Chicago Humanities Fall Festival

Schedule of Events:

11:00 am - 12:00 pm: A Conversation with Connie Chung

The pioneering journalist and CBS Evening News anchor

Join us for a captivating conversation with legendary broadcast journalist Connie Chung as she unveils her highly anticipated memoir. Making history and achieving her dream of being the first Asian to anchor any news program in the United States, Chung also describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centric industry where overt sexism was an unfortunate way of the world. Don't miss this scoop of a lifetime to engage with an icon and celebrate a career dedicated to truth, integrity, and breaking barriers.

Connie Chung:
News Anchor and Reporter

Connie Chung, pioneer news anchor and reporter was the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News, the flagship news broadcast on CBS. Connie was only the second woman to anchor any network evening broadcast in television history.

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12:00 pm - 1:30 pm: UIC Forum Member Reception

Enjoy the Member lunch-hour reception with quick bites and refreshments at the UIC Forum following the program with pioneering journalist Connie Chung. If you’re attending the free member program featuring historian Dylan C. Penningroth, we invite you to join the reception before or after the event to connect with fellow members in our vibrant community.

This event is free to all members, however, tickets are required and do not include entry to additional programs throughout the day. Please click the following link to reserve your tickets. We can't wait to see you there!

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: Dylan C. Penningroth: Before the Civil Rights Movement

The hidden history of Black civil rights

Historically for Black people in America, the law was a hostile, fearsome power to be avoided. Drawing on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, Dylan C. Penningroth, MacArthur Genius Grant winner and historian at University of California, Berkeley, sheds light on the courageous individuals and lesser-known events that laid the foundation for the landmark struggle for equality.

Challenging accepted understandings of Black history framed by relations with white people, Penningroth puts Black people at the center of the story—their loves and anger and loneliness, their efforts to stay afloat, their mistakes and embarrassments, their fights, their ideas, their hopes and disappointments, in all their messy humanness. Uncover the overlooked roots of the Black Civil Rights Movement in this riveting live discussion focused on Penningroth’s latest book, Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.

Dylan C. Penningroth:
Historian

Dylan C. Penningroth specializes in African American history and in U.S. socio-legal history. His first book, The Claims of Kinfolk: African American Property and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), won the Avery Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians. His articles have appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Journal of American History, the American Historical Review, and the Journal of Family History. Penningroth has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the Stanford Humanities Center, and has been recognized by the Organization of American Historians’ Huggins-Quarles committee, a Weinberg College Teaching Award (Northwestern University), a McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence (Northwestern), and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

Before joining UC Berkeley in 2015, Dylan Penningroth was on the faculty of the History Department at the University of Virginia (1999-2002), at Northwestern University (2002-2015), and a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation (2007-2015). In Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights (Liveright, 2023), Penningroth revises the conventional story of civil rights to tell a forgotten pre-history of the marches of the 1960s. Drawing on sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, he reveals that African Americans have thought about, talked about, and used the law going as far back as even the era of slavery. They dealt constantly with the laws of property, contract, inheritance, marriage and divorce, of associations, and more. Before the Movement is an account of Black legal lives that looks beyond the Constitution and the criminal justice system to recover a rich, broader vision of Black life―a vision allied with, yet distinct from, the freedom struggle.

Before the Movement has been awarded the 2024 Merle Curti Prize, Organization of American Historians; the 2024 Ellis W. Hawley Prize, Organization of American Historians; the 2023 Langum Prize for American Legal History; and was shortlisted for the 2024 Mark Lynton History Prize from the Columbia Journalism School.

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12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: Max Boot: The Life and Legend of Ronald Reagan

The best-selling historian on the man who ushered in a transformative conservative era

Best-selling author and historian Max Boot shares with Chicago Humanities the story of our 40th president—son of the Midwest, movie star and mesmerizing politician—whose telegenic leadership ushered in a transformative conservative era. Boot’s gripping and profoundly revisionist biography, Reagan: His Life and Legend, reveals the man behind the myth—but also argues that Reagan’s inscrutability during his lifetime contributed to his appeal. Boot, whose previous book was The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right, offers no apologia, depicting a man with a Manichean, good-versus-evil worldview and providing revelatory insights into “trickle-down economics,” the Cold War’s end, the Iran-Contra affair and much more.

