Features
Ends and means
Microfinance was supposed to lead the poor out of poverty. Yet after a rash of borrower suicides in one Indian state, experts and governments question the industry’s success.
Life in practice
In his latest book, sociologist Richard Sennett, AB’64, explores the social craft of cooperation.
Years of cheers
For five decades, Stuart Rice and his doctoral students have had great chemistry.
Performance anxiety
Psychologist Sian Beilock studies what makes people choke under pressure and offers techniques to prevent those mental meltdowns.
A Friday night story
In 1980s Baltimore, a family recalls an act of kindness—and finds a way to repay it.
Editor’s Notes
A site for sore eyes
The Magazine’s loud print redesign gave us a good excuse to turn up the volume online.
Letters
Readers sound off
Alumni and friends write on UFO scholar, the state of the middle class, the term “UChicago,” and the Magazine’s new look.
On the Agenda
The business of Booth
Business-school dean Sunil Kumar discusses Chicago Booth’s global programs, its new television studio, and its relationship with the rest of the University.
C Vitae
Preserve and protect
Vince Michael, AB’82, AM’82, builds community by saving buildings.
UChicago Journal
No truck with that
A Law School clinic wants to remove the restrictions on Chicago’s mobile chefs.
Accelerator brakes
High-energy physics experiments at Fermilab’s groundbreaking Tevatron have run their course.
Faculty research
Difficulty equals quality, an earthquake creates icebergs, the treatment of Medicare and Medicaid patients, how mothers’ job losses affect children, and penguins’ essential sense of smell.
Trial narrative
Nina Burleigh, AM’87, covered Italy’s Amanda Knox case and the global obsession with the beautiful "female monster."
A historian’s first draft
Clare Gillis, AB’98, spent 44 days in captivity while working as a freelance journalist in Libya.
After the attacks
A new survey examines how American opinions have shifted since 9/11.
University news
Communication and compassion in medicine, extending the law and economics connection, a new shelf life at the Reg, and an Obama adviser leads the University’s civic engagement.
Seminary Co-op at 50
The iconic Hyde Park bookstore reaches a milestone—and prepares for a move.
An artful life
Mandeep Bedi, AB’10, who died trying to help his injured wife, left a colorful legacy.
Reclamation project
Karen Reimer, MFA’98, embroiders ordinary items to add rich new meaning to the familiar.
Wood if they could
For less than the price of a bowl of noodles, Ukiyo-e woodblock prints let tourists experience the joys of Japanese city life.
Freedom writer
A homebody with a hitchhikers’s heart, Bonnie Jo Campbell’s stories cover a lot of ground.
Word play
Bernard Sahlins, AB’43, lets the actors and the poets bring his spare performances to life.
Peer Review
Releases
The Magazine lists a selection of general-interest books, films, and albums by alumni. For additional alumni releases, use the link to the Magazine’s Goodreads bookshelf.
University obituaries
Recent faculty, staff, and alumni obituaries.
Alumni Essay
Song of myself
For Hassan S. Ali, AB’07, karaoke embodies the personality he discovered in college.
Lite of the Mind
Phoenixflake
Ready for winter? Use our pattern to snip a phoenix-shaped paper snowflake.