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150303_Cadillac_UofC.indd 1 1/20/15 1:20 PM Features 26 object lessons On Antiques Roadshow, appraiser Gary Piattoni, AB’83, teases out the stories that things want to tell. By Laura Demanski, AM’94 Plus: Five myths about art, antiques, and collectibles. By Gary Piattoni, AB’83

34 social constructs Michael Murphy’s MASS Design Group strives to make an architecture of community cohesion. By Michael Washburn, AM’02 MAR–APR 2015 vOLuMe 107, nu MBeR 4 40 the great escape Notes on an intellectual and musical journey. By Philip Glass, AB’56

50 glimpses Leading cosmologist Wendy Freedman trains a telescopic lens on the biggest questions in the universe. By Maureen Searcy

54 eYe oF the beholDer For its 40th anniversary, the Smart Museum offers inviting, unexpected avenues to approach art. By Lydialyle Gibson

60 mega Data Chicago Booth economist Matthew Gentzkow sifts insights about the media from massive amounts of digital information. By Jason Kelly

Departments 3 eDitor’s notes The things we carry: Artifacts and their nostalgic value. By Laura Demanski, AM’94

4 letters

It’s a divining rod, SEPT–OCT 2011, VOLUMEthe 104, first I’ve NUMBER seen 1 in five or six years. Kind of a quack Readers comment on heart-smart eating; 1960s integration in Hyde Park; device to find gold.

Every ship would have had something like this. This is a small one. Subma- the tension between national security and civil liberties; quantitative and rine stuff is very specific.

PHILIP GLASS … MEDIA DATA … ANTIQUES … WENDY FREEDMAN … PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE … SMART ART SMART … ARCHITECTURE PUBLIC … FREEDMAN WENDY … DATA ANTIQUES … MEDIA … GLASS PHILIP qualitative data; Mike Nichols, EX’53, at an early stage in his career; how

Well, here’s the thing. The two most valuable things are that patch and this workplace structures influence the gender wage gap; College memories lost book. They weren’t allowed to take these books, but a lot of guys did. What you have here is a naughty cigarette and found; the late poet Mark Strand; the indispensable role of doulas in a case, $10 as is.

So it’s an atomic bomb. A small atomic bomb. I wonder if it’s even legal for you community program; and more. This is a quack medi- to have that. It’s from the cal device. The theory Cold War; not many folks The stars might be cot- is you plug this in, it get excited about that. ton, not a lot of moth- lights up, you put it ing. That’s not added, over your ailments. that’s just a rein- forcement. Maybe as much as $1,000. 11 uchicago journal Let’s see the hat. This is a veteran’s hat. The buttons are for Spanish-Amer- This is a pretty big collect- ican War vets. Brightening a gray winter with Rockefeller Memorial Chapel art, ing category right now. The These guys would come most valuable patch is into the area, take black the 101st Airborne eagle and white photos, and with the white tongue. make these paintings. During the Korean War moonlighting as a Broadway producer, expanding specialized care where it was a way for the locals to make money. it’s needed most, doing homework on Chicago school closings, following the I’ve owned one of these before. It’s a cool little shortsword. 1893 was the first real Leica is the Cadillac of cameras. This one The value of a journal like exposition in the country. might bring $1,000. this is about how exciting the money in corporate political donations, tracing the history of cultures through content is. “I just saw Teddy MAR–APR 2015 Roosevelt punch someone” would be really cool. their artifacts, nudging parents to do more for young children, advocating for marginalized Romani people, and more. 150303_Cadillac_UofC.indd 1 1/20/15 1:20 PM With fragments of the past in tow, Antiques 24 course work Roadshow hopefuls Scare tactics: A popular Theater and Performance Studies course directs come in waves. Appraiser students on how to stage terror. By Maureen Searcy Gary Piattoni, AB’83, helps them to identify 65 peer review Move forward. With confi dence. the history and value of Zachary Cannon, AM’99, became attuned to the natural world all around him their items. See “Object in Chicago’s urban landscape. Plus: Alumni News, Deaths, and Classifieds. No matter how complex your business questions, we have the Lessons,” page 26. 96 lite oF the minD capabilities and experience to deliver the answers you need to Illustration by Raul Arias. Not without merit: You need these stinking badges. move forward. As the world’s largest consulting fi rm, we can help you take decisive action and achieve sustainable results. See the full print issue of the University of Chicago Magazine, www.deloitte.com/confi dence web-exclusive content, and links to our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, SFI-01042 and Tumblr accounts at mag.uchicago.edu. Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 1

150312_Deloitte_Chicago.indd 1 1/26/15 9:58 AM Features 26 object lessons On Antiques Roadshow, appraiser Gary Piattoni, AB’83, teases out the stories that things want to tell. By Laura Demanski, AM’94 Plus: Five myths about art, antiques, and collectibles. By Gary Piattoni, AB’83

50 glimpses Leading cosmologist Wendy Freedman trains a telescopic lens on the biggest questions in the universe. By Maureen Searcy

54 eYe oF the beholDer For its 40th anniversary, the Smart Museum offers inviting, unexpected avenues to approach art. By Lydialyle Gibson

60 mega Data Chicago Booth economist Matthew Gentzkow sifts insights about the media from massive amounts of digital information. By Jason Kelly

Departments 3 eDitor’s notes The things we carry: Artifacts and their nostalgic value. By Laura Demanski, AM’94

4 letters

Every ship would have had something like this. This is a small one. Subma- the tension between national security and civil liberties; quantitative and rine stuff is very specific.

So it’s an atomic bomb. A small atomic bomb. I wonder if it’s even legal for you community program; and more. This is a quack medi- to have that. It’s from the cal device. The theory Cold War; not many folks The stars might be cot- is you plug this in, it get excited about that. ton, not a lot of moth- lights up, you put it ing. That’s not added, over your ailments. that’s just a rein- forcement. Maybe as much as $1,000. 11 uchicago journal Let’s see the hat. This is a veteran’s hat. The buttons are for Spanish-Amer- This is a pretty big collect- ican War vets. Brightening a gray winter with Rockefeller Memorial Chapel art, ing category right now. The These guys would come most valuable patch is into the area, take black the 101st Airborne eagle and white photos, and with the white tongue. make these paintings. During the Korean War moonlighting as a Broadway producer, expanding specialized care where it was a way for the locals to make money. it’s needed most, doing homework on Chicago school closings, following the I’ve owned one of these before. It’s a cool little shortsword. 1893 was the first real Leica is the Cadillac of cameras. This one The value of a journal like exposition in the country. might bring $1,000. this is about how exciting the money in corporate political donations, tracing the history of cultures through content is. “I just saw Teddy MAR–APR 2015 Roosevelt punch someone” would be really cool. their artifacts, nudging parents to do more for young children, advocating for marginalized Romani people, and more. 150303_Cadillac_UofC.indd 1 1/20/15 1:20 PM With fragments of the past in tow, Antiques 24 course work Roadshow hopefuls Scare tactics: A popular Theater and Performance Studies course directs come in waves. Appraiser students on how to stage terror. By Maureen Searcy Gary Piattoni, AB’83, helps them to identify 65 peer review the history and value of Zachary Cannon, AM’99, became attuned to the natural world all around him their items. See “Object in Chicago’s urban landscape. Plus: Alumni News, Deaths, and Classifieds. Lessons,” page 26. 96 lite oF the minD Illustration by Raul Arias. Not without merit: You need these stinking badges.

See the full print issue of the University of Chicago Magazine, web-exclusive content, and links to our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, SFI-01042 and Tumblr accounts at mag.uchicago.edu.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 1 More than 200 alumni, parents, and friends came together in Los Angeles at Discover UChicago to celebrate the University of Chicago Campaign: Inquiry and Impact. University scholars shared research and ﬁ elded questions from inquiring Maroons. For upcoming Discover UChicago event dates, see page 53. Photography by Jason Smith. editorˆs notes

The things we carry by laura demanski, am’94

Volume 107, Number 4, Mar–Apr 2015

executive editor Mary Ruth Yoe editor Laura Demanski, AM’94 associate editors Lydialyle Gibson, Jason Kelly art director Guido Mendez t a Neubauer Collegium alumni news editor Helen Gregg, AB’09 event this winter, “The senior copy editor Rhonda L. Smith Imaginary Funeral: Image, student interns Minna Jaffery, ’15; Kathryn Vandervalk, ’16 Artifact, and the Work of graphic designer Laura Lorenz Mourning,” faculty panel- lite of the mind & interactive ists discussed the trappings content editor Joy Olivia Miller of mourning in the Roman contributing editors John Easton, AM’77; Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93; Empire, pre-Columbian Brooke E. O’Neill, AM’04; Amy Peru, and 19th-century Braverman Puma America. Afterward, audience members spoke about, Editorial Office The University of Chicago Magazine, 5235 South Harper Court, Suite and in some cases had brought with 500, Chicago, IL 60615. telephone them, the things by which they remem- 773.702.2163; fax 773.702.8836; A ber their own lost loved ones. They email [email protected]. brought wristwatches, clothing, books, The Magazine is sent to all University of Chicago alumni. The University of Chicago and papers—even an actual death mask Alumni Association has its offices at made in Germany in the 1960s. It’s a 5555 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, nearly extinct art form, said the son of let alone thousands, the stories behind IL 60637. telephone 773.702.2150; fax 773.702.2166. address changes the woman it memorialized, the tricks them make the strongest impression. 800.955.0065 or [email protected]. of the trade lost over time as the ways They’re what many of those with fam- web mag.uchicago.edu we mourn evolve. ily heirlooms come for. The discussion was by turns philo- What ties us to the things we love? The University of Chicago Magazine (ISSN-0041-9508) is published bimonthly sophical, psychological, historical, In so many cases, it’s the people we (Sept–Oct, Nov–Dec, Jan–Feb, Mar–Apr, and personal—but mostly personal. loved. I moved last year, and the glass May–June, and July–Aug) by the University It kept reminding me of something doorknobs in my new apartment are of Chicago in cooperation with the Alumni else, and finally I made the connec - just like the ones I remember from my Association, 5555 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637. Published continuously tion: it echoed the Saturday morning grandparents’ houses. To open a door since 1907. Periodicals postage paid at I spent last summer shadowing fine is to return, in some tiny corner of my Chicago and additional mailing offices. art appraiser Gary Piattoni, AB’83, mind, to a retrospectively enchanted postmaster Send address changes to The at an Antiques Roadshow taping in time. A cookbook that belonged to my University of Chicago Magazine, Alumni Records, 5235 South Harper Court, downtown Chicago ( “Object Les- maternal grandmother does the same, Chicago, IL 60615. © 2015 University of sons,” page 26). and the mixing bowls that my dad’s Chicago. That day Piattoni was working the mom used to make her apple-pie crusts. arms and militaria table, where he I asked Piattoni which artifacts of National Advertising Representative Ross Garnick, telephone 212.724.0906; focuses on the 20th century. Many today collectors will pine for in 50 or email [email protected] of the items he appraised had come 100 years. “It’s really tricky to pre- down to their owners from family dict,” he admitted. But certain markets members who had served. When you keep pace with the nostalgia of succes- watch the show on TV, you often see sive generations. A case in point: toys. some of the very highest-value items “People collect toys that they played that Roadshow hopefuls bring in. On a with,” Piattoni told me. “It’ll be Bar- February episode taped in New York bies, it’ll be Transformers, it’ll be Play- City, eye-popping five-figure esti- skool.” As a 40-something who now mates were the norm: a Tiffany lamp, turns up the radio for songs from the a John Lennon autograph. Off camera, 1970s that I ignored most of my adult

photography by laura demanski, am’94 campaign.uchicago.edu where few items are worth hundreds, life, that made perfect sense to me. ◆

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 3

Ed Notes_MAarApril15_v1.indd 3 2/27/15 10:24 AM tactics boiled down to “Negro removal.” It was novelist James Baldwin who LETTERS famously said, “Urban renewal is Ne- gro removal.” If the students used some of the same terminology, it likely came from Baldwin, ardently admired and Heart smart widely read at the time (one version of “Heal Thyself” by Jason Kelly in your Jan–Feb/15 edition was both insightful and the Baldwin quote appeared in the Oc- useful in a practical manner. Giving us a glimpse of how to become more healthy, tober 1963 edition of Negro Digest). live longer, and possibly enjoy life more from Kim Williams, AB’75, MD’79, and Harvey Molotch, AM’66, PhD’68 telling how he treated himself simply by changing what he put into his mouth, it is a new york good example of what most of us can achieve as we find the right balance of healthy food, good exercise, mental calisthen- Inside the NSA ics, focus, and discipline. Why doesn’t Professor Geoffrey Stone’s ( JD’71) Many alums must be the University send this good doctor experience serving on a panel review- thirsty to know what we around to alumni groups throughout ing the National Security Agency’s the country and give him firsthand surveillance program (“Into the should be eating. interaction with us healthy, and some Breach,” Jan–Feb/15) was both fasci- not so healthy, mortals? Reading about nating and illuminating, providing the this great anecdotal research and personal reflection is one thing, but hearing it in most concise explanation of what the person would be much more helpful to many alums who must be thirsty to know metadata collection program did and what types of food we should be eating and staying away from.This article is only how it did it that I have read anywhere. a good first step to bringing useful testimony to our alumni bodies about how to Having also read the panel’s complete survive in a complex and stressful world. recommendations as compiled in its fi- Great article! nal report and from the perspective of Thomas H. Kieren, MBA’68 having served in the intelligence com- oak ridge, new jersey munity for over 20 years, I would com- mend the five coauthors for getting the balance between security and liberty pretty close to correct. Managing integration other tactic of the “block busting” sup- Nevertheless, there should be some In his story about Bernie Sanders, posedly responsible for white flight. continued concern about governmen- AB’64 (“A Political Education,” Jan– I doubt there are any documented tal ability to invade privacy at will Feb/15), Rick Perlstein, AB’92, takes incidents. even if certain mechanisms are put in up the controversies over neighbor- The simpler explanation: pent-up place to manage that capability. Stone hood racial change swirling around demand by African American fami- observes that the panel recommended Hyde Park, and much of the country, lies, for so long frozen out of huge that the metadata be held by service during Sanders’s days at UChicago. swaths of the city through rank dis- providers rather than the govern - Overlapping Sanders’s time at the crimination, meant that when a neigh- ment, that a court order be required to University, I was doing my sociol- borhood did open to their occupancy, access the database, and that the infor- ogy PhD on just this topic, moved by they would move in. The whole block- mation not be held for more than two events in Hyde Park but more specifi- busting scenario is an urban myth and years. President Obama reportedly cally oriented toward South Shore, one that often makes blacks’ behav- approved those recommendations, at the time undergoing its own racial ior, including those trying to make a but the reality has been somewhat dif- change (published as a book, Managed living in real estate, the source of the ferent. Late January media reports Integration: Dilemmas of Doing Good problem. By refusing to discriminate indicated that Obama is wavering in the City [University of California against blacks, the brokers who sold regarding who will hold the data and Press, 1972]). Looking back, I think or rented to blacks were simply al - also revealed that legislation to reform Perlstein got a few things wrong. lowing market forces to trump racial the legal authorities concerning the “In some cases,” Perlstein remarks, discrimination. program is stalled in Congress. “unscrupulous real estate interests To prevent “Negro invasion” (a com- Regarding the national security let- would move in blacks deliberately, mon phrase of the time), the Universi- ters, which have been widely abused provoking the exodus of whites ner- ty bought up a lot of the local housing by law enforcement, President Obama vous about losing their property stock, as correctly stated by Perlstein, did not accept the recommendation values.” He then elaborates on this then managed the units to maintain that a court order be required for issu- oft-repeated scenario. “racial balance,” or had them cleared ance. And the recommendation that In regard to Hyde Park or any other as part of federally financed urban re- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance neighborhood with which I am famil- newal. Either way, the goal was to keep Court include a civil liberties advo- iar, this has no basis in fact. I could find down the number of blacks. cate was also largely rejected, leaving no such incidents of moving blacks in Perlstein indicates that some stu- it up to the judges to invite such par- so as to foment exodus, or indeed any dents protested that the University’s ticipation. The FISC nearly always

4 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 approves government requests and is sonal connection to the president. The to Doc Films. Not identified is his regarded as a rubber stamp by many. panel initiates him into the sacred pro- host, Doc Films’ 18-year-old presi- Stone possibly underappreciates tocols of secrecy. From the outset, he dent, Steve Manes, EX’69. Being two things that one learns from work- is sobered, or perhaps intoxicated, by young and fearless, Steve and compa- ing inside the federal bureaucracy. the unfamiliar language and proce- triots invited the 67-year-old Hitch- First, if government is given a tool that dures of the national security state. cock to visit and were delighted, if a it can use to gain information, it will Suitably briefed, the panel manages little surprised, when he accepted. As use it and it will actively work around to agree unanimously on 46 modest re- I recall, his whole trip was paid for by any limitations placed on its use. Sec- form proposals, which might reassure the studio. ond, large programs cost many bil- some critics but would leave essential- Roger Taft, SB’65, SM’68 lions of dollars, involve thousands of ly intact the pervasive secrecy of the laguna beach, california jobs, and are frequently justified due system (including its guidelines and its to internal government dynamics even legal justifications), along with its de- Next steps when they fail to perform. Stone notes basement of personal privacy, its de- Your review of Lawrence Lessig’s Ber- that the metadata collection has up un- partures from due process in the name lin Family Lectures on institutional til now been unable to produce any us- of national security, the total impuni- corruption (“Under the Influence,” able information but defends it because ty of those responsible for committing UChicago Journal, Jan–Feb/15) may be it might someday be needed, a conclu- and covering up alleged abuses, and the most significant article I’ve read in sion that could very well be challenged. the doctrines and practices that have these pages. However, I was really ap- Philip M. Giraldi, AB’68 prevented effective congressional or palled by the way it was summarized. purcellville, virginia judicial oversight. Within 1,184 words of the most Most of these 46 reforms, more- devastating critique I’ve encountered “Into the Breach” is a fascinating sto- over, would require congressional ac- of our current political dilemma, you ry, not least because its author—a bril- tion; some the president has already give us only a single, 20-word sentence liant and sophisticated man—appears rejected, and none has actually been on Lessig’s suggestions for reforming to have no grasp of its significance. implemented. Yet Stone praises the the systemic faults he has discussed, After a whistle-blower, Edward panel’s work as highly successful. Evi- none clearly identified. Follow - Snowden, discloses some drastic dently the mystique of national secu- ing which, the final three and a half violations of civil liberties associ- rity with its shibboleth of secrecy can paragraphs elaborate what might be ated with the war on terror (for which quickly overpower and co-opt even termed the design fault of human na- Snowden is denounced as a felon and an expert and committed civil liber- ture itself, ending with Lessig’s line traitor), public outcry leads the presi- tarian. But this is no surprise: that is that we are all just “the victims and the dent to convene a panel to consider exactly what must have happened to perpetrators” of these wrongs. whether reforms are perhaps need- Barack Obama after he became com- Would Lessig himself really intend ed. This move helps the president mander in chief. such a nihilistic emphasis—catchy as channel and limit the debate. The Nothing important will change it is? panel’s mandate is restricted to the without intense and sustained public Judy Hindley, AB’64 (Class of 1962) detailed procedures for electronic pressure, which may depend on addi- marlborough, wiltshire surveillance—no questions regarding tional, unauthorized disclosures. united kingdom torture, drone killings, or indefinite Daniel Hoffman, AB’63 detention are on the table. charlotte, north carolina All five of Lessig’s Berlin Fam - The five hand-picked panelists have ily Lectures, including the conclud - varied backgrounds, but most are cur- The man who knew too much ing lecture, “Remedies,” can be viewed rent or former insiders. Our author, Alfred Hitchcock is identified in the at berlinfamilylectures.uchicago.edu/page Geoffrey Stone, has ACLU ties, a picture on page 70 of the Jan–Feb/15 /2014-berlin-lectures-lawrence-lessig—Ed. strong civil liberties record, and a per- Magazine taken during his 1967 visit Qualitative value What an important addition the Har- ris School of Public Policy is to the BLAST FROM THE PAST University and to our national life. I I just received my June issue and read with sadness have one not-so-small quibble, howev- that Sleepout was being canceled. Sleepout was er, with the school’s belief statement not only one of the few campuswide events that published in the Jan–Feb/15 issue of I looked forward to every year, but it also went to the Magazine (“Data Science Meets the heart of the way that Chicago worked for us. Public Policy,” On the Agenda): “Chi- Sleepout ensured that students who cared about cago Harris was founded on the belief getting into certain classes could do so, if they were that rigorous, quantitative research willing to make sacrifices. The new system may be and education is the best guide for safer for the grass on the quads, but it will further public policy.” deprive undergrads to have fun in an official forum. As a grant development profession-

photography by christopher dahlen —Steven L. Goldstein, AB’90, Aug/93 al working with grassroots nonprofit

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 5 I enjoyed reminiscing about the days LETTERS in the ’50s with Mike Nichols, EX’53, I walked on stage at my and crew. You leave out one aspect. cue, he shot me, I fell, and That is the Tonight at Eight-Thirty, the theater in the round at Ida Noyes Mike said: “I don’t know agencies, I am very familiar with ev- Hall. As I recollect, we did a series who he was, but I didn’t idence-based programs and policies of traditional plays like Androcles and and support their use. I am, however, the Lion and Bertolt Brecht’s Cauca- like his looks.” deeply concerned that qualitative data sian Chalk Circle with Omar Shapli, often gets short shrift and is often the EX’52, and Nichols doing most of the first, and sometimes the only, data acting and directing. We were head- that small organizations with highly quartered at Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap. Circle as the opening show of Play- innovative programs can produce. Michael P. E. Hoyt, PhB’50, AB’55 wrights Theatre Club in the fall of Most of the groups I work with are santa fe, new mexico 1953 on a tiny stage on the second story effectively initiating and supporting of an old building at LaSalle and North positive changes in individual lives and For another alumnus’s memories of Nich- Avenue. The place had been a Chinese community policies and procedures. ols, see page 73.—Ed. restaurant. There was very little mon- Their work can provide important ey. Some actors camped out backstage. models for reputable and replicable Annals of improv There wasn’t much heat either. public policy if they can be noticed In the photo accompanying “Talking Playwrights launched some re - (and funded). Unfortunately, sample to Your Parents about Improv” (the markable careers, not just the very populations are usually small, data is Core, Winter 2015), you identify Paul well known Nichols and Ed Asner, often qualitative, and their footprints Sills, AB’51, but not the others. Stand- EX’48. UT’s Chalk Circle cast and are minuscule, so funders and policy ing next to Paul are Charlie Jacobs, crew included some you may recog- makers often discount their messages AB’53, JD’56 (stage name Charlie nize. Joyce Hiller became prominent and contributions. Mason); Joyce Hiller, EX’50; Eugene in Chicago theater as Joyce Piven— As I read further about Chicago Har- Troobnick, EX’53; and the seated per- she married Byrne Piven, who also ris online and between the lines, I have son is Estelle Luttrell, AB’53. The pil- acted and directed at Playwrights. great hope that students and faculty are lars in the background were designed Their son Jeremy is starring in the not just crunching numbers but are de- by Stanley Kazdailis for The Maid’s Masterpiece Theater series Mr. Self- veloping tools and methods to capture Tragedy, which University Theater ridge. Gene Troobnick acted in both the qualitative as well as quantitative staged in Mandel Hall in autumn 1952, TV and films. Zohra Alton, AB’52, effectiveness of the thousands of small my first show at UT. The photo was resuming her maiden name, Zohra collaboratives, agencies, and informal taken in the scenery room in back of Lampert, had good roles in film and neighborhood and faith-based groups. the Reynolds Club Theater. on stage. The actor listed as Jimmy Mary Ann Payne, AB’60 Everybody in the photo except Holland, PhB’51, in our old programs ontario, california Gene was in the remarkable produc- made a name for himself as Anthony tion of The Typewriter that UT did in Holland. All were involved in the UT Nichols encounters January 1953. Missing from the photo Caucasian Chalk Circle. The items in the recent Magazine (Peer are Saundra MacDonald, LAB’49, I was sorry to note the death of Review, Jan–Feb/15) and the Core and Mike Nichols. Nichols played Sheldon Patinkin, AB’53, AM’56, (“Mike Nichols, EX’53, 1931–2014,” twins, one of whom was made burly by in the Magazine. I’ll remember Shel- Winter 2015) about the late Mike Nich- lining a bulky sweater with stuffing. don double tasking, playing the piano ols reminded me of a happy encounter We didn’t talk about “improv” but while running the box office for Play- with that brilliant man. During the it’s what we were doing. Every Satur- wrights’ Threepenny Opera. winter quarter of 1956, while living day we met with Sills at the Reynolds Carol (Horning) Stacey, AB’54, at International House, I was asked to Club for workshops to learn how to AM’57, find entertainment for a coming dance. act, making up short scenes, mostly coeur d’alene, idaho I’d seen the excellent group at the Com- without sound or with gibberish to es- pass and with a budget of $25 was able tablish place, weather, time, relation- More to overcome to employ Mike, Elaine May, and three ship, age, conflict, etc. Sills used this Regarding your article on Claudia others to put on some sketches during a method to work up The Typewriter. Goldin, AM’69, PhD’72 (“Delight break in the music. He asked me to play The following month we did Leonce in Discovery,” Nov–Dec/14), it was an extra in the Mickey Spillane sketch: and Lena, starring Sills and Troob- my pleasure to be associated with I walked on stage at my cue, he shot me, nick and directed by Otis Imboden, Goldin many years ago on a research I fell, and Mike said: “I didn’t know AM’52 (later a National Geographic trip to North Carolina. I was then who he was, but I didn’t like his looks.” photographer). This was followed by working on my PhD in American This was my last effort as an Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk colonial history, and she was doing impresario. Circle, which Sills developed through research for Robert Fogel on what Phil Bock, AM’56 the workshops. Then Sills and all the turned out to be his and Stanley L. albuquerque, new mexico actors in your picture repeated Chalk Engerman’s Time on the Cross: The

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150106_AdvancedLeadership.indd 1 11/14/14 9:45 AM al harassment and simple assault. And ... We delved deeper, with controls for LETTERS reading some of Goldin’s work online, variables such as age, industry, sector, I see she is concerned that men did not and organization size ... looking for a want their wives to work because of link to women’s lesser representation sexual harassment. in top management. But we found no Economics of American Negro Slavery And of course there are many oth- connections. ... Again and again, our (Little Brown, 1974). er O. Henry stories showing Wall core finding —HBS alumnae have not At that time she was documenting Street grafters selling bonds for non- attained senior management positions Fogel’s view that slavery wasn’t so existent countries and other white at the same rates as men—persisted. ... bad, and many slave owners treated collar criminals—the kind of wrong- We don’t mean to suggest that no rela- their slaves very well. I distinctly re- doers that Franklin D. Roosevelt tionship exists between individuals’ member her finding a letter by a slave tried to control through government choices regarding work and family to his owner thanking him. I was re- regulation. Sixty years on, Goldin’s and their career outcomes. But what is pelled by that thesis then and am glad colleague, Lawrence Summers, who clear is that the conventional wisdom to see much research since then shows engineered the destruction of FDR’s doesn’t tell the full story.” Fogel in Time on the Cross to be wrong regulation, believes market forces Both Goldin and the authors of the in almost every respect. (See Edward alone will suffice. Harvard study recommend “family- Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told Just a few days after reading your friendly” workplace changes. But the [Basic, 2014], as well as many other laudatory article on Goldin, the Har- Harvard study makes it clear there is a books listed in Baptist’s bibliography.) vard Business Review (HBR) published lot more to overcome. I was really annoyed with Goldin’s an article, “Rethink What You ‘Know’ The reader can draw her own con - use of O. Henry’s “Springtime à la about High Achieving Women” (De- clusions about gender disparities by Carte” in her seminar. O. Henry is a cember 2014), based on a survey of comparing Goldin’s research versus wonderful source for early 20th-cen- 25,000 Harvard Business School that published in HBR. I just wanted tury life. But in this case I am puzzled (HBS) graduates. Goldin is cited in to cool down your laudatory article by Goldin’s selection of a story about your article as arguing that “Women with some research from another a typist rather than the story about a get paid less today, in part because they source across the Charles. shopgirl, “The Third Ingredient,” in are more likely than men to step away Jeffrey E. Fiddler, EX’70 whose opening the protagonist, Hetty from jobs.” chicago Pepper, is fired for slapping a manager On the contrary, the HBR article who gives her a friendly pinch on her says: “Time out of the workforce Memories found arm. Now today, of course, there could account for the fact that women I enjoyed Wayne Scott’s (AB’86, would be an argument between sexu- are less likely to be in senior positions. AM’89) essay, “In Search of Words Lost” (Sept–Oct/14). I matriculated the year following Scott, in 1983, and while I no longer remember who gave social Uchicago that year’s Aims of Education address, I likewise have carried a few choice UChicago @UChicago • Feb 12 words from it with me across the years. @UChicagoCSGS event explores a love triangle The aim of a liberal education, said the dating to #UChicago’s earliest days: speaker, is to make a person well-round- http://ow.ly/ITX1y ed, “but not so well-rounded that you roll in any direction you are pushed.” Powell’s Chicago @PowellsBooksChi • Jan 31 I’d appreciate input from anyone Jeff Deutsch, director of @SeminaryCoOp, counts us who can tell me who the speaker was, among his favorite bookstores! Here’s his list: or whether my recollection is correct. http://bit.ly/1KgD97x (I appear to have reached the age when one starts writing to one’s alumni Michael Greger, M.D. @nutrition_facts • Jan 26 magazine to share fond memories of Am. J of Cardiology head on his plant-based diet: “I one’s college days.) don’t mind dying; I just don’t want it to be my fault.” Scott’s essay also evoked my memo- http://mag.uchicago.edu/science-medicine/heal-thyself ries of taking the winter quarter seg - ment of Self, Culture, and Society Christina Kahrl @ChristinaKahrl • Jan 17 from Jonathan Z. Smith. During a If #MLB can get having trans coworker right, close reading of Émile Durkheim’s what’s your industry’s excuse? http://bit.ly/14OXMtr The Elementary Forms of the Religious #girlslikeus Life (1912), Smith instructed the class to draw a dagger in the margin of our Social UChicago is a sampling of social media mentions of recent stories in books next to a certain paragraph, be- the print and online editions of the Magazine and other University of Chicago cause, he said, it was one of only three publications. To join the Twitter conversation, follow us @UChicagoMag. weak points in Durkheim’s argument

