TABLEAU T H E D I V I S I O N O F T HE HUMANITIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO | FALL 2012 IN THIS ISSUE | CHINA CONNECTIONS | LIFE EMBRACES ART | NEW FACULTY TABLEAU | A IN THIS ISSUE FROM THE DEAN 2 FACULTY RESEARCH Dear Alumni China Connections and Friends, Scholars in fields from Jewish studies to music theory are making the most This fall marks a significant moment for me as I reflect of the Center in Beijing. on my first term as dean and anticipate the exciting new initiatives that the next five years will bring. I am thrilled to be reappointed to the helm of the Division 4 ALUMNI PROFILE of the Humanities, particularly at a time of such great possibilities for our students and faculty. Please read more about the division’s proud accomplishments Life Embraces Art and our priorities for the future on page 12. A new biography chronicles the One particularly striking achievement is the remarkable career of art historian launching of the Neubauer Family Collegium for Peter Selz, AM’49, PhD’54. Culture and Society, a joint venture with the Division of the Social Sciences that will establish a global destination in Chicago for innovative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research. The Neubauer Colle- 6 HUMANITIES AT WORK gium builds on the University of Chicago’s long- standing reputation as an incubator for new schools Sell Me a Story of knowledge, drawing international scholars of the A poet and a philosopher venture highest caliber to our campus. To learn more about you to join us on October 20 to participate in this ex- into business. how this initiative aims to transform the humanities change; learn more at humanitiesday.uchicago.edu. and humanistic social sciences, see page 10. Finally, I offer a special word of thanks to our On campus and around the world, UChicago donors, acknowledged by name online at tableau scholars are redefining the humanistic enterprise. .uchicago.edu. Joe and Jeanette Neubauer’s decision 8 ON CAMPUS In this issue of Tableau, we feature faculty members to endow the Collegium for Culture and Society furthers who have discovered unexpected opportunities for their commitment to the humanities at UChicago, New Faculty global collaboration at the University’s Center in and they are joined by hundreds of others whose Meet literary scholar Florian Klinger Beijing (see pages 2–3). We also profile Peter Selz, ongoing support is crucial to our continued success. and other new hires in the Division AM’49, PhD’54, whose career as an art historian Also online, we showcase the recent publications of the Humanities. and curator has influenced the history of modern and creative accomplishments of our faculty mem- art (pages 4–5). bers and an impressive list of recent job placements We are pleased to introduce the division’s eight by the graduates of our master’s and PhD programs. newest faculty members, including one Neubauer Thank you for your engagement with the Division 10 TO COLLABORATE IS HUMAN Family Assistant Professor. All of these new col- of the Humanities. I remind you that I am always 12 A LEADER IN THE HUMANITIES leagues will play important roles in shaping their pleased to receive any feedback you may wish to respective fields and departments (pages 8–9). share. It is a privilege to be a part of this community, 13 GLOBAL GRADUATE STUDENTS This issue also includes stories from alumni who have and I look forward to advancing our mission in my applied their humanities education to entrepreneur- second term as dean. Tableau (Fall 2012, Volume 14, Number 1) is published biannually ial ventures (pages 6–7) and interviews with current by the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago for alumni and friends. Editor: Elizabeth Station. Contributing graduate students who represent the increasingly Sincerely yours, Editors: Sarah Yatzeck Farrell, AB’01; Courtney C. W. Guerra, AB’05; diverse and global profile of the division (see page Hannah Hayes; Carl Nash, AM’02; Miranda Swanson, AM’01. Proofreader: Rhonda Smith. Photography: Edward Caldwell, Dan 13 and the in-depth article at tableau.uchicago.edu). Dry, Chris Kirzeder, Laura Letinsky, Jason Smith, University of If you are reading Tableau, you are a part of a Chicago Center in Beijing, James Withrow. Design: Winge Design Studio. Contact: Division of the Humanities, 1115 East 58th vital community of individuals who are invested in Street, Chicago, IL 60637, [email protected]. humanities research and education at UChicago, Martha T. Roth whether as students, faculty, alumni, parents, donors, Dean of the Division of the Humanities ON THE COVER or intellectually curious friends. Each fall, this com- At White Space Beijing—a gallery At “Comics: Philosophy munity comes together at Humanities Day, an annual in the city’s Caochangdi art zone— and Practice,” a May 2012 event that gives our faculty members a chance to a student contemplates an untitled work share their