Fairfield University announces an exciting schedule of arts and culture programming throughout the month of October, featuring acclaimed performances, prominent speakers, and exciting opportunities for the community to engage with everything from literature and film to music, opera, and the current political climate.
October programming includes Philip I. Eliasoph Open VISIONS Forum lectures from New York Times “The Ethicist,” Kwame Anthony Appiah, and political thought leaders Molly Jong-Fast and Guy Benson. There will also be screenings of theatre and opera from the National Theatre and The Met, performances in the LaCroix Music Series, and so much more. Taking place at venues across campus, this month’s offerings highlight contemporary creativity, global perspectives, and creative conversations.
Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts
The Met: Live in HD | Mozart’s Così fan tutte
Saturday, October 3 | 1 p.m. (Live)
The Met: Live in HD season continues with Mozart’s satirical comedy of fickle young love. Phelim McDermott’s “colorful, inventive” staging, inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s, sets the uproarious story at a boardwalk amusement park, where the two pairs of lovers at the heart of the tale find themselves on one emotional thrill ride after another. Soprano Federica Lombardi and mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey sing Fiordiligi and Dorabella, opposite tenor Duke Kim and baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Ferrando and Guglielmo. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley reprises his portrayal of the cynical Don Alfonso, with soprano Ana María Martínez as the witty maid Despina. There will be a free pre-screening talk with Orin Grossman, PhD, at noon in the Wien Experimental Theatre.
Inspired Writers Series | Nicholas Boggs
Saturday, October 5 | 7:30 p.m. | Wien Experimental Theatre, Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts
Nicholas Boggs, author of the award-winning: Baldwin: A Love Story, will be in conversation with author and Fairfield Professor Phil Klay to discuss James Baldwin’s life and legacy. Drawing on new archival material and original research and interviews, this spellbinding biography reveals how profoundly James Baldwin’s personal relationships shaped his life and work. As the first major biography of the iconic figure in more than three decades, Baldwin: A Love Story tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate and artistic relationships: with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac. This event is presented with the John Charles Meditz College of Arts and Sciences MFA in Creative Writing and the Arts Institute.
Philip I. Eliasoph Open VISIONS Forum | Kwame Anthony Appiah, PhD | “Ask the Ethicist: An Evening With Kwame Anthony Appiah”
Tuesday, October 6 | 7:30 p.m.
When it comes to the most pressing social issues of the day, Kwame Anthony Appiah, PhD, is a touchstone of reason and inclusivity. Asking and answering probing questions on morality, ethnicity, and religion as “The Ethicist” for The New York Times Magazine, Dr. Appiah is a fearless, lucid arbiter. He demonstrated this in his BBC Reith Lectures on the modern complexities of creed, culture, color, and country, and in his book, The Lies That Bind, named one of the 50 Notable Works of the Year by The Washington Post. Exciting and erudite, Dr. Appiah challenges us to look beyond the boundaries—real and imagined—that divide us, and to celebrate our common humanity. This event is made possible through the generous support of Patrick J. Waide ’59 and the Waide Center for Applied Ethics.
Screened in Partnership with the British Film Institute | A Hard Day's Night
Wednesday, October 7 | 7 p.m. | Wien Experimental Theatre, Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts
This exuberant 1964 romp follows 36 hours in the life of The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. Director Richard Lester captures John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s cheeky Liverpudlian wit as they dodge screaming fans and race around London. Featuring songs like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “If I Fell,” A Hard Day’s Night is a time capsule from a moment when the Fab Four captured the hearts of the world. This screening is part of a new educational partnership between Fairfield University and the British Film Institute. In partnership with the British Film Institute, Fairfield University will host a series of four films that demonstrate how two British legends that emerged in the 1960s—James Bond and The Beatles—transformed the image of Britain around the world. Each screening will be preceded by short introductory videos from BFI scholars, followed by a Q&A session with Fairfield University’s Jay Rozgonyi, instructor in the Film, Television, and Media Arts program. Join us for a journey through the sights, sounds, and contradictions of 1960s Britain.
