UChicago News

Playwright Martyna Majok, AB’07, wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 12:44 -0500

Editor’s note: Playwright Martyna Majok, AB’07, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living. In the award, the play is described as “an honest, original work that invites audiences to examine diverse perceptions of privilege and human connection through two pairs of mismatched individuals.” The play appeared Off-Broadway in 2017 and was called ‘immensely haunting’ by The New York Times.

The Polish-born Majok spoke with UChicago News in 2014 about another of her works, a comedy entitled Ironbound that appeared at the Steppenwolf Theatre, as well as her experience as a performer and playwright while at the University. The original story appears below:

Martyna Majok’s “Ironbound” is the story of the relationship between Darja, a struggling Polish immigrant, and three very different men. The play, she says, was inspired by the work of Marxist theorist Slavoj Zizek.

It’s also a comedy.

Despite its weighty subject matter, the last thing Majok wants is “for the audience to sit there for the next hour and a half thinking this is just drama. You have to give them permission to laugh.”

“Ironbound” emerged as Majok was preparing to marry her then-fiancé and reflecting on “who has the privilege to marry for love.” Both Majok and her husband grew up poor and chose to pursue careers in the arts. Majok says they feared they would never have economic security. “We know how hard it is to get out of a cycle of poverty.”

She began to reflect on the romantic choices made by her mother—like Darja, a working-class immigrant from Poland.

“She would make what ended up being the wrong decisions for all the right reasons, trying to do the best thing that she could for her children and for herself,” Majok explains.

Around the same time, Majok was reading Zizek’s Violence during long commutes between a residency and teaching position at a theater in New Jersey and Connecticut, where her fiancé was in graduate school. “What I took away from that is that capitalism makes us treat each other as commodities,” she says. “‘What can you do for me, what can I do for you’ doesn’t exactly equal love.”

With Zizek’s writing, her mother’s experience, and her own impending marriage all simmering in her head, Majok dashed off the first draft of “Ironbound” in just a week. The play follows Darja over 22 years, depicting her at different points in her three marriages and showing her fierce struggle to survive and provide security for her son.

After two workshop productions, she submitted “Ironbound” to Steppenwolf at the suggestion of the company’s literary manager, who had mentored Majok during an internship after college.

“Part of our deal was that if I came to Chicago, I had to bring him Polish food, so I just brought him three pounds of kielbasa and some pierogi. Hopefully he liked it. I haven’t heard back from him, so maybe it was too much,” Majok jokes.

Becoming a playwright was never Majok’s plan, although she always showed a flair for writing. She didn’t see her first play until high school, when she won $45 playing pool and decided to treat herself to a production of “Cabaret” on Broadway.

As a University of Chicago undergraduate, she tried out for a play and fell in love with the strong bonds she created with her castmates. “I loved the communities that you form—these little ridiculous, inside joke-y families,” she says.

Her love of theater flourished as she studied with David Bevington and Nick Rudall at UChicago. She delved into playwriting during a quarter studying abroad in Paris.

She describes her first play as “the 22-year-old play that you write about your family. It was a super dark and ungenerous and emo play.” University Theater ultimately produced the piece, and Majok decided she wanted to make playwriting a career.

“It’s the thing that I found challenging and exciting and I felt it had worth,” she explains. “Leaving some sort of permanence was attractive.”

Supported by a fellowship from the Merage Foundation for the American Dream, Majok spent the first two years after graduating from UChicago immersing herself in the theater community by watching, studying, reading and writing as many plays as she could. She went on to study playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.

Over time, she says, she’s worked to make her plays funnier and less self-serious than her earlier efforts, and to write rich, complex female characters. “Women with strong appetites and flaws—I would like to see these women on stage, and if I were an actor, I would want to play these women who go after something hungrily,” she says.

Her next project focuses on the women and families that continued to live near Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster, despite the risks to their health and safety.

Even when tackling the weighty topic of Chernobyl, Majok’s darkly comedic sensibility still shines through. “It’s a musical,” she says.

Four faculty members receive Guggenheim fellowships

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:40 -0500

Four UChicago faculty members and a visiting faculty member have won John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships: Alain Bresson, the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in Classics; Lenore A. Grenoble, the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor in Linguistics; Srikanth Reddy, associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature; and David Schutter, associate professor in the Department of Visual Arts. Annie Dorsen, visiting assistant professor of practice in the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies, also was honored.

Chosen from a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants, the four UChicago faculty are among 173 Guggenheim Fellowship winners who will receive financial support to pursue a variety of projects, from endangered languages to the invention of money.

A scholar of the ancient economy, Bresson is the author of “The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy,” which won the 2017 James Henry Breasted Prize from the American Historical Association.

Bresson will use his Guggenheim prize, which he said came to him “as a wonderful surprise,” to work on a new book about the specific form taken by money in the ancient Greek world, with a central focus on the question of why the ancient Greeks “invented” coinage.

“The Greeks and the Lydians are famous for having invented a new means of payment, an instrument that we still have in our pockets in our daily life: coinage,” Bresson said. “But a frequent confusion is the idea that the Greeks invented money. Of course they did not. Their contribution was to give to money a political form. I have explored these questions in almost twenty articles which, hopefully, will constitute the foundation for the book I plan to write.”

Grenoble has been studying language endangerment for the last 20 years, specializing in Slavic and Arctic Indigenous languages. In 2017, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Guggenheim award will go towards supporting Grenoble’s research project on the relationship between language and well-being among Arctic Indigenous peoples in the face of rapidly changing social and environmental conditions, including urbanization and climate change.

“Linguists estimate that 50-90 percent of the world’s languages will be lost over the course of the next century due to a process called language shift, whereby speakers cease to use their mother tongue in favor of another language,” Grenoble said. “Receiving the Guggenheim is both recognition and validation of the importance of the project that I am working on.”

Reddy is a poet and scholar and currently serves as the interim director for creative writing & poetics. The author of two books of poetry, Reddy’s writing on contemporary poetry has appeared in various publications including The New York Times and The New Republic.

The award meant a great deal to Reddy, who says he sees it as a sign of “encouragement to pursue my creative inclinations, no matter how eccentric or foolhardy.”

Reddy will use the award to complete a new book of poetry, titled “Underworld Lit.” The poem, built from fragments of lecture notes from an imaginary college humanities course, will weave together a disparate range of subjects including academic satire and a journey through versions of the underworld from various cultures.

“Needless to say, it’s a very UChicago poem,” Reddy said.

Schutter is a visual artist who specializes in painting and drawing and his work often draws on historical works in these disciplines.

A former recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize, Schutter has had exhibitions around the world, including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Gemaeldegalerie Berlin, the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Palazzo Poli, and most recently in the Frans Hals Museum and documenta 14.

Schutter will be working on a new project on Thomas Eakins, the late 19th-century American realist painter, utilizing Eakins’ archives at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“The archives contain letters, studies, anatomical models and oil sketches—things of that sort that I’ll be using for an upcoming project,” Schutter said.

Dorsen is a director and writer whose work explores the intersection of mathematical algorithms and live performance. Her projects have appeared throughout the U.S. and Europe, and she is the co-creator of the 2008 Broadway musical Passing Strange.

Dorsen, in the second year of an initial three-year appointment with TAPS, called the Guggenheim “an enormous honor” and will put the prize toward a new theater project.

“I’m working on a new theater project, as yet untitled, that has to do with forms of online social life, the kinds of virtual communities that we are constructing, and the ways of being together that the internet makes possible—for good or for ill,” Dorsen said. “The piece is part of my ongoing interest in how the technological tools we create end up re-creating us in all kinds of unforeseen ways.”

Yesomi Umolu, exhibitions curator at Logan Center, named artistic director of next Chicago Architecture Biennial

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 09:03 -0600

Yesomi Umolu, exhibitions curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, will serve as the artistic director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019 edition, the Biennial and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on March 6.

With a background in architectural design and curatorial studies, Umolu focuses her work on global contemporary art and spatial practices. Her recent projects—including the exhibitions Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts, The Land Grant: Forest Law, and The Museum of Non Participation: The New Deal—have explored the politics of the built environment. A Chicago-based curator and writer, Umolu is a visiting lecturer, critic and speaker at a number of international universities and institutions.

“I am honored to be invited to serve as artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial,” said Umolu. “Having my roots in the field of architecture, spatial questions have always been an important consideration of my work with contemporary artists, architects and urbanists from across the world. I am excited to embark on the journey of engaging the city of Chicago and it publics, as well as visitors to Chicago from across the country and around the world, in these conversations.”

Jack Guthman, chairman of the Biennial, said Umolu’s “broad curatorial experience makes her ideally suited to build upon the critical acclaim accorded to our 2015 and 2017 Biennials by our dual constituencies—the architecture profession worldwide, as well as Chicagoans and visitors to our city.”

In the coming months, Umolu will formalize and convene an international curatorial team of creative practitioners with strong knowledge of visual arts, architecture and design practices globally. The members of the curatorial team will be announced this spring. Umolu’s vision for the next Chicago Architecture Biennial features the exploration of emerging practices and global locations that are developing new approaches to architecture, urbanism and spatial practice. Through this process, she will use the Biennial as a forum to explore creative responses to shifting spatial conditions at local, regional and international levels.