ideas with the general public. I invite by Chinese artist He Xiangyu. conference at the Logan Photo by Laura Letinsky. Center for the Arts, English professor W. J. T. Mitchell (left) interviewed cartoonist Art Spiegelman. TABLEAU | 1 FACULTY RESEARCH Yet the center also has opened its doors to Left: Students visited contemporary art galleries on humanities scholars whose work lies outside the their September 2012 trip. field of Chinese studies. For example, Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, the Helen A. Regenstein Dis- tinguished Service Professor in Classics, has long undergoing massive demographic change, “with studied Roman literature and culture. In 2012 new ethnic groups with different attitudes, tastes, she traveled to Beijing to host a conference in- and manners posing a challenge to the self- vestigating modern China’s engagement with image of the city, in a way not unlike the experi- Greco-Roman antiquity. Despite subtle differences in approach, Chris- ence Chicago has had in incorporating waves of “It is extremely gratifying to see such a rich tensen hopes music theory might help bridge immigration and migration.” variety of projects at the center, and to see gaps between the East and West. “Music theory China’s urban cultural landscape—and partic- University of Chicago scholars making strong might play a role in helping us translate the ularly its art scene—also has been on Laura Letin- connections with their counterparts from across many musical languages to which we are now sky’s mind. In September Letinsky, a professor China,” says Dali Yang, a professor in Political constantly exposed,” he said at the conference. in Visual Arts, took 14 MFA students to Beijing to Science and the center’s faculty director. “There’s “For music theory is, if anything, a means by explore China’s exploding contemporary art com- a remarkable diversity of interest among Chi- which people make sense of something that is munity. Assistant Professor Geof Oppenheimer nese scholars, so they’re very open to exploring often difficult, perplexing, and foreign.” accompanied them. new cultures,” adds Stern. In previous years, the department led trips Art and antiquity to New York to help familiarize students with Making sense of the foreign “Difficult and perplexing” could also describe the art world. But after visiting China in 2011, In November 2011, Thomas Christensen, the the state of China’s antiquities market, accord- “I realized that taking them to Beijing would give Avalon Foundation Professor in Music, helped ing to Lawrence Rothfield, an associate profes- them a broader, global view of art practice,” Letin- organize “Music Theory between East and West,” sor in English, who gave a lecture titled “Antiqui- sky explains. a three-day conference that attracted students ties Under Siege” at the center in June 2012. Certainly, there are many similarities between and teachers from top Chinese conservatories Although Rothfield’s talk focused on looting in the US and Chinese art markets: “Art is a com- as well as Western scholars of music theory. Iraq, Cairo, and Libya, discussion quickly turned modity, and it’s also an intellectual activity that The event was designed in part to celebrate to the fate of China’s own antiquities. the 2011 publication of the Chinese edition of The country’s massive economic boom has the Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. “led to some big problems in terms of tombs Professor Laura Christensen edited the English edition of the more being dug up around the country, corruption, Letinsky and MFA CHINA than 1,000-page volume. As he noted at the and a loss of knowledge about the past,” says students met with conference, there was only one earlier transla- Rothfield. “That’s why I wanted to go to China— Chinese artist Jin tion of the book—into Macedonian—and the Chi- to begin to look at what the problem was, and Zenghe in Beijing’s nese translation “expanded by a factor of some to see how the problem was understood from CONNECTIONS 798 arts district. 650 the potential number of non-English readers.” the point of view of the Chinese themselves.” With globalization, Western audiences have The visit also allowed Rothfield to discuss gained interest in Chinese music, but in China, his research on urban cultural scenes at several “much of music theory is oriented toward teach- universities outside Beijing. At Shandong Uni- JOSEF STERN KNEW THE IDEA of a conference on Jewish studies in Lawrence Rothfield ing Western music,” Christensen explains. “It’s versity in Jinan, Rothfield met with civic leaders, Beijing was unconventional. Humanities faculty not dealing with indigenous Chinese classical and they discussed ways to improve the neigh- Early on, some of his colleagues were “frankly, somewhat skeptical,” admits music. That’s fallen behind in interest.” He says borhood adjoining the university.
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