CHSS Events
Fall 2026
El Grito De UHD A Presentation on El Grito de Dolores and Latino America in the U.S.
September 14, 2026
12 - 1:30 p.m.
One Main Building - 11th Floor
Guest Presenter Dr. Fernell Jimenez-Pabon - Instructor of Latino Studies
Special Performance by UHD’s Mariachi AAYIN
Mariachi Professor: David Moreno
Refreshments will be served.
Organized by Center for Latino StudiesFor more information on this .event, contact
Albert DeJesús Rivera at dejesusa@uhd.edu
Center for Latino Events Fall 2026
Hispanic Heritage Month Events, panel discussions, film screenings, poetry readings,
and LatinFest.
CHSS Professional Alumni Talk with Perla Ramirez
September 17, 2026
4 p.m.
Via Zoom
Borderlands of Experience: Poetry Reading and Q&A with Laura Cesarco Eglin, Katharine
Jager, and Stalina Villarreal
September 23, 2026
2:30 - 4 p.m.
40,000 Windows Café
At the crossroads of culture, UHD’s own Laura Cesarco Eglin, Katharine Jager, and Stalina Villarreal will read and talk about their newly published collections of poetry and poetry in translation. These works are widely different, but they are all shaped by life transformations and experiences. During the reading you will be able to inhabit a variety of worlds and spaces. You will reflect on what it means to be a migrant, on motherhood, on how music impacts life, on how it feels to speak different languages, and much more. View speaker bios.
A.I. in Humanities and Social Sciences
Opportunities and Pitfalls of A.I. in Contexts
October 7, 2026
2:30 - 4 p.m.
Fondren Commons in the Science and Technology Building
- What are AI’s current limitations in academic work?
- How can AI enhance learning rather than undermine it?
- How can we preserve human creativity and individuality in an AI saturated world?
- How will AI reshape work—and what human skills will matter most?
Students and faculty welcomed. Refreshments will be served.
For more information contact Dr. Guiliana Lund at lundg@uhd.edu. Sponsored by the English Department's Speakers and Events Committed.
250th Anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence: Local, Hemispheric, and Global
Intersections
October 12, 2026
12 - 1 p.m.
Academic Building, A436
A faculty lecture presentation examining 250 years of American independence-exploring
foundational democratic ideals, regional historic shifts, and lasting global impacts.
Presenters: Dr. Austin Allen and Dr. Fernell Jiménez-Pabón
2026 International Plain Language Day (IPL)
October 14, 2026
10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
3rd floor hallway: Bookstore Windows
Come and celebrate with us the International Plain Language Day at UHD on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Learn about the plain language guidelines and their uses. Be effective information designer and communicator!
CHSS Professional Alumni Talk
Dr. Eduardo Landaeta
October, 15, 2026
4 p.m.
Via Zoom
THE WITCHING HOUR - UHD B.A. in English Halloween Roundtable
October 15, 2026
2:30 - 4 p.m.
40,000 Windows Cafe in the UHD Library
Featured Faculty from the B.A. in English
- Lisa Jennings, PhD // Shakespeare’s Witches
- Katharine Jager, PhD // Medieval Witches & Early Modern Witch Obsessions
- Chuck Jackson, PhD // Hawthorne’s Hibbins & U.S. Witchery Expertise,
All invited In anticipation of UHD’s Halloween Horror Film, three UHD English professors read from and discuss literature that features the world’s most famous witches from across the ages. A discussion follows. Snacks provided
Election Public Deliberation: Living and Learning with AI
October 20, 2026
11 a.m. - 1: p.m.
Room A-300, UHD Academic Building
The UHD Center for Public Deliberation invites students, faculty, staff, alumni, candidates, and community members to join a public deliberation about the changes AI is bringing to our communities. Participants will talk and listen in small-group discussions as they consider the question: How should our university and community respond?
Lunch will be provided. Registration is required. The event begins at 11:00 a.m., and attendees should arrive no later than 11:30 a.m.
15th Annual UHD Halloween Horror Film Screening
HÄXAN (dir. Benjamin Christensen, 1922, Sweden)
October 22, 2026
7 - 9 p.m.
UHD’s North Deck
- Under the Waxing Gibbous Moon
- Free & Open to the Public
- Licensed with generous support from UHD’s Cultural Enrichment Center
This film serves as the first of a three-year Halloween program that centers witches in horror film. For this year’s Halloween horror film, we travel into the deep past of cinema's silent era to present a powerful and unusual example of fear and disgust on the big screen — HÄXAN (dir. Benjamin Christensen, 1922, Sweden). Based on the director’s studies of a German medieval text from the 1400s, this strange, often hilarious, film provides a lecture on the history of witches in European culture followed by several visceral stories about misunderstandings about and cultural panic over witches. Over 100 years old, the film experiments with still photography, live action, puppets, stop motion animation, extreme forms of make-up, superimposed imagery, and reverse motion cinematography. The film is one-of-a-kind and it is not to be missed!
2026 Student Symposium on Clear Communication (SSCC)
October 29, 2026
10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Via ZOOM
We are inviting undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their work at the virtual 2026 Student Symposium on Clear Communication (SSCC) at UHD that will take place on Thursday, October 29, 2026, via Zoom. Some of the possible projects may include research papers, products, presentations, and creative activities related to clear communication. The students will have a chance to win one of two $200 awards for the best research project or the best presentation on concepts/best product in clear communication. Visit the SSCC website for additional details. The deadline for students to submit a short abstract is October 1, 2026.
Designing Possible Futures Exhibition
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 24, 2026
2 - 5 p.m.
Willow Street Pump Station
Public Panel Discussion: October 29, 2026
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Willow Street Pump Station
Designing Possible Futures is an interdisciplinary, community-engaged exhibition using data, mapping, visual
narratives, and future scenarios to examine the social, cultural, economic, and environmental
challenges shaping our communities and explore how design can help us imagine more
just, resilient, and flourishing futures for Houston and beyond.
The exhibition brings together faculty and students in anthropology, architecture, graphic design, and digital media from the University of Houston–Downtown, University of Houston, and Rice University. Through interdisciplinary and community-centered approaches, the work explores how research, collaboration, and design can help us understand the challenges facing Houston and envision alternative futures.
Nuclear Nepantla: Cold War Legacies in the Southwestern United States and Mexico
Panel "Nuclear Nepantla"
October 28, 2026
11:30 a.m.
Fondren Commons in the College of Science and Technology building
Round Table "Querencia"
October 28, 2026
2:30 p.m
Fondren Commons in the College of Science and Technology building
Read more about this event on the Cultural Enrichment Center
Creative Writing Student Reading
November 11, 2026
40,000 Windows Cafe - W.I. Dykes LIbrary on 5th floor of OMB
Co-sponsored by the English Department and the Cultural Enrichment Center