“Yesomi is a visionary curator with strong roots in Chicago, and she will work tirelessly to cultivate an incredible cultural, educational and economic event for the city,” said Emanuel. “With Yesomi at the helm, the third Chicago Architecture Biennial is sure to secure its reputation as the most innovative architectural, art and design showcase of its kind.”

“We are delighted by Yesomi Umolu’s appointment as the next artistic director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The appointment further testifies to the curatorial imagination and dexterity she has demonstrated so well at the Logan Center for the Arts,” said Daniel Diermeier, provost of the University of Chicago. “By consistently showcasing the best in architectural innovation—in a city renowned for its architectural achievements—the Biennial advances the conversation about the potential impact of design. That conversation is playing an increasing role at the University of Chicago, and it is vital, of course, to the future of Chicago’s South Side, as to cities around the world.”

Umolu was selected by a committee comprised of Chicago Architecture Biennial board members, as well as past artistic directors, who considered candidates from around the world and from a variety of disciplines. Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial artistic directors, said: “Umolu’s curatorial practice, which boldly, yet elegantly, traverses the fields of art and architecture, makes her uniquely situated for success in this role. The Biennial is a complex and multifaceted platform for exploring both the history and present-day challenges in the field, and we eagerly await the outcomes of Umolu’s curatorial inquiry and exploration.”

Now in its third edition, the Biennial will return Sept. 19, 2019 and run through Jan. 5, 2020.

Following a successful partnership in 2017, the opening of the 2019 edition will align with EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, and the main site of the Biennial will once again be the Chicago Cultural Center.

—Adapted from a Chicago Architecture Biennial news release.

Lorraine Daston honored for research on the history of science

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 12:24 -0600

Lorraine Daston, a visiting professor in UChicago’s John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought and the Department of History, has been awarded the Dan David Prize for her achievements in the research of the history of science.

The annual award, which includes a $1 million prize, recognizes scholars for innovative and interdisciplinary research in technological, scientific, social or cultural fields covering the past, present and future. Daston said she was in “disbelief but delighted beyond measure” to be recognized.

“It is grand that the history of science, always a small, interstitial discipline lodged between the natural and social sciences and the humanities, has been recognized for its essential contributions to the understanding of the past,” Daston said.

Daston arrived at UChicago in 1992 and said she fell in love with the “intellectual earnestness” of the University, as well as the unique nature of the Committee on Social Thought, to which she returns to teach each year. Since 1995, she has directed the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and she now divides her time between Berlin and Chicago. She has written on a wide range of topics in the history of science, including the history of probability and statistics, wonders in early-modern science, and the history of scientific objectivity.

Robert B. Pippin, the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Philosophy and the College, commended Daston, calling her “one of the most influential and widely respected historians in the world today.”

“Professor Daston is the embodiment of the interdisciplinarity that the Committee and indeed the University have tried to foster,” Pippin said. “Her role in introducing our graduate students to the various relations between the sciences and the humanities has been absolutely indispensable, and her generosity with students is legendary.”

Daston said she is looking forward to putting the prize toward “many happy hours in various dusty archives” as she continues her research. Laureates also donate 10 percent of their prize to postgraduates in their respective field to foster a new generation of scholars. Daston will share her prize with a student at MIT and another at the University of Cambridge.

The Dan David Prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University. Past winners have included UChicago Prof. James Heckman, novelist Margaret Atwood and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Wu Hung honored for helping create field of contemporary Chinese art history

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 16:30 -0600

In recognition of a career spent helping to create the field of contemporary Chinese art history in higher education, Prof. Wu Hung will receive one of the highest academic honors from the world’s largest professional society for art historians and artists.

Wu, the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations, will receive the College Art Association’s distinguished scholar award at its annual conference in February 2018.

“Wu Hung is joining an impressive group of individuals,” said Hunter O’Hanian, the association’s executive director. “The committee looks for someone who has a depth of scholarly accomplishment, and if you look at the depth of his work, especially under difficult circumstances at the time, it’s amazing.”

Wu is considered a giant in the field. While he began his career working on early Chinese architecture, he also in many ways became the father of modern and contemporary Chinese art history. His work began with a series of exhibitions staged at Harvard University in the mid-1980s, before arriving at UChicago as a faculty member. As a consulting curator at the Smart Museum of Art, he has curated a series of exhibitions and he is currently at work on a large-scale exhibition of contemporary experimental art in China, “The Allure of Matter.”

“Wu Hung has long worked, in the very best UChicago ways, across entrenched disciplinary divides, looking at ancient art as much as contemporary practices,” said Prof. Christine Mehring, chair of the Department of Art History. “His scholarship and teaching have propelled our department’s, and the discipline of art history’s, turn to a global art history.”

Opening up Chinese art history

Despite his accomplishments, Wu is quick to recognize the contributions of all scholars in the field working to expand the cultures studied in art history, including China.

“Art history as a field was very compartmentalized by regions and nations, especially so-called Western art and non-Western art,” Wu said. “I feel like a lot of people have made efforts to open up art history.”

In his decades of study, Wu has witnessed firsthand that opening up of contemporary art in China, moving from underground and experimental works in the 1980s and 1990s to the establishment of major museums spaces today, but he still sees plenty of areas for work.

“Art is opening up, but you have to deal with a lot of challenges like censorship, and you have to negotiate with the different traditions and local sentiments of different areas,” Wu said. “And people in China still think of art as something ‘extra,’ but I feel it is essential to modern education. That’s something we have to make people see.”

In addition to his scholarship in contemporary Chinese art, Wu also works to preserve early Chinese art. He is the founder and director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at UChicago, which was established in 2003 to support groundbreaking scholarship and create related digital technologies to advance access to and preserve art, artifacts, and sites.

Wu is particularly proud of a project that uses digital imaging and 3-D technology to map ancient Buddhist caves pillaged in the early 20th century by foreign collectors. Wu and his colleagues spent years locating the scattered pieces around the world, making 3-D scans. They then worked with local archaeologists to scan and reconstruct the historical caves, offering images to scholars through an online database.

“In a way, it’s a healing process,” Wu said about the project. “There was a historical tragedy, and now we’re using new technology to heal in some ways. We’re also creating a model, because we can’t scan all these caves, so scholars in other countries can think about how to do similar projects.”

That openness extends beyond just sharing data. Jeehee Hong, PhD’08, one of his many former students, said that despite his stature in the field, Wu has always made time for his students, and his model of scholarship has shaped a new generation of art historians.

“His work and his manner of engaging with scholars is open, and it’s all about inclusiveness,” said Hong, now an associate professor in East Asian Art History at McGill University. “Given how busy he is, he still sees his students as people. I’ve been teaching for years, and now I see his influence.”

Dieter Roelstraete appointed curator of Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 12:45 -0600

Dieter Roelstraete, an internationally renowned curator of contemporary art, has been named the next curator of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society.

In his new role, effective November 10, Roelstraete will oversee all aspects of the Neubauer Collegium Exhibitions Gallery, working with the University arts community as well as with arts organizations in the city of Chicago and around the world.

Roelstraete joins the Neubauer Collegium after serving on the curatorial team that organized documenta 14, the international art exhibition that ran this past spring and summer in Kassel, Germany, and Athens, Greece. Widely hailed as a significant statement about the relevance and aesthetic concerns of the contemporary art world, the show brought together work by 160 artists at more than 80 sites.

The move is a return to Chicago for Roelstraete. Prior to his work with documenta 14, he served as the Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from 2012 to 2015. During his time there, Roelstraete organized and co-organized a number of highly regarded shows, including The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology (2015); The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music 1965 to Now (2015), which told the story of a radical group of jazz artists from the South Side of Chicago; and Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (2016), a retrospective of the acclaimed Chicago-based artist that traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. From 2003 to 2011 Roelstraete was a curator at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, where he organized large-scale group exhibitions as well as monographic shows.

“Dieter is one of the most creative and thoughtful curators at work today,” said Jonathan Lear, the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium. “His work exemplifies how artistic expression and humanistic research can meld together and support each other. I am looking forward to working with him, and I am eager to see how he’ll make use of the freedom our gallery affords.”

One of the Neubauer Collegium’s three key initiatives, alongside faculty-led collaborative research projects and a global visiting fellows program, the gallery presents both historical and contemporary art in support of the Neubauer Collegium’s mission to explore novel approaches to complex human questions. In its first two years of operation, the gallery has hosted 11 idea-driven exhibitions that reflect the productive interplay between visual arts practice and scholarly inquiry. Several shows have been curated as part of a campus-wide set of related exhibitions.

“After spending three years working on what is effectively the largest art exhibition in the world—a hugely complex and impossibly expansive affair—I am excited to start working in a much more concentrated, in-depth fashion. Curating in a beautiful, humanly sized space at the University of Chicago will both allow and require that,” Roelstraete said. “I am a long-standing advocate for the idea of art as a form of research and knowledge production, and I cannot think of a more welcoming home to further develop these intuitions in concert with the great minds that people the wilds of Hyde Park.”

