Democracy and Rights
Across the first four years of the collaborative, the
HumanitiesX Advisory Council selected a topical theme that is both timely and lends itself to humanities inquiry. In 2023, in anticipation of an important year for American electoral politics and amidst ongoing, worldwide clashes over the nature and limit of rights, the Council selected
Democracy & Rights as the theme for the 2023-24 academic year.
Each team collaboratively developed a HumanitiesX course offered to DePaul students in Spring Quarter 2024.
View the 2023-24 Course Showcases
Fellows
The 2023-24 cohort of HumanitiesX fellows included three teams, each comprised of two faculty members from DePaul's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, a community partner from a Chicago-area nonprofit organization, and two Student Fellows, who were selected through a competitive application process and joined the cohort in December 2023.
Each team collaboratively developed a HumanitiesX course on the theme of democracy and rights, offered to DePaul students in Spring Quarter 2024.
Team Alliance Française de Chicago
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Matthew Maguire
- Associate Professor, History/Catholic Studies
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View Bio
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Camille Perry
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Fiona Reed
- Team Alliance Française de Chicago
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Experiencing Democracy in America
This HumanitiesX seminar brought together a close reading of Alexis de Tocqueville's
Democracy in America (published in 1835-40) with experiences of contemporary democracy.
Democracy in America is often considered to be the greatest book ever written on American politics. Tocqueville provides a systemic tour of the American constitution, America's politics, its tensions, its flaws, and its aspirations. Throughout he presses readers to reflect on the role that equality has played in giving shape to American culture, society, and politics -- indeed, how that commitment to equality may animate the most diverse elements of American life. While reading the classic, students tested Tocqueville's analysis with their own experiences, and what those experiences, their reading, and their conversations tell us about the possibilities and challenges of American democracy in the 21st century. As an experiential learning course, our work culminated in a student-led public event that invited the public to learn about and engage with Tocqueville's ideas and their relevance today.
Team Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
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Susana Martínez
Associate Professor, Modern Languages/Peace, Justice, & Conflict Studies
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Lydia Saravia
- Professional Lecturer, Writing, Rhetoric, & Discourse
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View Bio
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Angelina Alvarez
- Team Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN)
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Safiyah Simpkins
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- Team Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN)
- Undergraduate Student
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Political Science
Historical Memory Project: Ni Olvido, Ni Perdón
In this course, students considered the connection between historical events, beginning in the 1960s, and current movements and injustices impacting Central America—specifically, in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Students worked collaboratively with our community partner, Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN), to engage with and create public, political art and writing. Students examined the ways in which organized communities in Central America have actively worked with human rights groups in the U.S. Through cultural, historical, and rhetorical frameworks, students interrogated the Western idea of Democracy within the context of neoliberalism. Further, by directly working with CRLN, talking to local political artists, and visiting sites around the city, students examined how local activists and artists participate in political movements and preserve historic memory.
Team Gerber/Hart Library
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Barrie Borich
Professor, English/LGBTQ Studies
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Heather Montes Ireland
- Assistant Professor, Women's & Gender Studies
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View Bio
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Do Say Gay: Banned Books and LGBTQ+ Freedom
This Experiential Learning course was about contemporary book bans and their relationship to the democratic role of LGBTQ+ libraries and archives in the preservation, celebration, and continuation of intersectional queer lives. Queer books represent the possibilities, traumas, and beauties of LGBTQ+ lives, often in spite of forces attempting to remove these works from libraries and schools. Course participants read banned books about LGBTQ+ lives, explored material collected in the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, read about queer repression across time and place, and studied theory about censorship, LGBTQ+ rights, and democracy. Students worked collaboratively to create a public exhibit on banned books and learn about the administration and maintenance of a nonprofit library that also functions as a community center and LGBTQ+ safe haven.