8 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 The cause of the Hall and the Committee on Social nearly two decades now among com- Thought area and passed his office. munity-based doulas, the moms they alarm turned out The next day my wife heard on local serve, program supervisors, and allies to be a metal crucifix television that Mark Strand had died. around the country.This program suc- I was shocked and could not believe it. ceeds because doulas are of and from hidden beneath the Roy D. Schickedanz the same community as their clients glenwood, illinois and able to bridge language and cul- archbishop’s tural barriers in order to meet health vestments. A correction and apology needs. It succeeds because each doula Allow me to join what I hope are the models a strength, power, and nur- legions of readers who observed that turing spirit that resonates with the the graph in “Bankers’ Rules” (Fig. moms and families they support. in the entire book. Tracking an argu - 1, UChicago Journal, Jan–Feb/15) is Tikvah Wadley is my friend and ment across 4,500 words is trivial for completely wrong. The y-axis is unla- colleague. Her passion for this work, a mind that can track one across 500 beled and the two distributions—bi- her tenacity, her gift for storytelling, pages. I can no longer find that nota- nomial and observed—are mislabeled. her absolute inability to hold a grudge, tion in my copy of the book, so perhaps If I saw a graph like this in a paper I and her capacity for cross-cultural un- I did not heed his instruction. was reviewing, I would probably flag derstanding and facilitation—the way I recall a sort of humble-brag story it for rejection. It appears to be not a she draws people together, pushes ev- that Smith told about going through good idea for the Magazine to try to eryone in her life to lead with their best Heathrow Airport security while get into the business of disseminating selves, the way she participates each deep in conversation with the arch- quantitative research results. day in building a community of sup- bishop of Canterbury. In those by- Martin J. Murphy, PhD’80 port—beautifully exemplify this work. gone days of relaxed security (not just richmond, virginia These are the traits I would have liked pre-9/11, but pre-Lockerbie), he and to see mentioned in the article. the archbishop passed through the The writer is correct. In reproducing the Rachel Abramson metal detector nearly simultaneously. graph, we failed to label the y-axis and chicago When the detector sounded an alarm, reversed the colors in the key, making the it was Smith, disheveled and hirsute, graph nonsensical. We regret our errors and Familiar face who was thoroughly patted down. apologize to Chicago Booth postdoc Alain I enjoyed the Winter 2015 Core and The cause of the alarm turned out to Cohn and his coauthors. The corrected especially the books that the profes- be a metal crucifix hidden beneath the graph, matching the version that appeared sors like (“The Professors’ Book- archbishop’s vestments. in their study and including the original shelf”). Classic Constantin Fasolt to Janet Swisher, AB’87 explanatory caption, can be viewed at mag like Wittgenstein! I want to mention austin, texas .uchicago.edu/economics-business/bankers that the beautiful portrait of William -rules.—Ed. Rainey Harper is by Karl A. Buehr Edward W. Rosenheim, AB’39, AM’46, (1866–1952), acclaimed Chicago art- PhD’53, delivered the address in 1983. A Doula power ist and my great uncle. list of all past Aims of Education speakers I appreciate the author’s enthusiasm Samuel J. Tinaglia Sr., AB’88 is available at aims.uchicago.edu/page for community-based doula programs park ridge, illinois /past-speakers.—Ed. in “Labor and Love” (UChicago Jour- nal, Jan–Feb/15), and how she leads us Corrections Strand remembered through the work of Sydney Hans, the Maria Woltjen’s response to a letter The comic piece by Grant Snider grac- UChicago researcher who delved into from Paul Nachman, PhD’78 (Letters, ing the inside back cover of the Core the effectiveness of these programs. I Jan–Feb/15), erroneously stated that (Winter 2015), “Understanding Po- am deeply concerned, however, with the murder rate in Honduras was 80 etry (After Mark Strand),” is a perfect the gaps in the description of the actu- per capita in 2013. The rate was 80 per tribute in a vein that our poet laureate al program and the characterization of 100,000 people. We regret the error. of 1990–91 would truly appreciate. Tikvah Wadley—the powerful, char- The first time I saw Strand, the only ismatic doula, community advocate, The University of Chicago Magazine person that I could think of was Clint and doula trainer in the piece, whom welcomes letters about its contents or about Eastwood, the movie actor and direc- I work with as executive director of the life of the University. Letters for pub- tor, whom he looked so much like: tall HealthConnect One. lication must be signed and may be edited and lanky, with a face very much like The community-based doula pro- for space, clarity, and civility. To provide the actor. I remember a lecture in Clas- gram model is rooted in and evolved a range of views and voices, we encour- sics 10, Strand sitting among the other from strengths and needs identified by age letter writers to limit themselves to people in the audience, there to sup- the pilot communities in Chicago. It 300 words or fewer. Write: Editor, The port the lecturer, a friend. His well- grew from knowledge already housed University of Chicago Magazine, 5235 worn baseball hat gave our laureate a within these communities, and con- South Harper Court, Suite 500, Chicago, character of class. tinues to grow through the camara- IL 60615. Or email: uchicago-magazine One day recently I was in Foster derie, support, and skill sharing over @uchicago.edu.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 9 Untitled-3 1 11/14/14 9:32 AM mar–apr 2015 Harper’s Index, 13 ...... For the Record, 15 ...... Citations, 16 ...... Original Source, 19 ...... Fig. 1, 22

art Chapel in full bloom. In artist Libby While working on the piece in both Chaney’s evocative fabric installation cities, she came to see spring as “full of Seasons, which hung in the east transept amazing force,” like the force of surg- The four gallery and on the chapel’s lower level ing waters from the thaw. “How power- from January to early March, hundreds ful the shoots are that come up through of cloth scraps were sewn into scenes of the crust of the earth,” she said. seasons summer, fall, winter, and spring, rich Her home in Cleveland has a view with color—and, the closer one got, of Lake Erie, and Chaney marveled Amid winter’s darkness, an art with pattern and texture too. at how winter transforms it: “Some- installation multiplied the colors in In her sermon at a Sunday service times it looks like a patio of cut smooth Rockefeller Chapel. in February, Chaney spoke about how rocks, sometimes it looks like a moon- differently she thought of each season scape of round shapes, sometimes it after she and her husband moved from looks like lace.” With her art, Rock- The grayest months of a stubborn San Francisco to Cleveland recently, efeller was transformed too.

photography by anne ryan winter found Rockefeller Memorial and in the process of making Seasons. —Laura Demanski, AM’94

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 11

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 11 2/27/15 9:59 AM For Black Stars of the Great White Way, a one-night concert celebrating the legacy of black men on Broadway, Greer and the operations team coor- dinated performers’ travel schedules, negotiated a contract with Carnegie Hall, and even maintained the show’s Facebook page. It was a theater connection that got him closest to realizing his dream project—a musical about the life of James Brown. After learning that a movie script was already in the works, with Mick Jagger producing, Greer knew that his vision of the Broadway production would have to wait. But a representative of Brown’s estate did like his proposal. “They asked me if I’d quit my day job to join them to help make the movie. And the only catch was, there was no salary.” Though he declined the offer, Greer did get a small, nonspeaking part in Get On Up—the Godfather of Soul Greer, right, joined director Tate Taylor at the premiere of Get On Up. steals his date at the Apollo. Greer recently added another role to his résumé: playwright. Hour Far- THEATER from a straight quantitative assessment ther, a play he fi nished in 2009 about of how elusive financial success has an adopted son looking back on the been. “When you look at Broadway’s father figures in his life, was staged top 10 grossing shows, I’m not in any of in Mystic, Connecticut, last October. Behind the those numbers,” says Greer. “I’m not When I met him, Greer had just at- even in the top regional shows.” tended a reading of the play, looking I met Greer in New York, during to gain traction with artistic directors scenes one of many trips he’s made to the city in New York. Happy in his corporate day job, a in recent years since a chance meeting Given the time he devotes to theat- with an actor he admired, Colman Do- rical pursuits, it’s easy to forget that Chicago Booth graduate pursues mingo, turned Greer onto the theater Greer has a day job. The theater work, Broadway producing on the side. world’s niche of part-time financial Greer says—raising funds, pitching producers. An email over LinkedIn projects, writing, and the occasional When David Greer, IMBA’99, de- got Greer a meeting with a producer for acting gig—is all squeezed into holi- scribes his second job as a theater pro- The Scottsboro Boys, who happened to days, personal days, lunch hours, and ducer, he’s straightforward about his be looking for others to join the team. early mornings. The realm of theater role. “Basically, trying to fi nd wealthy “I’m not afraid to introduce myself to and fi lm offers a space for Greer to have individuals who want to invest their people that I don’t know. I’m not afraid an artistic infl uence, he says. But he’s money into a risky investment,” he of being turned down.” irked by acquaintances who suggest says. “I’m not sure if I’d call it invest- That self-assurance is a requisite that these are his true goals. ment—into risky passion projects.” trait in the corporate world, and it’s “I like what I’ve done in the busi- In 2010 Greer helped produce the served Greer well when pitching ness world. If my hobby was playing chronicle augusta wehmeyer/the ryan Broadway musical The Scottsboro Boys, “risky passion projects” too. golf or softball or fantasy football,” no which earned 12 Tony nominations, “Even the best batters in baseball, at one would mention it, Greer says. “But and he has since helped bring to the best, hit three out of 10 times. So if I get because it’s this stuff, they think, ‘Oh, stage productions of The Gershwins’ turned down this time, I’m gonna keep your priorities are off.’” Porgy and Bess, The Mountaintop, and taking a swing until I get a hit,” says Then again, he recognizes, perhaps other projects. Greer. “I’ve had a lot more strikeouts more than most, what a tough business By trade Greer is a numbers guy— than hits.” theater is compared to his corporate he spent time in the fi nance and busi- While most of Greer’s work as a experience. ness development divisions of Pratt & producer has been on the financing “You could be hot one minute and Whitney, an aerospace company, and side—identifying, attracting, and ne- cold for the next 10 years,” Greer says. now works for Procter & Gamble in gotiating with investors—he has also “This is a much more risky world.” Cincinnati, Ohio. He doesn’t shy away done the operational “grunt work.” —Mitchell Kohles, AB’12

12 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 12 2/27/15 9:59 AM MEDICINE by training community providers to handle more complex cases themselves. Using videoconferencing technology, WILLIAM specialists can effi ciently provide edu- RAINEY Echoing cation on topics like hepatitis C or pal- HARPER’S liative care to community doctors who INDEX otherwise would not have the time or care resources to pursue such training. “I VAX A UChicago Medicine program said that it would be perfect for us to initiate here on the South Side of Chi- POPULI shares specialized knowledge to cago,” recalls Johnson. improve health care in the city. The University of Chicago Medi- Percentage of unvaccinated cine’s Urban Health Initiative soon people who become For many Chicagoans, access to spe- launched the nation’s fi rst urban itera- infected a er their fi rst cialized medical care is “a substan- tion of the ECHO program. The rural exposure to measles, tial problem,” says Daniel Johnson, model was modified slightly to meet Allison Bartle of the LAB’73, academic pediatrics section the needs of busier inner-city provid- Comer Children’s Hospital chief at the University of Chicago ers; for example, all ECHO-Chicago infection control program Medicine. Specialists are rare in low- videoconferencing sessions start at 8 told UChicago Medicine’s income neighborhoods, and long travel a.m. because “that’s when they have ScienceLife: times, high costs, and “ungodly long” the most control over their workday,” waits can make it impractical or impos- says Johnson. But at its core, ECHO- sible for patients referred to an endocri- Chicago, like the original program, nologist or infectious disease specialist draws on a tried-and-true model of 75 to get the care they need. “And what do medical education: rounding. During patients do now who can’t get access to each session, a UChicago Medicine ex- Before the 1967 the subspecialists in a timely way or at pert gives a short lesson, and then com- introduction of the measles all?” asks Johnson. “They deteriorate, munity providers present cases that are vaccine, the average they go to the emergency room, they discussed as a group during the video- number of annual deaths get hospitalized.” conference. “And that’s basically the from the disease in the Six years ago his colleague Tamara model medical education has shown to United States: Hamlish, AM’87, PhD’95, heard work the best,” says Johnson. “That’s about a program called Extension for how we train residents.” Community Healthcare Outcomes The initial focus of ECHO-Chicago (ECHO) run by the University of New was resistant hypertension, or un- 500 Mexico. ECHO aims to improve ac- controlled high blood pressure—the cess to subspecialty care in rural areas condition ECHO-Chicago’s commu- Percentage reduction of measles cases in the United States a er the introduction of the vaccine: 99 Deaths per 1,000 US children infected with measles: ryan wehmeyer/the augusta chronicle augusta wehmeyer/the ryan 3 Current number of global cases per year, in millions, according to the Centers for Disease Control:

Specialists train community doctors on advanced topics by videoconference. 20

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 13

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 13 2/27/15 10:00 AM nity health center partners had cited as their biggest area of concern. Johnson and Hamlish, now ECHO-Chicago’s director and executive director, respectively, recruited George Bakris, AM’75, director of the University of Chicago Medicine’s comprehensive hypertension center, as the program’s first subject-matter expert to lead the virtual rounds. A preliminary review of the patients managed by ECHO-Chicago–trained community providers showed improved patient outcomes at partner sites—after taking the course, participating doctors were bringing about half of their resistant hypertension patients under control, a success rate equivalent to what had been seen in Bakris’s own clinic. What’s more significant, Johnson Multiple factors constrained parents’ choices of new schools for their children. says, is that an early analysis showed a 10 to 15 percent change in the type of hypertension prescriptions written EducAtion gone about deciding where to enroll by the ECHO-Chicago participants. their children, how they felt about The change seems small, he says, but the process, and how smoothly they’d it would mean ECHO-Chicago is been able to make their way through it. “one of the first groups to ever show a Learning After the closings, had students ended change in provider behavior as the re- up better off or worse? The findings sult of a continuing medical education have implications not only in Chicago intervention.” process but also for districts across the coun- The ECHO-Chicago program, with try. In cities like Detroit; New York; A mixed picture develops from a the support of grant funding and part- Philadelphia; Washington, DC; and nerships with the Centers for Disease study of the closure of 47 Chicago Oakland, California, officials have in Control and Prevention and other pub- elementary schools. recent years closed half-empty or un- lic and private organizations, has ex- derperforming schools. panded to offer free curricula on child In May 2013, after months of debate Released in January, the study of- and youth epilepsy, hepatitis C, child- and deliberation, Chicago Public fers a “mixed” picture, says Elaine M. hood obesity, women’s health care, and Schools (CPS) announced that it was Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Direc- pediatric attention-deficit/hyperac- closing 47 elementary schools across tor of CCSR. Most displaced students, tivity disorder. A course on integrated the city—for underperformance, un- 93 percent, transferred to schools that mental and behavioral health is in the derenrollment, or both—and the fami- were rated higher in performance than works. To date, more than 300 provid- lies of nearly 12,000 displaced students the ones they’d been at before. But ers from 26 health care organizations began the complicated task of finding many of those schools were only mar- have participated. new schools before the fall semester ginally higher rated, and only 21 per- For Johnson, a South Side native began. The students in closed schools cent of students ended up in schools who has spent most of his career work- were among the most disadvantaged labeled “Level 1,” or in excellent standing in low-income areas, ECHO-Chi- and vulnerable in the Chicago pub- ing—more than half of CPS schools are cago presents a workable way to raise lic school system. Most lived in poor rated Level 1, but most are in affluent the quality of available care in under- neighborhoods; the vast majority were neighborhoods. (A 2009 CCSR study served communities. He’s encouraged African American. demonstrated that students can benefit that the ECHO model is now being Last summer researchers from from better schools, but only if they

used across the country, including ma- UChicago’s Consortium on Chicago move to a much higher-quality school; green/ap/corbis spencer m. © jor cities like Boston and Los Angeles. School Research (CCSR) set out to as- otherwise the gains aren’t much.) “It’s our belief, and we think we’re be- sess the effects of the upheaval. Ana- Perhaps most striking were CCSR’s ginning to prove, that you can uptrain lyzing CPS administrative data and findings on the complex constellation primary care providers to be able to interviewing 95 families in depth, they of factors that families had to take into handle more common complex chron- tracked where the students had ended account as they navigated the process ic conditions,” says Johnson, “and that up—looking at their new schools’ of finding new schools, and that pro- should significantly improve the health neighborhoods, achievement scores, pelled or constrained their decisions care of a large group of patients.” poverty levels, and safety records. in sometimes unexpected ways. At a

—Helen Gregg, AB’09 Researchers studied how parents had public presentation at the Logan Cen- university of chicago news office

14 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 14 2/27/15 10:00 AM FOR THE RECORD

EXPRESS COMMITMENT measurements of modern fresh water more plentiful SUPPLY AND DEMAND Convened in July 2014 to environments, Kidwell and less expensive by 2020. During the summer of 2012, articulate the University’s developed a strategy to extract then second-year Daniel Yu commitment to free and the most reliable data from the CRIME LAB’S JURISDICTION EXPANDS was in rural Egypt and needed uninhibited debate , the fossil record. New York mayor Bill de Blasio ibuprofen. A visit to a clinic Committee on Free Expression says a new partnership with the set him on a course to become at the University of Chicago University of Chicago Crime an internationally renowned issued a report in January Lab will help “make New York entrepreneur. Yu, who is on stating that “the University City the leading laboratory leave from the College, learned has a solemn responsibility in the country for criminal from a pharmacist that many not only to promote a lively justice innovation.” Extending basic medications were either and fearless freedom of debate data-driven research done in out of stock or expired, a and deliberation, but also to Chicago to the nation’s largest problem he set out to solve with protect that freedom when city, Crime Lab New York will Reliefwatch, a start-up that others attempt to restrict gather and analyze scientifi c uses cell phones to help clinics it.” Chaired by Geo rey R. evidence on programs to Stone, JD’71, the Edward reduce crime, enhance public in developing countries track H. Levi Distinguished safety, and improve the and manage their inventories. Service Professor of Law, the fairness and effi ciency of the His company, which is committee’s statement said, criminal justice system. A $4.5 now based at the Chicago INTERNATIONAL EMINENCE “It is not the proper role of the million grant from the Laura Innovation Exchange on 53rd James Robinson’s expertise University to attempt to shield and John Arnold Foundation Street, earned Yu the Prince extends from sub-Saharan individuals from ideas and supports Crime Lab New of Wales Young Sustainability Africa to Latin America. A opinions they fi nd unwelcome, York, which will be led by Entrepreneurs Prize. Chosen political scientist, economist, disagreeable, or even deeply faculty director Jens Ludwig, from among 816 applicants from and coauthor of the acclaimed offensive.” The committee’s the McCormick Foundation 88 countries, Yu received his 2012 book Why Nations Fail: full report can be found at Professor of Social Service award in January from Prince The Origins of Power, Prosperity, provost.uchicago.edu Administration, Law, and Charles at a London ceremony. and Poverty (Crown Business), /FOECommitteeReport.pdf. Public Policy. Robinson has been appointed University Professor at Chicago Harris. When he begins his appointment July 1, Robinson will be the eighth active faculty member and 21st ever to become a University Professor, selected for eminence in their fi elds and potential to make a far- reaching impact.

FLOW OF IDEAS A new professorship in the Institute for Molecular HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS PREHISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT Engineering will be dedicated STUDENT LIFE ENRICHED Cristal Thomas, MPP’01, Geologist Susan Kidwell to creating solutions to The South Campus Residence former deputy governor has received the 2015 Mary the problem of fresh water Hall has been named in of Illinois, has joined the Clark Thompson Medal. The scarcity. Supported by a honor of the late Renee University as vice president triennial award, established gift from University trustee Granville-Grossman, for community health in 1921 by the National and Paula AB’63, in recognition of James Crown engagement. In the new Academy of Sciences, honors Crown, the professor will her $44 million bequest, the position, Thomas, who also important work in geology serve as director of the largest in University history. serves as a senior adviser and paleontology. Kidwell, institute’s Water Research Renee Granville-Grossman to vice president for civic the William Rainey Harper Initiative, enhancing the Residential Commons, which

© m. spencer green/ap/corbis spencer m. © engagement Professor in Geophysical existing partnership on clean opened in 2009, is home to Derek R. B. Sciences and the Committee water technologies with more than 800 students in Douglas, fosters relationships on Evolutionary Biology, Ben-Gurion University of the eight houses. Located south among South Side residents, received the medal “for her Negev. This collaboration, of the Midway Plaisance the medical campus, and the groundbreaking work on along with others the between Woodlawn and Ellis University. Thomas previously fossil preservation that has new professor will lead Avenues, the residence hall’s served as regional director transformed our view of how with Argonne National construction revived a plan for the US Department of the history of life is encoded Laboratory and the Marine that was never realized, dating Health and Human Services in the rock record.” Through Biological Laboratory, share to the 1920s and President and executive director of the geological ﬁ eldwork, combined the goal of using molecular Ernest Burton, for a south Ohio Executive Medicaid

university of chicago newsce ofﬁ with lab experiments and level research to make clean, campus dormitory. Management Administration.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 15

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 15 2/27/15 10:00 AM ter in late January, Molly Gordon, a proved complicated. Sixty-six percent displaced students as a whole rely at a senior researcher at CCSR and one of students moved to the “welcom- disproportionate rate). of the authors of the report, showed a ing schools,” designated by CPS to Gordon told the story of one mother word cloud capturing the criteria that receive the displaced students—the who decided against sending her child families had said were important to schools were given extra resources to the designated welcoming school, them. The biggest phrases that jumped to handle the influx. Students who even though it was rated Level 1, be- out—reflecting the high frequency wound up elsewhere often enrolled in cause other parents had told her it was with which parents reported them— schools rated lower than the welcom- not a good school. A year later, Gordon were “close to home” and “safe coming schools. Researchers at CCSRwon- checked the numbers again and saw mute.” Another was “transportation dered why. Safety and transportation that the school had dropped to a Level costs.” Parents who couldn’t afford costs were one answer. But talking to 3, the lowest level. “There’s a little bit transit fare or to drive their children families, they found that in addition of a lag time in these performance pol- to school found their options limited to test scores and CPS performance icy ratings,” Gordon says. “Because it to the neighborhood, and safety often metrics, parents were weighing things reflects the previous year’s test score trumped whatever else a school might like small class sizes, extracurricular data.” Grapevine knowledge came in have to offer. offerings, individual attention from real time. Academic considerations and what teachers, and the availability of spe- Maintaining ties drove other deci- constituted a “good school” also cial education programs (on which the sions. Some parents needed to keep

citations

evolution of the stork Act—UChicago economist save roughly $1 billion a year generosity in three- to five- The vast genetic shifts Allen Sanderson and a compared to their regulated year-olds. They recorded that marked the evolution Vanderbilt University counterparts. That’s because brain waves and tracked eye of pregnancy in mammals colleague recommend paying unregulated power plants movements of 57 children involved thousands of genes college athletes. Published can shop around on the open as they watched videos of recruited to the uterus in the Winter 2015 Journal market for cheaper coal. Also, cartoon-like characters helping from other systems—brain, of Economic Perspectives, political influence, poorly or hurting each other. Then digestive, circulatory— the study finds that NCAA designed reimbursement rates, the children played a “dictator repurposed to new functions, remuneration caps—restricted and a lack of transparency game,” deciding whether to such as suppressing the to room, board, tuition, make coal purchases for keep or share stickers they’d maternal immune system fees, and books—hold down regulated plants more been given. After seeing the and sending signals between benefits for top-performing inefficient. “It’s critical,” helpful or hurtful behavior mother and fetus. Shedding athletes, while coaches and Cicala wrote, “to know what in the videos, the children light on how organisms athletic department personnel makes for ‘bad’ regulations exhibited both immediate, develop novel structures, an receive disproportionately when designing new ones.” automatic neural responses and international team including high salaries. They also note later, more controlled ones. UChicago geneticist Vincent that students’ exemption from little helPers The latter—choosing whether Lynch cataloged genes labor laws allows universities Young children are natural to share the stickers—was expressed in the wombs of 13 to dictate long work hours and helpers, but their outlook on more indicative of generosity. different animals, including the NCAA to steadily expand sharing is often more selfish The study was the first to mammals, reptiles, and the number of regular-season than selfless. In a study in the identify specific brain markers amphibians. The emergence and play-off games with January 5 Current Biology, that predict generosity and to of pregnancy was driven by minimal marginal operating UChicago neuroscientist Jean link children’s implicit moral ancient “genomic parasites” cost. Recent lawsuits by Decety and Jason Cowell, evaluations to outward moral called transposons: fragments student-athletes and pressure a postdoc in Decety’s Child behavior. — Minna Jaffery, ’15, NeuroSuite lab, analyzed of DNA that can jump around from regulators may help and Lydialyle Gibson in the genome. Ancient force a change, the authors mammalian transposons argue, reducing the NCAA’s had binding sites for the “monopoly power.” reproductive hormone progesterone that regulated utility bills the recruitment of genes to the Chicago Harris economist

uterus and activated them. The Steve Cicala, AB’04, decety jean courtesy photo research was published online investigated data on almost $1 January 29 in Cell Reports. trillion worth of power-plant fuel deliveries to analyze Play for Pay the effectiveness of state In a study calling today’s regulations. In the January college athletic system American Economic Review, “inefficient, inequitable, and Cicala, also on the faculty of very likely unsustainable”—as the Energy Policy Institute at well as a possible violation Chicago, reported his results:

of the Sherman Antitrust deregulated power plants Children’s brain waves give insight into their generosity. photography by lexey swall

16 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 16 2/27/15 10:00 AM multiple siblings together, or wanted to keep their children with friends. One mother decided to send her child to the designated welcoming school only after she called the offi ce there for information and the secretary from the closed school answered the phone. Hearing that many teachers and staff from the old school had moved there was a re- lief. “And the mother said, ‘That’s it. I’m sending my child there. Because my child will know people. People will know my child and my child’s needs.’” Time also limited parents’ options. When the school closure announce- ment was made in May 2013—several months after the city intended—many of the better schools were already full, since applications and enrollment had Forcing the issue: Freed pushes companies to disclose their political contributions. started in December. Parents scrambled to figure out what possibilities remained. Some families told CCSR POLITICS of honor,” Freed says. “When I read researchers that although CPS had pro- that piece, I mean, I laughed. We get vided information (sometimes a deluge along well with most companies.” of it) on the welcoming schools, infor- Freed’s desire to fix the system mation on where else they might send Following came from his years of working inside their children was not always available. it. A political junkie since his days in Some parents believed they had no Hyde Park, where he wrote his his- choice and that going to the welcoming the money tory thesis on the 1916 presidential school was mandatory. Bruce Freed, AB’66, tries to bring election and covered the 1965 sit-in for Researchers at CCSR hope to study Newsweek, Freed got his Washington further the effects of the schools’ clo- more transparency to corporate baptism as a journalist reporting on sure, both short and long term. It’s political spending. the so-called Watergate Babies, the clear, Allensworth says, that CPS tried congressional newcomers elected on to get students into better-performing Bruce Freed’s Washington, DC, of- a promise of sweeping change after schools. How well did they do once they fi ce is a testament to both his proxim- President Richard Nixon’s resigna- settled in? What were their relation- ity to power and his acute skepticism tion. But he soon switched over to the ships with teachers and peers like? How of it. Old covers of Puck magazine, the other side, working as a Democratic did the climate in the schools change? weekly published from 1877 to 1918 staffer on Capitol Hill. “The fact that there’s still such that skewered corrupt politicians and It was there that his concern about strong emotions about this says that their benefactors, adorn the front political spending took root. “When I we need a lot more good information,” entrance; signed photographs from was up in the Senate,” he recalls, “the Allensworth says. “We need to know presidents and members of Congress staff director of the banking com- what happened, both good and bad, as line a wall. mittee for whom I worked told me he a result of this policy. Because it is very From behind a desk overflow- could remember the days when the likely that the district will close more ing with shareholder reports and members had the safes in their offi ce schools in the future.” There’s still newspaper clippings, Freed, AB’66, and you could look into the safe and a lot to learn, she says, about school president of the Center for Political see cash.” closings and how to make them go as Accountability (CPA), spends his His experience on the Hill—and, smoothly as possible for students. And days pressuring corporations to dis- for a forgettable year and a half, as a perhaps most importantly, how to raise close their political contributions— lobbyist for the off-airport rental car the quality of existing schools in poor something his neighbors in DC’s industry—grounded him in the prob- photo courtesy jean decety jean courtesy photo neighborhoods. “For me,” she says, downtown lobbying hub are trying lems that arose when businesses be- “the study highlights the fact that we to stop. Over the past decade he’s gan acting as political entities. When don’t have strong enough schools in changed the disclosure practices of he surveyed the wreckage of places the poorest neighborhoods, and I think more than 100 companies, and in the like Enron, WorldCom, and Global we need to really think seriously about process attracted critics, such as the Crossing, he found a pattern: compa- what it’s going to take to strengthen conservative Weekly Standard, which nies, he came to believe, had created a those schools.” Because ultimately called his push for transparency “a regulatory climate that allowed them that is the surer path to school improve- murky business.” He had a copy of the to play fast and loose, and they did

photography by lexey swall ment.—Lydialyle Gibson article on his desk. “It’s sort of a badge so by spending millions of dollars to

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 17

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 17 2/27/15 5:30 PM elect politicians who’d look out for ciation of Manufacturers, which, al- interests. In 2004, for instance, the them. The companies’ political activi- though nonpartisan, often spend big pharmaceutical giant Merck gave ties created an outsized impression of in elections. $1,000 to a Mississippi judicial can- their real economic value. “Almost Freed and his allies didn’t expect to didate who opposed gay marriage like a blowfish,” Freed says. “They win the shareholder vote (11 years into and was accused of running a racially puffed themselves up, but then in the the project, he says he’s lucky if they tinged campaign ad, which put the end, when the air came out, you found crack 35 percent). But by bringing it to company at odds with its own corpo- that they were puny.” And then every- the floor year after year, they’d force rate antidiscrimination policies. The one else footed the tab. the issue. Most companies, believ- following year the company imple- Like a lot of Washington’s bad ap- ing they have nothing to hide, would mented a disclosure policy. ples, Freed concluded, corporations rather work out an arrangement than Not everyone approves of CPA’s were getting away with that kind of be- engage in a prolonged (and public) recommendations. Wall Street Jour- havior by keeping their constituents— battle with shareholders. nal editorial writers have called his shareholders—in the dark about their In 2004 CPA and its activist share- bargaining strategy “extortion” and political activities. His solution was holders got their first convert, Mor- accused his organization of attempt- to turn on the lights. With cofounder gan Stanley, which agreed to publish ing to suppress free speech by dis - John Richards, he launched CPA in its soft-money contributions online couraging political donations. The 2003 and set about devising a plan to and require board-of-directors ap- Chamber of Commerce, whose parent change the system from the inside. proval for them. As of this writing, organization and subsidiaries spent a There was an obvious precedent. CPA and its partners have worked out combined $124 million on lobbying in For decades, activists had used annual agreements with 129 companies; he 2014, has challenged Freed for years, shareholder meetings to push compa- estimates that roughly 100 others have alleging that the CPA is among the ac- nies to adopt mission statements on adopted policies on their own. tivist organizations in “the campaign issues such as environmental sustain- An annual index that’s coproduced to silence the business community,” ability or South African apartheid. by CPA and the Zicklin Center for an effort associated with progres- Freed began reaching out to what Business Ethics Research at the Uni- sive financier George Soros. Freed he called “socially responsible start- versity of Pennsylvania’s Wharton says CPA received grants from So- ers”—unions, public pension funds, School, which grades companies on ros’s Open Society Foundations for and investment management firms, their performance on 24 questions, about a decade, totaling an estimated for example—that through their col- created another carrot. Now, when $800,000. Other supporters have lective buying power held shares in companies change their guidelines on included the Rockefeller Brothers large companies but were less inclined political giving, they call Freed, eager Fund, the Park Foundation, the Stew- to toe the party line. In turn, those en- to see their score go up. “We’ve reached art Mott Foundation, Rockefeller tities agreed to introduce resolutions a critical mass,” he says triumphantly. Family & Associates, Lawrence Zick- at annual meetings to force companies The shareholder interventions are lin, and the Stuart Family Foundation. to adopt formal disclosure policies on designed to safeguard companies To Freed, the backlash validates his political giving—including to trade against embarrassing revelations and work. “The Chamber says, ‘You’re associations like the US Chamber of prevent them from inadvertently moving the goalposts; it’s intended Commerce and the National Asso- spending money against their own to pressure companies to stifle free speech,’” he says. “Well you know what? Companies take it seriously.” It’s a struggle that shows no sign of letting up. The 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, which legal- ized unlimited corporate spending on federal races, opened the flood- gates to a new wave of political fund- raising. Freed wants to make clear that he doesn’t oppose corporate political spending, something that separates him from some of his activ-

ist colleagues, who have called for a © mann istock.com/charles constitutional amendment to curb donations. He just wants it out in the open. And he believes it’s a winning strategy, long term. “I’m not looking to snap my fingers and achieve success overnight,” Freed says. “You just sort of build slowly, but it’s an accretion. That to me is a real

It’s not the money in politics that bothers Freed, it’s the lack of transparency. achievement.”—Tim Murphy, AB’09 photography by robert kozloff

18 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 18 2/27/15 10:01 AM original source In a bInd

“This is something very few Called the John Adam Service and 1856 were signed by someone conservators will get to do,” says Book, it is one of the last few calling himself John Adam (hence the Ann Lindsey, head of conservation manuscripts in the Library’s book’s name), the nephew of a priest at the University of Chicago Library, Goodspeed Collection to be digitized living near the Macedonian border. looking at the yellowed manuscript online. Not much is known about the Using historically sympathetic she’s spent much of the winter book before UChicago theologian materials, Lindsey is restoring the restoring. “Because if you find a Edgar Goodspeed, DB 1897, PhD manuscript to its original binding binding from this period that is 1898, purchased it for the University in the Greek tradition—a way of in any kind of decent shape, you in 1929 or 1930. It is an example stitching and fastening books leave it alone. It’s lasted 500 years of a Festal Menaion, an abridged together, distinct from Western without you.” version of a 12-volume text laying tradition. (Shadows of the original

© istock.com/charles © mann istock.com/charles But this book, an Orthodox text out the canons and hymns for the sewing marks persist at the back of written in Greek, was not going to Orthodox liturgical calendar’s fixed- some pages.) She rebuilt folios from last much longer. A rebinding from date feasts. Examining watermarks individual leaves and lathed a pair of the late 19th or early 20th century on the pages—there are at least cover boards from oak; later she will had left it battered: pages trimmed four, indicating four different paper sheathe them in goatskin leather, and uneven, its spine cut, its original manufacturers—Special Collections which she’ll decorate with a typical sewing gone, glue deteriorating digitization manager Judith Dartt, Greek pattern. When the book is the paper. Says Lindsey: “Not only AM’06, estimates the book was finished, it will return to the shelves was the book failing—what wasn’t produced in 16th-century Greece. at Special Collections to be read and

photography by robert kozloff failing was damaging it.” Drawings in the margins dated 1852 studied.—Lydialyle Gibson

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 19

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 19 2/27/15 10:01 AM © president and fellows of harvard college, peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology, pm# 09-3-30/75604.2, 09-3-30/75614, 09-3- 09-3-30/75614, 09-3-30/75604.2, pm# ethnology, and archaeology of museum peabody college, harvard of fellows and president © 30/75622, 09-3-30/75622.5, 09-3-30/75631, 46-77-30/4961, 46-77-30/4967, 46-77-30/5037, 46-77-30/5065, 46-77-30/5088 (digital ﬁ le# 98060003)

Quilter studies ancient Peruvians through objects like these 2,000-year-old Moche stirrup vessels.

