The Humanities and Civic Engagement: Building the DePaul Humanities Center Endowment

So that we may better serve both the university community and the greater Chicago community, we seek to build a permanent endowment for the Humanities Center. This endowment will make it possible to expand and enrich programming that emphasizes the role of the humanities in civic engagement and cultural literacy.

Endowment funds will support programming in three areas:

• Civic Literacy Partnerships. By strengthening the visibility and study of the humanities in the public arena, these partnerships with civic and community organizations allow the members of our Chicago communities to access the kinds of historical and cultural knowledge that are so crucial to the formation of an engaged citizenry.
  
  
• Engaged Humanities. This series of theme-based speakers, visiting scholars, and panel discussions invites researchers, teachers, students, policy makers, and community leaders to consider the crucial role of the humanities in addressing contemporary issues. The conversations that result will draw on the best thinking and writing humanity has achieved while remaining rooted in actual practice.
  
  
• Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminars. These seminars for faculty, community leaders, and graduate students engage participants in discussions of substantive readings around an interdisciplinary humanities topic. Participants share their own work and generate a set of materials of interest to secondary and university educators in the humanities.