A New Chapter for the Arts & Humanities at UChicago
In the spring of 2025, the president and provost of the University of Chicago announced the formal renaming of the Division of the Humanities to the Division of the Arts & Humanities.
This change, although subtle, reflects important developments since 1930 when the University’s fifth president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, created what was at the time a new administrative structure, establishing the undergraduate College and four graduate divisions: Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences.
For the past century, teaching and research in the humanities have remained central to the University’s transformative educational experience, as well as its stature as a leading global research university. In addition to its historical excellence in the humanities, the University has also seen a flowering of world-class artistic practice and production among the faculty in cinema and media studies, creative writing, music, theater and performance studies, and visual arts—a trend that has accelerated since the turn of the twenty-first century.
Across the University, the vibrancy of UChicago Arts, including Arts + Public Life, Court Theatre, Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, Logan Center for the Arts, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, Smart Museum, and UChicago Presents have positioned the University and the South Side of Chicago as a prominent national and global destination for the arts.
The new name, the Division of the Arts & Humanities, better reflects a more integrated, expansive, and outward-facing community of scholars and artists who embrace the full breadth of humanistic inquiry and creativity. The accompanying administrative changes will better align our arts units with academic departments, providing sites of collaboration to catalyze innovative explorations of history, theory, and practice within and across disciplines and forms.
Students graduating from the University in the spring and summer quarters of 2025 will receive their degrees from the Division of the Humanities, and incoming students in the fall of 2025 will matriculate in the Division of the Arts & Humanities.
Units across the university are currently updating references to the name of the division on digital properties and print collateral and will continue making those changes through the spring and summer quarters. In fall 2025, the division will relaunch its website to reflect the new name. If you are looking for more information about the nineteen graduate degree programs in the Division of the Arts & Humanities, or about our individual academic departments and interdisciplinary research centers, please visit our current site.
In the meantime, I invite you to read below some of the highlights from this academic year, and to join our mailing list to receive timely updates about news and events from the division.
Deborah L. Nelson
Dean of the Arts & Humanities and Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English and the College
Celebrating the Arts & Humanities at UChicago
Click on the stories below (or click on the arrows to scroll left or right) to read more about just a few of the highlights from the current academic year in the Division of the Arts & Humanities.
Join our Mailing List
Keep up to date on news and events happening throughout the Division of the Arts & Humanities. You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter and regular events announcements.