ARCHAEOLOGY museums of a country with a tangible autodidactic style in his life beyond the connection to its premodern roots. university. “I didn’t know how this all The possibility of unearthing under- worked,” he says, meaning his career standing about the modern world from and professional life, “and nobody ever Encounter such artifacts took hold. Quilter, the told me how it all works.” But he steadi- William and Muriel Seabury Howells ly advanced in his fi eld, earning a mas- Director of Harvard University’s Pea- ter’s degree and PhD in anthropology cultures body Museum of Archaeology and Eth- at the University of California, Santa Je rey Quilter, AB’72, digs into nology, has spent the past four decades Barbara, then teaching for 15 years at excavating and analyzing pre-Colum- Ripon College in Wisconsin before a the history of human societies for bian societies of Peru and Costa Rica. decade as director of pre-Columbian deeper insight into who we are. An awareness of social, political, studies and curator of the pre-Colum- and economic disparities in contempo- bian collection at Dumbarton Oaks in Archaeologist Je rey Quilter, AB’72, rary society inspired a curiosity about Washington, DC. studies centuries-old cultures. But such conditions in history and led him He was recruited to the Peabody as questions about our own society, to focus on the Moche people of north- deputy director for curatorial affairs in —“questions of the origins of inequal- ern Peru from 350 to 900 AD. 2005. In 2012 Quilter became director, ity,” for instance—are never far from He studied widely in the College, moving into a corner offi ce overlook- his mind. A child of public housing in including a class with anthropologist ing one of Harvard’s crisp walkways Queens, New York, Quilter was fi rst Friedrich Katz on pre-Columbian top- and tucking against a window a wood- set on his path of historical discovery ics. Quilter also learned from profes- en postcard with a daily reminder: by his parents. sors such as the historian and writer “Abuse of power comes as no surprise.” With his father, who was originally Mircea Eliade and pored over primary On a high shelf across from the post- from South Africa, Quilter toured texts in numerous disciplines to ac- card sits an image of the swashbuckling New York City’s museums. And his quire the tools “not only to be a scholar Indiana Jones, the pop culture icon of mother, a “GI war bride” from Eng- but to be a productive citizen.” the discipline, modeled after UChi- land, often took him back to visit fam- The fi rst in his family to go to col- cago’s James Henry Breasted. But the

ily, where he saw the castles, ruins, and lege, Quilter has followed his father’s cinema archaeologist’s popularity has photography by robert kozloff

20 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 20 2/27/15 10:01 AM not translated into public interest and public policy support families,” says Kalil, codirec- support for archaeology. It remains tor of the University’s new Behavioral one of the most underfunded scien - Insights and Parenting (BIP) Lab. tific fields, Quilter says, even though The experimental research center fo- the study of the “science of the human Minding cuses on high impact, cost-effective past” offers insight into the future for interventions that promote parent a species constantly repeating its his- engagement in children’s develop- tory. “How did people react the last the gap ment and target socioeconomic gaps time there was a dramatic change in Researcher Ariel Kalil finds “light- in achievement. climate?” he asks. “Why do we live For her, that meant turning to be- in societies in which we’re seeing ex- touch, low-cost” parenting tools. havioral economics, a field focused on treme poverty and extreme wealth and understanding what drives people to extremely asymmetrical distributions Read to your kids. Talk to them. Be make the decisions they do—and help- of power? … Archaeology is the only present. This advice is nothing new, ing them make better ones. “Parenting discipline of inquiry that can really ad- but great disparities exist among house- is stressful, and for low-income parents dress that.” holds. A groundbreaking 1995 study by in particular, life can be very stress- In his work on the Moche people, two researchers from the University of ful,” says Kalil, who studies the effects including The Moche of Ancient Peru: Kansas found that by age three, chil- of income inequality on child develop- Media and Messages (Peabody Mu- dren from high-income families have ment and also directs Chicago Harris’s © president and fellows of harvard college, peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology, pm# 09-3-30/75604.2, 09-3-30/75614, 09-3- 09-3-30/75614, 09-3-30/75604.2, pm# ethnology, and archaeology of museum peabody college, harvard of fellows and president © seum Press, 2011), he offers a study of heard roughly 30 million more words Center for Human Potential and Public

30/75622, 09-3-30/75622.5, 09-3-30/75631, 46-77-30/4961, 46-77-30/4967, 46-77-30/5037, 46-77-30/5065, 46-77-30/5088 (digital file# 98060003) the culture and an analysis of its arti- than those from low-income families, Policy. While most policy focuses on facts in the Peabody collection. His putting many kids at a disadvantage narrowing achievement gaps through book also covers “the sociopolitical, well before they hit kindergarten. the education system, her research and economic, ideological worlds of the Since then, efforts to narrow the so- that of the center investigate how the Moche as best we can interpret them,” called word gap haven’t always achieved family environment enhances or limits Quilter says. their goals. “The programs we’ve had the opportunities young people have At the museum, he tries to apply as historically have been very intensive, throughout their lives. broad a lens as possible to the study of demanding a lot of parents’ time and en- “There are lots of things that par- ancient cultural objects and societies. ergy,” says developmental psychologist ents say they want to do for their kids He chooses artifacts for display and Ariel Kalil, professor in the University and yet they don’t,” Kalil says. Be- study based on what they reveal about of Chicago Harris School of Public Pol- havioral economics, which draws on human experience on the one hand, icy. Often geared toward low-income fields like psychology, neuroscience, Quilter says, and to appreciate their single mothers, a typical model runs for and microeconomics, provides a road aesthetic value on the other. “We need a year or more and relies on trained edu- map to make good on those intentions. to be able to span that range.” cators to do coaching in homes, guiding “There’s a whole tool kit that comes One of the museum’s newest exhib- parents through activities that teach out of the field showing that you can its, open through October 2017, is Arts them to create a more developmentally move the needle on a set of behaviors of War: Artistry in Weapons across Cul- stimulating environment. using some very simple techniques,” tures. The display challenges visitors’ “We really need a completely new she says. For example, telling someone assumptions about warfare by draw- approach in thinking about how to that smoking causes cancer isn’t nearly ing attention to the high artistry of weapons made by cultures around the globe. Rows of glittering swords and delicately carved wooden clubs demonstrate a collective fascination with warfare from Europe to the Ameri- cas and beyond, one that extends past military necessity to specialized craftsmanship. In the way art museums explore the meaning of art itself, Quilter says, the Peabody raises the question, “What is culture?” through the exploration of similarities and differences between ancient and modern societies. To him the issues addressed at the Peabody represent an important element of understanding what it means to be human. “Much of it, if done right,” Quilter says, “is related to major aspects of why

photography by robert kozloff we are the way we are.”—Violet Baron Families in the pAcT program receive a tablet loaded with 500 digital storybooks.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 21

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 21 2/27/15 10:01 AM as effective at helping them kick the gets children’s school readiness, us- lights up with a digital image. Group habit as having them write down how ing behavioral insights to increase the text messages also recognize parents many fewer cigarettes they pledge to amount of time parents read with their for meeting or exceeding goals. smoke in the coming week. Other tools preschoolers. Families in the six-week The result? In the lab’s pilot study of include having people publicly commit experiment—all from Chicago Head 10 0 families, those receiving the nudges to a goal, providing feedback, and giv- Start programs—receive a tablet loaded spent double the amount of time reading ing simple rewards for goals met. with 500 digital storybooks and picture to their kids as the control group, a re- These “light-touch, low-cost” ap- books in English and Spanish. Each sult that surpassed researchers’ expec- proaches form the cornerstone of the time a parent reads a book aloud, an au- tations. “This is the kind of impact that BIP Lab, which Kalil leads with Chica- dio app records it, allowing researchers programs costing orders of magnitude go Harris professor and former deanSu- to track reading amounts. more money per family have achieved,” san Mayer. The lab is collaborating on Similar to traditional interventions, Kalil says. “It’s a treatment that is ex- several projects with Chicago Booth’s parents in the control group are remind- tremely cheap and highly scalable.” Center for Decision Research, founded ed at the outset that reading is good. To that end, the lab has partnered by pioneering behavioral economist They go home, tablet in hand, with with Chicago Booth’s Polsky Center Richard Thaler. Thaler’s 2008 book instructions to read with their kids for for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Nudge (Yale University Press) had a sig- the next six weeks. The experimental to quickly bring their intervention to niﬁ cant inﬂ uence on Kalil. “Behavioral group, however, “gets this whole suite a wide market, transforming it into a science has shown you can change really of what we call behavioral nudges and tool that programs can use to improve entrenched behaviors: get people to lose incentives,” Kalil says. They pledge parenting and child outcomes. weight, smoke less, exercise more, save how much time they’re going to read “The gaps in child development open more,” Kalil says. “We looked at all of in the next week, receive daily text re- up very early in a child’s life, and they this literature and said, ‘Why isn’t any- minders of those goals, and get weekly persist throughout childhood,” Kalil one doing this for parents?’” feedback on progress. Those who hit says. “Our fundamental mission is to The lab’s inaugural study, Parents their goal, or read more than any other improve that trajectory.” and Children Together (PACT), tar- family, get a boost when their screen — Brooke E. O’Neill, AM’04

FIG. 1 HEATED OPINIONS graphic courtesy ap-norc center for public affairs research; adapted by laura lorenz laura by adapted research; affairs public for center ap-norc courtesy graphic The majority of Americans believe global warming is happening, Concern about the risks posed by various energy sources according to the Associated Press- Percent of Americans concerned NORC Center for Public A airs Research and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. 80% A late 2014 study surveyed the environmental a itudes of 1,578 70% American adults. Although the climate change 60% debate continues on the nightly

news and in Congress, only 20 50% percent of the US public thinks that

global warming is ﬁ ction. Twenty- 40% three percent is on the fence, with 56 percent convinced that it is real. Of 30% the la er group, nine out of 10 think that human activities play some role. Worries about carbon dioxide 20% speciﬁ cally seem to occupy more Americans than global warming 10% generally, with the majority at 0% least moderately concerned about Nuclear Coal Oil Natural gas Water Geothermal Wind Solar the risks posed by the so-called

big three: oil (69 percent), coal Extremely/very concerned Moderately concerned Not too/not at all concerned (68 percent), and natural gas (54

percent).—Rhonda L. Smith photography by tom tian, ab’10

22 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 22 2/27/15 10:01 AM inTeRvieW A matter of identity WIlliam Bila, IMBA’02, advocates on behalf of Romani people.

When William Bila, IMBA’02, moved to Prague in 1992 to work at the consulting firm Ernst & Young, his mother told him never to admit he was Roma. Bila’s parents had immigrated to the United States from what was then Czechoslovakia; his mother knew well the open prejudice he would face. Romani people—widely known in English-speaking countries by the in- accurate term “Gypsies”—moved to Europe from India, not Egypt, more middle class, who have jobs, who have So Romani is a general term. than eight centuries ago. Their history gone to school. It’s kind of a general term, but the and culture are largely misunderstood Council of Europe and the European and undervalued, even among the What about those in shanty towns? Union and Amnesty International use Roma. Bila’s mother didn’t know the Are they legal to live in France? the word “Rom” or “Roma” for the Romani came from India, he says, “un- They are European citizens and have whole. And that’s in general OK. But til she moved to America at the age of European passports. Since the new some of them don’t like to be called that. 40 and saw it in an encyclopedia.” countries joined the European Union, There’s no institution that exists to Bila now lives in Paris, where he they have the right to live anywhere. define who is Roma. It’s always defined serves on the boards of the Roma Edu- When you see expulsions in the papers, from the outside. And that definition graphic courtesy ap-norc center for public affairs research; adapted by laura lorenz laura by adapted research; affairs public for center ap-norc courtesy graphic cation Fund and the Roma Education that means destroying a shanty town. keeps changing based on whoever’s in Support Trust. As part of his activism, They might go to the next town. power. That’s why we have an activist he recently spoke at the French Senate. phrase of the last few years, “Nothing Bila is also an independent promoter There’s something so medieval about us without us.” for A People Uncounted (2011), an award- about that. wining documentary about the Roma. Exactly. France, which is supposed to Growing up in the United States, Bila’s interview with the Magazine is be a Western European leader of hu- did you think of yourself as Romani? edited and adapted below. man rights and democracy, should be I grew up as a white suburban Ameri- —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 setting the example. But they’re fol- can. I didn’t consider myself ethnic-y lowing the examples of the Eastern in any way, any more than an Italian Based on media coverage, it seems European states, treating the Roma American, Irish American, or any- like the situation for Roma is worse as scapegoats, because they can’t deal thing. My parents felt perfectly com- now than 20 years ago. with their own economic crisis. fortable as basically Slovak immigrants. Much worse. I would say mostly be- Roma don’t need a special policy. My mother is Roma, my father is not. cause of the economy, but also because They need to have the same access no one has done anything since 1989 and respect for their culture, for their How did you react when your moth- in terms of introducing multicultural rights as human beings, as citizens of er said to hide your background? education. Roma have lived on the ter- Europe, and that’s it. I argued a little bit with her, but I lis- ritory for centuries. They’re not “im- tened. When I was living in Prague, I migrants.” They’re not “foreigners What is the relationship between heard lots of comments. coming in.” They’re part of the fabric of Romani living in different countries? society, but they’re treated as if they’re It’s complicated. There is no one Roma As an activist, if you could change foreigners who never integrated. culture. Gitanos in Spain, gypsies and anything, what would it be? There’s a difference between cul- travelers in the UK, and Manouche in To keep socioeconomic status sepa- ture and socioeconomic class. Roma France, are all Romani peoples. The rate versus identity, culture, history, are looked upon as being poor and mi- proper word would be Romani. And ethnicity. You can do that through gratory. The vast majority are seden - then there are the Roma from Eastern education, a cultural institute, history

photography by tom tian, ab’10 tary. There are Roma people who are Europe and the Balkans. books, proper journalism.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 23

UChicagoJournal_v21.indd 23 2/27/15 10:02 AM photography by anne ryan anne by photography

illustration by allan burch ------2/26/15 11:47 AM , who shower Psycho , , Shakespeare’s . Coleman notes Jenny Pinson Jenny The Cook, the Thief, His Titus Andronicus Titus Back on the fifth floor, we come Brown chocolate syrup was finefor The elevator doors open, revealing: Numerous recipes for fake blood scene, works well for its consistency, depthand color, of edibility. to door number two. A note taped to the door states that the narrator is confused by the spooky occurrences within, but “we just learnedMolasses aboutDisaster in this Boston for his tory class. ... Hopefully I’m just imag ining things.” (Last week Coleman tasked the class with finding news stories with the potential for terror staging—some recent, some was older— one scenes; the in incorporate to Boston’s deadly molasses flood in enter the1919.) second We room, into darkness. the chocolate-scented The moment my eyes adjust, I see the ac tor and gasp. She sits on a chair, only scarfmouthincheshera me, from over and drenched in stage blood. Hitchcock’s black-and-white film; this against striking red, dyed is blood fake the actor’s white shirt. The previous week’s discussion included analysis of color in Peter Greenaway’s highly styl ized 1989 film Wife, and Her Lover ing trained!” She’s referring to how a scene can manipulate the audience into action. In site-specific scenes— acted in nontheater settings like this one—actors must use techniques to draw the audience’s attention with outthe aid lighting of setor design. In an earlier scene, actors keptthe sky, which looking led the audience to fol to suit.low Audience instruction isbuilt into the narrative. nothing. Up to the 10th floor. There the doors open, revealing answeaterpulled half actor,sticks off, boundto her from pouring blood stage wrists, her her mouth. Coleman notes that the reference is the 1999 film adaptation of most violent play, which intensifies the horror of the character Lavinia’s rape and mutilation—her hands sev ered and tongue cut out—by shoving twigs into her stumps. can be found online, but TAPS has a props manager, specializes in stage blood (as well as weaponry).Chocolate syrup, famous ly used in Hitchcock’s ------Before the doors open on the ninth ninth the on open doors the Before The first part of today’s scene dem onstrates this culmination on a min iature scale. The class breaks groups into and Coleman, another stu dent, and I head to the elevator, room find one. a sheetWe of paper taped by that audience the informing door the “scary stuff has been happening,” which we are to investigate on the ninth and 10th floors. The notes and plot reference a first-person explora tion video game discussed earlier in the which in Home, Gone course, the player becomes a character who ex plores an abandoned house. floor, I joke, “I’m gonna step back,” moving to the rear of the elevator. Coleman responds, “See, you’re be Terror always uses time, time, uses always Terror creating a dynamic of suspense, and an anxiety moment. future a for “horror to sometimes follow through on our threats.” ------Heidi Coleman’s class terrifies her.

, AM’08, TAPS’s

he student in front of me pulls open a heavy metal door and disappears into the room beyond. I follow her into the dark, hands out stretched. There is a small but corner, the in lamp desk its weak halo is swallowed by the darkness. I see noth ing, but I smell chocolate. In the theater world, that

Heidi Coleman Heidi care tactics tactics care

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 Coleman draws a crisp line between StagingTerror,which meets theon directorundergraduateof studies and a senior lecturer, leads 21 students through the “paradox of theto attraction repulsion” and “the values subtlety.” suspense,and of shock, terrorandhorror:“Consider anticipa tion versus reaction, extreme anxiety versus revulsion. You feel horrified when you see something disturbing. You feel terrified when you believe areyou in imminent the danger.” For atrical staging, “terror always uses time, creating a dynamic of suspense, and an anxiety for a future moment. What will come from behind the cur tain?”Terroroftenculminates hor in ror. This far into the course, Coleman instructstheclass completeto thetra jectory in their performances, to use 24

s by maureen searcy COURSE WORK theater and performance studies means blood, and a lot of it. It’sseventh week of fall the quarter—a perfor mance week for the Theater andmance Perfor Studies (TAPS) course Staging Terror—and we’ve just entered room numbertwo three-rooma of scene. fifth floorof the Logan Center, “ex plores the interplay between horror, terror, and pleasure through in-class discussions of theoretical works and the possibilities of practical creative application,” according to the sylla bus. T UCH_Coursework_Coleman_v2.indd 26 ------M. S. — ◆

pear. For Poe’s story, the include to had students a journey with three mo ments of surprise, two revelation, of moments discovery, of moment one umbrellas, three least at instruments,musical two ball. one and Staging Terror fulfills the Core requirement in musi dramatic and visual, cal, arts, and no prior theater necessary. is experience offered, been it’s time Each more than 200 students enroll. to applied have - - - . by Neil Ameri

I ask Coleman if this scene went be The Iphigenia yond spectacle, cumula and are she says course yes, the but for scenes “the tive, in conversation with each other. Performance is an ongoing conversa tion, and while it’s ephemeral, it’s con explorations were scenes These tinual. that led to revelations manifesting in subsequent scenes. For me, theof working best in performance part is the most done, never are you that in maddening justyou run time.”outof But Coleman cautions against empty spectacle “serving nothing.” A nar rative must exist to provide meaning, the rob to as “directive” so be not yet audiencepersonalof engagement. (1989) (1999), The Ocean at - - by Edgar Allan ” by Euripides (410 Titus (2011), and , part, of The following week the scenes,perform students rehearsed and written Cole class. of outside sometimesassigns man elements that must ap Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover the End of the Lane can Horror Story: Murder GaimanGone (2013), Home (2013), House at Aulis Donagh (2003), BC),“The theFallof House Usher of Poe(1839), - the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 25 - - - Jet Blood of The Pil by Martin Mc Coleman previously discussed StagingmeetsTerror twice a week, with each week de formed until 1964, ends with a literal the over washing blood stage of wave audience.Theplaywright founderand of the movement, Antonin Artaud, likened theater to a plague; the ac tors infect the audience who then go out and infect others, changing the world “in an almost anarchist way.” syllabus theme: different a to voted im suspense, and shock space, environment, age, taboo,time, story, arcs. Studentswrite two papers, reviews, production three five scenes, and nine text paper final The responses. creative. or critical be can The weeks alternate and discussion between week One performance. the class discusses a text, orperformance, movie, game,including: the terror and horror. Perhaps it’s the intimacy between the audience and the actors that makes the rooms revolting, startling,and creepy in turn. immersive theater, in particular a Frenchplaycalled calledmovement a TheatreCruelty. of The play, written in 1925 but not per lowman - - - - - The actor silently points to a bucket On the door of room three, a note Normally the class would reconvene

the stark white bathroom in the film. “White is always great, and white light is always great. Why? Because we can see blood. ... Blood in the bathroom looksfantastic. decoratingHome tips!” of stage blood on the floor. Laterout that we therefind were plants in the pouring audi action, the initiated who ence more stage blood over Oneher. student you “Are ask, dribbles to the pausing blood onhead, the actor’ssoggy already sure?” before dousing her again. references another Boston-based news story—last spring a “serial tick ler” was reported breaking into stu dents’ homes to tickle their feet while they slept. “I kept feeling this tickling felt sensation it at my but feet,” read dream, the a note. been could’ve “It dark the in hidden Someone real.” so suddenly bangs on piano keys,four students sending screaming andhands laughing,clasped over mouths. Inside, a small voice calls out, “Who’s there?” An actor lies on a piano bench, blind folded, with a feather duster, her feet exposed for the audience to tickle. to discusswhat they remember scene, from what elements worked well,the and how it related to previously discussed texts. But time has run out. I later ask an actor what her group’s intentions were. She explains that audience with par scene moving key—a is ticipation no tour guide. Its success relies on the audience, how we are manipulated into action, thereby making us complicit in Coleman teaches fledgling actors how to terrify—and sometimes horrify—an audience. photography by anne ryan anne by photography

illustration by allan burch history OBJE T LESSONS

26 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 OBJE T LESSONS n they streamed: rolling red Flexible Flyer wag- the actual figure. “Maybe as much as $1,000—not crazy ons behind them, peering around paintings they money, because of the size. The colors are strong, not carried, clutching every kind of item from candle- much mothing. It could be from the Grand Army of the sticks to Cabbage Patch Kids to a diminutive, Republic, but if it were Civil War period, it would be a rather cute atomic bomb (a training piece from bigger deal. Unusual patterns can bring money too.” And the 1950s). Last July thousands of people navigat- we’re off. ed the expanses of Chicago’s McCormick Place, The flag has a bit more age than Piattoni’s usual fare in drawn by the lure of Antiques Roadshow. A hit since arms and militaria; in general he covers items from the shortly after it debuted on PBS, the show sets up 20th century. This rules out most of the firearms that shop each year in six to eight US cities where the come in, which tend to be older. But regalia, documents, ticket holders each get to bring two items for ap- photographs, and other memorabilia make their way to praisal, taped for TV if they’re lucky. him, things I’m not even sure how to categorize. The sheer I didn’t have one of those tickets. I was there to shadow variety of items he looks at in the time I’m there, and how Ione of the show’s experts, Gary Piattoni, AB’83. Piattoni, much he knows about every one of them, spinning out tale who runs his own appraisal business in Evanston, Illinois, after tale, is a wonder. He sees a US Army cavalry saddle has appeared on Antiques Roadshow since 1998, the show’s bag, aviators’ weather maps, a German blueprint for an second season and the year it really caught fire with US aeronautic motor, Soldiers’ Guide to Hindustani, a bayonet. viewers. When Piattoni was tapped by WGBH, he was A World War II scrapbook about the service of a vet whose working at Christie’s in New York. On the show he started commanding officer was Jimmy Stewart. at the decorative arts table. After that he remembers being Also striking: the scarcity of items whose appraisals assigned to, at different times, Asian art, pottery and por- beat, or even approach, the $1,000 for the too-big flag. A celain, and metal works, and presiding at a new table for commemorative sword from the Columbian Exposition science and technology. To his regret, that table didn’t get gives Piattoni a chance to reference his alma mater and enough traffic to last. environs—“flooded, gondolas, it was pretty cool”—but Now it’s arms and militaria. As much fox as hedgehog, its high water mark is $200. “A little more common than Piattoni has a reputation as one of the few generalists on you might think,” he says gently to the young couple who the floor. At McCormick Place, it shows. He sees a reliable brought it. flow of appraisers from other tables, looking for a second An old device for making keys, which would have opinion on everything from French Baccarat paperweights gone to the science and technology table if it still exist - to unidentifiable devices (one colleague comes over asking ed, winds up in front of Piattoni. Again he lets the owner for “Mr. Gadgets”). down easy. “Folks who tend to collect these are people But mostly he sees the hopefuls. Piattoni has a routine who were in the business. It’s one of those oddball things. and a rhythm. He always gets the guest talking first. His Your dad—he had a hardware business—is the kind of guy first appraisal after I arrive, wedging myself behind the who would be drawn to it. I wouldn’t put a big number table where he’s one of four experts, begins: “Tell me about on it. Maybe $150. That’s a cool thing, and I’m glad you the flag.” The guest, an older man, says he’s not sure about brought it in.” In the end, nobody appears to go away too the age of the huge US flag he’s just unfurled. “How many disappointed. stars?” Piattoni asks. The man hasn’t counted. “It’s wool,” Listening to Piattoni is an education—in history, the Piattoni says, counting, “but the stars might be cotton. ways things are made, supply and demand, and other There’s not a lot of mothing,” meaning there are few holes vagaries of what we value. Many of those who arrive at eaten by moths. He pauses. “Forty-four, so it’s post–Civil the arms and militaria table have come by their treasures War,” from the later part of the 19th century. “These grom- through their families: fathers and uncles, grandfathers mets are not seen in the Civil War period.” He points out, and great uncles who were in military service, who some- too, the machine-made cotton backing. times came back but sometimes didn’t. (In one case the After a minute or two rattling off observations like items belonged to the guest’s grandmother, who served in these, Piattoni’s wrapping it up. “It’s a transitional flag, the Naval Auxiliary.) Piattoni invokes sentimental value not military per se.” In terms of its value—the eagerly a lot. He listens to the stories that spill out in response to anticipated number in which every Antiques Roadshow his opening questions, and adds to them. When the owners appraisal culminates—the flag’s unwieldy size is a liabil - walk back out of McCormick Place you can tell their tales ity. “At 8' x 12' or something, display is tricky.” Almost as will be a little more filled in, a little richer and deeper, the much as the flag’s owner, I’m on the edge of my seat for next time they’re told.

