Faculty

Prof. Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer Elected to the British Academy

UChicago scholar Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer

Prof. Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer would like to abolish the siloed nature of knowledge and embrace the interdisciplinarity of the humanities and sciences. For the broad scope of her scholarship and innovative ideas, the University of Chicago classics scholar was elected on July 18 as a fellow to the British Academy.

Bartsch-Zimmer is well known for her books and articles on ancient Rome, on rhetoric and philosophy, and on the reception of the western classical tradition in contemporary China. Her book "Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural" received the 2016 Goodwin Award of Merit, and her translation of the “Aeneid” was one of The Guardian’s best books of the year.

Vanessa German brings open mind and Sun Ra to Exhibition at Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts

UChicago faculty member vanessa german

vanessa german knows how it sounds. Her metaphysical manner of speaking. Talking about magic. She feels eyes rolling.

“One of the things that people would say to me is they're not going to take you seriously; Black artists can't talk this way,” german (b. 1976, Milwaukee, WI), who spells her name in all lowercase letters, told Forbes.com. “They can't talk about love and their spirit because quote-unquote, they–the all-present, all-powerful ‘they’–will not take me seriously.”

Florence Illuminated project to receive generous NEH grant

A map of Florence shows key streets and points of interest.

Humanities Assoc. Prof. Niall Atkinson is spearheading a comprehensive, collaborative, multi-university digital research platform called Florence Illuminated: Visualizing the History of Art, Architecture, and Society. The National Endowment for the Humanities is supporting this crucial scholarship with a grant of $349,969. It’s one of 238 humanities projects in 2024 to “help preserve and expand public access to important historical records and humanities collections at archives, libraries, museums, and universities” nationwide, according to the NEH.

The NEH grant for this project will provide a model for other digital collaborations, which will allow individual projects in the digital humanities to grow and expand on their own while also seamlessly integrating scholarship. Through a public web-based interface, the Florence Illuminated project will consolidate data from five digital humanities projects focused on the cultural history of late-medieval and early-modern Florence, supporting even more research in many fields and prompting questions that scholars haven’t even considered yet.

How UChicago's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality 'is here for everyone'

Prof. Daisy Delogu photo by Erielle Bakkum

One could think of gender and sexuality in very contemporary terms—or that the terms relate only to a small fraction of the population. But for Prof. Daisy Delogu, the faculty director of UChicago’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality—it’s a misconception that she and the Center’s interdisciplinary approach aim to correct.

“In my opinion, there’s no realm of experience, or endeavor, or inquiry that remains untouched by questions of gender and sexuality,” said Delogu, a scholar of medieval French literature who took over as faculty director last July.

The Center was founded in 1996 after a decade of faculty and student self-organization. Over the course of its nearly 30 years of consolidating work and creating curriculum on gender and sexuality and in feminist, gay and lesbian, and queer studies, the Center also has engaged the campus and local communities with guest lectures, conferences, and other programming. This past year, the CSGS saw its largest undergraduate class with 19 fourth-year majors, and awarded 15 graduate certificates.

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