Gina Siepel: To Understand a Tree encapsulates 6 years in communion with a single tree. Bridging art, ecology, and queer experience, the project approaches wood as a living being and explores interconnection, habitat, and environmental responsibility. Organized by the Museum for Art in Wood and curated by Jennifer-Navva Milliken.

Writer-in-Residence Rebecca Makkai will present a craft talk on writing fiction. Please feel free to bring a lunch.Rebecca Makkai is the author of the New York Times bestselling I Have Some Questions For You (https://rebeccamakkai.com/work/i-have-some-questions-for-you/) as well as four other works of fiction. Her last novel, The Great Believers, one of the New York Times' Best Books of the 21st Century (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html#book-80), was a finalist for both the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and the 2018 National Book Award, and was the winner of the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize among other honors. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca teaches graduate fiction writing at Middlebury College, Northwestern University, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago (https://www.storystudiochicago.org/).

Food for Thought is a casual philosophical lunch chat run by students.

CSREG Lecture on caste