In these challenging times, we want to reach out and affirm, with absolute clarity, that you are deeply valued members of our academic community. We recognize that current events are affecting each of you in unique and personal ways, and that for many of you the current situation is both troubling and concerning. While we may not have immediate answers to every question, please know that your safety and wellbeing remain our highest priority. (Read our full message in our GradLIFE blog.)

The university has published a new federal updates website that houses information, resources and answers to frequently asked questions regarding new federal directives. This website will be updated as more information becomes available. Faculty, staff and students seeking additional resources or information are encouraged to email federalupdates@illinois.edu. Our overriding goals will be transparency and compassion as we navigate these important issues together. 

The Graduate College is now accepting applications for the Career Exploration Fellowship, which connects doctoral students with campus units for meaningful, mentored work experience. In Fall 2025, each Career Exploration Fellow will receive a paid hourly position at a host unit and a $5,000 Career Exploration Fellowship. This program aims to enable doctoral students to gain experience and build skills that align with a wide range of career aspirations. Applications are due March 16. Learn more at https://grad.illinois.edu/professional-development/career-exploration-fellowship

Grad students, come cheer on the Fighting Illini women's basketball team! Join us if you're a die-hard basketball fan or if this is your first Big10 sporting event!  We'll have a grad student section next to the student section. Student tickets are FREE (bring your Icard) Non-students are welcome to join and should buy General Admission tickets ahead or at the door. Sign up here to let us know you're coming! The game starts at 4 pm. Come early to say hello at the Grad College table and pick up a sticker and pom pom. 

Are you graduating this May? Join us for the Graduate College Doctoral Hooding Ceremony on Thursday, May 15. The focus of the ceremony will be the formal hooding of doctoral graduates by their faculty advisers. Participants must have successfully deposited their dissertations by 5:00 pm on May 2 to be eligible. More details and the link to register can be found on our event website. 

You're engaged in fascinating research. Your archival work, ethnographies, and textual analysis are transformative. You can analyze a data set like nobody's business. You design, choreograph, sculpt, compose, and create works that can change the world. But can you get a general audience interested in what you do in only 3 minutes? Research Live! invites you to celebrate your work and hone your presentation skills by giving a compelling 3-minute research talk. Participants compete for honor, glory, and a $300 first prize.

Have you ever struggled with navigating relationship issues with others? Join the Counseling Center for a workshop where we will discuss important aspects of a relationship and ways to address interpersonal challenges and build healthy relationships. This workshop is in-person only, and held in the Main Library, room 106. Registration is strongly encouraged.

This survey aims to understand student experiences with dating apps, including instances of unwanted advances, harassment, and sexual assault. Your anonymous responses will help identify risks and advocate for better safety resources on campus. Participation is voluntary, and all responses are confidential.

DRES is providing a short, anonymous survey for graduate students with disabilities to learn about their needs; you do not need to be registered with DRES to participate. Disabilities may include (but are not limited to) learning disabilities, ADHD, mental health disabilities, such as anxiety disorders or depression, autism spectrum disorder, physical or sensory disabilities. Participants will be entered into a raffle to win one of eight $25 Amazon gift cards.

The ability to craft an effective funding proposal can reap a lifetime of rewards. As a graduate student, now is the time to hone your grant writing proficiency. In this workshop from the Grad College's Office of External Fellowships, designed for students in science, technology, engineering, & math, you will learn how to identify funding opportunities, strategize the components of an effective proposal, and think like a grant writer. Come with questions about this mysterious genre; leave with a template you can adapt to become a competitive applicant for prestigious awards. Register here.

The European Union Center is accepting applications for European Studies Graduate Student Conference awards. We will award two students with grants of up to USD 500 to offset costs of presenting at a conference during calendar year 2025. Award recipients will receive the funding as a reimbursement and must be able to provide receipts. For information on requirements and to apply, see here.

Are you looking for a new way to organize your thesis notes or citations? Programs like Evernote will allow you to store your notes, photos, web clippings, and files in one place. Citation managers, like Mendeley and Zotero, can help organize your citations into bibliographies and store notes and PDFs. You can learn more about these resources on the Library’s website or at a Savvy Researcher workshop.

When you're writing your thesis, you probably have tons of files to keep track of. As a graduate student, Emily (who now oversees the Thesis Office) learned the hard way how important having a data management plan is. Learn from her mistakes in our blog "How to Keep Track of Your Stuff, or Four Horror Stories in Two Parts" (Part I and Part II).

Curious about careers in business analytics and consulting? Join us for Career Insider, a virtual panel featuring industry professionals who will share insights into the field, career paths, and essential skills for success. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain expert advice and ask questions. Register to receive the meeting link and to submit a question.

