Features
Quadrangles to crossroads
New construction is about the exchange of ideas—within and beyond the campus. The University architect explains the theory behind the practice.
Chapter and verse
To approach religion with intellectual rigor, says Divinity School dean Margaret Mitchell, AM’82, PhD’89, is to play with fire. She stokes the embers.
On the dark side
Astrophysicist Josh Frieman, PhD’89, works on the dark side, studying the night sky for insight into the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Going Dutch
In one of the oldest chapters of American history—the Pilgrims’ flight from persecution—historian Jeremy Bangs, X’67, finds new ground to cover.
Editor’s Notes
Top drawer
Remembering editor Felicia Antonelli Holton, AB’50, who reinvigorated the Magazine with depth and wit.
Letters
Readers sound off
Alumni and friends share memories of writing on Linn House wall and the resonance of Easley Blackwood’s teaching and composing; explore the social impact of video game violence; question the value of luxury cars; assign blame for the financial crisis; and more.
On the Agenda
An intellectual destination
President Robert J. Zimmer discusses initiatives that renew the University’s commitment to being an intellectual destination for scholars across disciplines.
Alumni Essay
Man, the lonely animal
Joshua Mitchell, PhD’89, reflects on how students from Washington to Iraq differ in their understanding of Tocqueville’s “lonely man” in the democratic age.
UChicago Journal
Market impact
Fama, Hansen earn the Nobel Prize for revolutionizing how economists and investors take stock.
Resistance is fruitful
A study of how cancer evades the immune system reveals promising therapeutic potential.
Mix master
The Neubauer Collegium sets sail with two talks and a visit by artist William Kentridge.
That ’70s show
A traveling exhibition explores California art’s experimental state of mind.
Brain waves
Neurobiologist Clifton Ragsdale’s work advances the knowledge of understudied cephalopods.
Trophy life
Jay Berwanger’s legacy endures, thanks in part to an award nobody had heard of when he won it.
Interview: Past is prologue
Chris McNickle trains a historian’s eye on urban politics past and the future of global markets.
William Rainey Harper’s Index: FY information
Gifts to UChicago, by the numbers.
Fig. 1: Crime stats
A decline in the murder rate has been uneven in Chicago, increasing the gap between different parts of the city.
Original Source: Trading eights
Artist Robert Crumb’s jazz trading cards highlight the famous and the forgotten.
For the record: University news
Caltech taps Rosenbaum; Levi’s legacy is set in stone; the University gives start-ups a jump start; and major gifts fund initiatives in law, business, education, and medicine.
Citations: Faculty research
The distancing effect of superstition, new depths in earthquake research, the mechanism that winds hamsters’ biological clocks, and trustworthy insight into brain processes.
Peer review
Releases
The Magazine lists a selection of general-interest books, films, and albums by alumni. For additional alumni releases, browse the Magazine’s Goodreads bookshelf.
Notes
Highlights from the latest alumni news columns.
Second City’s first man
At a memorial for Bernard Sahlins, friends and family recalled the Second City cofounder’s passion for his work, which in recent years included directing staged readings of verse plays for the Poetry Foundation.
Sitting president
After Wendy Klein gathered the nerve to show President Edward H. Levi the portraits she had sketched of him, they were framed for the future attorney general.
Deaths
University obituaries
Recent faculty, staff, board, and alumni obituaries.
Lite of the Mind
Let it glow
As daylight dwindles, cut out paper-bag luminarias inspired by windows on campus to light your way home this winter.