In addition to joining the Neubauer Collegium, Roelstraete will co-teach a course this winter with acclaimed artist Assoc. Prof. William Pope.L. as Mellon Collaborative Fellow in Arts Practice and Scholarship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. The course, titled “Art and Knowledge,” will extend their documenta 14 collaboration (also supported by the Gray Center) to explore the different types of knowledge art can produce. Roelstraete will pursue further teaching within the Department of Art History in the Humanities Division starting in the 2018-2019 academic year.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled by Dieter’s appointment. He joins an extraordinary group of internationally known curators working across the arts institutions at the University of Chicago,” said Alison Gass, the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum of Art. “This hire will benefit UChicago Arts and further advance the University’s commitment to arts scholarship and practice and curatorial excellence.”

The exhibitions program at the Neubauer Collegium will continue to play a vital role in advancing UChicago Arts’ commitment to visual arts exhibition, alongside colleagues at the Arts and Public Life’s Arts Incubator, Booth School of Business’ Contemporary Art Collection, the University Library’s Special Collections Research Center, Logan Center Exhibitions, the Oriental Institute, the Renaissance Society and the Smart Museum of Art.

Roelstraete succeeds Jacob Proctor, the Neubauer Collegium’s inaugural curator, who is pursuing international opportunities from his new home base in New York City. “The gallery as it stands today is very much a reflection of Jacob’s extraordinary talent and vision,” Lear said. “He has given us a remarkable foundation on which Dieter can build.”

The Neubauer Collegium’s current exhibition, Terence Gower’s Havana Case Study, runs through Jan. 26. Roelstraete is conducting research for his first exhibition as curator, tentatively scheduled to open next spring.

Anne Pippin Burnett, renowned scholar of Greek poetry, 1925–2017

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 16:30 -0500

Prof. Anne Pippin Burnett, a renowned scholar of Greek poetry and a UChicago faculty member for more than three decades, passed away April 26 at her home in Kingston, Ontario. She was 91.

Burnett focused her research on Greek tragedies and lyrical poetry. She wrote extensively on the archaic and early classical periods, including three books on the ancient Greek poet, Pindar.

Burnett, professor emerita in the Department of Classics, first joined the UChicago faculty in 1961 as an assistant professor, becoming a professor in 1970. She served as chairman of the Department of Classical Languages and Literatures from 1969 thru 1973. She retired in 1992.

Longtime colleague Peter White, the Herman C. Bernick Family Professor in Classics and the College, remembered Burnett as a true star of the department.

“Anne chose to study poets like Euripides and Pindar who were challenging intellectually and brilliant verbally, which was just what her own writing was like,” said White, who joined the UChicago faculty in 1968. “Although she was a celebrity in our field, she did not seem to chase celebrity. She just wrote and wrote one interesting, original study after another, and her audience grew.”

Prior to her time at UChicago, Burnett taught at Vassar College and worked as an editor and translator at the Hachette publishing house.

Among her many honors during a distinguished academic career, Burnett was selected as a Guggenheim fellow in 1981 and delivered the Classics Department’s inaugural George B. Walsh Memorial Lecture in 1989.

She is survived by daughters Maud Burnett McInerney and Melissa Gromoff and three grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for the fall.

Fourth-year wins writing fellowship for fiction exploring emigration

Tue, 23 May 2017 16:20 -0500

Fourth-year Elinam Agbo began at the University of Chicago as a pre-med student majoring in Biological Sciences. But her plans began to change with each creative writing workshop she took.

“I’m in my sixth and seventh workshops now,” Agbo said. “I like the workshop environment. It makes me write and produce, and I learn quite a lot from my peers.”

Her commitment has paid off with Agbo being named the first recipient of the Les River Fellowship for Young Novelists. Her novel in progress, titled Canopy of Dreams, was the unanimous selection for the award, selected by UChicago faculty members who teach fiction.

Agbo will read from her work May 25 at the Creative Writing student reception. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. in the Logan Center for the Arts, Room 801.

"Canopy of Dreams is about a 12-year-old named June emigrating to the United States to join her mom who she hasn't seen since she was five,” Agbo said. “I was interested in trying to figure out what it's like to emigrate, especially at that critical age, without a solid knowledge of your origins.”

While the novel isn’t completely autobiographical, Agbo shares an immigrant story with her main character. Agbo moved to the United States from Ghana when she was ten, growing up in Kansas. Her parents now live in South Carolina, moving there just after she graduated from high school.

Agbo said home and belonging are important themes of the novel. “If you can’t trace where you’ve come from, or at least have firm footing in the past, how can you move forward?” she asked.

Agbo hasn’t been back to Ghana, but she has returned to it in her writing after being inspired during a workshop in her second year at UChicago. She had started working on a fantasy piece, but after an assigned reading evoked memories of Ghana, Agbo began working on more realistic stories, some of which evolved into what is now Canopy of Dreams.

Fiction lecturer Rachel DeWoskin, who nominated Agbo for the award, has gotten the chance to witness Agbo’s evolution as a writer as the two have worked together in four workshops over the last few years.

“Elinam is a uniquely brilliant person, and her work is ambitious and full of talent,” DeWoskin said. “The novel she’s working on is at once thematically deep, character-driven and propulsive.”

DeWoskin said one of the things that most impressed her about Agbo’s novel is her ability to give all her characters nuance and complexity.

“Modesty and humility are part of Elinam’s person, and they inform the humanity of her writing,” DeWoskin said. “She’s a person who is outward-thinking, and takes a lot of time considering other people, including her characters. Even the characters who behave badly in her novel are treated as fully-rendered human beings.”

For Agbo, DeWoskin’s encouragement has been a driving force in her work, especially in guiding her to think about the story she wants to tell.

“Rachel was encouraging in the beginning, just by the readings she had on the syllabus,” Agbo said. “I liked reading about immigrants, and I hadn’t done that intentionally before that first workshop. Since then, her sustained enthusiasm and support have definitely kept me writing. It’s a gift to have a mentor as versatile and accomplished as Rachel care so deeply about my work.”

The Les River Fellowship was established by Dorothy River in honor of her late husband, W. Leslie River, PhB’25. The $5,000 award is intended for “uninterrupted work or travel for research purposes.” Agbo will use fellowship to support her stay at two writing institutes this summer before starting the University of Michigan’s Master of Fine Arts program.

Musician and educator Steve Coleman to receive Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal

Mon, 22 May 2017 16:15 -0500

The University of Chicago will award the 2017 Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal to Steve Coleman, a composer, saxophonist, educator and native of the city’s South Side.

Coleman, who will receive the award at Convocation on June 10, is an artist known for his original, challenging compositions that draw inspiration not only from musical traditions around the globe, but from nature and scientific concepts. He has spent several decades conducting lengthy interviews with older jazz musicians in order to develop a deeper understanding of race relations and musical history and forms, among other topics.

Coleman is a leader in education and community building, providing instruction and opportunities for musicians to participate in workshops and collaborations across the country. He is founder of the M-Base Concepts, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to using music as a tool to aid in the expansion of consciousness.

Over the last two years, Coleman and M-Base Concepts, Inc. have partnered with UChicago’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and Arts + Public Life, along with the Rebuild Foundation, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Jazz Institute of Chicago to develop multi-week residencies focused on the importance of musical mentorship. His ensemble, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, focused on workshops, outreach on Chicago’s South Side and performances—the majority of which were free. They also led workshops with young musicians in the Chicago Public Schools and partnered with Free Write Arts and Literacy to visit a juvenile detention center, where the band talked about their lives and gave youth the opportunity to play various instruments.

Coleman has received a Doris Duke Impact Award and a Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Coleman is the 53rd recipient of the Rosenberger Medal, established in 1917 by Mr. and Mrs. Jesse L. Rosenberger in recognition of achievement through research, in authorship, in invention, for discovery, for unusual public service or for anything “deemed of great benefit to humanity.”

Members of the UChicago faculty nominate candidates for the Rosenberger Medal. The faculty Committee on Awards and Prizes then evaluates the nominations, which are voted upon by the Council of the University Senate.

Rosenberger Medalists are invited to give a public lecture or workshop during the following academic year.

Three faculty members elected to American Philosophical Society

Thu, 04 May 2017 15:19 -0500

Three UChicago faculty members have been elected to the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States.

They are Lorraine Daston, visiting professor in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought; Neil H. Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy; and Michael S. Turner, the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor.

Also among the 32 newly elected members, announced May 1, are alumni Barbara Newman, AM’76, professor at Northwestern University; and Beth A. Simmons, AM’82, professor at the University of Pennsylvania; as well as former President Barack Obama, a former senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School; and architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, who designed the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and were selected to design the Obama Presidential Center.

Lorraine Daston is an American historian of science and an expert on early-modern European scientific and intellectual history who has written on the history of probability theory, objectivity and scientific observation. Her recent research has centered on the history of rules, including the rise of a rationality based in algorithms.

Daston is director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany, but spends a three-month period at UChicago, where she teaches seminars on topics at the intersection between the history of science, philosophy, and social theory.

She serves on the editorial board of the humanistic journal Critical Inquiry, in which a number of her scholarly articles have been published. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was inducted into the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010.

