The goal of the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau is to offer cultural programs that are not only fascinating and compelling but also broadly accessible and welcoming to the general public. In keeping with that goal, organizations that wish to host Road Scholars presentations must agree to abide by the following policies.

Meeting all of these requirements does not necessarily guarantee that an application will be approved. Violations of them may result in the denial of future applications.

• Private clubs may not apply. In addition, presentations may not be held in a private home. All Road Scholars Speakers Bureau events must be open to the public.
• No event may have audience restrictions. Suggested audiences, such as a “recommendation for children” for programs aimed at a younger audience, are acceptable, but hard requirements or bans are not allowed.
• Organization may submit applications for presentations for calendar year 2023 through November 15, 2023. We will begin accepting application for 2024 starting September 1, 2023.
• Organizations are permitted to host a maximum of two presentations per Illinois Humanities calendar year (event date from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023). The date counted is the event date, not the date on which you submit your application. For public entities, such as libraries or park districts, a related foundation or organization—e.g. “Friends of the Library”—is not, for these purposes, considered a separate organization and therefore will not be allowed to book additional presentations under a related foundation or ‘Friends of’ name.
• Organizations must make a demonstrable effort to promote the event to communities beyond members/patrons.
• Illinois Humanities strongly encourages all grantees to take action to ensure that people with disabilities as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act have access to benefits and services resulting from the grant-funded project.

Review the roster of presentations and select the one that you wish to host. With very rare exceptions, we do not consider applications for presentations that are not included on our current Road Scholars roster.

Once you have decided on a presentation and secured a location for your event, you must contact the speaker directly to confirm her/his/their availability and determine a mutually convenient date and time. The speaker’s contact information is included on their description page in the “Book this Speaker” section. The speaker’s page can be accessed from the roster.

Important: In addition to reaching a verbal agreement with the speaker, you must submit an application to Illinois Humanities for approval. (See “Application Form” below.) You must do so in time for us to receive your application at least six weeks prior to the date on which you wish to hold your event. Your event is not confirmed until you receive official notification and related materials from Illinois Humanities.

Please complete and submit this application form online at least six weeks before the scheduled date of your event. We urge you to submit your application as soon as possible after you have agreed upon a date with a speaker to avoid a situation in which a speaker inadvertently exceeds the maximum number of presentations that she or he can accept in a given calendar year before your application reaches us. Remember event dates must occur from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 and applications for this time frame must be submitted by November 15, 2023.

Beginning January 2, 2023, host organizations can begin to book Road Scholars for 2023 (January 1, 2023-December 31, 2023).

If your application is approved, you will receive an e-mail message confirming final approval and containing various materials, including a press release template and an audience evaluation survey.

Wait for confirmation that Illinois Humanities has approved your application. Please do not begin to publicize your event until you have received official approval from Illinois Humanities.

We will notify you of our decision. If your application has been approved, you will receive an award packet by e-mail.  It will include materials that may be used in publicizing the event, a feedback survey form that is to be copied and distributed to the audience and collected at the conclusion of the event, and a brief final report form.

At the beginning of the event, please inform the audience that your organization is hosting the presentation in partnership with the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau. We would greatly appreciate your mentioning Illinois Humanities by name.

Additionally, please give copies of the feedback survey form and welcome letter, which you will have received as part of your award packet, to everyone in attendance. Please ask them to complete the survey form at the conclusion of the presentation and return it to you. Please explain to them that Illinois Humanities takes their feedback seriously and uses it both in making decisions about future programming and in making its case for public and private support. Please collect the feedback survey forms from the audience when the event concludes.

After the event, Illinois Humanities will send the speaker’s honorarium and reimbursement of his/her expenses directly to him/her, not through your organization.

Please complete the brief final report form through the application portal. Please submit the final report to us along with the completed audience feedback survey forms no more than 30 days following your event. The surveys can be scanned an emailed to us at speakers@ilhumanities.org.

We seek speakers who demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Expertise and passion in the subject matter on which they wish to offer presentations;
• Public speaking or teaching experience;
• An engaging presence and the ability to facilitate discussion among audiences of diverse cultural and economic backgrounds;
• A talent for finding interesting perspectives on subjects both obscure and familiar;
• Interest in visiting communities throughout Illinois and interacting with a wide range of people.

Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Speakers are asked to do the following:

• Give up to five presentations during each program year (at times mutually arranged with host organizations);
• Attend a half-day speaker orientation;
• Encourage dialogue and conversation among their program audiences;
• Provide their own mode of transportation (travel costs are reimbursed by Illinois Humanities);
• Reach out to potential host organizations whenever possible to generate interest in their presentation.

Speakers who are selected to join our Road Scholar Speakers roster will receive an honorarium of $300 or $500 per presentation, depending on the distance traveled. In addition, Illinois Humanities will reimburse the speaker for meals and lodging expenses.

Illinois Humanities seeks speakers representing a wide range of disciplines and professional activities, including history, literature, art, music, philosophy, government, and the natural and social sciences insofar as they relate to the humanities. While an academic background in your proposed topic is not a requirement, we do seek presentations that reflect thorough research and thoughtful interpretation. We do not consider instructional workshops or how-to programs (e.g., “Learn How to Speak in Public”).

In general, we’re looking for topics that pique our curiosity, surprise our intellects, and offer the potential to fuel inquiry and conversation about ideas and works that shape our culture.

We also welcome a variety of presentation styles and formats, particularly those that engage audiences actively.  We’re happy to consider lectures with question-and-answer sessions, but if you’d rather facilitate a discussion on a novel or lead the audience in a chorus of a Civil War song, we’d love to hear about what you have in mind.

During each application process, applicants are asked to share a link to an audition video. These videos will be confidential and only viewed internally while reviewing applications.

The 2023-2024 Speakers application is now closed. We will begin accepting applications for the next two-year roster (2025-2026) in June 2024. Speaker applications open every two years. If you have questions, please contact us at speakers@ilhumanities.org.

Every speaker on our roster is allotted a maximum number of program slots to fill over the course of a given fiscal year. Throughout the year, the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau web page will reflect which speakers are still available and which have filled the maximum number of slots. If, however, you see that a speaker is booked up, but you are still interested in booking a program with her or him, you can arrange a program directly with the speaker, independent of any Illinois Humanities involvement. Keep in mind that the speaker’s independent fee is greater than what they receive to host an Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Speakers program.

We will not approve a request if your organization has already booked two programs in the same fiscal year. If your organization will not make the program open to the public, or if you plan to charge an admission fee, we are unlikely to approve the program. If the speaker for whom you have applied has booked her or his maximum number of programs for the fiscal year already, we may not approve your request. If we do not approve a program, you are welcome to arrange a program with the speaker independent of Illinois Humanities and negotiate compensation with her or him.

Please allow up to six weeks for approval of your application request.

Illinois Humanities will provide you with suggestions for publicizing your program, as well as a press release template, which you can use as the basis of a press release to be given to local newspapers, radio stations, and other media outlets. You are also encouraged to promote your program through social media postings, e-mail announcements, and newsletters. In some cases, the presenter might be willing and able to publicize the program through her or his website or other channels and might be available to do interviews with local media; feel free to ask her or him about such possibilities.

After the program, the speaker will be paid directly by Illinois Humanities. Speakers are paid an honorarium, as well as provided reimbursement for travel expenses. There is no cost to the host organization.

Complete this voucher form and submit it online.  You’ll need to scan your receipts for food and lodging expenses and attach the scanned files to the online form.  (Instructions are provided on the form itself.)

Please allow six weeks for the voucher to be processed and your check to be issued.

Your payment will always come from Illinois Humanities, not from the host organization.  If the host organization offers to pay an honorarium directly to you, please politely decline it and explain that Illinois Humanities pays speakers’ honoraria and reimburses them for their expenses.

Sometimes winter weather or unanticipated developments can make travel for our speakers difficult. If for some reason you must cancel a program, please contact Fairouz AbuGhazaleh at (312) 374-1553 or fairouz.abughazaleh@ilhumanities.org or Jenn Yoo at (312) 422-5585  or jennifer.yoo@ilhumanities.org immediately. You will be able to reschedule the program for an alternate date or request a refund of your processing fee.