National Theatre Live | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | By Christopher Hampton, Based on the Novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Directed by Marianne Elliott
Tuesday, October 13 | 7 p.m.
BAFTA Award-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin. Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponize desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path. Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.
Fairfield Museum and History Center Presents | “Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century”
Thursday, October 15 | 6 p.m. | Dolan School of Business Event Hall
As part of the Fairfield Museum and History Center's commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, join us for a timely and vital conversation exploring practical ways we can build a new, collective commitment to democratic citizenship, using the landmark report “Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century” as a starting point. Panelists will include: Stephen Heintz, President and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Global Commission on Democracy; CT Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas; David McCullough III, founder of the American Exchange Project, an innovative program that builds connections between young Americans from different backgrounds; and Fairfield University’s Aaron Weinstein, PhD, assistant professor of politics—a scholar of the intersection of secular and religious thought in American politics. Reception to follow.
This event is presented by the Fairfield Museum and History Center in partnership with Fairfield University’s Center for Arts & Minds.
The LaCroix Music Series | Mariachi Herencia de México | La Nueva Generación
Friday, October 16 | 8 p.m.
It is hard to resist the infectious energy of a mariachi band! The historic tradition of mariachi music has its roots of origin in cities such as Guadalajara and Mexico City. As the ever-evolving genre’s influence spread, it reached Chicago and birthed the Mariachi Herencia de México. This energetic, virtuosic Latin Grammy-nominated group has issued chart-topping albums and performed across the North American continent. The young band is returning to the Quick Center following a very popular performance in fall 2022. Experience an electrifying night of Mexican music and culture.
The Met: Live in HD | Verdi’s Macbeth
Saturday, October 17 | 1 p.m. (Live)
Two of opera’s most extraordinary artists return to The Met: Live in HD for Verdi’s thrilling take on the immortal Shakespearean tale of the scheming couple determined to seize power at any cost. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is the Scottish king haunted by the ghosts of his murderous ascent to the throne, opposite soprano Lise Davidsen as the power-mad Lady Macbeth, whose ruinous ambition damns them both. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for a penetrating production by Louisa Proske. Rounding out the all-star cast are tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Macduff and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Banquo. There will be a free pre-screening talk with Joanna Chang, PhD, DMA, at noon, location to be announced.
The LaCroix Music Series | Castle of our Skins | Sacred Transcendence
Sunday, October 18 | 3 p.m.
Co-founded in 2013 by two musicians who met while attending the New England Conservatory, Castle of our Skins centers Black arts, culture, and history in each curated event, musical selection, and artistic collaborator chosen. As part of their 2026-27 artist residency with the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, this acclaimed Black arts institution will present Sacred Transcendence, an afternoon of African American spirituals, from classics to those reimagined. Blending voice, strings, and piano, foundational spirituals published by H.T. Burleigh, James Weldon Johnson, and R. Nathaniel Dett will be woven through reimagined contemporary works by such composers as Shawn Okphebelo, Adolphus Hailstork, and Jessie Montgomery. Within the Greater Boston classical music and arts scene, Castle of our Skins is unrivaled in their dedication to program works by African diasporic composers in collaboration with other artistic disciplines. They are committed to education, especially early intervention through music and the arts.
Robert Cardinal McElroy | Archbishop of Washington | “Catholic Teaching on War and Peace: A Breakthrough Moment”
Tuesday, October 20 | 7:30 p.m.
Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, has raised profound questions about the church’s traditional understanding of “just war theory,” and warns of the dangers of the use of artificial intelligence in warfare. In June of this year, the consistory of cardinals met to discuss the encyclical and a new position on war. Cardinal McElroy will share his perspective on these developments. Presented by Fairfield University’s Office of Mission and Ministry.
Annual Student Forum | Philip I. Eliasoph Open VISIONS Forum | Molly Jong-Fast and Guy Benson | “Midterm Forecast for America 250: Does the Pendulum Swing?”
Wednesday, October 21 | 7:30 p.m.
