10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. | In-Person
Host: Rachel E. Sullivan
Co-Host: Teresa Lew
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | HT 216

This presentation provides updates on Dr. Sullivan’s 2019 Humanities Days lecture on American attitudes. Using polling data, it explores areas of both disagreement and widespread consensus among Americans. Despite a media environment fueled by algorithms and outrage, many perceived divisions are less pronounced in everyday life. Professor Sullivan will discuss how reframing these differences and seeking common ground can strengthen public discourse and community.

12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Professor Stephen Bess
Co-host: Charmaine Weston and Carla Naranjo
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | Globe Hall | HT Building

Live Stream: Rockville Campus (map) | SC 152 and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | planetarium in Leggett Building

We are excited to announce that the MC Humanities Days keynote speaker will be the 2026 One Maryland One Book author, Lawrence Burney. He will share insights from his new book No Sense in Wishing: Essays on Black Music, Belonging, and Baltimore new window. The event will be moderated by MC English Professor Stephen Bess. This event is co-sponsored by Montgomery County Public Libraries and Maryland Humanities.

12:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Amanda Miller
Location: Sarah Silberman Art Gallery, Paul Peck Art Building, 2nd Floor, Rockville Campus (map)

From October 6th through 30th, Collaborative Artist in Residence Amir Hariri will lead students in Provisional Futures: Building As Revision, a project that explores transformation, shelter, memory, displacement, repair, and resilience through architectural thinking, sculptural construction, and material experimentation. Students in sculpture and 3D design classes will collaborate in the creation of a shared, site-responsive installation in the Sarah Silberman Art Gallery. On Monday, October 26th at noon, join the Art Department in a celebration of the student collaborative project. The finished installation will be on view at the Sarah Silberman Art Gallery through October 30.

1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Heather Bruce Satrom
Co-Host: Delia Sipe
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | RC 204

The 2025 documentary film Come See Me in the Good Light explores the life and work of the late poet and activist Andrea Gibson and their wife, fellow poet Megan Falley. When faced with Gibson's cancer diagnosis, Gibson and Falley work together to continue to create art and build community. This is a story of collaboration and hope even in the most challenging of times. The MC library has numerous e-copies of the poetry collection You Better Be Lightning for those who would like to explore Gibson’s work. This event is co-sponsored by the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | In-Person and Virtual
Host: Marianne Szlyk, Comfort Davis Mingot and Ethan Goffman
Location: Rockville Campus (map) | SW 301

This event will combine a workshop by local poet Marc Drexler on how to read and perform poetry out loud with an open mic.  It Takes a Community is an intergenerational group bringing together students, faculty, staff, and members of the local community. The workshop will show participants how to read their work so that audience members are engaged. An open mic brings us together in solidarity, and participants are encouraged to bring work on the themes of solidarity and social change.

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | In-Person and Virtual
Host: daniele Ginsberg, Emily Li,  and Micah King
Co-Host: Angela Lanier
Location: Rockville Campus (map) | SC 151

In Spring 2026, faculty and students partnered in an ethnographic evaluation of the organizational structure of the MBI Cafe and the learning opportunities it provides to Macklin Business Institute students ("Opportunities in the Macklin Business Institute Program/Cafe," Li and King 2026). In this self-moderated panel, the research team will report on their experience conducting research and managing the partnership between the Macklin Business Institute and the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice. The panel further explores how a collaborative project has forged solidarity between academic departments and can foster hope for future community-engaged work.

9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. | In person
Host: Matthew Decker
Co-Host: Tracie Babb
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | CM 214

In this hands-on workshop, participants will craft custom greeting cards to share with friends, family, acquaintances, and beyond. With moderator-provided materials, including cardstock, pattern and scrap papers, stickers, and other accessories, they will learn to build a handmade card from scratch while also discussing themes that define the practice: communication, connection, respect for the written word, kindness, and more. 

10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Greg Wahl
Co-Host: Michael LeBlanc
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | P3 217

MC students will present their favorite poems from TPSS campus' award-winning arts and letters journal, the Sligo Journal, and MC professors will present their writing assignments based on the Sligo Journal. This is an in-person poetry reading and discussion that will allow attendees to experience connections with their peers published in the Sligo Journal across the years.