Landing your first job offer is exciting and well-earned after years of hard work. But before you say "yes," take a step back and evaluate the full package. Beyond salary, consider benefits like paid time off, healthcare, company culture, and growth opportunities. A strong offer isn’t just about the paycheck—it’s about your future. And if you’re thinking about negotiating, remember: confidence is key! Know your worth, do your research, and be prepared to have that conversation. Registration is encouraged but not required.

As generative AI’s impact on job searching and hiring continues to take shape, navigating AI tools like ChatGPT and others has become a powerful instrument to those seeking jobs and internships. This presentation will familiarize students with the current AI landscape, its challenges, best practices for its effective and ethical use in resumes, cover letters, interview preparation, and other parts of the search process, employer perspectives on candidates’ use of AI, and future directions in which these tools may evolve. Register to receive the meeting link and to submit a question.

This session will introduce you to the range of non-tenure track faculty roles in academia (e.g., Lecturer, Teaching Assistant Professor, Adjunct Instructor, etc.). We will discuss issues like employment stability, common work responsibilities, and more. This session will better equip you to understand the landscape of higher education in the U.S., whether you are actively seeking employment in roles like these or just curious about them. Join online at https://go.grad.illinois.edu/eventspace. 

Are you feeling unsure about what comes next? Graduate College Career Development offers individual career advising to help you explore careers, identify options that work for you, and take your next steps. We can also support you during an active job search with application material review and interview prep. Visit https://go.grad.illinois.edu/careeradvising to make an appointment.

Are you struggling to keep track of all your sources? Looking for an easier way to cite as you write? Mendeley is a free citation manager that helps you organize your citations, store and annotate your files, and insert formatted citations into papers. You will leave this hands-on workshop with the ability to set up and use your very own Mendeley library!

You’ve got your qualitative data, now what? How do you turn that wealth of data into an answer to your research questions? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll discuss strategies you may use to analyze your data and explore the tools you can use to put your analysis plan into action. Strategies discussed include: coding and viewing coded data, quantifying qualitative data, comparing data across categories, and using writing and mapping to develop your interpretation. 

Looking for a new way to conduct your research? Tired of getting zero results in your database searches? This workshop will break down how to identify resources, and search for articles, books, and other scholarly works. We’ll cover chasing citations, creating optimal keyword searches, using built-in database functions to improve your searches, and other strategies to make you a more efficient researcher.

Scholarly databases feature common operators and special features that allow you to create more precise search results. The more you use these features and tools, the better your search experience will be. In this class, we talk about these search operators, special characters and limiters and discuss how to learn a new database in a way that is efficient and effective. This workshop will include hands-on time, so bring a computer and search along with us.

Are you overwhelmed by organizing your sources? Zotero is a free, open-source citation manager that helps you store and organize your files and insert formatted citations into papers. You will leave this hands-on workshop with a Zotero library set up and ready to use!

Strengthen your intercultural competence through this Stumbling Blocks to Intercultural Communication workshop, which helps identify and overcome common barriers in cross-cultural interactions. This session explores six key causes of intercultural communication breakdowns and provides actionable strategies to avoid them. More details and registration can be found here: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/1693959172. Questions? Contact ISSS Training and Programs at isss-programs@illinois.edu.

Start the semester the "write" way! Our biweekly writing group provides grad students with dedicated time to make progress on any writing project in a supportive atmosphere. Each meeting consists of a short goal-setting conversation, quiet writing time, and a concluding reflection and wrap-up. You only need to register once with your U of I email to receive weekly email reminders all semester! 

Infographics can be an effective way to convey small bits of information very quickly, while drawing viewers in due to their visual appeal. In this workshop students will learn about best practices for creating infographics and be introduced to several free online tools that allow users to create their own infographics, including Infogram and Visme. The session will end with a practice activity where participants are encouraged to use the webtool of their choice. 

In this introductory workshop, we will be learning about basic 3D Printing modeling with TinkerCAD. We will provide a walkthrough and activity with this software. After registering, please create a TinkerCAD account. TinkerCAD is a free browser-based software that we will be using in the introductory 3D design workshop. Choose the “Create a personal account” option for this workshop and follow the registration steps. A duplicate of this workshop will be provided on April 8th.

Are you curious about what kind of sources and perspectives are out there beyond journal articles? This hands-on workshop will help you locate, use, and cite multimedia for your research. Some of the multimedia we go over includes images, podcasts and videos. You’re welcome (and encouraged) to bring a project you are currently working on!

This session will cover conceptual design, storytelling techniques, and scriptwriting. Our goal is to set a strong foundation to help researchers understand communication in this popular, innovative format. We will have four subsequent sessions that go into more depth, but this first workshop is paramount to getting started!