Molly Jong-Fast is an American journalist, novelist, and political commentator. She is the host of the Fast Politics podcast and the author of How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir. Guy Benson is political editor of Townhall.com, an American columnist, commentator, and political pundit. He is a contributor to Fox News and a conservative talk radio host on Fox News Radio and formerly for NPR. With the well-informed and highly respected voices of Jong-Fast and Benson leading the way, a lively political conversation—only two weeks before Election Day ‘26—is anticipated. This timely conversation promises to provide audience members invaluable perspectives on the potential election outcomes and broader implications for the future of American politics.
Alumni & Family Weekend | The LaCroix Music Series | Cameron Carpenter | The General (Clyde Buckman, Buster Keaton – 1926)
Friday, October 23 | 7:30 p.m.
To call Cameron Carpenter a virtuoso seems wholly inadequate. He is the world’s most visible organist, the first ever to be nominated for a Grammy Award for a solo album. Acclaimed for his flawless technique, Carpenter’s repertoire—from the complete works of J.S. Bach and César Franck to his hundreds of transcriptions of non-organ works, his original compositions, and his collaborations with jazz and pop artists—is perhaps the largest and most diverse of any organist. For his third appearance at the Quick Center, Cameron Carpenter brings a totally different program than you’ve heard before. He will play the soundtrack live as we watch a classic silent film. This is the 100th anniversary of the release of The General, a 1926 silent action-comedy film starring Buster Keaton. The film was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, an actual event that occurred during the American Civil War. Legendary filmmaker Orson Welles was noted for calling this film "the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made.” This event is offered as part of Alumni & Family Weekend.
Fairfield University Glee Club | Alumni & Family Weekend Concert
Sunday, October 25 | 12:30 p.m.
The Fairfield University Glee Club kicks off its gala 80th anniversary season with a celebration of choral music during Alumni & Family Weekend. The Glee Club, Chamber Singers, Sweet Harmony, and Bensonians will sing choral selections and popular favorites, as well as traditional school songs, including with Glee Club alumni. The Fairfield University Glee Club, under the direction of Michael A. Ciavaglia ’04, DMA, conductor, is the largest and oldest club on Fairfield's campus. Founded in 1947 under the direction of Fr. John Murray, S.J., and musical director Simon Harak, the Glee Club became the first student organization formed by the first ever incoming class of Fairfield University. Today, the mixed chorus of about 70 students, has performed in churches, schools, and concert halls throughout Europe, singing from Galway to Rome and Florence to London. The choir has performed at Carnegie Hall, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Westminster Cathedral in London, the Aula Paolo VI at the Vatican, and the U.S. military academies at West Point and Annapolis. The Glee Club performs a varied repertoire of early, classical, and contemporary music in numerous engagements with other choruses, and with festival and symphonic Orchestras. The mixed chorus is the parent organization of three additional ensembles: the Chamber Singers; the Men's Ensemble, now known as the Bensonians; and the Women's Ensemble, known as Sweet Harmony. This event is offered as part of Alumni & Family Weekend.
Fairfield University Art Museum
Art Exhibition | Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt
September 18 – December 12 | T-W, F-Sa 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Th 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. | Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Bellarmine Hall
This exhibition will explore the enduring fascination with ancient Egyptian art and culture (dubbed “Egyptomania” by 19th-century Europeans) through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative art ranging from the early 19th century through the present day.
Gallery Talk: Wrapped for Eternity: Ancient Egyptian “Mummies”
Thursday, October 1 | 5 p.m. | Museum Classroom & Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Bellarmine Hall
Join this unique conversation with Megan Paqua, curator of Hieroglyphs to Hype!
Art in Focus: David Roberts, The Hypostyle Hall of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt, 1849
Thursday, October 8 at Noon (In-Person) | Thursday, October 8 at 1 p.m. (Virtual)
Join an engaging, informal gallery conversation focused on a single artwork on view in Hieroglyphs to Hype! This event is also offered virtually. David Roberts, The Hypostyle Hall of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt, 1849, oil on panel. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.534. Image courtesy of Yale Center for British Art
Gallery Talk: Fred Wilson and the Reception of Ancient Art
Wednesday, October 28 | Noon
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum for a special Gallery talk with Marice Rose, PhD (professor of art history & visual culture)!
