Alumni Weekend: April 17-18, 2026

staff & faculty mixer

Tuesday, March 10

6 pm
Faculty Dining Room | 8th Floor, Hunter West
An evening celebrating the lasting impact of alumni who have served as staff and faculty.
Register now.

YOUNG & YOUNG AT HEART ALUMNI MIXER

Tuesday, March 26
6 pm
7th Floor Skybridge 
Reconnect with classmates, expand your network, and celebrate the newest generation of Hunter alumni.
Register now. 

5:30 – 6:30 pm
West Lobby
Celebrate distinguished alumni whose achievements embody the spirit and excellence of Hunter College.

Alumni WEEKEND KICK-OFF RECEPTION

6:30 – 8:30 pm
Faculty & Staff Café, 8th Floor West Building
Join fellow alumni, faculty, and friends as we officially launch Alumni Weekend 2026.

Check-in Opens

9 am
West Lobby

BREAKFAST

9 – 10:30 am
Faculty & Staff Café, 8th Floor West Building

Light refreshments available.

Hunter EXPO

9:30 am – 1 pm
Location TBD

Explore, connect with departments, programs, alumni groups and campus initiatives; and capture memorable moments in our interactive photo booth!

Alumni Sessions I

10:30 – 11:15 am

• Performing Objects Take the Stage!
  Loewe Theater
  Featured Speaker: Claudia Orenstein, Theatre Professor
  Professor Claudia Orenstein has spent over two decades researching, teaching, and writing about both traditional forms of puppetry around the world and the growing, dynamic use of performing objects of all kinds in contemporary performance contexts, from experimental downtown theatres to Broadway houses, and beyond. If, when you hear “puppets,” you think only “Muppets” or “Punch and Judy,” this talk will transform your view of puppetry arts, introducing you to today’s expansive understanding of the term and the vibrant creativity coming from contemporary practitioners. It will also give you a peek into the exquisite, multifaceted world of traditional Japanese puppetry, with its centuries of history, that has been a further focus of Professor Orenstein’s research.

• Cover Girl: Women Who Shaped Popular Music
  Lang Recital Hall
  Featured Speaker: Ashley Jackson, Assistant Professor, Director of Performance
  Cover Girl celebrates the women who have fearlessly shaped the popular music landscape. With brand new arrangements, harpist Ashley Jackson pays homage to those artists who defied the limitations of genre, inspiring her own sense of what’s possible using the language of music.

• Speaking in Pairs Exhibition Tour
  Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, Hunter West Building
  The closing of the exhibition Speaking in Pairs aligns with Hunter’s Alumni Weekend, offering a special opportunity for alumni to experience the exhibition and reconnect with the gallery. Several of the artists featured in the exhibition are also Hunter alums, making this closing especially meaningful and celebratory for our extended community. The program will include a guided tour with curator Reiner Leist, Professor of Art & Art History at Hunter College, alongside MA and MFA students who have worked closely with the exhibition as part of their Advanced Curatorial Certificate Seminar. The exhibition is made possible by The Leonard A. Lauder Exhibition and Catalogue Fund, the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Crossway Foundation. A catalogue, co-published with Hirmer Publishers and forthcoming in Fall 2026, is funded by a grant from the Wolf Kahn Foundation and the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation on behalf of artists Emily Mason and Wolf Kahn.

• AI in the Classroom: Navigating a New Era
  Location TBD
  Featured speakers: Edgar Trout, Distinguished Lecturer of Computer Science; Sissel McCarthy, Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Journalism Program Join us for an insightful look at how artificial intelligence is reimagining student learning across Hunter College. We will show you how professors are integrating AI tools into their courses while exploring both the potential and pitfalls of AI in the classroom. Through live demonstrations, you will gain a firsthand perspective on the challenges and opportunities defining this new era. 

Alumni Sessions II

11:45 am – 12:30 pm

• What Endures: Resistance, Persistence, and the Futures We Carry Forward
  Location TBD
  Featured speaker: Collin Craig, Assistant Dean of the Graduate Programs and Curriculum
  In this talk, Collin Craig reflects on his book project, What Endures, which explores how Black and Hispanic students at Hunter draw on language, literacy, community, and lived experience to persist and thrive. He’ll discuss how classrooms and campus spaces become places where students carry forward resilience, identity, and possibility, and how those practices endure long after graduation.

• Rhythms of Reunion
  Glass Café, Hunter North Building, 5th Floor
  Featured Speakers: Ethan "Simba" Graham (Hip Hop Fundamentals) and Cory "Nova" Villegas (Salsa), Hunter College Dance Department
  Please join alumni (including current faculty Ethan "Simba" Graham and Cory "Nova" Villegas) from the Hunter College Dance Department for an informal showcase celebrating the many different styles they offer.

• Singing with the Alumni
  Lang Recital Hall
  Featured Speakers: Michael Sheetz joined by Jade Schoenfeld, Samantha Jones and Sebastian Harris
  Join current students from the music department in a fun, interactive "sing-along" on tunes we all know and love. Get to know what is happening in the music department these days while singing under the leadership of today's rising talent. Lyrics will be provided for a memorable gathering in the Lang Recital Hall. 

• Choreographing Cancer Genomics
  Location TBD
  Featured speaker: Jill Bargonetti-Chavarria, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences 
  Jill Bargonetti-Chavarria explores cancer genomics through words and movement, with audience participation.She'll also provide a brief history of studying the function of the gene, and protein product, most often mutated in human cancers.

• Meet The Omnivores: Pivoting to Artistic Careers and Carving Your Own Path
  Loewe Theater
  The Omnivores are five playwrights who graduated from the Hunter College playwriting MFA program and now produce their own work. Before meeting at Hunter, the Omnivores came from extremely different backgrounds—from small towns in Ohio and Massachusetts to Puerto Rico to Vietnam, by way of the Philippines—and had varied career paths: Their resumes include work for political campaigns, magazines, restaurants, fashion brands, Google, and the United Nations. (Four of the five of them were over 40 by the time they finished their MFAs.) Now they focus on developing and producing theater that reflects their unique lived experiences, while building an audience as diverse as they are. Hear how they pivoted to follow their artistic passions, and how their varied life and work experiences influence the work they make and how they make it.
  

Art Gallery Walkthroughs

Noon – 6 pm
Leubsdorf Gallery
Self-guided walkthroughs available throughout the afternoon.

Lunch

1 – 2:30 pm
Location TBD

Refreshments available.

Archive & Library Tour

3 pm
4th Floor Library

Writing for the Stage: Community Playwriting Workshop

3 – 5 pm
Loewe Theater
Featured Speaker: Haruna Lee, Hunter MFA Playwriting Professor
The Hunter College MFA Playwriting program is offering a Community Playwriting Workshop led by Hunter MFA Playwriting Professor Haruna Lee. The workshop will include a short lecture on the playwright’s work, a series of facilitated writing exercises in which all attendees will be invited to participate, and a question-and-answer portion. Workshops are free and open to the public, and will be held in the Loewe Theatre (119 E 68th Street). 

RSVP Link: Click Here 

Campus Tours

3 pm departures
Buses depart from West Lobby

• Roosevelt House
• Silberman School of Social Work
  

Hunter College 156th Jazz Dessert Reception

4 – 5:30 pm
Location TBD

Close out Alumni Weekend with live jazz, desserts, and a celebration honoring 156 years of excellence at Hunter College.