The Engagements Experience

Groundbreaking and award-winning textile artist Bisa Butler will explore her initial introduction and motivations for quilting portraits, works from the past, and her current body of work. Throughout her career, Butler has attempted to create portraits that explore outer and inner depths. She will discuss her quilted portrait A Man's Worth, based off of a photo in the Holsinger Studio Collection - a collection housed in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library - along with other works that illustrate her philosophy.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams (2023), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Personal Days (2008), a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Bookforum, McSweeney’s, and many other publications. He is a founding editor of The Believer and the former literary editor of The Village Voice, and has worked in newspapers and book publishing.

Born in Buffalo, Ed lives in Manhattan with his family. He currently teaches writing at Princeton University.

His debut story collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, is forthcoming in 2025.

This screening is scheduled in conjunction with the exhibition "Milpa: Stop-motion animation by Spinifex Artists" on view at Kluge-Ruhe December 13, 2024 – June 15, 2025.

Her Excellency Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, Ambassador of Finland to the United States.

Ambassador Mikkola will speak on the present and past relationship with the U.S. and additional issues impacting Finland and the region. This Ambassador Series event is hosted by the University of Virginia Center for Politics Global Perspectives on Democracy program in partnership with the European Studies Program, and will take place in the Rotunda Dome Room. Contact Daman Irby, Center for Politics Director of Global Initiatives, at irby@virginia.edu for additional information.

The documentary offers a compelling exploration of the intense world of competition, ambition, and the consequences of the “win at all costs” mentality. After the screening, stick around for a fascinating discussion with Sabato and Carville, who will share their expert insights on the political landscape, the nature of competition, and the true meaning of success in today’s world.

Participating Departments: Architecture, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Psychology

Sign up to enter the ticket lottery by March 2nd.

This day-long symposium invites scholars, students, and the public to learn from and be in conversation with Indigenous experts in ecology, technology, and governance to better understand the practice and potential of place-based problem-solving in contemporary Indigenous communities. The hands-on workshop with experts from Virginia Indian Tribes allows participants to see how local makers are reinterpreting ancestral tools and techniques to address present-day needs. A panel discussion with leaders and experts from Virginia Tribes and U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borderlands highlights points of connection and divergence in communities that navigate complex, dynamic relationships with settler colonial nation-states.

The panel and attendees may consider these questions: What rights do Tribal citizens have to land, and which legal frameworks structure those rights? How do contemporary communities leverage traditional ecological knowledge to address climate change? How does the ongoing search for healthy relationships with a changing landscape influence Indigenous approaches to democracy, governance, and policymaking? What kinds of problem-solving solutions can be shared among and across Tribal borders and non-Native nation states? What does Tribal sovereignty mean in transnational contexts? What does it mean to be a Tribal citizen on Tribal lands and far from home? How does the presence or absence of reservation land shape Tribal citizens’ understanding of space and home? 

Speaker Amanda Lee Keikialoha Savage (she/her) teaches history at the University of Memphis and is an academic advisor for history majors. She is both kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) and haole (white of European descent), and much of her community work involves straddling that line. She co-founded Native RITES, a small indigenous-led organization supporting the education, political organization, and sovereign rights of Native peoples in the Mid-South. She works with community organizations and academic institutions to help people understand how colonialism informs their pedagogy and worldviews and how to begin the lifelong process of decolonization.

Cameron Meredith
Hi, I am a 4th year at UVA studying Global Environments and Sustainability and Urban Planning. I play bass and sing. I started playing in bands in my first year and have been doing it since. I currently play in Swamp Street with Karolyn. We’ve been working on a lot of recording and have just started releasing some music!

Carina Velocci
Carina Velocci is a fourth year Art History and Studio Art major from Richmond, Virginia. A musician and artist, she sings, plays guitar, writes songs, and creates experimental sound works in her new media studio practice. Since her second year, she has been deeply involved in UVA’s music community—first as media director for University Records, designing show posters and other visuals, and now as its president. She is also the lead singer of Bitchfit, a Riot Grrrl-inspired femme punk band.