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UCH_ARS_v2.indd 30 2/27/15 12:11 PM hen one McCormick Place guest apologized that his item smelled like mothballs, Piattoni protested. “I love that smell. It reminds me of cool things if you collected w in basements.” That’s where he found his uncle’s World War II military ribbons—in his grandmother’s base- thimbles there’d be ment, getting his first taste for collecting as a grade school- er. The pursuit “was encouraged by my dad and my uncle, plenty. with military who gave me other trinkets they had when they were in the service, and it just kept going.” He shopped local antique you don’t necessarily stores with his mother and, as he got older, rode his bike to garage and estate sales and frequented the flea market in Grayslake, near Wauconda, the small town where he grew choose what you’re up in Lake County, Illinois. With military collecting, Piattoni says, “you get inter- going to find. ested in almost anything from any period or any country because there isn’t a lot available. If you collected thimbles there’d be plenty and you could specialize. With military A local auction house where Piattoni had done summer you don’t necessarily get to choose what you’re going to work moving furniture, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, was find, especially in a small town in Illinois.” He sought out hiring. He joined and quickly gained responsibility and ex- anything with a military connection but took a particular pertise, heading a department, appraising items, and run - interest in World War II, “because of the history behind it ning specialty sales. Among the latter were the estates of and my uncle’s and my father’s participation.” organized-crime figures Al Capone and John Dillinger. At UChicago Piattoni majored in geology and continued Work selling items from Comiskey Park when it closed— his collecting. The two interests sprang from similar expe- banners, pieces of the foul poles—came Piattoni’s way too. riences and came to feel like different sides of one coin: also Such sales were attentively covered by the media. His name as a boy, he’d found an arrowhead in his backyard. “I was got around and soon he had a phone call from Christie’s. like, you’re kidding me, you can find these things?” Look- Eying him for a job in pop culture collectibles, the auc- ing for more of them led him to learn about fossils, “and you tion house flew Piattoni to New York for an interview. could find those, and those were free.” Gravel pits and farm They hired him instead as head of the European decorative fields joined the garage and estate sales on his bike route. arts department at Christie’s East, an offshoot of the main His science education helps him every day, Piattoni says. branch until 2001, when it closed. The sales he oversaw “There is a lot of crossover between science, especially ge- there included ones by Norma Kamali and Donald Trump. ology, and what I’m doing now, in terms of understanding “It was kind of like going from the minor leagues to the big materials and techniques and how things are made … how leagues,” Piattoni says. the earth is made, how objects are made.” Knowledge of It was a whole new education too. “I didn’t know how history illuminates things’ origins and uses, and science stupid I was until I started to work for Christie’s,” he says. how they were manufactured. The latter helps him place “Regional auction houses only see so much. … At Christie’s things in time and determine what’s real and what’s fake. you see everything.” After a few years at Christie’s East, On one occasion at Christie’s, he was able to verify, over he moved to the main branch, then on Park Avenue, as vice the doubts of a senior appraiser, that a sculpture was genu- president and director of operations. That was when An- ine limestone based on the fossil crinoids he found in it—the tiques Roadshow came calling. UChicago geology major’s expertise making the identifica- tion possible. Piattoni remembers his classes with storm expert Ted hat you see when you tune in to Antiques Road - Fujita and geochemist Julian Goldsmith, SB’40, PhD’47, show—the expert, the guest, the item on a table or especially vividly. He thought he’d get a job with an oil com- easel—takes place in the innermost of a series of pany after college, but with the economy struggling and w roughly concentric circles. As a guest, your prog- hiring scarce, he enrolled at the School of the Art Institute ress from periphery to nucleus isn’t quick, but it’s sure and instead, earning an MFA in sculpture. After that it was a steady, up to a point. When you attend, here’s what happens. short stint in advertising before he quit—“I just couldn’t Your ticket has a specific arrival time. Showing up with- stand it”—and started to deal antiques part time. in your assigned hour, you’re first directed to triage, where

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UCH_ARS_v2.indd 31 2/27/15 12:11 PM you wait in a long line. The Roadshow requires 80,000 square feet for a taping, and most of that space is given over to the long snake of a triage line. (Compared to his first year on the show, before tickets were time specific, Piattoni told me, the lines I saw at McCormick Place were nothing.) At triage, a cheery staffer inspects your items, assigns each a category, and gives you cards that admit you to the appraisal tables for those categories. You inch closer to the center and get in another line, shorter than the last, leading to the curtained-off core of the operation: the ap - praisal tables and set. For most ticket holders, the smaller lines within the curtains represent the last wait they’ll experience on their Antiques Roadshow adventure. For those selected to tape a segment about their treasures—about 90 out of the 5,000 to 6,000 people at each taping—there will be one more wait, more comfortable, in the green room. In the very center is a bank of cameras and, arranged around them, four rectangles of blue carpet. Upon those rectangles the appraisals are taped for broadcast or for the Roadshow website. The blue carpet works sort of like “hot lava” in the children’s game. Staff and volunteers constantly remind guests not to step on it, and potentially into a camera’s view. When guests inevitably do so—every few minutes when I was there—they’re instantly, if kindly, rebuked. At the tables, the appraisers appraise, working briskly through the inner queues until they see something special— his oldest brother’s hobby was to approach soldiers on the something they think should be on TV. They then get a cor- street, asking for patches as souvenirs. Later their dad roborating opinion from a second expert and locate a producer framed the collection. “It’s a pretty big collecting category who will hear their pitch and, they hope, select the item for an right now,” Piattoni says. He zooms in on some of the more on-camera appraisal. notable: a World War II French volunteers patch, another At McCormick Place Piattoni goes the first few hours that he suspects was “theater made,” and the most valuable without seeing anything he wants to pitch. This is unusu - of the group, a 101st Airborne Division patch depicting an ally long, and he’s getting a little anxious. Piece after piece eagle with a white tongue, worth maybe $500 on its own. comes and goes, the likes of which I’ve never seen. Piattoni There’s stuff I wouldn’t have known what to make of, like seems to have seen everything. a scale model of a prototype tank. The maker, according to There’s the model ship large enough to fill a coffee table, the documentation that came with the model, wrote about it “built by a guy on the ship in 1944,” the young man who has to the National Inventors Council, believing “his design was brought it says. His grandfather was onboard too and won superior because shells deflected off it,” the owner says. He

the model in a raffle. With it are a diary of ship life and a also has the council’s rejection letter, dated December 1941. am’94 demanski, laura by photography metal bible. “That’s cool,” says Piattoni, not nearly as im - “It’s pretty cool,” says Piattoni. “Here’s the deal with tanks. pressed as I am. “Guys in the navy had a lot of time on their The US was able to go zero to 50 quick because of GM and hands. It was common for machinists to make souvenirs. Ford. The concept was, they threw money at it. The Ger- This one is elaborate. When you’re sailing and not yet in man tanks were more custom built. Even though they were enemy waters, you have lots of time on your hands.” The superior, we overwhelmed them with pure numbers.” This Mystic Seaport museum in Mystic, Connecticut, he says, design, he conjectures, was “too complex and too crazy to is the most common destination for such artifacts. In per- be adopted officially. Obviously a lot of folks wanted to help fect condition, it might fetch $1,50 0. In the condition it’s in, the war effort. But they had it under control.” Declaring the $300 to 500, plus $30 for the bible and $100 for the diary. model cool once more, Piattoni estimates its top value at “a He sees a large framed set of military patches—maybe couple thousand,” but doesn’t send for a producer. (Later he 100 mounted on a fabric backing. Piattoni makes a quick tells me the owner already knew too much about what he had scan as the owner tells the story. As a boy in the 1940s, to make for a good taping.)

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UCH_ARS_v2.indd 32 2/27/15 12:11 PM Among the items that came in with a World War II model ship made on board, this drawing in a sailor’s journal impressed Piattoni. “That’s killer,” he said.

ntiques Roadshow appraisers are not paid for their strong? Piattoni believes the show fed an interest that was work on the show. In fact, they pay their own travel there all along. “Think about Julia Child,” he says. “She and lodging expenses. Last summer Piattoni trav- was very talented, but her show tapped into a preexisting a eled to the Chicago, Birmingham, and New York interest in cooking. And oh my God, how quickly it caught City shows. The exposure is valuable, especially for ex- on. The Roadshow did the same thing.” perts who run their own antique dealerships or appraisal It was a hard sell in the beginning, despite the success businesses, as Piattoni has since 20 02. In his day job as pres- of the original British version. Shopping the show around ident of Gary Piattoni Decorative Arts he has private in- with a pitch tape that featured Let’s Make a Deal star Mon- dividuals, insurance companies, and institutions as clients ty Hall as the host, producer Dan Farrell, MBA’73, was and focuses on fine art, furniture, and decorative arts. He turned down by every network, leaving the door open for does work on other kinds of objects, but never jewelry or PBS. Now other reality shows in the same vein have taken “very specialized collections” like coins or stamps. “I can off—Piattoni mentions Pawn Stars, American Pickers, and do an African mask or an American Indian basket if there’s Storage Wars. For him, though, Antiques Roadshow “is the one or two of them,” but “if somebody had a collection of one that considers itself to be educational. ... The goal is 50, I would generally send them to a specialist.” really about discovery.” For all their variety, the things he sees on the Roadshow Not only for the guests. “It’s impossible to know it all,” rarely overlap with the high-value items that come to him he says. That keeps him charged up about what he does, in in his business. He loves moving between those worlds his day job and on the set. “Each show there’s something and still visits the Rosemont flea market early Sundays, re- that comes by that I haven’t seen before, or some story. I turning home by the time his sons, ages 10 and 13, are rising. think that’s the most exciting thing. It’s never the same; it’s The flea market keeps him familiar with the more everyday always something different.” items that will end up in front of him at the Roadshow. “It’s great to be able to share that with folks for free,” he says, “and help them unlock some mystery about an object they he morning starts to wane, and still nothing differ- carry around—or disappoint them because it’s not as valu- ent, nothing Piattoni wants to pitch. He’s getting able as they thought.” discouraged. Then, a glimmer. Another appraiser, Maybe a dozen times a year Piattoni hits the road to run T Kathleen Guzman, comes over from collectibles antiques and heirlooms appraisal events, structured much with an air of anticipation, and a box. She needs a corrobo- like the Roadshow, at retirement communities around the ration, but has struck out with the fine arts appraisers. It’s country. The demand is increasing, partly testament to a sumptuous construction of buttery laminated plywood, the popularity of the television show. What keeps it going a little smaller than a shirt box. A brass plaque fastened to the top spells, in engraved script, “Suicide.” Guzman opens the lid, which is hinged at the back, revealing three pairs of shears under plexiglass. On the inside lid, lined up with iT was common for the shears, are three painted pink flamingos. A weird and beautiful and ominous objet d’art. Piattoni is thrilled. The box has some of the signature machinisTs To make features of one of his favorite artists, the maverick Ameri- photography by laura demanski, am’94 demanski, laura by photography can sculptor H. C. Westermann, whose sculptures em- souvenirs. when ployed a carpenter’s skills, defied interpretation, and often critiqued materialism. The box and scissors are “classic you’re sailing and Westermann,” he tells me later: “an object you can’t use.” But the piece isn’t signed, which the artist’s work usually noT yeT in enemy is. If it is Westermann, the piece might be worth $15,000 to $20,000. It’s a puzzle Piattoni wants to solve. “Where’d they get it?” he asks Guzman. No help there: waTers, you have a the owner bought it at an estate sale in the 1960s. “Could be a copyist,” he muses, “but the quality is so good.” Does loT of Time on your he want to pitch it to a producer, Guzman offers, deferring to his expertise on Westermann. Piattoni declines and en- hands. courages her to do so, giving his take: it could be authentic,

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UCH_ARS_v2.indd 33 2/27/15 12:12 PM it’s not definitive, but even if it’s a copy, it’s interesting. She pin; subsequent classes got imitations, made more cheaply decides she’ll pitch it. As she walks away, Piattoni seems by less storied firms. electrified, and a little haunted. He loves Westermann. It Piattoni is drawn by how the items highlight a little-dis- was hard to turn down, he confides, but he wants her to get cussed front of the war, and the rare pin clinches it. “Would the taping (she did, I find out later). you like to talk about it on air?” he asks the couple, who The not-quite-pitches keep coming, and then Piattoni agree, a little shyly. “Go sit over there,” he says, pointing sees a group of items that have the right stuff: historical them to a few chairs outside the curtains that enclose the significance; something truly rare among them; and, most appraisal area. “Don’t show anyone, don’t talk about it. We important, the pieces come together to tell a story great- don’t need any nosy Nellies”—to ensure that some knowl- er than the sum of its parts. A man from Indiana and his edgeable bystander doesn’t ruin the surprise, which has wife, maybe in their early 50s, bring them: photographs, been known to happen. He also hasn’t mentioned a value, a period photocopy of a telegraph from General Douglas again to ensure that their reaction on camera will be genu- MacArthur, patches, and a pin, all relating to his uncle’s ine if they’re selected for taping. He asks a nearby volunteer service as a paratrooper in the Pacific arena during World to get a producer and goes on looking at people’s things. War II. The photos capture the uncle’s first jump, and his Within 30 minutes, another set of items catches his eye. jump school graduation pin was made by Bailey Banks & This time a woman from Michigan, accompanied by her sis- Biddle, the venerable US jeweler that designed many of the ter, brings a scrapbook and more. Her uncle by marriage, best-known medals awarded by the military. Only the first she says, was the copilot of the first US plane to drop a bomb graduating class of paratroopers received this particular on Germany during World War II. Inside the scrapbook

during WW II for the war effort, making them scarce today. So ancient oil lamps are plentiful and inexpensive

while a mint Action Comics #1 can sell for millions of dollars. Old The rule of supply and demand trumps all.

2. If it’s rare, it must be valuable.

saws Like age, rarity is often touted as a major factor in value. Five myths about art, antiques, and collectibles Something may be rare, but people have to want it for it to by ga ry pi at toni, a b’83 be valuable. The 1933 double eagle $20 US gold coin is one of the rarest coins to be had. All but a handful were destroyed as a result of the 1933 Gold Reserve Act. The government al- 1. The age and value of an antique have a direct correlation. lowed one to be sold in 2002 and it fetched $7.59 million dol- People will often bring me an object and say, “This be - lars. Now American coin collecting is big business and if you longed to one of my grandparents so I know it must be old.” had all the $20 gold pieces up to 1932, you would sure want the The presumption is that if it is old, there must be some basic 1933, hence the result. If this scenario played out in a country value because of its age alone. The reality is that there is with a much lower standard of living and few coin collectors, no direct correlation between age and value. For instance, though, such a coin would likely be only a footnote in the you can go to the Middle East and purchase a 2,000-year- country’s history. Short supply but low demand. old pottery oil lamp very inexpensively; at one time every home in the Middle East would have had one. Chances are 3. If an item has a certificate of authenticity it must be if you stick a shovel in the ground there today you will turn authentic. one up. For some objects, as time g0es by there are fewer in The issue of authenticity is as old as collecting itself, but paper circulation, like baseball cards that, before they were pro- certificates popped up in great numbers after WW II as more tected by plastic sleeves, were lost in the wash or thrown of the general public started buying art. Many dealers, honest away. Many great comic books, which were never meant to and unscrupulous, used them to give a comfort level to novice be handled with great care in the first place, were scrapped buyers. You could buy them at a stationery store, when such

32 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

UCH_ARS_v2.indd 34 2/27/15 12:12 PM are stories upon stories clipped from newspapers, with historic mission makes the tale especially poignant. Eager headlines like “Michigander Who Bombed Nazis First”; to serve, he had joined the Canadian forces before the Unit- the pilot’s ID cards from the University of Michigan; a tele- ed States entered the war. The paratrooper’s story contains graph—or copy of one—from General George Marshall. no such drama, but Piattoni pitches it as a clean, concise, There are also items that the pilot carried just months later complete set of items that draws attention to paratrooper when he was killed on duty, only 24 years old, and the Pur- activity in the often-overlooked Pacific arena. ple Heart sent to his family, engraved with his name. Farrell gives the green light to the bomber pilot, but not Piattoni arranges everything on his side of the table and the paratrooper. Piattoni first delivers the news to the In- takes a long, careful survey. “There’s a lot to look at,” he diana couple, and his assessment of their collection’s value: says. “I just want to make sure I’m getting the full picture.” between $1,000 to $1,500, including $500 to $600 for the After some time, and a few questions, he asks, “You want Bailey Banks & Biddle pin. They don’t seem to mind not to try to do this on camera?” The woman most definitely getting on TV and walk off smiling. does. Off she goes, with her sister, to a different set of The Michigan woman heads to the green room, where chairs outside the appraisal floor. both she and Piattoni get makeup. He gathers more infor- Now Piattoni is just waiting for a producer to show. mation from her. Eventually they’re summoned and walk At last one does, Sam Farrell. They huddle and Piattoni back, through the curtains, past the appraisal lines, to take sketches out for him each World War II collection. The their seats at a table on one of the blue carpets. From where young pilot’s story tells of a notable moment in the war and I stand, it’s impossible to hear the appraisal. I’ll have to wait Germany’s eventual defeat; his death not long after that until the show airs this fall, like everyone else. ◆

stores were still in existence. The practice caught on and they nal surfaces. While condition is of course important, some have proliferated ever since in all categories. I would caution reasonable conservation does not devalue the item in their that many of these early certificates should be seen as a red flag eyes the same way it does for American furniture folks. Each and never taken at face value. It is really about the experience category of collecting may have its own particular issues and integrity of the dealer you are buying from. That said, to- with conservation, the caveat being that any conservation day the business of authentication has exploded and become performed be done to the industry standard. even more complicated. Now serious contemporary artists are issuing certificates, without which they will disclaim 5. Antiques always go up in value over time. the work as theirs. And the collectibles world has spawned a Unfortunately, as an appraiser my job sometimes entails whole industry of authenticators who will issue such certifi- disappointing people. One of the most common occasions cates, without which the item will not be viewed as authentic. is when folks present me with a 20- to 30-year-old appraisal Again, all of this is a function of who is doing the authenticat- with the absolute conviction that each item must have in - ing. In general if your item needs a certificate to prove it is creased in value a little bit each year, like a treasury bond. authentic, proceed with caution. In fact some values increase, but some stay the same and many actually go down. This is hard for people to accept as 4. If I perform any conservation on my antique, I have ruined it. they see the price of milk and everything else rise. Again, This can certainly be true if you take your antique table to it goes back to supply and demand. What we are seeing the basement workshop and get out the power sander, but with the Depression-era generation is that many of their the real answer is more complicated. What we often hear children and grandchildren don’t have the same tastes and about is the example of American furniture that has been re- don’t want most of the older generation’s possessions. A finished, resulting in a dramatic devaluation. But this is not great example is Chippendale or Georgian furniture; this a typical example because American furniture collectors re- style dominated the American home for many decades, but ally like the original surface and will pay a premium for over over the past decade we‘ve seen a dramatic shift in taste. 200 years of accrued patina. In other categories, enthusiasts Today modern furniture styles rule. The result is a large will have a different perspective. Collectors of European supply of well made traditional furniture with very limited furniture, for example, will not be as concerned about origi- demand translating into much lower prices.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 33

UCH_ARS_v2.indd 35 2/27/15 12:12 PM architecture so ial onstru ts Michael Murphy’s MASS Design Group strives to make an architecture of community cohesion. by michael washbur n, am’02 photography by iwan ba an

34 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

et amid volcanic hills, the northern that has become self-sustaining. Taken as a whole, the ef- province of Burera is an impover - fects on local health, employment, and the community look ished area of Rwanda. Before 2011, its to many observers nothing short of miraculous. 350,000 residents lacked access to ad- Murphy, MASS Design’s CEO, believes that architec - equate health care, living in one of the ture can play a critical role in untangling the cluster of prob- last Rwandan health districts without a lems that bedevil society, from health care to education to hospital. Today they have one that is an the quality of urban life itself. Designated by the Atlantic aesthetic wonder. With intricate stone as among nine people whom “tomorrow’s historians [will] walls fashioned by local masons, the consider today’s greatest inventors,” Murphy has culti - cluster of buildings that make up Buta- vated his preoccupation with architecture’s relationship ro Hospital is bright and open, flooded to social justice since graduate school. MASS, which re- with light and suffused with air from the natural wind paths fers to itself as a “social enterprise,” is a nonprofit working in the valleys below. In a region with basically no medical in typically capital-intensive, competitive architectural Sinfrastructure, Butaro provides 150 beds, a maternity ward markets. Investing its intellectual capital in projects that and neonatal intensive care unit, two operating rooms, and often don’t seem economically viable—a cholera treat- such basic, necessary services as internal medicine and pe- ment center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; the resurrection of diatric care. It cost $4.4 million to build—about $30,000 deeply depressed American towns—serves two company per bed, compared to the more than $1 million per bed that objectives, offering beautiful, functional remedies to social new US hospitals cost. problems at a local level and proving that such investments A product of the MASS Design Group, a Boston-based can be profitable. architecture firm cofounded by Michael Murphy, AB’02, Butaro melds a modern architectural and social sensibility with lessons from the history of hospital design. That inspi- ASS Design’s office is located in Back Bay, at the ration is particularly realized in Butaro’s open, or “Nightin- corner of Boylston and Arlington Streets, near gale,” ward, which forgoes the hermetically sealed design Boston’s Public Garden. The office exudes the of modern hospitals in favor of a pavilion filled with natural M low-key nonchalance of a start-up. The wood air and light. The buildings of Butaro are connected by out- floors are worn and over the ambient street noises of horns door walkways and use natural ventilation instead of air and trucks, the clang of the radiators punctuates conversa- conditioning, creating more sanitary conditions as well as a tion. Models of the firm’s larger projects are on display. The more beautiful and human-scale setting. The building, said front of the office feels sedate and calm, almost uninhab- a New York Times op-ed in 2012, “has set a new standard for ited. The back of the office hums with activity; about 30 public-interest design.” people currently occupy the space, most of them working And the hospital’s construction—during which MASS alongside each other. hired more than 3,500 local Rwandans to help build it, On a bright, cold morning in November, Murphy and three training them on site—created a local masonry industry colleagues, Michael Haggerty, Brendan Kellogg, and James

36 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 Natural air and light create a sanitary and humane environment in MASS Design’s Rwandan hospital.

Martin, are discussing their recent work for a symposium wastewater system. To solve the problem, they created a led by the Center for an Urban Future. The presentation re- self-contained wastewater treatment system under the imagines New York City’s increasingly obsolete public building’s foundation, allowing the building to function branch libraries as more vital, well-used spaces. One of independently of the infectious Haitian infrastructure. MASS Design’s meeting rooms has been turned into a What animates and unites many of these projects— workspace for the project, and dozens of photographs and Rwanda, Haiti, and others—is the desire to take institu - sketches of four New York Public Library branches and tions that are widely feared or disregarded and turn them their surrounding communities. into sources of pride and civic engagement. “The medical Murphy and his team returned to the lessons learned in facility could be more of a civic amenity, and this could be Africa and applied them to these economically challenged a future in the US as well,” Murphy says. “Perception of areas of Brooklyn. The result was, in Haggerty’s words, the medical facility has been corroded, it has become one “south to north”: ideas and practices developed in the re - of fear, one of sickness. Patients get sicker when they go source-poor areas of the global south were brought to bear to hospitals.” on the comparatively wealthy neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Murphy challenges MASS Design to reinvent that real- The study took months and multiple visits, accounting for ity: “What if we could make our health care infrastructure the “life and rhythms” of the branch libraries, identifying not just reactive but aspirational?” “what stood out as unique, given the characteristics of the surrounding community, the personalities of the staff, and the limitations and potential of the physical building.” That urphy grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, the process mirrored the one they followed when planning Bu- son of a nurse and a civil servant. He entered taro: months of immersive research into the community’s UChicago at 18 without a clear understanding of needs before plans were finalized. The methodology is as M what he wanted to do and was soon “completely much anthropological as architectural. swooned” by Renaissance poetry. But even as Murphy In Sheepshead Bay, MASS recommended redesigning wrote on John Donne, he grew fascinated by the built en- the library to emphasize additional cultural events. A Co- vironment around the campus and city. “Chicago is a great ney Island branch called out for a space to accommodate laboratory for learning about architecture, and I got really nutrition and health services. ... intrigued there about buildings,” Murphy says. “I start- To be clear, this was merely a design study—MASS re- ed to catalog architecture as this thing I found interesting.” ceived a modest amount of money to think on the library The transition from Renaissance poetry enthusiast to system and then present its findings alongside several architect took some time. First, Murphy “had the great other firms at a December meeting with representatives of fortune to go on the first study abroad program in South Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration in attendance. The Africa with the Comaroffs.” potential to contribute to the political discussion about the Jean and John Comaroff, now anthropology professors future of civic amenities in one of the nation’s greatest cit- at Harvard, spent a storied period at UChicago, and the ies was too tantalizing to pass up. “It fits very well into our Cape Town civilization program was a draw for under- work,” Murphy says, “which is how do we use architecture graduate students. During his time in Cape Town, Murphy to initiate or instigate significant policy change.” was transfixed, particularly by the neighborhood known The majority of the company’s work focuses on the de- as District Six, where it “became clear to me that the de - veloping world. MASS’s most recently completed projects cisions around the built environment are always political, are in Haiti: a tuberculosis hospital and cholera clinic. As or always social, or always cultural. And that architecture with Butaro, MASS recruited local labor to build the facili- ties in Port-au-Prince. The new buildings are cast in elegant white and blue, and they employ the Caribbean wind for ventilation and infection control. They’re as beautiful as we use architecture they are useful. And their usefulness can’t be overstated. The cholera clinic, in particular, is a public health feat. to initiate or In a country where 38 percent of the residents lack access to clean water—cholera depends on dirty water to spread instigate significant and thrive—MASS designers knew they couldn’t just build a beautiful hospital and plug it into the contaminated policy change.

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 37 design is never neuTral, iT eiTher helps people or iT hurTs people.

became Murphy’s quest to complete the restoration before his father died, but soon he had recovered well enough to help. “A year and a half passed and he was still alive, in remis- sion,” Murphy says, “and we’d finished restoring the house.” As they sat outside one day, Murphy’s father told him that “working on this house with you really saved my life.” A sense began to take root that architecture could have more than a social and political impact. It could influence something as personal as an individual’s health. The lessons is this interface of either, let’s say, disenfranchisement or Murphy drew from the restoration became his inspiration cohesion.” to pursue architecture. When his father, who died in 2007, Murphy is discussing his past while sitting in one of the was hospitalized, Murphy’s visits further shaped his design small meeting rooms in the MASS office. Cars honk be- sensibility. Patients endured an environment engineered low. A youthful 35, with an easy smile and a quick laugh, for a clinical purpose but blind to its toll on human dignity. he exudes charisma. As he talks he moves in his chair, some- Murphy left thinking, “I would love to design a hospital times leaning back, often gesturing. At one point he starts someday.” circling his hands on the tabletop, a kind of wax-on wax-off Around the same time, Murphy heard Paul Farmer movement, as a way of working through his thoughts. speak. A physician and anthropologist, Farmer is the Kolo- Murphy was struck by how, even though formal Apart- kotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social heid no longer existed, there persisted in areas like Dis- Medicine at Harvard Medical School and cofounded Part- trict Six a physical boundary— what he calls a “geographic ners in Health. The organization, for which Farmer is now Apartheid”—that kept the wealthy insulated from the chief strategist, works to bring high-quality health care to pockets of poverty that dot the Cape Town landscape. places around the world where it’s most lacking. Once a robust incubator for culture and music, District Six Murphy introduced himself to Farmer. “Paul said, had been destroyed and left to fester in the city, a “massive Where are the architects?” he remembers. “We’re doing scar both on the city itself as well as on the social and politi- all this work and no architects have helped us out. No ar- cal history of that community,” Murphy says. “Sometimes chitects have asked how they can support us.” After reach- architecture is a great manifestation of community cohe- ing out to Farmer by email—and securing outside funding sion, and sometimes it’s the clear distinction and difference to support himself—Murphy joined Partners in Health in between those who have access to services and those who Africa. Soon Farmer invited him to plan the Butaro Hospi- don’t. That’s a heady way to say something we say often, tal. With cofounder Alan Ricks, Murphy started MASS which is design is never neutral, it either helps people or it Design. All before Murphy finished graduate school. hurts people.”

Murphy’s time in Cape Town didn’t have an immedi- vickmark bryce by photography ate impact. After graduation he worked several jobs and here’s the Howard Roark shot,” says Chris Sco- internships—at Critical Inquiry, the Illinois Humanities vel, one of MASS’s directors, showing a photo of Council, a literary agency in Manhattan—before he decid- Murphy at the firm’s recently completed cholera ed to be a writer. After getting some advice from a Chicago T clinic. friend turned stringer in Iraq, Murphy returned to Cape “Oh don’t call it Howard Roark,” Murphy groans. Town to write but rushed home when his father received a “That’d be horrible. I hate Howard Roark. We’re the anti– dire cancer diagnosis and was given just three weeks to live. Howard Roark.” Three weeks passed, then six, then four months. Murphy Roark, protagonist of Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel The Foun- spent the time restoring his family’s 1890s Arts and Crafts tainhead, has become the ur-model of the architect in much home, a project that had been his father’s weekend hobby. It of American culture—elitist visionaries who accept no

38 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 design is never neuTral, iT eiTher helps people or iT hurTs people. became Murphy’s quest to complete the restoration before his father died, but soon he had recovered well enough to help. “A year and a half passed and he was still alive, in remis- sion,” Murphy says, “and we’d finished restoring the house.” As they sat outside one day, Murphy’s father told him that “working on this house with you really saved my life.” A sense began to take root that architecture could have A self-contained wastewater treatment system is an unseen but essential innovation at the Haitian cholera clinic. more than a social and political impact. It could influence something as personal as an individual’s health. The lessons is this interface of either, let’s say, disenfranchisement or Murphy drew from the restoration became his inspiration compromise (Roark blows up one of his own buildings dur- Poughkeepsie community is economically depressed. Prop- cohesion.” to pursue architecture. When his father, who died in 2007, ing, basically, a pretentious tantrum) and usually work in erty values are abysmal. What was once a proud downtown Murphy is discussing his past while sitting in one of the was hospitalized, Murphy’s visits further shaped his design blissful isolation from their communities. is now very much down in the heel, a shell of its former self. small meeting rooms in the MASS office. Cars honk be- sensibility. Patients endured an environment engineered “I think what makes architecture different than a build- For the past few months, Murphy and his crew have been low. A youthful 35, with an easy smile and a quick laugh, for a clinical purpose but blind to its toll on human dignity. ing is that there is a generative idea,” Murphy says. “Ideally working with a center that houses nonprofit and social ser- he exudes charisma. As he talks he moves in his chair, some- Murphy left thinking, “I would love to design a hospital there is a generative idea, which drives decisions of the en- vice groups in a century-old school that was hit by Hurri- times leaning back, often gesturing. At one point he starts someday.” tire building. And sometimes that idea is completely bank- cane Irene. MASS envisions the building as the heart of a circling his hands on the tabletop, a kind of wax-on wax-off Around the same time, Murphy heard Paul Farmer rupt, all right, but sometimes it is about social change.” “three pronged” strategy to revitalize the city. movement, as a way of working through his thoughts. speak. A physician and anthropologist, Farmer is the Kolo- For Murphy and MASS the generative idea is always With the help of a mechanical firm, they’ve worked out a Murphy was struck by how, even though formal Apart- kotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social social: how can their structures drive social change and plan to bring in a new boiler system that would save $1 mil- heid no longer existed, there persisted in areas like Dis- Medicine at Harvard Medical School and cofounded Part- empowerment? lion over 10 years. They also want to transform an industrial trict Six a physical boundary— what he calls a “geographic ners in Health. The organization, for which Farmer is now “I think for too long we’ve been taught that there’s great watershed next to the building into a pop-up park and turn Apartheid”—that kept the wealthy insulated from the chief strategist, works to bring high-quality health care to architecture and that everything else is just junk. Like, wasteland into an asset. Finally, they proposed what other pockets of poverty that dot the Cape Town landscape. places around the world where it’s most lacking. ‘Here, focus on this great architecture and that’s all you “key amenities” would be needed to catalyze broader change Once a robust incubator for culture and music, District Six Murphy introduced himself to Farmer. “Paul said, should be focused on. And there’s only a few people that in Poughkeepsie. had been destroyed and left to fester in the city, a “massive Where are the architects?” he remembers. “We’re doing can do it, and there’s only a few people that can pay for it,’” By cobbling together a series of grants, Murphy thinks scar both on the city itself as well as on the social and politi- all this work and no architects have helped us out. No ar- Murphy says, hands circling the table. “And that’s a very they could create a cohort of arts and culture fellows that cal history of that community,” Murphy says. “Sometimes chitects have asked how they can support us.” After reach- unjust society. It’s not a society that I want to live in, where could “occupy Main Street,” in order to drive traffic to the architecture is a great manifestation of community cohe- ing out to Farmer by email—and securing outside funding a few people get to benefit from this trade that I’ve been area and amplify the work of the social service organiza - sion, and sometimes it’s the clear distinction and difference to support himself—Murphy joined Partners in Health in fortunate enough to study and learn from. Because I think tions. He hopes such efforts could radically shift percep- between those who have access to services and those who Africa. Soon Farmer invited him to plan the Butaro Hospi- what [architects] do is a great civic work, civic service.” tions in the long run, contributing to making the town more don’t. That’s a heady way to say something we say often, tal. With cofounder Alan Ricks, Murphy started MASS attractive to other industries eventually. which is design is never neutral, it either helps people or it Design. All before Murphy finished graduate school. That’s part of the self-proclaimed “value proposition of hurts people.” ASS is currently running about 15 projects, all of MASS”: to pursue what Murphy calls the creation of dignity.

