March comes in like a lion this year, with three exciting and important department events within the next week and a half.

First up is the visit from Leonard Cassuto, author of The Graduate School Mess. His book talk will be on Wednesday, March 2, at 4:10 pm in Linderman Library 200, with a special lunch with graduate students beforehand, at noon in the Humanities Center. 

Next up is our second annual Literature and Social Justice Conference. The conference kicks off on Friday, March 4, at 4:10 pm with a keynote speech by our own Amardeep Singh, entitled “The Classroom is a Public.”

The conference continues on Saturday, March 5, from 8:30 to 6:30 pm with a full day’s worth of exciting panels and roundtables. All conference events will take place in Williams Hall. (Registration has closed for this year’s conference, but we will be covering the event here. Also, this is an annual opportunity, so stay in touch here for information about next year’s conference. Please email lsjlehigh@gmail.com with any additional questions.)

In the final week before spring break, don’t miss our semi-yearly Wednesdays at Drown at 4:10 pm on March 9 in Drown 210, a once-a-semester panel where graduate students and faculty share their current work. This semester, Matthew Werkheiser, George Mote, and Beth Dolan will be sharing their scholarship.

On Thursday, March 10, at 4:10 pm, you can catch the next installment in the Humanities Center’s Relatives lecture series: “The Society of Buggers: The Bloomsbury Group as Queer Family,” by Christopher Reed, Professor of English and Visual Culture at Pennsylvania State University (see below for a description of his talk). Reed will give his lecture in the Scheler Humanities Forum, Linderman Library 200. 

After a well-deserved week-long break, we’ll kick off the second half of the spring semester with two useful workshops. First up, Laura and I will be hosting a blog writing workshop on Wednesday, March 23, at 4:10 pm (more details to come). Pizza will be served; blog writing will be practiced! The next day at 4:00 pm (March 24), Brooke Rollins, Alex Thompson, and Laura Fitzpatrick will present the first of this semester’s pedagogy workshops, with a session on multimodal projects. Keep an eye on your email for the full workshop schedule.

Finally, a quick run-down of four other events happening on campus right after Spring Break:

The Notations series, in collaboration with the LU Creative Writing Program, is bringing Jennifer Whitaker to campus at 7:30 pm on March 23 (Wednesday) for a free event in the Lower Gallery (Zoellner); the Humanities Center will present Dream Warriors: Creating Pathways through Poetry and Music on Thursday, March 24, at 4:10 pm in Lamberton Hall.

Next, don’t miss the Feminisms Beyond the Secular conference, March 21-23. Registration is FREE for all Lehigh University and LVAIC faculty, staff and students.

Finally, celebrate 25 years of the Women’s Center on Tuesday, March 29, from 11 to 2:00 pm in the Global Commons (Williams Hall).

Update: To wrap up the month, don’t miss the Amaranth Writers Series (formerly Drown Writers Series) reading event on Thursday, March 31, from noon to 1:30 at the Humanities Center. In addition to lunch and refreshments, you can also participate in the reveal of Amaranth’s new logo and branding!

As always, keep an eye on the Graduate Life Office’s website and weekly newsletter for information on events that put you in touch with graduate students across campus.

Did we miss any important March events? Let us know in the comments below and check back for updates as programs are added to the schedule.