University at Buffalo Humanities Institute

10/27/2026

Reminder: this Friday!

Fri., Oct. 30, 4 p.m. | Scholars@Hallwalls: Brian Whitener
Join us for Scholars@Hallwalls! Complimentary beverages and light fare are served for a brief, pre-talk mingling session.

The Communal Hypothesis
This talk will present a portion of Whitener’s current book project, The Communal Hypothesis, which grows out of an interest in what Colectivo Situaciones, among others, have termed the impasse in current Latin American politics. New far-right forces and climate catastrophe have blunted the appeal of prior forms of leftist address, and Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar and Gladys Tzul have positioned the communal as one possible (new) political horizon. Instead of arguing for either a new set of translations between prior forms of radical thought or a plurality of worlds, Prof. Whitener intervenes in these conversations by arguing that we must liberate the communal from under the weight of prior traditions and allow it to be, finally, the main character of politics.

Dr. Whitener (Assoc. Prof., UB Department of Romance Languages and Literatures) is the author of Crisis Cultures: The Rise of Finance in Mexico and Brazil (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), and editor and translator of numerous other volumes. In addition, he has published two books of experimental poetry, Face Down (2016) and The 90s (2022), and for many years he was a member of La Lleca, an artistic collective based in Mexico City. His most recent projects include the edited volume In Defense of Common Life: The Political Thought of Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar (Common Notions, 2024) and a translation of Maurizio Lazzarato’s Revolutions of Capitalism: The Politics of the Event (Duke UP, 2026).

10/22/2026

Fri., Oct. 30, 4 p.m. | Scholars@Hallwalls: Brian Whitener
Join us for Scholars@Hallwalls! Complimentary beverages and light fare are served for a brief, pre-talk mingling session.

The Communal Hypothesis
This talk will present a portion of Whitener’s current book project, The Communal Hypothesis, which grows out of an interest in what Colectivo Situaciones, among others, have termed the impasse in current Latin American politics. New far-right forces and climate catastrophe have blunted the appeal of prior forms of leftist address, and Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar and Gladys Tzul have positioned the communal as one possible (new) political horizon. Instead of arguing for either a new set of translations between prior forms of radical thought or a plurality of worlds, Prof. Whitener intervenes in these conversations by arguing that we must liberate the communal from under the weight of prior traditions and allow it to be, finally, the main character of politics.

Dr. Whitener (Assoc. Prof., UB Department of Romance Languages and Literatures) is the author of Crisis Cultures: The Rise of Finance in Mexico and Brazil (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), and editor and translator of numerous other volumes. In addition, he has published two books of experimental poetry, Face Down (2016) and The 90s (2022), and for many years he was a member of La Lleca, an artistic collective based in Mexico City. His most recent projects include the edited volume In Defense of Common Life: The Political Thought of Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar (Common Notions, 2024) and a translation of Maurizio Lazzarato’s Revolutions of Capitalism: The Politics of the Event (Duke UP, 2026).

10/13/2026

Our community partners Just Buffalo Literary Center kick off the 2026-27 Babel author series tomorrow with Sigrid Nunez at Kleinhans Music Hall. Tickets are still available for this stellar event series.

10/13/2026

Join us for the next Exhibit X Fiction Series featuring acclaimed novelist Deb Olin Unferth on Tuesday, October 20 at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.

The evening begins with a 5:30 PM salon conversation followed by a 7 PM reading from Earth 7, Unferth's acclaimed climate fiction novel. Free and open to the public.

📍 Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
🗓 Tuesday, October 20
🕠 5:30 PM Salon Conversation
🕖 7 PM Reading
🎟 FREE

Presented in partnership with the University at Buffalo Department of English.

10/12/2026

In honoring Indigenous Peoples’ day, we want to give a boost to our colleagues in the Department of Indigenous Studies (IDS) at UB. If you aren’t already, give them a follow. IDS and the HI Haudenosausee-Native American Studies Research Workshop host events and programs, on- and off-campus throughout the year.

Welcome to Department of Indigenous Studies

10/02/2026

The recording of yesterday’s Scholars@Hallwalls talk featuring Lindsay Brandon Hunter is now available to watch online. Our apologies to those that tried to livestream the talk, but we had some tech issues. Thanks for your understanding.

10/02/2026

Happening now! Friday, Oct. 2, 12 p.m. | Regenerative Practices: Planting Humanities Futures - Planting | 2nd Annual Ubuntu Harvest Festival with Buffalo Freedom Gardens
Location: Gail V. Wells Food Forest (333 Clinton St., corner of E. Eagle St. and Pine, Buffalo, NY 14204)

The 2026-27 Humanities Institute Annual Conference “Regenerative Practices: Planting Humanities Futures” is a series of events culminating in a 2-day gathering in April.

The first of the events is Planting | 2nd Annual Ubuntu Harvest Festival organized by Buffalo Freedom Gardens.

“I am because we are”

Ubuntu is centered on the belief that “I am because we are”—a reminder of the importance of community, connection, and collective support.

This free community celebration brings people together to celebrate culture, community, and the work of Buffalo Freedom Gardens. Guests will enjoy educational and interactive workshops, Food Forest Tours, Cultural food tastings, evening program and celebration!

10/01/2026

TODAY! It’s a special THURSDAY edition of Scholars@Hallwalls featuring former HI interim executive director Lindsay Brandon Hunter. See you at 4pm for our customary pre-talk mingle with beverages and snacks, before Lindsay takes the mic.

THURSDAY, Oct. 1, 4 p.m. | Scholars@Hallwalls: Lindsay Brandon Hunter, “‘Alienat[ing] Me from Me’ through Machine Learning: Gillian Wearing and deepfakery”

Join us for Scholars@Hallwalls! Complimentary beverages and light fare are served for a brief, pre-talk mingling session.

4:00pm | Mingling / 4:15pm | Introductions and featured talk followed by Q+A

Lindsay Brandon Hunter’s talk proposes that the study of theatre, a form and practice steeped in artifice, can help us grapple with and find nuance in anxieties around generative AI’s fakeness. Using the work of conceptual artist Gillian Wearing as an illuminating site, Brandon Hunter proposes that when generative AI creates persuasive synthetic representations, or presents the illusion of human likeness or labor, it acts theatrically—and usefully. The talk argues for fakeness as itself a valuable methodology, and for the importance of distinguishing between a well-rehearsed, deeply familiar antipathy toward the fake and artificial and the demonstrated harms and substantive threats that attend artificial intelligence’s development and deployment.

Lindsay Brandon Hunter writes about the intersections of (usually digital) media and performance. She is the author of Playing Real: Media, Mimesis, and Mischief (Northwestern University Press, 2021), and of essays published or forthcoming in the volumes Futures of Theatrical Experience and The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Theatre, as well as the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, the International Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media, and the online journal Amodern. The working title of her second, in-progress monograph is Fake People: Theatricality, AI, and Human Likeness. She’s also an actor and director and works as an intimacy choreographer for live performance.

09/30/2026

A special THURSDAY edition of Scholars @ Hallwalls. Join us at 4 pm in the Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center cinema for a brief mingling session followed by Lindsay’s talk and Q+A.

Join us on October 1 for Scholars at Hallwalls for AI, Deepfakes & Theatricality, featuring scholar, performer, and author Lindsay Brandon Hunter for a fascinating talk exploring how theatre can help us understand generative AI, deepfakes, and our complicated relationship with the “fake.”

Through the work of artist Gillian Wearing, Hunter examines questions of authenticity, human likeness, and the real impacts of artificial intelligence.

✨ A thought-provoking conversation at the intersection of art, performance, and technology.