Karolyn Yoon
Hello! I am a masters student in Statistics at UVA. I grew up playing the cello, guitar, piano, and singing. I had never really played in a band before I formed Swamp Street with Cameron and Jeremy. We started playing at local Charlottesville venues a couple years ago and it has been so much fun.

Sara Bastianelli
My name is Sara Bastianelli. I am a 3rd year studying Anthropology and Global Development Studies. I am vice president of University Records and an assistant producer at WTJU. If you have any questions about concert photography, audio engineering, or how to get involved in UVA’s DIY music, come talk to me!

Calista Nelson
My name is Calista Nelson, a second year, and I am an incoming student at the Frank Batten School of Public Policy & Leadership from Northern Neck, Virginia. There were limited opportunities for music in my hometown, so I really found my voice (literally!) when I came to UVA. My roommate, Isa, offered me a spot in a one-time show that led to our funk and r&b cover band Loose Champagne. Ever since, I have been eager to discover new experiences for vocal performance and meaningful connects in the Charlottesville music community!

Isa
Hello! I’m a second-year majoring in Public Policy and Leadership at the Batten School and planning to double major in Music. I’ve been playing the piano since I was 5, and, since my first semester at UVA, I’ve been playing in a jazz small-group and with my band, Loose Champagne. The band has been a huge part of how I got involved in the music scene, both within UVA and Charlottesville generally, and it’s been really incredible to meet other musicians that way. We’ve played for house shows put on by student music organizations, as well as in various venues in Charlottesville. Outside of playing piano/keyboard, I’m also involved in the student radio, WXTJ, and work on the UVA music social media team!

This event is open to all and is sponsored by the UVA Library IDEA Grant.

Inclusive Soundscapes is a program series at UVA Library that encourages women & non-binary musicians to express themselves and to build solidarity in the UVA/Charlottesville music scene.

Program:
BARBER — Adagio for Strings
CARSON — New Commission for Rapper and Orchestra
MOZART — Requiem

In celebration of the Miller Center’s 50th anniversary in 2025, a series of special public events highlights the Center’s contributions to Presidential Oral History and the study of the U.S. presidency, featuring every presidency for which the Center has conducted an oral history project. ONLINE and IN PERSON

Based out of Charlottesville, the Hard Modes perform video game music arrangements, employing improvisational melodies, modern jazz harmonies, and rhythmic twists. 

When he’s not creating music, Brandon Walsh, Hard Modes member and Head of Student Programs in the UVA Scholars Lab, provides support to research and creators in the digital humanities. According to Walsh, “the band is formed of folks with a range of UVA affiliations—alumni, employees, faculty, family members. And many of us are alumni of the music program here! The band itself plays original jazz arrangements of video game music, primarily by bandleader Greg Weaver with the occasional contribution from me. It's been a great way to connect different parts of our lives.”

For more information about the Hard Modes, visit their website: https://thehardmodes.com/

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

We will provide all the supplies to create your very own piece of wearable art. UVA students are invited to create a design to wear to the Spring Fashion Gala in April! This event is open to the public and free, however supplies are limited. Thank you to the support of the UVA Parents Program.

This program takes place entirely outside—we will be walking around the exterior of the museum, and Arts Grounds. Please dress appropriately for the weather. In the event of extreme inclement weather, we may have to postpone.

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

This event is part of an ongoing series from the Karsh Institute of Democracy featuring conversations with leaders from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.  

Drawing on archival research in Japan and the United States, editor Richard M. Jaffe has collected and analyzed the lectures in full for Columbia University Press.  In this talk, he will speak about the place of the lectures in the history of American and global Buddhism.  He will also touch upon the interesting archival research story of the production of the lectures manuscript.

Richard M. Jaffe is professor of religious studies at Duke University. He is the general editor of the Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki and the author of Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism and Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism.