Neil H. Shubin has conducted landmark research on the evolutionary origin of anatomical features of animals. He has conducted fieldwork in much of North America, including Greenland, as well as China, Africa and Antarctica. One of his most significant discoveries, a 375-million-year-old fossil called Tiktaalik roseae, is an important transitional form between fish and land animals.

Shubin has written two popular science books: the best-selling Your Inner Fish (2008), named best book of the year by the National Academy of Sciences and made into an Emmy Award-winning PBS series; and The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body (2013).

He serves as associate dean for academic strategy in the Biological Sciences Division and a senior adviser to President Robert J. Zimmer. Shubin is also the co-interim director of the UChicago-affiliated Marine Biological Laboratory, where he’s played a key role in supporting education and research programs. Shubin is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Michael S. Turner is a theoretical cosmologist who helped to pioneer the interdisciplinary field that combines particle astrophysics and cosmology. His research focuses on the earliest moments of creation, and he has made seminal contributions to theories surrounding dark matter, dark energy and inflation. A former chair of UChicago’s Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Turner currently serves as director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics.

Turner chaired the National Research Council’s Committee on the Physics of the Universe, which published the influential report, “Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos.” He previously served as assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation, the chief scientist of Argonne National Laboratory and the president of the American Physical Society.

Turner is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous honors, including the 2010 Dannie Heineman Prize for pioneering cosmological physics research from the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics, and was selected by the University of Chicago to deliver the 2013 Ryerson Lecture.

Tyehimba Jess, AB’91, wins Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 13:30 -0500

Tyehimba Jess, AB’91, has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Olio, his collection of original verse.

Jess’ poems examine the lives of African-American performers from the Civil War up to World War I, revealing the history of America’s blues, work songs and church hymns. Jess was praised by the Pulitzer committee “for a distinctive work that melds performance art with the deeper art of poetry to explore collective memory and challenge contemporary notions of race and identity.”

A native of Detroit, Jess studied public policy while at UChicago and received his MFA from New York University. Jess is currently the poetry and fiction editor of African American Review and is an associate professor of English at the College of Staten Island.

This is Jess’ second book of poetry. His first, leadbelly, received the 2004 National Poetry Series award. Jess read from Olio this past December at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

Anne Walters Robertson named dean of the Division of the Humanities

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 10:30 -0500

Anne Walters Robertson, the Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Music and the Humanities in the College, has been appointed dean of the Division of the Humanities. President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Daniel Diermeier announced the appointment, which will begin April 1, 2017. Robertson has served as interim dean since July 2016.

In announcing the appointment, Zimmer and Diermeier wrote that Robertson has provided “vital leadership and sustained the momentum of the Division of the Humanities. We are confident that Anne will be an excellent leader for the Division of the Humanities in the years to come.”

Robertson joined the University in the Department of Music in 1984. She has held several leadership positions at the University, including serving as deputy provost for research and education and chair of the Music Department, in addition to external leadership roles, including her service as president of the American Musicological Society from 2011 to 2012.

“It has been a privilege working alongside students and faculty in the Division of the Humanities for over 30 years,” Robertson said. “And it is an honor to now serve as its dean and continue the academic advancement of the humanities.”

Robertson’s research is focused on the music of the Middle Ages and the interactions of liturgical and secular music. Her particular concentration is on 15th-century sacred polyphony, the 14th-century French composer Guillaume de Machaut, French medieval liturgical music, ceremony and architecture, and music and mysticism. Her books include The Service-Books of the Royal Abbey of Saint Denis: Images of Ritual and Music in the Middle Ages, which earned the John Nicholas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America, and Guillaume de Machaut and Reims: Context and Meaning in His Musical Works, which won the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society.

Robertson is the first scholar to win all three awards of the Medieval Academy of America: the Haskins Medal (2006), the John Nicholas Brown Prize (1995) and the Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize (1987). In 2008, she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2015 became a member of the American Philosophical Society. She holds a PhD from Yale University.

During Robertson’s tenure as interim dean, the College has announced several new curricular initiatives in the Humanities, including the Signature Courses and the Course Cluster initiatives, a new undergraduate major in creative writing and a new Humanities Core sequence exploring poetry.

The selection of the new dean of humanities by Zimmer and Diermeier was informed by an elected faculty search committee, chaired by Bill Brown, the Karla Scherer Distinguished Service Professor in American Culture.

Prof. Martha Nussbaum to deliver Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 11:15 -0600

World-renowned philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, will deliver the 2017 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities on May 1 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Her talk, “Powerlessness and the Politics of Blame,” will draw upon her years of work on the role of emotion in politics to explore the emotional dynamics at play in American and other societies, including the ways in which uncertainty leads to the blaming of outsider groups.

The lecture, established by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1972, is considered the federal government’s highest honor in the humanities. Previous speakers include jurist and law professor Paul Freund, writer Saul Bellow, historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., literary critic Helen Vendler and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Leon Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus of Social Thought and the College, was selected in 2009, joining former UChicago scholars Edward Shils (1979) and John Hope Franklin (1976) as past lecturers.

“I'm deeply honored to be invited to deliver the Jefferson Lecture, and happy to have this chance to speak for the humanities at a time when they are under threat—both in our nation and all over the world,” said Nussbaum, who last year was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for contributions that include developing a measure of global welfare that focuses on human capabilities rather than only on economic growth.

NEH Chairman William D. Adams said: “We are deeply honored that Martha Nussbaum has agreed to give the 2017 Jefferson Lecture, and we look forward to learning her thoughts on ‘Powerlessness and the Politics of Blame.’ Across her long and immensely productive career, Martha has been a tireless and peerless advocate for the role and utility of philosophy in our public life. With this honor, we celebrate at once her philosophical achievements and her example as an engaged and passionate public philosopher.”

Nussbaum has earned international acclaim for her work on moral and political theory, emotions, human rights, social equality, education, feminism, and ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Her Jefferson Lecture will draw from her latest book project, which brings a philosophical view to political crises in America, Europe and India by offering a deeper understanding of how fear, anger, disgust and envy interact to create a divisiveness that threatens democracy.

“It is urgent for us to understand ourselves better, to see why we have arrived at this state of division, hostility and non-communication,” Nussbaum said. “A philosophical approach, focused on a close look at human emotions, offers that understanding of ourselves … I believe it also offers us strategies of hope and connection.”

Dean Thomas J. Miles, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics, said he was pleased to see the NEH honor Nussbaum and her achievements.

“Martha joins an esteemed list of thinkers, writers, humanitarians and artists who have been chosen to deliver this important lecture,” he said. “It is a well-deserved recognition, given her influential contributions on a range of issues, including social justice, equality and human dignity. Martha’s longstanding and passionate support for humanities education makes her selection for the Jefferson Lecture especially fitting.”

Nussbaum is appointed in the Law School and Department of Philosophy. She also is an associate in the Department of Classics, the Divinity School, and the Department of Political Science, as well as a member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and a board member of the Human Rights Program.

Nussbaum, who has written and edited dozens of books and written more than 400 papers, received her MA and PhD from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Chicago, she was a University Professor at Brown University. From 1986 to 1993, while teaching at Brown, Nussbaum was also a research advisor at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki, a branch of the United Nations University. She is a founding president of the Human Development and Capability Association, and she has received 57 honorary degrees from universities in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. In addition to the Kyoto Prize, Nussbaum has been awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2012, the Nonino Prize in 2015 and the Inamori Ethics Prize, also in 2015, among others.

Tickets will be available to the public beginning in April through neh.gov. The lecture is free and open to the public and will stream live online at neh.gov.

Alison Gass appointed Dana Feitler Director of Smart Museum of Art

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 09:41 -0600

Alison Gass, a leading curator of contemporary art and a senior leader at university museums, has been appointed the director of the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art.

Gass will serve as the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum starting May 1, leading the University’s fine arts museum and its thought-provoking exhibitions, distinctive public and arts education programs, varied collaborations with students and faculty, and exquisite collection of more than 15,000 objects.

Gass has been the chief curator and associate director for exhibitions and collections at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University since 2014. Prior to that, she was a member of the leadership team that opened the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, including serving as the museum’s acting director.

“Ali is an accomplished curator with a strong understanding of the impact a university museum has on campus and in the broader community. Her appointment is essential to growing the arts at the University of Chicago and expanding their role in scholarship and public life,” Provost Daniel Diermeier said.

“I am excited by the University’s commitment to visual arts, interdisciplinary exploration and community engagement,” Gass said. “I look forward to shaping what it means to be a great art museum at a top research university, while helping to define the role of the Smart in the constellation of world-class art museums in Chicago and beyond.”

Gass has curated major exhibitions at the Cantor Arts Center, Broad Art Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She was featured in a 2010 New York Times article highlighting “the new guard of curators,” and is a fellow this year at the Center for Curatorial Leadership. Gass has taught at institutions including the California College of the Arts and the City College of New York.

At the Cantor Arts Center, Gass led the development of an academically engaged exhibitions program, overseeing a re-installation of the museum’s permanent collection. She also organized a major public commission and exhibition project with Trevor Paglen set for later this month. While at the Broad Art Museum, Gass helped establish a global contemporary art program featuring Imran Qureshi, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Hope Gangloff, Teresita Fernandez, Sharon Hayes and others.

