About Our Lectures

Our lecture series is devoted to presenting a variety of speakers who address current theoretical and methodological considerations in the humanities.

The series is intended for a mixed audience from the University and Philadelphia area. Lectures are free and open to the public, and take place Tuesday evenings at 6:00 PM. The general format is a 45-60 minute presentation, followed by a half-hour question-and-answer session, and concluding with refreshments and casual conversation at the same location. Topics cut a wide swath across academic disciplines; we especially encourage lectures that connect philosophical and theoretical topics to current issues in the study of literature, art, film, and other media, or history, politics, and culture.

The venue for lectures is the Arts Cafe at the Kelly Writers House. Founded in 1995 by a group of students, faculty, staff and alumni, the Kelly Writers House is an actual 13-room house (circa 1850) at the heart of the Penn campus that has been converted into a center for writing and theory of all kinds and from all disciplines.