Staff Profiles

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

Eduardo Suh-Chavez
Business Operations Manager
Office of Language Assessment
University of Chicago Language Center

What do you like most about your job?

It would be the people I work with. If I had to use one word to describe those individuals, it would be “innovative.” We support one another in ways I find to be rare in the typical workplace. The Chicago Language Center was founded by strong advocates of language learning, which is essential to everything we do in the Office of Language Assessment. This type of advocacy and collaboration truly fosters a culture of openness and innovation that I find exciting and sustainable.

What was the last good book you read?

I just finished The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. The author is a wonderful storyteller. However, it does include some disturbing scenes. If you ever wondered just how difficult it was to live as a teenage girl in rural Alaska in the 1970s, I’d highly recommend it.

You might work with me if …

You are a language instructor, a language learner, or just a language enthusiast. While I mainly focus on language assessment, my job reaches to nearly every department on campus and beyond. Whether I’m reaching out for academic texts in your discipline to build an exam or collaborating to expand our innovative language programs, you’ll likely hear from me at some point or another.

What's the most unexpected skill or hobby you picked up recently?

Running. And trust me when I say this is a skill. I’ve hated running my entire life despite being physically active. During the past year, however, I decided to train for a marathon. Through this experience, I’ve learned a lot about my body and mental strength. Through learning how to run long distance, I have discovered many lifelong lessons, and I’m still just beginning my journey. It is such an admirable sport, and I am so lucky to have found it.

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

Margot Browning
Associate Director, Franke Institute for the Humanities
Lecturer, Humanities Collegiate Division

What do you like most about your job?

I like the diversity of it. First of all, it is the many departments in the Humanities Division, and the widely ranging specializations in each department, like a continuously moving kaleidoscope of ideas and activities. And second, I enjoy the diversity of projects at the Franke Institute—from the Franke Fellows and Grants to Every Wednesday to the Bulletin to the website. At the core of these projects is providing arenas—in person or online—where people and ideas mix.

What was the last good book you read?

The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values by Brian Christian, who's a computer scientist as well as a poet and philosopher. Christian interviewed dozens of current AI researchers who have developed new AI capabilities—and then find themselves trying to solve unanticipated problems that emerge. For example, it turns out that the datasets that are used to train AIs are biased, so the AI outputs are biased too—reflecting the racism and sexism of our human world. How can we define and communicate human values, so that machine learners are aligned in their problem-solving to novel outcomes that are truly beneficial?

You might work with me if...

Your department has a faculty member or graduate student awarded a Franke Fellowship, or they're developing a proposal for a Franke grant, or they've received a Franke grant. Or about a course in the Big Problems capstone curriculum (a collaboration between the Franke Institute and the College), we might exchange information for the Registrar or the College catalog.

What topic could you give an hour-long presentation on with little to no preparation?