“Ali brings a global outlook and strong passion for art and learning to the Smart and its diverse and interesting collection. I look forward to seeing her elevate the museum and expand its impact at the University and in the community,” said Pamela Hoehn-Saric, MAT’81, chair of the Smart Museum’s Board of Governors.

While Gass has focused on contemporary art as a curator, her approach is rooted in putting art into context and viewing works through the lens of history. Gass traces her interest in curation to the first art history class she took as an undergraduate at Columbia University. In exhibitions, Gass said she focuses on making art feel vital to people’s perspectives on their place in the world. That includes pioneering a residency for artists at the Broad Art Museum focused on land, food, water and energy that connected to Michigan State University’s history as a land grant university and the continued role of agricultural studies.

“Beyond her impeccable taste and daring talent-scouting as a contemporary art curator, Ali Gass understands university art museums and their unique strength to draw on cutting-edge thinking and research done by students and faculty,” said Prof. Christine Mehring, chair of UChicago’s Department of Art History. “She will take the Smart—along with the visual arts that are now bubbling everywhere at the University—into an ambitious future.”

Gass earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia and holds a graduate degree in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She began her curatorial career at the Jewish Museum in New York City, then became an assistant curator at SFMOMA. While there, Gass curated the New Work series and a Paul Klee Cubism exhibition.

Steve Coleman mentors aspiring musicians in Logan residency

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 14:30 -0600

Chicago-born jazz musician Steve Coleman will tell you that he’s had a handful of exceptional mentors during his decades-long career. So when the alto saxophonist and composer got a call near the end of 2014 informing him that he had received a MacArthur Fellowship, Coleman knew he wanted to do the same for the next generation.

In that spirit of mentorship and community building, Coleman, together with his Five Elements band, recently completed a two-week residency hosted by the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, with emphasis on teaching and performing the improvisational jazz that has defined his career. Coleman and bandmates Jonathan Finlayson, Anthony Tidd, Miles Okazaki and Sean Rickman led workshops for students at UChicago and worked with young musicians in the Chicago Public Schools.

Coleman and his colleagues also spent time at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, playing music and answering questions about their careers. “I think people respond better when they see people who look like them, or who maybe have come from the same type of situation,” Coleman said. “One kid told me he grew up right around where I grew up.”

Coleman first started playing music as a student at South Shore High School, not far from UChicago’s campus. That grew into a career that has spanned four decades and several continents, with Coleman in his work exploring philosophy, the relationship language has with music and improvisational computer software. He leads the nonprofit M-Base Concepts, Inc., and has received a Doris Duke Impact and a Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Coleman’s time at UChicago is part of an expanding set of residencies at the Logan Center that bring artists together with students, faculty and the community, often around the creation of new work. Artists-in-residence have included composer and UChicago alumnus Philip Glass, actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith, and French filmmaker and artist Agnès Varda. UChicago’s Theater and Performance Studies’ residency program Chicago Performance Lab invites emerging and established ensembles to spend a month in residence at the Logan Center to develop new work and perform throughout Chicago. Jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell is currently in residence, and artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s site specific exhibition opens in January 2017 at the Logan Center.

A passion for music and helping others

Coleman first was a resident at Logan in 2015 and came back again this fall. His talents mesh well with the Logan Center, contributing to the cultural vitality of the South Side through community partnerships and through helping to grow the center’s emerging reputation as a hub for jazz, said Bill Michel, executive director of UChicago Arts and the Logan Center.

“Steve is passionate about both his music and helping others,” Michel said. “He brings a wonderful energy and willingness to explore different avenues and partnerships.”

The residency included partnering with M-Base, Free Write Arts and Literacy, Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, the Rebuild Foundation, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, as well as the Jazz Institute of Chicago. The Reva and David Logan Foundation provided significant support for the residency.

Coleman’s residency culminated in a performance at the Logan Center Performance Hall. Of the band’s seven public performances during the two-week period, including appearances at venues like the Arts Incubator, Stony Island Arts Bank and the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, five were free; Coleman wanted to make sure that those who weren’t familiar with his music could have a chance to see him play.

“When you come and you try to have a sustained presence, that makes a different kind of impact than when you just come for one day and then split,” Coleman said. “If people know you’re coming back, it’s a big deal.”

Reflecting on his career, Coleman said he owes a lot to mentors of his own, like Thad Jones, Sam Rivers, Von Freeman and Doug Hammond. Community building is something he has pursued during his career, doing residencies since the mid-’90s, frequently without outside financial support. He says that a main goal of his MacArthur Fellowship is to draw attention to his outreach work, in hopes that he can keep securing financial backing to fund residencies and mentorship opportunities in the future.

During his Logan residency, Coleman said his work with youth at the juvenile detention center stood out. Coleman and his bandmates partnered with Free Write Arts and Literacy for a visit to the detention center, where they were joined by Grammy-nominated rapper and spoken-word artist Kokayi, a longtime collaborator and occasional band member with Coleman. The musicians encouraged youth to try out instruments like the drums and bass, and talked about their own lives and careers.

“At the end, they said they were really, really inspired, and they were really happy that we came,” Coleman said. “Sometimes one visit like that could change the whole thing around.”

Menachem Brinker, Hebrew studies scholar and activist, 1935-2016

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 16:45 -0500

Prof. Emeritus Menachem Brinker was known for his pioneering scholarship on philosophy and Hebrew literature as well as the relationships between philosophy, literature and society. The University’s first Henry Crown Professor of Modern Hebrew Language and Literature in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, he established the Modern Hebrew Language and Literature program at UChicago in 1995 and held the first chair in the program.

The noted Hebrew scholar, Israel Prize laureate and peace activist died Aug. 11 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Jerusalem. He was 81.

In 2004, he was awarded the Israel Prize—the most highly regarded award in Israel—for Hebrew and general literary research. He was the author of numerous books; among them the authoritative work on Yosef Haim Brenner, a Russian pioneer of modern Hebrew literature. He divided his time between Chicago and Hebrew University until his 2005 retirement, when he returned to Israel.

Brinker also was a prominent political activist who was one of the first to advocate for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He co-founded the critical literary and political review magazine EMDA (Hebrew for “position, opinion, policy”) and was its first editor. Then he co-founded Peace Now and was one of the leaders of the organization, Israel’s pre-eminent peace movement, well into the 1980s and ‘90s.

“He was a voice of sanity relating to Israel,” said Josef Stern, the William H. Colvin Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and the inaugural director of the Chicago Center for Jewish Studies, remembering Brinker as a cultured, witty and intellectual colleague. “In exchanges, he could be wonderfully critical,” Stern said, but Brinker’s criticisms were well received because of his “extremely warm personality.”

Besides teaching and building the Modern Hebrew Language and Literature program, Brinker helped bolster the University’s library, filling gaps in its collection in his fields of expertise, Stern said.

Paul Mendes-Flohr, the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought, considered Brinker a beloved friend and mentor.

“Not only was Menachem generous intellectually, he was also blessed with the gift of friendship, which he nurtured and sustained with unflagging care and concern,” he said.

“As one of Israel’s most esteemed public intellectuals, his probing critiques of its cultural and political life attained a unique resonance precisely because they bore the stamp of a compelling existential concern for the ethical and spiritual direction the country had taken,” Mendes-Flohr said.

Brinker was born in Jerusalem on Sept. 20, 1935. Before commencing his university studies, Menachem was a shepherd in a left-wing kibbutz. In 1954, he completed his undergraduate degree in Hebrew literature and philosophy. He studied literature, linguistic theory and philosophy at Edinburgh and Oxford universities in 1966, and then earned his doctorate in philosophy at Tel Aviv University in 1974.

Brinker fought as part of the Jerusalem Brigade during the Six-Day War and also fought in the Yom Kippur War. In 1968, he was appointed a lecturer in the Tel Aviv University philosophy department, and a year later he was appointed to the department of poetics and comparative literature, which he also helped found.

In addition, Brinker was among the founders of the Israel Philosophical Association in 1967. Beginning in 1983, he taught philosophy and Hebrew literature at Hebrew University. At the same time, he served as a literary editor at the Keter publishing house. He was a member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Mendes-Flohr said his friendship with Brinker was sealed when they were both on the faculty of Hebrew University. Mendes-Flohr “consulted with him about a concept coined by Jean-Paul Sartre, whom he knew personally and about whom he had written extensively.”

He said Brinker knew hundreds of poems by heart, not only in Hebrew but also English, French, German, Russian, Yiddish and even a few in Arabic. In his last weeks, Brinker composed a poem in alternating stanzas in Hebrew, English and French, and though he was too weak to write it down, he would recite it to his friends.

“What I do recall is his joyful and mellifluous recitation of this, his last poem, which he took with him to his final resting place,” Mendes-Flohr said. “As one says in Hebrew, “zikhrono le’vracha: May his memory be a blessing to all who loved him and to the many whom he loved. “

Brinker is survived by his partner, Janet Aviad, and his daughter, Hagit. His son, Gadi, died in 2010.

Services have been held in Israel. At his request, no eulogies were given, but poems were recited by some of Israel’s eminent writers.

