2015-2016

Cézanne’s Apples - Wednesday, October 7, 2015

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
Join us for an evening during which we will celebrate the still life—seeing, sampling, and savoring Cézanne’s apples in an interdisciplinary investigation of the ways in which his talent and aesthetic philosophy changed everything... View flyer

Eating is Understanding - Monday, March 7, 2016

7:00 PM — 8:30 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
Most scholars throughout history have had a negative outlook on food and drink—at best seeing such mundane topics beneath them and at worst seeing the “temptations of food and drink” as distractions not only from clear thinking but from the well-being of the mind/soul. In a special multi-sensory, interactive foodie event, Bob Valgenti argues that a new day has arrived, and thinking is currently being awakened from its gastronomic slumber... View flyer

The Secret Life of Food - Wednesday, May 25, 2016

7:00 PM — 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
You are what you eat, but do you really know what you are? Food often has secrets, and things aren’t always what they seem to be—even when they are right there on your plate. The DHC concludes its academic season with the final installment of its series on eating by inviting three experts willing to pull back the curtain, peer into the kitchen, and investigate the secret life of food. Celebrated author Rowan Jacobsen returns to DePaul and goes looking for animal-free foods that mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of meat and dairy in “Hacking Meat.” The New Yorker contributor Nicola Twilley braves the cold in order to expose the ways in which refrigeration technology has fundamentally altered what we eat in “The Distributed Winter.” And celebrity chef Judson Todd Allen turns up the heat as he uncovers the ways in which spices alter our experiences of food in “The Spice Diet.” View flyer

Don Quixote - Wednesday, October 21, 2015

7:00 PM - 8:30 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the complete Don Quixote, arguably the first novel—ever. Fittingly, we begin our series concerning the meaning of the novel at the beginning of the novel itself, ... View flyer

Lolita - Wednesday, January 20, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
Focusing on a radical re-thinking of Nabokov’s classic novel, this evening will feature a live theatrical performance of scenes from the book followed by a panel conversation that will investigate the various artwork used as book covers for Lolita and the ways in which Lolita’s age may not really be the central moral question of the novel... View flyer

Moby-Dick - Monday, April 11, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
An evening of eclectic performances and lectures rethinking what Moby-Dick means for us today begins with a screening of the film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and includes a lecture by philosopher Alphonso Lingis on the human drive to exterminate the sublime; a performance by Blair Thomas that imagines a time after the rescue of Ishmael in which sailors have formed a “monastic order” in order to come to grips with the tale of Ahab—all told through live music and puppetry; and an innovative vocal and movement interpretation of three chapters of the novel by artists Erin Gee and Colin Gee, entitled “The Air, the Ocean, the Wood, and the Sail.” Spock dies; the Buddha is murdered; the whale is wooden; and the ocean sings in a mythical language: this is not your father’s Moby-Dick! View flyer

The Xenotext - Thursday, April 21, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
When Mendel meets Mendelssohn meets Millay, biological art can result—and begin to reproduce. Biology, music, and poetry may not seem the most obvious bed-partners, creating a questionably hospitable environment for such thinking to come alive, but life, and art, can flourish in the most extreme environs. To conclude its series on novels and writing, the DHC welcomes three thinkers who blur the lines between art and science. NASA scientist Jonathan Trent will lecture on the science of extremophile life. Composer Peter Gena (SAIC) will lecture on, and play, music based on DNA sequencing. And celebrated experimental poet Christian Bok, who proposes to create an example of “living poetry” built into the genetic structure of an extremophile microbe, will speak about his project, “The Xenotext,” and the dream of engineering a form of life that will write poetry—and in some sense be poetry—from now until the end of the Earth billions of years in the future. View flyer

Thursday, October 29, 2015

5:30 PM — 9:30 PM| DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
The DePaul Humanities Center’s third-annual Halloween event features avant-garde exhibits pointing to the horror of everyday life as well as the relationship between horror and the history of the humanities, Halloween-themed... View flyer

Kyle Morton/Typhoon - Monday, February 1, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
Portland-based indie rock band, Typhoon, operates as something of an eclectic collective, moving from sweeping orchestral arrangements to sparse and haunting minimalism, with lyrics that interrogate mortality, morality, and the basic questions of human existence. Front-man Kyle Morton brings a few members of Typhoon with him for a concert and then sits down on stage a conversation about his art...View flyer

John Currin - Thursday, April 28, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
The preeminent figure painter of our time, John Currin is an artist who makes oil paintings that confront our assumptions about beauty, sexuality, art, and culture with unrivaled technique, talent, and intelligence. Currin comes to the DHC to deliver the annual “Future of the Arts & Humanities Lecture,” receive the 2015-16 Humanities Laureate Award, and to have an on-stage discussion about his work and the meaning of art with DHC director, H. Peter Steeves. One of Currin’s extremely rare appearances away from the East Coast, we anticipate this evening being exciting for DePaul and for the art community nationally, and we are honored to be hosting and celebrating the artist and his work.  View flyer

Noah's Task - Monday, February 8, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | St. Vincent DePaul Parish | 1010 W. Webster Ave.
What has the Noah story meant historically and what does it mean for us today? Join the DePaul Humanities Center for a live performance of one act from Benjamin Britten’s opera, “Noye’s Fludde,” with a cast of nearly two-dozen singers and musicians, followed by lectures on Britten’s opera, Noah and the status of animal rights, and the meaning of the Noah story from the perspective of a climate change scientist... View flyer

Monday, February 22, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | John T. Richardson Library | 2350 N. Kenmore Ave.
In cooperation with Theatre Y, the Humanities Center brings Glen Berger’s celebrated play to Chicago in a unique setting and with innovative new staging that lets the musicians and actors confront their audience in an intimate way. Join “The Librarian” as he presents his evidence for order in the universe in a play that investigates the madness of the Enlightenment, obsession, archives, identity, and faith... View flyer

DePaulywood Squares - Wednesday, April 6, 2016

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | DePaul Student Center, Room 120 | 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
Nine DePaul professors answer trivia questions in the areas of their research while helping contestants chosen randomly from the audience to win big prizes in an update of the classic TV game show that brings together all the fun of rigorous scholarship, tic-tac-toe, and comedy. Join friends and colleagues from History, AMD, Physics, Philosophy, Theater, English, Modern Languages, Sociology, and SCPS, and share in the prize give-away worth more than $400! View flyer