Max Boot:
Historian

Max Boot is a historian, best-selling author and foreign-policy analyst. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post.

Max Boot’s new biography of Ronald Reagan, Reagan: His Life and Legend (September 2024, Norton/Liveright), has been acclaimed as “an exceptional biography of an exceptional man” (David Petraeus), “a timely and fascinating book” (Walter Isaacson), and “a prodigiously researched, satisfying presidential biography” (Kirkus). Max Boot’s previous biography, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

Boot is also the author of four other widely acclaimed books: The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right (2018); the New York Times bestseller Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present (2013); War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today (2006); and The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power (2002), which won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation as the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps history and has been placed on military professional reading lists.

Boot has been a CNN global affairs analyst and a regular guest on MSNBC, NPR, BBC, and many other radio and television programs. He was named in 2018 one of America’s “Great Immigrants” by the Carnegie Corporation and one of the 50 most influential Jewish Americans by the Forward newspaper. Boot served as a foreign policy adviser to the presidential campaigns of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Marco Rubio.

Before joining the Council on Foreign Relations in 2002, Boot was the op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal and, before that, an editor and writer at the Christian Science Monitor. He has also been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Commentary, and many other publications.

Boot holds a bachelor’s degree in history, with high honors, from the University of California at Berkeley (1991) and a master’s degree in history from Yale University (1992). He was born in Moscow, grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives with his family in New York City.

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2:00 pm - 3:00 pm: Erik Larson: The Demon of Unrest

Robert R. McCormick Foundation Program
The bestselling author on a slow-burning crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two.

In The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—and explores how the passions of the North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.

Larson will take us behind the scenes of his craft and process, sharing everything from how he chooses his topics and his writing routine to his favorite—and not-so-favorite—characters in the book.

Beloved by Chicago history buffs for The Devil in the White City, Larson has given us in The Demon of Unrest a political horror story that serves as a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late. A copy of the book is included in your ticket purchase. Don't miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of the forces that led America to the brink.

A book signing will follow this program.

Erik Larson:
Journalist, Author

Erik Larson is the author of six previous national bestsellers—The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City and Isaac’s Storm—which have collectively sold more than 12 million copies. His books have been published in nearly 40 countries.

Steve Edwards:
Former Chief Content Officer at WBEZ

Steve Edwards spent more than 20 years as an award-winning journalist, interviewer and host of such programs as WBEZ’s Eight Forty-Eight and The Afternoon Shift. As a journalist, his work has appeared on the BBC, Bloomberg News, PBS and numerous public radio stations around the United States. Most recently, he was Chief Content Officer and interim CEO of WBEZ Chicago Public Media, Chicago’s NPR News station. From 2012 to 2017, Edwards helped launch and lead the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, a non-partisan program devoted to cultivating the next generation of public service leaders. He’s currently a managing director at Koya Partners, an executive search and strategic advisory firm focused on identifying and strengthening mission-driven leaders across the civic and non-profit sectors. Edwards earned his B.A. in political science from Amherst College and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.

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2:30 pm - 3:30 pm: David Greenberg: John Lewis, The Conscience of Congress

A historian on his definitive biography of a Civil Rights Era icon

Historian David Greenberg’s new biography, John Lewis: A Life, is the definitive biography of a man whose heroism helped to bring America a new birth of freedom. Greenberg will share Lewis’ vital contributions to the Civil Rights Movement—from working as a Freedom Rider to being the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington to nearly dying after being beaten by Alabama State Troopers after leading a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery.

