03 / 18
Start: 12:00 am
End: 7:00 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Sarah S. Marcus Join historian Sarah Marcus and view the history of Chicago through television and film, noting how producers of popular culture have depicted the city and its residents. Start: 12:30 pm
End: 1:30 pm
 As the economy weakens and universities make painful budget cuts, liberal arts and humanities programs are increasingly under threat. These programs of study-which generally include the arts, history, philosophy, religion, gender and cultural studies, languages, and visual and performing arts-are not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation, many argue. Instead, these subjects provide a framework for developing key ideas and concepts that enable us to understand and make meaning of the ways in which people and societies have organized their world under particular conditions. Essentially, the humanities provide essential soft skills necessary for almost any career.
But in an economy where getting and having a job is becoming more difficult than ever, some critics who have long derided the humanities usefulness in preparing students for practical, useful work are reigniting the debate. In an article headlined, "In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth," The New York Times recently reported that scholars are already seeing troubling signs in colleges and universities such as hiring freezes and unfilled faculty positions in humanities departments. Start: 5:15 pm
Discussion of An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, by Kay Redfield Jamison Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare is a discussion-based program that brings hospital staff together monthly to reflect on the larger mission of medicine through facilitated conversations about literature. Start: 6:00 pm
End: 8:00 pm
Access to valuable natural resources has often generated conflict between nations, regions, communities, individuals, and corporations. What can we learn about how tensions over oil and water have been handled in the past? How are communities pitted against each other when it comes to access and control of these resources? How can we address current and prevent future disagreements? In All's Fair in Oil and Water, we will use the story of the Great Lakes Compact, current clashes over oil in Nigeria, and the documentary Water Pressures, which tells the story of a collaborative water management model in India, to examine conflict over oil and water. Panelists: Start: 6:00 pm
Discussion of "My Sister's Keeper," by Jodi Picoult Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare is a discussion-based program that brings hospital staff together monthly to reflect on the larger mission of medicine through facilitated conversations about literature. | ||
03 / 19
Start: 5:00 pm
End: 6:30 pm
Discussion of quot;The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,quot; by Ann Fadiman Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare is a discussion-based program that brings hospital staff together monthly to reflect on the larger mission of medicine through facilitated conversations about literature. Start: 6:00 pm
End: 8:00 pm
***This is a year-long course beginning in September, open only to selected applicants. Applications for next year's class will be available on this website beginning in June 2009.*** The Odyssey Project is a college-level course in philosophy, literature, art history, and history for men and women living below 150% of the poverty level. Its anchor program is the first-year course, which is offered in partnership with Bard College and for which students may receive six units of college credit. Faculty members are largely from first-rate universities such as University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute, and DePaul University. Tuition is free, and the Illinois Humanities Council provides free childcare, free books, and transportation. The six units of credit are fully transferable to other colleges and universities.
This course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Start: 6:30 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Brian (Fox) Ellis
Start: 7:00 pm
End: 8:30 pm
Ethanol shows promise as a replacement for fossil fuels, yet requires significant water and land resources to produce. What is the promise of ethanol and what are its limitations? How does producing ethanol influence the supply and demand for water? Crosscurrents will examine the environmental and ethical questions involved in increased ethanol production. Panelists: Start: 7:00 pm
End: 8:00 pm
As the economy weakens and universities make painful budget cuts, liberal arts and humanities programs are increasingly under threat. These programs of study-which generally include the arts, history, philosophy, religion, gender and cultural studies, languages, and visual and performing arts-are not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation, many argue. Instead, these subjects provide a framework for developing key ideas and concepts that enable us to understand and make meaning of the ways in which people and societies have organized their world under particular conditions. Essentially, the humanities provide essential soft skills necessary for almost any career.
But in an economy where getting and having a job is becoming more difficult than ever, some critics who have long derided the humanities usefulness in preparing students for practical, useful work are reigniting the debate. In an article headlined, "In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth," The New York Times recently reported that scholars are already seeing troubling signs in colleges and universities such as hiring freezes and unfilled faculty positions in humanities departments. Start: 7:00 pm
Reverend Jane Ann and Reverend Bill Moore, co-directors of the Lovejoy Society, will share their understanding of how Illinois antislavery men and women, black and white, persistently chipped away at the barriers to full liberty and equality for all. The Moores are co-authors of Owen Lovejoy: His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838-64. Start: 9:00 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Ron Keller Using clips from a variety of motion pictures throughout the twentieth century, Ron Keller demonstrates how the lens of popular culture shapes public perceptions of history. He also shows how that history does and does not mirror the changing perspective of one of America's greatest icons, Abraham Lincoln. Ron Keller earned an MA in History from Eastern Illinois University and teaches American Political History at Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois. He has presented numerous programs as Director and Curator of the Lincoln College Museum. He has also organized and presented an annual summer seminar for Illinois teachers on the topic of "Abraham Lincoln and Illinois in a Nation of Slavery." | ||
03 / 20
Start: 10:00 am
Notre Dame Mercy AmeriCorps volunteers will discuss 'II Samuel 11-12 The Meaning of Service (MoS) is a reading and discussion program for Americorps volunteers featuring discussions that use short philosophical and literary texts on the nature of justice, service, and related themes. Meaning of Service presents participants with the opportunity to examine, refine, and regenerate the beliefs underlying their work. Start: 10:00 am
End: 6:00 pm
 We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape. We use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods.Start: 5:00 pm
End: 6:00 pm
As the economy weakens and universities make painful budget cuts, liberal arts and humanities programs are increasingly under threat. These programs of study-which generally include the arts, history, philosophy, religion, gender and cultural studies, languages, and visual and performing arts-are not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation, many argue. Instead, these subjects provide a framework for developing key ideas and concepts that enable us to understand and make meaning of the ways in which people and societies have organized their world under particular conditions. Essentially, the humanities provide essential soft skills necessary for almost any career.