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | In-Person and Virtual
Host: Ken Jassie
Co-Host: Jamie Gillan
Location: Rockville Campus (map) | SC 152

This panel discussion will feature Dena Hirsch, Genie Gluckman, and Shelli Klein, president of Generations After.  Their organization is comprised of children of Holocaust survivors, and they will speak to the experiences of their parents and their personal perspective and unique responsibility in preserving the memory and lessons of the Holocaust for those who come after. Informal conversation and question and answer will follow the presentation. 

11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Carol Moore, Carla Naranjo, and Norma Winffel
Co-Host: Angela Lanier
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | HS Cafeteria

All are welcome to join MC students, faculty, and staff who volunteer with the Montgomery County Immigrant Rights Collective (MoCo IRC) in support of local families impacted by the current situation with ICE. Visit our table to learn more about volunteer opportunities with the MC IRC as well as a crafting activity to create material that is used to educate community members about their rights.

12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Roger Rosen
Co-Host: Jamie Gillan
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | ST 302

According to Nelson Mandela, “Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music.” TPSS' monthly Music & Community series for students explores affinity months through a musical lens. September (National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month) will center the connection of music to our emotional lives. October (LGBTQ+ History Month) will focus on disco's roots and the cultural forces that led to its demise. November (Native American Heritage Month) will explore the contributions of Native American musicians to rock. December (HIV Awareness Month) will center the music of social justice movements.

The interactive workshop for Humanities Day will utilize October's Music & Community program and explore the series' main theme: the power of music to shift our emotions, move our feet, and change our perspective. The operative word here is OUR. Music connects. Music is celebration, heartbreak, unsettling uprising, and comforting lullaby. It is common to all cultures because it is the sound of the experience of life. Music is a reflection of the sounds of external and internal universes. We are, all of us, made of music. 

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. | In-Person
Hosts: Carla Naranjo
Presenter: Maria Naranjo
Co-Host: Alejandro Leopardi 
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | HT 216

Immigrant communities have a long history of coming together in their new "home" to demand decent working conditions, dignity on the job and the ability to build a community that includes many diverse voices. Join long time labor leader and Director of the Member Engagement Department of SEIU 32Bj Benefit Funds, Maria Naranjo as she shares the history of activism that was led by many recent immigrants from Central America in the Nation's capital during the "Justice for Janitors" campaigns of the 1990s and beyond. Through the narratives of union members, participants will explore how listening to and honoring workers’ experiences can foster collaboration and solidarity and inspire hope for meaningful social change. Ms. Naranjo will also share her experiences building collective power via engaging with the social, political and cultural experiences of diverse immigrant populations in the service sector of the DMV. 

1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | In-Person and Virtual
Host: Sunil Dasgupta and Andrew Nolan
Co-Host: Angela Lanier
Location: Rockville Campus (map) | SC 152

Many people today reject politics as corrupt and ineffective, expressing despair at the failures of politicians and political parties to address worrisome developments such as environmental damage, Artificial Intelligence, and spreading social and religious violence. While politics contribute to social problems, the solutions also lie in the realm of politics and particularly in the use of a central tool of politics: power. Power has been a longtime concern for historians and political scientists, but late democratic politics in the late 20th and early 21st century has obfuscated the nature, accretion, and exercise of power, leading to a paradox of powerlessness in society that has become increasingly technologically advanced and wealthy. Join Drs. Dasgupta and Nolan as they discuss the roots of the current crises of political confidence as well as examples of how people have moved past a revulsion for politics to an active understanding of the crucial role it plays in everything from road repair to missions to Mars.

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.| Virtual
Host: Michelle Moran
Co-Host: Florence Gadson
Location: Zoom

PPHI Honors Interns Alums will share their experiences partnering with professionals at the Library of Congress and Montgomery History while also conducting research for their own original projects. They will discuss both the challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary collaboration through active learning and research. This panel discussion is open to all. 

7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. | Virtual
Host: Jona Colson
Co-Host: Caroline Bock
Location: Zoom

How can writing about love become an act of solidarity, collaboration, and hope? Washington Writers’ Publishing House presents a reading and interactive creative writing workshop inspired by Capital Love, a collection of poems and stories celebrating love in all its enormity. The anthology honors the diversity of human experience—love for self, for others, and for community—and considers love as an antidote to anxious and divided times.