Murphy’s time in Cape Town didn’t have an immedi- vickmark bryce by vickmark bryce by photography photography them in the spirit of civic service, most in health “There’s a great dignity that great architecture provides,” he ate impact. After graduation he worked several jobs and here’s the Howard Roark shot,” says Chris Sco- care or education. They’re building low cost says. Great in ways that are accessible and influential in ev- internships—at Critical Inquiry, the Illinois Humanities vel, one of MASS’s directors, showing a photo of M schools that will accommodate up to 900 stu- eryday life—civic-spirited projects, not monuments to a sin- Council, a literary agency in Manhattan—before he decid- Murphy at the firm’s recently completed cholera dents each in remote areas of Africa. “You can’t, literally, gular vision. “If we don’t focus on that, if we just create basic ed to be a writer. After getting some advice from a Chicago clinic. import any materials,” Murphy says. “Nails,” but that’s structures because they’re an orphanage in Tanzania, it’s not T ◆ friend turned stringer in Iraq, Murphy returned to Cape “Oh don’t call it Howard Roark,” Murphy groans. about it. A few hours after discussing the New York library enough. It has to actually be great architecture too.” Town to write but rushed home when his father received a “That’d be horrible. I hate Howard Roark. We’re the anti– project, Murphy met with the US Agency for International dire cancer diagnosis and was given just three weeks to live. Howard Roark.” Development to offer his thoughts on addressing climate Michael Washburn, AM’02, is director of programs at the New Three weeks passed, then six, then four months. Murphy Roark, protagonist of Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel The Foun- change. York Council for the Humanities. He writes for publications spent the time restoring his family’s 1890s Arts and Crafts tainhead, has become the ur-model of the architect in much But lately Murphy’s thoughts have been returning to his including the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles home, a project that had been his father’s weekend hobby. It of American culture—elitist visionaries who accept no hometown, which asked MASS Design for help last year. The Review of Books, the New Republic, and the Boston Globe.

38 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 39 excerpt T H E G R E AT photography by jean-christian bourcart/getty images bourcart/getty jean-christian by photography

ENotes on ans intellectual and musicalApE journey. by philip glass, ab’56

40 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 excerpt T H E G R E AT photography by jean-christian bourcart/getty images images bourcart/getty bourcart/getty jean-christian by jean-christian by photography photography

ENotes on ans intellectual and musicalApE journey. by philip glass, ab’56

40 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 As a high school sophomore in Baltimore, composer Philip Glass, the sounds of the night train. The wheels on the track made AB’56, applied and was accepted into the College. Whether his endless patterns, and I was caught up in it almost at once. parents would allow him to attend was another question. Over Years later, studying with Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar’s breakfast one morning in 1952, his mother announced, “We had a great tabla player and music partner, I practiced the end - meeting last evening and it was decided you can go to Chicago.” In less cycles of twos and threes that form the heart of the Glass’s new book, Words Without Music: A Memoir, which Indian tal system. From this I learned the tools by which will be published April 7 by W. W. Norton, he recalls his arrival apparent chaos could be heard as an unending array of shift- at age 15 and the first year of his UChicago education. ing beats and patterns. But on this memorable night, I was innocent of all that. Oddly enough, it wasn’t until almost he overnight train to Chicago was run by 14 years later, when I was on my first voyage of discovery the old B&O railroad, which left every in India and trains were the only way to travel, that I did day in the early evening from downtown some serious train travel again, much as I had as a boy on Baltimore and arrived in the Loop in Chi- my many journeys between Baltimore and Chicago. The cago early the next morning. That, or the facts of travel were similar, at times almost identical. But long drive through western Maryland, my way of hearing had been radically transformed in those Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, was years. One might think that the trains from Einstein on the the only road between Baltimore and Beach came from a similar place, but no, that wasn’t so. Chicago. In 1952, very few people took That train music came from quite a different place, which planes, though commercial airlines were I’ll get to later. The point was that the world of music—its beginning to offer an alternative. language, beauty, and mystery—was already urging itself I was on my way to college with two friends from high on me. Some shift had already begun. Music was no lon- school, Sidney Jacobs, AB’54, SB’58, SM’60, and Tom ger a metaphor for the real world somewhere out there. It TSteiner, AB’54, AB’58, AM’62, both of whom I actually was becoming the opposite. The “out there” stuff was the knew quite well. But our going out to the Midwest together metaphor and the real part was, and is to this day, the music. was unplanned, sheer chance. They were part of a local, Night trains can make those things happen. The sounds of self-made club they called the Phalanx—a group of super - daily life were entering me almost unnoticed. bright, geeky teenagers who banded together for mutual company and entertainment. I knew them from the Mary- land Chess Club, though, being several years younger, I ight away, Chicago had much more of a big-city feel was tolerated to a degree but had never been a part of their than Baltimore. It had modern architecture—not highly introverted and intellectual group. But I liked them just Frank Lloyd Wright but the landmark Louis all—they and their friends: Irv Zucker, Malcolm Pivar, R Sullivan buildings that were a little bit older. It had William Sullivan. Poets, mathematicians, and techno-vi- a first-class orchestra—the Chicago Symphony conducted sionaries of an order very early and remote from anything by Fritz Reiner; the Chicago Art Institute, with its collec- going on today. tion of Monet; and even art movie theaters. Chicago was The three of us were all on the train together, bonding a real city that could cater to intellectuals and people with easily for the first time. I was extremely excited to be on my serious cultural interests in a way that Baltimore couldn’t. way and had barely noticed the lectures, warnings, and as- Chicago was also a place where you’d hear jazz that you surances from Ben and Ida Glass that in the end came down wouldn’t hear in Baltimore. (I didn’t even know where the to letting me know I could come home anytime I needed to jazz clubs were in my hometown.) If you wanted to go to a if things at the University of Chicago didn’t work out. good Chinese restaurant in Baltimore, you had to drive to “We can arrange with your school that if you come back Washington, but in Chicago we had everything. from Chicago before Christmas, you can go back into your The University stretched from 55th Street to 61st Street grade at the high school,” my mother said. Of course, I on both sides of the Midway, which had been the center knew there was zero chance of that. They considered the of amusements and sideshows at Chicago’s 1893 World’s three months until Christmas a trial run. For me, though, Columbian Exposition. Fifty-Seventh Street was built up it was every kid’s dream—the Great Escape. with restaurants and bars, and the South Side jazz clubs, I didn’t sleep at all that night. Soon after leaving the sta- like the Beehive, were on 55th Street. Of course I was too tion, the lights were out. It was just an old passenger train young to go to some of the places I wanted to go, since I was from Dixie to the Midwest, with no amenities of any kind. 15 and looked 15. By the time I was 16 or 17, I had gotten a lit- No lights, no reading, nothing to do but make friends with tle bit bigger, so I was able to go to the Cotton Club, nearby

42 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 As a high school sophomore in Baltimore, composer Philip Glass, the sounds of the night train. The wheels on the track made on Cottage Grove, and also the clubs downtown. Eventu- lecture classes, but not many, and in addition, there were AB’56, applied and was accepted into the College. Whether his endless patterns, and I was caught up in it almost at once. ally, the people at the door got to know me because I would experiment/lab classes for science. parents would allow him to attend was another question. Over Years later, studying with Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar’s stand there—just listening—looking through the window. Very often when the seminars were over in the class- breakfast one morning in 1952, his mother announced, “We had a great tabla player and music partner, I practiced the end - Finally, they would say, “Hey, c’mon kid, you come on in.” rooms, the debates that had begun initially with the teach- meeting last evening and it was decided you can go to Chicago.” In less cycles of twos and threes that form the heart of the I couldn’t buy a drink, but they would let me sit by the door ers would be continued among ourselves in the coffee shops Glass’s new book, Words Without Music: A Memoir, which Indian tal system. From this I learned the tools by which and listen to the music. on the Quadrangles at the center of the campus. That ac - will be published April 7 by W. W. Norton, he recalls his arrival apparent chaos could be heard as an unending array of shift- The first day of freshman orientation, I walked into a tually was the idea. The seminar style was something that at age 15 and the first year of his UChicago education. ing beats and patterns. But on this memorable night, I was room and the first thing I noticed was that there were black was easy to reproduce in a coffee shop, because it was prac- innocent of all that. Oddly enough, it wasn’t until almost students. You have to look at it from the point of view of a tically the same thing. he overnight train to Chicago was run by 14 years later, when I was on my first voyage of discovery kid who had grown up in the Dixie South—because that’s There were some sports at the school, but at that time we the old B&O railroad, which left every in India and trains were the only way to travel, that I did where Baltimore was. There hadn’t been any African didn’t have a football, basketball, or baseball team. I want- day in the early evening from downtown some serious train travel again, much as I had as a boy on American students in any school I’d ever attended. I had ed to do something active so I went to the physical educa- Baltimore and arrived in the Loop in Chi- my many journeys between Baltimore and Chicago. The lived in a world where segregation was taken for granted tion board and found out they really needed some people cago early the next morning. That, or the facts of travel were similar, at times almost identical. But and not even discussed. This was my conversion from be- for the wrestling team. I had wrestled in high school, so I long drive through western Maryland, my way of hearing had been radically transformed in those ing a kid from a border state, a Dixie state, whatever you volunteered, weighing in at about 116 pounds. I did pretty Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, was years. One might think that the trains from Einstein on the want to call it, which was segregated top to bottom—its well with the team until my second or third year of competi- the only road between Baltimore and Beach came from a similar place, but no, that wasn’t so. restaurants, movie houses, swimming pools, golf courses. tion with nearby schools. Then some farm boy from Iowa Chicago. In 1952, very few people took That train music came from quite a different place, which I think it took me less than a minute to realize that I had beat me so soundly and quickly that I gave it up for life. planes, though commercial airlines were I’ll get to later. The point was that the world of music—its lived my whole life in a place that was completely wrong. The University of Chicago was renowned for its fac- beginning to offer an alternative. language, beauty, and mystery—was already urging itself It was a revelation. ulty members. I remember vividly my freshman course I was on my way to college with two friends from high on me. Some shift had already begun. Music was no lon- The College of the University of Chicago was quite small in chemistry. The lecturer was Harold C. Urey, who had school, Sidney Jacobs, AB’54, SB’58, SM’60, and Tom ger a metaphor for the real world somewhere out there. It in those days—probably fewer than 500 undergraduates, won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. He had chosen to teach TSteiner, AB’54, AB’58, AM’62, both of whom I actually was becoming the opposite. The “out there” stuff was the counting all four years of the usual program. However, it the first-year chemistry class to maybe 70 or 80 students, knew quite well. But our going out to the Midwest together metaphor and the real part was, and is to this day, the music. fit into the larger University of professional schools—busi- and he brought an enthusiasm for his subject that was elec- was unplanned, sheer chance. They were part of a local, Night trains can make those things happen. The sounds of ness, law, medicine—and divisions devoted to science, the trifying. We met at 8 a.m., but there were no sleepyheads self-made club they called the Phalanx—a group of super - daily life were entering me almost unnoticed. humanities, social science, theology, and the arts, as well in that class. Professor Urey looked exactly like Dr. Van bright, geeky teenagers who banded together for mutual as the Oriental Institute. The relationship of the College to Helsing from the Tod Browning 1931 movie Dracula—the company and entertainment. I knew them from the Mary- this large university was surprisingly intimate, and quite a doctor who examines Dracula’s victims and says, “And land Chess Club, though, being several years younger, I ight away, Chicago had much more of a big-city feel number of the university faculty came to teach in the Col- on the throat, the same two marks.” Now, when would a was tolerated to a degree but had never been a part of their than Baltimore. It had modern architecture—not lege. It was thought of then as a kind of European system, freshman or sophomore kid get to even be in the same room highly introverted and intellectual group. But I liked them just Frank Lloyd Wright but the landmark Louis though I have no idea whether that was actually true or not. with a Nobel Prize winner, let alone being lectured on the all—they and their friends: Irv Zucker, Malcolm Pivar, R Sullivan buildings that were a little bit older. It had Classes were small, consisting of 12 or fewer students with periodic table? I think he must have thought, There must be William Sullivan. Poets, mathematicians, and techno-vi- a first-class orchestra—the Chicago Symphony conducted one professor—we were never taught by graduate students. young people out there who are going to become scientists. sionaries of an order very early and remote from anything by Fritz Reiner; the Chicago Art Institute, with its collec- We sat together at a round table and talked through our Professor Urey lectured like an actor, striding back and going on today. tion of Monet; and even art movie theaters. Chicago was reading lists—a classic seminar format. There were a few forth in front of the big blackboard, making incomprehen- The three of us were all on the train together, bonding a real city that could cater to intellectuals and people with sible marks on the board (I couldn’t figure out what he was easily for the first time. I was extremely excited to be on my serious cultural interests in a way that Baltimore couldn’t. doing—I only knew it had to do with the periodic table). way and had barely noticed the lectures, warnings, and as- Chicago was also a place where you’d hear jazz that you His teaching was like a performance. He was a man pas - surances from Ben and Ida Glass that in the end came down wouldn’t hear in Baltimore. (I didn’t even know where the sionate about his subject, and he couldn’t wait until we to letting me know I could come home anytime I needed to jazz clubs were in my hometown.) If you wanted to go to a I lEARnEd THE Tools could be there at eight in the morning. Scientists on that if things at the University of Chicago didn’t work out. good Chinese restaurant in Baltimore, you had to drive to level are like artists in a way. They are intensely in love “We can arrange with your school that if you come back Washington, but in Chicago we had everything. by wHIcH AppAREnT with their subject matter, and Urey was one of them. In from Chicago before Christmas, you can go back into your The University stretched from 55th Street to 61st Street fact, I don’t remember anything about chemistry. I just grade at the high school,” my mother said. Of course, I on both sides of the Midway, which had been the center cHAos could bE HEARd went to see his performances. knew there was zero chance of that. They considered the of amusements and sideshows at Chicago’s 1893 World’s In my second year I had a small seminar class in sociol- three months until Christmas a trial run. For me, though, Columbian Exposition. Fifty-Seventh Street was built up ogy taught by David Riesman, who, along with Reuel it was every kid’s dream—the Great Escape. with restaurants and bars, and the South Side jazz clubs, As An unEndInG ARRAy Denney and Nathan Glazer, was the author of The Lonely I didn’t sleep at all that night. Soon after leaving the sta- like the Beehive, were on 55th Street. Of course I was too Crowd, a very famous book in those days. I suppose it might tion, the lights were out. It was just an old passenger train young to go to some of the places I wanted to go, since I was of sHIfTInG bEATs seem a little quaint today, but in the 1950s it was very new from Dixie to the Midwest, with no amenities of any kind. 15 and looked 15. By the time I was 16 or 17, I had gotten a lit- thinking. The thesis of the book was simple: there are No lights, no reading, nothing to do but make friends with tle bit bigger, so I was able to go to the Cotton Club, nearby And pATTERns. three kinds of people, inner-directed, other-directed, and

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 42 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 43 Glass, performing The Qatsi Triology, believes the College of the 1950s made him a more intellectually assured composer.

tradition-directed. These became personality types. The I didn’t really see any reason why he would have remem- inner-directed is someone like Professor Urey, or like an bered me after all that time, though I had, in fact, caused a bit artist—someone who doesn’t care about anything except of a fuss with him once by challenging his ideas in the seminar. the thing that he wants to do. The other-directed had no I had told him that I thought the three categories of people sense of his own identity other than that which came from that he was suggesting were very much like the endomorph, the approval of the world around them. The tradition- ectomorph, and mesomorph types that had been proposed by directed are concerned with following the rules that have an anthropologist who was studying the human body. been handed down from the past. When you read these “Do you think so?” he had asked me. books, you immediately understand that the inner-directed “I think it’s absolutely the same,” I said. people are the people that are the most interesting. He looked at me like I was nuts. It’s funny, whenever I got Dr. Riesman would have eight or 10 students in the class— an idea, if I thought I was right, I could not be talked out of no more than that—and I liked him immediately. He was, it, and maybe that’s why he remembered me. I was a sopho- like Urey, a brilliant man, part of a new generation of sociolo- more in college, 16 years old, and he was in his mid-40s at the gists who, coming after anthropologists like Margaret Mead time. Why wouldn’t I keep my mouth shut? In truth, I never and Ruth Benedict, brought methods of anthropology to did. The same confrontation I had with David Riesman was bear on an analysis of modern urban life. My connection to repeated with Aaron Copland a number of years later, when Dr. Riesman extended well beyond the classroom. Twenty- he and I got into an argument about orchestration. five years later, his son Michael Riesman, who was about five In the summer of 1960, four years after I had graduated years old at the time I was taking his father’s course, became from Chicago, Copland was a guest of the orchestra at the the music director of the Philip Glass Ensemble. Aspen Music Festival and School, where I had come from Juil- © robbie jack/corbis When the ensemble played at Harvard in the 1970s, Dr. liard to take a summer course with Darius Milhaud, a wonder- Riesman was teaching there. Michael came to tell me, “My ful composer and teacher. The orchestra was playing some of dad is here at the concert.” Copland’s pieces at the festival, and through Milhaud’s class, “Oh, I’ve got to see Dr. Riesman,” I said. he invited students to meet with him one-on-one to show him “Dr. Riesman, do you remember me?” I asked when I met him. their compositions. I took him one of my pieces, a violin con- “Of course I do,” my one-time professor said. certo for solo violin, winds (flute, clarinet, bassoon), brass

44 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 (trumpets, horns, trombones), and percussion. he impact of such original and professional research- Mr. Copland looked at the first page. What I had done ers and academicians on our young minds was enor- was to pencil in a theme for the violin—it’s so similar to mous. This level of leadership was everywhere—in what I do today, I’m surprised that I had even thought of it T philosophy, mathematics, classical studies. Oddly, then—and every low note of the theme, I had played on the though, the performing arts were not represented at all. French horn. So the violin went da-da, da-da, da-da, and the No dance, theater, or music performance training was to French horn outlined the bottom notes, which became the be found. On the other hand, there were parts of the Uni - countermelody. I thought it was a very good idea. versity of Chicago that were involved in studies so radical Mr. Copland looked at it and said, “You’ll never hear the that we barely knew what they were up to at all. One of its French horn.” graduate programs, the Committee on Social Thought, “Of course you will,” I said. was such a group. To graduate from the College and enter “Nope, you’ll never hear it.” the committee as a graduate student—to be accepted, as it “I will hear it.” were, by the committee—would have been their greatest “You’re not going to hear it.” dream for some. Its faculty consisted of writers, scientists, “I’m sorry, Mr. Copland. I’m going to hear it.” thinkers. These were men and women that some in the Col- Mr. Copland got extremely annoyed with me, and that lege—including myself—deeply, almost fiercely admired was pretty much the end of my lesson. He’d only seen the and attempted to emulate as best we could: in those years opening page of the piece! We never got beyond the first they included names like Saul Bellow, EX’39; Hannah Ar- eight or 10 measures. endt; and Mircea Eliade. “What’s wrong with me?” I thought. Mr. Copland was Bellow’s big novel at that time was The Adventures of Au- much older than me. He was a real composer, a famous com- gie March, the story of a man’s life and search for identity Glass, performing The Qatsi Triology, believes the College of the 1950s made him a more intellectually assured composer. poser. He’d invited students to show him their composi- from childhood to maturity. I was a big reader, and the two tions—a wonderful opportunity—and I had totally blown writers from Chicago who interested me were Bellow and it. I had one lesson with Aaron Copland and we had a dis- Nelson Algren, author of The Man with the Golden Arm, agreement and he basically kicked me out. about a heroin addict’s struggles to stay clean, and Walk on tradition-directed. These became personality types. The I didn’t really see any reason why he would have remem- As it turned out, I was right, at least that time. On a stu- the Wild Side, in which Algren tells us, “Never play cards inner-directed is someone like Professor Urey, or like an bered me after all that time, though I had, in fact, caused a bit dent recording the next year at Juilliard, sure enough, there with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. artist—someone who doesn’t care about anything except of a fuss with him once by challenging his ideas in the seminar. was that French horn line, outlining the countermelody to Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than the thing that he wants to do. The other-directed had no I had told him that I thought the three categories of people the violin theme. You could hear it clear as a bell. I am sorry your own.” sense of his own identity other than that which came from that he was suggesting were very much like the endomorph, I didn’t keep in touch with Mr. Copland, for I would have What was interesting about Bellow and Algren was that the approval of the world around them. The tradition- ectomorph, and mesomorph types that had been proposed by sent him the recording. they took absolutely colloquial language—and not just col- directed are concerned with following the rules that have an anthropologist who was studying the human body. loquial language but vulgar language—and used it as a me- been handed down from the past. When you read these “Do you think so?” he had asked me. dium of expression. Until then, I had been very taken with books, you immediately understand that the inner-directed “I think it’s absolutely the same,” I said. writers like Joseph Conrad, who wrote in a very eloquent people are the people that are the most interesting. He looked at me like I was nuts. It’s funny, whenever I got THERE wERE pARTs early-20th-century prose, but these new writers were using Dr. Riesman would have eight or 10 students in the class— an idea, if I thought I was right, I could not be talked out of the vernacular of the street. no more than that—and I liked him immediately. He was, it, and maybe that’s why he remembered me. I was a sopho- I never saw Bellow on campus, but we all knew about like Urey, a brilliant man, part of a new generation of sociolo- more in college, 16 years old, and he was in his mid-40s at the of THE unIvERsITy him. Both he and Algren were idolized by the young peo - gists who, coming after anthropologists like Margaret Mead time. Why wouldn’t I keep my mouth shut? In truth, I never ple in Chicago because they were Chicago. They were not and Ruth Benedict, brought methods of anthropology to did. The same confrontation I had with David Riesman was of cHIcAGo THAT New York, they were not San Francisco. When I went to bear on an analysis of modern urban life. My connection to repeated with Aaron Copland a number of years later, when Chicago, I picked up Chicago writers, I picked up Chicago Dr. Riesman extended well beyond the classroom. Twenty- he and I got into an argument about orchestration. wERE InvolvEd In jazz, I picked up Chicago folk music—people like Big Bill five years later, his son Michael Riesman, who was about five In the summer of 1960, four years after I had graduated Broonzy and Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. All these peo- years old at the time I was taking his father’s course, became from Chicago, Copland was a guest of the orchestra at the sTudIEs so RAdIcAl ple worked in Chicago. the music director of the Philip Glass Ensemble. Aspen Music Festival and School, where I had come from Juil- © © As often happens around a great school or university, robbie robbiejack/corbis jack/corbis When the ensemble played at Harvard in the 1970s, Dr. liard to take a summer course with Darius Milhaud, a wonder- the University of Chicago projected its aura well beyond Riesman was teaching there. Michael came to tell me, “My ful composer and teacher. The orchestra was playing some of THAT wE bAREly its Hyde Park neighborhood and, for that matter, the rest dad is here at the concert.” Copland’s pieces at the festival, and through Milhaud’s class, of the South Side. Writers, poets, and thinkers would come “Oh, I’ve got to see Dr. Riesman,” I said. he invited students to meet with him one-on-one to show him knEw wHAT THEy to live in the shadow of the university. This larger world “Dr. Riesman, do you remember me?” I asked when I met him. their compositions. I took him one of my pieces, a violin con- included theater groups and cutting-edge bebop jazz clubs “Of course I do,” my one-time professor said. certo for solo violin, winds (flute, clarinet, bassoon), brass wERE up To AT All. like the Beehive or the Cotton Club on Cottage Grove.

44 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 45 “I now see clearly,” Glass says, “that a lot of the work I chose was inspired by men and women whom I first met in the pages of books.”

There was even a rumor, but perhaps a true one, that Alfred Korzybski, the scholar and author of Manhood of Humanity and Science and Sanity, had lived and worked in Hyde Park. He was an early proponent of the study of semantics and a radical thinker who, for some reason, appealed to me. Perhaps it was his ideas about history, time, and our human nature I was drawn to—he originated the concept of time-binding, that human culture is the result of the transmission of knowledge through time. I haven’t seen his books in years or even heard tell of him. Perhaps just another great soul, an American Mahatma, if you will, to be found somewhere in our libraries and collective memories. As I learned early on, the academic arrange- ments made for the College were especially striking. We were assigned to courses and classes (there were, famously, 14 courses, each three quarters long—fall, winter, spring). However, attendance was not required or even noted. There were quar- terly exams that students could take. These exams were strictly optional, and the grades given were not counted toward failure or success in the course. The courses that were considered the core of the curriculum consisted of three levels each in science, sociology, and the humanities. Five other courses made up the 14. Completion of these was the only requirement for graduation. PerhaPs just another great soul, an american mahatma, if you will, to be found © somewhere in goldsmith/corbis lynn our libraries and collective memories.

46 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 “I now see clearly,” Glass says, “that a lot of the work I chose was inspired by men and women whom I first met in the pages of books.”

There was even a rumor, but perhaps a true one, that Alfred Korzybski, the scholar and author of Manhood of Humanity and Science and Sanity, had lived and worked in Hyde Park. He was an early proponent of the study of semantics and a radical thinker who, for some reason, appealed to me. Perhaps it was his ideas about history, time, and our human nature I was drawn to—he originated the concept of time-binding, that human culture is the result of the transmission of knowledge through time. I haven’t seen his books in years or even heard tell of him. Perhaps just another great soul, an American Mahatma, if you will, to be found somewhere in our libraries and collective memories. As I learned early on, the academic arrange- ments made for the College were especially striking. We were assigned to courses and classes (there were, famously, 14 courses, each three quarters long—fall, winter, spring). However, attendance was not required or even noted. There were quar- terly exams that students could take. These exams were strictly optional, and the grades given were not counted toward failure or success in the course. The courses that were considered the core of the curriculum consisted of three levels each in science, sociology, and the humanities. Five other courses made up the 14. Completion of these was the only requirement for graduation. PerhaPs just another great soul, an american mahatma, if you will, to be found © © somewhere in goldsmith/corbis lynn goldsmith/corbis lynn our libraries and collective memories.

46 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | mar–april 2015 35 There would be, though, a “comprehensive” exam for atic appraisal of what I knew. I was more interested in hang- whatever courses the student had registered for at the end ing out with someone like Aristotle Skalides, a wandering of the year, in May. Each of these exams would take an en- intellectual and would-be academic who wasn’t a student tire day and include at least one essay to be written in the but who liked to engage young people in the coffee shop in examination room. Needless to say, the subject of the essay discussions about philosophy. Spending an hour with him would be unknown to the students before the exam, so of at the coffee shop was like going and spending an hour in course this could be, and often was, a terrifying experience. the classroom. I was more interested in my general educa- However, the reading list for each course was available at the tion than the courses. It almost didn’t matter to me whom beginning of the academic year. The readings themselves I studied with, as long as I found the right teacher, and that were to be found at the U of C bookstore, either as individual was pretty much my attitude. In fact, I think that has per- books or as a collection of readings in a syllabus. sisted all through my life. I’ve found teachers all through Now, the simplest and most straightforward way to pre- my life, people I knew who were otherwise unknown. pare for the comprehensive was to buy the books and sylla- Another distraction from the regular course work was bus for each course and simply attend the seminars, lectures, that there were some professors who offered informal or laboratory classes in the normal unfolding of a three-quar- classes, usually in their homes, on specific books or sub - ter course. To be truthful, I never once followed that path. jects. For these classes, no registration was required, no Perhaps there were some who did so, but in all my years there exam was given, and no student was turned away. This I never met them. practice was, I believe, understood and tolerated by the There were several problems that made the ideal plan dif- university itself. ficult to follow. The biggest problem was embedded in the Now, why would you spend your time as a student (or culture of the university itself. It was like this: though we professor, for that matter) this way when there were read- were assigned to specific seminars, we were free to “audit” ing lists that needed to be completed? Well, the answer any course in the College we liked and even many courses in is that some of the classes were unique and otherwise not the university. To audit a class you simply asked the profes- available. They were not offered officially, were known sor for permission to attend. I never heard of a request be - by word of mouth, and were quite well attended. I went to ing refused. Of course, we were encouraged to attend our an evening class entirely on one book—Homer’s The Odys- registered courses, but it was not required, and in the end, sey—once a week for at least two quarters, taught by a clas- the only grade earned and which actually counted was the sics professor named Charles Bell. These kinds of “private” comprehensive exam. So, in theory, one could skip all the courses given within the university community, though not classes and exams and just take the comprehensive. But al- generally known, could be sought after and found. That it- most no one did that either. I think many of us took a middle self probably accounted for their appeal. road. We emphasized our regular course work, but freely “grazed” through much of the university curriculum. Along around late March or April, when we discovered we had fallen behind in our reading lists, we started franti- my vERy fIRsT yEAR, cally reading the missing texts. It could be helpful, too, if you could find someone who had taken good notes of classes missed and was willing to share them, but this was not like- I HAd fouR ExAms, ly. Basically, I did a lockdown. I would go to the bookstore and buy the books, and I began reading them slowly. I read And I GoT An A, b, c, everything. The advantage was that when I went into the exams, everything was fresh in my mind; I hadn’t forgotten And A d. my moTHER anything because I had barely learned it to begin with. So I never failed the exams. My very first year, I had four exams, wAs HoRRIfIEd, buT and I got an A, B, C, and a D. My mother was horrified, but I pointed out that actually that was a B-minus average. The next year everything resolved into As, Bs, and Cs. I I poInTEd ouT THAT got rid of the Ds, but I never got all As, I wasn’t that kind of student. I wasn’t concerned with having a good grade point AcTuAlly THAT wAs average. I wasn’t going to medical school—what did I care? I didn’t think the grades mattered. They weren’t a system- A b-mInus AvERAGE.