Park’s advocacy work is deeply connected to the University of Virginia through Otto Warmbier, a UVA student who died after being imprisoned by the North Korean regime. She honors his memory in her tireless efforts to expose North Korea’s atrocities and champion freedom and human rights.

Come hear Yeonmi’s triumph of freedom over communism.

The Last Lecture Series is back! This 32-year-old tradition at the University invites UVA's finest faculty to present as if it were the last lecture they could ever give.

The lectures are open to all, with no ticket required and first-come, first-served seating. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. each evening, and free desserts and beverages will be provided after each lecture.

This moving and longstanding event is not to be missed!

Sponsored by University Housing and Residence Life.

Jessica Marie Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, August 2020). Her work explores histories of slavery, African diaspora, and Black life in the Americas.

Sponsored by UVA's Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship in Caribbean Literatures, in association with the Scholars' Lab, and the Departments of English; Africana Studies; History; and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Lecture by Ghiora Aharoni

Illustrating these ideas with animations, still images and short films of artwork and installations created in his artistic practice over the course of nearly two decades, the lecture will survey the metaphorical, allegorical and inspiring narratives that exist within objects and their capacity to illuminate facets of our existence, and ultimately, humanity's interconnectivity.

Public Lecture: Thursday April 3rd at Campbell Hall (School of Architecture) Room 153 at 5:30 pm. Reception to follow at The Fralin from 6:30–7:30 pm.

Sponsored by UVA Provost’s Office and The College of Arts & Sciences Engagements Program.
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Ghiora Aharoni founded his multi-disciplinary studio for art and design in New York City in 2004. His work has been exhibited internationally in museums, institutions and galleries, and is in private collections and foundations in North America, Europe, the UAE, Israel and India. A graduate of Yale University, Aharoni’s work is in the collections of The Pompidou Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Vatican, The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Morgan Library & Museum, The Huntington Library and Museum and The Anu Museum. He was selected as Princeton University's 2024 Belknap Visitor in the Humanities, and his work was shown earlier this year in Jodhpur, India in "Surface," an exhibition of international contemporary artists creating embellished textiles as signifiers of larger cultural narratives.

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

Participating Departments: Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry

Sign up to enter the ticket lottery between March 17-30

Student requirement: Prior to the seminar, select a single word--either in one's native language, English or another language you speak or read--and talk for a maximum of three minutes about the spectrum of meaning that particular word can evoke.

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

A catered reception will follow the event.

Sponsored by the:
UVA Forum on Religion & Democracy
UVA Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality
UVA Jewish Studies Program

Merge Records artist Rosali is a North Carolina–based songwriter that makes songs that take their time in revealing their full power. What might appear to be restrained, introspective compositions will stretch slowly outward, snagging your attention with a sideways guitar lead or an exceptionally raw lyric you didn’t catch the first time around. Her softly glowing music is deceptively fluid, able to appear patient and refined at the edge of unraveling.

For this, the first of two events in the RMC on the April 9th, Rosali will play her songs and answer questions related to her art, artistry, and what it's like to have a career in independent music.

This performance and interview is part of the Inclusive Soundscapes program, a program series at UVA Library that encourages women & non-binary musicians to express themselves and to build solidarity in the UVA/Charlottesville music scene.

Presentation followed by Q&A

Merge Records artist Rosali is a North Carolina–based songwriter that makes songs that take their time in revealing their full power. What might appear to be restrained, introspective compositions will stretch slowly outward, snagging your attention with a sideways guitar lead or an exceptionally raw lyric you didn’t catch the first time around. Her softly glowing music is deceptively fluid, able to appear patient and refined at the edge of unraveling.

For this, the second of two events in the RMC on the April 9th, we will convert the majority of the 3rd floor into an interactive recording Studio to record a live, improvisational record with Rosali. Rosali's alter ego, Edsel Axel, makes beautiful, free-form, atmospheric improvisational music. We're going to do the same! No musical experience necessary to particpate but we will provide instruments, amplifiers, and other noise-making objects as we professionally record this first-of-its-kind event for the Robertson Media center, with the intention of releasing it in the future. Join us and make a record with Rosali!

