2026 UToledo Banned Books Vigil, Event Program
UToledo Banned Books Coalition Website
29th Annual UToledo Banned Books Week Vigil Speakers
Thursday (October 8, 2026) Carlson Library
9:00 Welcome, Jennifer Babcock, Carlson Library
(Bagels, Coffee, Water, Snacks)
9:30 “The Boy Who Lived… & the Books They Tried to Kill,” Daniel Compora (English)
10:00 Derek Wilmott (University Libraries) “Stories Under Siege: Immigrant Books & the Battle for the Freedom to Read”
10:30 Jonie McIntire (Laureate Emerita) “Banned Poetry Bingo”
11:00 Barry Jackisch (History) “All Quiet on the Western Front”
11:30 Barbara Alice Mann (Emerita, Honors), “Amniotic Earth: Indigenous Views of Water”
12 p.m. Sharon Barnes (Women's & Gender Studies) “Sex, lies, & government eyes: Censorship trends in the US”
1:00 Bob Barringer (Director of Blissfield Schultz-Holmes District Library) “Without a Doubt: Banned Books, AI & the Destruction of Critical Thinking”
1:30 Michelle Davidson (English), “Bradbury's Prophecy Realized: “You Don't Have to Burn Books to Destroy Culture”
2:00 Banned Books Jeopardy! Joni McIntire (Laureate Emerita) hosting
2:30 Monita Mungo (Sociology) “Plot Twist: The Book Is Not the Problem”
3:00 Jodi Jameson (Mulford Library) “‘Claiming Ownership of that Freed Self’: Trauma, Healing, & History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”
(Pizza)
3:30 Paulette D. Kilmer (Communication & Media Emerita) “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library”
4:00 Jonie McIntire (Laureate Emerita) “The Many Bannings of Ars Amatoria” (Ovid’s Art of Love)
4:30 Banned Books Name That Tune!