The Center for Writing Studies invites graduate students to submit proposals for the 2025 Gesa E. Kirsch CWS Graduate Symposium, taking place on April 24 & 25, 2025. This symposium provides a space for graduate scholars to share their research and engage in interdisciplinary conversations on writing, rhetoric, literacy, discourse, media, and communication. We welcome proposals for individual presentation, panel, workshop, and other innovative formats. Please submit your proposal by the end of the day on March 14, 2025: https://forms.gle/LiqeRE1Zc8CBQNWD7

Join CI Pathways (NSF award 2417789) to elevate your research with cutting-edge cyberinfrastructure (CI) tools! This cohort-based training program offers a guided approach to using CI, with expert mentorship and peer learning. Led by NCSA and PSC, CI Pathways provides world-class learning experiences in four 10-week pathways: CI Awareness, Machine Learning & AI, Data Science, and Parallel Computing. Each pathway includes four hands-on virtual sessions with assignments. Build lasting relationships and enhance your research with CI Pathways! Visit the CI Pathways webpage for more information. 

The Office of Undergraduate Research is seeking faculty, staff, and graduate students to serve as judges for the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 24, 2025. Judges will spend ~1.5 hours evaluating a small group of poster or oral presentations to help determine award winners. This is a great opportunity to support undergraduate researchers and engage with student scholarship. Sign up at: https://go.illinois.edu/URSJudge.

HRI's Research Prizes celebrate excellence in humanities scholarship with awards given at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. Submissions are invited from scholars in all sectors of the university with focus on humanities & humanities-inflected research. The awards are open to all full-time U of I students and faculty (tenure-line and specialized). Applications are due March 7, 2025 by 5 p.m. Central: https://go.illinois.edu/researchprizes

The NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology (QCB) is accepting applications through March 3 for the 2025 Summer School in Quantitative Cell Biology to be held at Illinois July 21-25. Designed for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers in physics, biophysics, chemical and life sciences, and engineering who seek to expand their research skills in quantitative methods for studying and modelling cells, the workshop will include lectures, mini-courses, and hands-on training in experimental and computational techniques. Learn more here.

Abstracts are being accepted through March 3 and registration is now open for the annual meeting of the International Physics of Living Systems Student Research Network, being held at Illinois July 28-Aug. 1. iPOLS is an NSF-funded trans-institutional community-based network of graduate students and graduate student educators all working on the physics of living systems. The meeting is co-hosted by the NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology (QCB). Learn more about the meeting here.

Join Krannert Art Museum and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in celebrating the museum’s recent acquisition of the painting "Personnage" (1969) by luminary Afro-Cuban artist Wifredo Lam. The celebration will feature a talk on Lam’s work by American art historian and curator Lowery Stokes Sims. She will be joined in conversation by Associate Professor Irvin J. Hunt (Depts. of African American Studies and English) and Associate Professor Felisa Vergara Reynolds (Dept. of French and Italian). Reception to follow, featuring the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective.

Join QazTalk, a weekly gathering where you can learn and practice Kazakh in a fun, welcoming space—no experience needed! Each session features interactive activities, conversational practice, and insights into Kazakhstan’s culture. Topics include greetings, housing, jobs, folklore, holidays, health, and travel. Come for one session or all—everyone is welcome! 

In anticipation of her 68th Independence Day, join Victoria and Fatihi on February 19 for an exciting event in the Intercultural Dialogue Series as we explore the vibrant culture and rich traditions of Ghana. Through engaging presentations, stories, and interactive discussions, you'll gain a deeper understanding of West Africa's most peaceful country through their perspective. Dinner is provided. 

Celebrating all the ways in which love exists in our world, take a trip into an artwork, converse on themes of love and longing, and write a letter to someone you love. Long-Distance Love-Letters is an in-person program at Krannert Art Museum that invites engagement with art on view and letter-writing through the lens of distance, love, and longing. This event is a part of the Long-Distance Love project that explores ways of loving and staying connected across great distances. Free and open to all. No  registration required.

Come to the Courtyard Café for Friday Funnies, featuring Rami Abushhab with opening act Spicy Clamato Improv. Abushhab is an award-winning actor based in Chicago. He played a supporting role in the film "BJ's Mobile Gift Shop," an official 2021 Sundance Film Festival selection. Rami was also featured as a stand-up comedian on "Laughter Is Good For The Soul," which debuted as the number-one comedy album in the US on iTunes. This event is free to students and the public!

The International & Area Studies Library is hosting the 2025 Global and Area Studies Meet and Greet, an informal social event that brings together faculty and students in the field. Join us to explore research resources, engage with subject librarians, and connect with fellow scholars over refreshments. Please RSVP here: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/2028611209

Students of Professor Emeritus Kimiko Gunji's class ARTJ199 Ikebana: Japanese Flower Arranging will be displaying their final arrangements at a free exhibition in the main room at Japan House. The Student Ikebana Exhibition at Japan House is free and open to all to view - the paid ticket is only if you'd like to pre-order matcha & mochi for the Matcha Cafe. There will be a matcha cafe in which guests can enjoy a bowl of matcha and mochi while viewing the arrangements and Hinamatsuri decor.

