After internment

Mitsuye Yamada, AM’53, transformed her family’s internment experience into poetry.

Language learning

What if you took a language class and actually learned to speak?

A life in math

How Ken Ono, AB’89, found life in and outside of math.

Bodies of work

Photographer Lewis Hine, EX 1904, captured the changing face of American labor.

America’s historian

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998), PhB’23, AM’24, PhD’28, was a US historian for the people.

Folk singer

How Lucy Kaplansky, LAB’78, made a career of folk music.

Small school talent

In the 1960s the Small School Talent Search sought promising young scholars in rural areas. Fifty years later, one of those students gives his perspective on the program and its legacy.

Ex-racehorses

Retired Racehorse Project founder Steuart Pittman Jr., AB’85, advocates for off-track Thoroughbreds.

War stories

Photojournalist Jonathan Alpeyrie, AB’03, shoots from the front lines.

Pioneering MD

Pioneering pathologist Nancy Warner, SB’44, MD’49, is helping other women scholars follow in her path.

Book smarts

Retired University of Chicago Press editor T. David Brent, AB’70, AM’71, PhD’77, brought imagination and enthusiasm to scholarly publishing.

Odyssey scholars

Launched in 2007 with an anonymous $100 million gift, the Odyssey Scholarship Challenge has transformed financial aid in the College. Meet six of the young people whose lives were also changed.

Cronin 1931–2016

Nobelist James Cronin twice expanded our sense of the possible, first in particle physics and then in astronomical observation.

Zoos and blues

In blues clubs, cocktail bars, and zoos, David Grazian, AM’96, PhD’00, investigates the artifice of authenticity.

Funmi Olopade

Olufunmilayo Olopade is attacking cancer from all sides.

Utopia Park

The Transcendental Meditation movement’s goals were utopian but life for its followers wasn’t always blissful, Claire Hoffman, AM’05, writes in a new memoir. Plus—“The Field of All Possibilities”: An excerpt from Greetings from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood.

Voting smarter

A start-up founded by three alumni helps voters think beyond the presidential race.

Battery pioneer

John B. Goodenough, SM’50, PhD’52, the father of the lithium-ion battery, sparked the wireless revolution. Now, at 94, he’s working on the next breakthrough.

Danny Lyon

The iconic photographs of Danny Lyon, AB’63, document more than 50 years of social change and life outside the mainstream.

War wounds

Poet and retired Navy physician Frederick Foote, AB’80, is helping wounded veterans recover.

Katharine Graham

The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham, AB’38, learned as she went—and made history along the way.

Kartemquin Films

For 50 years, Kartemquin Films has focused its lenses on social forces and the human lives they shape.

Business ethics

Reflections on teaching business ethics at Chicago Booth after the financial crisis.

Gravitational waves

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves a century ago. Daniel Holz was part of the team of scientists that finally found them last fall.

Ana Castillo

Poet and novelist Ana Castillo, AM'79, on feminism, writing, and a momentous education.

City sensors

The Array of Things takes Chicago’s pulse.

Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham, AB’36, forged a unique career as a dancer and anthropologist.

The Pearson Institute

Data-driven research at the global institute will spur new insights into violent conflict and inform public policy.

Arts Incubator

At the Arts Incubator, creative minds build on the cultural wealth of Chicago’s South Side.

Mortal thoughts

Doctors are taught to fight death—but it’s a losing battle. Some are looking beyond biomedicine to help them better communicate with patients about the end of life.

Income inequality

Scholars discuss the causes of growing economic inequality in the United States and what to do about it.

Urban Labs

The University of Chicago’s Urban Labs turn promising ideas for helping cities into hard evidence of what works.

Postcards from the past

Historical postcards capture the University as it was and as it wanted to be seen.

Forecasting 2040

What will 2040 be like?

Magna Carta

As the historic document turns 800, David M. Rubenstein, JD’73, reflects on preserving a Magna Carta in the United States.

Bees in the Old World

The history of beekeeping stretches back centuries, the director of the Oriental Institute found when a hobby turned into a scholarly pursuit.

Convocation

At convocation, one journey ended and another began for some 3,300 graduates. How did it feel? Their faces told the story.

Free expression

As free expression comes under challenge on some campuses, the University’s affirmation of a long-standing value may become a model for higher education.

Microbiome

Scientists are discovering how microbes not only make us sick but also keep our bodies working.

Howie Becker

Sociologist Howard S. Becker, PhB’46, AM’49, PhD’51, talks about his career studying deviance.

Criminal injustice

Jonathan Rapping, AB’88, inspires attorneys who represent indigent clients to fight a system stacked against them.