Illinois Road Scholar Event: Dr. Ada Cheng; Our Words, Our Truths: Storytelling for Collective Identity and Community Engagement

Program Type:

Presentation

Age Group:

Adults
Registration for this event will be open from February 20, 2025 @ 9:00am to May 21, 2025 @ 6:30pm.

Event Details

Illinois Humanities presents an Illinois Road Scholar Event, featuring Dr. Ada Cheng.  

This eclectic presentation will map out Dr. Cheng's journey as an Asian American and immigrant storyteller and delineate how their personal stories reflect and mirror the urgent social concerns of our time. It also includes their experiences as a storytelling producer, who engages in community-based storytelling. This workshop aims to provide community builders with the foundational skill set to build intimate communities through storytelling.

The workshop includes the following components:

  • Why is storytelling important to our understanding of personal and collective experiences?
  • How can we use personal stories to critically reflect urgent social issues of our time, such as racism, xenophobia, gender-based violence, etc.?
  • What does community-based storytelling mean? How do we use personal storytelling for collective identity formation and community engagement?
  • How can we strategically use storytelling to address the issue of equity, beyond diversity and inclusion?

Illinois Humanities, a statewide nonprofit organization that activates the humanities through free public programs, grants, and educational opportunities that spark conversation, foster reflection, build community, and strengthen civic engagement for everyone in Illinois. Their traveling speakers program, the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, supports organizations like ours by inviting authors, writers, historians, performers, and more to present free programs, share their knowledge, expertise, and passion with us.

After this event, we hope you'll complete the audience feedback survey, which helps Illinois Humanities produce future programs and seek support and funding for Road Scholars. You can learn more about Road Scholars presentations and other Illinois Humanities programs and grant opportunities at ilhumanities.org. We hope you enjoy the presentation!