This annual event was started in 2014 and is currently presented by the University at Buffalo’s Humanities Institute in cooperation with Buffalo State University, Canisius University, Daemen University, and Niagara University.

Past partners include SUNY Fredonia (2014 & 2015) and Humanities New York, as well as cultural institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Arts Center.

2025 / Fabrication

Sept. 19-20, 2025 | Spotlight Speaker Nick Cave

2024 / Hauntings

Sept. 20-21, 2024 | Spotlight Speaker Percival Everett

2023 / Communities: Trust

Sept. 22-23, 2023 | Spotlight Speaker Candy Chang

2022 / Life (in the Age of Artificial Intelligence)

Sept. 23-25, 2022 | Featuring AfroRithms from the Future

2021 / Utopia

Sept. 18-29, 2021

2020 / no festival due to COVID

2019 / Democracy

Sept. 19-21, 2019 | Humanities New York presents Ibram X. Kendi and Chenjerai Kuamnyika in conversation | Spotlight Speaker Matt Taibbi

2018 / Revolutions

Sept. 20-22, 2018 | Humanities New York presents “Anti-Social Media: Digital Space and the Destabilization of Democracy” featuring Safiya Umoja Noble and Siva Vaidhyanathan | Spotlight Speaker Angie Thomas

2017 / Environments

Sept. 28-30, 2017 | Humanities New York presents the panel “Turning the Tide: Communicating Climate Science” featuring Jacqui Patterson | Spotlight Speaker Bill McKibben

2016 / Renaissance Remix

Sept. 22-24, 2016 | The New York State Council for the Humanities (now Humanities New York) presents “The Economics of Segregation: A Town Hall on Race and the Buffalo Renaissance” | Spotlight Speaker Dava Sobel

2015 / Gender Bender

Sept. 23-26, 2015 | Spotlight Speaker Jill Lepore

2014 / Migration Nation

Sept. 26-27, 2014 | Spotlight Speaker Gary Shteyngart