Lecturer in Linguistics, published Swahili Grammar and Workbook (Routledge, 2015).

Associate Professor in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and the Oriental Institute, received a grant from UChicago's Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society for "Economic Analysis of Ancient Trade: The Case of the Old Assyrian Merchants of the Nineteenth Century BCE," a project with Ali Hortacsu (Professor in Economics), Kerem Cosar (Assistant Professor in Economics), and Gil Stein (see below).

Associate Professor in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and the Oriental Institute, received a grant from UChicago's Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society for "Signs of Writing: The Cultural, Social, and Linguistic Contexts of the World's First Writing Systems," a project with Edward Shaughnessy (the Lorraine J. and Herrlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in East Asian Languages & Civilizations). He and Shaughnessy also received support from the UChicago Center in Beijing for the conference "Signs of Writing."

Associate Professor in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, published the translation of Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdad (New York University Press, 2015), co-translated with the editors of the Library of Arabic Literature.

Associate Professor in Romance Languages & Literatures, co-edited a special issue of Littérature, "Valère Novarina: une poétique théologique?" with Olivier Dubouclez (Université de Liège).

Associate Professor in Slavic Languages & Literatures, received a 2014–15 research leave fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. He received conference support grants from UChicago's Council on International Studies, the Committee for Central Eurasian Studies, and the Center for International Studies for the 2016 Conference in Central Eurasian Studies. Bird also received a grant from the UChicago Center in Beijing to support a Russian-Chinese intellectual history conference in collaboration with Clemson University.

Associate Professor in Slavic Languages & Literatures, received UChicago's Curricular Development award and a Humanities Visiting Committee Research Grant.

Associate Professor in South Asian Languages & Civilizations, was a visiting fellow at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen.

Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts in Visual Arts, received a publication grant from Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. He exhibited Monsters at Ratio3.

Lecturer in Chinese in East Asian Languages & Civilizations, published 晚明天主教翻譯文學箋注 (Christian Literature in Chinese Translation, 1595–1647: An Anthology with Commentary and Annotations) (Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2015) and Guxin Shengjing 古新聖經賀清泰 (A Vernacular Translation of the Old and New Testaments by Louis Antoine de Poirot [1735–1813]) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2015).