2025 - 2026

All events are free and open to the public.

Is there a white bonus? 
Investigating Class, Race and Oakland County's American Dream

Author Talk by Tracie McMillan 

When: Tuesday, September 23, Noon - 1:00
Where: 242 Kresge Library (The Nyberg Room)

Register here to attend in person

Register Here to Attend via Zoom

Co-sponsored with the Rochester Hills Public Library
This event is made possible by the Judd Family Endowed Fund

Journalist—and Holly native—Tracie McMillan joins Oakland University to discuss her groundbreaking work in the 2024 book, The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America (Henry Holt & Co.). In this work described by renowned author Kiese Laymon as "courage and absolute genius," McMillan's stunning hybrid of memoir and journalism alternates between her own struggling middle-class family in MIchigan and four other white families across generations—and across the country.

Driven by personal history marked with abuse, illness, and poverty, McMillan asks—for real—what has being white ever gotten me? To answer it, McMillan goes beyond hollow discussions of 'privilege.' She seeks out whether her family in Oakland County and Ann Arbor benefited from public aid targeted to white families alone, and asks how much it was worth. With that knowledge in hand, she studies what America's steady loss of a safety net—in the form of education, housing and health care most people can afford—has cost her, too.

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Movers, Shakers, and Music Makers: A Tribute to Six Michigan Women Who Changed History

A One-Woman Show by Kamryn Marck

When: Tuesday, October 21, 7 - 8:30
Where: Rochester Hills Public Library Multipurpose Room

Register Here to Attend In Person

Register Here to Attend via Zoom

Co-sponsored with the Rochester Hills Public Library 
This event is made possible by the Judd Family Endowed Fund

This event features Kamryn Marck, who received a BFA in Musical Theatre from Oakland University in 2015. Ms. Marck is a self-described “ecological gardener” and “theatre artist" who has been touring throughout Michigan giving performances of various productions. Among the women featured in this production are Myra K. Wolfgang, labor union organizer, Grace Lee Boggs, philosopher and activist, Laura Smith Haviland, abolitionist and conductor on the underground railroad, and others. Featuring "This Little Light of Mine," "Oh! What a Beautiful City," this 45-minute show will leave you inspired by the legacy of women activists in Michigan and hopeful about building a better world right in your own backyard. Directed by Karen Sheridan. With support from Winn Kline.

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An Afternoon Tea with Jane Austen

When: Tuesday, December 2, 4:00-6:00
Where: The Ambassador Rooms in the OC

Register Here to Attend in Person

Register here to Attend Via Zoom

Co-sponsored with the Rochester Hills Public Library 

Join us for tea and cookies in a community celebration of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. We begin with a presentation by Professor Megan Peiser who will share images and anecdotes from her time living and working as a fellow at Chawton House, the beloved author’s family home. From there, community members will read aloud their favorite passages from Jane Austen’s novels. 

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The Leading Lady of Ice Dancing: Ludmila Pakhomova, ‘Sex on Ice,’ and Global Feminism in the 1970s

A Presentation by Lesley Chapel

When: Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 7:00
Where: 242 Kresge Library (The Nyberg Room)

Co-sponsored with the Rochester Hills Public Library 
This event is made possible by the Judd Family Endowed Fund

Lesley Chapel, who received a BA and MA in History from Oakland University and is currently a PhD student in history at Wayne State, is uniquely qualified to offer this presentation. Ludmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov of the Soviet Union revolutionized ice dancing during the 1970s. Their alluring, romantic style was dubbed “sex on ice,” and it freed the sport from the dominant, rigid, unemotive British style. Combined with their superb technical mastery, Pakhomova and Gorshkov’s “sex on ice” allowed them to become the first Olympic Champions in ice dancing in 1976 and idols the world over. But why did a Soviet couple sexualize ice dancing? Considering the answers to this question opens up the opportunity for deeper conversations about the impacts of changing global gender norms in the context of second-wave feminism during the détente period of the Cold War. The way international audiences were captivated by the liveliness and romantic charm of the couple’s performance style, along with the way Pakhomova in particular was valorized for her strong-willed character, demonstrates how East and West alike were grappling with changing concepts of femininity and masculinity during the 1970s in sport, art, and life.

