Take your local history research to the next level with Digging Deeper: Researching Central Illinois with Local Archives. This informative workshop introduces participants to key research tools and collections housed at the Illinois State Archives, the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library, and the University of Illinois Springfield Archives.

Join NPR Illinois and Sangamon Experience for a special evening that celebrates 50 years of public radio at the University of Illinois Springfield. Special guest Michel Martin from NPR's Morning Edition will be on hand as we open an exhibit that chronicles the first half-century of the station's history. "Radio That Listens to You: 50 Years of NPR Illinois" will explore the hardships and joys of keeping local news reporting alive.

The Sangamon Experience at the University of Illinois Springfield invites you to attend the grand opening of its new exhibit, Soil & Soul: Farming in the Sangamon River valley, which includes a documentary film that tells the stories of 10 individuals who have spent their lives farming throughout the Sangamon River valley, an area that encompasses approximately 1,500 square in central Illinois.

Soil & Soul is presented by United Community Bank, with additional funding from the Melvin Wing Charitable Trust and the Dan and Carolyn Dungan Family Fund. 

Echoes of Change: Central Illinois Journalism and Social Justice in the 1980s

Echoes of Change: Central Illinois Journalism and Social Justice in the 1980s is a captivating exploration of the profound impact of local journalism during a transformative era.

Redlining, some scholars contend, has become a “narrative crutch” that obscures a much longer history of housing discrimination. Redlining didn’t create systemic racism in American housing patterns, it sanctioned it. Vulnerable communities still feel the impacts of this profitable disinvestment in vast and far-reaching ways. The perpetuation of racist residential patterns far exceeds the reach of government actors. Public and private actors are, in many ways, equally responsible for the spaces we do and do not inhabit to this day. This session will center a local lens and deep dive into new maps and resources added to “Mapping Inequality” and other related digital humanities projects from the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab and New American History. Participants will have an opportunity to explore OER resources designed to help seek solutions in the modern era.