While researching Dedicated to God: An Oral History of Cloistered Nuns, Abbie Reese, MFA'13, spent six years learning and recording the individual stories of a community of cloistered monastic nuns living in a 25,000-square-foot enclosure outside Rockford, Illinois. Those stories and Reese's accompanying photographs will be published in November as part of the Oxford University Press's Oxford Oral History series, and mark one of the first times an author has been allowed access to an enclosure where nuns observe monastic silence. Reese graduated from the Department of Visual Arts in 2013, and has included photos and video from the project on her website. Her photos were also shown in the 2013 MFA Thesis exhibition, which can be found here.

Janice Knight, Associate Professor in English Language and Literature, received the #11 spot on Newcity Lit's 2013 "Lit 50" list for her accomplishments as Chair of the Committee on Creative Writing as well as her work on Early American colonialism, religion, and gender. The annual list recognizes leaders in the Chicago literary scene, with a special focus this year on "celebrating not so much the writers who occupy the center stage, but those who operate behind the scenes to make sure the stage itself exists."