SEPT–OCT 2011, VOLUME 104, NUMBER 1 UCHICAGO ALUMNI TRAVEL 2019 “Compatible people, SKYSCRAPERS AND RACE … SAM KASS … COLLEGE BIBLIOPHILES … PHILIP ROTH 1933–2018 … DECARCERATION good lectures, interesting tours.” —Alumni Traveler, Scotland and Norway 2018 Why Travel Insight and inspiration Camaraderie Ease and expertise from a UChicago and conversation of a fully planned tour with UChicago? scholar’s lectures with fellow alumni led by an experienced traveling companions tour director Winter Spring Summer Fall New Zealand Holland and A Week in Tuscany Inspiring Italy Jan. 17–Feb. 1 Belgium by Barge June 11–19 Sept. 1–12 May 10–18 Israel Past and Present Arctic Expedition Normandy Mar. 4–15 Insider’s Japan June 14–24 Sept. 7–15 May 11–23 Belize to Tikal Changing Tides of Toronto to Mar. 5–13 Paris Noir History: The Baltic Sea Vancouver by Rail May 12–20 June 23–July 2 Sept. 20–26 Journey through South Africa Celtic Lands: D-Day Poland Romance of Mar. 26–Apr. 11 75th Anniversary June 28–July 6 the Douro River May 28–June 7 Oct. 15–26 Gems of the Danube July 8–18 Mystical India Nov. 3–21 National Parks and Lodges of the Old West Aug. 14–23 SUMMER 2018 SUMMER For More Information Indicates exclusive UChicago departures. alumni.uchicago.edu/travel Indicates a cruise. [email protected] 773.702.2150 SUMMER 2018, VOLUME 110, NUMBER 4 UCH_Summer2018 cover and spine_v1.indd 1 7/27/18 9:18 AM LSE-UCHICAGO DOUBLE EXECUTIVE MASTER’S IN HEALTH POLICY FROM HARRIS PUBLIC POLICY AND THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS 2 YEARS 2 DEGREES 2 CITIES AUTUMN 2018 + 2019 2–3 weeks in London SPRING 2018 + 2019 2–3 weeks in Chicago SUMMER 2019 Capstone Project SPRING 2020 MSc Dissertation Solutions to global health challenges require global thinking. VISIT US ONLINE lse.uchicago.edu LSE-Chicago Ad_v5.indd 1 2/5/18 10:19 AM UCH_ADS_v1.indd 2 7/26/18 11:53 AM Features SUMMER 2018 VOLUME 110, NUMBER 4 22 CORRECTIVE MEASURES A UChicago professor spearheads an initiative to end mass incarceration. By Lucas McGranahan 30 TALKING BACK Reflections on the life and literature of Philip Roth, AM’55.By Laura Demanski, AM’94 32 BIBLIOMANIA! College students go head-to-head in a competition for the best undergraduate book collection. By Susie Allen, AB’09 38 TOWERING INSIGHTS English associate professor Adrienne Brown explores the complicated racial history of the American skyscraper. By Susie Allen, AB’09 44 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Former White House chef Sam Kass, LAB’98, AB’04, is serving up new recipes and improvements to food policy. By Laura Demanski, AM’94 Plus: Kass’s recipe for brussels sprouts Caesar salad from Eat A Little Better. Departments 3 EDITOR’S NOTES Remembrance of notes past. By Laura Demanski, AM’94 4 LETTERS Readers applaud class correspondents, debate health policy, ponder the merits of reflection and regret, and more. 7 ON THE AGENDA Humanities’ reach expands exponentially. By Anne Walters Robertson 9 UCHICAGO JOURNAL Vision care in the developing world; expanding access to the College; making property tax more proper; agricultural legacies; and more. 20 COURSE WORK Adrienne Brown’s work Lights up on Thomas Christensen’s Making and Meaning in the American probes the effects of Musical. By Jeanie Chung burgeoning urbanism 47 PEER REVIEW in the 19th and 20th In the alumni essays, an unlikely political wife mulls her future and a scholar centuries. See “Towering treads the boards. Plus: Alumni News, Deaths, and Classifieds. Insights,” page 38. Illustration by Sylvia 80 LITE OF THE MIND Moritz. Doodling is the sincerest form of flattery.By Laura Demanski, AM’94 See the print issue of the University of Chicago Magazine, web-exclusive content, and links to our Facebook and Twitter accounts at mag.uchicago.edu. the university of chicago magazine | summer 2018 1 Contents_Spring18_v2.indd 2 7/26/18 5:24 PM pring ahead: Photographed from S above in late May, photography by soaring badger productions the quads were both stately and verdant. One of the newest sights in the campus landscape, which opened to students in fall quarter 2017, is Campus North Residential Commons, the tall white building northeast of the Regenstein Library. UCH_Wallpaper_v1.indd 2 7/26/18 12:50 PM EDITORˆS NOTES Volume 110, Number 4, Summer 2018 editor Laura Demanski, AM’94 senior editor Mary Ruth Yoe associate editor Susie Allen, AB’09 managing editor Rhonda L. Smith art director Guido Mendez alumni news editor Andrew Peart, AM’16, PhD’18 copy editor Sam Edsill student interns Brooke Nagler, ’20; Dylan Petiprin, ’19 graphic designer Laura Lorenz Remembrance contributing editors John Easton, AM’77; Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93; Brooke E. O’Neill, AM’04; Amy of notes past Braverman Puma BY LAURA DEMANSKI, AM’94 Editorial Office The University of Chicago Magazine, 5235 South Harper Court, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60615. telephone 773.702.2163; fax 773.702.8836; email [email protected]. The University of Chicago Alumni y happy coincidence, this of psychology Jesse Prinz, PhD’97, Association has its offices at issue contains reproduc- agree, saying that doodling focuses 5235 South Harper Court, 7th Floor, Chicago, IL 60615. telephone 773.702.2150; tions from the course note- our attention on what we’re hearing fax 773.702.2166. address changes books of two UChicagoans. and helps us remember it later. 