After the couple’s retirement from competitive skating, Ludmila Pakhomova became a successful coach, producing an array of Olympians and World Junior Champions. Her coaching career was tragically abbreviated, however, when leukemia claimed her life in 1986; she was just 39 years old. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, several of her most prominent students immigrated to the United States and settled in metropolitan Detroit, where they continue to work as coaches themselves. Lesley Chapel was a nationally competitive ice dancer for 23 years, and both of her coaches were students of Ms. Pakhomova. Upholding Pakhomova’s legacy by learning her technique and style as passed down through her students at Detroit Skating Club became the single most meaningful aspect of Ms. Chapel’s passion for the sport. From a scholarly perspective, thinking about the presence of Pakhomova’s influence in metropolitan Detroit reveals the nuances of cross-cultural exchanges in the post-Cold War era on a local level.

Daniel Clark, Director
Daniel is a historian whose research involves oral history, interviewing people about their experiences. He is the author of Like Night and Day: Unionization in a Southern Mill Town (University of North Carolina Press, 1997), Disruption in Detroit: Detroit Autoworkers and
the Elusive Postwar Boom (University of Illinois Press, 2018), and Listening to Workers: Oral Histories of Metro-Detroit Autoworkers in the 1950s (University of Illinois Press, forthcoming). He also enjoys raising vegetables in a community garden and running on trails.

Kathleen Pfeiffer, Associate Director
Kathy is a Professor of English and Creative Writing and she teaches courses in American and African American literature, biography, and memoir. Her creative nonfiction was awarded the Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2012, and  her memoir Ink won the Michigan Writers Chapbook Contest in 2018. Kathy also runs Oak Tree Book Arts, a bookmaking studio specializing in classical bookbinding techniques as well as experimental structures.

Graham Cassano is an Associate Professor of sociology at Oakland University. He is an accomplished scholar, musician, and photographer, and he is the founder of the Pontiac Oral History Project. He has recently earned an MFA in Photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and his co-edited (with Teressa Benz) book, titled Urban Emergency (Mis) Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Flint, MI, in Context, was published in 2021.

Mike Doan is a Canadian-born father, activist, and philosopher. He joined the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership in 2016 while working with Detroit Independent Freedom Schools and Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management. He is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oakland University.

Bridget Kies is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at Oakland University, where she also serves as the Assistant Director of the Women and Gender Studies program. She is the author of Murder, She Wrote (2025), a comprehensive study of the 1980s television series, and co-editor of Fandom, the Next Generation (2022), which examines generational fandoms of film and television.

Jessica Payette is Associate Professor of Musicology at Oakland University. Her scholarly interests address opera in Austria, fin-de-siècle Vienna and the emergence of Expressionistic music and choreographic music.

Rachel V. Smydra is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film. Her scholarly interests focus on stimulating curiosity, embedding active learning strategies, and improving student writing. She is currently working on a historical fiction novel that explores 20th century map-making. 

Statement of Solidarity and Commitment to Anti-Racism

The Center for Public Humanities acknowledges the pain and loss that Black and brown citizens disproportionately endure due to racist violence and police brutality. The activism in response to the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans has been precipitated by the ongoing systematic manifestation of anti-Black violence. The Center commits to a steadfast position of anti-racism to support our students, staff, faculty, and community members. We support journalists and all citizens who exercise their freedom of speech to expose and oppose institutional racism to build a more just society. We continue to seek and support conversations across campus and the region to strengthen our position against racism in all its forms.

Land Acknowledgment

Niinwe nmiigwechendaanaa maanda aki.
Maanda Oakland University teg.
Pane gwanda Ojibwek, Odawak miinawa Bodwe’aadamiinhak.
Giibidaawok maanpii.

