Tableau

THE DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

WINTER 2008

IN THIS ISSUE | ANCIENT PERSIA | VIRTUAL TOURISM | ADVANCING AMERICAN STUDIES Interpreting and recording the Persepolis Fortification Archive tablets is one of many projects that University of Chicago Professor Matthew W. Stolper has been pursuing over the past twenty-odd years that he has served as their steward, and he had been proceeding at an intermittent pace. Today, patience is not an option. Stolper may be the last at the University of Chicago to steward and clear these opaque windows into the Empire of Cyrus the Great, Darius, and Xerxes. The remainder of his yield is imperiled by a lawsuit that could result either in

their transfer into the hands of private buyers and sellers or their return to Iran. SEE PAGE 10

contents

1 LETTER FROM THE DEAN FEATURES ON CAMPUS

8 The Convergence of American Culture: 14 Curriculum Vitae 2 HERE & NOW The Karla Scherer Center for the Study Faculty Publications • Journey to 19th-Century Japan of American Culture • Urban Sonic with an Intellectual Twist By Stefanie Rothman White, 16 The Honor Roll Annual Gifts • Reconfiguring Multiculturalism and Director of Communications, the Division of the Humanities Jewish Literature 20 Palimpsest • A Nexus for Linguistics 10 Of Ancient Empires and Modern Litigation: Up and Down the Scale • The Virtual Tourist: Printing and Collecting A Lawsuit Jeopardizes the Persepolis By David M. Thompson, PhD 1997, Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae Associate Dean for Planning and Programs • Visual Signs: Technology in the Classroom By Daniel Parisi, Director of Grants and Fellowships, the Division of the Humanities • The Crown & The Fury 21 Happenings • Climate of Concern A Selection of Past, Present, and Future Events

Tableau, Winter 2008, Volume 9, Number 2—Tableau is published biannually with Division of the Humanities funds for our alumni and friends. Editor: Stefanie Rothman White; To Contact Tableau: The University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities, 1115 East 58th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, [email protected]. FROM THE DEAN 1

primary responsibility in the coming months and years. I have been entrusted with the task of sup- porting the faculty and graduate students who are the foundation of this unparalleled institution. It is dear alumni in this rich environment, that fosters initiatives in and friends research and teaching, that I have been fortunate to achieve my own personal academic goals through the past 28 years. Most recently I sent to press the final volume of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, of which I have been Editor in Charge since 1996. A project such as this could not have I AM PLEASED AND HONORED TO ADDRESS YOU been accomplished anywhere other than the &for the first time from the pages of Tableau. The University of Chicago. This is a truly unique set- past few months have been exhilarating, assuming ting, where risk-taking is encouraged and where my new role as Dean of the Division of the Human- academic initiatives that stand on their own ities and setting the groundwork for collaborations intellectual merit are prized. I intend to ensure with colleagues and individuals who support the that other scholars have these same opportunities Division. well into the future. While I knew before coming to the position I am reminded on a daily basis how outstand- that the Division was comprised of internationally ing are our faculty and students. Recognizing and renowned departments and individual faculty celebrating their achievements is a goal of mine, members, I have been impressed by the commit- and here throughout the pages of Tableau are ment to the Humanities and the advancement of examples of what some of the highest caliber our academic endeavors that I find throughout thinkers, writers, and researchers today are doing the University community. I am most grateful to to inspire new generations of scholarship. Thank President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Thomas you for joining me in supporting them and helping F. Rosenbaum for their belief in and commitment the Division progress to a proud future. ■ to the value of humanistic inquiry and its essential

role in the institution. Sincerely yours, I have had the good fortune to inherit a dedi- cated staff from former Dean Danielle Allen. The support from our alumni is also tremendous. I have

had the pleasure of forging relationships with new Martha T. Roth friends whose generosity will further our efforts Dean of the Division of the Humanities to enhance cross-disciplinary collaboration, push intellectual boundaries, and set global research agendas. Please see the article about Karla Scherer in this issue for an example of how our mission is supported by our friends. Managing and enhancing the available resources to help the Division realize its potential will be my 2 HERE & NOW

here &now

EXHIBITIONS Journey to 19th-Century Japan

By Elizabeth Begley, MA 2007

scroll depicts Shandao, a seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk, later reconceptualized as an incarnation of the Amida Buddha, standing on a cloud as it transports him from China to Japan. Brilliant in his gold and platinum robe and a golden halo around his head, Shandao pro- Anounces the three syllables forming the name of the Amida Buddha. The Shandao print is just one of a collection of images, photographs, statues, maps, and talismans in “Objects of Inquiry: The Buckley Collection of Japanese Art” on view at the Smart Museum of Art this fall.

Edmund Buckley traveled and taught in Japan from The collection was originally exhibited on campus 1886 to 1892 and compiled the collection while in 1894 in one of the first systematic displays of researching religious practice for his dissertation. Japanese religious objects in the West. After returning to the United States, the newborn The current exhibit, on display through December University of Chicago admitted 16, 2007, is the culmination of last spring’s “Objects Buckley as he pursued a PhD of Japanese Art” seminar taught by Ketelaar and in the history Hans Thomsen, chair of the East Asia Department, of religion, a Institute of Art History, University of Zurich (formerly field that hardly University of Chicago assistant professor of Art fix rag existed before that History). The objects in the show were selected and researched by the students in the seminar, with time. Buckley sought assistance from Richard Born, senior curator of the to understand the Smart Museum. The exhibition allows the Buckley “science of religion” by finding continuity among Collection to return to its roots as a teaching collec- diverse world religions throughout history. tion on Japan, and also to function as a bridge “Buckley was not unique in looking to other between museum exhibitions of the past and the societies as exemplars of ‘the primitive’ in an analy- present. As research and restoration continue, the sis of world religious and civilizational hierarchies,” objects will provide a richer picture not only of said James Ketelaar, professor of History and East Japan more than one hundred years ago, but also of Asian Languages and Civilizations, who co-curated Buckley himself, who, through his notes and journal, the exhibition. “So in this regard, his work is illus- will offer a glimpse into the history of Western trative and, given the quality of his collection and the scholars in Japan, and of the University of Chicago’s range of materials, we can even say exemplary, of beginnings as an institution. nineteenth-century scholastic method and content.” “This collection gives glimpses into the vibrant Buckley’s return to Chicago from Japan coincided nature of some aspects of worship practices found with the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and the Parlia- in Japan,” Ketelaar said. “Buckley (was able to) ment of the World’s Religions, a global symposium on catch the flavor of the time quite well. These few the various religions of the late nineteenth century. objects reveal pieces of this world to us even here Buckley immersed himself in the study of religion, in Hyde Park.” ■ was granted a PhD in 1895 and served as adjunct professor in the Department of Comparative Religions. Above: The scroll depicting “Honen’s Vision of Shandao” is the center- He wrote several articles and treatises on Japanese piece of the current exhibition of the Buckley Collection, which also religions and religious customs, all designed to edu- includes prints, religious objects, and other artifacts collected in Japan cate a Western public about an Eastern way of life. at the end of the nineteenth century. TABLEAU 3

CONFERENCE

PHOTO JOHN WALDER Reconfiguring Multiculturalism and Jewish Literature

By Jane Charney, graduate student, the Committee on International Relations

or Jan Schwarz, America is not simply a multicultural country. It’s also multilingual — with more than 300 languages spoken Fhere daily. Schwarz, senior lecturer in Yiddish in the Department of Germanic Studies and the College, was inspired by The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature, compiled by Werner Sollors of Harvard University, to look at the multiplicity of languages spoken and written within the American VISITING ARTISTS Jewish community. Urban Sonic with an Intellectual Twist The “Multilingual Jewish Literature and Multi- cultural America” conference, held in early November, By Monica Westin, graduate student, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities explored American Jewish literary tradition in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and Ladino (a hybrid of hen Daniel Bernard Roumain Hebrew and Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews). and DJ Scientific take the The conference was sponsored by the University Mandel Hall stage on Feb- of Chicago — including the Franke Institute of the Wruary 1, their instruments — Humanities, Committee on Jewish Studies, and the the violin and a few LP turntables — will “sing, Department of Germanic Studies — as well as DePaul battle, and rhyme together, honoring not only University and the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. the first and second Viennese schools of Europe, In the academic sense, the conference’s signifi- but the Bronx and Old School Hip-Hop, and the cance is the opportunity it gives scholars from various waves of commercial music inventions that flowed program of short residencies by distinguished fields for interdisciplinary research and exchange, from that magical place and time,” as Roumain artists. The University of Chicago Presents is Schwarz said. But a much more valuable outcome puts it. Roumain, also known as DBR, and DJ hosting the performance. of the conference is an attempt to define what it Scientific will perform “etudes4violin&electronix” Artspeaks was created four years ago, “to means to be an American in a multicultural and or “Sonata for Violin and Turntables,” a ground- stimulate the interplay of theory and practice that multilingual setting. breaking fusion and conversation about the history is at the heart of the arts at the University,” said “This country has always been a haven for and traditions of both classical and hip-hop culture. Mary Harvey, associate provost and chair of the refugees. It’s a country of immigrants,” Schwarz DBR, a Haitian-American composer, performer, Arts Council, the organizing entity of Artspeaks. Continued > and DJ, as well as a violinist, is known for his “Through their public presentation and, especially, inspired hybridization of classical music with their informal interactions with our students, the modern references. DJ Scientific, a.k.a. Elan guest artists contribute in a significant way to Vytal, combines precisely engineered hip-hop the critical conversations about the interrelation- beats and scratched rhythms with classical and ship of arts and ideas that characterize our cam- world-music sounds, both live and sampled, creat- pus.” Each residency is organized and presented ing a uniquely contemporary yet accessible urban in collaboration with University of Chicago sonic experience. departments, centers, and arts organizations Following the performance, DBR will converse and includes sessions with students as well as in a more traditional manner with Bakari Kitwana, public events. scholar-in-residence at the University’s Center Also on the Artspeaks’ docket this season for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. is theater and opera director Peter Sellars on Kitwana, an author and activist, January 10 and conceptual artist Hans Haacke is a pioneer in the intellectual on February 12. inquiry into hip-hop and For more information on Artspeaks please youth culture. visit http://arts.uchicago.edu/artspeaks.html; DBR’s visit is part of for Chicago Presents information, please visit Artspeaks, the University’s http://chicagopresents.uchicago.edu. ■ 4 HERE & NOW

DEPARTMENT NEWS A Nexus for Linguistics

continued from page 3 By Stefanie Rothman White, Director of Communications, Division of the Humanities

