon Library, Scholars' Lab Common Room (308)
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Join the Scholars' Lab Research and Development team for Speaking in Code! In this session, Winnie E. Pérez Martínez (PhD Candidate in the Department of Spanish, Italian & Portuguese) will share some under-development work prototyping a community curriculum builder.

Digital Humanities Center Open House

Date: Wednesday Sept 9
Time: 12-3pm (drop-in)
Location: Shannon Library, Scholars' Lab Common Room (308)
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Poetry Reading by M. nourbeSePhilip & Conversation with Kiki Petrosino

Date: Thursday Sept 10
Time: 6:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Contemplative Commons
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

The University of Virginia Creative Writing Program is honored to welcome M. nourbeSe Philip—poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, and one of the most visionary literary artists of our time—for an evening of poetry and conversation.

Charlottesville Chamber Music: The People United!

Date: Friday Sept 11
Time: 12:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: University Baptist Church
Tickets needed? Free rush tickets available starting 1hour before performance, subject to availability. Must show valid UVA ID. 

New to classical music concerts? Check the know before you go page.

This is a rare opportunity to hear pianist Benjamin Hochman perform Frederic Rzewski’s 1975 masterpiece for solo piano - a grand set of 36 variations based on the inspiring Chilean song of resistance and protest. It mixes the language of late 19th-century Romanticism with 20th-century piano techniques to create a unique tour-de-force that affirms the enduring power of human solidarity.  

Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh: The Spatialtemporality of Musical Memories

Date: Friday Sept 11
Time: 3:30-5pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Old Cabell Hall, room 107
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

The University of Virginia Department of Music presents a colloquium by Annie Hsieh entitled The Spatialtemporality of Musical Memories on Friday, September 11, 2026, at 3:30pm in 107 Old Cabell Hall. This event is free and open to the public. Annie Hsieh is a Composer and Associate Professor of Music Theory and Electronic Music at Carnegie Mellon University.

Lecture by Ulka Anjaria: "Bad Mothers: Gender and Modernism in India"

Date: Friday Sept 11
Time: 4-5pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Bryan Hall, room 219 (English Faculty Lounge)
Tickets needed? No. Just show up! Refreshments served.

Lecture, "Bad Mothers: Gender and Modernism in India"
By Ulka Anjaria, Professor of English and Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities, Brandeis University

Writer's Eye Tour at the Fralin

Date: Saturday Sept 12
Time: 2-3pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Join us for a docent-led tour of the Writer's Eye 2026 artworks at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

Chamber Music Series Concert II: Beethoven's 5th Up Close

Date: Sunday Sept 13
Time: 3pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Old Cabell Hall
Tickets needed? Free rush tickets available starting 1hour before performance, subject to availability. Must show valid UVA ID. 

New to classical music concerts? Check the know before you go page.

Craft talk by M. nourbeSePhilip: "Under the Influence: The Making of a Writer's Genealogy"

Date: Wednesday Sept 16
Time: 5pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Bryan Hall, room 229A
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Poet and Kapnick Distinguished Writer-in-Residence will give a craft talk, “UNDER THE INFLUENCE: THE MAKING OF A WRITER’S GENEALOGY” in Bryan Hall 229A at 5PM.

All are welcome to attend.

Listening to the Law: An Evening with Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Date: Thursday Sept 17
Time: 6:30-7:45pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Culbreth Theatre (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. You must present your ticket and ID. Clear bag policy.

Join us for a fireside chat with Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, moderated by UVA School of Law’s John C. Jeffries Jr. 

Fralin Fun Day

Date: Saturday Sept 19
Time: 11am-1pm (drop-in)
Location: Fralin Museum of Art (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Drop by the museum for hands-on creative activities inspired by our newest exhibitions!

Writer's Eye Creative Writing Workshop at the Fralin

Date: Saturday Sept 19
Time: 1-2:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Craft talk by M. nourbeSePhilip: "Assembling the Fragments: Composing the Unknowable"

Date: Tuesday Sept 22
Time: 5pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Bryan Hall, room 229A
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Poet and Kapnick Distinguished Writer-in-Residence will give a craft talk, “ASSEMBLING THE FRAGMENTS; COMPOSING THE UNKNOWABLE” in Bryan Hall 229A at 5PM.

All are welcome to attend.