This interactive recording is part of the Inclusive Soundscapes program, a program series at UVA Library that encourages women & non-binary musicians to express themselves and to build solidarity in the UVA/Charlottesville music scene.

The Last Lecture Series is back! This 32-year-old tradition at the University invites UVA's finest faculty to present as if it were the last lecture they could ever give.

The lectures are open to all, with no ticket required and first-come, first-served seating. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. each evening, and free desserts and beverages will be provided after each lecture.

This moving and longstanding event is not to be missed!

Sponsored by University Housing and Residence Life.

Fashion As Art is an annual partnership with the museum’s Volunteer Board and this year celebrates The Fralin’s 90th Anniversary. Local businesses, student groups, and the community grow awareness of The Fralin's mission and showcase the depth and breadth of local and national artists and designers and their impact on the fashion world.

Marcy has worked extensively as a first hand and a draper in theatres across the country and is also the current Collection Manager of our Historic Clothing Collection.
Her second book on the collection, Historical Pattern Archive 2: Women's Clothing from the Historical Clothing Collection 1820–1938 will be published in July by Taylor & Frances Group, Routledge.

Featuring the work of student, faculty, and guest choreographers, the Dance Concert will showcase technical, creative and artistic approaches to movement and composition, while reflecting each choreographer's personal interests and stories - an evening of engaging, evocative, and eclectic performances.

Experts in law, politics, and business evaluate American democratic capitalism under President Trump and beyond. Is the Trump administration’s economic approach sustainable? Panelists will discuss its costs and benefits to the future composition of the American political economy.

This event is presented by the Miller Center's Project on Democracy and Capitalism.

Rosanie Soleil is a psychodrama which brings together a quartet of women, in a domestic and rural environment in the south of Martinique in the 1870s.

Busy with their household chores, they communicate in coded language, in order to continue a cross-dialogue above the understanding of one of them, or in order to make fun of the neighbor who plays the crazy woman, to poke the mother or to make her talk about the secret she jealously guards: the identity of the father.

It is about revolts, fires, insurgents, a mysterious man who we never see symbolized by a set of percussions, but it is above all a question of the place and involvement of women in these insurrectional events… Secrets and the unspoken are at the heart of their verbal games. Mystery…

These women, although different, are closely linked to each other and involved to varying degrees in the action taking place outside.

To be performed in French and Antillean Creole, with English subtitles.

Please note that 'Rosanie Soleil' includes references to violence and violent acts, including sexual assault.

Featuring the work of student, faculty, and guest choreographers, the Dance Concert will showcase technical, creative and artistic approaches to movement and composition, while reflecting each choreographer's personal interests and stories - an evening of engaging, evocative, and eclectic performances.

A talented singer, songwriter, and rap artist, Nathaniel Star creates art that is intimate, smart, and boldly explores a breadth of musical and artistic styles. Nathaniel’s artistic partner, Vintage, will be joining Nathaniel on keyboards. In addition to their musical performance, Nathaniel will be sharing information about his new interactive lyric book, which is being published and supported by the UVA Library.

For more information about Nathaniel, visit him on Instagram (@nathanielstarmusic) or his linktree site. To listen to or purchase his music, visit his Bandcamp site at https://nathanielstar.bandcamp.com/music.

The Concert Band’s membership is composed of dedicated students from every division and department within the University. Students appreciate the opportunity to practice and perform repertoire from a variety of genres and periods as an outlet for creativity and expression. Past music selections have included standard band literature, pop music, and concertos with special guest artists.

Stay for at least one session and hear fellow Undergrads talk about their research

Benjamin Rous, Conductor
Anna Han, Piano

Program:
DEBUSSY — Clair de lune
SAARIAHO — Asteroid 4179
BORODIN — Polovstian Dances
RACHMANINOFF — Piano Concerto No. 3