An NEH Summer Institute
June 17 to July 12, 2013
Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture Newberry Library, Chicago

The Newberry Library’s Dr. William Scholl Center for American History and Culture is pleased to announce it will host a four-week summer 2013 NEH institute for college and university faculty that will explore Chicago’s profound influence on the literature and culture of the twentieth century. "Making Modernism: Literature and Culture in Twentieth-Century Chicago, 1893-1955" will begin by considering the cultural resonances of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and end by analyzing mid-century literary representations of African-American experience. It will be led by renowned scholars in the fields of literature, history, art history, print culture, and African-American studies. Four themes will be emphasized: 1) the geographic centrality of Chicago both locally and internationally; 2) modernism’s distinctive reception history in Chicago; 3) the women in Chicago who served as key cultural arbiters; 4) and the connections between the Chicago Renaissance and the Chicago Black Renaissance. The project director is literary scholar Liesl Olson. For more information, including application instructions, please see the project's website: www.newberry.org/making-modernism. Applications must be postmarked no later than March 4.