Category: Humanities
In today’s virtual world, it’s easy to downplay the significance of place. Yet when it comes to regional prosperity, geography matters. Income and job growth is not random but rather spills over from one region to another, meaning that merely being next to a prosperous region will make your own economy more vibrant. “It’s in...
For many students, knowing the path from degree to career can be difficult. Today’s job market is challenging. Students in business or computer science might have a strong sense of what doors their degree can open for them. But for students in the humanities, those doors can be harder to see. A trio of recent...
Psychology student Christopher J. Budnick came to NIU because it was close to home. But he stayed for entirely different reasons. “Originally, I transferred to NIU out of convenience; it was near my hometown. I finished my B.A. in psychology, and then I chose to remain at Northern for my graduate degree because of the...
Murals depicting historical events and hometown pride. Buildings restored to the grandeur of by-gone days. Big-hearted people in small towns, reflecting Midwestern ideals and values. Dan Libman, an instructor in the NIU Department of English, says he found “something amazing” in nearly every town or village he visited along the famed Lincoln Highway. “I found...
The Society of Woman Geographers has selected Shannon McCarragher, a Ph.D. student in geography at Northern Illinois University, as a Pruitt National Fellow. The international society encourages geographical research and supports fellowship programs that provide aid to outstanding women graduate students in geography and its allied fields. McCarragher’s fellowship will provide her with $11,000 in...
Sinclair Bell, an associate professor of art history in the NIU School of Art, has received a fellowship from the Board of Administration of the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation. Bell and eight other scholars representing the fields of the history of art and architecture, painting and sculpture, each receive $30,000 for the...
From Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow and Chief O’Neill’s music to Michael Flatley and mayoral politics, Chicago has a central place in the history of Irish America. Chicago welcomed a very different type of Irish event from April 10 through April 13, as Northern Illinois and DePaul universities co-hosted the international meeting of the American Conference for...
After Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010, more than half of U.S. households donated to thousands of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in that country. Yet we continue to hear stories of misery. Why have NGOs failed at their mission? NIU professor Mark Schuller examines that very question in his new book, “Killing with Kindness: Haiti, International Aid,...
It could be the opening scene of a new Indiana Jones blockbuster, complete with a storybook setting that is rich in both mystery and archaeological treasures. After all, more than 2,000 temples and shrines dot the landscape of Bagan, the ancient royal capital of Myanmar. It was here in 1988, amid the country’s political unrest,...
NIU has named Dan Gebo in anthropology, Paul Kelter in literacy education and Zhili Xiao in physics as its 2013 Board of Trustees Professors – a top university honor that recognizes faculty members for international renown in their research and excellence in all facets of teaching. Gebo’s paleontological research is elucidating the origins of primates....
Cathy Doederlein, internship coordinator for the humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, spent a lot of time on campus growing up: “I definitely consider myself a kid of the university,” she says. Both of her parents, Sue and Arthur Doederlein, came to the area in 1969. Since then, the Doederlein name has...
As part of the Northern Illinois University Art Museum’s upcoming Mapping Exhibition Suite, “MAPPING: Measuring Across Place and Period; Information, Navigation and Geography” features the evolution of maps as both tools for navigation and beautiful works of art. This exhibition will be curated by NIU Museum Studies students enrolled in ART 656 and will be...