Today, Yiddish now he laboratory of the oldest linguistics department in the United States is undergoing is experiencing a significant renewal. This fall, a complete renovation of the Language Laboratories and Archives (LLA) was completed, helping the facility keep pace with the state-of-the-art

a revival among & Tresearch conducted by University of Chicago faculty. both academics The reconfigured laboratories will be named and people the Karen Landahl Center for Linguistics Research seeking to in memory of Karen Landahl, professor in the Department of Linguistics (1985 – 2003), academic reconnect with director of the Language Laboratories and their heritage. Archives (1986 –2003), and associate dean for Computing and Language Technologies, who

here died in 2003. The Landahl Center will be located said. “But there is also tremendous pressure to in the lower level of the University’s Social assimilate and Americanize, and the English language Science Research Building, a historic hub of inter- has been that ticket to success for becoming part of disciplinary activity constructed in 1926. American society. Language is the price paid willingly “Karen is remembered for her dedication to by many different groups.” language teaching, learning, and documentation,” In the Jewish context, the loss of Yiddish said Martha T. Roth, Dean of the Division of the in the post-World War II period Humanities. “She was a rigorous researcher, and has been central to the way the a mentor to a generation of young scholars who Jewish community in are making their own contributions at numerous the United States has academic institutions throughout the world.” defined itself, Schwarz When it was founded in 1926 by Clarence E. said. When Jewish Parmenter, professor in the Departments of Lin- immigrants arrived in guistics and Romance Languages and Literatures, The new Landahl Center continues the Univer- America at the turn of the University Language Laboratory was one of sity’s tradition of using innovative technologies the twentieth century, the first built in the United States for the study for linguistic research as well as the develop- Yiddish defined their entire of language. At the time, it featured a phonetics ment of new teaching methodologies. It also experience. Fifty years ago, chamber equipped with x-ray photography, air- incorporates the tradition of interdisciplinary immediately after the Holocaust, flow measurements, and oscillograms of speech. collaboration. “I’m anticipating synergy,” said Jews understood their place in It was in this pioneering laboratory that Parmenter Jason Riggle, assistant professor, Department the world only partly through Yiddish. made important advances in our understanding of Linguistics, “similar to the intellectual stimu- Today, Yiddish is experiencing a revival of the articulatory points in the vocal tract thus lation of the “24/7” dot.com start-up world.” among both academics and people seek- making possible his major contribution to The 4,500 sq. ft. center will house four labs ing to reconnect with their heritage. “The phonetics: the first scientific description of focused on phonology, semantics, computational conference is meant to highlight what was lost the distinct articulatory postures of vowels — linguistics, and anthropological linguistic research, in American Jewish culture and to retrieve those the way we use our mouths to communicate respectively. Each lab contains work stations for connections,” Schwarz said. “Recognizing the multi- with one another. graduate students, and specialized facilities such plicity of linguistic expressions can only make Jewish as a sound booth and an elicitation room will life more multifaceted and enriched.” support experimentation of various kinds. A new Schwarz and co-organizer Eric Selinger, associate conference room and student lounge will encour- professor of English at DePaul University, hope to age collaboration and conversation, and walls publish a volume of essays by the conference’s throughout the center are equipped to be written participants. on, so new formulations can be illustrated on “The ultimate goal is to reconfigure the entire the spot. debate about multiculturalism in terms of language A dedication and celebration of the Karen Landahl because language is the key to understanding Center for Linguistics Research is scheduled to multiculturalism,” Schwarz said. “America is both take place during spring quarter; for additional multicultural and multilingual. That ought to be information please visit http://humanities reflected in the scholarship.” ■ .uchicago.edu. ■ TABLEAU 5

The Speculum includes maps and prints depicting tourist attractions and historic monuments in fourteenth-century Rome. Made for pilgrims, tourists, antiquarians, and scholars, these prints served as substitute for an actual experience of Renaissance Rome and its attractions.

images and texts that could substitute for an actual EXHIBITIONS experience of Renaissance Rome and its monuments. The graduate students who helped develop the exhibition themes spent much of last year examining The Virtual Tourist these items, and relating them to guidebooks, archi- tectural treatises, and any other publication on Rome Printing and Collecting the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae or Renaissance antiquarianism that they could find. For some students, work on the exhibition related By Kristine Hess, PhD candidate in Art History directly to their field of study: Olah, who is interested in Renaissance print culture, used one of the Speculum he Virtual Tourist in Renaissance Rome: field, Kristine Hess, Iva Olah, Ann Patnaude, and prints as the basis for a seminar paper; for Patnaude, Printing and Collecting the Speculum Rainbow Porthé. The exhibition features such diverse the research was a change of pace from Greek art Romanae Magnificentiae is currently on themes as the history of print collecting; Lafreri’s and archaeology. “I particularly enjoyed thinking and Tview in the Special Collections Research models, competitors, and imitators; Renaissance learning about the Renaissance interpretation of Center of the Regenstein Library. The exhibition tourism; the picturesque in landscape; the codifica- antiquity; it made me realize just how prevalent showcases Chicago’s collection of over 994 prints of tion of classical form; city planning; and religious Renaissance ideas are in current classical scholar- major monuments and antiquities from Renaissance pilgrimage. It will remain on view until February 11, ship,” she said. “In this sense, the project was a Rome, along with contemporary printed material 2008, accompanied by a published catalogue and useful historiographic exercise and has enriched my such as guidebooks and antiquarian treatises. The scholarly symposium hosted by the University. own approach to antiquity.” core of Speculum images was published by Antonio The range of possible subjects reflects the multi- The exhibition opened in conjunction with the Lafreri, a native Frenchman working in Rome during plicity of interests at play within early modern print launching of a digital online collection, http://speculum the sixteenth century. Lafreri also published the titlepage for the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae or “Mirror of Roman Magnificence” in the mid-1570s. Tourists and other collectors bought these prints individually, making their own selections among the available views of Rome, its monuments, and antiq- uities. Lafreri’s title page served as a starting point for unique and often sizeable collections that might be further expanded by generations of collectors. Chicago’s Speculum, reaching its final form in the nineteenth century, is one of the largest in existence. The Virtual Tourist was curated by Rebecca Zorach, associate professor of Art History and the College, along with Art History graduate students Ingrid Green- culture and particularly in Renaissance Rome. Above: Map of Rome. Etching, 1597. Theodor de Bry, etcher and pub- Reconstructions of antique circus arenas or Roman lisher. Left: Augustan Rome. Engraving after Mario Fabio Calvo in Jean sacrificial processions were intended to recover the Jacques Boissard, Romanae Vrbis Topographiae & Antiquitatum, 1627. city’s pagan past, while renderings of modern urban projects asserted Rome’s contemporary identity, .lib.uchicago.edu. The Virtual Tourist is aptly named, especially as connected to the Roman Catholic for just as the Renaissance viewer whose interest in papacy. Pope Sixtus V’s efforts to widen the main Rome was facilitated by the ready circulation of the streets between pilgrimage basilicas and to mark then-new technology of prints, today’s scholars and the sacred topography of the city by means of its researchers will also gain access to these views of ancient obelisks is an example of one such project. Roman antiquities through the Special Collections Engravers and publishers worked hard to keep up website. Individuals can search the Speculum with with changing architectural projects and ecclesiastical various interests in mind, creating distinctive itiner- patrons. Their audience included pilgrims, tourists, aries and expanding research possibilities for each antiquarians and scholars, some of whom may never of the printed images. In this way, visitors will be have reached Rome in person. The prints conveyed able to create their own virtual tour. ■ 6 HERE & NOW

THEATRE The Crown & The Fury

By Monica Westin, graduate student, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities

oAnne Akalaitis’s production of Thyestes at the Court Theater assaulted its audience with a man tricked into eating his own Jchildren, a world in which the gods have disappeared, seemingly for good, and a tyrant whose perversity and lust for revenge knows no bounds. Perhaps Akalaitis’s greatest achievement is that the audience laughed as it squirmed, reacted audibly to moments of horror, and couldn’t look away from the here &now striking set and costumes that were ancient and postmodern at once. Drucilla Ronchen, lecturer in the Humanities PROGRAMS Collegiate Division, explained through an ASL interpreter that, as with spoken languages, signed Visual Signs: languages vary by users. There are regional accents, Technology in the Classroom as well as differences based on such social factors as age, gender, culture, and personality. She By Joanne M. Berens, MFA 1993 described the need to broaden students’ exposure to a range of signers as a means of increasing he Provost’s Program for Academic their understanding, skills, and confidence. Luckily, Information Technology provides grants many speakers in Chicago’s vibrant and active deaf to improve academic research and community have agreed to participate in video Tteaching at the University with new interviews. Begun this past summer and due to be technology. Steven Clancy, academic director of the completed in spring 2008, the digital interviews Center for the Study of Languages, received nearly will join the language center’s growing library of $34,000 for instruction aids in American Sign ASL materials, which now includes a complete Language (ASL). Clancy, as principal investigator, digitized set of Ronchen’s personal collection of sought seed money for three innovations: to video- rare and aging VHS tapes. tape a range of signers in the Chicago area, to digi- Ronchen enthusiastically described how video- tize rare videotapes, and to enable videoconferencing conferencing would help her communicate with between students and their teacher. students outside the classroom. (Her popular ASL classes are routinely in the top ten or fifteen language courses in terms of enrollments.) With the purchase of twelve laptops equipped with webcams that stu- dents borrow from the language center, Ronchen The stakes of revenge in Caryll Churchill’s trans- can hold remote office hours and conferences. The lation of Seneca’s play are so high that, in a recent timing of the grant dovetailed neatly with techno- lecture, David Levin, co-director of the Master of logical advances in live video streaming: Quicker Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) program, transmission speeds can track rapid signing gestures compared Atreus’ excessive, desperate search for accurately and clearly. Further, as Clancy explained, revenge to Jacques Lacan’s concept of “Das Ding,” Ronchen will also soon be able to pull up examples which stands in for a desire so vast and formless from the catalog library and illustrate specific points as to be outside of symbolization and language. during conference calls. ■ Thyestes, his brother’s victim, presents an image of stoicism threatened by madness and violence, Seed money was provided for three perhaps a voice speaking for Seneca in the face of innovations: to videotape a range his former pupil Nero’s tyrannical persecutions, which of signers in the Chicago area, would end for Seneca in a suicide that Nero demanded. Akalaitis, who knows her Brecht, managed to to digitize rare videotapes, and to sustain an ideal Brechtian alienation-effect through- enable videoconferencing between out the play, and in bolder moments, such as wafting students and their teacher. the smell of cooked meat into the theater as Thyestes, TABLEAU 7

COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING Climate of Concern Science and the Arts Respond to a Changing Environment

By Theaster Gates, Jr., Coordinator of Arts Programming, Division of the Humanities

hat would you imagine that Chicago-based artist Dan Peterman, the African- WAmerican dance ensemble Deeply Rooted, and University of Chicago geo- physicist David Archer have in common? They were all participants in this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF), an annual set of programs at venues across the city that this year, for the first time, developed programming in Hyde Park in collaboration with a group of local organizations. Poets, playwrights, musi- unknowing, eats his children, the production bordered cians, artists, and scholars converged to explore on the theater of cruelty of Artaud, who famously a common theme, “The Climate of Concern,” in one production made audiences physically sick. and to challenge audiences with a question: I certainly heard audible shudders as well as uncom- How do we, as a community of fellow humans, fortable laughter throughout the grotesque, throbbing come to envision — with lucidity, vigor, and last minutes of the play, when Atreus’ arrogance and hope — our responsibilities toward each other, brutality reached a fever pitch and we in the audience our progeny, and the planet? sat in dread of Thyestes’ terrible realization. CHF has always been a friend to the University Akalaitis’s postmodern production featured two of Chicago. Indeed, an early version of the festival movie screens playing a montage of bits of the play’s is Humanities Day, a twenty-eight-year-old backstory and moments in the plot unseen onstage. annual event at the University. In 1989 University The set beautifully mimicked a house that material- Trustee Richard Franke, then-chair of the Illinois ized the infamous “House of Atreus,” its roof a sort Humanities Council, was inspired by the pro- of permeable membrane between the hell of Tantalus, gram and decided to introduce it city-wide in the grandfather of Atreus and Thyestes who brought the form of the Chicago Humanities Festival. about the family curse (itself a grisly tale), and the Kenyan environmental activist and 2004 earthly world of his descendants. Props and costumes Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai seemed both ancient and modern at once, some- kicked off the 2007 Chicago Humanities Festival times playfully, sometimes poignantly — I remember with a standing-room-only lecture at Rockefeller Above: Kenyan environmental activist and 2004 Nobel Peace particularly the emphatically and literally chilling Memorial Chapel, on September 23. Maathai Prize recipient Wangari Maathai addresses the audience at the Hyde Park kickoff of this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival. moment in which Atreus presents his brother with the detailed her experiences as the first woman PhD remains of his children, stored in a handy, portable in Africa, as a legislator, and as the founder Below: Humanities Festival Vice Chairman Karla Scherer, Maathai, Willard G. Fraumann, chairman, Chicago Humanities Festival Coleman cooler — in a constant effort to remind the of the Green Belt Movement, a group whose volunteers plant trees to reclaim Kenya’s Board of Directors, and University President Robert J. Zimmer. audience of implicit comparisons between the Rome Images © Brian Lee Photography. Courtesy of the Chicago Humanities Festival of Seneca and the contemporary western world. And endangered ecosystem. while the production does coincide with a new Uni- Experimental Station, Little Black Pearl Art arts, philosophy, ecology and evolution, and others. versity of Chicago Press publication of The Complete & Design Center, and the Hyde Park Art Center Programming also included film screenings, Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, for anyone paying hosted Climate of Concern pro- workshops, and performances. attention to the news, Thyestes, at heart, a terrify- gramming on October 28. “Integrated programming was the culmina- ing story about paranoia and excess, doesn’t seem Panel discussions tion of extensive partnering on campus and featured University untimely in other ways. ■ beyond,” said David M. Thompson, associate of Chicago dean for planning and programs in the Humanities faculty from Thyestes by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, translation Division. “It has been wonderful to watch what departments by Caryl Churchill, and directed by JoAnne began as a lunch discussion with the CHF in 2004 including visual Akalaitis (AM 1960) opened Court Theatre’s grow into a set of lively conversations involving 2007 season, performances ran through people and groups across our community. We October 21, 2007. look forward to deepening our collaborations in

Court photography © Michael Brosilow the future.” ■ 8 DONOR FOCUS culture

KARLA SCHERER, an alumna of the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, has given the Humanities Division more than $5 million—one of the largest single contributions to the Division ever— which will establish a research center for the study of American culture. Prior to the opening ceremony of the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture on November 12, we asked Scherer about the roots of her affinity for the humanities, and what inspired her particular interest in American culture and her support of the University of Chicago.

