Events & Outreach
The Z. Smith Reynolds Library features a variety of events, workshops, and more. The library often partners with other units on campus to offer these programs. For more information, contact the library.
Upcoming Events
–ZSR Library, Special Collections & Archives Research Room (Room 625)Tobacco has played a significant role in shaping North Carolina’s cultural, economic, and social identity, even before the state’s official establishment. Early depictions of Native American communities along the coast at the end of the 16th century show cultivation and use of the plant.
During the 19th century, tobacco became a cornerstone of the plantation economy, generating immense wealth for select families. In the 20th century, the rise of mass production and commercialization, along with an expanding labor force dedicated to its cultivation and processing, further embedded tobacco in North Carolina’s way of life. Marketing campaigns and iconic imagery tied to tobacco are deeply woven into the state’s historical narrative.
This exhibit showcases images, artifacts, and records from Special Collections & Archives, spanning from the sixteenth century to the modern era. It also features contributions from North Carolina artists and photographers, including Daisha Bunn and Erin Kye and their families, as well as works by photographer Dan Routh.
–ZSR Library, Library Auditorium (Room 404)Winner of the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, DAHOMEY is a lean, captivating conversation that invites the audience to reflect on cultural heritage and the critical, complicated process of restitution. (siskelfilmcenter.org).
–ZSR LibraryStop by our table at the ZSR Library from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm on Oct. 6th for snacks, giveaways, and more! It is a great chance to learn more about the amazing library services and resources that we offer.
Academic Resources Awareness Week (ARAW) is an annual event every fall semester. The goal of ARAW, a signature CLASS event, is to make students aware of all the free on-campus academic resources available to them and normalize their use. From peer tutoring and help centers to academic coaching, ZSR research sessions, and more, Wake Forest offers a multitude of academic resources to help students along their learning journey. Students are encouraged to check out some or all of the great events planned every year.
Each day, ARAW will feature a campus resource who can help you along your WFU academic journey!.
Monday – ZSR Library.
Tuesday – Information Systems – Do’s and Donuts.
Wednesday – Academic Coaching & CLASS Cafe.
Thursday – Peer Tutoring & Carnival.
Friday – Office of Academic Advising.
–ZSR Library, 425Calling all graduate students! Take a break and grab some FREE coffee and treats in the Graduate Student Lounge, courtesy of the Graduate School of Art & Sciences (GSAS) and ZSR Library. Hang out and chat with other graduate students, or grab and go on the way to class.
–ZSR Library, Faculty Commons Classroom 665Meets six (6) times this semester (9/9, 9/16, 9/30, 10/7, 10/21 & 10/28) on Tuesdays from 12:30-2:00 in ZSR 665 (Faculty Commons Classroom inside the Faculty Commons space in ZSR Wilson Wing). We will provide the book for the first 15 registrants. The focus will be both learning and putting the ideas into practice using the provided workbook, with working time and peer feedback. We encourage you to sign up only if you are able to fully participate throughout the series.
Join us for a discussion of David Yeager’s 10 to 25, an exciting new book that explores how we might interact with young people. This book discusses Yeager’s research on adolescent brain development and his “mentor mindset,” offering practical strategies to foster respectful, empowering relationships with students from age 10 to 25. Discover how understanding their need for status and avoiding common communication pitfalls can lead to more engaged, motivated, and successful young adults, ultimately making your role as a teacher more effective and rewarding.
In this series, we will be both reading and applying the ideas utilizing the book’s Putting It Into Practice section. These sessions will include working and peer feedback time.
Register for the 10 to 25 book discussion here.
(Please note: You must register before the first session to attend).
–ZSR Library, Room 204Join us to learn the basics of AI and generative AI, and how it may be used here at Wake Forest and beyond. In this workshop, we will explore how generative AI works, its potential applications, what to know before using it, and then we’ll explore a few tools. We hope you’ll join us!
