March is a time to celebrate the remarkable contributions of women throughout history – visionaries, pioneers, and leaders who have shaped our world. From groundbreaking scientific discoveries to transformative works of literature, from artistic masterpieces to social movements that changed the course of history, women have left an enduring mark on every aspect of society. Read more and find out about upcoming events.

Congratulations to our 13 finalists in the Research Live! communication competition! Our finalists come from across campus and have fascinating work that they are excited to share with the campus and community. You can view the full list of finalists on the Graduate College website. Mark your calendars for the final event on Tuesday, April 8, at 5:00 pm at the Campus Instructional Facility and online.

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 mentors. Make sure to review the requirements for graduation. More details and the link to register can be found on the doctoral hooding event website. 

April 6 is the last day to apply for May 2025 graduation via Self-Service. Have questions about adding yourself to the degree list? Click here for an advising appointment!

April 4 is the last day to change your curriculum for the current term. This includes adding or dropping a campus approved minor or concentration. Please check your student program information in Self-Service to verify your program information is listed correctly. Information on how to change your curriculum is available online.

International students on F-1 and J-1 student visas must be enrolled full time in the Fall and Spring terms to maintain their status. When selecting classes for the upcoming Fall 2025 term, international students should remember that while they may enroll in online courses, only one online course (up to a maximum of three credit hours) may count towards this full-time requirement.

Time tickets for Summer and Fall 2025 registration will be available for graduate students to view on March 24 in Self-Service. When students are viewing these time tickets, they should also check to see if they have any holds on their account that may prevent registration and follow up with the appropriate offices to get their holds resolved.

March 28 is the last day to add a Part of Term B course online via Self-Service, or to drop a Part of Term B course for refund if reducing assessment range; and to submit a form to elect to audit a Part of Term B course. Have questions about registration deadlines or submitting an Audit form? Click here for an advising appointment!

Discover how physical activity strengthens your body's natural defenses! Join us for an engaging session to explore how staying active boosts your immune system, prevents chronic illnesses, and promotes overall well-being. This session is perfect for anyone looking to enhance their health and vitality through movement!

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.

Watch our new title page video for tips and tricks in formatting your title page. Doctoral students should watch this video to format the dissertation title page. If you are writing a Master's thesis, this video is for you! In years of reviewing theses, we've noticed that the title page is where mistakes often slip in. Download a title page template to help you get started. 

Do you have questions about formatting your thesis? Do you want to know more about the deposit process? Do you have questions about preliminary and final exam committees? The Thesis Office is here to help! We're offering extended office hours this week. Sign up here for an online 15-minute appointment with Emily.

Many international graduate students and postdocs will secure full-time employment in the United States. Find out what you need to know about U.S. immigration policies to make a smooth transition. This presentation will discuss the H-1B petition process for full-time hires, options for permanent residence, and recent changes to U.S. immigration law. The speaker is Thomas Arkell, an attorney practicing immigration and employment law. No registration required. This session will be available online at https://go.grad.illinois.edu/eventspace and in person at the Graduate College.

When things are uncertain, career planning can help you be flexible, prepare for multiple possible futures, and navigate whatever might be in store. Whether graduation is coming up or still a few years off, Graduate College Career Development is here to support you. One-on-one advising can help you explore, plan, and pursue your career during and after graduate school. Visit https://go.grad.illinois.edu/careeradvising to make an appointment.

This presentation will provide tips for writing concise and professional resumes and cover letters. You’ll review common structure, purpose, audience expectations, and strategies for creating a set of application materials that complement each other. We encourage you to bring a current job ad and questions about your current in-progress materials! Register with your UofI email by 3/31, and we will send the Zoom link on the morning of the event.

Preparing for the academic job market? This workshop will review genre expectations for academic cover letters and provide examples from a range of disciplines. We will share strategies for drafting, strengthening, and tailoring your own cover letters. Please register with your University of Illinois email account by March 26, and we will send an email with a Zoom meeting invitation on the morning of the event.

A Scoping Review is a type of evidence synthesis that represents an exploration of research literature to assess the depth and breadth of research related to a specific question or topic. A Scoping Review maps concepts from the literature to reveal trends, themes, and gaps in the research area to inform, and provide context for further exploration or examination. This workshop covers the how and why of Scoping Reviews, including question development, search strategies, screening results, and data extraction.

This session provides insight and strategies for getting the most out of Scopus; the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature including scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. This session will highlight how to find literature about a particular topic, tracking citations, author information, and evaluating sources. Other features and strategies will also be covered. Audience: Undergraduate or graduate students in any field but particularly STEM fields. 

Systematic reviews require a rigorous and systematic approach to reviewing existing literature and discovering new knowledge. With the rapid expansion of literature across nearly all disciplines, AI-based tools can significantly enhance researchers’ efforts and efficiency. While not all self-proclaimed research assistant AI tools are adaptively useful, carefully selecting and integrating the right tools at the appropriate stages can advance knowledge discovery. This presentation aims to provide a basic understanding of AI tools for systematic reviews and their proper use.

