Upcoming Events
April 22, 2026
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
5:00-7:00PM | SSC Multipurpose Room
Sponsored by the American Studies Program, the Journalism Program, and the Legal Studies Program.
Please note that the contents of this lecture may be upsetting to some. Please use your own discretion when deciding to attend this event.
"A crusade to find a killer becomes a gripping, intensely personal investigation into a shocking cold case and the radicalization of a terrorist.
In September 2011, Erik Weissman and two friends were murdered in a brutal triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts. The case went unsolved for months and then years, with no discernible leads. Erik’s friend Susan Zalkind, an investigative journalist, needed closure and knew that finding it would be up to her. As Susan began digging, and as the Boston Marathon bombing exposed startling new leads, the case led her down a tangled and sometimes dangerous path to the truth.
With every person Susan interviewed came a new thread. She followed each one through a web of conspiracy theories, corruption, and crime until she eventually arrived at a decade-defining act of domestic terrorism.
A true-crime memoir and the culmination of more than ten years of reporting, The Waltham Murders is an in-depth probe into a dark American underworld by a journalist coming to grips with both personal grief and the collective anguish of a nation in her tireless pursuit of the truth." (Text courtesy of Goodreads)
April 16, 2026
Thursday, April 16, 2026
5:30-7:00PM | Shiffman 219
In 1974, musician Connie Converse wrote a note to her family, got into her car, and was never seen again. Her music was prescient, addressing themes of anti-fascism, social justice, and conflict. Four decades after her disappearance from both society and the music scene, the elusive and enigmatic figure of Connie Converse (1924-?) is explored by author Howard Fishman who spent twelve years researching Converse's life, musical catalogue, and the popular resurgence of her music in the 2020s.
Listen to Connie Converse's music here.
Featured Past Events
April 18, 2023
"No No Boy," an immersive multimedia concert with Julian Saporiti, will take place at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, in Rapaporte Treasure Hall. Light refreshments will be served.
Taking inspiration from his own family's history living through the Vietnam War as well as many other stories of Asian American experience, Nashville-born songwriter Julian Saporiti has transformed years of doctoral study into an innovative project which bridges a divide between art and scholarship, blending original folk songs, storytelling and projected archival images all in service of illuminating hidden American histories.
This program is co-sponsored by the American Studies and Asian-American and Pacific Islander Studies programs and made possible through the generosity of Sam Weisman, MFA '73.
November 3, 2022
Join the American Studies program in Shiffman 219 at 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, to hear a talk from Dr. Heather Hendershot, author of "When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America."
"The whole world is watching!" cried protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention as Chicago police beat them in the streets. When some of that violence was then aired on network television, another kind of hell broke loose. Some viewers were stunned and outraged; others thought the protestors deserved what they got. In her talk, Heather Hendershot revisits TV coverage of those four chaotic days in 1968 — not only the violence in the streets but also the tumultuous convention itself.
Dr. Hendershot discusses the nuance of the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history, spanning topics like the notion of "liberal media bias," fairness and accuracy in the news, and the distrust of TV news in the United States. As Hendershot reveals, it doesn't matter if the "whole world is watching" if people don't believe what they see.
October 14, 2022
This year's Brandeis Novel Symposium on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, will take place in person at the Mandel Center for the Humanities. It will also be livestreamed. See our Program page for the full schedule.
Gina McCarthy, the top national climate official in the federal government, headlined a Brandeis Journalism webinar March 8, 2022, focused on how to improve communications and coverage of climate change. As the government's first National Climate Advisor, McCarthy served as President Joe Biden's chief advisor on domestic climate policy and headed the White House office focused on mobilizing a whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis and securing environmental justice.
She spoke with Neil Swidey, a professor of the practice and the director of the Brandeis Journalism Program. Swidey, who is also editor-at-large of The Boston Globe Magazine, wrote an in-depth magazine cover story in 2018 about McCarthy.
McCarthy, a Boston native who served five governors in both Democratic and Republican administrations, served as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama. A former professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she serves as chair of the board of directors of the Harvard Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment.
In March 2019, Jack E. Davis, PhD’94, spoke about his Pulitzer Prize-winning book about America's Gulf Coast. Listen to the podcast he recorded with GSAS while he was on campus.