Court Theatre establishes named directorship in honor of donors

Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:00 -0500

Court Theatre is establishing the Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director position, made possible through the support of longtime arts patrons and Court supporters David and Marilyn F. Vitale. Court created the named position in appreciation of the couple’s significant gift to the theater in June, as well as their previous giving to Court’s Center for Classic Theatre Campaign. Artistic Director Charles Newell will be named the inaugural Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director of Court Theatre.

The naming honors Marilyn Vitale for her dedication to the theater’s mission and growth. She has served on Court’s board of trustees for more than 20 years, three as board chair, overseeing the theater’s 60th anniversary and solidifying the vision for The Center for Classic Theatre, which mounts theatrical productions and audience enrichment programs in collaboration with University of Chicago faculty. David Vitale continues to be a visionary force for arts education in Chicago, most notably through the groundbreaking Chicago Public Schools Arts Education Plan.

“Court Theatre has created an ambitious national model of what a professional theater at a major university can achieve, while providing a distinctive cultural resource for our community and the city of Chicago,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “I am deeply grateful to the Vitales for their generous support of Court’s mission, and their deep appreciation of the value of theater and its simultaneous connections to intellectual inquiry and community engagement. Marilyn’s leadership has contributed greatly to Court’s continued growth and flourishing.”

Marilyn Vitale said the gift reflects the couple’s support for outstanding artistic leadership.

“My leadership of the board helped me fully understand how critical the artistic leadership is to any theater,” Vitale said. “Our gift will provide support to the remarkably talented Charles Newell, whom I greatly admire, and I believe it will offer Court an unmatched platform to mount great productions, build a loyal audience and find new ways to serve the community.”

Newell has been the artistic director of Court Theatre since 1994. Under his artistic leadership over 22 seasons, Court Theatre has grown in size and national standing. He has directed more than 50 productions, guiding the theater toward a focus on re-envisioned classic plays that explore and add to the African American canon and American musicals. His directorial highlights at Court Theatre include “Satchmo at the Waldorf,” “Agamemnon,” “The Secret Garden,” “Iphigenia in Aulis,” “The Misanthrope,” “Tartuffe,” “Proof,” “Angels in America,” “An Iliad,” and “Porgy and Bess.”

Newell was awarded the Society of Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s Zelda Fichandler Award and the Theatre Communications Group’s Alan Schneider Director Award. He was nominated for 16 Joseph Jefferson Director Awards, winning four times. In 2012, Newell was honored by the League of Chicago Theatres with its artistic achievement award.

In addition to their support of Court Theatre, the Vitales also are actively engaged in other parts of the University. Marilyn is a member of the Women’s Board, and David continues to be involved with the Council on the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Visiting Committee to the School of Social Service Administration.

Newell noted that Marilyn Vitale’s leadership helped make the theater’s 60th anniversary season the most ambitious to date, marked by two world premieres, a reimagining of classic theater, a nod to American musicals and a commitment to the community.

“For more than 20 years, Marilyn has provided tremendous passion and loyalty for the work of Court Theatre,” said Newell. “Court Theatre grew during her tenure as board chair and will continue to thrive, thanks to her extraordinary generosity.”

Halil Inalcik, historian of Ottoman Empire and University Professor, 1916-2016

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 15:30 -0500

Prof. Halil Inalcik, a preeminent expert on the Ottoman Empire who trained two generations of scholars in the United States and Turkey, died on July 25. He was 100 years old.

Inalcik’s research was critical in elevating the Ottoman period to a leading role in the study of world history. His scholarly work was marked by rigorous research of source materials, and his writings, including The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600, became critical texts for historians around the world.

“Without exaggeration one really has to say he not only created but actually built the study of things Ottoman and the Ottoman Empire in its many cultural, political and economic contexts. He was really and truly the master,” said Cornell Fleischer, the Kanuni Suleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies.

Inalcik was born in Istanbul in the final years of the Ottoman Empire and received his formal education in Turkey, completing his PhD at the University of Ankara in 1942. He later wrote his childhood in Istanbul partly drew him to his field of study, but a bigger factor was the rich and expansive source materials from the Ottoman period.

Inalcik was recruited to UChicago in the early 1970s from the University of Ankara by Prof. William McNeill, a pioneer in the field of world history. Inalcik, who also taught at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, became one of UChicago’s early University Professors, an appointment reserved for scholars with internationally recognized eminence in their fields and potential for high impact across the University.

Inalcik held appointments in History and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

“Halil Inalcik was a scholar of international repute whose work was marked by high erudition, superb critical analysis and an extraordinary command of vast historical sources. We were greatly honored that he was a member of our faculty,” said John W. Boyer, the Martin A. Ryerson Professor in History and dean of the College.

At the University, Inalcik trained a series of young historians who became top scholars, while continuing his own research, which spanned the history of Crimea, Albania and Anatolia in the 15th century to Bulgaria in the 19th century. His work encompassed social, political and economic history from peasants to sultans.

“Professor Inalcik transformed the field of Ottoman studies from an obscure and exotic sub-field into one of the leading historical disciplines. He has set the agenda for critical analysis and understanding of a crucial time period in world history,” said Fariba Zarinebaf, PhD’91, a former student of Inalcik and associate professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of California at Riverside.

Inalcik retired from the University in 1986 and became a professor emeritus. He returned to Turkey and founded the history department at Bilkent University in Ankara. Inalcik received numerous honors during his lifetime, including 23 honorary doctorates and awards in Turkey for his contributions to history and culture.

Inalcik wrote about his life and career in an essay published in 1993, including his time at the University. One of his favorite memories was a visit to campus by dervishes from Turkey who practice Islamic mysticism. He remembered being deeply moved as their cries reverberated off the ceiling of a University chapel.

William H. McNeill, world historian and distinguished scholar, 1917-2016

Tue, 12 Jul 2016 14:00 -0500

Prof. William H. McNeill, a pioneer in the field of world history and author of the seminal work The Rise of the West, died July 8. He was 98.

McNeill, AB’38, AM’39, was a teacher and scholar for four decades at the University of Chicago. The Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in History, he was the author of more than 20 books, from the sweeping history of human disease Plagues and Peoples to a memoir of the University during the presidency of Robert Hutchins.

McNeill was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1996 and National Humanities Medal by President Obama in 2010. The Rise of the West, which traces civilizations through 5,000 years of recorded history, received the National Book Award for history and biography in 1964.

In a 1987 interview at the time of his retirement, McNeill said it was important for historians not to be too narrow in their outlook. “History has to look at the whole world,” he said. “And that means you have to know how the rest of the world is, how it got to be the way it is.”

McNeill was critical in launching the field of world history at a time when the discipline was narrowly focused on the history of Europe and its past and present colonies. In his work, he emphasized the connections and exchanges between civilizations rather than placing them in a vacuum.

“Bill McNeill was a scholar of extraordinary boldness, range and high creativity,” said John W. Boyer, the Martin A. Ryerson Professor in History and dean of the College. “He was able to see patterns and relationships among highly complex and disparate historical phenomena on a global level in ways that enabled him to write magnificent and courageous books of large intellectual compass.”

Boyer said McNeill provided decisive leadership during his chairmanship of the Department of History in the 1960s, rebuilding it into a preeminent site for international historical research after the department had lost much of its luster in the 1940s and ‘50s.

An early interest in history

McNeill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, John McNeill, was a historian of Christianity whose efforts to tell the story of faith through the connections among denominations inspired his son.

McNeill arrived at the University of Chicago as a 10-year-old when his father was appointed to the University faculty. He graduated from the Laboratory Schools and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UChicago before attending Cornell to pursue a PhD in history.

McNeill’s studies were interrupted by his service in World War II, which included an assignment as assistant military attaché in Cairo. The position led to his working with Greek and Yugoslav governments in exile, making him an eyewitness to the middle stages of the Greek civil war. He wrote his first book from that experience, The Greek Dilemma: War and Aftermath, published in 1947.

In Cairo he met his future wife, Elizabeth Darbishire, who worked for the Office of War Information. She became his proofreader, critic and collaborator. They had four children together.

After the war, he completed his PhD at Cornell, and in 1947, he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago.

While in graduate school, McNeill stumbled across Arnold Toynbee’s The Study of History, which was an attempt to chart the rise and fall of world civilizations. Although he later worked under Toynbee at Chatham House in London, McNeill broke with Toynbee in his own work, seeing an interconnectedness among societies that didn’t exist in Toynbee’s writings.

A love of teaching and UChicago

At the University of Chicago, McNeill devoted himself to teaching in addition to his research. “Teaching is the most wonderful way to learn things,” he said in an interview. “You have to get up before a class at 10 o’clock the next morning and have something to say.” In 1983, he received the University’s Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

McNeill helped design the History of Western Civilization Core sequence at the University in the late 1940s and played a major role in introducing the history of other world civilizations as key elements of the College’s curriculum in the 1950s and ‘60s. He had a deep love and respect for the University and its intellectual community, dedicating The Rise of the West to “the community of scholars constituting the University of Chicago.”

