News & Events
NEUBAUER FAMILY COLLEGIUM PROJECTS ANNOUNCED
The Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago has selected an inaugural cohort of 18 ambitious faculty research projects that tackle complex questions through cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Divinity School is pleased to announce that among the faculty represented are Paul Mendes-Flohr, the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought, as well as several of our associated faculty members, including Professors Omar McRoberts (Sociology), Philip V. Bohlman (Music), Daniel Brudney (Philosophy), and David Schloen (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations).
Through its research initiatives and robust program of visiting Collegium Faculty Fellows, the Neubauer Collegium will unite scholars in the common pursuit of ideas of grand scale and broad scope, making the University of Chicago a global destination for top scholars engaged in humanistic research while also pioneering efforts to share that research with the public.
Prof. Mendes-Flohr will be a member of the "Working Group on Political Theology." This project will bring faculty from classics, political science, sociology, anthropology, divinity, Germanic studies, and English together with invited visiting scholars for bi-weekly workshops to define and refine a coherent agenda for a long-term, trans-disciplinary research project on political theology, which is a modality of inquiry that has recently re-emerged across the social sciences and humanities. Political theology examines the orientation of politics to guiding values, and searches for the enduring historical influence of theological ideas on political concepts and the formation of political institutions.
David Nirenberg, the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought, is the founding faculty director of the Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society. He commented that "whether or not religious values should provide a foundation or an orientation for politics is a burning question in many societies, including our own. With the Divinity School at its center, and a wide array of faculty across the campus who study the influence of religion on political concepts and the formation of political institutions, The University of Chicago is a natural place to think about these questions, so we are particularly excited about the potential of the Working Group on Political Theology to focus our many parallel inquiries in this crucial field."
The truly collaborative nature of The Working Group, bringing together eleven UChicago faculty from eight disciplines, is highly representative of the Neubauer Collegium's goals. The Collegium is named in honor of Joseph Neubauer and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer, whose landmark $26.5 million gift to the University is among the largest in support of the humanities and social sciences in the institution's history. The gift marks a new chapter in the Neubauer family's history of innovative philanthropy in support of scholars and groundbreaking research, designed to make a lasting impact.
To see the complete list of funded Neubauer Collegium initiatives, please vist http://neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu/initiatives-announced.
For a longer story on the Neubauer Collegium's announcement, please visit the News Office at https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/03/04/neubauer-collegium-selects-inaugural-research-projects.