What led you to enroll in the Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) when I was 62 Q University’s Master of Arts Program and graduated in 1999. I did it in a year and a half instead in the Humanities? of the customary one year so that I could continue work- ing professionally. I went to Wellesley for a year and then transferred My thesis topic was “Women’s Evolving Role: American A to the University of Michigan and graduated in Painting and Sculpture, 1763 to 1912.” Artists, after all, 1957, a year ahead of schedule, with a degree in English do not work in a vacuum, and what happens around them literature. I began to realize as I matured that accelerating is reflected in their art. Women subjects are certainly no my education had not ultimately been a wise choice. exception, and their work frequently gives the observer a There were a lot of interesting courses in various depart- convergence ments that I had been unable to take because of scheduling of american “The overarching goal for the center constraints inherent to a fast track. Increasingly, graduate school became an appealing option. A friend, Carroll Joynes, is to redefine and support innovative told me that a program existed at the University of Chicago paradigms of scholarly work on the where he works [as executive director of the Cultural Policy Center]. As a result, I enrolled in the Master of culture of the United States...” the TABLEAU 9

rich insight into a country’s cultural history. My experience at the University of Chicago, and especially with my thesis advisor, Dr. Judith Barter, was the first time I had ever studied anything from a broad cultural perspective. In the 1950s, we studied in a very focused and linear fashion. If you took a history of art course, the lecturer would concentrate on technical aspects such as light treatment, brush strokes, and visual perspective. Very little was said at that time about what was actually happening in the world when the art was made or why the artist had picked a particular subject and treated it in a distinctive manner. The Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture

What motivated you to support will be the nexus for dozens Q MAPH? of Chicago scholars studying a variety of aspects of In 1989 I led a proxy contest for control of a publicly- American culture — ranging A traded New York Stock Exchange company, the R.P. Scherer Corporation, which my father founded in 1933. from American painting of Proxy contests are notoriously difficult to win, and I believe the 18th century, the great For example, right now, at Chicago, you’ll that I’m the only woman who has ever been successful. American novels of the 19th find faculty and students studying aspects of As a result of the experience, I witnessed how frequently century, and the linguistic American culture in very different ways in women were patronized, marginalized, or even ignored in far-flung departments, divisions, and schools corporate America. After sale through a controlled auction, origins of Native American across the University: in Anthropology, Art I took a portion of my hard-won proceeds and decided to dialects to the history of History, Cinema and Media Studies, the Div- start a foundation that would assist women, through edu- hip-hop music. inity School, Economics, English Language cation in the fields of economics and finance, to reach and Literature, the Graduate School of positions of power in corporate America. This was the Karla THE CENTER ALSO WILL SERVE Business, History, the Law School, Linguistics, Scherer Foundation’s mission until I completed my AM at as a point of convergence for Americanists Music, Romance Languages, Philosophy, the University of Chicago and realized that humanities at other Chicago-area and Midwestern uni- Psychology, Political Science, Public Policy, would foster the kind of thinking that, ultimately, could versities and at Chicago cultural institutions. Social Thought, Sociology, Visual Arts — serve the scholars I support to greater advantage. A longtime board member and current vice and no doubt elsewhere.” chairman of the Chicago Humanities Festival The creation of the center is, in large part, What was it about the study of Board, Scherer envisions the center partnering a response to the growing desire among faculty Q American culture in particular that with other Chicago cultural institutions, in the Humanities and Social Sciences Divi- attracted you? such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the sions. It will serve an important coordinating The Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture Newberry Library, to showcase the study role across the disciplines. It went straight back to my thesis and a new way of of American culture to a much broader The Scherer Center was formally opened A looking at the world across previously predefined audience through events such as public during a reception on Monday, November 12 disciplines. This is an exciting way to study, and the Univer- conferences and symposia. at its offices in Classics Hall. sity of Chicago has long been known for its collaborative In addition to increasing financial support Three directors — James Chandler, the style. Concurrently, I had been curious about the fact that for faculty and graduate student research, Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished although the University has 77 centers across the campus, spurring faculty collaborations, and creating Service Professor in English Language and there was not a single center that focused on this country. a central home for the University’s scholars Literature; Clark Gilpin, the Margaret E. of American culture, the Scherer gift will Burton Distinguished Service Professor in endow a professorship, the Karla Scherer the Divinity School; and Slauter — will What is your goal for the Karla Professor of American Culture. manage the center in its first three years Q Scherer Center for the Study of The University elected not to create a of operation. American Culture? major or program in American studies, but Among the first of the center’s goals is rather to create a center because of a firm to begin planning an agenda of conferences The overarching goal as I envision it for the center belief in the multidisciplinary approach, said and symposia. The center also will build a A is to redefine and support innovative paradigms of Eric Slauter, assistant professor in English website to showcase Americanist research scholarly work on the culture of the United States and Language and Literature and one of the at Chicago and plan a fellowship program methodologies that would include and encourage study- co-directors of the Scherer Center. “Study- for graduate and post-doctoral students. In ing who and what we are and have been across every ing American culture,” he said, “extends far the near future, Scherer also hopes the cen- imaginable disciplinary border. Open the subject up, turn beyond the established relationships between ter will forge a relationship with publishing it upside down, look and look hard at seemingly disparate literary and historical studies that form the houses, to publish important research in parts of our history. ■ core of most programs in American studies. American culture. ■ 10 OF ANCIENT EMPIRES of ancient empires and modern litigation TABLEAU 11

BY DANIEL PARISI, DIRECTOR OF GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS, DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES

THE PERSEPOLIS FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE

“Persians wrote Persian in Persia—would you believe that this couldn’t be said with any certainty until the tablets had revealed it?” This is one of the latest revelations of the Persepolis Fortification Archive (PFA) Project, which is headed by Matthew W. Stolper, John A. Wilson professor of Assyriology at the Oriental Institute (OI) and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Stolper explained that it was confirmed by the discovery that one of the estimated 30,000 clay tablets of the Archive is written in Old Persian, proof that the written language was used for practical recording and not only for royal display. Insights such as this have been transforming our under- standing of the Achaemenid Persians since the tablets were discovered in southwestern Iran at Persepolis, the chief imperial residence of the Achaemenid Persian kings, in 1933 by a team of archeologists from the Oriental Institute. The tablets, which the OI has had on loan ever since they were discovered, are administrative documents dating Pfrom c. 500 BC and bearing texts primarily in the ancient languages of Elamite and Aramaic, as well as impressions patience is not an option. Stolper may be the last at the of seals. Nothing like them had ever been found before at University of Chicago to steward and clear these opaque an Achaemenid site, and nothing comparable in size and windows into the Empire of Cyrus the Great, Darius, and scope has been found since. Xerxes. The remainder of his yield is imperiled by a law- Interpreting and recording the tablets is one of many suit that could result either in their transfer into the hands projects that Stolper has been pursuing over the past of private buyers and sellers or their return to Iran. Each twenty-odd years that he has served as their steward, and outcome likely would render them off-limits to Western he had been proceeding at an intermittent pace. Today, scholarship for the foreseeable future. >>> 12 OF ANCIENT EMPIRES

“They are like the bones of a prehistoric creature. The tens of thousands of pieces of the Archive were once articulated elements of a single organism ...”

At its height, the Achaemenid Persian Empire nothing about it could be understood. Making sense ruled a continent, from India and Central Asia to of the find would require painstaking work, so in 1936 Egypt and Macedonia. Darius I and his successors the tablets were sent to Chicago on loan for study built Persepolis from about 520 BC onward to be the and publication. chief imperial residence of the royal family. It was destroyed after 320 BC as a result of its conquest by THE WORK Alexander the Great and the wars among his succes- sors. Ever since European travelers began in the 1600s The discovery of the Fortification tablets was widely to visit Persepolis, the massive standing ruins on the publicized. Here at last was a view of the Persian great stone terrace at the site have been renowned Empire derived not from the records of its subjects, in the West as the most spectacular remains of the such as the Babylonians or Egyptians, or its adver- Persian Empire. saries, such as Herodotus, Xenophon, and other Greek Yet Persepolis itself remained unexcavated until authors, but from the vantage of its rulers in their archaeologists from the OI began work there in 1931. homeland. The Empire whose intricate connections In response to the crisis, Stolper is leading an In 1933, preparing to build a ramp for truck access and conflicts with Greece gave rise to the very con- expedited effort to record as much information as the to the terrace, the OI team cleared the remains of cepts of the East and the West would now tell its tablets can possibly share. His efforts, which may be a bastion in the mud-brick fortification wall. In the side of the story. the last at the OI, are preceded by those of many deter- process they discovered clay tablets in two chambers These lofty hopes were soon dampened, as the mined scholars who have dedicated their scholarly of the fortifications (hence the name of the Archive). tablets were found to be mundane administrative lives to revealing the view of the Empire that was Within a few months the excavator, Ernst Herzfeld, records. They deal not with the words and deeds of captured and preserved inadvertently by the tablets, could report on the stunning size and complexity of the kings and commanders but with outlays of grain and which had once been dismissed as banal administra- find, which was without parallel in the exploration of flour, wine and beer, livestock and fruit. And most tive documents but have since proved to be nothing the Achaemenid past; they had unearthed as many of the texts are in Elamite, an indigenous language less than revolutionary. as 30,000 tablets and fragments, most with cuneiform written in Iran for almost 2,000 years before the texts in Elamite language, some with Aramaic texts, Achaemenid Empire was founded. It was poorly Above: About 30,000 tablets were unearthed at Persepolis. Most at least one and perhaps more with texts of other understood and studied by only a few scholars who of them deal with day-to-day distribution of food and supplies, and kinds, and impressions of thousands of seals. often disagreed bitterly. contain invaluable information for the study of Achaemenid Persians. In more than fifty years of earlier exploration, only Moreover, there were no comparable Elamite Below: The Oriental Institute began excavations at the site in 1933. one tablet of this kind had been found, and almost texts. It was to take years of fundamental work to TABLEAU 13

