Munch and Medicine

During artist Edvard Munch’s life (1863–1944), X-rays, germ theory, antibiotics, and contraception were discovered, ushering in the age of modern medicine and a new medical perspective on the body. The recent exhibition Lifeblood at MUNCH in Oslo, Norway, curated by Allison Morehead, PhD’07, a professor in the Department of Art History and Art Conservation at Queen’s University, placed Munch’s work within this context. Morehead staged Munch’s work, which often features medical subjects—self-portraits of the artist when he was sick, sketches of his physician father’s patients—alongside materials used in medical research and treatment, like a wooden baby incubator, a “spit flask” for tuberculosis patients, and Munch’s sister’s silver hearing aids.

Righteous recognition

In July Matthew McCarthy, JD’08, a lawyer based in Silver Spring, MD, won posthumous recognition for two people who saved Jews during World War II. Frans Gerardus Swidde and Johanna Timmers, great-grandparents of a colleague of McCarthy’s, sheltered and protected their neighbors’ daughters, Rebecca and Sellie Weijl, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. After several years of archival research, McCarthy found the firsthand testimony from survivors required by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, to honor Swidde and Timmers as Righteous Among the Nations—non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

In the director’s chair

Jonathan Fine, AB’91, began his role as director general of Vienna’s KHM-Museumsverband, Austria’s largest museum association. The association consists of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art); the Theatermuseum (theater history); and the Weltmuseum Wien (anthropology), where he was director from 2021 to 2023. In addition to his degree from the College, Fine holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cambridge, a master’s degree from Stanford, a JD from Yale, and a PhD in art history from Princeton. A scholar of African art, Fine has advised Austrian and German cultural institutions on policies regarding the care and repatriation of art and objects from colonial contexts.

Contributing author

In December Samira Ahmed, AB’93, MAT’93, received the Adam Morgan Literary Leadership Award at the 2025 Chicago Review of Books Awards in recognition of her contributions to Chicago’s literary scene. Ahmed is the author of over a dozen books, including the young adult novels Love, Hate & Other Filters (Soho Teen, 2018); Internment (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019); and This Book Won’t Burn (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2024). Ahmed is also a leader of Authors Against Book Bans, a coalition of more than 5,000 people from the publishing world who work against efforts to ban books.

Latter-day leader

On October 14 Dallin H. Oaks, JD’57, was named the 18th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was previously a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—the second-highest leadership body in the Church of Jesus Christ—since 1984. Before becoming a leader in the church, Oaks served as a professor in the University of Chicago Law School from 1961 to 1971, president of Brigham Young University from 1971 to 1980, and a justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 1980 to 1984.

Lozano in a new light

Conceptual artist Lee Lozano, AB’51 (1930–99), is the subject of a new exhibition and book. Hard Handshake, at Hauser & Wirth gallery in downtown Los Angeles, is the first major exhibition of her work in the city. It features over 100 drawings Lozano made between 1959 and 1968, a period that spans her time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a trip to Europe, and her move to New York, where she turned to an increasingly private artistic practice. The provocative, often humorous illustrations, many of which were rarely exhibited during her lifetime, include self-portraits, anatomical studies, and sketches for paintings. The book, In the Studio: Lee Lozano (Hauser & Wirth, 2025), by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, traces Lozano’s career through her work and other archival material.