48 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 There would be, though, a “comprehensive” exam for atic appraisal of what I knew. I was more interested in hang- selves rose to the level of a primary source. So, for example, whatever courses the student had registered for at the end ing out with someone like Aristotle Skalides, a wandering we read Darwin’s The Origin of Species in the biological sci- of the year, in May. Each of these exams would take an en- intellectual and would-be academic who wasn’t a student so THE sTudy of ences, and we reperformed Mandel’s fruit fly experiments. tire day and include at least one essay to be written in the but who liked to engage young people in the coffee shop in In physics we reenacted the experiments of Galileo with examination room. Needless to say, the subject of the essay discussions about philosophy. Spending an hour with him scIEncE bEcAmE THE rolling balls and inclined planes. We also read Newton and would be unknown to the students before the exam, so of at the coffee shop was like going and spending an hour in followed physics up to and including Schrödinger, while, in course this could be, and often was, a terrifying experience. the classroom. I was more interested in my general educa- sTudy of THE HIsToRy chemistry, we read Avogadro and Dalton. However, the reading list for each course was available at the tion than the courses. It almost didn’t matter to me whom So the study of science became the study of the history of beginning of the academic year. The readings themselves I studied with, as long as I found the right teacher, and that of scIEncE, And I science, and I began to understand what a scientific person- were to be found at the U of C bookstore, either as individual was pretty much my attitude. In fact, I think that has per- ality could be like. This early exposure would be reflected books or as a collection of readings in a syllabus. sisted all through my life. I’ve found teachers all through in Galileo Galilei, which I composed 45 years later, in which Now, the simplest and most straightforward way to pre- my life, people I knew who were otherwise unknown. bEGAn To undERsTAnd his experiments become a dance piece—the balls and in- pare for the comprehensive was to buy the books and sylla- Another distraction from the regular course work was clined planes are there. I found the biographical aspects of bus for each course and simply attend the seminars, lectures, that there were some professors who offered informal wHAT A scIEnTIfIc scientists intensely interesting, and my operas about Galileo or laboratory classes in the normal unfolding of a three-quar- classes, usually in their homes, on specific books or sub - and Kepler and Einstein pay tribute to everything I learned ter course. To be truthful, I never once followed that path. jects. For these classes, no registration was required, no pERsonAlITy could about scientists and science that came out of those years. Perhaps there were some who did so, but in all my years there exam was given, and no student was turned away. This The same primary-source method was carried out in so- I never met them. practice was, I believe, understood and tolerated by the cial science, history, and philosophy. Learning American There were several problems that made the ideal plan dif- university itself. bE lIkE. history meant reading the Federalist Papers and other late- ficult to follow. The biggest problem was embedded in the Now, why would you spend your time as a student (or 18th-century essays by the men who wrote the Constitu - culture of the university itself. It was like this: though we professor, for that matter) this way when there were read- A third distraction, and perhaps the biggest one of all, was tion. Of course, humanities meant theater and literature were assigned to specific seminars, we were free to “audit” ing lists that needed to be completed? Well, the answer Chicago itself. For example, during its season the Chicago from ancient to modern. Poetry, same thing. The effect on any course in the College we liked and even many courses in is that some of the classes were unique and otherwise not Symphony Orchestra offered Friday afternoon concerts to me was to cultivate and understand in a firsthand way the the university. To audit a class you simply asked the profes- available. They were not offered officially, were known students for a 50-cent admission price. From the South Side, lineage of culture. In this way, the men and women who sor for permission to attend. I never heard of a request be - by word of mouth, and were quite well attended. I went to it was a quick ride on the Illinois Central Train to downtown created the stepping-stones from earliest times became fa- ing refused. Of course, we were encouraged to attend our an evening class entirely on one book—Homer’s The Odys- Chicago. I had been a regular concertgoer to the Baltimore miliar to us—not something “handed down” but actually registered courses, but it was not required, and in the end, sey—once a week for at least two quarters, taught by a clas- Symphony practically from childhood. The editor of the Bal- known in a most immediate and personal way. the only grade earned and which actually counted was the sics professor named Charles Bell. These kinds of “private” timore Symphony concert program, Mr. Greenwald, taught At this time, I slowly became comfortable with the comprehensive exam. So, in theory, one could skip all the courses given within the university community, though not at my mother’s high school, and he often gave us free tickets University’s Harper Library, where I learned to research classes and exams and just take the comprehensive. But al- generally known, could be sought after and found. That it- to concerts. The Baltimore Symphony was quite good, but events and people. The work I later took up in opera and most no one did that either. I think many of us took a middle self probably accounted for their appeal. the Chicago Symphony was in a class by itself. theater would not have been possible without all that prepa- road. We emphasized our regular course work, but freely Fritz Reiner, the famous Hungarian conductor, was fas- ration and training. My first three full-scale operas—Ein- “grazed” through much of the university curriculum. cinating to watch. He was somewhat stout, hunched over stein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten—were made Along around late March or April, when we discovered with round shoulders, and his arm and baton movements with collaborators—Robert Wilson, Constance DeJong, we had fallen behind in our reading lists, we started franti- my vERy fIRsT yEAR, were tiny—you almost had to look at him with a telescope and Shalom Goldman, respectively—but I fully participat- cally reading the missing texts. It could be helpful, too, if to see what he was doing. But those tiny movements forced ed in the writing and shaping of the librettos for all three. you could find someone who had taken good notes of classes the players to peer in at him intently, and then he would sud- I could do this with complete confidence in my academic missed and was willing to share them, but this was not like- I HAd fouR ExAms, denly raise his arms up over his head and the entire orches- abilities. In fact, I now see clearly that a lot of the work I ly. Basically, I did a lockdown. I would go to the bookstore tra would go crazy. Reiner knew the classical repertoire, chose was inspired by men and women whom I first met in and buy the books, and I began reading them slowly. I read And I GoT An A, b, c, of course, but he was an outstanding interpreter of Bartók the pages of books. In this way, these early operas were, as everything. The advantage was that when I went into the and Kodály, both countrymen of his. Of course, Bartók’s I see it, an homage to the power, strength, and inspiration exams, everything was fresh in my mind; I hadn’t forgotten And A d. my moTHER music was already familiar to me through my father. There of the lineage of culture. ◆ anything because I had barely learned it to begin with. So I was also the Art Institute of Chicago, the Opera House, never failed the exams. My very first year, I had four exams, wAs HoRRIfIEd, buT which I only occasionally visited, and the downtown jazz Born in Baltimore in 1937, Philip Glass, AB’56, studied at the and I got an A, B, C, and a D. My mother was horrified, but I clubs, which, for a time, were still off-limits to me because Juilliard School after graduating from the College. The wide- pointed out that actually that was a B-minus average. of my age. ly celebrated composer of operas, film scores, and sympho- The next year everything resolved into As, Bs, and Cs. I I poInTEd ouT THAT I mentioned earlier the influence of the Great Books of the nies, he performs regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble got rid of the Ds, but I never got all As, I wasn’t that kind of curriculum, but it extended far beyond that. Whenever possi- and lives in New York. Excerpted from Words Without Music: student. I wasn’t concerned with having a good grade point AcTuAlly THAT wAs ble, which turned out to be all the time, the books we studied A Memoir by Philip Glass. Copyright © 2015 by Philip Glass. average. I wasn’t going to medical school—what did I care? would be firsthand, primary sources. We were never given With permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Cor- I didn’t think the grades mattered. They weren’t a system- A b-mInus AvERAGE. summaries to read or even commentaries, unless they them- poration Inc. All rights reserved.

48 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 49 glimpses wenDy freeDman by maureen searcy

ast September, observational cosmologist a minimum of four of its seven mirrors to be in place. Produc- Wendy Freedman joined the Department tion of the fourth, which will take several years, begins in late of Astronomy and Astrophysics as a Uni- March. Freedman expects the GMT to provide its first data versity Professor. Freedman’s appointment by 2022, and that all mirrors will be in place by 2025. follows 30 years at the Carnegie Observato- The Magazine’s interview with Freedman is edited and ries in Pasadena, California, where she be- adapted below. came the first woman on the observatories’ permanent scientific staff in 1987 and the Women in science then and now Crawford H. Greenewalt Director in 2003. I notice a big difference from when I was a graduate stu- The Chicago-Carnegie connection puts her dent at the University of Toronto. The number of women in good company with George Ellery Hale, entering into graduate classes and getting positions as pro- founder of UChicago’s astronomy and astrophysics depart- fessors at major universities across the United States now ment, and Edwin Hubble, SB 1910, PhD 1917. has increased. And the opportunities for women to become LFreedman first rose to prominence leading the Hubble directors of major observatories—those were opportuni- Space Telescope Key Project, which measured the uni- ties that didn’t exist just a few decades ago. I always felt I verse’s current expansion rate—the Hubble constant—and was born at the right time. A lot of women before me, it was thus determined the age of the universe more precisely. The their efforts that allowed a younger generation to succeed. project began in the mid-80s. In 2001 the team announced I’ve seen a lot of change, but that isn’t to say there aren’t that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, with an uncertainty still issues and difficulties. We need to start early in encour- of 10 percent. Previously cosmologists could estimate only aging girls to pursue careers in science and technical fields. that the universe was between 10 and 20 billion years old. It’s still unusual. It’s not something that many girls even Now she leads the Chicago Carnegie Hubble Project, think about. I had my share of teachers who were very en- which aims to reduce that uncertainty even further—to couraging and others who weren’t. I had a physics teacher within 3 percent—using the Spitzer Space Telescope, the once who would say, “The girls don’t have to listen to this.” Hubble Space Telescope, and the Magellan telescopes. That’s when I was growing up. I feel really pleased at all the Freedman also is a cofounder of the Carnegie Supernova progress, but watching my own daughter and hearing some Project, which uses the 100-inch and Magellan telescopes at of the comments that were made in her science classes, I Las Campanas Observatory in Chile to study the universe’s still think there is a ways to go. acceleration—which in turn contributes to the study of dark energy, the hypothetical explanation for cosmic acceleration. Art of science Freedman has served as chair of the board of directors of Science isn’t a textbook where you just read and memorize the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) Organization since things. Science is a way of looking at the world and first its inception in 2003. This super giant earth-based telescope, and foremost testing ideas. It’s a human enterprise. Parts which will start construction this year, also in Las Campanas, of it are fascinating, parts are beautiful and elegant, parts

will have 10 times Hubble’s resolution. To function, it requires are mysterious and complex, and you see the whole range zich john by photography of human effort and creativity. Part of what makes us human is our curiosity and learning about the world. I think as a field sometimes we let people down in not being able to I aLways feLt I was communicate the excitement of science. born at the rIght Window on the past Cosmology asks questions on the big scale of what is our tIme. universe, what’s it made of, how’s it behaving, how’s it

50 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 Outside Kersten’s rooftop observatory, Freedman turns her eye to the sky. glimpses wenDy freeDman by maureen searcy

will have 10 times Hubble’s resolution. To function, it requires are mysterious and complex, and you see the whole range zich john by zich john by photography photography of human effort and creativity. Part of what makes us human is our curiosity and learning about the world. I think as a field sometimes we let people down in not being able to I aLways feLt I was communicate the excitement of science. born at the rIght Window on the past Cosmology asks questions on the big scale of what is our tIme. universe, what’s it made of, how’s it behaving, how’s it

50 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | jan–feb 2015 51 changing with time, and those are questions that fascinate me. We can make measurements and actually learn some- If someone were on thing about the universe. We can peer back in time; because light has a finite speed, as you look farther back in distance the moon anD LIt you’re also looking further back in time. It’s an incredible opportunity that you don’t have in many sciences. a canDLe, we’D see It. Measuring distances within our galaxy ... the gmt Is sensItIve You look up in the sky with a telescope at the direction of the star. Then as Earth is going through its annual motion enough to Detect around the sun, if you look six months later from the opposite side of its orbit, you end up with a triangle with the di- that. ameter of Earth’s orbit as its base. Then it’s just high school geometry, ordinary Euclidean geometry; you can solve for the distance. That anchors what we call the zero point, and because I knew if we didn’t demonstrate technically that then you can measure relative distance. it was feasible, we would never be in a position to build the project. Without knowing that you could solve the tech - ... and beyond nical challenges, you wouldn’t begin construction of this You need to know how bright objects actually are, as op- billion-dollar project. The first mirror took seven years. posed to how bright they appear. Something can appear faint because it’s far away, or that might be the nature of the What we might see object. You have to be able to determine what the bright- If someone were on the moon and lit a candle, we’d see it. ness of an object is to calibrate its absolute distance. So we The GMT is sensitive enough to detect that. The power is use pulsating stars called Cepheid variables to do that. quite extraordinary. In terms of resolution, the example I The upper atmosphere of a Cepheid variable is moving like to give is, you look at the surface of a dime and you can in and out, which changes the star’s brightness, and the rate hold it up and see the detail and read the writing. With the at which it’s changing is directly related to how bright the GMT you can go 200 miles away and see that kind of detail. star is. That’s called a period luminosity relation, which was discovered by an astronomer named Henrietta Leavitt. She What we might find worked at the Harvard College Observatory in the early A real niche for the GMT will be the ability to study planets 1900s, and she discovered this relationship, which we’re outside of our solar system. Because of this high resolution now calling the Leavitt relation. She received very little rec- and sensitivity, it will be possible to measure masses and den- ognition for her work, but all of modern cosmology rests on sities, and so characterize the properties of planets that are that relationship. That is the pillar for our ability to measure as low-mass as Earth. Right now it’s possible to do that for distances. planets that are many times the mass of Earth, and certainly So we use these Cepheid variables, and when they become for the Jupiters and Saturns and Neptunes. too faint as they’re too far away, we use supernovae, these If there are nearby planets that have life in a form similar really bright explosions of stars at the end of their lifetime. to what we’re familiar with, we would be able to take spec- In that way we can chart the distance scale of the universe. tra of the atmospheres of those planets and actually look for the biological signatures, as opposed to chemical signatures Mirror, mirror in the atmospheres. The GMT is comprised of seven 8.4-meter mirrors, six in Since Galileo turned a telescope to the sky in 1609, ev - a circle and one in the center. The mirrors take four years ery time there’s been a jump in capabilities or that next apiece from the beginning of the casting; they have to be generation of telescopes, we’ve made discoveries, without cooled very slowly over a period of several months. Then exception. So it’s that possibility for discovery that’s really they’re taken out and the back sides and front sides are pol- exciting—what we can’t anticipate at all. ◆ ished. They have to be tested, so they move between a pol- ishing machine and a test tower. Each phase in that process You can help ensure UChicago astronomers’ continued access is about a year. One of the big decisions I made early on as to “big glass,” including the Giant Magellan Telescope, and chair of the board was to go ahead with the first mirror, the discoveries it makes possible. Visit campaign.uchicago even though we had only a small fraction of the funding, .edu/priorities/psd.

52 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 “If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about changing with time, and those are questions that fascinate me. We can make measurements and actually learn some- If someone were on thing about the universe. We can peer back in time; because it. We make our world light has a finite speed, as you look farther back in distance the moon anD LIt you’re also looking further back in time. It’s an incredible significant by the courage opportunity that you don’t have in many sciences. a canDLe, we’D see It. Measuring distances within our galaxy ... the gmt Is sensItIve of our questions and by the You look up in the sky with a telescope at the direction of the star. Then as Earth is going through its annual motion enough to Detect depth of our answers.” around the sun, if you look six months later from the opposite side of its orbit, you end up with a triangle with the di- that. —Carl Sagan, Cosmos ameter of Earth’s orbit as its base. Then it’s just high school geometry, ordinary Euclidean geometry; you can solve for the distance. That anchors what we call the zero point, and because I knew if we didn’t demonstrate technically that then you can measure relative distance. it was feasible, we would never be in a position to build the project. Without knowing that you could solve the tech - Carl Sagan, AB’54, SB’55, SM’56, PhD’60, cast a bright light into the ... and beyond nical challenges, you wouldn’t begin construction of this vast universe of knowledge. Our challenge is to carry forward that You need to know how bright objects actually are, as op- billion-dollar project. The first mirror took seven years. knowledge, to enhance it, and to build upon it. posed to how bright they appear. Something can appear faint because it’s far away, or that might be the nature of the What we might see With viS ion and CurioSity, we are preparing more students to object. You have to be able to determine what the bright- If someone were on the moon and lit a candle, we’d see it. ness of an object is to calibrate its absolute distance. So we The GMT is sensitive enough to detect that. The power is lead in an increasingly complex world. With graCe and Courage, use pulsating stars called Cepheid variables to do that. quite extraordinary. In terms of resolution, the example I we are creating an environment that will spur more insights and The upper atmosphere of a Cepheid variable is moving like to give is, you look at the surface of a dime and you can innovations, solutions and cures. With rigor and tena City, we are in and out, which changes the star’s brightness, and the rate hold it up and see the detail and read the writing. With the building more powerful connections to Chicago and cities around the at which it’s changing is directly related to how bright the GMT you can go 200 miles away and see that kind of detail. globe. With your Support, the University of Chicago Campaign: star is. That’s called a period luminosity relation, which was Inquiry and Impact will carry forward an extraordinary tradition. discovered by an astronomer named Henrietta Leavitt. She What we might find worked at the Harvard College Observatory in the early A real niche for the GMT will be the ability to study planets Photo courtesy NASA. 1900s, and she discovered this relationship, which we’re outside of our solar system. Because of this high resolution now calling the Leavitt relation. She received very little rec- and sensitivity, it will be possible to measure masses and den- ognition for her work, but all of modern cosmology rests on sities, and so characterize the properties of planets that are that relationship. That is the pillar for our ability to measure as low-mass as Earth. Right now it’s possible to do that for distances. planets that are many times the mass of Earth, and certainly Join the Campaign So we use these Cepheid variables, and when they become for the Jupiters and Saturns and Neptunes. too faint as they’re too far away, we use supernovae, these If there are nearby planets that have life in a form similar give today really bright explosions of stars at the end of their lifetime. to what we’re familiar with, we would be able to take spec- In that way we can chart the distance scale of the universe. tra of the atmospheres of those planets and actually look for campaign.uchicago.edu the biological signatures, as opposed to chemical signatures Mirror, mirror in the atmospheres. attend a di SCover u ChiCago e vent The GMT is comprised of seven 8.4-meter mirrors, six in Since Galileo turned a telescope to the sky in 1609, ev - neW yor K April 30 | london May 6 a circle and one in the center. The mirrors take four years ery time there’s been a jump in capabilities or that next apiece from the beginning of the casting; they have to be generation of telescopes, we’ve made discoveries, without cooled very slowly over a period of several months. Then exception. So it’s that possibility for discovery that’s really they’re taken out and the back sides and front sides are pol- exciting—what we can’t anticipate at all. ◆ ished. They have to be tested, so they move between a pol- ishing machine and a test tower. Each phase in that process You can help ensure UChicago astronomers’ continued access is about a year. One of the big decisions I made early on as to “big glass,” including the Giant Magellan Telescope, and chair of the board was to go ahead with the first mirror, the discoveries it makes possible. Visit campaign.uchicago even though we had only a small fraction of the funding, .edu/priorities/psd.

52 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 32 the university of chicago magazine | jan–feb 2014 UCH_SmartSTLA_v8.indd 55

antony gormley, after an idea by gabriel mitchell, infinite cube, 2014, mirrored glass with internal copper wire matrix of 1,000 hand- soldered omnidirectional led lights, smart museum of art, the university of chicago, gift of antony gormley and w. j. t. mitchell, 2014.63, courtesy of the artist. (for more on this work, see page 59.) photo by michael tropea. An exhibit at the Oriental Institute MuseumFor its pairs 40th modern anniversary, workers with the ancient tools of their trades.the Smart Museum offers inviting, unexpected avenues to approach art.

art# the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 55 2015 mar–apr | magazine chicago of university the EYE OF THE 2/27/15 6:53 PM BEHOLDERby lydialyle gibson , ------Hannah Hannah Peter Selz Peter , the art history graduate student who curated In 1993 the Shapiros commissioned a chemical Signed and dated 1914, the painting has been mired The search has taken Klemm to see art dealers in Absent any documents from the gallery, Klemm Klemm AM’49, PhD’54, who in 1991Shapiros sent that a letterthe work was real. assuring “Since the 1950s the KandinskyI of large number a miss-attribu seen have tionand [sic] outright fakes. ... I have never had any doubts,”wrote,he thatthis painting “isKandinfrom sky’s own hand.” Says Klemm: “He still stands by it.” analysisthatconfirmed was created work the between 1914 and 1928—“not really prime Kandinsky forgery Klemm Examining says. years,” stretcher interior the of the canvas, she found another clue to the painting’s date: a stamp from a German art supplies dealer who businesswentoutof in the 1920s. in doubt for decades. In 1982, through what dent, the painting was dropped from the registry of either. official reinstated Kandinsky wasn’t works. it but Afterward, it denounced, was never outright “It’s just in this purgatory,”and a half, she Klemm, says. a former Smart For curatorial the past intern, year has been on a hunt to fill the holes in its provenance— there’s no record of the painting until 1955, when it appeared for sale in the Unitedwhethergenuine.it’s States—and to find out Germany. She’s searched through the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian in Washington,DC. She spoke to gallerists in New York, where col lectors Donn and Dolores Shapiro bought the painting in 1955 (the Shapiro familyin 2012). The gallery them to went donated it sold who owner it to the Smart out of business in offi no the 1960s “There’s him. with and later vanishing died, records his lery’s gal cial record of its transaction,” Klemm says, “except a letter from Henry Kleemann to Donn Shapiro that just says, ‘I have this Kandinsky that you should take at.’ That’s look a it. And then the Kandinsky appears in his collection.” turned to the painting itself. She called in to lookexperts for traces of Kandinsky in the brushstrokes. Amongthemcuratorwas andarthistorian this microexhibit, describes as a kind of clerical acci

------mingqi Still Life with ruminates the ruminates , , Chinese prints about the First the about prints War Martha Ward Martha Objects and Voices have never . , Michiel, Simons’s , AM’75, the former director of the The City Composition everal workseveral in been exhibited at the Smart—new acquisi tions, new bequests, works newly emerged storage.from Ralph Ellison’s Bearden collage Thought provoking and deeply layered, the exhib Some microexhibits are straightforwardly interpre modern-day bloodshed that compelled her to include Otto Dix’s ruthlessly realist World War in her introductory art history course. is one, along with an 18th-century painting by Jean- Baptiste Regnault and a 2014 sculpture by AntonyGormley. Perhaps the most intriguing among the microexhibits of newly displayed works involves a painting attributed to Wassilyhued lines and abstract Kandinsky, shapes—a flow a be curve might that that vaguely with another mountain, a dark-resembles er—amid a field of blues, greens,yellows, and grays. It’stitled Russell Bowman Russell Milwaukee Art Museum, traces painter Mark Roth ko’s transformation from moody realist to simplified, emotive abstractionist—while contemplating his own evolving relationship with the artist’s work, which he first encountered as an undergraduate four decades ago.it gives a sense of arms open Leon wide, says That, offering multiple holdings. Smart’s the into avenues ard, was the intention. “There’s still an impression out there that when you go to a museum, you are ex pected of backgroundlot a haveto knowledge,or and that without it you aren’t equippedyou’re seeing,” she says. to“We’re trying appreciate to democra what tize that a little bit by showing the great variety of ways that art can be experienced and looked at and workedwith.” S AliceNeel’s Fruit and Flowers on a Draped Ledge sculptures. tive.Someartworksput inconversation with literature or music. Others are more personal, art they the weaving to them drew what discuss Donors in stories. life collected, and why they wanted to give it to the Smart. UChicago art historian ------(“Box in a a in (“Box , the exhibit , , running through Boîte-en-valise andering through the Smart Museum’s current exhibition, cura the if as almost seems it torial staff, faced with hav ing to choose from among the museum’s the 12,000 in items collection, decided to choose The everything. of bit little a result is a glorious profusion. Objects and Voices: A Collection of Stories , curator and associate director Anne LeonardAnne One exhibit was produced by fifth graders taking taking graders fifth by produced was exhibit One It isn’t only the artwork that is so diverse. The of academicof initiatives theat Smart. part in the museum’s programstaryschools.teaching forLedby artist South Candice Latimer, Side elemen studentsBeasleyfrom Academic CenterWash thein ington Park neighborhood composed written and ar tistic responses to pieces in the Smart’s collection: W June 21, consumes the whole museum did(as last fall’s Carved, Cast, Crumpled: anni 40th Smart’s the Sculpture celebrating in it All Ways preceded that Lloyd Frank a and vases Tiffany are There versary). Wright window, Japanese scroll architec period, paintings, romanticism engrav German the from ings tural fragments from medieval French monasteries, avant-garde Chinese photography, contemporary ab stractsculpture. 1968A Romare Bearden collage once owned by Ralph Ellison hangs in one gallery, while in another a Marcel Duchamp Valise”) unlatches to reveal miniature reproductions hisof works. a exploring each microexhibits, 17 of consists show different theme: literary narrativesish and in painting,American modernist Brit design, questions identityof for Asian artists in America, the emotional effect of nudity in art. The museum’s staff invited outside collaborators—all with their own relation ships to the Smart—to organize each exhibit, step ping aside to allow free rein to artists,former Smart Museumcurators, interns, UChicago faculty, art history alumni, and current students. Museum staff began planning the exhibition two years ago, says

56 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 , ------Hannah Hannah ◆ Peter Selz Peter

, 1914, oil on

composition , the art history graduate student who curated In 1993 the Shapiros commissioned a chemical Signed and dated 1914, the painting has been mired The search has taken Klemm to see art dealers in Absent any documents from the gallery, Klemm There’s also another, darker question she wants to darker she question also another, There’s been has painting the says, she meantime, the In Klemm’s microexhibit, which pairs the painting Klemm AM’49, PhD’54, who in 1991Shapiros sent that a letterthe work was real. assuring “Since the 1950s the KandinskyI of large number a miss-attribu seen have tionand [sic] outright fakes. ... I have never had any doubts,”wrote,he thatthis painting “isKandinfrom sky’s own hand.” Says Klemm: “He still stands by it.” analysisthatconfirmed was created work the between 1914 and 1928—“not really prime Kandinsky forgery Klemm Examining says. years,” stretcher interior the of the canvas, she found another clue to the painting’s date: a stamp from a German art supplies dealer who businesswentoutof in the 1920s. in doubt for decades. In 1982, through what dent, the painting was dropped from the registry of either. official reinstated Kandinsky wasn’t works. it but Afterward, it denounced, was never outright “It’s just in this purgatory,”and a half, she Klemm, says. a former Smart For curatorial the past intern, year has been on a hunt to fill the holes in its provenance— there’s no record of the painting until 1955, when it appeared for sale in the Unitedwhethergenuine.it’s States—and to find out Germany. She’s searched through the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian in Washington,DC. She spoke to gallerists in New York, where col lectors Donn and Dolores Shapiro bought the painting in 1955 (the Shapiro familyin 2012). The gallery them to went donated it sold who owner it to the Smart out of business in offi no the 1960s “There’s him. with and later vanishing died, records his lery’s gal cial record of its transaction,” Klemm says, “except a letter from Henry Kleemann to Donn Shapiro that just says, ‘I have this Kandinsky that you should take at.’ That’s look a it. And then the Kandinsky appears in his collection.” turned to the painting itself. She called in to lookexperts for traces of Kandinsky in the brushstrokes. Amongthemcuratorwas andarthistorian this microexhibit, describes as a kind of clerical acci that the signature in the bottom left corner of the can the of corner left bottom the in signature the that vas wasn’t added later. Chemical techniques are much more precise shenow, says, “light years” beyond what was available to of the Shapiros couple a within in date 1993, painting’s the and it place might to be possible years1914. of answer: “Whenever you have a modernist painting from1914 was,knowdon’tthatwhereit there’s we al concernaboutlooteda artworks,”ways says.Kanshe dinsky was on the Nazis’ “degeneratelabeled these art”works “filth”—almost list (Hitler all modern art was included), along with the Bauhaus in general,where Kandinsky was a member. “We need to know where it was during the ’30s and ’40s,” Klemm says. “But we don’t have any evidence for how Kleemann got his hands on it. And that’s really the linchpin.” a fascinating teaching tool. “We don’t usually think about paintings just losing their identity,” she says. “Or what it means to try to figure out if something is real or not. All my students find it really interesting, becauseturnsit the work into something that exists in paintingjusticonography a not world.the It’sor look to style. for at becomesIt this very object.” with some of the documents she’s dug up, asks a ques tion that also reverberatestime through prints and painted the nudes displays and silver spoons and of war cast-bronze sculptures: “What does it mean,” Klemm says, “to have these objects in a museum?” attributedto wassily kandinsky, Wedon’t usually think about paintings just losing their identity. canvas, smart museum of art, the university ofof chicago, dolores and gift donn shapiro in honor of jory shapiro, 2012.51.

------mingqi a Kan a not Still Life with ruminates the ruminates , , Chinese prints about the First the about prints War Martha Ward Martha Objects and Voices have never . , Michiel, Simons’s , AM’75, the former director of the The City Composition everal workseveral in been exhibited at the Smart—new acquisi tions, new bequests, works newly emerged storage.from Ralph Ellison’s Bearden collage Klemm is convinced the painting is authentic. Again Thought provoking and deeply layered, the exhib Some microexhibits are straightforwardly interpre sky—or, as she says, indicating that “it’s not dinsky”—but never anything direct and enoughdefinitiveto restore its place onthe official registry. She’s still looking. One next step is to commission another paint analysis. She’s particularly interested in proving in 1914 is a black hole. War was breaking out all over Europe, and Kandinsky left Munich, where he’d been taking Russia, and Switzerland to traveled and living, paintingssome withhim andleaving othersbehind here andthere. “His hand lists become mess,”a shesays. and again, she’s found evidence linking it to Kandin modern-day bloodshed that compelled her to include Otto Dix’s ruthlessly realist World War in her introductory art history course. is one, along with an 18th-century painting by Jean- Baptiste Regnault and a 2014 sculpture by AntonyGormley. Perhaps the most intriguing among the microexhibits of newly displayed works involves a painting attributed to Wassilyhued lines and abstract Kandinsky, shapes—a flow a be curve might that that vaguely with another mountain, a dark-resembles er—amid a field of blues, greens,yellows, and grays. It’stitled Russell Bowman Russell Milwaukee Art Museum, traces painter Mark Roth ko’s transformation from moody realist to simplified, emotive abstractionist—while contemplating his own evolving relationship with the artist’s work, which he first encountered as an undergraduate four decades ago.it gives a sense of arms open Leon wide, says That, offering multiple holdings. Smart’s the into avenues ard, was the intention. “There’s still an impression out there that when you go to a museum, you are ex pected of backgroundlot a haveto knowledge,or and that without it you aren’t equippedyou’re seeing,” she says. to“We’re trying appreciate to democra what tize that a little bit by showing the great variety of ways that art can be experienced and looked at and workedwith.” S AliceNeel’s Fruit and Flowers on a Draped Ledge sculptures. tive.Someartworksput inconversation with literature or music. Others are more personal, art they the weaving to them drew what discuss Donors in stories. life collected, and why they wanted to give it to the Smart. UChicago art historian ------(“Box in a a in (“Box , the exhibit , , running through Boîte-en-valise andering through the Smart Museum’s current exhibition, cura the if as almost seems it torial staff, faced with hav ing to choose from among the museum’s the 12,000 in items collection, decided to choose The everything. of bit little a result is a glorious profusion. Objects and Voices: A Collection of Stories , curator and associate director Anne LeonardAnne One exhibit was produced by fifth graders taking taking graders fifth by produced was exhibit One It isn’t only the artwork that is so diverse. The Klemm searched through book after book on Kan on book after book through searched Klemm of academicof initiatives theat Smart. part in the museum’s programstaryschools.teaching forLedby artist South Candice Latimer, Side elemen studentsBeasleyfrom Academic CenterWash thein ington Park neighborhood composed written and ar tistic responses to pieces in the Smart’s collection: W June 21, consumes the whole museum did(as last fall’s Carved, Cast, Crumpled: anni 40th Smart’s the Sculpture celebrating in it All Ways preceded that Lloyd Frank a and vases Tiffany are There versary). Wright window, Japanese scroll architec period, paintings, romanticism engrav German the from ings tural fragments from medieval French monasteries, avant-garde Chinese photography, contemporary ab stractsculpture. 1968A Romare Bearden collage once owned by Ralph Ellison hangs in one gallery, while in another a Marcel Duchamp Valise”) unlatches to reveal miniature reproductions hisof works. a exploring each microexhibits, 17 of consists show different theme: literary narrativesish and in painting,American modernist Brit design, questions identityof for Asian artists in America, the emotional effect of nudity in art. The museum’s staff invited outside collaborators—all with their own relation ships to the Smart—to organize each exhibit, step ping aside to allow free rein to artists,former Smart Museumcurators, interns, UChicago faculty, art history alumni, and current students. Museum staff began planning the exhibition two years ago, says dinsky,lookingpainting,theanymention of for even or a photograph that might show it in the background. There was nothing. She analyzed the work of all his students to see if one of them might have painted it in stead.studiedSheNo. thehandwritten listshispaint of ings that Kandinsky, his pupil and mistress Gabriele Münter, and his wife Nina Andreevskaya kept. “The paintingsthatcameMünter’s from andhis wife’scollec tions have the best provenance,”theytrackkeptthem, of and theyusually Klemmdonated them says, “because in large blocks to museums.” But the period beginning

56 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 57 , ,

form #2 form 1785, oil on canvas, smart museum of art, the university of chicago, purchase, the paul and miriam kirkley acquisitions, for fund 2013.31. josephgoto, opening reception reception opening by photography event wintermantle. joel regnault, jean-baptiste socrates tearing away alcibiades from the embrace of sensuality 1954, welded stainless steel on wooden base, smart museum of art, the university of chicago, gift of stanley 2012.21. freehling, Below:Inhis microexhibit, “Literary Narratives inPainting,” Frederick de Armas, the Andrew W. Comparative and Literature, Spanish Humanities, the in Professor Service Distinguished Mellon “ladder Plato’s to reference a gesture upward Literature, studies Socrates’s Jean-Baptiste in sees Regnault’s Armas De image arms. of Socrates tearing courtesan’s his protégé from a of love.” Right: In “Between Worlds,”Two Kris Ercums, AM’02, PhD’14, Asian art curator at the UniversityKansas’sof Spencer MuseumArt, of explores native-born andémigré Asian American artists. Hawaiian-born sculptor Joseph Goto, a US Army weldersources.” mythological during Asian and WorldWestern War mixed freely II, “that writes, “created Ercums figures,” totemic

58 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 , 1968, ink, graphite, gouache, and paper collage on board mounted on panel. promised bequest of amy gold and brett gorvy. romarebearden, stroll the , in

Infinite Cube Infinite Above: Once owned by writer Ralph Ellison, Romare Bearden’s 1968 collage is part of “Times and Places that Become Us,” the microexhibit curated by Kenneth Warren, Fairfax M. DistinguishedCone Service Professor in English and in to the reveals which Center vision plastic of for curve “a created the had Bearden Study that wrote Ellison of Culture. Race,and Politics, us something of the mysterious complexity of those who dwell in our urban slums.” Warren’s explores, part,in display “thesocial he predicament andbetween writes, encounter agonistic artisticimperatives.” Belowpage onrightSculptor54): (and Antony Gormley’s the “Gift of Art” microexhibit, realizes an idea by his friend, artist Gabriel Mitchell, who struggled who Mitchell, Gabriel artist friend, his by idea an realizes microexhibit, Art” of “Gift the Mitchell, accompanyingT. schizophreniawithanJ.2012. Invideo, Mitchell’s inW. died and father, the describes History, Art and English of Professor Service Distinguished Donnelley Gaylord the mesmeric piece as “a machine for thinking about the infinity of thought itself.” The tunnels of lightdisappearing into space, Gormley says, offer “illusions of pathways.”