But in an economy where getting and having a job is becoming more difficult than ever, some critics who have long derided the humanities usefulness in preparing students for practical, useful work are reigniting the debate. In an article headlined, "In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth," The New York Times recently reported that scholars are already seeing troubling signs in colleges and universities such as hiring freezes and unfilled faculty positions in humanities departments. | ||
03 / 21
Start: 9:00 am
End: 2:00 pm
We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape. We use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. | ||
03 / 22
Start: 2:00 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Jane Ann Moore In 1836, pro-Slavery mobs attacked and destroyed the presses of the Alton Observer three times. The editor, Elijah Lovejoy, continued to publish the paper until November, when a fourth mob captured the press and murdered the co-founder of the Illinois State Antislavery Society. Elijah Lovejoy's martyrdom rejuvenated the national antislavery movement. In the words of his brother Owen, "I vowed on my knees before God never to forsake the cause for which his blood was sprinkled." In this presentation, Jane Ann Moore presents the story of Elijah and Owen Lovejoy and their tireless work through churches, newspapers, lecture tours, political parties, and other antislavery groups to establish equality for all people in the United States. | ||
03 / 23
Start: 10:00 am
End: 9:00 pm
We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape. We use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods.Start: 10:00 am
Project YES - NUSH AmeriCorps volunteers will discuss 'Reveries of the Solitary Walker' by Jean Jacques Roussea The Meaning of Service (MoS) is a reading and discussion program for Americorps volunteers featuring discussions that use short philosophical and literary texts on the nature of justice, service, and related themes. Meaning of Service presents participants with the opportunity to examine, refine, and regenerate the beliefs underlying their work. Start: 7:30 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Leslie Goddard
Start: 7:30 pm
End: 8:30 pm
Many notable figures throughout history have been vegetarians. From Plato and Benjamin Franklin to Mahatma Gandhi and Charlotte Bronte, veggie-love has a historical track record. Even civil rights icons Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King adhered to strict vegetarian diets and were also vegetarian activists.
Many continue to embrace vegetarianism, rejecting what they deem the horrific treatment of soon-to-be slaughtered animals. In the popular pamphlet 101 Reasons Why I'm Vegetarian, Pamela Rice writes: "Nearly all of the some 10 billion animals slaughtered for food in the U.S. every year are the end result of a behemoth-sized swift-moving assembly line system, incorporating dangerous, unprecedented, and unsustainable methods of production." As vegetarianism and veganism (a diet that contains no meat or diary) has grown in popularity many are beginning to marvel at the benefits a veggie diet has not only for animal rights, but the positive effects it has on the body. | ||
03 / 24
Start: 6:00 pm
End: 8:00 pm
***This is a year-long course beginning in September, open only to selected applicants. Applications for next year's class will be available on this website beginning in June 2009.*** The Odyssey Project is a college-level course in philosophy, literature, art history, and history for men and women living below 150% of the poverty level. Its anchor program is the first-year course, which is offered in partnership with Bard College and for which students may receive six units of college credit. Faculty members are largely from first-rate universities such as University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute, and DePaul University. Tuition is free, and the Illinois Humanities Council provides free childcare, free books, and transportation. The six units of credit are fully transferable to other colleges and universities.
This course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. | ||
03 / 25
Start: 11:00 am
A Road Scholar Program by Stephanie Shonekan This program takes the audience on an audio-visual expedition of the history and music of African American women through clips from their music and excerpts of their life stories. This provides the audience with a rare and fascinating portrayal of the lives and musical contributions of Black women across genres (popular and classical music.) This approach allows these women musicians to speak for themselves and to reveal the various influences and expressions that shape their lives and musical expressions. The audience will explore the varied journeys of these women with a view to understanding the threads that bind the lives and music of Black women in American history. Start: 12:30 pm
End: 1:30 pm
Many notable figures throughout history have been vegetarians. From Plato and Benjamin Franklin to Mahatma Gandhi and Charlotte Bronte, veggie-love has a historical track record. Even civil rights icons Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King adhered to strict vegetarian diets and were also vegetarian activists.
Many continue to embrace vegetarianism, rejecting what they deem the horrific treatment of soon-to-be slaughtered animals. In the popular pamphlet 101 Reasons Why I'm Vegetarian, Pamela Rice writes: "Nearly all of the some 10 billion animals slaughtered for food in the U.S. every year are the end result of a behemoth-sized swift-moving assembly line system, incorporating dangerous, unprecedented, and unsustainable methods of production." As vegetarianism and veganism (a diet that contains no meat or diary) has grown in popularity many are beginning to marvel at the benefits a veggie diet has not only for animal rights, but the positive effects it has on the body. Start: 2:00 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Sharon Alter 20th Century women Prime Ministers have had unique styles of political leadership. This comparison of Corazon Aquino (Philippines), Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway), Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), and Margaret Thatcher (Great Britain) examines the ways in which these leaders guided the domestic and international policies of their particular governments. | ||
