Past Public Humanities Awardees
2025 Public Humanities Award
Dorothy Burge
The Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2025 Kaplan Public Humanities Award, Dorothy Burge!
The annual Kaplan Public Humanities Award recognizes an individual whose humanistic work has had a significant, positive, and lasting impact beyond the university. This year we honor Dorothy Burge for her work as an artist, activist, and an advocate for survivors of police torture in Chicago. Her ability to bridge these realms through the medium of quilting exemplifies the type of transformative humanistic work the Public Humanities Award aims to support. Burge was nominated for this award by Asha Iman Veal, Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Dorothy Burge (she/her) is a multimedia artist and community activist inspired by history and current issues of social justice. Dorothy is a native of Chicago, and a descendent from a long line of quilters from 
Mississippi who created beautiful quilts from recycled clothing. Her realization that the history and culture of her people were being passed through generations of quilters inspired her to use the medium as a tool to teach history, raise cultural awareness, and inspire action. Dorothy received her Master of Arts in Urban Planning and Policy and her Bachelor of Arts in Art Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a member of Blacks Against Police Torture and Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, cultural collectives seeking justice for police torture survivors.
This year’s Award will be presented at the Kaplan Institute’s Public Humanities Symposium in a ceremony immediately following the Keynote on Thursday, April 17 (5:30pm, Harris Hall #108, with reception to follow in the Kresge Hall 2nd floor atrium). Burge will further discuss her work in a lunchtime event on Friday, April 18 (1:00pm, Kaplan Institute Seminar Room, Kresge Hall #2350). Both events are free and open to the public. Click here to view the full Symposium schedule.
2024 Public Humanities Award
Dr. Ashley Cheyemi McNeil
The Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2024 Kaplan Institute Public Humanities Award, Dr. Ashley Cheyemi McNeil!
The Kaplan Institute Public Humanities Award recognizes an individual whose humanistic work has had a significant, positive, and lasting impact beyond the university. This year we honor Dr. McNeil for her commitment to uplifting marginalized communities and voices through humanities education, including through her work in the independent film community, her support of the TEAACH Act, and her work with Northwestern undergraduates.
Dr. Ashley Cheyemi McNeil is the Director of Education and Research at Full Spectrum Features, an arts/media non-profit that works to uplift stories from marginalized communities. At Full Spectrum, Dr. McNeil leads the development of cinematic Open Educational Resources while also supporting the team in community collaboration, development strategy, and fundraising. She leads from an understanding that stories about being and belonging shape individuals, communities, and generations. She has centered this understanding at all the institutions she has been a part of, at each of which she has been entrusted to imagine and manage complex public-facing programs that are both technical and cultural in nature.
Dr. McNeil was recognized at the Kaplan Public Humanities Symposium, an annual event that celebrates publicly engaged humanities scholarship and promotes the importance of this work at Northwestern and beyond. The Public Humanities Award Ceremony took place during the closing reception on Friday, May 10, 4:30-6:00 pm at the Kaplan Institute (Kresge Hall #2350, 1880 Campus Drive, Evanston).
2023 Public Humanities Award
Morris (Dino) Robinson, Jr.
The Inaugural Kaplan Institute Public Humanities Award was presented in May 2023 to Morris (Dino) Robinson, Jr. in recognition of his many years of substantial contributions to the humanities at Northwestern and Evanston's Shorefront Legacy Center, and for his modeling of thoughtful, careful, community-engaged research.
Photo: Dino Robinson (holding certificate) is joined by Kaplan Interim Director Kelly Wisecup (left), Kaplan Associate Director Tom Burke, and Center for Civic Engagement Program Administrator Ruth Curry.