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 59

UCH_SmartSTLA_v8.indd 59 2/27/15 6:56 PM economics mega

dataChicago Booth economist Matthew Gentzkow sifts insights about the media from massive amounts of digital information. by jason kelly photography by dr ew r eynolds

conomist Matthew Gentzkow’s award- in 2004, merely steered him toward an opportune intersec- winning work could not have been done 20 tion of this vast information and his own interests. “Most years ago. His analysis of media bias and things, if they’re super interesting, either someone’s an- the perceived ideological echo chamber swered them already,” Gentzkow says, “or if they haven’t, of online news, to name two of his more there’s a reason they haven’t.” prominent research topics, required what His curiosity about media—from journalism to advertis- Chicago Booth colleague Austan Gools- ing, in print, on television, and online—provided potential bee called the “unfathomable data sets” research topics. Increasing data accessibility paved a broad that Gentzkow gathered. new avenue to pursue them. “I’ve been able to look at some His generation of economists is the first questions that people have thought about for a long time and to have access to such a wealth of media maybe make more progress on them,” Gentzkow says, “be- information, both from increasingly digitized historical cause now the scale at which you can do things is much bigger.” records and real-time contemporary data on what people Still. Try searching for relics of his postundergraduate eread, watch, think, and buy. Few of his peers have put the year with a Maine theater company and it’s clear that the raw material to more productive use. mere existence of the internet doesn’t necessarily yield in- The 2014 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, pre - formation conducive to fruitful research. sented annually to the top American economist under age Digital archaeological digging turns up nothing from 40, Gentzkow demurs. To hear him tell it, his graduate those days, only a fragment from his college directorial ca- school experience at Harvard, where he completed his PhD reer. A 1997 review in the Theater Mirror—“New England’s

60 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015

LIVE Theater Guide”—of the Gentzkow-directed Goose or Gentzkow, the Richard O. Ryan Professor of Eco- and Tomtom at the Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theatre nomics and a Neubauer Family Fellow, the creative commends him as an “excellent referee” for a strong cast aspect of economics refers more to the process than and script. That’s about it—and probably the right amount. f the outcome. It’s not about the answers produced, Before and since his theatrical dabbling, Gentzkow has but the questions asked. Graduate school taught him that. been an economist at his core. He arrived at Harvard as an Classwork offers a necessary foundation to understand the undergrad with a vague interest in social science, particu- discipline, but “the really hard skill is, how do you identify larly as it applied to the problems of poverty and develop- good research questions?” ment. Economics, he discovered, offered a means to study He has a formula of sorts. The subject has to be personally a wide range of questions relevant to those issues while ap- interesting—“you’re going to spend most of your life thinking plying his interest in mathematics. about it”—important to the field, and with the potential for In retrospect Gentzkow’s professional path seemed set meaningful progress. American media offered all of that. with that choice of concentration. Only his extracurricular For 150 years, Gentzkow notes, newspaper, radio, and excursions into theater varied his course. And as he reflects television companies have conducted private market stud- on that diversion from nearly two decades removed, he finds ies because of the value to advertisers of detailed audience that theater and research really involve overlapping synapses. information. “There’s a tremendous amount of measure - “They’re both entrepreneurial. You’re making them up as ment that this industry had done,” he says, “not for research you go along.” Economics, like theater, is not a programmat- reasons but for commercial reasons.” ic application of learned skills, he says, but a constant act of The data exists and technology has made it increasingly innovation, whether the framework is a script or a data set. available to researchers. But what to do with it? One ques - Announcing Gentzkow’s Clark Medal last year, the cita- tion among many that occurred to Gentzkow and Jesse tion from the American Economic Association sounded not Shapiro, a former Chicago Booth colleague and frequent col- unlike a review, complete with blurbs worthy of being ex- laborator, involved the impact of the internet on how people claimed from a theater marquee: “Great data hustle!” “Fron- got their news. Was it true that new media had splintered the tier methods!” “Creative without sacrificing quality!” long-standing edifice of “mainstream” reporting and ampli- The Clark Medal also brings Nobel buzz. Past UChica- fied more polarized views, drawing audiences away from go winners include eventual laureates Milton Friedman, traditional outlets and driving Americans apart politically? AM’33; Gary Becker, AM’53, PhD’55; and James Heck- “We were really playing directly off of a hypothesis that man, and there’s more than just an anecdotal correlation. A other people had put out there,” Gentzkow says, specifically 2009 Economics Bulletin study presented “the first statisti- that the availability of more information sources led people cal evidence that John Bates Clark medalists and individu- to segregate their media consumption into ideological camps. als affiliated with the University of Chicago have a higher Liberals watched MSNBC, conservatives Fox News, and chance of winning the Prize.” they lived in distinct and strident online media universes, Gentzkow prefers not to think about that. In an inter- tuning out anything contradictory. This sorting, the argu - view with Harvard’s Neiman Foundation, he noted the ment goes, creates an “echo chamber” with a potentially uneasy idea of winning the Clark Medal, by definition at a pernicious effect on civic life. Cass Sunstein, a former Law young age, and then not producing work worthy of the No- bel. Leaning back on the couch in his Harper Center office, feet up on a coffee table, he seems most comfortable in the weeds of his research, which includes the theory of persua- You wake up in sion, consumer brand preferences, and health care spending. Originally growing out of the brand studies, the health the morning and care spending work has led him “a little distant from what I’ve done in the past,” Gentzkow says, but in a way that You have to ask hews to his sense of innovative inquiry. His celebrated research on the impact of emerging media—including how the introduction of television affected test scores and vot- Yourself, “what ing habits, and the internet’s effect on political divisions— likewise came from a thought process he considers similar am i going to trY to a playwright’s. “You wake up in the morning and you have to ask yourself, ‘What am I going to try and create?’” and create?”

62 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 LIVE Theater Guide”—of the Gentzkow-directed Goose or Gentzkow, the Richard O. Ryan Professor of Eco- School professor now at Harvard, wrote about the subject that showed the highest rates of political self-segregation and Tomtom at the Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theatre nomics and a Neubauer Family Fellow, the creative in Republic.com (Princeton University Press, 2001). Online included the workplace, family relationships, and the most commends him as an “excellent referee” for a strong cast aspect of economics refers more to the process than echo chambers, he argued, limited the exposure to conflict- by a significant amount, networks of trusted friends. The and script. That’s about it—and probably the right amount. f the outcome. It’s not about the answers produced, ing points of view that are “central to democracy itself.” General Social Survey, conducted every two years by Before and since his theatrical dabbling, Gentzkow has but the questions asked. Graduate school taught him that. Survey evidence that Gentzkow and Shapiro had seen NORC at the University of Chicago, provided the infor- been an economist at his core. He arrived at Harvard as an Classwork offers a necessary foundation to understand the indicated that the perceived effect did not exist. When they mation about personal interactions in Gentzkow’s study, undergrad with a vague interest in social science, particu- discipline, but “the really hard skill is, how do you identify mentioned those surveys, though, skeptics pointed out that drawn from respondents answers to questions about the larly as it applied to the problems of poverty and develop- good research questions?” the results were based on self-reporting, suggesting that the political leanings of those in their social orbits. ment. Economics, he discovered, offered a means to study He has a formula of sorts. The subject has to be personally subjects exaggerated or lied about their habits. One potential interpretive filter that the echo chamber a wide range of questions relevant to those issues while ap- interesting—“you’re going to spend most of your life thinking Online data made more precise research possible. In ad- paper did not address was social media. When Gentzkow plying his interest in mathematics. about it”—important to the field, and with the potential for dition to sheer volume, digital information offers another and Shapiro published their research in 2010, Facebook and In retrospect Gentzkow’s professional path seemed set meaningful progress. American media offered all of that. advantage to the study of media consumption: it reduces Twitter didn’t have the cultural traction they do now. with that choice of concentration. Only his extracurricular For 150 years, Gentzkow notes, newspaper, radio, and the inaccuracies that self-reported surveys permit. Internet He hasn’t studied the subject himself, but several research- excursions into theater varied his course. And as he reflects television companies have conducted private market stud- browsing leaves a data trail that cancels out the effect of mis- ers reported their results at a Becker Friedman Institute on that diversion from nearly two decades removed, he finds ies because of the value to advertisers of detailed audience leading answers that could skew results, and that’s where panel last spring. Gentzkow was left with the impression that theater and research really involve overlapping synapses. information. “There’s a tremendous amount of measure - Gentzkow and Shapiro went searching for empirical answers. that social media is highly polarized but a minor part of the “They’re both entrepreneurial. You’re making them up as ment that this industry had done,” he says, “not for research They found that those self-reported surveys were actu- bigger picture. “Most of the political stuff that’s consumed you go along.” Economics, like theater, is not a programmat- reasons but for commercial reasons.” ally pretty accurate. Increased media segregation was not through social media is opinion, not news stories,” he notes, ic application of learned skills, he says, but a constant act of The data exists and technology has made it increasingly happening. If anything, Gentzkow says, the trend is drift- “and the opinion that gets passed around by conservatives is innovation, whether the framework is a script or a data set. available to researchers. But what to do with it? One ques - ing in the other direction, although he emphasizes the dif- very different from opinion that’s passed around by liberals, Announcing Gentzkow’s Clark Medal last year, the cita- tion among many that occurred to Gentzkow and Jesse ficulty of making comparisons across years. but that’s still a very small share of a broad diet.” tion from the American Economic Association sounded not Shapiro, a former Chicago Booth colleague and frequent col- They did find more partisan segregation in online news Gentzkow has a simple explanation for the persistence of unlike a review, complete with blurbs worthy of being ex- laborator, involved the impact of the internet on how people readership than among television viewers or readers of local traditional outlets atop the media food chain: it’s expensive claimed from a theater marquee: “Great data hustle!” “Fron- got their news. Was it true that new media had splintered the papers, but not as much as in national newspapers. The New to produce news and few companies have the resources to tier methods!” “Creative without sacrificing quality!” long-standing edifice of “mainstream” reporting and ampli- York Times, the study shows, has a significantly more liberal reach an audience wide enough to support firsthand report- The Clark Medal also brings Nobel buzz. Past UChica- fied more polarized views, drawing audiences away from readership than USA Today or the Wall Street Journal. Over- ing. Technology has transformed the methods of delivery, go winners include eventual laureates Milton Friedman, traditional outlets and driving Americans apart politically? all the data did not support the idea that the internet created but media economics dating back at least to the 19th century AM’33; Gary Becker, AM’53, PhD’55; and James Heck- “We were really playing directly off of a hypothesis that the echo chambers that have been a common cause for con - remains a barrier to entry. man, and there’s more than just an anecdotal correlation. A other people had put out there,” Gentzkow says, specifically cern in both academic studies and popular commentary. “One of the big underlying insights for me from that echo 2009 Economics Bulletin study presented “the first statisti- that the availability of more information sources led people Partisan sites accounted for only a small proportion of chambers paper is the internet actually isn’t very different from cal evidence that John Bates Clark medalists and individu- to segregate their media consumption into ideological camps. online readership, which by and large is “concentrated in traditional media,” Gentzkow says. Because sites with only als affiliated with the University of Chicago have a higher Liberals watched MSNBC, conservatives Fox News, and a small number of relatively centrist sites.” And readers of niche appeal typically cannot afford to cover the news, major chance of winning the Prize.” they lived in distinct and strident online media universes, online outlets on the ideological poles were more promiscu- outlets remain most people’s predominant source of informa- Gentzkow prefers not to think about that. In an inter- tuning out anything contradictory. This sorting, the argu - ous browsers. “Visitors of extreme conservative sites such as tion. “Writing the Buddhist vegetarian perspective on the Iraq view with Harvard’s Neiman Foundation, he noted the ment goes, creates an “echo chamber” with a potentially rushlimbaugh.com and glennbeck.com are more likely than war, and the Buddhist vegetarian perspective on what’s hap- uneasy idea of winning the Clark Medal, by definition at a pernicious effect on civic life. Cass Sunstein, a former Law a typical online news reader to have visited nytimes.com,” pening in Ukraine, and sending reporters over there to write young age, and then not producing work worthy of the No- the study reported. “Visitors of extreme liberal sites such that, that would be a lot of cost for a very small audience.” bel. Leaning back on the couch in his Harper Center office, as thinkprogress.org and moveon.org are more likely than feet up on a coffee table, he seems most comfortable in the a typical online news reader to have visited foxnews.com.” weeds of his research, which includes the theory of persua- You wake up in Although evidence shows most people gravitate to rela- elevision has always attracted mass audiences, al- sion, consumer brand preferences, and health care spending. tively few common sources, the real-life political conflicts though it too has now grown and fragmented into a Originally growing out of the brand studies, the health the morning and that have given rise to the internet echo chamber hypothesis dizzying array of options, its established business care spending work has led him “a little distant from what do exist. Gentzkow refuted online fragmentation as a poten- t practices suffering from internet-driven pressure. I’ve done in the past,” Gentzkow says, but in a way that You have to ask tial cause, but his paper raised new questions that he seems Not so long ago, though, TV was new media, and the era hews to his sense of innovative inquiry. His celebrated re- to relish asking. “Is it that people are interpreting what they of its piecemeal introduction in the United States offered search on the impact of emerging media—including how see differently? Is it that even though they’re seeing similar Gentzkow a foothold on complicated research questions. the introduction of television affected test scores and vot- Yourself, “what stuff, they’re paying attention differently to it? Is it that ev- Disentangling viewing habits from other personal circum- ing habits, and the internet’s effect on political divisions— erybody’s views are fixed and [their partisan response] de- stances makes studying the effect of television on, say, student likewise came from a thought process he considers similar am i going to trY pends on who they talk to and who their friends are?” test scores tricky at best. “Because kids who watch six hours of to a playwright’s. “You wake up in the morning and you Gentzkow’s data hints that the answers to those ques- TV are different in all kinds of ways,” Gentzkow says. “You have to ask yourself, ‘What am I going to try and create?’” and create?” tions could well be yes. More than any form of media, areas can bet that their parents have different levels of education,

62 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 63 you can bet that they have different levels of income, you can ing or reviewing homework with a parent. In fact, he says, bet that the environment they are living in is different.” for many kids “TV could be relatively more rich educational- One point in time offered insight into the effect of in- ly” than their other options. He notes that many people view creased television viewing that could be distinguished, to television’s impact through the lens of what their own family some degree, from those other factors: the introduction of might do instead: visiting museums, for example. Children TV into American homes. The process did not follow an ob- who are not exposed to those options might otherwise play vious geographic pattern, creating randomness conducive with friends or toys, activities that provide less intellectual to research. Although major markets like New York and Los stimulation than they could find on TV. Angeles were predictably at the forefront, because of the The importance of gauging television’s impact in the regulatory system “there was a lot of variation mixed in that context of what it replaces really registered for Gentzkow was pretty random,” Gentzkow says. “That seemed like a in a 2006 paper on voting patterns. There was a sense in good kind of natural experiment to look at the effect of TV.” the early days of the medium that TV might increase politi- There’s an assumed negative correlation between the cal participation. Its efficiency in delivering information, amount of television children watch and their results on many thought, would reach more people and translate to standardized tests: more TV, it appears, equals lower higher turnout at the polls. The opposite happened. Espe- scores. But like the perceived ideological segregation of cially in local elections, he found, lower turnout could be news sources, that connection turned out to be false, ac - attributed to television’s introduction. cording to Gentzkow’s analysis in a 20 08 paper coauthored What did it displace in people’s media diet? Newspapers or with Shapiro—with whom Gentzkow has said his Clark radio with more local coverage. “You’re switching from read- Medal should be shared. “What we found was, one, there’s ing your local Santa Fe newspaper … to national NBC pro- no effect that television reduced the kids’ test scores, and gramming,” Gentzkow says. “So a lot of the effects on voting two, there’s some evidence that it actually had a positive seem to relate to what it’s crowding out.” effect, especially for more disadvantaged kids.” Those Beyond the nature of the information, television also whose parents did not speak English, for example, showed altered the American entertainment universe and people benefits from the exposure to the language. started “spending a lot more time watching I Love Lucy.” At issue, Gentzkow argues, is not whether watching tele- Time devoted to such expanding entertainment options, he vision itself is a positive or negative, but what children might notes, might have previously been spent in a more thorough be doing otherwise. The impression he gets is that people reading of the local newspaper. perceive the alternatives to be mentally enriching, like read- His findings present a mixed media message. Television might not have been the educational bane for children it has been thought to be, but it also wasn’t a path to increased civic engagement. Likewise with the internet, the gate- it’s as if two way to instantaneous information from anywhere in the world—and also cat videos. competing forces “I think it’s pretty hard to argue that it’s not an improve- ment,” Gentzkow says of the access the internet offers to a diverse and global array of sources. “So you might think are “balancing therefore everyone must be much more informed now than they were before. Well, it depends.” out,” changing the As evolving media has increased the flow of information and entertainment, and improved the means of education waY in which people and distraction, studies about how informed the public is have held relatively steady over time. Technology makes consume news and access to everything easier, Gentzkow says, but it’s as if two competing forces are “balancing out,” changing the way in which people consume news and find amusement, find amusement, but but not necessarily for better or worse. The Economist, in fact, found his body of work hearten- not necessarilY for ing. The theme running through Gentzkow’s research, the magazine said, “reinforces the simple but reassuring point better or worse. that what readers want most is to be informed.” ◆

64 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 Notes and Releases, 68 ...... Alumni News, 70 ...... Advanced Degrees, 89 ...... Deaths, 92 ...... Classifieds, 95 peer review

Astrophotographer and astronomical computer Mary Ross Calvert operates the Kenwood 12-inch refractor telescope at UChicago’s Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin in 1926.

“A lot of women before me—it was their e orts that allowed a younger generation to succeed,” says Wendy Freedman, University Professor of astronomy and astrophysics. For more, see page 50. uchicago photographic archive, apf6-01280, university of chicago library

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 65 alumni ESSaY

One winter morning, I made the mistake of trusting the weather report and ignoring heavy skies. Snow The urban wild wasn’t predicted until evening, so Symmes and I biked north up the lake- By Zachary cannon, a M’99 front path to the Children’s Museum on Navy Pier while Mason was at kindergarten. We parked in the garage and entered the protected world of the museum. When we emerged, four to five inches of snow had fallen. Because we had to pick up Mason, slow wasn’t an option. To maintain adequate traction, I alternated between riding on t’s January 1, 2009. Mason—my stumbled onto the wild while the rest I timed my runs to utilize his every the bike path proper and its crushed- seven-year-old early riser—and of the city slept. sleeping moment to read, write, or limestone border. At one point, the I are both up before dawn. It’s grade papers. Even on the coldest of lip of the path caught my wheel and I too cold and icy to think he can Chicago’s winter days, the stroller slid across snow and ice. As I came to ride his bike, but I want to find hen my wife Judy and I moved provided a sense of freedom and a stop, I turned to check on Symmes. a way to stick to my New Year’s from the Bay Area to Chicago shared adventure. When our daugh- The trailer remained upright and her- tradition. for graduate school in 1997, I ter Symmes was born, the adventures metically sealed from the elements. “Want to go on a run?” I ask. W figured we were trading ac- continued with a sun-bleached but oth- “Are you all right?” I asked. “Huh?” cess to nature for a great situation in erwise fully functional double jogger. “Yeah,” she casually replied. “Are “You can ride in the jogger,” I every other way. For the most part, I Twice we discovered stray turtles you all right?” elaborate. “If we hurry, maybe we put away my mountain bike, saved my crossing the grassy fields of Jackson In the end we were only a few min- can catch the first sunrise of the year.” hiking boots for summer adventures, and Washington Parks. Concerned utes late and had enjoyed 10 miles of iMason’s game, so he bundles up and and concentrated on school. We built about an inopportune encounter be- solitude and virgin snow. We had I load him in the sleeping bag that’s our vacations around hiking and back- tween shell and lawn mower, we care- planned on a museum outing but stum- designed for our baby jogger—and a packing, but the rest of our free time fully relocated them to the encircling bled onto a moment where, despite liv- child about half his size. I click the belt focused on the food, plays, and mix of lagoons. The first time, water trapped ing in a modern metropolis, all of the and we’re off. people that our urban existence offered. in the turtle’s shell spilled all over my buildings and people dissolved and We follow the Midway, cut south For the first couple of years, this seemed feet; the second time, I drained the we found ourselves communing with of the Museum of Science and In - enough. However, once I completed my turtle before letting the kids carry nature. dustry, and rattle through Bobolink course work and began to live a hermit’s it to the lagoon. For weeks at a time, I had become more attuned to the Meadow’s frozen dirt path and Jack- existence preparing for oral exams, one or two great blue herons inhabited of wild dogs: generally, they moved The coldest days were marked by an wild than during my days exploring son Park’s tundra of soccer fields. Fi- things started to change. one park or the other, gracing our runs east to west along the Midway, some increasing sense of solitude. Despite California. There, spectacular, char- nally we cut under Lake Shore Drive First, we adopted Drew, a previ - with their lazy, loping flight. Circling days cutting through the Laboratory the popularity of Chicago’s lakefront ismatic nature was close enough that to 63rd Street Beach. We brave the ously abused husky mix who grew Washington Park on another occasion, Schools, generally avoiding the quads. path, below 10 degrees we practically I limited careful observation to those wind and the surf, and run to the end into an unpredictable, anxious, ag- we saw a beautiful red-combed rooster Winter only heightened my con- had Lake Michigan to ourselves. But we times when I was actively “in nature.” of the pier. The New Year’s sun has gressive dog with an insatiable appe - on a dab of an island. I came to under- nection to the climate. Lakefront were never alone. Over time, I came to In Chicago, I awakened to the pres- just broken the horizon, imbuing Lake tite for running. I dedicated myself to stand the nightly migrations of a pack rides necessarily became shorter, feel an intense kinship with … the ducks. ence of nature in my mundane, every- Michigan with a deep golden hue. exhausting Drew with the hope that I and a loop through Northerly Island No matter how blustery it got, the ducks day existence. Even in a life that seems I’m mesmerized by the view. Ma- could leave the house without getting (formerly Meigs Field) marked my reveled in the joy of their avian version designed to buffer me against any pure son? He’s mesmerized by the icicles. angry calls from the neighbors about We stumbled onto a winter turnaround point. Looping of body surfing. Rather than seek shel- interaction with it, nature finds a way The continuous splash of the waves his howling in our three-story walk- through the prairie with the morn- ter, clusters of 10 to 20 of the birds would in. It may not be pristine. It doesn’t against the pier has reduplicated Chi- up. Long runs through Jackson Park moment where, despite ing sun—and wind—coming off Lake position themselves in the most tumul- qualify as wilderness. But once I be- cago’s skyline in icy miniature, icicles and Washington Park became part living in a modern Michigan gave a sense of beauty to tuous spots on the water, swimming out came attuned to it, it was everywhere. hanging in a strange array from the of our everyday life. Drew’s anxiety the suffering. In December 2006, and riding the swells until a gust brought The urban wild. ◆ railing. Mason insists that we break caused me to forge a deep connection metropolis, all of the teekay teekay credit photo credit photo the park gained another dimension: a wave that totally submerged their pod off two of the biggest. Full extraction to these beautiful but decaying urban buildings and people a coyote. Most mornings, I just saw and dragged them toward the shore. Zachary Cannon, AM’99, teaches proves impossible, but we salvage a parks. Drew chased geese, ate their (and dodged) rabbit corpses, but if I Then they swam out and did it again. eighth-grade English at the Bosque couple of two-foot stalactites, each turds, and swam in the fetid lagoons. dissolved and we found got out early enough, I sometimes saw The only motivation for their behavior School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, four or five inches in diameter. They When Mason was born, I bought ourselves communing the coyote herself. (It became evident seemed to be play. Despite the single- and continues to explore nature big survive intact on our back steps for a baby jogger and used my runs to she was a she when pups appeared the digit temperatures, the ducks didn’t seek and small with Judy, Mason, Symmes, 2015 jean2015 jean tuttle tuttle c/o theispot.com c/o theispot.com photo creditphoto credit teekay teekay weeks, reminding us of when we lure him into naps. As he grew older, with nature. © © next summer.) safety or shelter: they sought adventure. and Drew’s successor, Emma.

6466 the university university of chicago of chicago magazine magazine |sept–oct | mar–apr 2011 2015 theuniversity university of of chicago chicago magazine magazine | |sept–oct mar–apr 20152011 6567

UCH_Alumni Essay_Cannon_v2.indd 50 2/26/15 11:50 AM UCH_Alumni Essay_Cannon_v2.indd 51 2/26/15 11:51 AM One winter morning, I made the mistake of trusting the weather report and ignoring heavy skies. Snow wasn’t predicted until evening, so Symmes and I biked north up the lakefront path to the Children’s Museum on Navy Pier while Mason was at kindergarten. We parked in the garage and entered the protected world of the museum. When we emerged, four to five inches of snow had fallen. Because we had to pick up Mason, slow wasn’t an option. To maintain adequate traction, I alternated between riding on the bike path proper and its crushed- limestone border. At one point, the lip of the path caught my wheel and I slid across snow and ice. As I came to a stop, I turned to check on Symmes. The trailer remained upright and hermetically sealed from the elements. “Are you all right?” I asked. “Yeah,” she casually replied. “Are you all right?” In the end we were only a few minutes late and had enjoyed 10 miles of solitude and virgin snow. We had planned on a museum outing but stumbled onto a moment where, despite living in a modern metropolis, all of the buildings and people dissolved and we found ourselves communing with nature. I had become more attuned to the of wild dogs: generally, they moved The coldest days were marked by an wild than during my days exploring east to west along the Midway, some increasing sense of solitude. Despite California. There, spectacular, char- days cutting through the Laboratory the popularity of Chicago’s lakefront ismatic nature was close enough that Schools, generally avoiding the quads. path, below 10 degrees we practically I limited careful observation to those Winter only heightened my con- had Lake Michigan to ourselves. But we times when I was actively “in nature.” nection to the climate. Lakefront were never alone. Over time, I came to In Chicago, I awakened to the pres- rides necessarily became shorter, feel an intense kinship with … the ducks. ence of nature in my mundane, every- and a loop through Northerly Island No matter how blustery it got, the ducks day existence. Even in a life that seems (formerly Meigs Field) marked my reveled in the joy of their avian version designed to buffer me against any pure winter turnaround point. Looping of body surfing. Rather than seek shel- interaction with it, nature finds a way through the prairie with the morn- ter, clusters of 10 to 20 of the birds would in. It may not be pristine. It doesn’t ing sun—and wind—coming off Lake position themselves in the most tumul- qualify as wilderness. But once I be- Michigan gave a sense of beauty to tuous spots on the water, swimming out came attuned to it, it was everywhere. the suffering. In December 2006, and riding the swells until a gust brought The urban wild. ◆ photo credit teekay credit photo the park gained another dimension: a wave that totally submerged their pod a coyote. Most mornings, I just saw and dragged them toward the shore. Zachary Cannon, AM’99, teaches (and dodged) rabbit corpses, but if I Then they swam out and did it again. eighth-grade English at the Bosque got out early enough, I sometimes saw The only motivation for their behavior School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the coyote herself. (It became evident seemed to be play. Despite the single- and continues to explore nature big she was a she when pups appeared the digit temperatures, the ducks didn’t seek and small with Judy, Mason, Symmes, 2015 jean tuttle c/o theispot.com photo credit teekay © next summer.) safety or shelter: they sought adventure. and Drew’s successor, Emma.

theuniversity university of of chicago chicago magazine magazine | |sept–oct mar–apr 20152011 6567