He will also detail Lewis’ post-Civil Rights Movement years, including as a leader of the Voter Education Project and as a longtime Democratic leader in Congress. Greenberg will take us behind the scenes to his interviews with Lewis and approximately 275 others who knew him at various stages of his life, as well as how he accessed never-before-used FBI files and long-lost footage of Lewis speaking to reporters from his hospital bed following “Bloody Sunday” in Selma.

A book signing will follow this program.

David Greenberg:
Historian, Professor

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and a frequent commentator on historical and political affairs. He is the author or editor of several books on American history and politics including Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image and Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. Formerly acting editor of The New Republic and then a columnist for Slate, Greenberg now writes regularly for Politico, Liberties, The New York Times and The Washington Post. His work has also been featured in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal and numerous academic journals. In support of this book Greenberg won awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, and the Leon Levy Center for Biography. He holds a PhD in history from Columbia University and a BA from Yale and lives with his family in Manhattan.

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2:30 pm - 3:30 pm: Revolutionary Movements of Hope or Despair?

A conversation between Kelly Hayes and Atef Said

From the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter uprisings, to Occupy Wall Street and ongoing Indigenous rights movements, as well as global anti-war protests, the 21st century has already been defined and shaped by large-scale political activism. However, organizers and activists across these movements have faced challenges of political polarizations, manipulation, infiltration, and digital repression. Most importantly, a constant state of heavy despair due to the lack of concrete fruits of these movements has been an impediment to continued momentum. Though there are obstacles along the path, two engaged authors and educators will share dialectics of hope and despair as guiding logics across social movements organizing today to lead us into a better, brighter tomorrow.

Kelly Hayes:
Writer, Podcast Host

Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement educator, and photographer. She is the host of Truthout‘s podcast Movement Memos and co-author of the book Let This Radicalize You, with Mariame Kaba. Kelly also is also the creator of “Organizing My Thoughts,” a weekly newsletter about politics and justice work. Kelly was a co-founder of the Lifted Voices collective and the Chicago Light Brigade. She has led countless workshops over the years, and has trained thousands of people around the country in direct action tactics. Kelly has also served as a grassroots strategist, offering advice and analysis to groups across Chicago and the United States. Kelly’s written work can be found in Truthout, Teen Vogue, Bustle, The Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, Pacific Standard, her blog Transformative Spaces, The Appeal and numerous anthologies. Her movement photography is featured in the “Freedom and Resistance” exhibit of the DuSable Museum of African American History.

Atef Shahat Said:
Assistant Professor of Sociology

Atef Said is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Said has been researching and teaching social movements and revolutions for more than a decade. His research engages with the fields of sociological theory, political sociology, sociology of social movements and revolutions, historical sociology, sociology of the Middle East, and global sociology. Said is the author of Revolution Squared: Tahrir, Political Possibilities and Counter- Revolution in Egypt (Duke University Press, 2024). Said’s work is published in academic journals such as Social Problems, Social Research, International Sociology, Sociology Compass, Contemporary Sociology, and Middle East Critique. His work also has appeared in important scholarly references such as the Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East and the I.B. Tauris Handbook of Sociology and the Middle East, and important scholarly books such as Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa: Methodological and Ethical Challenges. He is the author of Arab Spring, Mobilization, and Contentious Politics in the Middle East, for Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology.

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4:30 pm - 5:30 pm: Anna Marie Tendler: Men Have Called Her Crazy

A conversation on mental health, writing, and art

In early 2021, popular multimedia artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression, and self-harm. Tendler is now ready to share her experience, the growth undertaken, and talk about the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century, oftentimes at the hands of men in their lives. Join Chicago Humanities for an authentic conversation on mental health, the modern realities of womanhood, and the ways in which art can carry us through.

Anna Marie Tendler:
Photographer, Writer, Artist

Anna Marie Tendler is an artist and writer. She holds a master’s degree in costume studies from New York University. She lives in Connecticut with her three cats, Chimney, Moon, and Butter.

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4:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Seeds in a Suitcase: Growing Place within Chicago Gardens

A discussion on refugees sowing seed and cultivating social infrastructure

Join our fascinating panel discussion led by Molly Doane, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UIC, and Haley LeRand, Director of the Global Garden Refugee Training Farm, as they explore place-making in diaspora through the seeds that refugees and immigrants carry with them as they migrate, the gardens they create, and the social infrastructures and movements they grow.