–ZSR Library*Subject to weather
–ZSR Library, Library Auditorium (Room 404)Readers everywhere know George Orwell as a scourge of totalitarianism, a reputation stemming from his most famous books: Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). These texts criticize tyrannical systems from the ground up—from the perspective of the ordinary everyday. Yet Orwell thought about power with his stomach to the ground throughout the 1930s and 1940s: in his social-realist novels and in his various works of reportage and reminiscence. Bullies loom large in these texts: the everyday enemies who make others feel small by trying to make themselves seem big. In this talk, Nathan Waddell will take another look at Orwell’s bullies in order to show how Orwell detected the authoritarian impulse everywhere: in the grand rooms and buildings of power, yes, but also in canteens, corridors, breakfast rooms, and relaxation spots.
Dr. Nathan Waddell is a Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature in the Department of English Literature at the University of Birmingham. He began his career at Birmingham (2008-2012), before working for five years in the School of English at the University of Nottingham. He returned to Birmingham in 2017.
National Endowment for the Humanities Policy Statement:.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this talk do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
–ZSR Library, 426Find it hard to focus? Want to wrap up your week right? Join the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Writing Center every Thursday starting September 4th for graduate student coworking hours! You bring whatever it is you need to get done, and we’ll bring the free coffee and food. Don’t have time to stay? That’s fine–grab and go some treats on your way. See you there!
–ZSR Library, Room 204Join us to learn about NotebookLM, which is an AI-powered tool that helps us interact with our documents, notes, slides, websites, videos, and more. This cutting-edge tool offers intelligent summarization, in-depth explanations, and instant answers. Discover how NotebookLM can supercharge your productivity and elevate your understanding of complex topics. Whether you are a seasoned AI practitioner or a curious beginner, this workshop will offer you a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience with NotebookLM and unlock the future of interactive AI.
–ZSR Library, Library Auditorium (Room 404)Resistencia Film Series: Sep. 18 – Oct. 9 Thursday, September 18: “The Fishbowl” Resistencia Film Series (6pm, Wake Downtown Auditorium – 4802) Monday, September 29: “Helena from Sarayaku” Resistencia Film Series (5:30-8pm, Forsyth County Central Library Auditorium) Thursday, October 9: “The Infiltrators” Resistencia Film Series (6pm, ZSR Library Auditorium) https://www.instagram.com/wfuresistencia/
–ZSR Library, Library Auditorium (Room 404)Join us for a special evening with acclaimed author and activist Curtis Chin as he shares stories from his powerful memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. In his book, Chin takes us back to 1980s Detroit, where he grew up in his family’s restaurant. It was here, between servings of chicken lo mein and almond cookies, that he came of age, navigating multigenerational family drama and learning to embrace his identity as a gay, American-born Chinese (ABC) man. His talk will explore this journey, offering a vivid and heartfelt look at finding your place in a changing world.
A book signing will follow the talk, with books available for purchase at the event courtesy of Bookmarks bookstore.
–ZSR Library, 477Join us for a Zotero Workshop at ZSR!.
Zotero is a powerful all-in-one tool for collecting, managing, and citing research sources. Beyond its almost magical citation–grabbing features, Zotero allows you to save, organize, and share references, and you can easily insert properly formatted citations and bibliographies directly into papers using Zotero’s add-ins for Google Docs or Microsoft Word. It’s an essential tool for anyone doing academic research and writing. You’ll never do bibliographies the same way again!.
–ZSR Library, Library Auditorium (Room 404)The Association for Wake Forest University Black Alumni (AWFUBA) and the Program in African American Studies invite the public to attend the 2025 AWFUBA/AAS Annual Homecoming Lecture featuring Dana A. Williams, author of Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship – an NPR Spring Pick.
Dr. Williams will be in conversation with Shanna Greene Benjamin, Reynolds Professor of African American Studies, Wake Forest University and opening remarks will be given by Corey D. B. Walker, Dean, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, Director, Program in African American Studies. Books will be available for purchase onsite from The Bookhouse of Reynolda Village, Winston-Salem.
Dana A. Williams is the dean of the Howard University Graduate School. A specialist in contemporary African American Literature, Dana A. Williams earned her B.A. in English from Grambling State University in Grambling, LA in 1993, her M.A. in 1995 from Howard University, and her Ph.D. in African American Literature from Howard University in 1999. As a recipient of the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar award in 1999, she was a visiting research fellow at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Before returning to Howard University as a faculty member in 2003, Dr. Williams taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for four years. In 2008-09, she was a faculty fellow at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, and she assumed the chairmanship of the Department in 2009, serving three terms in that position. In 2019, she was appointed as interim dean of the Graduate School and then named permanent dean in 2021.