UCH_Alumni Essay_Cannon_v2.indd 51 2/26/15 11:51 AM NOTES

UNDER-30 ACHIEVERS Dan Kimerling, AB’08, AM’08, and Kai Wright, AB’07, have been named to Forbes’s annual “30 Under 30” lists. Kimerling was featured on the “Enterprise Technology” list as the cofounder of Standard Treasury, a start-up that develops standard application programming interfaces to help businesses facilitate fi nancial transac- tions. Wright was recognized on the “Music” list for his work as head of public relations and communications for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ cable TV network, Revolt. UNDERGROUND PHOTOGRAPHY LIBERAL ARTS LEADER A new exhibition installed in a major New York City subway station features David A. Reingold, LAB’86, AM’92, eight large-scale photographs of the subway and its riders taken by Danny PhD’96, has been appointed the Jus- Lyon, AB’63. The exhibition, Underground: 1966, is the fi rst time these photography by danny lyon, danny lyon/magnum studios, dektol.wordpress.com (top); wikimedia commons (bottom) commons wikimedia (top); dektol.wordpress.com studios, lyon/magnum danny lyon, danny by photography tin S. Morrill Dean of the College of images have been displayed publicly. Widely known for his photographs of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, ef- the civil rights movement in the South and motorcycle gangs in Chicago, fective March 1. In his new position, Lyon has been the subject of exhibits at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, he is focusing on strengthening arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. humanities, and social sciences on campus and in the community. Previ- ously, Reingold was a professor and not forgotten his UChicago roots— He will be just the 15th president in executive associate dean at Indiana he hosts a large annual scavenger the liberal arts college’s 221-year his- University’s School of Public and En- hunt for his fans inspired by the cam- tory. Rose is currently a professor at vironmental Affairs. pus tradition. the Harvard Business School, where he teaches management practice and FAN FAVORITE MODERN THEOLOGY leadership. Previously he was vice Dmitri Tippens Krushnic, AB’97, Lisa Sowle Cahill, AM’73, PhD’76, chairman and chief operating offi cer at better known as Misha Collins, has is the recipient of Barry University’s JP Morgan. “Clayton Rose has a pow- won the 2015 People’s Choice Award 2015 Yves Congar Award for Theo- erful commitment to the liberal arts for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Ac- logical Excellence, which recognizes and to the value of that kind of educator. Since 2008, he has played contemporary theologians who place tion, no matter what a person goes on to the angel Castiel on the a special emphasis on meeting the chal- do,” said former University president CW drama Super- lenges of modern life. Cahill, the J. Hanna Gray. natural. Col- Donald Monan, SJ, Professor of The- lins has ology at Boston College, is a nationally PREHISTORIC PIONEER “I WAS BORN recognized ethicist whose work focus- In March paleobotanist Ellen Cur- es on the complexity of modern moral rano, SB’03, received a $450,000 IN CHICAGO ...” issues. She has written several books Faculty Early Career Development The Paul Bu erfi eld Blues and is the past president of both the Program Award from the National Band will be inducted into the Catholic Theological Society of Science Foundation to support both America and the Society of her research into prehistoric ecosys- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April Christian Ethics. tems and her efforts to bring more 18. Featuring singer and harmonica women into the geosciences. Cur- player Paul Bu erfi eld, LAB’60; guitarist PRESIDENT ROSE rano, an assistant professor at the Bowdoin College in University of Wyoming, is one of the Elvin Bishop, EX’64; and organist Mark Brunswick, Maine, founders of the Bearded Lady Proj- Na alin, AB’64, the band helped bring Chicago has appointed Clay- ect, a documentary and portrait series blues into the mainstream in the 1960s, ton S. Rose, AB’80, that aims to show the only difference MBA’81, as its between male and female scientists is recording several successful albums and playing next president, facial hair. at major festivals across the country. effective July 1. —Helen Gregg, AB’09

68 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 everYdaY liFe in The mUslim middle Releasesreleases easT Edited by Donna Lee Bowen, AM’72, PhD’81; Evelyn A. Early, PhD’80; and Becky Schulthies; Indiana University The Magazine lists a selection of general Press, 2014 interest books, films, and albums by alumni. Containing contributions from edi- For additional alumni releases, use the link tors and scholars including Anne to the Magazine’s Goodreads bookshelf at Betteridge, AM’74, PhD’85; Wil- mag.uchicago.edu/alumni-books. liam Beeman, AM’71, PhD’76; Marcie Patton, AM’77, PhD’89; Ten Books ThaT shaped The BriTish Robert Bianchi, AB’66, AM’68, empire: CreaTing an imperial Commons PhD’77, JD’95; and Christine Nut- Edited by Antoinette Burton, AM’84, ter, AM’05, PhD’13, this collection PhD’90, and Isabel Hofmeyr; Duke of 37 essays aims to show the depth red noTiCe: a TrUe sTorY oF high University Press, 2014 and diversity of life in the Muslim FinanCe, mUrder, and one man’s Each of the 10 essays in this collec- Middle East. Topics covered in the FighT For JUsTiCe tion examines a book that influ- book range from Moroccan child By Bill Browder, AB’85; Simon and enced, and was influenced by, the rearing to Iran’s LGBT subculture. Schuster, 2015 British Empire—from Jane Eyre The third edition includes insight American-born financierBill to Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj. Drawing into the effect recent wars and up- Browder describes his journey to the from imperial studies and transna- risings, social media, and technol- helm of the largest investment fund tional book history, the essays offer ogy have had on Muslims’ lives and in post-USSR Russia and how his a fresh perspective on the role of regional politics. attempts to gain more transparency print culture in the British Empire in the country’s business culture as well as how books shaped one of led President Vladimir Putin to history’s most powerful empires. revoke his visa in 2005. After one of his lawyers, Sergei Magnitsky, ameriCan BiodeFense: hoW dangeroUs was arrested and died at the hands ideas aBoUT BiologiCal Weapons shape of Russian officials a few years later naTional seCUriTY for investigating a raid on Browder’s By Frank L. Smith III, SB’00, AM’03, Moscow offices, Browder became PhD’09; Cornell University Press, 2014 devoted to exposing corruption and Biological weapons have threat- human rights abuses in Putin’s gov- ened US national security as early ernment. Browder also covers his as the Revolutionary War, when ongoing campaign for reform—and British forces reportedly infected justice for Magnitsky. Continental troops with smallpox. But today most American funding Who’s aFraid oF aCademiC Freedom? for biodefense comes from public Boom, BUsT, exodUs: The rUsT BelT, The Edited by Akeel Bilgrami, PhD’83, and health, not military, budgets. Frank maqUilas, and a Tale oF TWo CiTies Jonathan R. Cole; Columbia University L. Smith III argues that US armed By Chad Broughton, AM’97, PhD’01; Press, 2015 forces neglect biodefense in favor of Oxford University Press, 2015 In 17 essays, senior academics— in- bullets, bombs, and kinetic warfare, In 2004 a Maytag refrigerator plant cluding University faculty mem- leaving America more vulnerable closed in the small town of Gales- bers John Mearsheimer; Richard A. not only to biological weapons but burg, Illinois, and reopened as a Shweder; Geoffrey R. Stone, JD’71; also to radiation and cyber attacks. maquila, or a factory operating in a and President Robert J. Zimmer— free-trade zone, in the border city tackle the complicated and often of Reynosa, Mexico. Galesburg controversial issue of academic free- workers scrambled to find new dom. Coedited by Akeel Bilgrami, employment while jobs and money a philosophy professor at Columbia streamed into Reynosa, but the last- University, the essays discuss ob- ing impacts were much more com- stacles to free inquiry that the writ- plex. Focusing on how the plant’s ers have experienced personally or relocation affected residents in professionally, from the influence of each city over the following decade, donors to institutional review board Chad Broughton, a senior lecturer licensing to intellectual orthodoxy, at the University of Chicago, offers and affirm the importance of aca- a nuanced examination of the ef- demic freedom in our society. fects and costs of globalization and — Ingrid Gonçalves, AB’08, and industrial migration. Helen Gregg, AB’09

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 69

Releases Mar Apr 15_Layout2.indd 53 2/27/15 10:36 AM ALUMNI NEWS

Use your CNETID to read class news online. MIKE NICHOLS’S FIRST CAREER uchicago photographic archive, apf4-02900, university of chicago library (top); uchicago photographic archive, apf4-02633, university of chicago library (bottom) (bottom) library chicago of university apf4-02633, archive, photographic uchicago (top); library chicago of university apf4-02900, archive, photographic uchicago

From the editor: Of the abundance of obituaries wri en about acclaimed director and comedian Mike Nichols, EX’53, since his death on November 19, few failed to mention Chicago. It was where he directed his ﬁ rst play (with University Theater), where he met Elaine May, and where he helped to shape the city’s burgeoning improv comedy scene. Below, fellow alumnus Herbert J. Gans, PhB’47, AM’50, professor emeritus of sociology at Columbia University, reminds us that Chicago is also where Nichols le his mark on classical music radio.

Mike Nichols, who died last November, perhaps even in Cicero, then known known in the United States and perhaps will be remembered for a very long time for mainly as a headquarters of sorts for in the whole world. his pioneering contributions to improvisa- the mafi a. According to Wikipedia, in 1953 Mike tion, comedy, theater, and fi lms. However, I know all this because on many Sat- also initiated a folk music program for I remember an earlier Mike, who was a pio- urday nights, a bunch of us drove out to WFMT, but by then I was working in neer in classical music radio. WFMT to keep Mike company while Washington. In fall of that year I moved I do not remember anymore when I fi rst he was spinning records. He may have to Philadelphia to study for my PhD at met Mike, but in 1952, he was hosting a done all the work himself, including the the University of Pennsylvania. One day, Saturday night radio program of chamber technical tasks, but there was also time to probably sometime in 1954, I tuned in to music while he was still a student at the listen and to talk. Philadelphia’s classical music station and University of Chicago. Incidentally, chamber music was itself I thought I heard a familiar voice. I called The radio station for which Mike a kind of novelty then, especially in Chi- the station, and yes, it was Mike, once worked was also a pioneer, broadcasting cago, and the University participated in more hosting programs of chamber music in a new way called FM. The station was promoting it. Many of us fi rst learned to and other classical music. WFMT, now a giant in FM radio, but in listen to chamber music while U of C stu- We renewed our old acquaintance, and the early 1950s, it was a mom-and-pop dents, and I will never forget the Buda- Mike came over for dinner a few times, affair run by a young couple named Rita pest String Quartet’s regular visits to the until one day he announced that he was and Bernie Jacobs. University. There weren’t many string going back to Chicago. He did not say Its studio, which may have been a store- quartets in America in those days, and why, but the rest is history.

illustration by heather gatley heather by illustration front, was located in far west Chicago, the Budapest String Quartet was the best — Herbert J. Gans, PhB’47, AM’50

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 73

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150312_Deloitte_Chicago.indd 1 1/26/15 9:58 AM 1930s Margaret Oppenheimer, AB’43, died deaths December 7 in Washington, DC. She was Evelyn Wainer Goodman, SB’34, of Palm 93. A teacher at the Kingsbury Center in Desert, CA, died in November. She was Washington in the late 1940s, she was also 101. Goodman was a longtime teacher of a member of the District of Columbia’s children with developmental disabilities; Board of Appeals and Review and a found- Faculty and StaFF she also worked at the Robinsons-May er of the library at Hyde-Addison Elemen- department store for many years. She is tary School in Washington, DC. She and Harry Fozzard, the Otho S.A. Sprague survived by her companion, Barbara, and her husband are survived by a daughter, Distinguished Service Professor Emeri- a brother, Raymond Goodman, SB’4 2 , two sons, and five grandchildren. tus of Medicine, died December 9 in Dana, M D’4 4 . Patrick Suppes, SB’43, of Stanford, CA, NC. He was 83. Fozzard, who came to the Rae Bribram Charous, AB’36, of Buffalo died November 17. He was 92. Suppes University in 1966 and retired in 1998, Grove, IL, died December 16. She was 10 0. joined the faculty of Stanford University was a pioneering cardiac electrophysiolo- Charous had a long career in social work in 1950, retiring there as Lucie Stern Pro - gist whose research into the chemical and and ran her own interior decorating busi - fessor Emeritus of Philosophy and as pro- electric signals within heart muscle cells ness for more than 25 years. She enjoyed fessor emeritus of statistics, psychology, helped lay the foundation for modern volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Gar - and education. He cofounded Stanford’s clinical electrophysiology. He authored den. She is survived by a son, two grand - Institute for Mathematical Studies in the or coauthored nearly 250 papers, reviews, sons, and two great-grandchildren. Social Sciences. He is survived by his wife, editorials, and book chapters. Fozzard was Paul I. Lyness, AB’39, AM’41, died No- five children, five grandchildren, and three a fellow of the American Association for vember 27 in Princeton, NJ. He was 96. stepchildren. the Advancement of Science, a Fulbright A World War II veteran who served as a Etta Irene Brown, AB’44, AM’61, of Scholar, and a Litchfield Professor at Ox- communications officer in the US Navy, Kaneohe, HI, died February 14, 2013. ford University, among other honors. He is he taught journalism at the University of She was 89. Brown was a longtime social survived by his wife, Lyn Lane; two sons, Iowa before becoming president of the worker at Palama Settlement, a nonprofit Richard Fozzard, LAB’74, and Peter Foz- research firm Gallup and Robinson. Later social service agency in Honolulu. She is zard, LAB’78; four grandchildren; and a he led his own marketing and advertising survived by a sister. brother. research company with clients including Audrey Marguerite Joyce Mallery, A B’4 4 , George Hillocks Jr., professor emeritus AT&T, RCA, and Standard Oil. He is died January 26, 2006, in Whitney Point, in English language and literature, died survived by his wife, Mary; two daugh- NY. She was 83. Mallery served in the November 12 in Chicago. He was 80. He ters; a son; eight grandchildren; and three Women’s Army Corps from 1944 to 1946, taught in the University’s Department great-grandchildren. and worked for radio stations in Montana of Education from 1971 to 2002, training and California before teaching in public future English teachers in the master of 1940s and private schools on the East Coast for arts in teaching program. Hillocks was many years. She later held radio and local the author of Teaching Writing as Reflective Glenn LeRoy Pierre, AB’41, MBA’46, died government positions in New York, retir- Practice (1995), which received the David October 20 in Colorado Springs, CO. He ing in 2000 as director of senior services H. Russell Award for Distinguished Re- was 95. An accomplished gymnast whose at the Otsego (NY) County Office for search in the Teaching of English from the College studies were funded by a gymnas- the Aging. She is survived by four daugh- National Council of Teachers of English. tics work-study program, Pierre served ters, four sons, 12 grandchildren, and one He also wrote Teaching Argument Writing in the Mediterranean theater in World great-grandchild. (2011) and The Testing Trap (2002). He is War II. He later worked as an executive Craig Leman, AB’46, died July 13 in Cor - survived by a daughter, Marjorie Hillocks, with Illinois Bell and the Colorado Pub- vallis, OR. He was 91. A World War II LAB’77, MST’91; a son, George Hillocks, lic Utilities Commission. He is survived veteran who received a Silver Star for his LAB’81; and three grandchildren. by his wife, Elsabeth; two daughters; actions during the battle of Iwo Jima, Le- two sons; four grandchildren; and two man was a general surgeon and primary truSteeS great-grandchildren. care physician at the Corvallis Clinic from Josephine Bovill-Erpf, AM’42, died No- 1957 to 1999. He volunteered his medical Robert M. Halperin , PhB’47, trustee vember 18 in San Francisco, CA. She was expertise both at home and overseas and emeritus, died October 26 in Atherton, 96. During World War II, she served was an accomplished pianist who enjoyed CA. He was 86. The former president of in Normandy as an assistant field direc- writing program notes for local musical materials science firm Raychem, Halperin tor for the American Red Cross. After organizations. He is survived by his wife, was elected to the Board of Trustees in returning to the United States with her Nancy Leman, PhB’44, AM’48; five chil- 1981. He spearheaded the A RCH Develop- husband, Bovill-Erpf became an artist dren; and four grandchildren. ment Corporation, which helped commer- who frequently exhibited her work in the Anne (Kopp) Hyman, BSS’47, of Buffalo cialize University-developed innovations. San Francisco Bay area. She is survived Grove, IL, died December 5. She was 89. Dedicated and energetic in his service to by five sons, 11 grandchildren, and two A longtime teacher of social work, Hyman the University, he chaired the College great-grandchildren. founded the Kopp Center for Continuing Fund from 1990 to 1996 and was a mem- Franz M. Oppenheimer, SB’42, died No- Education in Wisconsin and later created a ber of the Alumni Association Cabinet vember 28 in Washington, DC. He was model for intentional housing communities and the visiting committee of the Division 95. An attorney specializing in interna- for seniors, detailed in her book Architects of the Physical Sciences. In 1998 he was tional banking and finance, Oppenheimer of the Sunset Years (2005). She is survived awarded the Alumni Service Medal, and spent the early years of his career at the by two daughters, including Amie Hyman, Halperin’s eponymous House, formerly in World Bank and later worked for several AM’83; a son; two granddaughters; and a the Shoreland, is now in the Renee Gran- Washington-area law firms, retiring from grandson. ville-Grossman Residential Commons. Swidler, Berlin, Shereff and Friedman in Norman Dale Clayton , AM’48, died His wife, Ruth Halperin, died in 20 08. He 1996. He was also a member of the panel of October 28 in Oakland, CA. He was 93. is survived by a daughter; two sons, includ- arbitrators at the International Centre for Clayton served in the US Army during ing Mark Halperin, AB’81; a brother, War- Settlement of Investment Disputes. His World War II, and his experience caring ren Halperin, LAB’47, AB’51; and seven wife, Margaret Oppenheimer, AB’43, died for soldiers with psychological trauma in- grandchildren. on December 7 (see next obituary). spired him to become a social worker and

92 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 an advocate for people with disabilities. suicide. After retiring from JFCS in the three brothers; 15 grandchildren; 11 great- He worked for the State of California for 1990s, she remained in private practice grandchildren; and a stepson. three decades, retiring as bureau chief for until 2003. She is survived by a daughter, Albert Edward Castel III , PhD’55, died programs and services for the developmen- two sons, and two granddaughters. November 14 in Columbus, OH. He was tally disabled. He is survived by three sons Harvey Folks Zimand, AM’51, died No- 86. After serving as a special agent in the and two granddaughters. vember 10 in New York City. He was 86. A US Army counterintelligence corps, Cas- Marvin “Murph” Goldberger, Ph D’48, partner in the firm of Kelley Drye & War- tel spent most of his career as a professor of died November 26 in La Jolla, CA. He was ren for more than 50 years, he specialized history at Western Michigan University. 92. A US Army veteran, Goldberger was in trusts and estates. He is survived by two An authority on the Civil War in the west- a student of Enrico Fermi and a particle daughters, four grandchildren, two step- ern United States, Castel wrote 16 books, physicist who worked on the Manhattan sons, and two step-grandchildren. including Decision in the West: The Atlanta Project. He taught at the University and at Richard Allen Chase, AB’52, died Septem- Campaign of 1864 (1992). He is survived by Princeton before being named president ber 2 in New York City. He was 81. Chase a daughter, a son, and three grandchildren. of Caltech in 1978. He was later the direc- was an associate professor of psychiatry Edward Nelson, SM’52, PhD’55, died tor of the Institute for Advanced Study at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. September 10 in Princeton, NJ. He was 82. in New Jersey and taught physics at the His research on how infants and toddlers A mathematician, Nelson is best known for University of California’s Los Angeles play and learn led him to found a toy com- his application of probability to quantum and San Diego campuses. A member of the pany, later known as Learning Pathways field theory, work that earned him the National Academy of Sciences and other Inc, that made child development toys. He American Mathematical Society’s Steele honorary societies, Goldberger served on is survived by a brother, two nieces, and Prize in 1995. He joined the Princeton fac- the President’s Science Advisory Com- three nephews. ulty in 1959, retiring as professor emeritus mittee in the 1960s and consulted for the Anne Donchin, PhB’53, of Hastings-on- in 2013. He is survived by his wife, Sarah; a Department of Defense. He is survived by Hudson, NY, died August 26. She was 84. daughter; a son; a brother; three grandchil- two sons and three grandchildren. Donchin, cofounder of the International dren; two great-grandchildren; and several Esther Conwell Rothberg, PhD’48, died Network on Feminist Approaches to Bio- nieces and nephews, including Cynthia A. November 16 in Brighton, NY. She was ethics, helped to shape the women’s studies Wong, MD’84. 92. A student of Subrahmanyan Chan - program as a longtime professor at Indiana Joseph G. Behm, MBA’57, of Cave Creek, drasekhar at Chicago who went on to be- University–Purdue University Indianapo- AZ, died November 23. He was 89. A come a pioneer in the field of semiconductor lis. The recipient of fellowships from the World War II veteran, Behm began his research, Rothberg was an industrial sci- National Endowment for the Humanities career as an electrical engineer at General entist and professor at the University of and the Lilly Endowment, Donchin was Electric. He went on to work for several Rochester. She was named one of Discover the coeditor of two books, served on the other engineering firms and retired in 1990 magazine’s 50 Most Important Women of editorial boards of several bioethics jour- as vice president of sales at the Advance Science in 2002, and in 2010 was awarded nals, and was an affiliated research scholar Transformer Company. He is survived by the National Medal of Science by President in the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine’s bio - his wife, Lucille; a daughter; two sons; and Barack Obama. She is survived by a son, ethics program. She is survived by her four grandchildren. two sisters , and two grandchildren. partner, Edmund Byrne; a daughter; three Jerry Blumenthal, AB’58, AM’59, died Marshall Winokur, PhB’48, died Decem- sons; and three grandchildren. November 13 in Chicago. He was 78. A ber 8 in Old Greenwich, CT. He was 86. Elmer Hess, SM’53, died December 2 in filmmaker and founding partner of Chica- A US Army veteran, Winokur served in Valparaiso, IN. He was 84. A US Army go-based Kartemquin Films, Blumenthal Japan during the Korean War. After com- veteran, Hess spent his entire career at was a director, producer, editor, and sound pleting his service, he practiced law with Valparaiso University, where he taught recordist on films including The Chicago his wife, Rae, in Chicago for more than 40 geography and geology and worked as a li- Maternity Center Story, The Last Pullman years. He is survived by his wife, a daugh- brarian at the law school and at Moellering Car, and Golub. He is survived by his wife, ter, and four grandchildren. Library. He also volunteered at the univer- Vera Milenkovich, and a daughter. John Goodlad, PhD’49, died November 29 sity’s art museum and at Porter Memorial Ward Farnsworth, JD’58, died December in Seattle, WA. He was 94. Goodlad was a Hospital. He is survived by his wife, Bea - 3 in Winnetka, IL. He was 83. A veteran of renowned teacher and education research- trice; three daughters; a sister; and four the US Marine Corps, Farnsworth spent er who taught at a number of institutions, grandchildren. more than three decades at the First Na- including UChicago and the University of Eugene S. Uyeki, AM’52, PhD’53, died tional Bank of Chicago, where he headed California, Los Angeles, where he worked September 5. He was 88. He began his several divisions. He was a director and the for 25 years and served 16 years as dean of teaching career as a member of the sociolo- treasurer of the Chicago Bar Foundation the graduate school of education. He re- gy faculty at Case Institute of Technology and Jobs for Youth, and a board member of tired in 1991 from the University of Wash- but was drafted into the US Army, where Winnetka’s First Church of Christ, Scien- ington, where he created the Center for he served as a psychiatric social worker. tist. He is survived by his wife, Jean; two Educational Renewal. The past president After completing his service, Uyeki re- daughters; a son, Ward Farnsworth Jr., of the American Educational Research As- turned to Case (later Case Western Re- JD’94; and nine grandchildren. sociation, his best-known work, A Place serve University), retiring as professor Called School (1984), was a comprehensive emeritus of sociology in 1998. He is sur- 1960s study of the state of the nation’s schools. vived by his wife, Martha Uyeki, AM’56, He is survived by a daughter, a son, and and two sons. Annette (Fishbein) Hartenstein-Waugh, five grandsons. Alford Claudon Diller, MD’54, died No- AM’62, of Maryland, died December 8. vember 7 in Sacramento, CA. He was 89. She was 79. Hartenstein-Waugh was an 1950s A US Navy veteran who served in World expert in workforce development who War II, Diller was a family practice phy- taught at the University of Southern Cali- Isadora Sherman, AM’50, died Novem- sician in Ohio and founded a computer fornia and served as editor of publications ber 30 in Chicago. She was 91. A social data-processing company; he later became for the International Federation of Train- worker and district administrator of medical director for the Karuk tribe in ing and Development Organizations. She Jewish Family and Community Service California and retired from clinical prac - had recently worked as a legislative aide (JFCS) in Highland Park, IL, Sherman tice in 2005. He is survived by his wife, in the Maryland state legislature, and was was known for her work to prevent teen Phyllis; a daughter; four sons; two sisters; active in the AFL-CIO and in the Alliance

the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 93 for Retired Americans. She is survived by operations, working for several railroad survived by his wife, Jane; two daughters; her husband, David Waugh; a brother; a companies and retiring as president of the a son; two sisters; and two grandchildren. stepdaughter; and a stepson. Western Weighing and Inspection Bu- Anthony “Tony” Smith, MBA’87, died Julian Katz, MD’62, of Gladwyne, PA, reau. He is survived by his wife, Twila; November 29 in Cleveland Heights, OH. died November 5. He was 77. A US Navy three daughters; two sons; a brother; and He was 53. One of the nation’s most suc- veteran, Katz founded one of the larg - 11 grandchildren. cessful Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen fran - est private gastroenterology practices in Soo Peck Eng, PhD’79, of Shaker Heights, chisees, Smith owned and operated 16 Pennsylvania and performed influential OH, died January 8, 2014. He was 82. Eng restaurants in northeastern Ohio. He was early research on lactose intolerance. He was a lecturer at the Teachers’ Training a volunteer at his church, a member of 100 was a clinical professor at the Medical College (TTC) in Singapore when he re - Black Men of Greater Cleveland, and a College of Pennsylvania and at Drexel Uni- ceived a scholarship to attend a doctoral trustee emeritus of the Great Lakes Sci- versity, the editor of multiple medical text- program in economics at UChicago. He ence Center. He is survived by his wife, books, and president of the Philadelphia later returned to TTC, where he created Vanessa Whiting, and three children. County Medical Society and the Pennsyl- curricula and became the deputy director Mary (Rippey) Anderson, MBA’88, of vania Society of Gastroenterology. He is of academics. Eng received the prestigious Munster, IN, died of ovarian cancer No- survived by his wife, Sheila; a daughter, National Day Award from the government vember 24. She was 55. Anderson, who Sara Ward, MD’94; a son, Jonathan Pe- of Singapore for his contributions to educa- also earned a JD from Valparaiso Uni - ter Katz, MD’93; and six grandchildren. tion. He is survived by his wife, Siok Mui versity Law School, worked as a certified Robert Simpson, PhD’62, died December Eng, and his daughter, Charis Eng,AB’82, public accountant and taught at Purdue 19 in Washington, DC. He was 102. A me- PhD’86, MD’88. University Calumet in Hammond, IN. She teorologist, he was the “Simpson” in the is survived by her partner, Jeff Mitchell; Saffir-Simpson wind scale used by fore- 1980s five daughters; her mother; a sister; and a casters to rank the severity of hurricanes brother. on a scale of 1 to 5. Director of the National Andrew Patner, EX’81, EX’88, died Hurricane Center from 1968 to 1974, he February 3 in Chicago. He was 55. A re- 1990s also helped to establish the Mauna Loa spected writer, arts critic, and radio host Observatory and taught at the University in his hometown of Chicago and beyond, James Derks, MBA’93, of Eden Prairie, of Virginia. He is survived by two daugh - Patner held positions with Chicago maga- MN, died March 16. He was 49. An invest- ters, a brother, seven grandchildren, a zine, the Wall Street Journal, and WBEZ. ment banker, Derks worked at Wall Street great-grandson, and three stepchildren. At the time of his death, he was the Chicago financial firms and led mergers and acqui- Thomas Hungerford, SM’60, PhD’63, Sun-Times’ classical music critic, a position sitions teams for LaSalle Bank and ABN of Chesterfield, MO, died November 28. he had held since 1991, and the host of the AMRO. At the time of his death, Derks He was 78. He taught mathematics at the popular Critical Thinking and other shows was the managing director of Allegiance University of Washington and at Cleve- on Chicago’s WFMT. He was also the Capital Corporation’s Minneapolis office. land State University and was the author author of IF Stone: A Portrait (1990).He is He is survived by his wife, Carrie; four of a number of research papers in algebra survived by his partner, Tom Bachtell; his sons; and five sisters. as well as more than a dozen mathematics mother; and two brothers. Philip Lenihan, AM’95, died of an appar- textbooks. He is survived by a daughter, a Eva Ritz Gaetz, MBA’82, of Wheaton, ent heart attack October 31 in Woodstock, son, a sister, and a brother. IL, died November 25. She was 62. Gaetz NY. He was 61. In the late 1970s, Lenihan Fredric “Fred” Branfman, AB’64, died worked as a business software developer managed punk bands and published the September 24 in Budapest, Hungary. He for many years before retiring in 20 04. She underground magazine Sluggo in Austin, was 72. After receiving a master’s degree and her husband helped to raise 15 foster TX. He later worked as a paralegal in in education from Harvard in 1965, Bran - children, two of whom they adopted. She San Francisco and New York. In 2010 he fman taught first in Tanzania and then in was an avid pianist, gardener, and traveler. moved to Roxbury, NY, and opened an art Laos, where he uncovered and helped to She is survived by her husband, Michael; gallery/newsstand/gift shop along with a expose the US bombing of the country dur- a daughter; a son; her mother; a sister; and museum devoted to eight-track tapes. He ing the Vietnam War, detailed in his book two brothers. is survived by his mother, two sisters, and Voices from the Plain of Jars (1972). He went Fernando Coronil, AM’70, PhD’87, died two brothers. on to head the California Public Policy of lung cancer in New York City on August Center and the jobs-focused nonprofit Re- 16, 2011. He was 67. Coronil taught at the 2000s building America, and his political and so- Universidad Católica in Venezuela and cial activism continued throughout his life. at the University of Michigan, where he Maria Elena Martinez-Lopez, AM’91, He is survived by his wife, Zsuzsanna, and helped to establish the doctoral program PhD’02, died of cancer November 16 three brothers. in anthropology and history. At the time in Los Angeles. She was 47. A native of of his death, he was distinguished profes- Mexico, Martinez-Lopez was a professor 1970s sor of anthropology and Latin American of history at the University of Southern studies at the Graduate Center of the City California who specialized in the history Barbara Barnum, PhD’76, died October University of New York. He was the au- of colonial Latin America. She was an or - 29 in New York City. She was 77. Barnum thor of The Magical State (1997), among ganizer of the annual Tepoztlán Institute was a nurse educator who taught at Colum- other works. He is survived by his wife, conference and was the author of Genea- bia University and New York University; Julie Skurski, AM’70, PhD’93, and two logical Fictions (2008). She is survived by at Columbia’s Teachers College, she was daughters. her mother and four brothers. director of the Division of Health Ser - Bernard James Lammers, JD’87, of Can- Thaddeus Novak, PhD’09, died Novem- vices, Sciences, and Education. She was ton, NY, died December 20. He was 83. ber 1 in Durham, NC, of complications also the author of several books, including Lammers was a professor of public law and following a double lung transplant. He The Nurse As Executive (1975) and Nurs- government at St. Lawrence University for was 34. After earning his doctorate in bio- ing Theory (1984). Her survivors include a nearly 40 years, earning his degree from chemistry, Novak enrolled at Columbia daughter and a sister. the Law School during his tenure there. A University for a master’s degree in journal- Clark Hungerford Jr., MBA’76, died De- Democratic candidate for the US House ism and wrote about college basketball for cember 11 in Lake Bluff, IL. He was 87. in 1984, he was a member of numerous the website Bleacher Report. He is survived Hungerford spent his career in railroad progressive political organizations. He is by his parents and his stepfather.

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96 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 Explore new territory or rediscover favorite LITE OF THE MIND spots in the company of fellow alumni. The Alumni Travel Program offers the opportunity to travel the world and learn from the University’s most distinguished experts. Not without merit CHICAGO IS YOUR SCHOOL—THE WORLD IS YOUR CLASSROOM. You need these stinking badges. DOC OR DIE Anyone can make Doc Films their weekend mainstay (once upon a time, second- , third- , and eighth-run box ofﬁ ce hits were the lifeblood of Friday and Saturday nights in Hyde Park). The hard-core cineastes, however, are at Ida on Tuesday nights for all 10 weeks of “One Singular Manaschi: History of the Kyrgyz Musical.”

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Prices, dates, and destinations listed are subject to change. All trips and dates are accurate at the time of printing. 96 the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2015 SEPT–OCT 2011, v OlumE 104, numb Er 1 Phili P Gla SS … mE … dia da dia T a … anT ES iqu … W … E ndy Fr ndy EE dman … Publi C ar C hi TECT ur E … Smar … T arT T mar–a P r 2015

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