Staff
Jessica Winegar | Director
- Phone: 847-467-3971
- Office Location: Kresge Hall 2350
- E-mail: j-winegar@northwestern.edu
- Jessica Winegar is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in cultural politics. She is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Core Faculty in the Program in Middle East and North African Studies at Northwestern. Her research and teaching draw on a range of disciplines and extend to how U.S. institutions deal with the MENA region. Winegar's body of work focuses on how people invest social arenas—such as art worlds, education, and political protest—with liberating potential, while re/producing hierarchies of gender, class, race/ethnicity, and generation. Her current book project, Counter-Revolutionary Aesthetics: How Egypt’s Uprising Faltered, examines how aesthetic forms, judgments, and practices play a central role in both delegitimizing revolutionary actions and in producing everyday right-wing attachments.
Tom Burke | Assistant Director
- Phone: 847-491-7946
- Office Location: Kresge Hall 2350
- E-mail: thomas.burke@northwestern.edu
Tom Burke received a B.A. from Union College and an MFA in creative writing from UMass Amherst. In the past, he has worked for the Chinua Achebe Center at Bard College, the Summer Literary Seminars in Russia and Kenya, and Words without Borders, which advocates for literature in translation. Tom also teaches creative writing at Northwestern, and his novel, Eastbound into the Cosmos, was published in April 2019 from MadHat Press. www.tsburke.com
Contact Tom for questions regarding the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program, the Chicago Humanities Festival's Morris and Dolores Kohl Kaplan Northwestern Day, Humanities Minor, the Faculty Fellowship program, graduate assistantships, public humanities initiatives, and the Humanities Plunge.
Megan Skord | Program Assistant 4
- Phone: 847-467-4303
- Office Location: Kresge Hall 2350
- E-mail: megan.skord@northwestern.edu
- Contact Megan for questions regarding Kaplan seminar room reservations, the Dialogue Series, Hot Off the Press, Kaplan Institute Lunch Colloquia (Kaplan Conversations), Research Workshops, the Future Directions Forum, and the undergraduate project prize.
Jill Mannor | Communications Coordinator
- Phone: 847-467-3970
- Office Location: Kresge Hall 2350
- E-mail: jill.mannor@northwestern.edu
Jill Mannor has a background in graphic design, marketing, advertising and development. In the nonprofit world, she worked to develop the capabilities, audience, and culture of Chicago Children’s Museum, Kohl Children’s Museum, Lincoln Park Zoo and Imagine Chicago. In the agency space, she managed projects and creative teams for clients in cultural/arts, microfinance, and higher education. Jill is a board member of The Seldoms, a Chicago dance company whose performances explore pressing social, political, and environmental issues. Her volunteer work has included EPIC: Engaging Philanthropy, Inspiring Creatives; Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE); Sit Stay Read; and the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance. Jill received a B.A. in English from Hope College.
Contact Jill for questions regarding Co-sponsorships, Franke Fellowships (Undergraduate and Graduate), Artist in Residence program, Undergraduate Curriculum, and media requests.
Rebekah Bryer | Public Humanities Graduate Assistant
- E-mail: rebekahbryer2022@u.northwestern.edu
- Rebekah (Beka) Bryer is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama program at Northwestern. Her research interests are focused on the various intersections of performance and public memory, particularly in American culture from the 18th century to the contemporary moment. Her dissertation project examines how memorials facilitated and helped construct contested performances of American national identity in the wake of the Civil War. Outside of research at Northwestern, she is the co-convener of the Northwestern University Graduate Public Humanities Colloquium, serves on the Center for Civic Engagement’s Graduate Student Advisory Council, and has worked as a dramaturg for Wirtz Center productions. She has been published in Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies and The Atlas of Boston History (2019) and has been awarded fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Mellon Cluster in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Northwestern University. She received her B.A. in History and Theatre and Dance Studies from Wheaton College (MA) and her M.A. in Public History from Northeastern University. Prior to Northwestern, she worked as a stage manager and in audience services at theatres in Maine and Massachusetts. In her role as the 2021-2022 graduate assistant at the Kaplan Institute, Beka will work to develop public humanities outreach and career development opportunities for graduate students.
Golden Owens | Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistant
- E-mail: goldenowens2022@u.northwestern.edu
- Golden Marie Owens is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Screen Cultures program at Northwestern. Her research interests include artificial intelligence, popular memory, and representations of race and gender in United States media and popular culture. Her dissertation examines how intelligent virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa multiply evoke Black female slaves, servants, and houseworkers in the United States. She has presented her work at Northwestern’s Queertopia Conference and through Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships, and she looks forward to publishing her work in the near future. Outside of her research, Golden is a member of the Northwestern Taekwondo team and a member of The Keynotes, Northwestern’s only graduate a cappella group. She received her B.A. in English Literature from Bowdoin College and her M.A. in Screen Cultures from Northwestern, and teaches at Bowdoin every summer through their chapter of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. Golden is excited to work with and support Northwestern undergraduates and to engage in outreach and collaboration initiatives in her role as the 2021-22 Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistant for the Kaplan Humanities Institute.