–ZSR Library, Library Auditorium (Room 404)Join Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden for an engaging presentation exploring the intersection of indie comics and queer identity. Through her works—from science fiction to memoir—she highlights the process and power of visual narrative, demonstrating why comics resonate across all corners of America. Tillie has won the LA Times Book Prize and several Eisner awards. Her most recent book, Clementine: Book Three (July 2025), is the final installment of her trilogy for The Walking Dead series. Her fifteenth novel, Charity and Sylvia, will be published by Drawn and Quarterly in Spring 2026.
More information can be found here.
–ZSR Library, CAT Faculty and Staff Lounge, 6th floorJoin us for casual monthly meetups to share and discover artificial intelligence together in a new conversation series, the AI Café! Whether you’re an AI wiz or just curious to learn, join colleagues to share ideas, seek advice, and explore the potential of AI together. AI Café will be held monthly on the fourth Friday, on an alternating schedule of Zoom and in-person. Online: July, September, November, January, March, May. In person, 6th Floor ZSR in the Center for Advancement of Teaching lounge, August, October, December, February, April.
See all AI Café events and add to your calendar.
–ZSR Library, AtriumJoin us for fast and fun tours (30 minutes) that highlight how the ZSR Library is not the library you remember! We will begin in ZSR Atrium and end in Special Collections & Archives. In between, we will visit the wonderful new study spaces in the ZSR Library and drop in on some of our campus partners now located in ZSR!
–ZSR LibraryInformation Systems is hosting a Cybersecurity Month Awareness event on Tuesday, October 28 from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. outside of Z. Smith Reynolds Library. Join us outside the ZSR as we share important information on how to protect yourself and your data. We’ll have coffee and tea, some fun promotional items and an opportunity to make your own Cybersecurity Awareness Month button with the WakerSpace!
–ZSR Library, Special Collections & Archives Research Room (Room 625)Join ZSR Special Collections & Archives for an afternoon of Halloween fun as we celebrate our Gothic Literature collection! We’ll have snacks, souvenirs, and a pop-up exhibit of books by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and many more. All are welcome, and costumes are encouraged!
–ZSR Library, StudioJoin the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), a student-led group and advisory committee that partners directly with Wake Forest’s Information Systems (IS) department to drive technological change.
Meetings are held monthly on the last Friday of the month in The Studio, located in the ZSR Library right off the Atrium (unless otherwise noted). During our sessions, you’ll engage in real-time discussions with IS staff, technologists, and subject matter experts, gaining an exclusive opportunity to engage with campus technology needs, engage in current tech-center dialogue, influence technology trends, and explore technology related careers.
Your voice is essential to ensuring our campus technology is responsive, effective, and forward-thinking. We meet for an hour and have refreshments, food, swag, snacks, and networking opportunities. Tech experience is not required, all experiences and majors are welcomed.
Come share your perspective and make a real impact on the technology you use every day!.
–ZSR Library, 425Calling all graduate students! Take a break and grab some FREE coffee and treats in the Graduate Student Lounge, courtesy of GSAS and ZSR Library. Hang out and chat with other graduate students, or grab and go on the way to class.
–ZSR Library, 477Join us for a Zotero Workshop at ZSR!.
Zotero is a powerful all-in-one tool for collecting, managing, and citing research sources. Beyond its almost magical citation–grabbing features, Zotero allows you to save, organize, and share references, and you can easily insert properly formatted citations and bibliographies directly into papers using Zotero’s add-ins for Google Docs or Microsoft Word. It’s an essential tool for anyone doing academic research and writing. You’ll never do bibliographies the same way again!.
–ZSR Library, 425GSAS Deacs, celebrate the Last Day of Classes with us! Enjoy FREE all-day, grab-and-go food in the Grad Student Lounge, grab some goodies from the UCC’s exam fairies, and chat with other students and GSAS staff. Food is first come first serve. We’ll be there until 3:30 or until we run out!