Taft&
The Taft Research Center collaborates with internal and external partners to host public events of broad interest to interdisciplinary humanities scholars, including exhibitions, performances, and lectures.
Current Events
Counting the Uncountable
2026 MetaClassics Lecture
Thursday, October 8, 12:30–2pm
Taft Research Center, Edwards 1, Suite 1100
Migrants traversed the ancient Greek world no less than migrants do now. While the case of migration in the ancient Mediterranean has much to add to our understanding of migration in its context, there is no systematized way of comparing ancient migrants with their modern counterparts, nor an accessible and centralized way to find information about ancient migrants. Counting and accounting for them is difficult to say the least. In this talk, Naomi Campa proposes the possibility of a formal typology for ancient Greek migration and an attendant digital database cataloguing instances of migration. A case study will serve to show how by taking account of ancient migrants we can engage in fruitful comparison and use modern approaches to provide a deeper understanding of individuals and institutions in the migration process.
Presented in partnership with UC Classics.
Making Every Word Count
Writing in a World of Diminishing Attention Spans
Tuesday, October 27, 4–5:30pm
Location TBD
In a world awash in bad information, clueless opining, and ugly AI-inflected writing, literary journalism provides a unique salvation—not just through accurate facts and nuanced thinking but also via aesthetically attuned language. In a wide-ranging conversation, two of its foremost practitioners, D.T. Max and Kristen Iversen discuss what literary journalism is, what it does, and why, as never before, we can’t live without it.
Presented in partnership with the Department of English, Department of Journalism, College of Arts & Sciences, and College–Conservatory of Music.
Past Events
Hard to Swallow
Directed by Tunde Wey & Theo Schear, Hard to Swallow (2025) is an essayistic and reflexive, docuseries that recounts Wey’s explosive career while building a critique of the social structures that disenfranchise Black peoples globally. Traveling across the United States, Tunde investigates the ways food culture is shaped by race and class. Through unsparing interviews, poetic narration, and reflections on the filmmaking process, Tunde calls out individuals, systems and himself, prompting viewers to rethink their own position in system inequality. Official Selection at the 2024 SeriesFest and 2024 Cannes Series: Docuseries Competition.
Krista Franklin
A reading and conversation with writer + artist Krista Franklin. Presented in partnership with Great Meadows Foundation and The Carnegie as part of Altered States: (A) Critical Response, the inaugural symposium dedicated to advancing critical discourse around contemporary art.
Portals, Pathways, and the Space Between
Taft is proud to sponsor The Carnegie and KADIST's collaborative exhibition that explores placemaking, shapeshifting, and the temporalities of Kentucky through the Ohio River. Thinking of movement, fluidity, ephemerality, and environmental activation, this exhibition consists of outdoor pop-up video exhibitions that spans six venues across six cities in Kentucky, once a month from June to November 2025. The traveling exhibition is composed of two videos and a soundscape that represent international and regional voices that interweave disruption and contemplation through placid yet subversive temporalities.
Accessing a Career in Archaeology
The MetaClassics lecture series aims to provide self-reflective explorations of the discipline of Classics, celebrating innovative approaches and contributions to the field and encouraging an expansive vision of the materials and methods that we bring to bear on our understanding of ancient and modern worlds. This year’s speaker is Dr. Nadhira Hill, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Archaeology at Randolph-Macon College. Co-hosted with UC Classics.