Annual Events

In-Coming Student Meet-and-Greet           

At the start of each Fall Semester, CLST hosts a mid-day meet-and-greet for new graduate students in the program-affiliated departments. Given CLST’s mission to foster connections across departmental boundaries, the event gives new students a chance to meet, in an informal and sociable setting, their counterparts in other disciplines. Basic information about the program and refreshments are provided at the event. The event aims to convey a clear picture of the certificate programs at the earliest stages of the graduate career, but also to get a sense of students’ emerging interests so that the program can adapt better to their future needs and be more effective at recruiting and mentoring them.  

Open House

In October, CLST holds an open house for its entire faculty and student membership and for students interested in enrolling in the certificate program. At this event, the faculty member selected to teach the Spring Common Seminar is introduced and gives an inaugural lecture related to the theme or topic of the upcoming seminar. Students contemplating taking the Common Seminar will have a chance to learn what it is about and to ask questions of the course’s instructor. For this past year's event, click here.

Previous inaugural lecturers included:

  • Lara Putnam, Department of History, with Randall Halle (GER), Robert M. Hayden (ANTH), Courtney Weikle-Mills (ENG), and, acting as chair, CLST Director Ron Zboray (COMMRC), on the theme of "Outsiders: Citizenship and its Others."
  • Randall Halle, Department of German, who was away from campus Skyped into a session with Susan Z. Andrade (ENG) on Africa, Akiko Hashimoto (SOC) on East Asia, Joshua Lund (HISP) on Latin America, Laura C. Brown (ANTH) on South Asia, and, acting as chair, CLST Director Ron Zboray (COMMRC) on AngloAmerica, on the the theme of “Where in the World is Cultural Studies?” (2013).
  • Gabriella Lukacs, Department of Anthropology, “The Labor of Cute: Net Idols, Cute Culture, and the Social Factory in Contemporary Japan” (2012).
  • Terry Smith, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, ““Imagining Connectivity: World Picturing in Contemporary Cultures” (2011).
  • Ronald A. T. Judy, Department of English, “Discrepent Diaspora, Experiments in Affect” (2010).

The CLST Director, Program Administrator, and veteran affiliate faculty members attend this event and are available to answer questions and provide information during the reception that follows the lecture. Faculty members teaching CLST courses in the Spring Semester have a chance to meet with potential students at this event, and the roster of the next semester’s CLST courses will be circulated.