More than 100 staff members work in the Division of the Humanities. We'll introduce you to our staff in this continuing series.

Maren Robinson
Associate Director
Master of Arts Program in the Humanities

What do you like most about your job?
I love working with MA students. They focus on such wide-ranging topics in the humanities and they are at such a transformative moment in their academic path. It is exciting to see their growth and exploration during the program.

What was the last good book you read?
Outside of the University I am a dramaturg at my theater company TimeLine Theater. When I am working on a production all my reading is taken up with the project, so I’ve been reading and rereading Githa Sowerby’s play Rutherford and Son, which we just opened. She is an amazing British woman writer who wrote a play with nascent feminist and anti-capitalist themes in 1912. It opened to rave reviews when everyone thought it was written by a man and then it wasn’t produced for almost 80 years. It has been a delight to unearth this text and see it move to the stage.

You might work with me if you...
…need information about a MA student or our curriculum. With 138 current students and 19 students continuing in our TLO program, it is natural that faculty and staff may need information about our students and our academic requirements.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I love to get out into Chicago and take photographs, particularly of Chicago's hidden nature spaces. I know where to find a herd of deer, a pair of coyotes and, a wide variety of birds all within city limits and I love sharing those images on Instagram and to help support my favorite nature preserves.