In conjunction with Hispanic LatinX Heritage Month, join award winning author and equity strategist Carlos Andrés Gómez for an engaging and interactive workshop that explores the complexity of Latinidad and identity. Through powerful storytelling, poetry, and guided reflection, Carlos will invite participants to explore how culture, race, gender, and other intersecting identities shape our understanding of self and community.

Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, and anti-war veteran whose work explores the impact of war, violence, and trauma on individuals and communities. In this lecture, Hughes will share images and stories from his projects, which draw from his own military experience and long-standing activism. Through printmaking, installation, and collaboration, Hughes honors the legacy of anti-war veteran movements and imagines new paths toward justice and healing.

This talk invites students and community members to explore how young researchers are helping uncover the layered histories of Native American boarding schools, especially in the heartland of Native America—Oklahoma. Centered on the collaboration of students and professionals engaged in mentored, community-centered research, this presentation highlights how archival searches, archaeology, oral histories, and digital mapping are used to understand and share Indigenous stories. Dr.

Ashlynn Stillwell, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will discuss her work on sustainable water and energy systems. Water and energy are closely linked resources with clean water and sanitation services dependent on energy, and fuels production and electric power generation dependent on water. This water-energy nexus spreads across scales to include large-scale infrastructure systems, societal trends and patterns, and individual behaviors.