We acknowledge that the land on which Oakland University stands is the ancestral land of the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and the Potawatomi Nations.

A land acknowledgment offers a way to open a dialog. We at the Center for Public Humanities see this acknowledgment only as a beginning—we recognize that the arts and humanities have been practiced in Southeast Michigan long before the arrival of Europeans. As we learn how best to serve residents of the Tri-County Area, we pledge to be a positive voice to celebrate past achievements and amplify present and future contributions by Indigenous and Native American artists and humanists in this region.

We extend our sincere gratitude to Kenny Pheasant of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians for translating the land acknowledgment into Anishinaabemowin.

Past Events

All events are free and open to the public.

2024-2025

Great Michigan Read Event, Angeline Boulley, Author of Firekeeper's Daughter 

When: Thursday, September 26, 2024, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Where: Banquet Room B, Oakland Center, Oakland University - and via Zoom. 

Mike Kenny, OU Graduate and Attorney, "Pursuing Truth: Free Speech, Scholarship, and Jury Trials"

When: Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 7:00-8:15 p.m.
Where: Banquet Room A, Oakland Center, Oakland University - and via Zoom.

Book Arts Talk and Workshop Featuring Erin K. Schmidt, 2023 Kresge Artist Fellow

This event is made possible by the Judd Family Endowed Fund.

When: Tuesday, October 29, 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Where: Oakland University, Art Gallery - and via Zoom. 

Bookmaking Workshop

This event is made possible by the Judd Family Endowed Fund.

When: Friday, November 1, 2024, 9:00 a.m-12:00 p.m.
Where: Department of Art and Art History Studio (specific studio TBD), Wilson Hall, First Floor, Oakland University

Pat Roan Judd, OU Graduate, Performing Artist, and Humanities Benefactor, "Folklorist and Puppeteer Pat Roan Judd Tells Stories of Wise and Courageous Women"

When: Thursday, March 6, 2025, 7-8:15 p.m.
Where: Gold Rooms, Oakland Center, Oakland University - and via Zoom.

Kellan Dunlap, OU Graduate and Vocalist, with Lyndsi Maus, Pianist, Joined By Composer Victor Cui, "Even the Trees Weep"

In response to the fatal violence at Oxford High School in November 2021, this program features an original song cycle for tenor voice and piano that delves into the tragic issue of school shootings. Kellan Dunlap won a prestigious Presser Foundation award to develop this program.

When: Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Where: Varner Recital Hall, Oakland University - and via Online (Format to be determined).

Dr. Rhonda Williams, Coleman A. Young Foundation Endowed Chair of African American Studies, Wayne State University, "What Does a Well Society Look Like?

This event is made possible by the Judd Family Endowed Fund.

When: Wednesday, April 9, 2025, 7-8:15 p.m.
Where: 242 Kresge Library (The Nyberg Room)

2023-2024

• Kidada Williams, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction

Professor Kidada Williams from Wayne State University will speak about her recently published book, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction. This is a gripping, emotion-packed account of the early post-Civil War years, known as Reconstruction, from the vantage point of Black Americans attempting to give meaning to their freedom. Consider purchasing a copy through local bookstore Pages Bookshop.
This event is made possible by The Judd Family Endowed Fund.

When: Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
Where: 242 Kresge Library (The Nyberg Room), Oakland University - and via Zoom. 

• Rose Hackman

Rose Hackman, a British journalist based in Detroit, will speak about her recently published book, Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power. Emotional labor is essential to our society and economy, but it's so often invisible. In this groundbreaking, journalistic deep dive, Rose Hackman shares the stories of hundreds of women, tracing the history of this kind of work and exposing common manifestations of the phenomenon. But Hackman doesn't simply diagnose a problem - she empowers us to combat this insidious force and forge pathways for radical evolution, justice, and change.

When: Thursday, November 2, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
Where: 242 Kresge Library (The Nyberg Room), Oakland University - and via Zoom.

