Three Division of the Humanities Faculty Receive Named, Distinguished Service Professorships
Thirteen University of Chicago faculty members have received named professorships or have been appointed distinguished service professors.
Profs. Clifford Ando, John Birge, Frances Ferguson, Vinay Kumar, Ka Yee C. Lee and Linda Waite received distinguished service professorships, while Profs. Neil Brenner, Junhong Chen, Scott Eggener, Timothy Harrison, Eric Pamer, Mercedes Pascual and Brook Ziporyn received named professorships.
Meet the Staff: Laurel Darling
In this month's edition of "Meet the Staff," Laurel Darling talks about her work and hobbies.
The Berlins Endow New Chair for Assistant Professor in English Language and Literature
Compelled to make the humanities relevant to UChicago students’ lives, Timothy Harrison focuses on creating and nurturing an intellectual community—within and outside the classroom. For his scholarship and his engagement with students, Harrison received the inaugural Chair for the Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Assistant Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern English Literature: Masterpieces from 1500–1700.
“By every measure of scholarship, pedagogy, collegiality, service, and impact, Tim is worthy of this named professorship,” said Anne Walters Robertson, Dean of the Division of the Humanities and the Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Music. “He brings great distinction to the Division of the Humanities, and I am delighted that we now have this public recognition of his accomplishments.”
Why We Can't Turn Away from "Gone with the Wind"
By Jacqueline Stewart
(CNN) Just before the Covid-19 quarantine, I joined my fellow hosts on Turner Classic Movies for an "Old Hollywood" fashion photo shoot for Emmy Magazine. But when the spread came out, I could not bring myself to post the photos to my social media. As an African American cinema and media studies professor, how could I promote the glamour of classic Hollywood when our current media landscape was exploding with scenes of racial crisis?
Day after day, I scrolled through posts decrying the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. For weeks, video after video showed the escalating protests against police brutality and the brutal treatment of protesters by police. It seemed inappropriate to share shots glorifying Hollywood's golden age in this moment of mourning and mobilization. Moreover, the classic films we showcase on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) have played a major role in perpetuating the racist beliefs that devalue Black lives and normalize the use of excessive force against Black people.
No wonder that many viewers were outraged when HBO Max rolled out with the Civil War romance "Gone with the Wind" on its roster. HBO Max has temporarily pulled the film with the intent to return it to their service with additional historical context.
Allyson Nadia Field Receives the Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship, Allowing Her to Focus on Uncovering Early Films Defying Racial Stereotypes
Humanities scholar Allyson Nadia Field seeks to reimagine early cinema history by analyzing rare films, ephemera, and artifacts. In 2018, she assisted in identifying the actors, producer, and historical significance of “Something Good—Negro Kiss,” a 30-second long silent film from 1898 that is believed to be the earliest representation of Black affection on-screen.
The rediscovery of this short film has led to a radical reconsideration about race in early cinema. Inspired by “Something Good—Negro Kiss” to continue her research about the interrelation of minstrelsy, vaudeville, and early cinema, Field recently received the 2020 Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.
Gimmicks Might Be the Key to Understanding Capitalism
Over the course of her career, UChicago Division of the Humanities scholar and critic Sianne Ngai has asked readers to interrogate the everyday aesthetic judgments we make about art and objects. While finding kitty cams, baby carrots, and bath toys “cute” might seem innocent, Ngai cautions that a term like “cute” is ultimately rooted in a desire to “aestheticize powerlessness,” a useful tool for making commodification and consumption feel, conversely, empowering.
In her latest book, Theory of the Gimmick (2020), Ngai proposes another aesthetic category, “gimmicky,” to think through broader questions about how artistic worth is measured in capitalist culture. The gimmick, as a kind of labor-saving device that ironically overperforms (i.e., doing too much), is an embodiment of our anxiety about the way value is tied to labor.
Division of the Humanities Recognizes the Scholarship and Teaching of Students and Faculty at the 533rd Virtual Convocation
During this unprecedented time of the coronavirus, the Division of the Humanities at UChicago conducted a virtual Convocation—not out of choice but of necessity. The importance of commemorating its students’ and faculty’s achievements is captured on film and is available starting at 4:30 p.m. on June 12.
In addition to celebrating the achievements of more than 200 graduating students with master’s and doctoral degrees on June 12, Dean Anne Walters Robertson and Dean of Students Shea Wolfe honored several Division of Humanities students and faculty members during the Graduation Ceremony—Zoe Hughes, Lester (Zhuqing) Hu, Olga Sánchez-Kiselewska, Elizabeth Asmis, and Jason Riggle.
Four Graduate Students Honored for Exceptional Teaching of Undergraduates
Adam Antoszewski, Anna Band, Bastien Craipain and Shreya Ramachandran have been named the 2020 winners of the Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching, awarded annually to graduate students for outstanding instruction of undergraduates. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Craipain has received the Stuart Tave Teaching Fellowship and will continue to teach at UChicago as a Humanities Teaching Fellow.
Students and faculty in the College nominated the recipients for the prize, which was established in 1991 in honor of Booth, PhD’50, the late UChicago faculty member who was one of the 20th century’s most influential literary critics.
The College Announces Winners of the Undergraduate Teaching Award
Beatrice Fineschi, Daragh Grant, Valerie Levan, Oscar Pineda-Catalan and Sunit Singh have been awarded the newly established Glenn and Claire Swogger Award for Exemplary Classroom Teaching. In the Division of the Humanities, Levan stands out for her understanding and support of helping students make the transition from high school to college.
Based upon nominations from students in the College, the award recognizes outstanding teachers with College appointments, who introduce undergraduates to habits of scholarly thinking, inquiry and engagement in the Core Curriculum, the College’s general education program.
University Announces 2020 Winners of Quantrell and Graduate Teaching Awards
The transformative education that students experience at the University of Chicago begins with the teachers who inspire them.
The University annually recognizes faculty for exceptional teaching and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students through the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards, believed to be the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching; and the Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring, which honor faculty for their work with graduate students. In the Division of the Humanities, two faculty members received awards in 2020: Miquel Martínez in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and Elizabeth Asmis in the Department of Classics.