Lecture: "New Media, Old Tropes? The Rebirth of Ancient Egypt in Video Games"
Thursday, October 29 | 5:30 p.m. | Dogwood Room, Barone Campus Center and streaming on Arts & Minds Live
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum for the lecture with Kate Minniti, PhD (Pratt Institute, Visiting Assistant Professor, History of Art and Design Department)!
Art Exhibition | James Welling: Cento
September 25 – December 12 | T-W, F-Sa 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Th 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. | Walsh Gallery, Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts
This exhibition focuses on more than 60 recent works by contemporary photographer James Welling (American, born 1951). From the artist’s Cento and Personae series, these photographs of ancient sites in Italy and Greece, as well as antiquities found in museums around the world, were subjected to digital and painterly alteration by the artist to achieve transformative effects.
Gallery Talk: James Welling: Cento
Saturday, October 10 | 3 p.m.
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum for a gallery talk with artist James Welling!
Keynote Lecture: "The Shifting Impact of Our Visualizations of Antiquity"
Thursday, October 15 | 5:30 p.m. | Dogwood Room, Barone Campus Center and streaming on Arts & Minds Live
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum for the Keynote Lecture with Katherine A. Schwab, PhD (Professor emerita, Art History & Visual Culture)!
Symposium: Aesthetics, Objectivity, and Interpretation in Archaeological Visual Practices
Friday, October 16 | 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. | Dogwood Room, Barone Campus Center
A one-day interdisciplinary symposium examining the visual construction of antiquity through archaeology, art history, and photography.
Exhibition Tour: James Welling: Cento
Thursday, October 22 | 12:45 p.m.
Andrew Ward, PhD (assistant professor of art history & visual culture), offers an archeologist’s perspective on the exhibition.
Family Day: Let’s Draw Like an Ancient Egyptian
Saturday, October 17 | 12:30 – 2 p.m. & 2:30 – 4 p.m. | Museum Classroom and Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Bellarmine Hall
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum for a fun afternoon of art for children and families, inspired by our exhibition Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt!
Virtual Meditation and Mindfulness
Monday, October 19 | 5 p.m. | Virtual
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum online for restorative sessions led by teacher Jackie DeLise.
Meditation and Mindfulness in the Museum
Tuesday, October 20 | 5 p.m. | Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Bellarmine Hall
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries for restorative sessions led by teacher Jackie DeLise.
Artful Evenings at the Museum
Thursday, October 22 | 6 p.m. | Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Bellarmine Hall
Join the Fairfield University Art Museum for thoughtfully-designed art activities for adults, in a relaxing atmosphere!
Bennett Center for Judaic Studies
Lecture | The Evolution of Jewish Power: An Interview with Dr. Yaron Ayalon and Dr. Gavriel Rosenfeld
Tuesday, October 6 | 7 p.m. | Dogwood Room, Barone Campus Center
Dr. Gavriel Rosenfeld, President of the Center for Jewish History in New York City and professor of history at Fairfield University and Dr. Yaron Ayalon, professor of religious studies, Carl and Dorothy Bennett Chair in Judaic Studies, and the Director of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, will discuss Dr. Ayalon’s recent and ongoing research. Dr. Ayalon received his bachelor of arts in Middle East history and education from Tel Aviv University, and his doctorate in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University in 2009. His expertise includes Sephardic Jews, the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, and Isreal, using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates history, psychology, sociology, climate science, and disaster studies. Dr. Rosenfeld is an expert on Nazi Germany, Holocaust memory, and the politics of history, and he is known for bringing scholarly insight to contemporary conversations—from remembrance of the Holocaust in the United States to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Lectures | An Evening with the Rock-Singers | Aaron Rock-Singer, PhD, and Cara Rock-Singer, PhD
Thursday, October 22 | Dr. Aaron Rock-Singer, “Religion and Politics in Mandatory Palestine: The Roots of the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right Today” at 5:30 p.m. | Reception at 6:15 p.m. | Dr. Cara Rock-Singer, “Reproducing Judaism: How Jewish Tradition is Remade through the Everyday Lives of American Jews” at 7 p.m. | Kelley Presentation Room, Aloysius P. Kelley Center
Dr. Aaron Rock-Singer is a transnational historian of the modern Middle East with a particular focus on Islamic and Jewish movements that fuse religion and politics, Dr. Rock-Singer is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Michigan’s Raoul Wallenberg Institute and teaches courses in Judaic Studies, Middle East Studies, and History. Dr. Cara Rock-Singer is the Lama Shetzer Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she is also affiliated with the Gender and Women’s Studies Department and the Science and Technology Studies Program. This event is supported by the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation.
