Humanities Division to Elevate the Study of South Asian Art and Media

Dr. Afzal and Dr. Shireen Ahmad

UChicago’s Division of the Humanities launches a new visiting professorship in South Asian Art and Media in 2025‒2026 thanks to generous funding from Dr. Shireen and Dr. Afzal Ahmad. Their $1.5 million gift will provide for a visiting professor for one quarter annually, expanding the university’s visibility and expertise in South Asian art.

“The Ahmad’s gift will bring new attention to the visual arts and media of South Asia,” said Deborah L. Nelson, Dean of the Division of the Humanities and Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the College at UChicago. “Hiring a faculty member of great distinction will enhance our already top departments in South Asian Languages and Cultures, Art History, and Cinema and Media Studies and bring them into closer partnership.”

Vera Klement, Painter Who Saw Both Beauty and Evil, Dies at 93

UChicago Photographic Archive, [adf1-10271], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collection Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Ms. Klement, a Holocaust survivor who was known for paintings that combined elements of Abstract Expressionism and figurative art, died on Oct. 20 in Evanston, Ill. She was 93.

Her death, at a retirement home, was confirmed by Max Shapey, her son. It was not widely reported outside Chicago.

Ms. Klement’s paintings — of basic subjects like trees, landscapes and human figures — were influenced by her love of music and literature.

Perspective: An Ode to my BYU Major

Martha C. Nussbaum

My college days of studying humanities almost 20 years ago sprang to mind this week when I read Martha Nussbaum’s essay about her visit to Utah Valley University last year.

Nussbaum, a philosopher and professor at the University of Chicago, had been invited to give a lecture on justice for nonhuman animals, the topic of her new book “Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility.” She wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education that at UVU, she witnessed “one of the most heartening scenes in higher education that I have ever witnessed in my long career.”

Setting the Scene

From left: Production designer Curt Beech, art director Jordan Jacobs, and Rich Murray, AB'94, with their Emmys for "Only Murders in the Building." (Amy Sussman/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images)

Growing up in Kankakee, Illinois, Rich Murray was a Star Wars fan—and not just a casual one. He knew the movies beginning to end. He bought the books. And he especially loved the action figures, which he collected diligently and still owns today.

But there was a problem. “Loved the figures,” says Murray, “disliked the play sets”—the plastic backdrops that accompanied the toys. To his exacting eye, they were never quite right and often didn’t function as advertised. So Murray, AB’94, took matters into his own hands, rebuilding the play sets out of cardboard so he could create the perfect scenery for Luke, Leia, and Han’s adventures.

It was, in retrospect, Murray’s very first gig in set design (unpaid, nonunion). In the years since, he’s swapped scissors and cardboard for paint and furniture, but he’s still chasing the same goal: scenery that makes a story feel real.

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