Dear Alumni and Friends,
It is my pleasure to write to you as dean of the officially renamed Division of the Arts & Humanities, our new moniker reflecting the breadth of the critical and creative work undertaken by our faculty and students. As I mentioned here last spring and in The University of Chicago Magazine, we remain dedicated to leading by example in research and teaching in the humanities and the arts, even as all universities in the country face a changing landscape for support of higher education. Our newly expanded division builds on historical and emerging strengths to sustain the vitality, excellence, and innovation of our research, artistic practice, and teaching.
The interplay between the arts and scholarship is evident throughout this issue of Tableau. We have graduate students complementing their research by performing in John Cage’s Europera 5 under the directorship of 2025 Berlin Family lecturer Yuval Sharon, and undergraduates in the Media Arts and Design program drawing inspiration from their faculty instructors to forge innovative career paths that reflect their artistic and technical interests.
We have a PhD alumnus who draws on his own music practice while tracing compelling insights about the relationship between popular songwriting and Korean literature, and an alumna of the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities whose grad school internship at the Smart Museum of Art led to a career in museum education. You can also read two of our faculty members—one from Art History, another from Linguistics—discussing the importance of cultural preservation, from artifacts to languages.
We also commend several Guggenheim Fellowship recipients from our community, including Theaster Gates, who has become one of the country’s most prominent contemporary artists. To celebrate the history and future of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, I encourage you to visit his exhibition at the Smart Museum—his first-ever solo exhibition here in Chicago—which features repurposed materials from across campus. Unto Thee will be on view through February 2026.
These are troubling times, especially for universities and particularly for humanistic scholars and practicing artists. But the Division of the Arts & Humanities is a cornerstone of education at the University of Chicago and a worldwide leader in both research and artistic expression. I discussed our enduring commitment to these values in a recent opinion piece published in the Chicago Tribune, which I invite you to read.
As we adapt and evolve in the face of new pressures and opportunities, we will continue our commitment to supporting the critical and creative practices of the students and faculty members who make our institution a distinctive destination for scholarship and art that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
Deborah L. Nelson
Dean, Division of the Arts & Humanities
Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor, Department of English Language and Literature