Blacks in Appalachian Coal TownsLecture by Dr. William H. Turner From the turn of the 20th century through the Civil Rights era, thousands of Black families migrated to the Appalachian coalfields in search of opportunity. In towns carved into the mountains, they built communities, churches, schools, and social networks while facing the dual struggles of economic exploitation and racial segregation. Drawing from decades of scholarship and oral histories, Dr. William H. Turner—renowned author of The Harlan Renaissance—offers an illuminating look at the overlooked history of African Americans in coal towns across Appalachia. This lecture reveals stories of resilience, labor, faith, and cultural pride, reshaping how we understand both Black and Appalachian history.

Valuing Differences (BUILD)

Reception (with food and wine) begins at 4:30Presentation begins 5:15Kat Wakabayashi, Professor of Chemical EngineeringQuantifying the Quality and Freshness of Coffee.

Interested in the possibility of graduate school? Attend this information session and learn about current information and perspectives on the choice to pursue a Masters and/or PhD degree, hear about how to make yourself a competitive applicant, and gather some information about financing graduate school. You'll hear from the Office of Undergraduate Fellowships and Research, the Center for Career Advancement and students who have been through the process. Students of all class years are welcome and encouraged to attend. Juniors are especially encouraged to attend. Snacks will be provided.

Inclusion: Coaching for Individual Growth

Are you a graduate student and thinking about your next steps after Bucknell? Wondering if the Center for Career Advancement has resources for you? We do! Come to this session to learn more. Light refreshments will be provided. Please register on Handshake if you plan to attend.

Learn how to create three commonly used data visualizations in Google Sheets and Datawrapper. No prior expertise required! Free pizza! Sign up through Suitable: https://app.suitable.co/institution/7843/activities/483608 (https://app.suitable.co/institution/7843/activities/483608) Instructor: Katie Akateh (Research Data Services Specialist)

CSREG Faculty Colloquium with Elena Machado

Join emerging writers and editors to discuss the ins and outs of publishing in literary periodicals. Please feel free to bring a lunch. This event is a complement to the West Branch reading, the same day at 7pm in Bucknell Hall.Mary Kovaleski Byrnes is the author of the poetry collection So Long the Sky (2018). She teaches writing and literature at Emerson College, and is the co-founder of the EmersonWRITES program, a free creative writing program for Boston Public School students.Ji Hyun Joo is a writer raised in San Diego, California and Gyeongi-Do, South Korea. She completed her M.F.A in Fiction at Columbia University, where she is a recipient of the 2020 Felipe P. De Alba Fellowship and a nominee for the Henfield Prize.Alice Liang is the incoming Associate Poetry Editor of West Branch. A poet based in Brooklyn by way of China and Michigan, she received her MFA in poetry from NYU in 2025.Keri Miller is the incoming Associate Fiction Editor of West Branch. She received her MFA from Florida State University and her PhD from the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers where she served as associate editor of Mississippi Review.

BIPP Pizza & Policy on Addiction and Public Health Date: Thursday, September 25th Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Location: Academic West 108 Presented by Professor Judy Grisel (Psychology) and Rose Nyounway '27 Pizza, salad and drinks for all who attend. A Zoom option will also be offered: Meeting ID: 992 7612 1823 Password: 520797 Sponsored by the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy (BIPP)

Created in the Image?: Holocaust Perpetrators in Israeli Fiction Book Launch Lecture by Prof. Or Rogovin, Modern Hebrew Studies Program The perpetrators of the Holocaust—Nazis, Germans, and their collaborators—have occupied the popular imagination since the end of World War II. We see them everywhere in film and fiction. But how should they be portrayed? As cartoonish characters in leather jackets? As educated, well-dressed, and soft-spoken Nazis? As SS officers in black uniforms screaming orders in German with trains and chimneys in the background? This artistic dilemma is crucial for Israeli fiction that is written exclusively from the victim's perspective. Drawing on an extensive study of Israeli writing and its sociocultural context, Prof. Or Rogovin offers a pioneering analysis of how the representation of Holocaust perpetrators in this fiction, published between the 1940s and the 2000s, has developed from flat characters, likened to beast and demons, to full-fledged individuals, humanized as much as their victims.

Join three recent Bucknell graduates who went on to pursue the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. Julia Cirillo '22, Amber Cutler '24, and Mercedes Rodriguez '23 will discuss their experiences in their respective MFA programs, including the application process. Please feel free to bring a lunch. Our guests will present a poetry and fiction reading the same day at 7pm in Bucknell Hall.Julia Cirillo has a dual degree in French and creative writing from Bucknell and an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University-Newark. Currently, she teaches in the Writing Program at Rutgers. She lives in New Jersey.Amber Cutler is pursuing her MFA in Fiction at the University of Nevada, Reno. She majored in creative writing and psychology at Bucknell, where she received a Julia Fonville Smithson Prize for fiction and interned for West Branch. Mercedes Rodriguez's poetry appears in New England Review, Washington Square Review, New Delta Review, wildness, Bellingham Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best New Poets. They hold an MFA from North Carolina State University.

39th Annual Black Experiences Lecture Darrick Hamilton, (Economics and Urban Policy, The New School) Thursday, October 2 at 5:00pm, ELC Terrace Room Prof. Hamilton is the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and founding director of The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Prof. Hamilton's lecture is also the keynote address for the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy's inaugural public policy conference: "Policy Challenges in a Complex World."

Reception (with food and wine) begins at 4:30Presentation begins 5:15Emma Banks, Assistant Professor of International RelationsColonizing the Coal Frontier: Communities, Companies, and Conflict in Colombia.

Alumni who majored in International Relations will share about their career paths in different industries, including business, government, and nonprofit.

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/).

CSREG Panel Discussion Moderated by Soundarya Chidambaram

Reception in begins in Arches Lounge 4:30; presentation begins in The Gallery Theater at 5:15 (PLEASE NOTE LOCATION)Gulay Guzel, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Innovation and DesignReimagining the American Dream from the perspective of GenZ.

Reception begins in Walls Lounge 4:30Presentation begins at 5:15 (PLEASE NOTE LOCATION)Evening of Snap TalksIndranil Brahma, Professor of Mechanical EngineeringDecarbonizing the Navy: An Uphill Battle. Aynal Haque, Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations Climate Change Mitigation through Grassroots Level: The Bangladesh Model. Carly Holzworth, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance A Fitting Room Pedagogy: How Collaboration is Felt