Celebrate your upcoming graduation and pick up your commencement attire at Cap and Gown Day.

Stephen Abbott, professor of mathematics at Middlebury College, explores how playwright Tom Stoppard used mathematical ideas to illuminate the human experience, blending theater and mathematics in surprising and thought-provoking ways.

We invite you to join us on March 26th, at 6pm, in the Blue Ridge Room in Highsmith Student Union for a public talk from our Spring 2026 Highsmith Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Author Allison Pugh. Dr. Pugh is a Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University and Bestselling author of The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World. 

Her talk on "Connection, Meaning, and the Future of Work in the AI Century" is one that is relevant to all in this rapidly-changing world as we see AI changing the landscape of the job market and workplace. Dr. Pugh explores the meaningful connections people forge as part of their work and how this is impacted by technology. 

Join the English Department for the Katherine Min Memorial Reading, featuring a live performance by the Black Mountain–based podcast Palimpsest Productions. Palimpsest is a single-voiced audio drama exploring memory, identity, and the things that haunt us.

“Southern Indigenous Waters” is the first event in the “Rising Waters: Writing Place and Environment” Thomas Howerton lecture series, a series that puts humanities scholars in conversation with natural sciences scholars about issues affecting us all. On October 30, 2025, Duke hydrologist Ryan Emanuel and East Carolina University literary scholar Kirstin Squint will discuss the centrality of place and water for southern Indigenous people.

Diverse ways of thinking can drive extraordinary innovation. In this special lecture, Keivan Stassun, Ph.D., Founding Director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering, explores how embracing neurodiversity—recognizing and valuing neurological differences such as autism—can accelerate scientific discovery.

Ken Wagener, Butler Chaired Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida, will deliver Ģ����ý’s 27th S. Dexter Squibb Distinguished Lecture. A renowned polymer chemist, Wagener will explore the complex role of plastics in modern life—from their everyday benefits to their environmental challenges—inviting audience discussion on their future in society.