800.955.0065 or [email protected]. Original Source (page 12) That was the case for Lorch, who web mag.uchicago.edu offers a page from Nobel sketched Sinaiko during a lecture on The University of Chicago Magazine Prize–winning astro- Aristotle’s Poetics in October 1989. In (ISSN-0041-9508) is published quarterly physicist Subrahmanyan a Q&A on our website (mag.uchicago (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer) by the Chandrasekhar’s notes for .edu/doodlecore), Lorch talks about University of Chicago in cooperation a quantum mechanics class the class; clearly the lecture stuck with with the Alumni Association, 5235 South Harper Court, 7th Floor, Chicago, IL he took as a student at Cam- him, helped by doodling and affection. 60615, and sent to all University of Chicago bridge University. And Lite of the Mind Meanwhile, if the cover page of alumni. Published continuously since 1907. features notes that Benjamin Lorch, Chandrasekhar’s notes on quantum Periodicals postage paid at Chicago and B additional mailing offices.postmaster AB’93, AM’04, took in a class with the mechanics is any indication, he was Send address changes to The University of College’s legendary Herman Sinaiko, all business during his classes. Yet the Chicago Magazine, Alumni Records, 5235 AB’47, PhD’61 (page 80). note he added almost two decades lat- South Harper Court, Chicago, IL 60615. Like many others who went to er, in the same careful, almost austere © 2018 University of Chicago. school for a very long time, I love note- hand, betrays how his wife Lalitha Advertising Contact uchicago-magazine@ books. Throughout my 20-plus years as had been on his mind as well. uchicago.edu or visit mag.uchicago.edu a student—from kindergarten to high Laptops may be more efficient, /advertising. The Magazine is a member school to college to graduate studies— but long live handwritten notes with of the Ivy League Magazine Network, whose clients include other colleges and there was no more welcome accompa- their madeleine-like powers to take universities. These advertisements help niment to each new fall. They might be us back in time, to knowledge and ex- the Magazine continue to deliver news Mead or Clairefontaine; I wasn’t too perience alike. of the University of Chicago and its alumni particular, just craved those blank lines to readers. Please contact the editor with any questions. full of promise, all neatly spiral-bound, Copy that simultaneously tactile and symbolic. Just before deadline, the Magazine wel- ivy league magazine network Once acquired and brought to class, comed Sam Edsill to the staff as copy Heather Wedlake, Director of Operations web ivymags.com those notebooks offered the different editor. He takes over the copyediting, email [email protected] pleasure of filling them up—dutifully fact-checking, and proofreading du- telephone 617.319.0995 with ideas, facts, dates, equations, ties of Rhonda L. Smith, who became and fancifully with doodles. In work managing editor earlier this year. Sam The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual meetings and during phone calls, I still comes to UChicago from the American orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic fill my margins with elaborate geomet- Hospital Association and the New York origin, age, status as an individual with a ric designs. To onlookers, I know, political news company City & State. At disability, protected veteran status, genetic the practice can appear inattentive. press time, we were already benefiting information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information, please see In my experience it’s anything but, from his sharp eye, and are very happy ©istock.com/blindspot photography by laura demanski, am’94 equalopportunity.uchicago.edu. and experts, including philosopher to be working with him. ◆ the university of chicago magazine | summer 2018 3 Ed Notes_Summer2018_v2.indd 3 7/26/18 4:31 PM Another outstanding contribution to the Spring issue was a letter about Jona- LETTERS than Z. (“JZ” as we knew him) Smith. The writer described JZ’s unique sto- rytelling, teaching, and mentoring so well that I felt again how profound was his adopting me as an advisee upon Support your class correspondent Henry Rago’s untimely death.