During the program, contributors will read selections from Capital Love and discuss how poetry and storytelling can create connections across different experiences and perspectives. Participants will then take part in a guided writing exercise exploring love not simply as a private emotion, but as a form of community building, resistance, solidarity, and hope.

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Maria Sprehn (GT), Kevin Gibbons (RV), and Alejandro Muzzio (TPSS)
Location: Germantown Campus (map) (Lobby outside of HS 138), Rockville Campus (map) at the Student Services Center (SV) near the MBI Cafe), Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map)  (lobby at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Arts Center - CF)  

Día de los Muertos Community Celebration: Join MC Anthropology students in an observance of the Day of the Dead. An altar will be constructed in a public space on all three campuses. MC students, faculty, staff, and community members are welcome to bring copies of photos, mementos, food, or drink in honor of departed loved ones, sit in contemplation, and learn more about this holiday celebrated in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. | Virtual
Host: Comfort Davis Mingot
Co-Host: Bryant Davis, Ahoefa Marah, Sally McClean, Marianne Szlyk, and Lauren Strawbridge 
Location: Zoom

This panel explores how the humanities can move beyond the classroom and become a practice of community building. The discussion begins with a central question: What happens when we move beyond seeing students and one another as problems to be solved and instead embrace our shared responsibility as members of a connected community? Through the work of the Community Partners Inquiry Committee (CPIC) and our collective reading and discussion of Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block, faculty across all three Montgomery College campuses have had opportunities to reflect on how to create environments in which students feel seen, heard, valued, connected, and hopeful.

10:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. | In-Person
Host: Rachel Sullivan
Co-Host: Carla Naranjo
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | BE 160

Generation X, those born between 1965-1980, is often thought of the forgotten generation, but even though they get less attention, women in this group have made great strides in promoting women's rights and what would later be called intersectional activism. In this panel, we will talk with GenX women about how they have experienced gender inequality in their younger years and today, and what their hopes for the future are.

11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Carrie Fitzgerald and Erin Benitez
Co-Host: Angela Lanier
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | Catherine and Isiah Leggett Math and Science Building

Launched aboard the two Voyager spacecraft in 1977, the Golden Record carries sounds, images, music, and greetings intended to represent life on Earth to any intelligence that might one day encounter it. This live planetarium presentation will follow Voyager’s journey beyond the planets while exploring the Golden Record as both a scientific artifact and an ambitious work of humanities.

Created through collaboration among scientists, artists, writers, musicians, and contributors from around the world, the record raises enduring questions: How can we represent the diversity of humanity? Who gets to speak for Earth? What should we preserve and share about ourselves? Through immersive astronomical visuals and guided reflection, the program will consider the Golden Record as an imperfect but deeply hopeful expression of human solidarity, a message cast into the cosmic ocean in the hope that we are not alone and that we are worth knowing.

12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. | In-person
Host: Brett Pelham
Co-Host: Teresa Lew
Location: Germantown (map) | HT 216

In 1970, about 4% of U.S. births were births by cesarean. In 2025, that figure was 32%. This lecture attempts to explain that radical change -- and its negative consequences for U.S. mothers and newborns. I present a wide range of data suggesting that modern U.S. birth has become riskier than it needs to be because of birth medicalization. I further show that both economic forces (e.g., hospital profit motives) and social forces (e.g., variation in women's social status) appear to be strong drivers of birth medicalization. I end with some suggestions about how U.S. mothers can have the safest births possible.

12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. | In-person
Hosts: Roger Rosen
Co-Host: Jamie Gillan
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | ST 302

According to Nelson Mandela, “Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music.” TPSS' monthly Music & Community series for students explores affinity months through a musical lens. September (National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month) will center the connection of music to our emotional lives. October (LGBTQ+ History Month) will focus on disco's roots and the cultural forces that led to its demise. November (Native American Heritage Month) will explore the contributions of Native American musicians to rock. December (HIV Awareness Month) will center the music of social justice movements.

The interactive workshop for Humanities Day will utilize October's Music & Community program and explore the series' main theme: the power of music to shift our emotions, move our feet, and change our perspective. The operative word here is OUR. Music connects. Music is celebration, heartbreak, unsettling uprising, and comforting lullaby. It is common to all cultures because it is the sound of the experience of life. Music is a reflection of the sounds of external and internal universes. We are, all of us, made of music. 

