In March 2027, fifteen UTC students will travel to Berlin and Kraków with Professor John C. Swanson to meet with Holocaust scholars, take part in museum workshops, and visit Holocaust-related sites across Germany and Poland. These students will study the Holocaust in a history course with Professor Swanson during the spring semester, then travel to Europe together over Spring Break 2027. Standing in these places in person will deepen their understanding of this crucial period in a way no classroom can.
Keese Lecture Series: Inside a Supreme Court Case
On November 5, students in the Honors College seminar on Global LGBTQ+ History, co-taught by Dr. Kathryn Taylor and Dr. Michael Samuel of the History Department, welcomed Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, to the Guerry Reading Room. Cameron-Vaughn served as lead attorney for the ACLU of Tennessee representing the plaintiff families in United States v. Skrmetti — the 2025 Supreme Court case challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors — carrying the case from its filing in April 2023 through oral argument and the Court’s decision in June 2025.
Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel’s New Article, “The Scholar’s Dilemma: Rational Study of Irrational Wars”
Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel’s new article interrogates critical questions related to the intersections of academic work and personal experience in the context of the conflict in Gaza and the US-Iran War.
Annual Middle Eastern and Asian Studies Lecture Series on Oct. 22
Contemporary Crises of Citizenship in the Arab World: A Talk by Dr. Lillian Frost (Virginia Tech); Thursday, October 22, 2026, 4:20-5:45 PM, Lupton 242
Dr. John C. Swanson Lectures at Invisible University for Ukraine’s Summer School
This summer, Dr. John Swanson participated in the Invisible University for Ukraine Summer School, delivering a lecture based on his own research on Jewish communities in the Ukraine.