HumanitiesX Showcase

Immigration, Asylum, and Hospitality: Creating Interactive Stories of Migration Journeys to a Home in Chicago

Sunday, November 23, 2025, from 2:00-5:00pm

DePaul University, Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media
243 S. Wabash Avenue, 9th Floor, Chicago IL, 60604

During this showcase, each team of students will share what they learned about placemaking in Chicago, specifically supporting migrants with hospitality and as they try to find home after immigrating to the U.S. and with hopes of seeking asylum.

About the course

In this class, students delved into the complex realities facing new migrants as they search for immediate to longer-term housing in Chicago. Through readings, engaging with oral histories, and direct collaboration with Chicago-based advocates, students gained critical understanding of cross-border migration and placemaking. Our partnership with Chicago’s Sanctuary Working Group (SWG) specifically enabled students to come face-to-face with the strengths and weaknesses of governmental, nonprofit, and community responses to the need for safe, affordable, and adequate housing for new arrivals.

To raise awareness of these challenges, students worked collaboratively to create evidence-based interactive story prototypes that ethically convey migrants’ experiences. These stories will become part of an online, public-facing archive documenting how a diverse and de-identified group of migrants find and make home in Chicago.