2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: James Furgol, Matthew Walker, and Nathan Zook
Co-Host: Carla Naranjo
Location: Rockville Campus (map) | SC 152

Professors Matthew Walker, Nathan Zook, and James Furgol will lead a panel discussion on U.S. foreign policy intended for MC students, but open to the MC and local community. The purpose of this event is multifold; (a) to provide historic context and explain how U.S. foreign policy has shifted from the end of the First Cold War in 1991 to today, (b) to highlight how the present represents a shift from the recent past, and (c) provide students with a safe space to discuss their views, values, and questions on the topic. The event will include messages of hope for future solidarity with the U.S.'s allies.

6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. | Virtual
Host: Tracie Babb, LaTonya Pinkard, and Gina Wesley
Location: Zoom

This panel will bring together students from an English course, a Science course, and a Human Communication course to explore a shared question: How can classroom assignments do more than assess learning—how can they create community?

Students from each discipline will reflect on a specific assignment or learning experience that helped them feel connected to their classmates, their instructor, their discipline, or the broader college community. Rather than focusing solely on the deliverables, students will discuss what happened because of the assignment: Did they collaborate with peers? Share personal experiences? Listen to perspectives different from their own? Discover common interests? Feel more comfortable participating in class? See themselves as belonging to the academic community? 

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Maria Sprehn (GT), Kevin Gibbons (RV), and Alejandro Muzzio (TPSS)
Location: Germantown Campus (map) (Lobby outside of HS 138), Rockville Campus (map) at the Student Services Center (SV) near the MBI Cafe), and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map)  (lobby at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Arts Center - CF)

Día de los Muertos Community Celebration: Join MC Anthropology students in an observance of the Day of the Dead. An altar will be constructed in a public space on all three campuses. MC students, faculty, staff, and community members are welcome to bring copies of photos, mementos, food, or drink in honor of departed loved ones, sit in contemplation, and learn more about this holiday celebrated in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | Virtual 
Host: Daniel Jenkins
Co-Host: Alejandro Leopardi
Location: Zoom

Please join Montgomery College’s Professor Daniel G. Jenkins for a dialogue with Khafiz Kerimov and Nicholas Bellinson about AI, friendship, and the future of learning together. 

At this event we will also announce the winners of this year’s Ethics Essay Contest, which invites students to respond to the question: “Do you have a responsibility to learn with your classmates rather than with AI?”

Khafiz Kerimov and Nicholas Bellinson are tutors at St. John’s College in Annapolis, where there are no lectures and every class is a shared inquiry into the great books. Kerimov holds a PhD in philosophy from DePaul University; Bellinson holds a PhD from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. Together they host “Invasive Thoughts”, a podcast involving conversations with scholars, poets, and philosophers. 

In the fall of 2025, their article “AI Is Making the College Experience Lonelier” was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In it, they argue that the real threat AI poses to higher education is “not that it will steal our words, but that it will steal our ability to think and work together.

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Stacey Peterson
Co-Host: Kristie Freeman
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | ST Atrium

Sidewalk Talk is a grass roots community listening organization. Our mission is to inspire, teach, and practice heart-centered listening to create belonging, justice, and social health. Trained listeners will be available to provide support for our MC community by just sitting down and actively listening to people as they pass through the ST Building. 

12:30 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Maria Sprehn, Ron Nunn, Kevin Gibbons, and Amber Ketchum
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | Driving Range

The ancient spear (atlatl) throwing contest will be held outdoors on the Germantown campus where students and the MC community will be able to learn and then compete in this ancient skill. Anthropology Professor Nunn will be guiding participants in how to throw this spear (atlatl) that can send darts more than 100 yards and over 80 miles an hour. 

