This has a long history, too long. It remains a question what place studio art, photography, video and film production could have at Chicago. The new dean of the humanities division, Janel Mueller, and I have already begun talking about this as a shared concern. I myself would like to imagine a moment where the creative and performing arts have a bigger place in every undergraduate's life. I don't mean the art history major, I mean the chemistry major, someone for whom two courses in creative writing or in video production might provide a completely new opening to the humanities.
Visual culture is something much attended to at Chicago, in several departments.
But when you're asked to draw, to paint, or to shoot photographs, you gain new insight into the visual world. Literary Objects in America . The bulk of the research is done, and much of the book now exists in draft form. If I hadn't been over that hurdle, I couldn't have accepted the job, because I wouldn't have been able to complete the project from this office. Now the frame is there, and much of the picture.