Web of Science is a large multidisciplinary platform of abstract databases for articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. This session provides insight and strategies for getting the most use out of the platform. We will highlight how to search for literature and authors, as well as where to find citation and grant information.

This hands-on workshop will teach you how to make common word processing documents accessible for screen readers, and how to make presentations accessible for a wide range of users. We’ll cover MS Word and PowerPoint, Google Docs, and PDFs, as well as general best practices for accessibility that you can incorporate across formats. You’ll leave this workshop with readily implementable strategies and checklists you can start using immediately to ensure your research, teaching, and presentations are more accessible to diverse audiences. 

Adobe InDesign is a layout and design software program that allows you to create print and digital media. It is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, which is available to all UIUC students for free! This workshop is designed for those with little to no experience with InDesign to help you learn the basics of using this document design program. During the workshop, we will create a sample flyer. You will gain experience navigating the features and there will be time to explore.

The University of Illinois will host the 2025 Illinois Academy of Science State Exposition on May 2-3, 2025. This is the premiere statewide science research competition for grades 7-12. We are seeking volunteer judges for the exposition. All levels of expertise are welcome. All volunteer judges must have completed high school. Please click HERE to learn more about volunteer shift opportunities and HERE to learn about judging. Additional information, training, and example rubrics will be sent in early April 2025, along with a final volunteer confirmation. Check out this Promotional Video!

The Center for Writing Studies is excited to welcome more proposals for the 2025 Gesa E. Kirsch Graduate Symposium, happening April 24 & 25, 2025! This is your chance to jump into dynamic, interdisciplinary conversations around writing, rhetoric, literacy, discourse, media, and communication in a supportive and collegial space. Bring your ideas to life through individual presentations, panels, workshops, or other creative formats. Don’t miss out—final proposals are due March 28, 2025! Submit yours here: https://forms.gle/LiqeRE1Zc8CBQNWD7

Attend this onsite workshop at NCSA to learn how to use OpenACC API compiler directives to quickly develop GPU-capable codes using standard languages and compilers. Knowledge of either C or Fortran programming is required. Hands-on exercises will use Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Bridges-2 computing platform. Registration is required.

The Dept of Energy's Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program offers one-year research awards (up to $3,600/month) for graduate students to conduct part of their PhD research at a DOE National Lab. Open to US citizens & permanent residents in advanced manufacturing, AI & data science, bioinformatics, chemistry, environmental science, geosciences, planetary sciences, materials science, mathematics, computer science, microelectronics, physics, plant science, and other fields. See details here.

Sinfonia da Camera ends the 41st season in collaboration with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign choral groups. The program features the iconic Requiem Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a masterwork as overwhelmingly powerful as it is introspectively poignant. The program begins with the grandly heroic and tumultuous Coriolan Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven after Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus. Next, Ian Hobson performs as piano soloist in Beethoven’s Fantasy for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80. 

Join the HRI Social Movements Reading Group for a discussion of Mae M. Ngai's book Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. This book provides an excellent legal history of immigration law, especially focusing on the years between 1924 and 1965. It also explains how and why illegal immigration became a central problem in US immigration policy. Lunch will be provided. RSVP via BIT.LY/READMOVEMENTS 

The Center for Writing Studies invites you to a New Book Discussion Panel exploring key issues in Social Movements and Critical Race Theory. This panel features Dr. Aja Y. Martinez and Dr. Robert O. Smith, who will discuss their new book, The Origins of Critical Race Theory. Dr. J. David Cisneros will share perspectives from his co-authored work, Rhetorical Histories of Social Movements in the U.S. Join us on Wednesday, April 16, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM at the Illini Union Bookstore, Room 514, or click the title to register for a Zoom link and participate online! 

Test your knowledge of random facts and compete with other students for prizes at the Illini Union on Tuesdays at 6pm. Now located in the Lower-level Food Court. For this special edition honoring Women’s History Month, join Diversity and Social Justice Ed, International Ed, and Women’s Resource Center for a fun and engaging evening testing your knowledge of notable women throughout history and now. 

F&S is a proud cosponsor of Boneyard Creek Community Day (BCCD) 2025 on Saturday, April 12, from 9 a.m. to noon (rain date: May 3). The event begins at Scott Park (207 E. Springfield Avenue, Champaign) and includes lunch, music, and educational displays. Sign up now at this link. Registration deadline is April 5 at 5 p.m., but walk-up day-of volunteers will also be welcomed.

(A)ll (G)amers (C)ome (U)nwind with RNA Trivia Night at 25 O’Clock Brewing Company on March 27th, at 7pm. Come for the drinks and stay for the nerdy science trivia. Teams of up to 6, free to play, prizes for the winners.