1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Heather Bruce Satrom
Co-Host: David Lott
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | CF 101 (Cafritz Arts Center)

How can the power of art, the energy of architecture, and the restorative qualities of nature unite to create not only a place but a state of mind? Nora Severson Cafritz, the Senior Director of Collections at Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD, who oversees Glenstone's 2,000-piece contemporary art collection and art program, will describe the vision of Glenstone's founders, Emily Wei Rales and Mitch Rales. Learn about this remarkable place that invites members of the public to experience a world-class collection of iconic modern art. Cafritz will also discuss one of the museum's current exhibitions, featuring the work of artist and activist Andrea Bowers, whose art embodies the values of collaboration and solidarity around the issues of ecology and bodily autonomy. Co-sponsored by Women's and Gender Studies Program.

3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Free Minds Ambassadors, Albert Kapikian, and Monica Mische
Location: Rockville Campus (map) | SC 152

This Humanities Day event will bring the Montgomery College community together with formerly incarcerated Free Minds Poetry Ambassadors for an afternoon of poetry, conversation, and reflection. Joining us via Zoom, the ambassadors will share their experiences, read and discuss poetry by currently and formerly incarcerated writers, and invite participants into close reading and discussion. Participants will also write responses to poems by currently incarcerated writers. Through this exchange, the event puts “Humanities in Action: Collaboration, Solidarity, and Hope” into practice, using poetry to build understanding, create connections across barriers, and give voice to experiences too often unheard.

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Maria Sprehn (GT) and Alejandro Muzzio (TPSS)
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | (Lobby outside of HS 138) and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | (Lobby at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Arts Center - CF)

Día de los Muertos Community Celebration: Join MC Anthropology students in an observance of the Day of the Dead. An altar will be constructed in a public space on all three campuses. MC students, faculty, staff, and community members are welcome to bring copies of photos, mementos, food, or drink in honor of departed loved ones, sit in contemplation, and learn more about this holiday celebrated in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | In-Person
Host: Matthew Decker
Co-Host: Heather Bruce Satrom
Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus (map) | CM 214

In this hands-on workshop, participants will craft custom greeting cards to share with friends, family, acquaintances, and beyond. With moderator-provided materials, including cardstock, pattern and scrap papers, stickers, and other accessories, they will learn to build a handmade card from scratch while also discussing themes that define the practice: communication, connection, respect for the written word, kindness, and more. 

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | Virtual
Host: Comfort Davis Mingot
Co-Host: Colleen King, Stephen Manangan, Ahoefa Marah, and Jerald Monahan
Location: Zoom

This panel explores what happens when the humanities move beyond the classroom and become a catalyst for collaboration, solidarity, global engagement, and hope. Panelists will share their experiences in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fellowship, where faculty from English, humanities, STEM, and other disciplines across colleges and universities in the United States and Canada collaborate to create interdisciplinary assignments aligned with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Over the summer, faculty teams worked across institutions and disciplines to develop three interdisciplinary assignments for each SDG. During the fall, students from partner colleges and universities collaborate across institutional boundaries to complete these projects. The discussion asks: What becomes possible when we move from working alongside one another to working with one another? And how can collaboration become an act of solidarity that helps us imagine a more hopeful future? 

11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. or or 12:00 p.m. -1:00pm | In person
Host: Amanda Miller
Co-Host: Carla Naranjo
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | HT 161

Participants will learn about celebrated Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada, who was famous for his satirical calaveras (skeleton and skull illustrations). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his prints appeared in publications across Mexico, often commenting on political and social issues.  Join Professor Amanda Miller for a hands-on experience where participants will select from a collection of carved blocks representing skulls, bones, and other imagery to assemble a unique calavera to print on cloth or paper.

T-shirts are provided and upcycled garments are welcome! 
Please sign up new window to claim your spot! Sign up for 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. sessions.  

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. | Virtual
Host: Jamie Gillan 
Co-Host: Megan Howard
Location: Zoom

Join the Level 2+ Digital Storytelling intern cohort as they share their digital stories, focused on the personal and professional benefits of becoming a Digital Storytelling Intern at Montgomery College. Interns will discuss their experiences and answer questions from the audience.

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. | In person
Host: Teresa Lew and Jenny Hatleberg
Location: Germantown Campus (map) | HS 110C (in the Germantown campus library) 

This interactive session examines dispositional gratitude. Participants will learn more about the necessity of gratitude as a core part of our humanity and our connection with the environment and those around us by exploring the perspectives of writers, researchers, and poets.  Session attendees will also have the opportunity to browse through a special collection of library resources on gratitude while also forming a collective gratitude board.