Emeritus Faculty

Trump's Threat to Attack 52 Iranian Sites Draws Criticism, Concern from Humanities Professor Emeritus

This image of Persepolis is provided by Wikipedia.

An expert on Iranian culture says he was “appalled” by President Donald Trump’s threat to attack dozens of Iranian sites should Iran retaliate against a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Friday.

Beyond his years of research and teaching, professor emeritus Matthew Stolper of the University of Chicago’s Near Eastern Languages and Literatures and Oriental Institute has traveled to Iran numerous times to excavate Persepolis, an ancient city deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

“I don’t know what the sites are,” Stolper said. “But of course, all of us who work on cultural heritage are fairly appalled by this.”

David Bevington, Preeminent Shakespeare Scholar, 1931-2019

Prof. Emeritus David Bevington, the extraordinarily prolific editor of Shakespeare’s full canon and author of seminal books about English Renaissance playwrights, died peacefully at home in Chicago on Aug. 2. He was 88 years old. Remembered by friends and family as a vibrant, generous and intellectually inquisitive man, the longtime University of Chicago professor possessed an infectious enthusiasm for the works he taught. He lived life with boundless energy—teaching, writing, hosting social events and playing chamber music with friends until just before he died.

Kenneth Northcott, UChicago Scholar, Translator, and Actor, 1922-2019

Prof. Emeritus Kenneth Northcott lived a vibrant existence, which was often filled with drama—in the classroom, on the stage, and in the British Intelligence Corps after World War II. A renowned University of Chicago scholar of Germanic studies, actor, and translator of significant authors, Northcott passed away June 4 in Chicago at age 96. “Northcott stood out for his brilliance as a teacher, translator, and actor and for his warmth and outgoing personality,” said Françoise Meltzer, the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, the Divinity School, and the College.

Eric P. Hamp, Renowned Scholar of Indo-European Linguistics, 1920-2019

During his 41-year career at the University of Chicago, Professor Emeritus Eric P. Hamp became one of the world’s foremost scholars of Indo-European linguistics. Not only did he base much of his scholarship on lesser-known languages and dialects, but his colleagues said he rescued many of the obscure ones. Hamp, who passed away on Feb. 17 at age 98, compared modern languages to reconstruct how our common ancestors spoke thousands of years ago—long before language was recorded.

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