Speaking in Code: Doug Chestnut

Date: Wednesday Sept 23
Time: 11-11:50am (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Shannon Library, Scholars' Lab Common Room (308)
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Join the Scholars' Lab Research and Development team for Speaking in Code! In this session, Doug Chestnut (UVA Library) will share his explorations developing a library-specific Model Context Protocol (MCP) for search and discovery.

Writer's Eye Creative Writing Workshop at the Fralin

Date: Saturday Sept 23
Time: 6-7:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Charlottesville Symphony: The Firebird

Date: Friday Sept 25
Time: 7:30pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Old Cabell Hall
Tickets needed? Yes. Use UVA Arts$ to claim your ticket at least 24 hours before the performance.

New to classical music concerts? Check the know before you go page.

A Look into the Crystal Ball: The Trump 2.0 Midterms

Date: Saturday Sept 26
Time: 10-11am (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Virginia Guesthouse, Grand Ballroom (2017 Ivy Rd)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Join Professor Larry Sabato as he gazes into his crystal ball. He will discuss the 2026 Midterms, detailing the key races, figures, and issues you need to know heading into Election Day.

Writer's Eye Tour at the Fralin

Date: Saturday Sept 26
Time: 11am-12pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Join us for a docent-led tour of the Writer's Eye 2026 artworks at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

Sanctuary Sounds Sunday at the Fralin

Date: Sunday Sept 27
Time: 11am-12pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Sound bath series at the Fralin Museum of Art Led by wellbeing expert and soundbath artist, Karianne Michelle.

Writer's Eye Tour at the Fralin

Date: Saturday Oct 3
Time: 2-3pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Join us for a docent-led tour of the Writer's Eye 2026 artworks at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

Touchstones of Democracy: Democracy and Capitalism

Date: Wednesday Oct 7
Time: 12-1pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Bond House
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Starting at 11:30am lunch will available on a first-come, first-served basis.

DH + AI Lecture: Emily Johnson and Anastasia Salter

Date: Thursday Oct 8
Time: 4-6pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Wilson Hall, room 142
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Speaking in Code: Jeremy Boggs

Date: Wednesday Oct 9
Time: 11-11:50am (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Shannon Library, Scholars' Lab Common Room (308)
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Join the Scholars' Lab Research and Development team for Speaking in Code! In this session, Jeremy Boggs (Head of Research & Development, Scholars' Lab) will demonstrate a bit of tinkery with CSS animations and interactions.

DH Workshop with Emily Johnson and Anastasia Salter

Date: Friday Oct 9
Time: 12-3pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Wilson Hall, room 142
Tickets needed? Please register online.

Reimagining Our Food, Water, and Environment: A Start-up Journey

Date: Saturday Oct 10
Time: 10-11am (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Virginia Guesthouse, Grand Ballroom (2017 Ivy Rd)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Whether it is the food we eat, the water we drink, or the environment we live in, we face increasing exposure throughout our daily lives to substances such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), microplastics, or pesticides that are increasingly linked to adverse health effects. In this talk, Bryan Berger, Professor, School of Engineering and founder and CSO of Lytos Technologies, a biological revolutionary company, will share examples from his laboratory of how they use biotechnology to develop solutions to address these challenges, and how these solutions are translated to market. He will also highlight the broad range of community partners, such as growers, food producers and water treatment facilities, that he works with in identifying and developing effective solutions.  

Writer's Eye Tour at the Fralin

Date: Saturday Oct 10
Time: 11am-12pm (you must stay until event ends)
Location: Fralin Museum of Arts (Arts Grounds)
Tickets needed? Yes. Please register online.

Join us for a docent-led tour of the Writer's Eye 2026 artworks at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

Funny, Strange, and Serious Stories of Yiddishland's Jews

Date: Monday, Oct 12
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: UVA Bookstore
Tickets needed? Yes, registration required. 

Majors Fair

Date: Tuesday Oct 13
Time: 1-4pm (drop-in)
Location: Newcomb Ballroom
Tickets needed? No. Just show up!

Not sure what you want to major in or even what questions to ask? Drop by the 3rd floor of Newcomb Hall to meet with representatives from majors and other programs on Tuesday, Oct 13th, 2026! Representatives from more than 60 majors, minors, and programs will be on hand to answer your questions. No registration is necessary. And remember to bring your student badges for check-in!