Program Events

• Kick-Off Event:
  The War that Made Today - Three Interdisciplinary Conversations

  Nov 1: 11:00 am - 3:45 pm

  Institute for the Humanities
  Stevenson Hall Lower Level
  701 S. Morgan Street

  In three conversational panels, UIC faculty and graduate students from different disciplines will come together to discuss the seismic and continued global impact of the Great War:

  11:00 – 12:15 pm	WWI, Nationalism and the New Global World Order
  Moderator:	Dr. Neal R. McCrillis, Department of History—20th century British & Irish history) Dr. John Abbott, Department of History—Modern Germany & Europe) Dr. Katharine M. Floros, Department of Political Science—International Relations & American Foreign Policy Dr. Rama Mantena, Department of History—Modern India Dr. Marina Mogilner, Department of History—Modern Russia & Eastern Europe Dr. Nasser Mufti, Department of English—19th century British & Postcolonial Literature
  12:15 – 1:00 pm	Lunch
  1:00 – 2:15 pm	Art at War: The International Avant-Garde and World War I
  Moderator:	Dr. Julia Vaingurt, Department of Slavic and Baltic Languages and Literatures, in discussion with Graduate Students: Daniel Sanchez Bataller -- Art History Andrzej Brylak -- Slavic and Baltic Languages and Literatures Zachary Fitzpatrick -- Germanic Studies Andrei Gorkovoi -- Slavic and Baltic Languages and Literatures Nicoletta Rousseva -- Art History Charlie Smith -- Slavic and Baltic Languages and Literatures
  2:30 – 3:45 pm	Healing the Walking Wounded: Shell-Shocked WWI Soldiers through a Contemporary Cultural Lens
  Moderator:	Dr. Sara Hall, Moving Image Arts and the Department of Germanic Studies Dr. Christian K. Messenger, Department of English Dr. Jennifer Rupert, Department of English

• Pop-up Exhibition: New Media
  Artists Respond to World War I

  Nov 1: 5:00 - 8:00 pm

  The Great Space
  Art and Exhibition Hall, 5th floor
  400 S. Peoria Street

  Temporary, one-night, curated exhibition of 3D work, video art, projected images, and other new media. In conjunction with the opening of Chicago New Media 1973–1992 in Gallery 400

• Guest Poet Tom Sleigh — A Conscientious Objector with a Very Seared Conscience

  Nov 2: 3:00 – 4:00 pm

  Followed by Reception

  Institute for the Humanities
  Stevenson Hall, Lower Level
  701 S. Morgan Street

  ‘In a letter, Wilfred Owen once described himself as "a conscientious objector with a very seared conscience." That description seems to accurately describe what I've often felt as a journalist and poet, who by writing about refugees, inevitably finds himself writing about mental and physical wounds. So by looking back at World War I poets like Wilfred Owen and David Jones, I'll explore what's at stake in learning how to speak the language of the wound in our contemporary world.’ -- Tom Sleigh

  Tom Sleigh is a nationally renowned poet, Distinguished Professor in the MFA program at Hunter College, NY, and works as a journalist in the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of several books of poetry; his most recent collections include Army Cats (Graywolf Press, 2011), winner of the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Space Walk (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award. His most recent books, published as companion pieces, are The Land Between Two Rivers: Writing In an Age of Refugees, and a volume of poems, House of Fact, House of Ruin, both published by Graywolf in 2018. Sleigh has published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Threepenny, and elsewhere, and has been widely anthologized in publications such as The Best of the Best American Poetry, The Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, and The Best American Travel Writing.

• The Nurses of World War I

  Nov 7: 2:00 – 3:00 pm

  Library of the Health Sciences
  Special Collections and University Archives, Room 320
  750 W. Polk Street

  Talk by Dr. Gwyneth Milbrath, Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Nursing followed by screening of the short film, “At Home and Over There: American Women Physicians in World War I.”

• Dangerous Women: The International Women’s Peace Movement Then and Now

  Nov 8: 5:30 pm

  Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
  800 S. Halsted Street

  A roundtable discussion about Jane Addams’s anti-war efforts and work with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, in the context of more recent activism. The conversation will include a Janes Addams scholar, a current member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), a female veteran and member of Veterans for Peace, and a community activist.

  Refreshments will be served.

  The University of Illinois Press will host a book exhibit featuring Jane Addams titles and other books about women, war, and the international peace movement during this event.

• Finale Concert — Unanswered Questions: Music, Poetry, and Letters from the Great War

  Nov 9: 6:00 pm

  School of Theatre and Music
  Recital Hall (L285)
  1044 W. Harrison Street

  A special performance by members of the School of Music and Theatre faculty, students and alumni followed by a reception.

• Closing Commemoration and Tree Planting

  Nov 11: 10:30 am

  Moment of silence will be observed at 11:00 am
  The Circle Memorial Grove
  Taylor Street and Morgan Street

Concurrent Exhibitions

• The Things We Carried: An Exhibition by and about Student Veterans at UIC

  Cisar Student Veterans Center
  248 Student Center East
  750 S. Halsted Street

• World War I Artifacts and Publications from Special Collections

  October 22 – December 14: 10:00 am – 4:30 pm

  Richard J. Daley Library
  Special Collections, 3rd floor
  801 S. Morgan Street

• Women Physicians in World War I: Traveling Exhibition

  October 8 – November 30: 10:00 am – 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday

  Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room
  Special Collections, 3rd floor
  Library of the Health Sciences, 3rd floor
  750 W. Polk Street

  When the United States entered the war in 1917, women physicians numbered less than 6% of all physicians. Many were eager for the chance to serve their country. But when the Army Surgeon General sent out a call for physicians to serve in the Medical Corps, the women who applied were rejected. Women physician leaders across the country protested this decision and petitioned the government, but the War Department stood firm. However, women physicians found other ways to participate.

  This exhibition and the accompanying film tells the incredible story of these American women physicians who served during the First World War despite widespread discrimination. Driven by patriotism and a desire to serve, these unsung heroines worked in hospitals, dispensaries, canteens, and ambulance units both during the war and in the years that followed.

Honors College World War I Themed Seminars

In conjunction with these events, this fall the Honors College is offering three HON 201 Seminars that reflect on the global impacts of WWI:

• HON 201 Seminar: Media, Propaganda and War: Hating the Enemy, Staying the Course, 1914-18

  Dr. John Abbott, Senior Lecturer, Department of History

• HON 201 Seminar: “The Yanks Are Everywhere”: British Responses to America during the Great War

  Dr. Neal McCrillis, Associate Professor, Department of History and Vice Provost for Global Engagement

• HON 201 Seminar: Civilization Without Sexes: The Gender Revolution Inspired by World War I

  Dr. Jennifer Rupert, Senior Lecturer, Department of English

The War that Made Today is sponsored by:

This program is co-sponsored by the John Nuveen International Development Fund