Love books? Love food? Attend the Library's 19th Annual Edible Book Festival. Edible entries will have a connection to books as shapes or content. Prizes will be awarded for the best culinary creations, which will be displayed and judged at the Festival taking place at Common Ground Co-Op (Lincoln Square Mall). For more info, visit library.illinois.edu/ediblebooks. 

The Music and Performing Arts Library is having a player piano demonstration on Friday, March 28, 2025 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Come hear the Steinway Duo Art reproducing player piano and learn about the history of the instrument. This is an informal event and all are welcome! Note that the player piano is on the second floor of MPAL (1300 Music Building). If you need assistance accessing the second floor, please ask at the service desk on MPAL's first floor. 

Join us for an evening of jazz and poetry with award-winning poet Janice N. Harrington (Prof. in Creative Writing/English) and musician Charles “Chip” McNeill (Prof. in Music). Harrington will read selections from her book Yard Show with musical accompaniment by McNeill and student musicians from the University of Illinois School of Music. The book will be available for purchasing and signing. This event is free; no registration is required.

Looking into the past hundred years of global economic governance, one might identify three seemingly simple yet helpful ways to assess how a shift in economic governance occurs: it was decidedly more endogenous than exogenous, it needed a deep-cutting crises as an amplifier of change, and it needed an institutional landscape within which to inflict the change. Dr. Schulz-Forberg, Associate Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark will elaborate his ideas on historical change along these three broad markers and end by putting these three onto today’s experience of disruption.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Rainwater Management Program (RMP) showcases a future vision for the campus that emphasizes the importance of rainwater retention and replenishment. The goal is to transition from the traditional viewpoint of stormwater runoff as a maintenance issue to one that envisions rainwater as an asset to preserve, harness, and celebrate. Learn more about the program’s release in a virtual forum on Wednesday, April 2, from 3 to 4 p.m. Preregistration is required to attend the webinar. The RMP was funded by the Student Sustainability Committee. 

Join us for a presentation by Dr. Kim M. Barbel Johnson, Director of Community Clinical Trials Administration at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. She will discuss innovative approaches to increasing diverse participation in cancer clinical trials through community engagement, analyzing strategies that bridge academic research and community participation, and demonstrating the impact of community-engaged clinical trials on reducing cancer care disparities. Learn to address health disparities through community engagement and participatory research. Register by Mar. 28. 

Save the Date for an Advanced Packaging seminar with Ganesh Subbarayan, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Institute for Advanced System Integration and Packaging, and Co-Director for the Center for Heterogenous Integration Research in Packaging at Purdue University. All are welcome to attend a reception with a seminar to follow.

Join A-WIS for our monthly seminar series, Science Uncorked. Our next event will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 27, at The Literary in downtown Champaign. Our presenter will be Victoria Farrar, University of Illinois postdoctoral researcher, Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, who will present “From birds to your brain: exploring reproductive hormones”. All are welcome!

The Education Justice Project’s Policy and Research Team is hosting a research group meeting from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Apr. 4, via Zoom. Join us to hear Brian Dolinar (EJP Writer and journalist, advocate, and educator) speak about how he has foregrounded the voices of those most impacted by mass incarceration and mass deportation through his journalism and advocacy. All are welcome!

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is excited to host Dr. Felecia Russell for a keynote and faculty/staff workshop on her work to tackle immigration through story-telling, data, and myth busting, and the importance of understanding the diversity of the immigrant community. Dr. Russell will present a keynote talk and a workshop for faculty and staff about how to support undocumented students on campus. Visit the link to register to attend.

The Astronomy Department welcomes everyone to attend the Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecture, "The Universe in Us," presented by Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Professor and Director of the Center for Reimagined Leadership. The Iben Lectures bring high-profile astronomers to campus to speak to a general audience. 

How do Black creatives and professionals navigate life and work in East Asia? In this event we will discuss how Black cultural expression travels across borders, adapts to new contexts, and reshapes conversations around race, belonging, and identity in global diasporic communities. Join us for this compelling talk with Dr. Karen Flynn, as she explores the migration experiences of Black Canadians and Americans in East Asia. Lunch will be provided.

Please join the European Union Center for a brown bag talk by the European Commission’s Kristijan Ležaić. This talk will focus on Croatia's EU accession process, 10 years of membership, and the transformative effect that the EU membership had on Croatia. The newest EU member state, Croatia is now seen as a poster child of EU integration and a benchmark for aspiring countries such as Ukraine and Western Balkans 6 (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia).

Join us for a lecture in the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age speaker series with Antón Barba-Kay. We live in an age of hyper-awareness of generational differences. What are the consequences of this disorienting acceleration of differences? What does it teach us about the nature of time itself? How can we take our time again? 

Join us for a weekly Friday Forum + Conversation Cafe lunch series with local and national speakers tackling some of our most pressing social justice issues. Topics this semester include DEI, democracy, immigration, environmental justice, interfaith, and more. Free lunch provided! This week’s speaker: University of Illinois Department of Theater.

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.