SEPT–OCT 2011, VOLUME 104, NUMBER 1 AFTER INTERNMENT … LANGUAGE LEARNING … FOLK SINGER … A LIFE IN … AMERICA’S MATH HISTORIAN TurnTurnTurn back backback the thethe pages pagespages SincSincSince1e1908,e1908,908,whenwhenwhenththetheUneUnUniversiiviversiersitytyoftyofChofChChicagicagicagoMoMoMagazinagazinagazine ee debudebudebuteted,ted, typed, type typefacefacefaces andss andand times times times ha havehavevechanged. changed. changed. SeeSeeSee for f orf ory ourselfy yourselfourself when when when y ouy you ouvisit visit visit the the the ne ne wnew onlinew online onlineMagazine Magazine Magazine archivarchivarchives.es.es. Sear Sear Searchch chand andand read r eadread ev ev eryeveryery issue issue issue from fromfrom 1908 19081908 through through through 1995 1995 1995 atatmag.uchicagat mag.uchicag mag.uchicago.o.edu/libao.edu/libaedu/libarcrchivrchivhive.ee. ToTodayTodayday the the the Magazine MagazineMagazine continues c continuesontinues to to delivto deliv deliverer UChicagoer UChicago UChicago to to toyo yo u:you:u: bigbigbig ideas ideasideas and and and inno innoinnovavations,vations,tions, ac ac coaccomplishedcomplishedmplished and andand adventur adventur adventurousousous alumni,alumni,alumni, st stro stronglyronglyngly held heldheld vie vie viewswsws, and, ,and and a adash a dashdash of of funof fun fun. SPRING 2017 AndAndAnd we wewe still s tills tillre rely rely only on onthe the the kindne kindnekindnessssofss of rofeaders r eadersreaders lik likelik eye ou.y you.ou. Please Please Please mamamakekekea agift a giftgift at at mag.uchicagat mag.uchicag mag.uchicago.o.edu/givo.edu/givedu/give.ee. SPRING 2017, VOLUME 109, NUMBER 3 Seeking Great Leaders The Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative offers a calendar year of rigorous education and reflection for highly accomplished leaders in business, government, law, medicine, and other sectors who are transitioning from their primary careers to their next years of service. Led by award-winning faculty members from across Harvard, the program aims to deploy a new leadership force tackling the world’s most challenging social and environmental problems. be inspired at +1-617-496-5479 170509_AdvancedLeadership_Chicago.indd 1 3/20/17 12:57 PM Features 24 LINGUA FRANCA What if you took a language class and actually learned to speak? Plus: What’s SPRING 2017 a LCTL? By Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 VOLUME 109, NUMBER 3 30 FREE VERSE Mitsuye Yamada, AM’53, transformed her family’s internment experience into poetry. By Susie Allen, AB’09 38 INFINITE POSSIBILITIES How Ken Ono, AB’89, found life in and outside of math. Plus: A partition function breakthrough. By Helen Gregg, AB’09 46 BODIES OF WORK Photographer Lewis Hine, EX 1904, captured the changing face of American labor. By Susie Allen, AB’09 52 ALL AMERICAN Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998), PhB’23, AM’24, PhD’28, was a US historian for the people. By Lydialyle Gibson 58 IN HARMONY How Lucy Kaplansky, LAB’78, made a career of folk music. By Susie Allen, AB’09 Departments 3 EDITOR’S NOTES Transport yourself: Revisiting days gone by in the pages of the Magazine. By Laura Demanski, AM’94 4 LETTERS Readers share their experiences with the Small School Talent Search, encourage mountain climbing, debate free expression, and more. 11 UCHICAGO JOURNAL Ant researcher and enthusiast Benjamin Blanchard; a criminal justice quant takes on mass incarceration; Selwyn O. Rogers Jr.’s plans for adult trauma care; celebrating American writers; Chicago Booth’s Raghuram Rajan returns; and more. 22 COURSE WORK Cinema scholar Jacqueline Stewart, AM’93, PhD’99, explores Chicago’s Mitsuye Yamada’s changing filmgoing scene.By Susie Allen, AB’09 (AM’53) poetry gives 61 PEER REVIEW voice to the sorrow In the alumni essay, Ed Navakas, AB’68, PhD’72, remembers love in the time and rage of Japanese of finals. Plus: Alumni News, Deaths, and Classifieds. internment. See “Free Verse,” page 30. 