When: Monthly on a predetermined Tuesday; see the schedule below for detailed dates and subjects

Time: Doors open for the event at 5 pm, allowing time for attendees to place any food or drink orders. The lecture begins at 5:30 pm, and a question-and-answer open discussion begins at 6 pm.

Where: Bucci’s Italian Scratch Kitchen | 320 W. Center St.

Cost:

Description and Additional Dates and Subjects:

Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 5:30 p.m. – To the Gates of Richmond: The Civil War in Virginia

Featured Speaker:  Assistant Professor at Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, Briana Frakes
(https://chasecenter.osu.edu/user-profile/54 )

Virginia boasts the highest concentration of Civil War battlefields in the country. Considered the “gateway to the Confederacy” and home to the Confederate capital at Richmond, capturing Virginia or defending it was a paramount goal for both the Union and Confederate armies. The 1862 Peninsula Campaign marked the first significant action the Union Army took into the Confederate heartland. Culminating in the Seven Days’ Battles, this campaign was the closest the Union Army came to capturing Richmond until the war’s end in 1865. Their inability to take the Confederate capital in 1862 forced Lincoln to recalibrate the Union’s military and political goals around emancipation, making this the most consequential campaign during the entire Civil War.

Tuesday, September 8, 2026, 5:30 p.m. – TBA

Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 5:30 p.m. – Our Bodies as Monsters: Reflecting on Mortality

Featured Speaker:  Ohio State Professor of English, Sara Crosby

Professor Sara Crosby will lead an interactive conversation about monstrous depictions of illness and aging across literature and film, where our own bodies are a source of horror. From Frankenstein and the stories of Edgar Allan Poe to movies like The Substance and The Fly, we will consider how we’ve externalized our fear of death. This talk will be held in collaboration with Ohio State’s Urban Arts Space, a free gallery in downtown Columbus, coinciding with a group exhibition on death and dying—Spirit and Dust. The show will be on view at Urban Arts Space from October 13–November 14, 2026.

Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 5:30 p.m. – TBA

Tuesday, December 8, 2026, 5:30 p.m. – TBA

Tuesday, February 9, 2027, 5:30 p.m. – Virtue in The Federalist or Moderation and Debt in Pennsylvania’s Critical Period: William Findlay, Albert Gallatin, and Robert Morris. 

Lecturer at Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, David Little (https://chasecenter.osu.edu/user-profile/59)