‘Vigil’ by acclaimed author George Saunders kicks off the new Campus Reading Program
May 13, 2026
This week, explore the many worlds of quantum mechanics, hear the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra and plant a tree. Here’s what to add to your calendar this week. As always, all are welcome!
Sunlight and symphony
Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra presents Arnold Bax’s bubbly “Dance in the Sunlight,” Clarice Assad’s Violin Concerto, featuring lecturer of violin Desirée Ruhstrat and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36, a relentlessly cheerful work punctuated by moments of melancholy.
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston. Buy tickets.
Get green
Leave your mark on campus with a tree planting in celebration of Arbor Day. Enjoy the spring weather and spend time reconnecting with the Earth alongside Facilities Planning & Sustainability and the Northwestern Grounds Crew.
Register here for sessions at 10 a.m. and noon on Friday, April 24, beginning at The Rock outside University Hall, 1897 Sheridan Road, Evanston.
Quantum leap
Sean Carroll of Johns Hopkins University delivers this year’s public Heilborn Lecture. The theory of quantum mechanics was one of the great intellectual achievements of the last century, but most physicists would agree that we still don't truly understand what it means. Carroll will explore this puzzlement and explain why increasingly, physicists are led to an astonishing conclusion: that the world we experience is constantly branching into different versions, representing the different possible outcomes of quantum measurements.
The lecture is at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 24, in Ryan Auditorium, Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston.
A day for community
Join Northwestern’s Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance for its 5th annual traditional Spring Pow Wow. The event is open to all and is a space for Native and non-Native people to gather to dance, eat, socialize, share art and be in community.
Doors open at 11 a.m., with grand entry at noon, on Saturday, April 25, in Welsh-Ryan Arena, 2705 Ashland Ave., Evanston. Register for a virtual workshop on what to expect and pow wow etiquette here.
Politics and press
Attend a Buffett Conversation on violence, politics and the press in Mexico with Northwestern’s Paul Gillingham, Mexican journalist Javier Garza, Columbia’s Judith Matloff and Andrew Paxman of the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas in Mexico City.
The talk is at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, April 27, in the reading room, 720 University Place, Evanston. Register here.
‘A Humanities for the Public Good’
Join the Kaplan Humanities Institute for the spring 2026 Critical Conversation in the Humanities. Joy Connolly, president of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and Marwan Kraidy, dean of Northwestern Qatar and chair of the ACLS Board of Directors, will discuss lessons from — and for — the humanities in the face of current challenges and the shaping of the future.
The talk is at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 27, in Guild Lounge, Scott Hall, 601 University Place, Evanston.
Home run
Cheer on baseball against Milwaukee during one of this season’s free admission home games.
The ’Cats play at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, at Rocky and Berenice Miller Park, 2750 Ashland Ave., Evanston.
