Public Humanities Awardees
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.