2023 - 2024 Road Scholar Speakers Bureau Roster
If you are interested in booking a Road Scholars Speakers Bureau event for 2024, please note that we will start accepting those applications on November 3, 2023. We are starting the process earlier this year to accommodate events that take place around the beginning of the year.
The 2023 – 2024 roster features 30 speakers offering 49 programs. Presentation topics range from the history of antislavery movements in Illinois and movements for universal suffrage to the music of the civil rights movement and Latinx hip hop. We will begin accepting applications from non-profit organizations to book a Road Scholar Speaker for 2023 on January 2, 2023.
**Indicates the Road Scholar Speaker is fully booked through 2023. You may also book the scholar outside of any Illinois Humanities affiliation using the contact information provided on their webpage.
Note: For speakers listed as available for 2023, please double-check availability with the speaker as this page may not have the most current information.
If you have questions, please review our FAQs section or contact us at speakers@ilhumanities.org.
 Karen Anderson More Than a Color: The Marginalization of African Beauty Through History |
 Jeanne Schultz Angel Casting a Historic Vote: Suffrage for Women in Illinois Hindsight in 2020: The Long Road to Universal Suffrage |
 Antwoinette Ayers Why Do I Fight? |
 Ada Cheng** Yellow Peril Past and Present: Understanding Asian America through Personal and Historical Stories Our Words, Our Truths: Storytelling for Collective Identity and Community Engagement |
 Cynthia Clampitt** How Corn Changed Itself and Then Changed Everything Else Wild Boar to Baconfest: Pigs in History and Popular Culture |
 John Cooper** Traditional Jazz: A Historical Perspective of Early Jazz from the New Orleans and Chicago Era |
 Dr. Amira Millicent Davis, Ed.M., Ph.D.** The Black Chicago Renaissance Jalimusa: An Epic Tale of Black Women's Mothering |
 Brian "Fox" Ellis** Robert Ridgway: When Amateur Bird Watching Became a Rigorous Science Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer: Touring the Wilderness of North America |
 Mary Frances Untold African American Stories |
 John Goldsmith** Three Frenchmen & A Goat: The DeMoulin Bros. Story |
 Bucky Halker** Down in the Mine: American Coal Miners and Their Songs, 1890-1960 This Land Is Your Land: The Folksongs of Woody Guthrie |
 Katherine Hamilton-Smith** The Happy Invention: History and Significance of Picture Postcards |
 Erika Holst** Growing Up X The Life Cycle of Clothing |
 Amy McMorrow Hunter Why and How to Cause the Change Required for Continued Human Prosperity Creating our Future |
 Catalina Maria Johnson, Ph.D.** Latin Hip Hop as a New Poetry Latinos in Illinois and the USA: Music as a Cultural History |
 Caroline Kisiel** Did Black Lives Matter in Early Illinois? Voices from the Brink of Slavery and Freedom Lives in Code: Stories of African American Resilience Under the Illinois Black Codes, 1819-1865 |
 Catherine Lambrecht** History of American Pies... and Illinois is well represented! Family Heirloom Recipes from the Illinois State Fair |
 Aaron Lawler You are a Story: Illinois Novelist Ray Bradbury Teaches Us About Who We Are Learning is Your Arc: Illinois Novelist, Ernest Hemingway, Teaches Us About Who We Are |
 Connie Martin, M.A.** Hidden Messages in Negro Spirituals on the Underground Railroad Pre-Civil War Quilts: Secret Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad |
 Mike Matejka** Grassroots Democracy: Illinois Labor Journeys What's coming down the line? The Railroad in the American mind |
 Norman Moline** The National Park Service in Our Region: Places to Experience Our Cultural History Understanding China: Complicated but Essential |
 Jamie Poorman** The Road was Home Of Wind & Sky: Illinois Author Marguerite Henry and the wild ponies of Chincoteague Island |
 Gerald Savage** HoChunk Native American A Brief History of the Reintroduction of the Native Americans into Illinois Native American Storytelling by Chief White Winnebago |
 Cyndee Schaffer** The Journey of Mollie's War: WACs and WWII |
 Laura Sievert Storytelling for Civic Pride: There's More Here |
 Kim Sigafus** Singing Bird and the Importance of Native American Women in Illinois History |
 Dennis Stroughmatt** French Creoles of The Illinois Country: Fiddle Jigs, Creole Folktales and Haunting Ballads Topics: Live Music; Storytelling; History Play That Hot Fiddle: Old Time Radio, Rural Music, and the Life of Southern Illinois Swing Fiddler "Pappy" Wade Ray |
 Chris Vallillo** Forgottonia, An Intimate Portrait of Rural Illinois Oh Freedom! Songs of the Civil Rights Movement |
 Ernest M. Whiteman III No One Ever Sees Indians: Native Americans in Media |
 Ted Williams III 1619: The Journey of a People, The Musical Change our Language, Change our Politics |
Featured image: Catalina Maria Johnson, photo by Carolina Sánchez.