Celebrate the Holiday Season with Graham
Join the Graham community in celebrating the holidays and exploring how we broaden access to lifelong learning.
About the Event
Join us for a special gathering to celebrate the holidays and to explore how we broaden access to lifelong learning. The gathering will feature a festive holiday reception where you can connect with peer lifelong learners and instructors in an intimate and informal environment. The gathering will also feature remarks by Graham School Instructors Fred Beuttler and Cynthia Rutz and University of Chicago Director of Civic Leadership Initiatives Erika Dudley on the power of broadening access to lifelong liberal arts education.
Who's Speaking
Fred Beuttler
Lecturer in the Graham School’s Master of Liberal Arts program and former Deputy Historian, U.S. House of Representatives
Fred W. Beuttler received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago and then went on to become the Deputy Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives and, later, an Associate Dean at the University of Chicago.
Erika Dudley
Director of Civic Leadership Initiatives, University of Chicago
Erika Dudley joined the University of Chicago in October 2007. As Director of Civic Leadership Initiatives, she is responsible for deepening the university’s commitment to leadership opportunities on and off campus. In her role, Dudley collaborates with academic and administrative units to advance and build meaningful, mutually-beneficial partnerships that increase civic participation, expand educational access, and create economic and social opportunity for civic leaders.
Prior to joining the University, Erika led workforce initiatives in marginalized communities at Literacy Chicago and STRIVE. She coordinated a national organizing campaign on community safety and police accountability at the Center for Third World Organizing. She was the yearlong interpreter-in-residence at the Smart Museum of Art and the architect of its Museum Educators paid engagement program, a first of its kind in the nation. In addition to being a chef, she is a trainer with Dismantling Racism in the Food Systems. She is the Chair of the Board of the Hyde Park Art Center, Board President of Urban Growers Collective, Board Vice Chair of Chicago Art Department, and a Board Member of Green Era Sustainability. Educated at Harvard University (French History) and Le Cordon Bleu Paris, Dudley weaves both scholarship and practice in her work.
Cynthia Rutz
Basic Program Instructor
Cynthia Rutz received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2013. Her dissertation topic is Shakespeare’s King Lear and its folktale analogues, a subject on which she has delivered several lectures. For several years, she worked with Mortimer Adler on his Paideia Project, an education reform project which encourages high school and elementary school teachers to help students think critically through Great Books seminars and coaching. Her academic interests include mythology, folktales, Milton, Willa Cather, and ancient Greek philosophy and literature. She joined the Basic Program in 1991, served as Staff Chair from 1999 to 2004, and is currently Director of Faculty Development at Valparaiso University.
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