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, 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, Library Auditorium (Room 404)“Poetry, Poetics and Prayer” is a public conversation at the intersection of poetry, aesthetics, philosophy, and religion, offering visions of beauty in a challenging world featuring Kevin Hart, Jo Rae Wright University Distinguished Professor, Duke Divinity School; Lucy Alford, Associate Professor of Literature, Wake Forest University; and Jill Crainshaw, Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Academic Initiatives, Professor of Worship and Liturgical Theology, Wake Forest University School of Divinity; moderated by Corey D. B. Walker, Dean, Wake Forest University School of Divinity.
–ZSR Library, Faculty Commons Classroom 665Meets three times this semester (9/17, 9/24 & 10/1) on Wednesdays from 3:30-4:30pm 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. These discussions are very popular so we ask that you register only if you are available to attend all sessions.
Join your colleagues for a timely discussion of Tricia Bertram Gallant and David A. Rettinger’s The Opposite of Cheating, a guide to fostering academic integrity in the era of generative AI. During this discussion, we’ll explore the book’s research-backed strategies for understanding and preventing cheating, not just as a disciplinary measure, but as an opportunity to enhance student learning and personal growth. We’ll talk about practical suggestions for reframing conversations around integrity, redesigning assessments, and ultimately, creating classrooms that prioritize meaningful interaction and support students’ development.
Register for the Opposite of Cheating book discussion here.
(Please note: You must register before the first session to attend).
Schedule.
9/17: Introduction & Chapters 1-39/24: Chapters 4-510/1: Chapters 6-7 & Conclusion.
–ZSR Library, Special Collections & Archives Research Room (Room 625)When the waters rise and walls fall, what anchors us to who we are? For those who lose every tangible trace, the archive lives on in breath and memory — in the voices that refuse to be silenced.
Dominique Luster is the CEO and Principle Archivist for the Luster Company. She is a Professional Archivist, Researcher, and Storyteller and loves finding new and innovative ways to use information, technology, and primary sources to tell stories and solve problems. Dominique received her B.A. from the University of Kentucky and her MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. She was the Teenie Harris Archivist for the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, 2016-2021.
In her consulting work, Dominique is drawn to big ideas involving diverse histories, public engagement, strategic thinking and planning, and project management. Her research looks at various archival and historiographical approaches to Black identity, representation, and silenced records.
Please see her 2018 TED Talk: Archives Have the Power to Boost Marginalized Voices.
–ZSR Library, Faculty Commons Classroom 665Friday, September 19, 10:00am-12:00pm, ZSR 665, Facilitator: Karen Spira and a panel of WFU Students.
Throughout 2025, media outlets such as the New York Times and the New Yorker have published tell-all accounts of college students who outsource reading and writing assignments to AI, as well as professors who use AI tools to create course materials and grade student work. These provocative articles, while informative, stoke distrust between students and instructors. It is time to have a different kind of conversation about AI, one that centers our reality at Wake Forest and is driven by curiosity and a desire to understand our students’ experiences as pioneers in an educational landscape being remade by generative AI.
In this workshop, participants will:.
Interact with a panel of students as they reflect on the pressures, dilemmas, temptations, frustrations, and opportunities of being a student in the age of AIEngage in small-group consultations with students, colleagues, and the staff of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, addressing difficulties related to AI that they are navigating in their teachingLeave with a more nuanced understanding of what students need and want from their instructors in order to thrive in this new environment.
–ZSR Library, Special Collections & Archives Research Room (Room 625)Visit us in the Special Collections & Archives Research Room (ZSR Library Room 625). Bring your whole family by for a visit. We will have stickers, buttons, magnets, and history! See all the Family Weekend events here
–ZSR Library, The Studio, located in the ZSR the AtriumJoin 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!.
–Downtown Winston SalemBe sure to stop by the Special Collections &Archives table at the Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors. We will have buttons, magnets, postcards, and more! Get more information here: https://bookmarksnc.org/festival
–ZSR Library, 425 Grad Student LoungeGSAS Students, celebrate being almost halfway through the semester with our first Community Day of the academic year! Enjoy FREE grab-and-go food all day long in the Grad Student Lounge, including coffee and breakfast in the morning, lunch at noon, and a sweet treat in the afternoon. Stay tuned for the caterers! Grab some food on your way to class, or stay and chat with other grad students for a while. We can’t wait to see you there!
–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, 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, 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 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 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, Studio
Join 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!.