Center for Catholic Studies
The 26th Annual Anne Drummey O'Callaghan Lecture on Women in the Church | "'Labor has brought forth' (Micah 5:3): Natal Christology and the Practice of Democracy" | Nichole Flores, PhD
Wednesday, October 7 | 5 p.m. | Dogwood Room, Barone Campus Center
Considering the events of Jesus’s natality—including Mary’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth along with Jesus’s experiences of utter dependence and vulnerability as an infant—allows for the articulation of a Christian political theology that undergirds democratic practices of radical and embodied space-making for others in our society, especially the most vulnerable. Dr. Flores discusses the crisis of Black and Brown maternal-fetal mortality to illustrate the possibilities of a Christian political theology of democracy inflected by Black and Brown Mariology and natal Christology.
Waide Center for Applied Ethics
Seminar Series | “Business School and the Noble Purpose of Markets” | Andrew Hoffman
Wednesday, October 28 | 4 p.m. | Virtual
Andy Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan; a position that holds joint appointments in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School for Environment and Sustainability. He has published 18 books and over 100 articles/book chapters. His work has been covered in The New York Times, Scientific American, Time, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, and National Public Radio. His books include Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market: Correcting the Systemic Failures of Shareholder Capitalism (2025); Management as a Calling: Leading Business, Serving Society (2021), Business and the Natural Environment (2018), How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (2015), and Hybrid Organizations: New Business Models for Environmental Leadership (2011).
Fairfield University Store
Children's Storytime in the Fairfield Forest
Saturdays | 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. | Downtown Bookstore, 1499 Post Rd., Fairfield
Every Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., depending on attendance, local reading teacher and Fairfield University Store employee Steve Gaynes takes children on a journey through the magic of the written word. Children's Storytime is held in the Fairfield Forest children's section at the Fairfield University Store, located at 1499 Post Road in Fairfield Center. This event is geared toward children's interests, including the books and/or guests that will be chosen. Children's Storytime is open to the public. Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult.
Fairfield U Community Member and Author Le'Asia T. Gaskin Hosts Book Launch at Downtown Store
Saturday, October 3 | 2 p.m. | Downtown Bookstore, 1499 Post Rd., Fairfield
Le'Asia T. Gaskin, MA, the author of Dear God, Why Me?, is an author, speaker, and higher education professional who serves as the assistant director of Student Success & Belonging at Fairfield University. For six years, she carried a secret she believed she would take to the grave. After surviving sexual assault during college, she found herself caught between telling the truth and protecting the people she loved. Although her assault happened outside her family, the silence surrounding it became a burden she carried alone. Like many Black women, Gaskin learned that some things simply were not discussed, that some pain was meant to be prayed over, hidden, and endured. Dear God, Why Me? is an unflinching exploration of what happens when survival requires silence and what becomes possible when that silence is finally broken. Through deeply personal letters to her mother, father, brother, and God, Gaskin reflects on faith, Black womanhood, family, generational silence, healing, and the courage to reclaim her voice. Blending memoir, spiritual reflection, and Black feminist thought, she challenges the cultural expectation that Black girls should carry pain in silence and asks what healing looks like when truth finally has room to breathe. This is a book about surviving sexual assault. But even more, it is a book about surviving silence.