make these sources tractable. To complicate matters THE INSIGHT Fortification texts the largest known source for Old further, the team of young scholars that set to work Iranian lexicon preserved in indirect transmission. The on the Fortification tablets shrank considerably owing The PFA was an administrative repository in which the fact that some of the Iranian terms are transcribed to World War II. The vicissitudes of postwar academic royal clerks and supervisors recorded the storage and in differing forms allows recognition of dialect vari- life would leave only a few individuals working on outlay of stocks of food. Most of the Elamite documents ation. Their dense archival context makes it possible them in isolation thereafter. that record single transactions were written in about to reinterpret cognate information transcribed in Foremost among them was Richard T. Hallock 150 villages and about a dozen district centers in the other languages — Babylonian, Egyptian, Aramaic, (1906 –1980), who returned to the OI from wartime region around Persepolis and then brought into Perse- and Greek. Some of the Iranian terms found in the naval service and spent the rest of his life working polis itself. Once there, these records were compiled royal inscriptions with high-register, ideologically on the Elamite Fortification texts. “His work was in larger secondary records. After that, the primary charged meaning recur in the administrative texts meticulous and economical,” says Stolper. “He wrote records were to be discarded, and the secondary records with low-register, quotidian senses, giving depth to on the backs of old manuscripts and department were held for fifteen or more years. Therefore, most the lexicon and vitality to the remains of these dead meeting announcements. He didn’t publish much, of the dated primary records come from the later years idioms. This is a characteristic shared by the PFA as and what he did publish were terse statements that of the PFA, and most of the dated secondary records a whole — it reveals the commonplace but compli- concealed the years of effort behind his hard-won are from the earlier years. This is not only a structured cated realities that lay behind the colorful Greek tales conclusions. His colleagues at Chicago didn’t see or set of data from a structured organization — it is a of high life at the Achaemenid courts. hear much from him. They thought he was a plodder, flow of data with a timeline. In a similar way, the seal impressions on the tablets As Stolper describes the collection, provide a new perspective. As the most commonly “They are like the bones of a prehis- occurring artifact that carries figural imagery, seals toric creature. The tens of thousands traditionally have been a backbone of the study of of pieces of the Archive were once the art of the ancient Near East. The glyptic corpus articulated elements of a single preserved in the PFA is remarkable for the great organism, an information system diversity of motifs, iconography, and carving styles that served a single administrative that it preserves. What is more, these images docu- institution. We have a snapshot of ment a critical time in the development of Achaemenid a life span interrupted, a rare and art, when a canon of official court art was created invaluable archaeological discovery.” in the reign of Darius I. The tablets are made of clay and Unlike the monumental relief and statuary of the were formed by hand. Cuneiform time of Darius, the seal imagery preserves stages of texts and seals were impressed when experimentation of this official court art. It also opens the tablet surfaces were leather-hard, an extraordinary portal into the influence of Elamite, and the texts and impressions became Babylonian, and Assyrian arts on the formation of the permanent when the clay dried. official Achaemenid court art. The PFA seal corpus Aramaic texts were sometimes incised teems with implications and data on the social and in the leather-hard surfaces, but more political contexts of image making and usage. often they were penned or The Elamite documents deal with the storage, brushed in ink on dry tablets. transfer, and payment of food meant for people on The laborious work the kind of thinker who preferred to look at Tablets with primary records the government payroll, and they were distributed of Richard T. Hallock, how ants moved in the dirt rather than how are mostly small enough to and accounted for by administrators organized in pictured above, and the stars moved across the sky.” fit easily into the palm of a five main branches: cereals, beer and wine, fruit, Margaret Root, as well In 1969, Hallock published a magisterial hand and usually were formed livestock and poultry, and workers. Among people as other scholars who edition of over 2,000 Elamite Fortification texts around knotted strings that who received supplies were ordinary workers, some have published on with a detailed introduction, a list of identifi- are still preserved inside the getting less than subsistence rations; skilled craftsmen, the tablets, has trans- able seals, a sketch of Achaemenid Elamite tablets. Often they were made many labeled as foreigners from remote provinces; formed the study of the grammar, and a complete glossary of all known hastily from poorly cleaned the administrators, clerks, auditors, and supervisors Achaemenid Persians. Achaemenid Elamite texts. This work launched clay. The secondary tablets who operated the system; travelers on official busi- the renaissance and transformation of Achae- were made more carefully, ness and hailing from places as remote as India in menid studies in the 1970s. and they are mostly larger than the primary records. the East and Anatolia in the West; members of the The seal impressions on the Elamite tablets Many of the smaller primary tablets, and a few of the royal family and inner court circles; and even gods published by Hallock are the objects of a close study larger secondary tablets, were found intact or nearly and their religious officiants. This may not be the initiated by Margaret Root in 1978 and coming to so. Far more of them were broken — first when the whole spectrum of Achaemenid imperial society, but fruition with Garrison & Root 2001, the first volume building where they were stored collapsed and then it is a far broader spectrum than can be identified in of a three-part, definitive publication of the impres- during 2,500 years buried in the ruins. any other data set. The texts provide deep insights sions of more than 1,100 seals. Hallock’s edition of texts drawn from the tablets into the Empire, mentioning authorizations from the The laborious work of Hallock and Root, as well expanded the quantity of known Elamite by at least satraps of distant provinces, some of them known as other scholars who have published on the tablets, tenfold. The Elamite and Aramaic texts are also a from Herodotus and others wholly new to Achaemenid has transformed the study of the Achaemenid Persians. treasury of Iranian names, titles, and administrative political history. The tablets have proved to be an unexpectedly rich terminology. The Old Persian language of the Achae- The Persepolis documents have made it impossible source of information on languages, art, society, menid royal inscriptions attests only about 400–500 to go on thinking of the Achaemenid Persians as rude, institutions, interconnections, history, and culture, words; the edited Elamite texts already available barbarian rulers of civilized, literate subjects. The with far-reaching implications in many fields. attest at least twice that amount, making the Continued from page 18 14 ON CAMPUS

The following is a list of recent publications (books and chapters in edited volumes) and musical compositions by University of Chicago Humanities faculty, released during 2006 through fall of 2007 for which we received notification. Please help

us keep informed of your accomplishments: [email protected].

Art History English Christensen, Thomas and Baker, Nancy, eds., Stafford, Barbara, Echo Bevington, David M., How Aesthetics and the Art of Objects: The Cognitive Work of to Read a Shakespeare Play. Musical Composition in the Images. (Chicago: The University (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, German Enlightenment. of Chicago Press, 2007) 2006) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) vitae Wu, Hung. Howard, Angela Bevington, David M., Falco and Song, Li, Chinese This Wide and Universal Feldman, Martha and Sculpture. (New Haven: Yale Theater: Shakespeare in Gordon, Bonnie, eds., University Press, 2006) Performance, Then and Now. The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross- (Chicago: University of Chicago Cultural Perspectives. (Oxford: Wu, Hung, Xu Bing: Yancao Press, 2007) Oxford University Press, 2006) jihua — Xu Bing: The Tobacco Project. (Beijing: People’s Goldsby, Jacqueline, Gosset, Philip, Divas and University Press, 2006) A Spectacular Secret: Lynching Scholars: Performing Italian in American Life and Literature. Opera. (Chicago: The University Wu, Hung, Wu Liang Ci: (Chicago: The University of of Chicago Press, 2006) Zhongguo gudai huaxiang yishu Chicago Press, 2006) de sixiangxing — The Wu Liang Ptaszynska, Marta, Shrine: Ideology of Early Chinese Hansen, Mark B.N., Bodies Pianophonia for Piano Solo. Pictorial Art. (Beijing: Sanlin, in Code: Interfaces with Digital (Warsaw: Polish Music 2006) Media. (London: Routledge Publications, 2006) Press, 2006) Ran, Shulamit, Fault Line for Classics Hansen, Miriam, Babele e Chamber Ensemble. (Theodore Babilonia: Il cinema muto Presser Company, 2006) Bartsch, Shadi, The Mirror Americano e il suo spettatore. Ran, Shulamit, East Wind for of the Self: Sexuality, Self- Italian translation. (Torino: Solo Flute. (Capstone Records, Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Edizione Kaplan, 2006) 2006) Early Roman Empire. (Chicago: Mitchell, W.J.T., What Do The University of Chicago Pictures Want?: The Lives and Press, 2006) Near East Languages Loves of Images. (Chicago: The & Civilizations Faraon, Christopher A. and University of Chicago Press, 2006) McClure, Laura K., eds. Hout, Theo van den with Prostitutes and Courtesans in Zoest, C.H. van, eds., The Life the Ancient World. (Madison: Germanic Studies and Times of Hattusili III and The University of Wisconsin Tuthaliya IV. Proceedings of a Press, 2006) Santner, Eric L., On Creaturely Symposium Held in Honour of J. Hall, Jonathan M., A History Life: Rilke, Benjamin, Sebald. de Roos, 12–13 December 2003. of the Archaic Greek World: (Chicago: The University of (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut ca. 1200– 479 BCE. (Oxford: Chicago Press, 2006) voor het Nabije Osten, 2006)

curriculum Blackwell Publishing, 2006) Wellbery, David, Seiltänzer Mustafa, Farouk, A Certain Woman — translation from the East Asian Languages des Paradoxalen: Aufsätze zur ästhetischen Wissenschaft. Arabic of a novel by Hala El & Civilizations (Hanser, 2006) Badry. (New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2006) Roy, David Tod, trans. The Plum Mustafa, Farouk, The Lodging in the Golden Vase — Volume Music House — translation from the Three: The Aphrodisiac. Arabic of a novel by Khairy (Princeton: Princeton University Bohlman, Philip V., Music in Shalaby. (New York: The Press, 2006) American Religious Experience. HUMANITIES FACULTY BOOKS FACULTY HUMANITIES (Oxford: Oxford University Press, American University in Cairo Shaughnessy, Edward L., 2006) Press, 2006) Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. Mustafa, Farouk, No One (Albany: State University of New Bohlman, Philip V., World Sleeps in Alexandria — York Press, 2006) Music: A Very Short Introduction. Italian and Japanese translations. translation from the Arabic Zeitlin, Judith, The Phantom (2006) of a novel by Ibrahim Abdel Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Meguid. (New York: The Seventeenth-Century Chinese American University in Cairo Literature. (Honolulu: University Press, 2006) of Hawaii Press, 2007) TABLEAU 15

Perry, John R., Karim Khani Weaver, Elissa, ed., Arcangela Zand, Series: Makers of Muslim Tarabotti: A Literary Nun in NOTED ALUMNI World. (Oxford: One World Baroque Venice. (Ravenna: Longo Publishers, 2006) Editore, 2006) Charles Simic Roth, Martha, ed. in chief, The Assyrian Dictionary of South Asian Languages receives top honors the Oriental Institute of the & Civilizations University of Chicago —Volumes 18 & 19. (Chicago: The Oriental Collins, Steven, By Robert P. Baird, doctoral student in the Divinity School Institute, 2006) A Pali Grammar for Students. and Co-editor, Chicago Review (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books; Philosophy U.S. distribution: University of ugust 2, 2007 was good for Charles Simic. Washington Press, 2006) On that day, Simic was named Poet Lear, Jonathan, Radical Hope: Doniger, Wendy, The Lady of Laureate of the United States by the Library Ethics in the Face of Cultural the Jewel Necklace and the Lady of Congress and also announced as the Devastation. (Cambridge: who Shows her Love — transla- A winner of the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award from the Harvard University Press, 2006) tion from Sanskrit of two plays by Harsha. (New York: New York Academy of American Poets. Nussbaum, Martha, Frontiers University Press, 2006) Born in Belgrade, of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Yugoslavia, in 1938, Simic Species Membership. (Cambridge: Stark, Ulrike, ed., Mauern und Harvard University Press, 2006) Fenster. Neue Erzaehlungen aus immigrated to the United Indien. (Heidelberg: Draupadi States at the age of sixteen Nussbaum, Martha, The Clash Verlag, 2006) and settled with his family in Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India’s Future. Oak Park, Illinois. After high (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2007) Slavic Languages school he attended classes & Literature Wimsatt, William, at the University of Chicago Re-engineering Philosophy for (1956–58) while working Limited Beings: Piecewise Approx- Bird, Robert, The Russian nights at the Chicago Sun- Prospero: The Creative World imations to Reality. (Cambridge: Times. Drafted by the army Harvard University Press, 2007) of Viacheslav Ivanov. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin before he could complete his Press, 2006) degree, Simic eventually Romance Languages graduated from New York & Literatures Bird, Robert, ed., Perepiska iz Dvukh Uglov — Correspondence University in 1966. from Two Corners. (Moscow: Just six years after arriving in the U.S., Simic’s first De Armas, Frederick A., Vodolei Publishers, Progress- Quixotic Frescoes: Cervantes published poems appeared in Chicago Review, the liter- Pleiada, 2006) and Italian Renaissance Art. ary magazine founded by students at the University in (Toronto: University of Toronto Friedman, Victor, “Balkanizing 1946. The poems appeared in the wake of a suppression Press, 2006) the Balkan Sprachbund: scandal over excerpts from William S. Burroughs’s Naked A Closer Look at Grammatical Desan, Philippe, trans., Lunch, the full story of which is told by PhD student and Permeability and Feature Distri- Montaigne Politique. (Paris: bution.” In Aikhenvald, A. and former Chicago Review editor Eirik Steinhoff in a recent Honore Champion Editeur, 2006) Dixon, R.F.W., eds. Grammars issue of the journal. (That article and Simic’s poems are Lugo-Ortiz, Agnes and Dworkin in Contact: A Cross Linguistic available at http://humanities.uchicago.edu/review/.) y Mendez, Kenya, eds., Recover- Typology. (Oxford: Oxford Simic is nothing if not prolific: he has published ing the U.S. Hispanic Literary University Press, 2007) twenty-eight books of poetry, fourteen books of transla- Heritage —Volume V. (Houston: Shallcross, Bozena, tions, and seven books of nonfiction. He taught for many Art Publico Press, 2006) “Negotiating the Gaze: Olga years at the University of New Maggi, Armando, In the Boznanska as a Portraitist.” In Hampshire, he reviews frequently Company of Demons: Unnatural Goscilo, Helena and Holmgren, for the New York Review of Books, Beings, Love, and Identity in the Beth, eds. Poles Apart: Women Italian Renaissance. (Chicago: in Modern Polish Culture. Special and he serves as the poetry editor University of Chicago Press, 2006) issue of Indiana Slavic Studies, of the Paris Review. In 1984, he was 2005:15, 93–110. awarded a MacArthur Fellowship; Pavel, Thomas, Comment Ecouter la Literature? (College de a Pulitzer Prize followed in 1990 Cover artwork courtesy of the France/Fayard, 2006) for The World Doesn’t End. University of Chicago Press. Simic’s poems are often described Pavel, Thomas, La Pensee du Roman — Spanish translation. as surrealist, but poet-critic Brian Henry argues that “Simic’s (2006) poems do not conform to any brand of surrealism, French or otherwise. The worlds in his poems might not confirm Steinberg, Justin, Accounting for Dante: Urban Readers and our own, but they still are fundamentally realistic…. He Writers in Late Medieval Italy. is ultimately a romantic poet, albeit one who has learned (Notre Dame: University of Notre from surrealism the effectiveness of surprising juxtaposi- Dame Press, 2006) tions, dream-like imagery, and absurdity.” ■ 16 HONOR ROLL

