Director's Letter
2025–26 Director's Q&A with Antoinette Burton
Originally published in HRI's 2025 newsletter
The HRI research theme this year is “Story & Place.” As laid out in the description, the theme invokes a kind of inquiry that is grounded in “the particularity of place.” How do you see story and place intertwining in this year’s events and activities?
Of all the themes we’ve launched in the last ten years, this one has produced the most enthusiasm and engagement so far. I think people appreciate the groundedness that place can provide in at a time when AI dominates. And story is something that we continue to reach for in a tumultuous world. Our programming this year revolves around the ways the two are entangled. In that sense, the “&” in “Story & Place” plays an important role. It’s as much a bridge, a hyphen, as an additive: a sign that what’s happening here is entanglement—along with the kind of re-composition which occurs when things come together and do more than mingle.
We’ve chosen our speakers and shaped our events around that proposition. Whether it’s Catherine Hall on the history of the origins of racial capitalism in Jamaica or Justin Garcia on the work of the Kinsey Institute in Indiana, we’ll be hearing speakers make the links between geography and narrative visible in order to show how mutually dependent, and mutually transformative, they are. We’re also thrilled to be collaborating with Terri Weissman on the School of Art & Design exhibit Another Place: Story-making and the Entangled Prairie, which features work by our Fine & Applied Arts colleagues and opens in January 2026.
The institute itself is a place. What stories emerged in the past year? What stories do you hope to see?
HRI is indeed a place, and we came to appreciate how much the physical spaces it makes available are appreciated by humanities colleagues as we’ve navigated staffing challenges and elevator repair in Levis. Meanwhile, the past year’s “Think Again…” theme generated a truly remarkable cohort of HRI fellows, who convened to share research in the uniquely interdisciplinary setting of the bi-monthly seminar. The invitation to “think again” was an opportunity to reevaluate stakes, methods, objects of inquiry, and, in the end, the power of collective conversation to change how we think about what our work is doing, why, and for whom. The camaraderie in the group was something to behold and has left a lasting impression on all of us. For a set of reflections on what the impact on them was, have a look at our Inquiry research blog.
As many threads in the social fabric are being shredded, we continue to think, again and again at HRI, about how porous the boundary-line between campus and community can be, and to work with partners at Illinois and in Champaign-Urbana to create opportunities for students and faculty to experience the power—and the urgency—of moving across it with conviction and care.
Undergraduates who participated in our Humanities in Action program, which we make available in collaboration with the good folks at WeCU, contributed to the work of local schools and community organizations, bringing their labor to neighborhood providers who have big ambitions but can beneft from additional support to expand their services or even simply to maintain momentum on projects that are essential to those they serve.
History professor Yuridia Ramírez brought that orientation to her Humanities Research Lab classroom this year, where undergraduates worked with staff and students at International Prep Academy. We are grateful for our partnership with the Offce of Undergraduate Research and for funding from HRI donors who share our dedication to community-driven humanities teaching and learning at Illinois.
And, as ever, Odyssey students led the way, inspiring us with their willingness to “think again” about higher education as well as about the University of Illinois as a space that can welcome them through instruction in the humanities. This year was also a year of remarkable cohort bonding in Odyssey, thanks in part to the energy which Odyssey intern Jalixa Sanchez, a Spanish, Latina/Latino studies and gender & women’s studies major, brought to all aspects of the Odyssey classroom. You can see the archive of some of the work which Jalixa helped the students curate. As one commented, what he learned from this project and from Odyssey this year is that “there’s joy in being a messy work in progress while in community.”
I can honestly think of no better way to move from “Think Again” to “Story & Place” than to celebrate the remarkable journey of Odyssey students. Except perhaps to recall the public reading by Ross Gay last April, where he enraptured a ballroom full of poetry lovers when we needed it most. He reminded us of what the humanities at work and play look like, a lesson for everyone about all that is at stake for what we do at arguably the most perilous time in our history.
Join us in the beloved, messy, inspiring community of HRI and friends this year. We need each other more than ever.