Dear Alumni and Friends,

Almost daily a story appears in major publications about how the study of the humanities is in dire straits. It is argued that rather than studying the arts, philosophy, or literature, students must sign up for practical majors that result in jobs at the end of their studies. While these conversations are not new, they have been amplified in recent years.

In the Division of the Humanities at UChicago, however, we have the statistics and accomplishments to contradict this perception. During the past 10 years student enrollment for undergraduates and graduates remains strong, with a total of 33,241 students in 2022—only 9 percent less than student enrollment in the Physical Sciences Division, which ranks first. Courses in Theater and Performance Studies and in Creative Writing are so popular that demand is almost twice as high as our capacity.

To help meet the high demand for humanities courses, the number of our tenure-track and tenured faculty members has grown during the last decade from 191 to 206. Significantly, the gender balance has become more equal, from 69 women and 122 men in 2013 to 95 women and 111 men in 2023. Finally, the number of underrepresented faculty members has nearly tripled in the past 10 years.

These are the interior facts about the Humanities Division. The extraordinary work of our faculty and students, made possible by the support of our generous donors, reflects the strength of their artistry and scholarship. Here are a few examples of their public-facing work during the past year.

Composer Shulamit Ran’s full-scale opera Anne Frank debuted at Indiana University on March 3 with a large orchestra, chorus, and cast of nine principal singers. Over the years, Ran, the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor Emerita in Music and a Pulitzer Prize winner, has written several works with a focus on the Holocaust.

The second book by the Creative Writing Program’s Ling Ma, Bliss Montage (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022), won three significant awards in rapid succession: the National Book Critics Circle fiction prize, the Story Prize, and the Windham Campbell Prize. Ma, AB’05, an assistant professor of practice in the arts, has readers ranging from teenagers to contemporary literary theorists due to her ability to construct allegorical lifeworlds from the absurdities of the contemporary social moment.

Philip V. Bohlman, the Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish History and Music, and Martha C. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, received International Balzan Prizes, which honor scholars and scientists who have distinguished themselves in their fields globally. Bohlman received the first Balzan Prize in ethnomusicology, and Nussbaum was honored for her seminal and sustained contributions to a wide range of philosophical topics.

The scholars and students in the Division of the Humanities are committed to defining the most urgent problems, asking the right questions, and finding ways to address the complexity of human life. Collaborating with them to expand the reach of the humanities at the University and in the world will be the highlight of my career.

Deborah L. Nelson
Dean, Division of the Humanities
Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor, Department of English Language and Literature