The Prairie Landscape

Former Programs

Following is a listing of programs that IHC has sponsored in the past. Please contact IHC via email if you would like more information regarding any of the programs below.

Brown v. Board 50 Years Later: Conversations on Integration, Race, and the Courts
Through this program the Illinois Humanities Council developed a year of statewide programming that represented a rich fabric of social, political, and artistic responses to the impact of this historic Supreme Court desegregation ruling. The goal of this program was to bring discussions about integration, education, jurisprudence, and other related topics to the public forum. Programs ran from May 2004-May 2005. Click here to download the High School Teacher's Guide.

Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF)
The Illinois Humanities Council launched the Chicago Humanities Festival in 1990 to link the humanities to public issues and to build new and broader audiences for the humanities. What began as a one-day event is now an annual series of more than 150 interdisciplinary programs, held in venues throughout the city, reaching more than 40,000 people. Now an independent nonprofit organization, the CHF is known for featuring world-renowned, as well as newly emerging, authors, scholars, and performing artists. The IHC was the CHF’s founding and sole producer for seven years and has remained a major funder.

Chicago Science Expedition
Chicago is a major center of science and technology. Chicago Science Expedition: Two Weeks Worth of "Wow"!was the first city-wide presentation of coordinated events and activities that will highlight how science and technology shape the way we live, work, learn and play in Chicago. Chicago Science in the City - 2007was the second annual city-wide presentation.

Choices for the 21st Century
Choiceswas a four-part, scholar-led reading and discussion series held in public libraries throughout the state. The series addressed the question: Who are we as a nation and how do we define our role in a changing world? The program’s goal was to bring citizens together in a non-partisan public space to engage in conversation on contemporary issues. Choices is a program of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

Community Scholars Program
The Illinois Humanities Council offered a limited number of scholarships, ranging from about $4,000 to $6,000, to qualifying students majoring in the humanities disciplines at state-supported colleges and universities in Illinois. Award recipients volunteered at least 30 hours during the term of the award at a community-based organization. Community activities included volunteering at a historical society; giving a public lecture series at a public library; leading a discussion group at a social welfare agency; and working as an intern at a museum, art/architecture foundation, or theatre.

Einstein's Revolutions
This series of five programs explored the way different fields understand the same notions, such as time, the relationship between science and the humanities, and the continuing impact of Einstein's ideas on science and technology. Importantly, this series was aimed less at explaining Einstein’s papers than at mapping out our accumulated knowledge of the universe, from the microscopic to the cosmic.

Future Perfect: Conversations on the Meaning of the Genetics Revolution
There is a scientific revolution taking place that has the potential to change American society in profound ways. Advances in genetics hold much promise for combating disease, feeding more people, and generally improving our quality of life. Yet, these new sciences and technologies draw criticism and evoke fears. In the next decade, major decisions about genetics will be made. The courts, corporations, laboratories, and legislatures will be some of the places where these issues will play out. It is more important than ever that we all understand the issues. The Illinois Humanities Council believes humanistic questions can illuminate these issues.

Governor's Lecture in the Humanities
From 1994 to 1998 the IHC brought a major scholar in the humanities, chosen by the Governor, to the Executive Mansion in Springfield to address issues in the state’s history and civic life. These popular annual lectures were open to the public, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Heartland Chautauqua
In partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council, the Heartland Chautauqua offered rural communities in Illinois and Missouri a week-long series of living-history presentations under a communal tent, combining both education and entertainment. Reminiscent of the traveling Chautauqua circuits of the late-19th and early 20th centuries, costumed humanists presented first-person historical figures in public discussions concerning major historical events of their time. Communities can now seek support for this kind of programming through the Grants Program.

HYPe (Humanities Youth Projects)
The Illinois Humanities Council supported the efforts of young people in developing and producing humanities projects for themselves, their peers, and their communities through partnerships with youth-serving organizations. Youth determined what subjects interested them and worked with the IHC and their host organizations to develop a curriculum. With the support of humanist scholars and artists, HYPe participants have done research projects on the changing demographics in their neighborhoods, the history of Chicago along the Green Line "el," and the impact of gentrification on low-income communities.

True Learning, True Teaching Seminars
The Illinois Humanities Council offered K-12 educators (teachers, librarians, counselors) free, humanities-based seminars led by respected scholars in retreat-like settings. The seminars were ISBE-approved.