The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Space(s) for Truth-Telling at UC

Every institution has stories to explain and affirm its origin, rituals, and values. These stories are passed down in many ways, including within the physical spaces we inhabit together. In her inaugural lecture, 2025–27 Taft Professor of Social Justice Anne Delano Steinert will explore two pieces of UC's history—stories of the university's founding donor, Charles, McMicken, and the full-body radiation experiments conducted by UC physicians between 1960–1972—and contrast the ways we tell their stories on our campus today and how we might tell them more truthfully in the future. She will then lead a discussion about what UC might build and do to take accountability and motivate healing around difficult pieces of the university’s past.

Free & open to the public with a reception to follow.

Host or Publisher Taft Research Center