• Spreading the Word: Revisiting Dr. Johnetta Brazzell and the Pontiac Oral History Archive

The Pontiac Oral History Archive was created as a result of Dr. Brazzell's interviews in the 1970s with elderly African American residents of Pontiac, Michigan. This event will highlight important new work emerging from this oral history collection, including excerpts from podcasts based on the recordings, comments from living relatives of those interviewed decades ago, and a digital tour of the Pontiac Oral History Archive, publicizing its availability for community use.

When: Thursday, January 25, 2024, at 12 p.m.
Where: 242 Kresge Library (The Nyberg Room), Oakland University - and via Zoom. 

• Deirdre Mask, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask explores the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. She also reveals what not having an address means for millions of people around the world, whether it’s in the slums of Kolkata or the parks of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the often hidden stories behind street addresses and their power to decide who counts, who doesn’t – and why. 

Deirdre Mask is a writer, lawyer and "sometime academic," having taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist, Lit Hub, The Harvard Law Review, The New Hibernia Review, The Dublin Review, and Irish Pages. Originally from North Carolina, she now resides in London with her husband and daughters.

When: Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 12 p.m.
Where: Zoom.

• Women Rapping Revolution

Detroit, Michigan has long been recognized as a center of musical innovation and social change. Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay draw on seven years of fieldwork to illuminate the important role that women have played in mobilizing a grassroots response to political and social pressures at the heart of Detroit’s ongoing renewal and development project. Focusing on the Foundation, a women-centered hip hop collective, Women Rapping Revolution argues that the hip hop underground is a crucial site where Black women shape subjectivity and claim self-care as a principle of community organizing. Through interviews and sustained critical engagement with artists and activists, this study also articulates the substantial role of cultural production in social, racial, and economic justice efforts.

When: Thursday, March 28, 2024, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Oakland Center, Founders Ballroom A, Oakland University - and via Zoom.

2019-2020

• The Flawed Victory of Women's Suffrage

  September 8th, 7:00 PM. ONLINE.

  OU history professor Karen Miller examines what women's suffrage accomplished, and what it failed to achieve.

  Supported by the Department of Women and Gender Studies and the Center for Civic Engagement.

• Creativity and Community during Covid-19: A Look at Chinese Social Media

  October 12th, 5:30 PM. ONLINE.

  Bowdoin College Associate Professor Belinda Kong shows how ordinary people in China use social media to create community amidst Covid-19.

  Generously funded by Student Affairs & Diversity.

• Great Michigan Read Book Club: What the Eyes Don't See

  November 18th, 2:00 PM. ONLINE.

  Join us for an online book club to discuss Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha's What The Eyes Don't See, a powerful first-hand account of the Flint water crisis. Facilitated by Professors Adolfo Campoy-Cubillo, Mark Navin, and Michael Doan. Space is limited! Please register by September 28th.

  This project is funded by Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

January 18, 2020 (Saturday)
Webinar: Envisioning the Public Humanities at OU

• Dr. Susan Smulyan, Professor in the Department of American Studies at Brown University and the Director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, offered an engaging keynote talk. Dr. Smulyan offered different definitions of "public humanities" and shared case studies from Brown University. Guest speaker and OU alumna Kara Noto offered an account of her experience in the MA program in Public Humanities at Brown. Though initially planned as a luncheon, this event was rescheduled as a webinar to accommodate for inclement weather.

October 17, 2019 (Thursday)
Toni Morrison Film Screening

• Coinciding with National Arts and Humanities Month, the Center screened the acclaimed 2019 documentary, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am to pay homage to the Nobel laureate writer and tireless advocate of the humanities. Kresge Fellow and poet Nandi Comer introduced the film and premiered her poem, "In Praise of More Important Things: For Toni Morrison."

Recent Press

Hill, Katelyn. "Snow Can't Stop the Public Humanities." The Oakland Post, January 22, 2020.

"New Oakland University Center for Public Humanities the First in Michigan." Oakland University News, October 7, 2019.