UChicago News

Martha Roth reappointed to second term as dean of Humanities

Steve Kloehn — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00 -0500

Martha T. Roth, the Chauncey S. Boucher Distinguished Service Professor of Assyriology, has been appointed to a second five-year term as dean of the Humanities Division, President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum announced. The term begins July 1.

In their message to Humanities faculty, Zimmer and Rosenbaum underscored the University’s “absolute...

UChicago to honor historian Black, theater director Bogart at Convocation

Becky Wood — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:50 -0500

The University will award the Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service to historian and activist Timuel Black and the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts to Anne Bogart, avant-garde theater director and theorist, on Saturday, June 9 at UChicago’s 511th Convocation.

In support of Timuel Black’s selection, one of his nominators wrote: “...

Investigative journalist adapts reportage on police torture scandal into a play

David Ford — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:11 -0500

John Conroy isn’t letting anyone off the hook.

After spending much of the last two decades covering the Chicago Police Department’s torture scandal in the pages of the Chicago Reader, the veteran investigative journalist has now compressed the details of that grisly chapter of the city’s history into My Kind of Town, a two-act play premiering this month at TimeLine Theatre.

“What I wanted...

UChicago to webcast events from May 18-20 comics conference

Susie Allen — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:23 -0500

Update: Please note that the time for the panel discussion "Lines on Paper" has changed. The discussion will be webcast from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and will be the only event webcast on Sunday, May 20.

UChicago will provide live webcasts for a number of events from “Comics: Philosophy & Practice,” a conference on May 18-20 that will bring together 17...

Expansion of human power spurs ‘Before Authority’ conference

Susie Allen — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:24 -0500

What do we talk about when we talk about power? How do we balance the perils and possibilities of exercising power?

An upcoming conference will tackle these questions and the complicated interactions between power, authority and religion by bringing together theologians and ethicists engaged with social and political theory for two days of discussion at the Divinity School.

“Before Authority: Renegotiating Power and Religion,” which takes place Friday, May 11 and...

Special Collections exhibition on Haggadah will close with lecture May 13

Susie Allen — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:49 -0500

The Haggadah, the text that gathers the prayers and stories recited at the Passover Seder, has a beloved place in Jewish tradition. While its basic themes have remained unchanged, the Haggadah (“telling”) is unusually versatile—over the years, new editions have assembled stories, prayers, and illustrations that connect the Passover story to contemporary themes.

An exhibition closing this week at the Special Collections Research Center highlights...

University to bestow honorary degrees on three distinguished scholars

William Harms — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:21 -0500

The University of Chicago will present honorary degrees to an astronomer, a historian, and a biologist during the 511th Convocation Ceremony on Saturday, June 9 on the Main Quadrangle.

The honorary degree recipients are Geoffrey W. Marcy, an astronomer and exoplanet expert and professor of astronomy and director of the Center for Integrative Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley; Jean Meyer Barth, a scholar of Mexican history and professor of history at Centro...

South Pole Telescope exhibit headed for Washington, New York

Steve Koppes — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:54 -0500

Visitors to the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C. will get a taste of the South Pole Telescope when a traveling exhibit comes their way on April 28-29. The University of Chicago’s Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics will present the exhibit, “100 Years of Exploration @ South Pole: From Survival to Science,” which was produced by a...

Grad students to mix arts with science in April 26 presentations

Steve Koppes — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:12 -0500

Awardees of the University of Chicago’s 2012 Arts | Science Graduate Collaboration Grants will present the results of their projects from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the Performance Penthouse of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

The Arts | Science Collaboration...

Four UChicago scholars receive Guggenheim fellowships

Allan Friedman — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:52 -0500

Four UChicago scholars—Alison Bechdel, John H. Cochrane, Adrian Johns, and Don Kulick—have been named 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows. They are among 181 diverse scholars, artists and scientists selected this year in the 88th annual competition for the United States and Canada.

Chosen from a group of almost 3,000 candidates, the recipients have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the...