Join us for a refreshing Paint and Meditate session in collaboration with SKY Meditation at UIUC and BAP this Friday 6-7pm. We will have simple, fun art activities to celebrate creativity coupled with a deep and relaxing meditation. Tickets will be $5 to participate with a portion of the proceeds donated towards Cunningham Children's Home. No prior art/ meditation experience needed! Please RSVP using the link: https://forms.gle/4JWRnwFkiA23mSjx9 You are welcome to bring along your friends! 

Join us for an interactive Fair Use Gameshow to celebrate Fair Use Week! Your host, Sara Benson (Library) will be joined by an all-star panel including Andrea Augustine (Law), Pia Hunter (Law), and Dr. Melissa Ocepek (iSchool). Register for free at go.illinois.edu/fairuseweek to attend online or attend in-person (Room A, College of Law). Lunch will be available (first come, first served).

Racial Justice Allies & Advocates (RJAA) is a training designed for students, staff, and faculty at the University of Illinois seeking to understand race and racism in deeper ways, promote racial justice, and dismantle systems of oppression through an interactive and peer-facilitated workshop. For more information and to register for an upcoming training, please visit go.illinois.edu/RJAA 

Join us on Zoom for an amazing talk entitled "Global Governance of AI: Political and Ethical Challenges Across National, Regional, and International Approaches"! - This talk will be on February 18th, 2025 at noon and it will be presented by Allison Stanger who is a Distinguished Endowed Professor at Middlebury College, Thallita G. L. Lima who is the research coordinator of the O Panóptico project at the Center for Security and Citizenship Studies (CESeC) in Brazil and Chinasa T. Okolo who is a Fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at The Brookings Institution.

Join us for the 23rd Annual Women’s and Gender History Symposium: Gender and the Law, featuring graduate research and keynote speakers Dr. Neil J. Young (Historian, Writer, and Podcaster) and Dr. Laura Goffman (Professor of History, U of I). This will be a hybrid event. Learn more and register here: https://wghistory.web.illinois.edu/

Join us for an opportunity to explore the rich history and ongoing significance of African Americans in labor movements. RSVP for the in-person event in 106 Main Library, by Friday, February 20 here. This hybrid event will be accessible online via Zoom, register here. Join us for a thought-provoking and enjoyable event featuring Dr. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham and Chris Wiley, where we take some time to think about the vital contributions of African Americans to labor movements and their enduring impact today. For more Black History Month events at the University Library click here.  

Illinois faculty, staff, and student researchers are invited to a Zoom presentation by Akron Children's Hospital Senior Biostatistician Sima Sharghi for insights into how they can embed justice, equity, diversity, and inclusivity throughout their work, from inception of their studies to the dissemination of their findings, and how they can contribute to more equitable healthcare outcomes.

In this talk, Neal Liu will present his research titled "Ambivalent Transnational Citizenship: Languaging as a Site of Ambivalence for Taiwanese/Americans". In this study, Neal examines Taiwanese/Americans’ everyday languaging practices, illustrating how they feel emotionally ambivalent about crossing between Mandarin Chinese and English and about being Taiwanese, American, and Chinese. The event is hybrid. You can register for the Zoom link by clicking the title or join us in person at IUB 515. 

In this talk, Jiadi Zhang will share her dissertation study titled "Roots and Wings: Empowering Translanguaging Literacies with Chinese American Bilingual Community Teachers." In this three-year-long critical ethnography, Jiadi employs translanguaging literacies as the theoretical framework to explore two Chinese American bilingual teachers’ articulated translanguaging stance and literacies pedagogies in two Mandarin Language Arts classrooms within a community school. The event is hybrid. You can register for the Zoom link by clicking the title or join us in person at IUB 514. 

Join Dr. Maxim Krupskiy as he explores global “foreign agents” laws, examining their potential to counter non-democratic interference and their risks to human rights. A human rights attorney and Illinois Scholars at Risk fellow, Dr. Krupskiy has defended civil activists, NGOs, and asylum seekers in Russia. His research focuses on foreign influence transparency laws and their impact on democracy worldwide. 

Please join us for the University Archives' monthly Women in Science Lecture Series, February 18 from 12 -1pm. Krystiana Krupa, Senior Program Officer, NAGPRA, will discuss her work in documenting Ancestors’ remains and cultural items, researching their relationship to Tribal communities, and facilitating repatriation. This is a hybrid event and will take place in the University Archives, Main Library 146 or you can register for the zoom link.

McKinley Health Center serves on-campus students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

The University of Illinois Counseling Center provides mental health counseling and well-being education for students. 

If you or a student you know may need support with their basic needs or financial stressors, please reach out.