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Humanities NOW

The Huma​nities NOW Challenge. Your insights, our current moment.

Can you pinpoint a moment when you realized how profoundly an aspect of your work intersected with the tumult of 2020? Are you hungry for impact but lacking the time, structure, and support to demonstrate how your academic work can inform, mobilize, or guide during this period of upheaval?

If so, please join us for the Humanities NOW Challenge, a unique faculty development program sponsored by HumanitiesX. Humanities NOW is an interactive workshop and goal-setting challenge, designed to inspire, support, and connect faculty working in the humanities as we explore ways our academic work can contribute to public knowledge or action, now or in the recovery to come.

How it Works

We invite up to ten faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences to participate in this intensive workshop, which includes a synchronous introductory session on Monday, November 30, from 10-1:00, and a synchronous follow-up session on Thursday, December 10, from 10-11:30, with editorial feedback in between.

Led by TEDxDePaulUniversity speaker coach and author Deborah Siegel, the workshop structure is as follows:

Introductory Session (M 11/30/20, 10-1:00)
  • Write, reflect, and discuss with colleagues how your work intersects with a particular aspect of 2020
  • Learn about—and try out—best practices for writing and speaking to audiences outside of the academy


Between-Session Task

  • Craft a short (<1,000-word) written narrative that informs, mobilizes, or guides us, as readers, during this period of profound upheaval
  • Receive individualized editorial feedback from Deborah


Follow-up Session (Th 12/10, 10-11:30)

  • Discuss concrete future directions for your public voice in terms of genre, venue, and form
  • Set attainable public voice goals for the coming year
  • Identify an accountability partner, within or outside of the workshop


After the Workshop

  • Polish and share your narrative on a DePaul-branded space on medium.com
  • Contribute, as you can, in other public venues outlined during the follow up session


We welcome all full-time faculty from LAS, including those who have previously completed or plan to enroll in DePaul’s OpEd training as a Public Voices Fellow.

How to Participate

Please complete this form by November 9, 2020 to request a space in the workshop. Questions can be sent to the HumanitiesX Faculty Director, Lisa Dush, at ldush@depaul.edu.