Wolf Pack Community Howl - Elections: How Should We Encourage and Safeguard Voting?

Wednesday, October 7, 6-7:30pm, JCSU Ballroom A

Many Americans are concerned about the US election system, although we don’t always agree on the main problem or how best to fix it. Is it too hard to vote? Is the system too easy to manipulate? Local, state, and federal laws governing the election system can be confusing and complicates efforts to improve both access and security. This year, Nevadans are voting on a ballot initiative related to voter ID, and the federal government has been looking for ways to limit mail-in ballots. With lots of changes happening to our election systems, we need to think about what approach is best for our interests.

Keeping heritage languages alive: Benefits and strategies

Thursday, October 8, 4pm, Jon Bilbao Basque Library and Center for Basque Studies

Dr. Beristain is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Saint Louis University and Jon Bilbao Research Fellow 2026, currently visiting the University of Nevada, Reno. His talk will focus on the transmission of heritage languages, especially the case of Euskara in the Basque Diaspora of the United States. Please check the attached flyer for further information.

Contact for More Information: Amy Pason (apason@unr.edu), Department of Communication Studies

“I Journey with the Righteous”: Fugitive Seaways, Spiritual Freedom, and Carceral Coloniality in a Qaṣīda of Shaykh Aḥmadu Bambā

Thursday, October 12, 4pm, JCSU 402

At the turn of the 20th century, the French colonial administration consolidated its rule over much of West Africa and executed, exiled, or attempted to co-opt many Islamic scholars and spiritual leaders. As a result of his non-violent opposition to local collaborating elites and the French colonial administration, the Sufi shaykh and scholar, Shaykh Aḥmadu Bambā. Drawing on Fred Moten’s theorization of “fugitivity,” this talk will conclude with suggestions on what works like Bambā’s can contribute to contemporary conversations about freedom in this time of intensifying violence and restrictions. Reception to follow.

Scholarship in Action: Decolonial Witnessing: Cold War Afterlives in Latin American and Latinx Testimonios with Dr. Guadalupe Escobar.

Monday, October 25, 6-7pm, JCSU 301

Join the Department of Sociology and Cultural Analysis for a conversation with Dr. Guadalupe Escobar, author of Decolonial Witnessing: Cold War Afterlives in Latin American and Latinx Testimonios.

Beginning in the Cold War era, Latin American writers and artists developed testimonio--powerful first-person accounts--of censorship, violence, and survival under repressive regimes backed by U.S. political and military power. As a genre, testimonio did more than document history: it functioned as a form of collective memory-making, giving voice to communities whose experiences were erased or distorted by official narratives of the state. In her new book, Dr. Escobar shows how this tradition of storytelling remains vital today, as artists and writers adapt it to expose the social structures , from border policy to economic precarity, that continue to determine whose lives are seen as grievable and whose are treated as disposable. Her work asks us to consider how storytelling itself becomes a site of political and social analysis: a way of naming power, tracing its afterlives, and imagining alternative forms of belonging and justice. Free and open to all. Light refreshments will be served.

Please check out the below community events:

Queer Culture Club

Second Saturday of Each Month, 11am, Sparks Library

Queer Culture Club: Virginia Woolf, Gender, and Modern Art at the Turn of the 20th Century.
Queer Culture Club is a limited series that explores the impact of queer expression and representation in literature, film, art, and music.
Saturday, October 10: We will host a moderated book chat on Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf. Please read the novel before attending to participate in the conversation.
Saturday, November 14: To wrap up the series there will be a crowdsourced, collaborative discussion of Virginia Woolf, the Bloomsbury Group, and modern art at the turn of the 20th Century.

Community Book Club: Here Where We Live Is Our Country

October 12, November 16, 5-6pm, The Radical Cat

Join us in learning about the Jewish Labor Bund and their philosophy of doikayt (דאָיקײט), which translates to "hereness" in English through Molly Crabapple’s NYT bestselling book. Crabapple’s retelling of the Bund’s buried history gives us insights into how a secular, anti-Zionist, and socialist political party applies to our current politics and coalition building today. Free and open to all, second Mondays of the month from 5-6 PM (except in November -- third Monday!), right here at the shop. Book club participants get 10% off the book if purchased here at Rad Cat - just tell us you are in the book club when you check out :)

Reading schedule:

Part 1 for 8/11
Part 2 for 9/14
Part 3 for 10/12
Part 4 for 11/16