“My father loved the University of Chicago wholeheartedly, its traditions and its people. A good-natured argument was his favorite form of entertainment, and he felt his colleagues and students at the University provided that in full measure,” said his son John McNeill, a professor of history at Georgetown University.

After his retirement, McNeill and his wife moved to Connecticut, where he continued to write. He completed a biography of Toynbee in 1989 and wrote The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History with John McNeill, published in 2003. In 2005, he published The Pursuit of Truth: A Historian’s Memoir.

In an essay for the American Historical Association, McNeill explained the importance of studying history. “Ignorance of history—that is, absent or defective collective memory—does deprive us of the best available guide for public action, especially in encounters with outsiders, whether the outsiders are another nation, another civilization or some special group within national borders.”

McNeill is survived by his four children and 11 grandchildren.

Anne Walters Robertson named interim dean of Humanities

Fri, 08 Jul 2016 14:02 -0500

Anne Walters Robertson, chair of the Department of Music and the Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Music and the Humanities in the College, has been named to serve as the interim dean of the Division of the Humanities until the next dean is in place. Her appointment was effective July 1.

“Anne’s appointment will foster the continued academic advancement of the Humanities Division while the search for the next dean is conducted,” said President Robert J. Zimmer.

Robertson joined the faculty in 1984 and has held several leadership positions at the University and in professional organizations, including serving as deputy provost for research and education and as president of the American Musicological Society.

“I have been privileged to teach and conduct research for more than 30 years in the Division of the Humanities, and I am honored now to serve as interim dean,” Robertson said. “The excellence of our faculty and students has always advanced the division, and I am eager to work with them to help continue to move us forward.”

Robertson’s research is focused on the music of the Middle Ages, with a concentration on 15th-century sacred polyphony, the 14th-century French composer Guillaume de Machaut, French medieval liturgical music, ceremony and architecture, and music and mysticism. She has received many scholarly honors and distinctions. In 2008, she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2015 became a member of the American Philosophical Society.

The process for selecting the next dean of the Division of the Humanities is underway. Robertson succeeds Martha Roth, the Chauncey S. Boucher Distinguished Service Professor of Assyriology, who has returned to her full-time work on the faculty after serving as dean since 2007.

“Anne enjoys tremendous respect among her peers as a scholar and as an academic leader,” said Provost Daniel Diermeier. “I am very pleased that Anne has agreed to serve as the interim dean. The Division of the Humanities will be in excellent hands under her leadership.”

Alison Winter, historian of science, 1965-2016

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:25 -0500

Editor’s note: A memorial service for Alison Winter will be held Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Alison Winter, a historian of science and medicine whose book on memory won the University of Chicago Press’s top honor, died Wednesday of a brain tumor. She was 50 years old.

Winter, AB’87, was a professor of history whose research often focused in areas of science and medicine that were unorthodox and less traveled. She explored how 19th-century mesmerism catalyzed efforts to define and demarcate science in Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain and the cultural and scientific history of human understanding of memory in Memory: Fragments of a Modern History, which won the UChicago Press’s Gordon J. Laing Prize in 2014.

She was dedicated to supporting the next generation of scholars.Prof. Robert Richards

Winter taught undergraduates in the history of medicine, film and gender studies, guided doctoral students in their dissertations, and mentored postdoctoral fellows at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Students described her as a generous critic and strong advocate. Even after becoming ill, Winter continued to co-teach an undergraduate seminar in history of science via video chat – first from home and later from the hospital.

“She was dedicated to supporting the next generation of scholars,” said Robert Richards, the Morris Fishbein Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Science and Medicine. “She loved finding a wedge in an intellectual exchange and pushing it. But you could never get mad at her. She always had a sly smile.”

Winter first arrived at UChicago in 1983 as an undergraduate. Richards said Winter’s father, who taught mathematics at the University of Michigan, wanted her to major in science. She was interested in English literature. The compromise was the history of science, which quickly became Winter’s passion.

Winter received a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Cambridge. It was there she met her husband Adrian Johns, who is the Allan Grant Maclear Professor of History at UChicago.

Winter’s dissertation on mesmerism became her first book Mesmerized, which the UChicago Press published in 1998. Alex Owen writing in the journal Victorian Studies described it as a tour de force that requires “a reevaluation of precisely what constituted ‘center’ and ‘margin’ during a period in which many Victorian intellectuals and public figures experimented with mesmerism.”

After Cambridge, Winter taught at the California Institute of Technology before returning to UChicago in 2001.

Winter was awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim, Andrew W. Mellon and National Science foundations, contributing to the research for Memory. In the book, she explores how scientists grope for metaphors to explain such an elusive subject, and how those metaphors evolved to reflect changing technology—from memory as a filing cabinet to a reel of film available for playback.

Doctoral students of Winter said she had a unique ability to balance criticism and encouragement, asking key questions to guide research rather than direct it. Caitjan Gainty, AM’05, PhD’12, remembers pulling up rugs with Winter at her home in Hyde Park, discussing future intellectual projects and talking about Winter’s fascination with a light-therapy enthusiast who once owned the property.

“She had confidence in me as a scholar before I even understood what it meant to do that kind of work,” said Gainty, lecturer in the history of science, technology and medicine at King’s College London.

Winter is survived by Johns and their four children, David, Lizzie, Zoe, and Benjamin; her mother, Judy Swartz, and stepfathers David Ballou and Fred Swartz; her father, David Winter, and stepmother, Michele Weipert-Winter; and her brother, Jonathan Ballou.

A memorial service for Winter is planned for Autumn Quarter.

Prof. Martha Nussbaum wins Kyoto Prize

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 08:55 -0500

Martha C. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics and a world-renowned philosopher whose wide-ranging work often centers on questions of human vulnerability, has been awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for achievements that include introducing “the notion of incorporating human capabilities ... into the criteria for social justice.”

The honor, bestowed annually by Japan’s Inamori Foundation but given only once every four years in the sub-category of thought and ethics, is among the most significant international accolades for scholarly work.

Nussbaum “led global discourse on philosophical topics that influence the human condition in profound ways, including contemporary theories of justice, law, education, feminism and international development assistance,” the foundation wrote in a release announcing the prize Friday. “She established a new theory of justice that ensures the inclusion of the weak and marginalized, who are deprived of opportunities to develop their capabilities in society, and has proposed ways to apply this theory in the real world.”

Nussbaum is one of three recipients of the Kyoto Prize this year; the others are Tasuku Honjo, a Japanese medical scientist, who won the basic sciences award; and Takeo Kanade, a Japanese roboticist who won the advanced technology award.

Nussbaum, who has earned international acclaim for her work on moral and political theory, emotions, human rights, social equality, education, feminism, and ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, said she felt “deeply honored and humbled” by the award, which she will formally receive during a 10-day event in Kyoto in November.

“Martha Nussbaum has made extraordinary contributions to scholarship in philosophy, and she is an engaged intellectual who has made an impact on issues of equality, diversity and human dignity, among others,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “I am delighted that her work has earned this important recognition.”

Added Law School Dean Thomas J. Miles, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics: “Martha is an extraordinary scholar whose insights and interdisciplinary approach seek to make the world a better place. We are tremendously proud.”

Often cited as one of the world’s leading public thinkers, Nussbaum worked with Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen to develop the Capabilities Approach—a measure of global welfare that examines what a nation’s individuals are actually able to be and do, rather than relying on the country’s Gross Domestic Product as a proxy. GDP, she argues, fails to account for inequality or the specific facets of a fulfilled life, such as health, education and religious liberty.

Nussbaum also has written extensively on emotions—including love, fear, disgust, shame and anger—and their role in politics, law, justice and society. In her most recent book, Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice, she argues that retributive desires can impede social progress. Currently, she and Saul Levmore, the William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, are co-authoring a book on aging that joins philosophical, legal and economic insights.

“Martha Nussbaum embodies the Greek ideal of philosophy as an art of citizenship,” said Prof. Gabriel Richardson Lear, chair of UChicago’s Department of Philosophy. “People around the world listen to her because she is able to make original contributions at the level of abstract thought and then show how they make a difference to the most important issues of our political and personal lives. The range of her influence is extraordinary—distributive justice, opera, political emotions, Plato's theory of love, the Aristotelian manuscript tradition ... to name just a few. She has also been an inspiration to women philosophers around the world and to all who care about justice. It is a privilege to be her colleague.”

The Kyoto Prize, which is awarded annually in each of three categories, was created in 1985 by Inamori Foundation founder Kazuo Inamori to honor those who have “worked humbly and devotedly, sparing no effort to seek perfection in their chosen professions” and have “sincerely aspired through the fruits of their labors to bring true happiness to humanity.”

Nussbaum, an outspoken advocate of humanities education, called the prize “particularly honorable and meaningful” because it celebrates humanistic contributions alongside scientific advancement.

“Mr. Inamori is a great scientist—and when a great scientist decides to dedicate a lot of attention and financial support to the humanities, that really means a lot to me,” Nussbaum said. “The best scientists understand the profound kinship between scientific creativity and humanistic and artistic creativity. I think we’re in an era where both profound science and humanistic creativity are being threatened by a short-term, profit-oriented mentality. We really need to make common cause, the scientists and humanists, because it’s the deep, searching thought, the power of imagination, and the power of rigorous, critical thinking that we really share.”

