Configuration spaces of manifolds are often studied using the local model of configurations of Euclidean space. Configuration spaces of graphs have been studied as rigid combinatorial objects. I will describe a model for configuration spaces of cell complexes which combines the best features of both of these traditions, along with some applications in the homology of the configuration spaces of graphs. This is joint work with Byunghee An and Ben Knudsen.

A basic problem in the study of fiber bundles is to compute the ring H*(BDiff(M)) of characteristic classes of bundles with fiber a smooth manifold M. When M is a surface, this problem has ties to algebraic topology, geometric group theory, and algebraic geometry. Currently, we know only a very small percentage of the total cohomology. In this talk I will explain some of what is known and discuss some new characteristic classes (in the case dim M >>0) that come from the unstable cohomology of arithmetic groups. 

Sheel Ganatra (USC): Liouville sectors and localizing Fukaya categories
We introduce a new class of Liouville manifolds-with-boundary, called Liouville sectors, and show they have well-behaved, covariantly functorial Fukaya/Floer theories. Stein manifolds frequently admit coverings by Liouville sectors, which can then be used to study the Fukaya category of the total space. Our first main result in this setup is a local criterion for generating (global) Fukaya categories. One of our goals, using this framework, is to obtain a combinatorial presentation of the Fukaya category of any Stein manifold. This is joint work with John Pardon and Vivek Shende.

Nathan Dunfield (UIUC): An SL(2, R) Casson-Lin invariant and applications
When M is the exterior of a knot K in the 3-sphere, Lin showed that the signature of K can be viewed as a Casson-style signed count of the SU(2) representations of pi_1(M) where the meridian has trace 0. This was later generalized to the fact that signature function of K on the unit circle counts SU(2) representations as a function of the trace of the meridan. I will define the SL(2, R) analog of these Casson-Lin invariants, and explain how it interacts with the original SU(2) version via a new kind of smooth resolution of the real points of certain SL(2, C) character varieties in which both kinds of representations live. I will use the new invariant to study left-orderability of Dehn fillings on M using the translation extension locus I introduced with Marc Culler, and also give a new proof of a recent theorem of Gordon's on parabolic SL(2, R) representations of two-bridge knot groups. This is joint work with Jake Rasmussen (Cambridge).
 

The study of vector bundles on algebraic varieties is a classical topic at the intersection of geometry and commutative algebra. In its algebraic form it is the study of finitely generated projective modules over commutative rings. There are many long-standing conjectures and open questions about algebraic vector bundles, such as: is every topological vector bundle over complex projective space algebraic? In recent years, there have been a number of significant developments in this area made possible using the A^1-homotopy theory of algebraic varieties introduced by Morel and Voevodsky in the late 90s. The talk will provide some background on such questions and discuss some recent joint work with Aravind Asok and Matthias Wendt.

We introduce a new class of non-compact symplectic manifolds called
Liouville sectors and show they have well-behaved, covariantly functorial
Fukaya categories.  Stein manifolds frequently admit coverings by Liouville
sectors, which can be used to understand the Fukaya category of the total
space (we will study this geometry in examples). Our first main result in
this setup is a local-to-global criterion for generating Fukaya categories.
Our eventual goal is to obtain a combinatorial presentation of the Fukaya
category of any Stein manifold. This is joint work (in progress) with John
Pardon and Vivek Shende.