The Division of the Humanities gratefully acknowledges the alumni, friends, and organizations who so generously contributed cash gifts during the 2006 –2007 fiscal year (July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007). While space limitations restrict us to listing cumulative giving of one hundred dollars or more, we extend our sincere thanks to all those who support the work of the Division. We also want to make certain that we acknowledge the generosity of our supporters appropriately. Please accept our apologies for any errors, and do bring them to our attention by contacting the Division’s Office of Development, 1115 East 58th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637,

773-702-9290 or [email protected]. 2006–2007 the honor roll

$25,000 + $5,000–$9,999 Thomas G. MacCracken Stephanie Anjele Kalfayan Nancy E. Connell Richard• and Judy• Marcus and Geoffrey Mark Cox Robert D. Corey Harriet• and Ulrich Meyer Charles A. Kelly Dorothy and David Crabb Lauren Beznos David M. and Margaret Bevington • •• Maurice J.• and Lois R.• Beznos Paul Sidney Burtness Sarah and Bernard Mirkin Barbara and Lawrence Kerslake Lorayne M. Dollet • • Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Catherine C. Mouly• and Charles H. Mottier Mrs. Robert D. Kestnbaum Dr. Adam M. Dubin Nancy• and Manuel Parra Foundation LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr. Mrs. E. G. Kronewitter Kent Dymak Mr. and Mrs.• Harvey B. Plotnick Mr. Jack W. Fuller• and Patricia G. Cleek Mennette Masser and Ronald and Belle Elving David• and Jennifer Rhind • Dr. Debra Karen Moskovits Curt A. Conklin• Patrick J. Larkin Patricia Brett Erens Susan K. Sclafani Gerald S. Falk Julie and Parker• Hall Jonathan E. Dedmon• Laura Litten Draga Shillinglaw-Kellick • Susan H. and Christopher Faraone Hermes Investments I, L.P. Harve A. Ferrill• Barbara F. and Irl H. Marshall Lore Silberman and Richard Lee and Judith A. Fenton Gayle H. Jensen• Stanley M.• and Joan S.• Freehling Jane S. Mason Bernard H. Wilson • Eleanor B. Frew Reva and David Logan Richard• and Mary L.• Gray • Mary M. McDonald Gay K. and John R. Stanek Alfred L.• and Carolyn O. Frost Georges Lurcy Charitable Elmer• and Connie Johnson Allen M. Turner• Nancy Lauter• McDougal Dewey and Carol Ganzel and Educational Trust Max Kade Foundation Mark E. Gottlieb Luso-American Development Ivan P.• and Kathy R. Kane George C. McElroy Paula• and Herbert R. Molner Dr. Gary M. Gutting Foundation Sally and Thomas Kitch $1,000–$1,999 • Anne Marcus Hamada The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Gerald M. Kowarsky Kenneth and Jocelyn Spitz Nebenzahl Joel L. Handelman and Packard Humanities Institute Samuel H. Kress Foundation Andrew Abbott and Carol Rauner O’Donovan• Sarah R. Wolff Thomas Pavel Desmond R.• and Susan Schlough Joan Peters• Linda Houdek George Rosenbaum• Jeanne B.• La Place Danielle Allen Betsey Nodler• and Ping-Chen Hsiung and Sinlan Poo The Karla Scherer• Foundation Anthony M. Maramarco• and Michael Baker Dale R. Pinkert Philip and Josephine Jackson Earl• and Brenda• Shapiro Darlene Farr • Lawrence S. Berlin John F. Richards• Dee Morgan Kilpatrick The Spencer Foundation Dr. Kelvin M. Parker • Robert S. Bowers Tuuli-Ann Ristkok Susan Kingston Al Svirmickas Don M.• and Carol E.• Randel • Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Brawer Leona Zweig Rosenberg Peter J. Klarfeld Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Michael J.• and • John A. Bross David Rudis• William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Geraldine S. Schlutz Erika Bruhn• and Robert M. Rudolph• Joseph J. Lagana Peter L. Sheldon Richard Donald Johnson Kenneth M. Schubert Tracy Green Landauer John A. Wing• John H. Bryan• Mr.• and Mrs. William J. Lawlor III $10,000–$24,999 Cheryl Seaman, M.D. Dr. Christopher Chiu and Mary Rose Shaughnessy Scott and Rebecca Lehmann Ms. Gay-Young Cho Robert Bosch Foundation David F. Shutack Nancy L. Maull Mr. and Mrs. Bruce E. Clinton Roger O.• and Barbara Brown $2,000–$4,999 David Byron Smith, Jr. Dr. J. David McCracken Marion Wood Covey• John P. McGuinness Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation Diane W. Smith Alan R. Cravitz• and Shashi Caudill Harry and Susan M. Meyers The Chicago Community Trust Mr. and Mrs.• Lee A. Baumgarten Mr.•• and Mrs.• Jack Stein Katharine P.• and Peter H. Darrow Katsuhiko and Beverly A. Momoi Strachan Donnelley• Robert• and Marie Crane Bergman Doris F. Sternberg• Alexandra Earle• Dr. James R. and Mr.• and Mrs.• Robert Feitler Sandra R. Berlin• Janice Trimble Mr. and Mrs.• Richard Elden Mrs. Ichiko T. Morita Mr. and Mrs.• F. Conrad Fischer Mary O. Bishop Dr. Robert B. Uretz Stephanie N. Endy Helen E. Moritz Richard J.• and Barbara• Franke Matthew and Dr. Willard E. White Mrs. Walter D. Fackler Dr. Adolph R. Nachman Graham Foundation for Advanced Carolyn S.• Bucksbaum Karen G. Wilson• Dr. and Mrs. Edward D. Fahrmeier Camilla J. Nilles Studies in the Fine Arts Allan E. Bulley, Jr. Richard R. Wotkun • • Christopher and Ann Frautschi • Eric W. Nye David C. Hildebrand• Mr. and Mrs. E. David Coolidge III • Mrs. George B. Young • • Dr. Henri Frischer James O’Hara III Mr. and Mrs. Joel Honigberg Walter J. and Mary Dickie Mr. and Mrs.• Maurice F. Fulton • Dr. Karl Olsson Joukowsky Family Foundation Robert C. Emmett and Gordon Hollis and • Dr. Lee A. Pederson Legion of Young Polish Women Kristine A. Kasselman Katharine Fultz Hollis $500–$999 Anthony Pfannkuche • Leon Levy Foundation Isak V. and Nancy Hopkins Gerson Jean K.• and Steven Goldman Dr. Henry A. Ploegstra • Margaret McKenzie John Glier Dr. Thomas B. Grassey Annice M. Alt Michael Pownall • Dr. Nelson A. and Amy L. Gold David•• and Mary• Winton Green Dr. Herbert L. Baird, Jr. Margot L.• and Thomas J. Pritzker • Mrs. Joan B. Moffat Joan W. Harris Joyce Z. Greenberg Leo F. Balk Mr. and Mrs.• James T. Rhind Michael J. Moritz and Mrs. Harold H. Hines, Jr.• Dr. Susan M. Griffin and Rev. David W. Beaubien Katharine and Peter Rossiter Harriet C. Heyman Mrs. Leonard J. Horwich• Mr. Douglas Reid Sharps Peter J. H. Bentley• Lucy L. Salenger and Marvin Zonis Steven J. Phillips• Lydia A. Howarth and Mrs. Roger P. Hansen Charles E. Bidwell Christopher T. Scanlan Barry F. Preston• Nicholas S. Zeppos Nina S. Hellerstein Mr. and Mrs. Ted Bloch Elizabeth E. Sengupta, M.D. Seyfarth Shaw LLP Punita Khanna Howard M. and Elizabeth Helsinger Beata B. Boodell• Laurie Shannon Dr. Anneliese Sinn Dr. Dorothy Senghas Lakner David• and Celia Hilliard Bruce C. Brittain Mrs. Charles Shea Smart Family Foundation, Inc. Bryn K. Larsen Carrie K. Huff Mrs. Hammond E. Chaffetz• Dr. Timothy J. Standring Raymond Smart Julius Lewis• Gregory Hummel• Tim Child James• and Ellen Stirling George J. Volan Dr. William G. Lycan Robert S. Ingersoll Dr. Fredric L. Coe Philip James Stucky TABLEAU 17

