In fall 2023 the HEC gathered feedback from humanities faculty on the vision for future programming. During the past decade, the HEC has offered a wide range of series: a film series, speaker series, reading series, lunch series, Thinking Aloud Series, “In the News” series, Blog series, and more. Faculty feedback indicated that bringing in a well-known speaker each year should be a priority for the center. The other high priority was to help students make connections to careers in the humanities. We began work on creating 2024-2025 programming that builds community and provides opportunities for students to learn about careers in the humanities.
In the spring of 2024, we continued with several of our ongoing series. Our theme for the year, “Contextualizing Conflict / Creating Connections,” was selected in support of Drury’s spring undergraduate research conference, “Diversity and Reconciliation,” spearheaded by Dr. Peter Browning. Humanities faculty and students made up a good portion of both the steering committee and conference participants.
Our reading series pick, Tiya Miles’s All That That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake is a NYTimes bestseller and a recipient of the 2021 National Book Award, the 2022 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and the Harriet Tubman Book Prize, among others.
Faculty, staff, and students who participated in the series met in the Rose O’Neill house for dinner and discussion of All That She Carried during Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March. The first ten students to sign up to participate in the reading series received a free copy of the book. Funding for this event, including dinner and the purchase of books for students, was provided by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Women and Gender Studies program, specifically through the Victor M. Arguso, Jr. Endowment for the Behavioral Sciences.
We continued our partnership with Springfield’s only independent movie theater, The Moxie, located in the heart of downtown. The HEC’s Film Series, launched by Dr. Kevin Henderson in 2012, invites Drury students, faculty, staff, and members of the general public to gather for screenings of films which are followed by a Drury humanities faculty member’s short lecture and discussion with the audience about the film.
In March, Dr. Chris Panza, Professor of Philosophy, hosted the screening of No Country for Old Men (2008) and post-film discussion with the audience. The screening sold out, with several moviegoers being turned away due to The Moxie having reached capacity seating. In April, Dr. Katie Gilbert,
Associate Professor of English and Director of the HEC, hosted a screening and discussion of Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania, 2023). A similarly robust crowd attended this second screening. As they always do, members of the public made up a good portion of the audiences.
All Drury students had the option to attend the series for free. Dr. Kevin Henderson gave out more than eighty Moxie membership cards to Drury students leading up to the screenings. Membership offered students free admission to any of The Moxie’s 40+ annual repertory screenings, 50-cent popcorn, and $6 admissions for all new films.
As part of a community-building effort, two lunches were scheduled for faculty and students in the humanities, as well as other faculty friends of the humanities. The lunches were brown bag drop-in events that offered opportunities for informal conversation. (due to a conflict in scheduling with the English Symposium, we needed to cancel the second lunch).
Continuing the HEC’s partnerships in programming with Missouri Humanities, the HEC served as an organizational and promotional partner for “From the Page to the Park,” an April 13 event offered as one event in the two-day Missouri Humanities Symposium, “Ozark Marvels: Innovation for the Common Good,” which took place in pieces across the city of Springfield. Working with Lisa Carrico of Missouri Humanities, Dr. Katie Gilbert organized a panel of poets, including several poets affiliated with Drury.
In celebration of the art of poetry and its role in our culture, the public “From the Page to the Park” took place in Springfield’s Jordan Valley Park outdoor amphitheater. The event explored the intersection of literature and nature, highlighting how greenway innovation strengthens community connections and wellness.
Drury-affiliated panelists included: