Annual Theme
Each year, the
HumanitiesX Advisory Council selects 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.
Fellows
The 2023-24 cohort of HumanitiesX fellows includes 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 will be selected through a competitive application process and join the cohort in November 2023.
Each team will collaboratively develop 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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Democracy in America will engage DePaul students and the broader Chicago community in fundamental democratic questions on the cusp of the 2024 election. The course will center the work of 19th century Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, who traveled to the United States and subsequently published his two-volume
Democracy in America (1835-40). In partnership with the Alliance Française of Chicago, students will plan and facilitate a public book discussion that brings Tocqueville’s insights to bear on our democratic moment. We will engage questions such as “What does this text teach us about how to define or defend democracy and rights?” And “What can we learn about the stakes for democracy in the 2024 election by studying past cultures and past moments?”
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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Historical Memory Project: Ni Olvido, Ni Perdón will explore human rights and human rights activism in Central America, focusing on Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. With the rich history our partner organization CRLN brings, we will address questions such as, “What can we learn from Chicago citizens and organizations that have pioneered fights for rights?" "How can movements for rights be preserved and communicated to public audiences and future generations?" "How can we document and understand past injustices to prevent future injustices?” Students will help CRLN
to historically contextualize their existing archive of documents, posters, and flyers from political and human-rights events in Latin America and the United States. In tandem with interviews with CRLN members, students will build a digital archive and physical exhibition that showcases how activist movements can fight against human rights injustices.
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 will link current challenges to LGBTQ+ freedom to in-tandem moves to remove LGBTQ+ themed books from libraries and schools. We will approach this material by exploring material ephemera and books collected in the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, as well as through texts that explore issues of queer repression across time and geography and the relationship between the printed word and image, censorship, and democracy. Students will work with Gerber/Hart to develop pop-up exhibitions, in the tradition of Chicago Public Library banned book sanctuaries, as well as the Little Free Library movement. These exhibitions will both expand the reach of the Gerber/Hart collections and encourage public dialogue about LGBTQ+ histories and freedom.