Robert and Kathleen Sullivan Richard C. Longworth Dr. Mark Stuart Auburn Mrs. James R. Cronin Ida Cook Hagman Kenneth Allen Taylor McKim Marriott Calvert and Ann Audrain Carl David Curry Morris Halle Gilbert W. Thibedore Guido C. and Desiree M. Marziali Victoria Suzanne Austin Dr. Halina Czarnocka Jack Halpern Margaretta Tobias Craig Thompson Mason David Baker Dr. Horst S. and Robert A. Hamburger, Jr. Edward Turkington Mrs. Frank D. Mayer Richard C. Baker Dr. Ingrid Helga Daemmrich J. Albert Harrill Dr. Yoshio Ueno Dr. Daniel C. Meerson Mrs. Morton J. Barnard Lenore O'Connor d’Anjou Kip K. Harris Tom Walkowiak Patricia H. Michaelson Dr. Bernadine C. Barr Susan Framji Daruvala and Neil Harris and Teri J. Edelstein Alison Weirick Edelstein Dr. Ernest Mond James Patrick Barron Neal E. Robbins Dr. Karelisa V. Hartigan William W. White Charles A. Moore Robert Basta Dr. Richard C. De Armond Lee Haupt Rose Hsu and Seck L. Wong Suzy Moser Dr. Allan C. and Janet H. De Koven Robert E. Haverkamp David M. Zesmer Robert D. Narveson Dr. Laura Raidonis Bates Mark Roe De Lancey Thomas F. Hedin A. C. Zucaro Robert Shell Nelson Michael L. Bazzo Dale Delsing Cadmus M. Hicks, Jr. Dr. Horace M. Newcomb, Jr. Jane Ann Bealer Dr. Robert D. Denham James M. Hicks Irene H. Patner• Edmund O. Belsheim, Jr. Joseph M. Diamond Jane B. and Roger H. Hildebrand $250–$499 Marjorie A. Pearson Joanne M. Berens Susan F. and Marvin Joel Dickman Carl J. and Esther Hildner Robert Lloyd Pendleton Thomas Bergman Pamela Morgans Dister James F. Hill Lyle Ellis Angene Paul Peppis and Jessica Schiff Berman Mrs. John Donaho Dr. Roscoe E. Hill Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Appelbaum Elizabeth Wadsworth Margaret Anne Binford Peter FitzGerald Dorman Dr. Michael Craig Hillmann Dr. Noritoshi Aramaki Anthony Novak Perovich, Jr. Charles John Biro Pauline Douglas Yukari Hirata Dr. Emmon W. Bach John F. Petrik Dr. Henry C. Bischoff Dr. Kathleen Anne Doyle Sandra E. Hockenbury Reed M. Badgley• Margaret Philipsborn Matthew R. Blackall Suzanne Dunbar Joan Bentley Hoffman Felicia Sonn Baskin Judith R. Phillips Dr. Ellen A. Blais Claudette T. Dwyer Marvin Hoffman and • R. Stephen Berry Stanley Pierre-Louis Dr. Lincoln C. Blake Judith K. Dykema Rosellen Brown Hoffman Dr. Constance Brittain Bouchard Shulamit Ran Karen W. Blaney Rose B. Dyrud Douglas Francis Hofmeister Marilyn L. Buehler Amelia A. Ripepi and Dr. Virginia Blanford John Q. Easton Patricia M. Hogan Allan E.• and Garry J. Grasinski JoAnne G. and Christopher Bloom Patricia Gandy Echols Dale Hollis Hoiberg Suzette Bross Bulley III David Aiken Roos David L. Blumberg• Donald D. Eddy Robert I. Holst Dr. William M. Calder III Donald Lynwood Ross John R. Boatright Linda Malthouse Edmunds Christopher J. Horsch Dr. Daniel F. Calhoun John Eric Schaal George V. Bobrinskoy, Jr. Richard Thomas Eldridge John S. Howe, Jr. Dr. Jeremiah Cameron Marjorie Lange Schaffner Charlotte W. Bode William Perry Epes Sara A. Hudson John Bradley Chaimov Jeffrey B. Schamis and Martha L. and Timothy Bohrer Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Epstein Joseph Barry Hughes Rose Ann G. and Ronald S. Cope Eva M. Eves Thomas F. Bonnell Dr. Millard J. and Susan C. Hull Barbara F. and David P. Currie Barry P. Scherr Janet Ruth Borggren Mrs. Virginia Erickson Dr. Peter R. Huttenlocher Robin Darling and Margaret W. Scheyer Mrs. Jerome J. Bornstein Mary Erler Cheryl L. Iverson Malcolm Caldwell Young Stasha F. Seaton Donald F. Brannan F. McDonald and Jean L. Ervin Salvatore A. Ivone William W. Darrow and James A. Serritella Mauda Bregoli-Russo, PhD Mrs. Paul M. Everett Catherine Marie Jaffe Amelia S. Erickson Timothy W. and Dr. Richard Hart Brewer Robert Everett and Evelyn D. and Richard D. Jaffe Dr. Marion G. Deckert Marcia Louise Sherry Carol R. Brown Janet Kerrigan Daily Mrs. Stanley A. Jashemski Yasuhiro Dohi Marion R. Shortino Howard J. and Elizabeth K. Brown John Thomas Evrard Nancy D. Jenson • Marilyn Rose Drury-Katillo Joseph P. Shure Elizabeth Williamson Bruner James Douglas Farquhar Eric W. Johnson Dr. Randa Jane Duvick Dr. David P. Silverman Christina Rose Brungardt Dr. Sharon B. Feiman-Nemser Mark A. Johnson and Stephen Evarts and Louise K. Smith Luanne Buchanan and Dr. Lorna C. Ferguson Judith Margaret Wright Suzanne M. Lewis, Jr. Fred E. and Michael H. Hoffheimer Wayne D. Fields Ronald Allan Johnson Facing History and Ourselves Barbara Maria Stafford Lynda Kathryn Bundtzen William M. and Solveig G. Fisher Joseph S. Johnston, Jr. • Sheila Fitzpatrick Hilde Staniulis Jill Vance Buroker Robert D. Fitzgerald Robert D. Jollay, Jr. Anna Glier Freund Clay Wallace Stauffer Charlene H. Byrd Lola Flamm Mill K. Jonakait Shaleane Gee and Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych Dr. Calvin S. Byre Bradford Y. Fletcher Dr. Edward Roger Jones III James Patrick Cody Mrs. Jerome Frank Strauss, Jr. Susan M. Camillo Geoffrey Flick Brian James Jorgensen James S.• and Lisa B. Ginsburg Raymond D. Tindel and Jeanny Canby Charles W. Fornara D. Carroll Joynes Howard and Natalie Goldberg Gretel Braidwood Canisius House Helen Foster and Frederick Cooper Wadad Kadi Paula A. and Samuel D. Golden Marian K. Towne Gloria Ann Capik and Dr. David C. Fowler•• Katherine Sproat Kadish Robert Gomer Sharon Van Halsema Traeger Vasyl William Zuk Dr. Samuel Ethan Fox Thomas Frank Kaiser Philip Gossett Jane S. Upin Mrs. LeRoy T. Carlson, Sr. Hillel Gideon Fradkin Mrs. Thomas Kallen Ingrid E. Gould Norma W. Van der Meulen Frank Charles Carotenuto Alexander L. Francis Dr. Maureen Flynn Kaplan • Michele J. and Gene B. Gragg Lindsay E. and Ann M. Waters Edward Carr Mary Francis William M. Kaplan Alexandra Q. and Cole Palmer Werble Gloria Lerner Carrig Catherine Frerichs Judy Stefanie Sender Kaplow Joel D. Grippando Dr. Mariana Stoyanova Williams Phyllis Carroll Joan Susan Friedman Barry D. Karl George W. Gross Bruce B. and Patricia A. Williams Keith A. Cary Henry J. Frisch Elizabeth Lee Karpowicz Mrs. Lester Guttman Thomas Adams Witten Dr. Daniel Casper Claire Kay Fund Barbara Kashian-Snow Miriam Hansen Richard Bowen Wolf Donald Baird Chae• Dr. Byron Walter Gassman Eugene J. Kasper Dr. Phillip Harth Susan Overath and James Woolley Elsa Charlston Dr. Art Geffen David Joseph Kathman, Jr. Robert G. and Patsy W. Hassert Herbert Lawrence Zarov Cedric L. Chernick Michael Gelber Kumi Kato Mary S. Hawker Dr. Sharon Y. Cherry Martin Gene Gellen Calvin K. Katter Terry L. Heller Jill Gardiner Chessman Steven Burr Gerrard Ruth Annette Kauffmann Heather C. Henry $100–$249 Charlene Chisek Caroline Anne Girgis J. Morgan Kavanaugh Shirlee A. Hoffman Jintana Chiu Dr. Robert W. Gladish Hannah Bess Kaye Mr. Shan-Yuan Hsieh Dr. Geoffrey Adams Hubert Joseph Cloke Mrs. E. W. Glaser Dr. Brooks M. Kelley John Edward Hughes Dr. Charles Martin Adelman Rev. Francis Xavier Clooney, SJ Dr. John B. Gleason Kyunghwan Kim Dr. Kenneth K. Inada Clifford Adelman Liane Clorfene-Casten Patricia Brown Glenn Gail Oman King Kineret S. Jaffe Dr. Constance K. Adelman Mrs. Eric W. Cochrane Dr. Jacqueline Lee Glomski Barbara S. Kirschner, M.D. Professor and Mrs. Gerald E. Kadish Elizabeth M. Adkins Peter Starbuck Coffrin Melba L. Gold John Christoph and Jeffrey L. Kallberg Joseph D. Alchermes Lesley Cohen Betty Goldiamond Deborah S. Klasing Claire Kelleher John R. Alison Toba J. Cohen Ruth G. Goldman Marilyn G. and Anne Blackmon Kenny-Urban Mary S. Allan Dr. Sidney Collender Suzanne Marie Golubski Frederick C. Klawiter Michael F. Kerr James P. and Susan J. Allen John Scott Colley, PhD Robert L. Goodman Adina S. Kleiman Raymond J. and Alma M. Kuby John Stephen Alterman Mrs. Ralph L. Collins Ezra Gordon Dr. Roger C. Klein Elizabeth Langland Lizabeth Welly Anderson John C. and Jane B. Colman Judith A. Gray Dr. Scott A. Kleiner Susan Jane Larson Richard J. Anderson Claire N. Concannon Dr. Mary Elizabeth Green Karla M. Klinger Mrs. Frances C. and Dr. Robert S. Anderson Majel Amanda Connery Dr. Samuel Greengus Terese E. Klinger Dr. Joseph H. Leek Jerry Dale Andrews, PhD William W. Cook Dr. Janet Wolter Grip Dr. Kenneth and Ruth D. Lenser J. Nathaniel Arata Dr. Jerrold Stephen Cooper David A. and Robyn Grossberg Mrs. Amy A. Knoespel Dr. William John Leverence Raymond M. Archer Claire D. Corbett James O. Grunebaum Ramsey E. Lewis, Jr.• Robert L. Ashenhurst Joan Kuzma Costello Eleanor A. and Sidney A. Guralnick Dr. Eva Lichtenberg• and Claire B. Ashman John M. Cowan William R. Gutrich • Visiting Committees to the Division Dr. Arnold Tobin Theodore M. Asner Clayton Crawford Mrs. Herbert R. Haber during 2006 –2007 18 HONOR ROLL

