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Bentley Historical Library

Making Michigan Series

Join us for the Bentley Historical Library’s series of talks exploring the history of the University of Michigan.

Stay tuned for updates on upcoming lectures.
These activities are free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.

Watch previous lectures

Seeing Anew Symposium 1: The Observatory and 19th-Century Science and Scholarship 

Seeing Anew Symposium 2: The Observatory in the History of Astronomy

Seeing Anew Symposium 3: The Observatory as an Historic Site for Contemporary Education

Seeing Anew Keynote: Astrophysicist Brian Nord in conversation with Gary Krenz

The McCarthy-Era Red Scare in Michigan: Its Meaning, Then and Now with David Maraniss

Sing to the Colors: My Complicated Love Song to the University with James Tobin

Conquering Heroines: How Women Fought Sex Bias at Michigan and Paved the Way for Title IX with Sara Fitzgerald

Michigan Football Game Films, 1930-1986: Digitizing Game-Day History with Brian Williams and Greg Kinney

Undermining Racial Justice at the University of Michigan with Matthew Johnson 

Pathways to Greatness: How the University of Michigan Became a World-Class University…and What it Cost with Terry McDonald

Campus Chords: Devotional Harmonies and the Dissonance of Difference in the University of Michigan’s Songbook with Mark Clague

Constructing Gender: The Origins of the Michigan League and Michigan Union with Nancy Bartlett and Sarah McLusky

Anti-Fascism at U-M: Defending Democracy During the Spanish Civil War with Juli Highfill

Radical Roots, Contested Place: African American and African Studies at U-M with Stephen Ward

The Boundaries of Pluralism: The World of the University of Michigan’s Jewish Students from 1897 – 1945 with Andrei Markovits and Kenneth Garner