Molly Doane

Dr. Molly Doane is Associate Professor of Anthropology at UIC. Her work concerns the relationship between people, the environment and community activism. She has written about indigenous forest conservation projects in Mexico, organic farmer cooperatives in Mexico and Wisconsin, and community gardening in Chicago's working-class neighborhoods.

Haley LeRand
Guitarist, Vocalist, Executive Director

Haley LeRand is the Executive Director of Global Garden Refugee Training Farm (GGRTF), a non-profit farm in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood that supports 60+ refugees who grow organic vegetables for sale and home consumption. She holds a BA in Psychology from University of Illinois at Chicago, where she spent several years working as a research assistant under Dr. Molly Doane on a project called Cultivating Wellbeing: The Cultural and Ecological Significance of Urban Gardening in Chicago. She has extensive experience working with Chicago's refugee populations, managing the GGRTF programs and operations, and expanding the farm's activities and resources to further its mission. Haley lives in Evanston and works as a musician in her spare time.

Dr. Zeina Zaatari

Director of the Arab American Cultural Center, adjunct faculty in Anthropology, Faculty Fellow in the Honors College at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Zeina Zaatari, Ph.D., is the Director of the Arab American Cultural Center, adjunct faculty in Anthropology, and Faculty Fellow in the Honors College at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She previously worked as Research Director at Political Research Associate, MENA Program Director at the Global Fund for Women, and lecturer in Anthropology and Gender Studies. Her recent publications include two co-edited books: Routledge Handbook on Women of the Middle East co-edited with Suad Joseph (2023) and The Politics of Engaged Gender Research in the Arab Region: Feminist Fieldwork and Knowledge Production co-edited with Suad Joseph and Lena Meari (2022). Among her other publications include: "Sarah Hegazy and the Struggle for Freedom," Middle East Report Online (2020), “Social Movements and Revolution” in A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East (2015). She is an Associate Editor for the Middle East and Africa for the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, president-elect of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies 2024-2026, and a co-founder and elected board member of Women Human Rights Defenders-MENA Coalition.

Sarita Hernández

Sarita Hernández is the Program Director/Student Support and graduate student alum of the Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change's (CCUSC) Heritage Garden at UIC. The UIC Heritage Garden is a hands-on learning garden internship where student interns connect horticulture with environmental sustainability, cultural diversity, and social justice. Sarita is a teaching artist at the Hyde Park Art Center, an advisory board member for Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ), and a garden caregiver for the McKinley Park Community Garden's mutual aid beds. They exist at the intersection of oral histories, zine/printmaking, arts education, and environmental justice with Marimacha Monarca Press, a queer and trans artist familia in Chicago’s Southwest side since 2017. Sarita is based in McKinley Park and makes plant-based pies and cakes in Back of the Yards.

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6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Richard Powers: On Playground

Award winning author discusses his new panoramic novel

Join us for a sweeping experience with Pulitzer Prize (The Overstory) and National Book Award winner Richard Powers as he provides an exploration into our shared humanity with his thought-provoking new work. Powers remarks on his awe-filled book, Playground, setting the vast ocean as the last wild place we have yet to colonize.

Powers discusses with Rebecca Makkai the profound interweaving themes of technology, the environment and the digital age's impact on childhood. With insight into his beautiful writing, Powers poignantly reflects on our relationship with the natural world and reality.

Richard Powers
Writer, Novelist

Richard Powers is the author of fourteen novels, including The Overstory, Bewilderment, and Orfeo. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai is the author of this year’s New York Times bestselling I Have Some Questions For You as well as the novels The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower, and the short story collection Music for Wartime. The Great Believers was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize among other honors. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca teaches graduate fiction writing at Northwestern University, UNR Tahoe, and Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English; and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago. She lives in Chicago and Vermont.

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