Marilyn F. Kohn Hugh C. MacFarlane, Jr. John W. Muirhead Sr. Mrs. Robert F. Picken Mrs. Edwin A. Rothschild Peter Michael Kohn John E. Machulak Alice J. and Jay F. Mulberry Michael A. Pittarelli James R. Royse Mrs. Robert M. Kohrman David Curtis Maddox Christine S. Murray Lansing R. Pollock Manfred D. Ruddat Augustus Martin Kolich Katherine M. Malmquist Rev. Mildred H. Myren Garrett H. Polman Kathryn Lynn Russell Michael A. Krischer and Erica Lynn Mandel and Robert David Nachman Dr. Robert J. Poor Craig Michael Rustici Janet R. Heller Jon Kolbrener Vreni Naess Sandra L. Potter Daniel Rutenberg Anthony Edward Kuester Frederick R. and Shankar Nair Marty G. Price Michelle Janine Ruvolo Rev. Robert J. Kurtz Sabina Medrea Maravilla Yuka Nakajima Dr. John E. Priestley Joseph F. Ryan Mrs. Jeffrey Theodore Kuta Gordon Marsh Dr. Elmer Neufeld Sally May Promey Nancy L. Sack Joseph D. La Rue William Edward Marsh J. Michael and Elizabeth Putnam Edward Bryan Samuel Dr. Ryan and Dr. Carol LaHurd Dominic F. Martia Charlotte A. Newberger Mrs. Herbert Quick Dr. Esther Maria Santana, PhD Dante Joseph Lanzetta, Jr. Rex L. Martin David A. Nicklas Carlisle L. Rast Marilyn L. Schaefer Gary Neal Larson Juliet Y. Mattila Janice Noel and Hildegund and James M. Ratcliffe Dr. Elaine Schapker Margaret G. Lass-Gardiner Dr. Kathleen E. Maxwell R. Dickey Hamilton David Timothy Read Lynne F. Schatz Rosemary M. Laughlin Barbara W. Mayers Erika J. Nolan Katherine Kissane Reap Mrs. Lawrence J. Scheff Dr. John C. Lavezzi Roger A. McCaig Rev. Paula B. Nordhem Linda D. Reed Allan Wayne Schindler Brian K. Lee Mark McColley Dr. Douglas A. Northrop Sally Baumann Reynolds Dr. Arthur B. Schneider Judith Yaross Lee Eugene C. McDowell Kathleen O'Connor Richard Gilbert Rhodes, Sr. G. R. Schreiber Bruce and Mary Leep Mark Warren McLaughlin Craig O'Donnell Stuart A. Rice and Ruth O’Brien Mrs. Mary Jean and Ken Leonard Cecily R. McNeil Margo B. and James E. Oliff Duel A. Richardson Dr. Sidney Schulman Dr. Donald Leroy and John W. McNulty Ralph Oliva Juliette Richman David E. Schwalm Mrs. Helen Messick Dyer Lenore B. Melzer Jeffrey W. Olson Thomas W. Roberts Esther Joy Schwartz Dr. Barry Mark Lesht Merrill Lynch Henry M. Ordower Mary A. Robertson Todd D. H. Schwebel Donald Nathan Levine Robert W. Merrill Brent C. and H. Marie Orton Dr. Gertrude J. Robinson Dr. Robert T. Self Dr. Barbara K. Lewalski Jean Louise Milew and Jeanne S. and Mark M. Osgood Elizabeth Rodini Judith L. Sensibar Sher-Shiueh Li Christopher David Cerimele Gary M. Ossewaarde Dr. Kristine Malins Rogers Ilene Warshawsky Shaw Bud Lifton Dr. David W. Miller Fredrick Paul Ostmann Dr. Michael W. Rogers Dr. Byron L. Sherwin James M. Lindholm and Mary Lynn Miller Dr. John H. Ottenhoff Mrs. Lee M. Rohde Dr. David Sanford Shields Susan D. Schaffrath Karen A. Minge Irving Paley Judith Seidel Roin Howard A. Siegel Joanna Lipking Yoko Mizuta Nancy Gierlich Papier Mr. Nicholas R. Rome Dr. Harry S. Silverstein III Melvin Loeb Dr. Marcia K. Moen Dorothy J. Parkander Juan and Suk Romero John L. Simons, Jr. Dr. Brandon C. Look P. Victor Morgan, Jr. Niesje and Eugene N. Parker Karen Anne Rondestvedt T. McNider Simpson III Julie Beth Lovins John Dixon Morillo and Georgi Radomirov Parpulov Earl F. Ronneberg, Jr. Dr. Veronica L. Skinner Dr. Karen Lucas Andrea M. Atkin Monika D. Patel Dr. Raymond P. Roos David Lionel Smith Earl A. and Walter R. Morris, Jr. Maria Anita Paul Mary Beth Rose Lee L. Snyder, PhD Kathleen Wasden Ludman John M. Morriss Curtis J. Peplau Pier Luigi Rosellini Warren Henry Soiffer Thomas Hyatt Luxon Nancy J. Moser James Perlman Deborah Skolnik Rosenberg Robert D. Solotaroff Jean Yen-Chun Ma Patricio Keith Fleming Moxey Michel Perrault Gerson M. Rosenthal, Jr. Hugo F. and Tai-Loi Ma Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Moy Dr. and Mrs. Louis H. Philipson Bennett Roth Elizabeth Sonnenschein

Of Ancient Empires, continued from page 13 on comparisons with the Elamite and Aramaic docu- Stein, director of the Oriental Institute. “Unexpected ments with which it was found. “This shows how discoveries are still being made, and the meaning and Achaemenids were conscious successors to millennia important it is to keep the Persepolis Fortification reliability of every piece depend on its connections of statecraft and administrative technique. They were texts together, to keep the Archive intact,” said Gil with the whole information system of the entire Forti- supported by meticulously controlled regional institu- fication Archive.” tions, and they kept close communication with regional In size and durability, the Achaemenid Persian systems embedded in other societies of the Empire. In Empire had no equal before the creation of the Roman this sense, the high expectations of 1933 were finally Empire and, like the Roman Empire, it created an arena fulfilled after 1969, when the publication of the first of political, economic, and cultural connections of an Elamite Fortification texts and a consequent appreci- unprecedented scale. As the last thirty years of Achae- ation led to a redirection of Achaemenid studies. menid research have shown, it laid the foundations Of course, no single text describes the system with on which the Hellenistic world spread and rose. This an organizational chart or an information flow chart. very immensity and diversity have made it difficult Comprehension of the information system and the for modern scholarly disciplines, focused on its parts, institution comes from a network of connections among to comprehend the Achaemenid whole. Among Egypto- texts, seal impressions, place names, personnel, com- logists or Assyriologists, the Persian Empire has been modities, work gangs, etc., forming a sort of tension seen as an episode of conquest and occupation in structure that becomes more stable as more points the late history of the Nile valley and Mesopotamia; are tied together. This is a large part of what can be among classicists, it has been seen as a barbarian expected from the balance of the PFA that remains threat to the glory that was Greece; among Biblical to be recorded: more data points to bolster existing historians, it has been seen as an episode of benign connections and fill in gaps. Should the integrity of restoration between episodes of oppressive conquest. the Archive be compromised by the current crisis, the Among all of these, it has been seen as an external ability to study these myriad data points as a single force rather than as an inclusive polity. thing would be lost. This outcome is ameliorated by collaboration among Consider the Old Persian text that was discovered specialists from different disciplines, but it is exacer- recently. Because there are no other such documents Jennifer Gregory, graduate student in Ancient Near Eastern History, bated by the scarcity of records from the Achaemenid in Old Persian, interpreting this one depends wholly Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, photographs tablets. centers themselves. The single most significant remedy TABLEAU 19

William Joseph Sparer Herbert K. Tjossem Marilyn E. Williams The Washington Post Ruth E. Ultmann Buzz Spector E. Gary Toffolo Bradford L. Wilson Thomson-West in memory of John Ultmann Elizabeth Spiegel Christine H. Tompsett Joan and Bruce D. Winstein Time Warner Foundation Dr. Judith Doolin Spikes Donald H. Tritschler Jacqueline B. Winter UnumProvident Corporation Gifts in Honor of Individuals Jonathan Timothy Squires Dr. Eugene A. Troxell Maynard I. and Elaine Wishner Wells Fargo Matching Gift Program Elizabeth Jane Start Elizabeth Turek and Patrick Dr. Edward A. Wolpert• Wiley, Rein & Fielding Susan Ricka Stein Sebastien Baesel Jill Kristen Woodward Duffie A. Adelson Mrs. Joan L. and Marguerite J. Turner Mary Alice Wright Gifts in Memoriam in honor of Barbara Schubert Dr. Martin J. Steindler Dr. Robert Y. Turner William B. Wurthmann Peter Lewis Allen Kate Davis Steinway Russell H. Tuttle Harold Higgins Young III We offer special thanks to all in honor of Priscilla and Dr. John C. Stevens Douglas S. and Annette L. Twells Paul E. Zimansky those whose gifts to the Division Anthony C. Yu Eric Michael Stiffler Thomas G. Urban Dr. Ellen Kay Zimmerman of the Humanities honored the Dr. James F. Stottlar Mr. and Mrs. W. Robert Usellis Nicole Zreczny memory of individuals during the Chicago Public Library Foundation Mrs. Lorna P. and Gloria A. Valentine 2006 –2007 year. in honor of Danielle Allen Dr. Francis H. Straus Mark Henry Van Brussel Matching Gift Companies Frederick W. Sturm and Dr. John F. Van Ingen Carolyn Bernstein Dr. Alston Fitts III Deborah Lynn Gillaspie Dr. Timothy J. Vance The following companies and in memory of David Kadlac in honor of David and Rev. Ralph R. Sundquist and Billy K. Vaughn Peggy Bevington foundations generously matched Charles H. Kadlec Mrs. Bernita W. Sundquist E. Cynthia Verba gifts made to the Division of in memory of David Kadlec Gary P. Supanich and Jack Vogel the Humanities during the Gifts from Estates Louise Kathrin Stein Robert Vonderohe 2006–2007 year. Mrs. Morton Kleiman Diane Bedford Svenonius Lynn M. Voskuil in memory of Morton Kleiman We are grateful to all those who Joyce N. Swedlund Spyro Vouloumanos Caterpillar Foundation G. David and Nobuko B. McNeill make a provision for the Division Terrance K. Swenson Dr. Susan Frances Walsh and Abbott Laboratories Fund in memory of Annette Cronin of the Humanities in their wills. De-An Wu Swihart Mr. Alan B. Cohen Anheuser-Busch Foundation During the 2006–2007 year, gifts Symantec Corporation Richard A. and Vanya Wang Dr. Joan Mickelson Lukach Babson Capital Management LLC were received from the estates of Synergy School Dr. Sherwyn E. and in memory of Prof. Joshua C. Taylor Bank of America Foundation the following alumni and friends. Dr. Patricia Akiko Takemoto Mrs. Irvina Perman Warren Global Impact MK & A Corporation Ms. Heather L. and Thomas Warren and Google Inc. in memory of Morton Kleiman Joan Armstrong Dr. Edwin William Taylor Patricia Love Krise John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Dr. Romeyn Taylor Nathalie Weil Foundation John J. Portman Joseph B. Gittler Dr. Milton Teichman Richard E. Weil New York Times Company in memory of Betty Landahl W. Leroy Owens Marvin Tetenbaum Steven Weiland Foundation Dr. Meri-Jane Rochelson Chester D. Tripp Creath Snowden Thorne, Jr. Dr. Eric D. Weimer Bank of New York in memory of Wayne Booth Angela M. Volan Lisa Tilton-Levine Dr. Raymond L. Weiss Northwestern Mutual Foundation Elisa A. Tinsley Diana Churchill White Pearson Education Teresa M. and Craig T. Srajer Frank P. Tirro Howard Stanley White PepsiCo Foundation in memory of Ruth Wotkin Dr. Glenn Evan Tisdale, Jr. Dr. Roberta H. White The Pew Charitable Trusts Catherine Zachar Sweitzer • Visiting Committees to the Division Barbara N. Titel Rev. Warner C. White Sanofi Pasteur Inc. in memory of Beatrice Schubert during 2006 –2007

to this is the Persepolis Fortification Archive, so dis- the judgment. The University of Chicago has contested research may affect the eventual disposition of the appointing to the first glances of its discoverers, so rich this claim, asserting that the tablets are immune from tablets. Before the emergency, study of the tablets in its implications, and so heavily drawn upon today such seizure, a position supported by submissions to was carried on by isolated individuals or teams of by modern scholars of the Middle East and beyond. the court by the U.S. Department of State. As the issue two or three working separately on different kinds has far-reaching implications for university research of data. In response to the emergency, the OI has THE CRISIS and museum work, the University expects to defend accelerated and enlarged the Project. and appeal the case to any extent necessary. In the The PFA Project team, which includes collaborat- In 2001, Stolper began to take digital photographs of summer of 2006, the government of Iran also entered ing editors from several institutions as well as other the Elamite Fortification tablets that had been edited the litigation to assert its ownership of the tablets and OI and Chicago personnel, students, and volunteers, by Hallock to prepare for the online presentation of the immunity of the collection. is responding to this emergency on two tracks: first, linked texts and images. In 2004, the OI returned 300 If the plaintiffs succeed, the tablets will be seized it is recording as many tablets as it can, as quickly as of the tablets that had been photographed and pub- and then likely be sold and dispersed, the essential possible and at the highest quality through a combi- lished to the Iranian National Museum in Tehran. The integrity of the PFA irreparably destroyed, and its nation of electronic and conventional paper media to return, partially discharging the responsibilities of the components mostly lost to further research. If the avoid the delays that ordinarily characterize academic loan of the tablets, received publicity that has precip- defendants succeed, the Iranian government may publication; second, it is making the recorded infor- itated the current crisis. well demand the immediate return of the tablets, mation available to others as quickly and widely as Victims of a 1997 bombing in Jerusalem brought a possibly making them inaccessible for research for possible. Stolper has received several grants that suit in federal court against Hamas and the Republic the immediate future. have enabled his team to accelerate the work in the of Iran under federal anti-terrorism statutes. The victims In connection with the current litigation, the OI face of the crisis, and several more grant proposals sued the Republic of Iran as the state sponsor of the is required to retain the tablets in place, so Stolper’s are pending. terrorist act. Hamas and Iran did not appear in court office in the OI and other space dedicated to the PFA If anything can be said to be reassuring about this to defend themselves, and so the plaintiffs won a Project will remain the tablets’ home until the litigation ordeal, it is that the tablets are in the best hands in default judgment against them in 2003 for more than comes to an end. which they could possibly be at this crucial moment. $250 million. Shortly after media coverage associated As Humanities Dean and fellow professor of Assyrio- with the OI’s return of the 300 tablets to the Iranian THE FUTURE logy Martha T. Roth points out, “Matt Stolper is one National Museum, the plaintiffs sued the University in of the world’s foremost experts in this period; he is an action designed to seize the tablets as assets of The tablets remain the subject of research while the right person in the right place to lead the effort the Iranian government and have them sold to satisfy the legal process continues, and the output of this to record and preserve this extraordinary legacy.” ■ 20 PALIMPSEST

