September 2025: Faculty and Staff Accomplishments

Dean of the Wellness Center Joe Behen, Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Rob Flot, Professor Mark Jeffery, and Assistant Professor Vanessa Macaulay will all present at the Beyond the Spotlight: Supporting Every Student Athlete and Artist Symposium hosted by Texas Christian University. The virtual symposium runs October 20–21.

Professor, Adj. Eugenia Cheng’s book Unequal: The Math of When Things Do and Don't Add Up (Basic Books) was released in September, and received a positive review from the New York Times.

Professor, Adj. Dan Devening received a MacDowell Fellowship. Fellows were selected from a highly competitive pool of 1,697 applicants, with an acceptance rate of just nine percent.

Lecturer Lora Fosberg’s show I Love it Here, Let’s Leave; In Search of the Hill is on view at Zolla Lieberman Gallery in Chicago through October 11. The show features paintings, ceramics, sculptures, and hanging mobiles and has received a positive review from Newcity.

Lecturer Mary Griffin; Professor Mark Jeffery; Professor, Adj. Kelly F. Kaczynski; Presidential Professor Arnold J. Kemp; Professor, Adj. Kristin Mariani; Associate Professor Judd Morrissey; Lecturer Ruth Poor; and Professor Adrian Wong are all included in the group exhibition Murmurations on view through November 1 at Northern Michigan University’s DeVos Art Museum. The exhibition gathers the artists who participated in the last three years of Living in the Play: NIDO, a two week residency in Monte Castello Di Vibio, Italy, co-directed by Jeffery and Kaczynski as part of The Poor Farm Experiment, a residency and art space co-founded by Crown Family Professor in Painting and Drawing Michelle Grabner and artist Brad Killam.

Professor Diana Guerrero-Maciá’s solo exhibition Strange Forest is on view at Traywick Contemporary through November 13. 

Associate Professor Salvador Jimenez’s solo exhibition Raíces & Resistencias is on view at Grounds For Sculpture in New Jersey. The exhibition will feature a large clay painting mural along with several ceramic installations, and it will be on view for the next two years. In addition, Jimenez will be showcasing two large bronze sculptures, Caminantes/Wayfarer and La Resistencia de los Nopales Híbridos: The Desert Whisperer. 

Operations Coordinator and Editorial Adviser Sophie Lucido Johnson’s book Kin: The Future of Family will be released on November 11.

Full-time Visiting Artist Mehreen (Lali) Khalid received the 2025–2026 Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts & Social Issues from Museum of Contemporary Photography in collaboration with Columbia College Chicago. She will be working in collaboration with the Council On American Islamic Relations Chicago.

Professor Shaurya Kumar’s Living Without the Gods exhibition at the South Asia Institute received positive reviews in Newcity and the Chicago Reader.

Professor, Adj. Eric Leonardson launched Return to the Perimeter, an augmented reality soundwalk conceived in collaboration with Cukrana Gallery in Slovenia. Designed for use with a participant’s own mobile device, the experience employs GPS-triggered audio to spatially align virtual sound elements with the physical environment.

Assistant Professor Dan Miller’s interactive light art installation Mutual Light was on view at the Spectrum Theater in Grand Rapids, Michigan as part of ArtPrize 2025.

Professor William J. O’Brien published “Flying Your Own Freak Flag: How a Unicycle Drill Team Taught Me to Stay Upright, Stand Out, and Become Myself” in Fruitslice: A Queer Quarterly. His exhibition William J. O'Brien: From Here to There will be on view at Governor's State University Gallery through November 15.

Lecturer Anjulie Rao has been named an editorial advisor for the forthcoming Chicago Review of Architecture. Published by the New York Review of Architecture, the issue was awarded a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and will make its debut this upcoming winter.

Professor David Raskin published an ekphrastic poem, “[Instead of Apples and Honey, I]” in Pinch, the literary journal of the University of Memphis.

Professor, Adj. Cathie Ruggie Saunders’ exhibition That Which Remains was on view at SXU Gallery. It included letterpress prints, handmade artist's books, and mixed media drawings.  

Professor Katrin Schnabl contributed a sculpture created in collaboration with alum Annie Guitteau (BFA 2015) to Forum 301’s Inaugural Forum Showcase, Reimagining Everyday, on view through November 2.

Assistant Professor Aliza Shvarts was included in November Magazine's issue on Pedagogy, in conversation with Drew Pugliese. She was also invited by the performance department at her alma mater, New York University, to give an artist talk titled “Dark Play” on November 13.

Alsdorf Professor of Art History Nora Taylor gave a public lecture which looked at a number of artists from Southeast Asia who use historical documents in their work at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

Associate Professor Jade Yumang was interviewed by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC) for the IAC Muse Interviews series.