The prize, she said, is an opportunity to underscore these ideals. David Weisbach, the Walter J. Blum Professor of Law, who co-teaches an interdisciplinary global inequality class with Nussbaum, said it’s a message she is well-equipped to share.

“The humanities are under siege globally, and Martha is one of the leading voices fighting against that,” he said.

Previous winners in the thought and ethics field include Willard Van Orman Quine, an American philosopher known for contributions to epistemology, logic and metaphysics; Paul Ricœur, a French philosopher who taught at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School between 1970 and 1985; and Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher known for his achievements in social philosophy.

As part of the prize, Nussbaum will receive a diploma, a gold Kyoto Prize medal and a cash gift of 50 million yen (about $472,000)—a good portion of which she plans to donate to the Law School and the University’s Department of Philosophy.

“I love and respect these two exemplary academic communities and the values they stand for, and am so grateful for the generosity of my colleagues," she said.

As a Kyoto laureate, Nussbaum will deliver lectures in Kyoto, Oxford and San Diego over the next year. At the November event in Kyoto, she also will lead workshops aimed at university, high school and elementary school students—an opportunity that Nussbaum said she is happily anticipating.

Nussbaum, who has written and edited dozens of books, has garnered many prizes, including the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2012, the Nonino Prize in 2015, and the Inamori Ethics Prize, also in 2015.

—Adapted from a story on the University of Chicago Law School website.

Prof. Emeritus Michael J. Murrin to receive Norman Maclean Faculty Award

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 15:13 -0500

Michael J. Murrin, the Raymond W. & Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature in the Divinity School, has earned the Norman Maclean Faculty Award. This award, bestowed by the Alumni Association, honors emeritus or senior faculty for extraordinary contributions to teaching and to the student experience of life within the University community.

In conjunction with the University’s 527th Convocation, Murrin will accept his award on Friday, June 10 at the Honorands Dinner.

For more than 50 years, Murrin has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the Departments of English Language & Literature, Comparative Literature, the Divinity School and the College. Murrin’s research interests lie in two areas: the history of criticism, with a specialty in the history of allegorical interpretation; and the study of the genres of romance and epic. His teaching focuses on period courses in the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the early modern period.

His publications include The Veil of Allegory; The Allegorical Epic; and History and Warfare in Renaissance Epic. His work Trade and Romance (University of Chicago Press, 2013) is a study of both the growth of Europe’s middle-class culture and its interests in aristocratic romance, and the simultaneous development of trade across Asia by merchants and initially made possible by the Mongol world system. It won the René Wellek Prize, the highest prize in the American Comparative Literature Association.

“Many scholars spend their lives in a comparatively narrow area, like Shakespeare. That is fine in its own right, but it is not what I do,” said Murrin. “Each of my books concerns different areas and issues, from the Allegorical Epic to History and Warfare, which had as much regular history (normally not a concern for literary scholars), to Trade and Romance, which ranged from the Mongols to the Portuguese in the east, and finally the English.”

Murrin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Currently he is at work on a short book about Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

David Tod Roy, translator of Chinese literary classic, 1933-2016

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 12:35 -0500

Prof. David Tod Roy, best known for his exhaustive translation of a famous 16th-century Chinese novel, died May 29 at his home in Chicago from complications of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 83.

A professor emeritus in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Roy spent three decades completing a five-volume translation of the Ming Dynasty classic Chin P’ing Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase). Well known for its eroticism, the novel chronicles the life of a corrupt, middle-class merchant and his numerous sexual liaisons. Princeton University Press published the series over a period of 20 years, with the final volume, “The Dissolution,” completed in 2013.

“David worked on his translation with single-minded fixity,” said longtime colleague and friend Ed Shaughnessy, the Lorraine J. and Herrlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies. “It is looked upon as a monument to scholarship.”

Scholars praised Roy’s work for its masterful research, reflected in more than 4,400 endnotes that provide a window onto ordinary peoples’ lives, with meticulous descriptions of everything from dinner party banter to bribery schemes to funeral rites. One critic called it a “masterly rendering of a richly encyclopedic novel of Ming dynasty manners.” Another wrote: “Reading Roy’s translation is a remarkable experience. It ought to be done slowly, savoring the keen detail, the setups and payoffs of the plot, and the novel’s many traditional verses, which comment, often ironically, upon the selfish motives and squalid actions of its characters. Roy translates the verse with a fine, unmannered ear.”

Roy was born in Nanjing, China in 1933 to Presbyterian missionary parents. His father, Andrew Tod Roy, was a philosophy professor at what is now the University of Nanking. The family spent the Sino-Japanese War years (1938-1945) in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, where they were subjected to frequent Japanese bombing raids. After some years in the United States, Roy returned to China in 1948, just as the Communist revolution was culminating. His parents enrolled him in the Shanghai American School, a boarding school, where Roy recalled taking his final exams as Communist forces marched into the city.

“He was a great brother, and we had some real adventures together,” said his younger brother, J. Stapleton Roy, who joined him at the school, which was promptly shut down with the Communist takeover of Shanghai. “All the Americans had left, but we stayed on,” he added. “We lived in a dormitory, cut off from our parents who were miles away in Nanjing.” Eventually the brothers were sent out of the country to complete high school in the United States. Their parents, adhering to their missionary convictions, stayed behind and were placed under house arrest and later expelled from China.

As a teen, Roy developed an obsession with the Chinese language and, with the help of tutors, learned to read and write it. He had heard about the Chin P’ing Mei, particularly its notorious pornographic passages, and went in search of a copy where the graphic sexual material had not been deleted, Roy said in a 2013 interview. At 16, he found a complete, 3,000-page Chinese edition in a used-book store and thus began his lifelong fascination with the work. Years later, as a scholar, Roy found that the Chin P’ing Mei borrowed so creatively from such a wide range of literature that he made a file card for each line of poetry, parallel prose and proverbial saying, creating an index containing tens of thousands of cards.

Roy earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard University, completing his PhD in History and Far Eastern Languages in 1965. During his undergraduate years, he spent a two-year stint in the U.S. Army that included service in Japan and Taiwan. Roy’s first teaching job was at Princeton, where he taught Chinese literature for four years and met and married his wife, Barbara Chew, in 1967. That same year, he accepted a position as associate professor of Chinese literature at the University of Chicago. During the 1980s, he began translating the Chin P’ing Mei, what Roy himself once called “an extraordinarily detailed description of a morally derelict and corrupt society.” He also taught the novel in his classes, inspiring generations of students to pursue the study of Chinese literature. His first volume, “The Gathering,” was published in 1993.

Roy’s single-mindedness toward his scholarship was matched only by his tireless acquisition of any and all books related to Chinese studies, colleagues said. His former student David Rolston recalled graduate seminars in Roy’s office seated around a table piled high with his newest purchases, often from overseas, that sometimes remained there for months before Roy catalogued and shelved them. “The piles would get so high that we had to sit very straight and tall in order to lay out the material we were working on or write our notes on top of them,” said Rolston, PhD’88, now an associate professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Michigan.

Other students recalled the impact Roy had on their scholarship and life trajectory. “Having David Roy as my teacher transformed my life,” said Katherine Carlitz, PhD’78, who recently retired from the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. “I had never quite understood what being a serious scholar would mean before I was lucky enough to come and study with him. There was so much humor in our classes; we students retained forever the joy of scholarship as he felt it and taught it.”

The University of Notre Dame acquired the bulk of Roy’s Chinese-language collection, totaling more than 4,000 volumes, in 2013. His English-language Chinese studies books went to the University of Nanking, where his father had been a faculty member.

Roy is survived by his wife, Barbara Chew Roy, and by his younger brother, J. Stapleton Roy, who served as the U.S. ambassador to China from 1991-1995. A University memorial service is planned for late October.

Prof. Augusta Read Thomas receives prestigious composer and cultural awards

Thu, 05 May 2016 15:26 -0500

University Professor of Composition Augusta Read Thomas has won the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer’s Award for 2015-16, the oldest award of its kind in the nation honoring contemporary composers who have made significant contributions to the field of symphonic music, and who are “effective personal advocates of new approaches to the broadening of critical and appreciative standards."

Thomas will be honored at three concerts held between May 20-22 at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Penn., during which the Lancaster Symphony will perform her orchestral works “Aureole” and “Prayer and Celebration,” conducted by Stephen Gunzenhauser.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award and to join past recipients whom I have long admired and respected,” Thomas said. “Working with the members of the Lancaster Symphony will be a privilege and delight.”

In November, Thomas was awarded the Cultural Medal of Monaco, earning the honor Chevalier of the Order of Cultural Merit. Established in 1952 by Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, the award recognizes those “who have made a distinctive contribution to the arts, letters or science.” Thomas received the award at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco from Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline of Hanover, Princess of Monaco.

This fall Thomas is leading the Ear Taxi Festival, a six-day, first-of-its-kind new music festival celebrating the vibrant, classical contemporary music scene in Chicago. Running from Oct. 5-10 at six venues across the city, the festival will include performances by some of Chicago’s most innovative composers and performers in contemporary music.

For more information, visit http://www.eartaxifestival.com.