88 LITE OF THE MIND Illustration by Yuko Maroon multiples: What do you call a group of ... ? Shimizu. By Joy Olivia Miller and Laura Demanski, AM’94 See the print issue of the University of Chicago Magazine, web-exclusive content, and links to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts at mag.uchicago.edu. the university of chicago magazine | spring 2017 1 Up, up, and away! On April 24 NASA launched a massive superpressure balloon intended to fly for 100 days at altitudes up to 110,000 feet. The football-stadium-sized behemoth is carrying a telescope designed to detect ultrahigh energy cosmic particles as they enter Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists from UChicago and 76 other institutions worldwide worked together on the telescope, which features an infrared camera built by Leo Allen, AB’17, and Mikhail Rezazadeh, Class of 2017. Angela V. Olinto (left), the Homer J. Livingston Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics, is the project’s principal investigator. “The origin of these particles is a great mystery,” Olinto says. “Do they come from massive black holes at the center of galaxies? Tiny, fast-spinning stars? Or somewhere else?” photography by joel wintermantle (top); photo courtesy nasa/bill rodman EDITORˆS NOTES Transport yourself Volume 109, Number 3, Spring 2017 BY LAURA DEMANSKI, AM’94 editor Laura Demanski, AM’94 associate editor Susie Allen, AB’09 art director Guido Mendez alumni news editor Helen Gregg, AB’09 senior copy editor Rhonda L. Smith graphic designer Laura Lorenz lite of the mind & interactive content editor Joy Olivia Miller contributing editors John Easton, AM’77; Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93; Brooke E. O’Neill, AM’04; Amy Braverman his spring I’ve been going are owed to the Library’s Special Col- Puma; Mary Ruth Yoe to the 1970s in my mind. lections Research Center for valiantly Editorial Office The University of Chicago Edward Levi, LAB’28, digitizing the Magazine archives, along Magazine, 5235 South Harper Court, Suite PhB’32, JD’35, is president with Cap and Gown and the University 500, Chicago, IL 60615. telephone of the University. The Col- Record. All are fully searchable. (As 773.702.2163; fax 773.702.8836; lege has refreshed its cur- always, you can find and search later email [email protected]. The Magazine is sent to all University of riculum. Joseph O’Gara’s volumes at mag.uchicago.edu.) Chicago alumni. The University of Chicago bookstore has taken over the Browsing the Watergate years, I’ve Alumni Association has its offices at space where Woodworth’s been struck by content both curious and 5235 South Harper Court, 7th Floor, Chicago, Books used to do business sublime. The Summer/74 Class News IL 60615. telephone 773.702.2150; fax 773.702.2166. address changes (today it’s a wine shop). And treated readers to side-by-side photos 800.955.0065 or [email protected]. the Watergate hearings are fresh in ev- of alumnus Harry Sholl, EX’41, and web mag.uchicago.edu Teryone’s minds. his look-alike Henry Kissinger. Earlier Law professor Philip Kurland is that year, Norman Maclean, PhD’40, The University of Chicago Magazine (ISSN-0041-9508) is published quarterly about to teach a fall course, Consti- articulated the art of teaching as his (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer) by the tutional Aspects of Watergate. And Presbyterian minister father might have University of Chicago in cooperation “at Jimmy’s, the venerable 55th Street conceived it—as a craft of “conveying with the Alumni Association, 5235 South Harper Court, 7th Floor, Chicago, IL spa,” the September/October 1973 the delight that comes from an act of the 60615. Published continuously since 1907. University of Chicago Magazine re - spirit … without ever giving anyone the Periodicals postage paid at Chicago and ported, “the hearings were sometimes notion that the delight comes easy.” additional mailing offices.postmaster offered on radio while the audio was That hard truth was useful to bear Send address changes to The University of Chicago Magazine, Alumni Records, 5235 turned off for the telecast of the day’s in mind as I absorbed the results of a South Harper Court, Chicago, IL 60615. baseball game, giving an eerie effect.” reader postcard survey the Magazine © 2017 University of Chicago. Newly available online, the Maga- conducted in 1973. A thousand post- zine’s back issues from 1908 to August cards came back. “There were such Ivy League Magazine Network web ivymags.com 1995 are rife with gemlike details like comments,” the editors wrote, “as Heather Wedlake, Director of Operations these. On the other end of the spectrum ‘keeps me informed,’ ‘increases my af- email [email protected] are big-thinking essays by UChicago- finity with the University,’ and ‘makes telephone 617.319.0995 ans like Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar me think’—but also ‘sloppy editing,’ and Katharine Graham, AB’38. Not to ‘looks like Ford Motor Company an- mention news of the classes, campus nual report,’ and ‘fed up with your life, and a nine-decade retrospective revolutionary baloney.’” of print advertising. 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