up and down the scale Charles Hartshorne and Philosophy at Chicago

by David M. Thompson, PhD 1997

It may not loom large on the calendar of non- The supreme example of Hartshorne’s enthusiasm scientists, but 2008 is International Polar Year. This for simply turning the tables on thought to see how series of over two hundred research projects carried it looks from the other side is 1973’s Born to Sing: An out by scientists from sixty countries has been organ- Interpretation and World Survey of Bird Song. Here ized by the International Council for Science with the he steps into the shoes of a serious “biomusicologist” goals of assessing the status of the polar regions and who studies “music not just in man but in musical or better understanding their relationship to the rest of singing animals generally” (p xi). Hartshorne describes the planet. There is an urgency to this work, not just and categorizes ornithological examples in painstaking because the research results will likely be informative, detail, looking for patterns and analogies to human but also because the sources of data — the polar regions activity. He notes, for example, that when the Carolina themselves — are changing so rapidly. Wren sings, “although each song is usually sung a If Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) were still among good many times before another song is introduced, us, he would be intrigued by such investigations into the number of repetitions of the phrase on which the the state of the planet. As a faculty member in the song is based varies about once in five times, being IUniversity of Chicago’s Department of Philosophy from decreased or increased by one, thus: 3334332333334332” 1928 to 1955, Hartshorne represented a mélange of (p 38). Through sheer accumulation of information Leibniz, Whitehead, and Plato that he called “theistic from a world beyond ourselves, Hartshorne generates naturalism,” which regarded the boundaries between an empathy for the non-human. Hartshorne’s many God, nature, and humankind as permeable. In books books display an aesthetic appreciation of thought such as Beyond Humanism: Essays in the New Philo- and experience in the broadest sense of those terms. sophy of Nature (1937), Hartshorne argued that any the quality of the department. George Herbert Mead, This perspective enabled him for a long time to expe- criteria by which we might try to distinguish ourselves then chair of the department, disagreed. rience the debates of his colleagues as a kind of or God from the natural world is doomed to failure, As a result of this legendary conflict, Hartshorne concert, sometimes cacophonous, sometimes intricate because such criteria can always be expressed in terms found himself not so much isolated as stuck in a battle in its harmony. of some “cosmic variable” that is applicable both all zone. He was able to distract himself from the conflicts In part to escape academic politics, Hartshorne the way down the scale, to the level of molecules and among administrators, however, because he had more left the University shortly after Hutchins did, moving atoms, and all the way up, to the level of the planet important things to think about. By 1937, he believed to Emory University in 1955 and becoming widely and beyond. “It is to be observed,” Hartshorne wrote, that he was standing at the heart of “a philosophical known for his role in the development of process theo- “that physiology can as yet furnish no reason for movement which is not idealism or monism or materi- logy. I can only wonder what conclusions Hartshorne denying feeling even to so complex an object as the alism or sheer pluralism or positivism or supernaturalism would draw from the evidence of global warming’s world-whole” (p. 118). Thomas Nagel famously asked or atheism, or any of the older isms, but a genuine detrimental impact on the planet—evidence that is what it is like to be a bat. Hartshorne asked what it is integration (for the first time) of all the modern motifs, accumulating daily as a result of undertakings like like to be the Earth. in the sense in which Thomism was an integration of the International Polar Year. He would have been After graduate study at Harvard and two years in medieval ones” (p. viii). Hartshorne found this inte- very curious to know more about how the planet Europe studying with Martin Heidegger and Edmund gration in part via his involvement with the “X Club,” is feeling. ■ Husserl (with whom he spent New Year’s Eve of 1923), a group of scientists from various departments at the Hartshorne arrived at Chicago just in time to settle into University who gathered monthly to discuss a paper what, in his 1990 autobiography The Darkness and written by a member. In part because of the conversa- the Light, he characterized as “considerable (though tions he was having at club meetings—debating, for David M. Thompson, not extreme) isolation” (p. 219) in a department dom- instance, whether a termite colony could be regarded associate dean for planning inated by the Chicago School of pragmatism. Matters as an individual—Hartshorne’s thought took an inter- and programs, considers aspects changed in the autumn of 1930, when Hartshorne esting turn. In his quest for an integration of “all the of Divisional history in this regular column for Tableau. was still only a third-year assistant professor and modern motifs,” he developed a refined willingness to Robert Hutchins became Chancellor of the University. test the boundaries among all the categories by which Above: Portrait of Hutchins brought in a trio of philosophers—Richard life is defined, even the distinction between the living Charles Hartshorne, circa 1928, McKeon, Mortimer Adler, and Scott Buchanan— and the lifeless. “Electrons are very lively creatures,” courtesy of the Center for whose presence Hutchins felt would greatly improve he wrote in Creativity in American Philosophy (1984). Process Studies. > Look Looking and Listening in Play with clay, explore the Nineteenth-Century France, exhibitions, and enjoy cocktails University of Chicago Department curated by Martha Ward, associate at the Hyde Park Art Center’s of Visual Arts faculty members professor of Art History at the “Cocktails and Clay” from 8 p.m. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and University of Chicago, and Anne to midnight the first Friday of every Catherine Sullivan are among 17 Leonard, Smart Museum curator month. Suggested $15 donation. international artists featured in the and Mellon program coordinator, www.hydeparkart.org. fourth season of the PBS television continues on view at the Smart series Art 21: Art in the Twenty- Museum of Art through March For out-of-the-ordinary programming, first Century. An award-winning, 23, 2008. Audiences in different check out the Film Studies in-depth look at today’s artists and eras look at art and listen to music Center, in Cobb Hall. This prime their works, Art 21 reveals first- in dramatically different ways. This place to watch 35mm films seats hand the complex artistic process, exhibition cuts to the heart of debates up to 100 and features recent from inception to finished product, about art and its function, and upgrades including a state-of-the- behind some of today’s most thought- examines exactly what attracts art projection system. Over 180 provoking artists. and secures an audience’s atten- titles are screened per quarter for Manglano-Ovalle appeared in tion in visual and musical works. classes, workshops, conferences, episode 3, “Ecology” (Nov. 11). You smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. and special events. The Individual can see his work, “La Tormenta / Viewing Area is open seven days/ The Storm” on permanent installa- > Learn 70 hours a week during the school tion at the U.S. Citizenship and year. Public programming ranges from Immigration Services Building in The Experimental Station and silent films with live accompaniment, Chicago. Sullivan was featured in Public Square at the Illinois to guest filmmaker presentations, episode 4, “Paradox” (Nov. 18). Humanities Council hosted the and rare film screenings. Recent Sullivan will have a solo exhibition, Festival of Democracy: programming included an evening of 16mm Technicolor Scopotones— the pop music “videos” of the 1960s; and Forbidden Paths and The Devil’s Claim, two films featuring Sessue Hayakawa, an University of Chicago alumnus and the only Oscar- nominated, non-white superstar of American silent cinema. filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu. > Listen A new cultural institution emerged in Chicago in September — the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Its first incarnation attracted turn-away crowds for the indoor shows and New Works, at Metro Pictures Unleashing Radical more than 5,000 people for the free Gallery in New York, January 26 Imagination on October 20, 2007. sets. Created by the University of through February 23, 2008. PBS The event invited contributors to Chicago, the Hyde Park Cultural will re-broadcast the entire series collectively imagine and grapple Alliance, and the Hyde Park A Selection of throughout the year. www.pbs.org with issues of human rights, Jazz Society, the festival featured /art21. political power, and struggles Past, Present, and such notables as trumpeter Orbert for social justice. www.thepublic- Davis, drummer Charles “Rick” Photographer Pance Velkov square.org. Heath, singer Dee Alexander, Future Events on explores Time and the Sacred veteran saxophonist Jimmy Ellis, in a series of images of religious The Nicholson Center for Campus and in the as well as several local acts in art in the Republic of Macedonia, British Studies presents the jam sessions. Neighborhood where Christianity and Islam have 2007– 2008 Distinguished Faculty coexisted for more than six cen- Lecture January 17, 2008, featuring Upper left: Emile-René Menard, turies. The exhibit, on view through Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence Homer, c. 1885, Oil on canvas. December 24 at Rockefeller A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Smart Museum of Art, University Memorial Chapel, was co-spon- Professor, Departments of South of Chicago, Purchase, Gift of sored by the Center for East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Davidson. European and Russian / Eurasian History, and the College. He will Center: Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle,

happenings Studies (CEERES). present “Empire, Ethics, and the Phantom Truck, 2007, aluminum Calling of History.” british.uchicago and epoxy paint. .edu/lectures.html.

For information on upcoming Humanities programming please visit http://humanities.uchicago.edu/calendar/ 22 HAPPENINGS

The Franke Institute presents the Chicago Humanities Forum featuring Lawrence Zbikowski, associate professor, Department of Music and the College February 6, 2008, at the Gleacher Center. Zbikowski is a music theorist whose research focuses on applying recent work in cognitive science to various problems confronted by music scholars, including the nature of musical syntax and the structure of theories of music. He will present the talk “Birds, Spinning Wheels, Horses, and Sex: Painting Images with Music.” hum.uchicago.edu/frankeinstitute/ tevents.html.

Chicago Presents will feature mezzo- soprano Alice Coote (left) and pianist Denis Feeney, professor of Classics and Julius Drake in a performance of Schubert’s Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton song cycle Winterreise, op. 89, D. 911, based University, delivered the 2007 George B. on Wilhelm Müller’s 24-poem collection at Walsh Memorial Lecture October 26. 7:30 p.m. February 15 in their Chicago recital Feeney, who teaches Latin poetry, spoke debut. Coote studied first at the Guildhall on “Crediting Pseudolus: Trust, Credit, and School of Music and Drama and then at the Belief in Plautus’ Pseudolus.” He is currently studio of German mezzo-soprano Brigitte working on a book about the uses of time in Fassbaender. The concert will be preceded the formation of Roman culture. The annual by a talk—on culture and the art song— memorial lecture brings a speaker to campus with the artists and Berthold Hoeckner, whose scholarship exhibits the restlessness associate professor of Music and the

happenings and excellence characteristic of George Humanities, a music historian specializing in B. Walsh’s own work. Walsh (AB’67) was 20th-century music. The talk is sponsored by an associate professor in the Department the Nicholson Center for British Studies. A Selection of Past, Present, and Future Events Events Present, and Future Past, of Selection A of Classics. chicagopresents.uchicago.edu.

ON THE COVER Sextant, 2006. Engraved plastic and paint, 20½ x 19 inches.

Courtesy of the artist, Michael Dinges, MFA 2005, and Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago | Collection of Rob and Sally Baird

“Sextant is modeled after a historical tool of navigation invented during the mid-1700s and used until the late 20th century. With this piece, I want the viewer to imagine using such a tool to make deter- minations regarding the ephemeral nature of any strategy involving globalization. Every decision potentially involves a host of unintended consequences that can be beneficial to one group, while devastating to another. On whose authority are these strategies determined? Under what standards are these decisions made? What are the results of those decisions? These are some of the questions I want the piece to prompt the viewer to ask. This object is meant to imply a point of view and intention on the part of the user/viewer. As presented here, the viewer has the distance of time and space (to look at it on the wall and not to actually hold it) to reassess its historical use and present-day consequences — in effect, to view this object as an artifact, and yet, not quite an artifact.” — MD

1115 East 58th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Chicago, IL Permit #4176