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Created by The University of Chicago Yuen Campus in Hong Kong, The Course is a compilation of personal conversations with professors from The University of Chicago. Each episode features one professor, where they talk about who they are outside lecture halls, the path that led them to become a professor, and all the ups and downs along the way. For curious students and anyone interested, here’s The Course on career stories as told by professors from UChicago.
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Professor Nancy Kawalek, from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, is the Director of STAGE: Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration, a laboratory that creates and develops new theater, film, games, and other artistic endeavors inspired by science and technology. Professor Kawalek's early career as an actor and her interest in science merged at STAGE and continued to grow at the University of Chicago. Tune in to listen to her sharing about her career path and how she became a University of Chicago professor.
Professor Amie Wilkinson, from the Department of Mathematics, studies smooth dynamical systems, ergodic theory, and mathematical chaos. Although she met an unsupportive advisor in college, her love for pure maths stayed strong, and she saw herself pursuing graduate school even more while working after college. Tune in to hear Professor Wilkinson talks about her career path and how she became a University of Chicago professor.
Professor John Mark Hansen is one of the nations leading scholars of American politics. His research focuses on interest groups, citizen activism, and public opinion, and he has written two books: Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America, which he wrote with Steven Rosenstone, and Gaining Access: Congress and the Farm Lobby. He is also the Interim Chair for the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Listen to his career story of becoming a UChicago Professor in this episode.
Chibueze Amanchukwu is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering. His group works on energy-related challenges, with a specific focus on understanding how electrolytes can control electrochemical processes in batteries and catalysis. His work has been recognized with the NSF CAREER Award, the DOE Early Career Award, and the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar Award, amongst others. Tune in to hear Professor Amanchukwu's insights into becoming a professor and his dreams of impacting the world with his research.
Dipesh Chakrabarty is currently the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College in the Department of History. Chakrabarty’s current students in History and SALC work on a variety of topics, including: 20th-century Kerala, prostitution in British India, India-China relations in the 1950s, modern Islam in Bangladeshi history, and youth culture in colonial Bengal, among other subjects. Professor Chakrabarty talks about his career path and how he became a University of Chicago professor.
Associate Professor Robert Gulotty, from the Department of Political Science, researches the relationship between national governments and global markets. As a rule follower, Professor Gulotty was initially attracted by potential careers with structure and stability. However, he found the life of the mind and the freedom of learning anything much more appealing in college and eventually decided to dive into academia. Tune in to hear more about Professor Gulotty's career path and how he became a University of Chicago professor.
Associate Professor Jennifer Iverson, from the Department of Music, is a twentieth-century music scholar specializing in electronic music, avant-gardism, sound studies, and disability studies. As a FirstGen, Professor Iverson is drawn to supporting students in finding their belonging in the world through music. Listen to her share her career path to becoming a University of Chicago professor and her aspirations as an educator.
In this episode, Shaoda Wang, assistant professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, shares his career path in the field of applied economics. He discusses his initial love for physics and later finds the connection between physics and economics and an early mentor who made him certain he wanted to become an economist, with hopes of making this world a better place by researching and educating future policymakers about developmental and environmental economics with a regional focus on China.
Judith Zeitlin is a Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Professor Zeitlin’s research focuses on Ming-Qing literature, cultural history, and the arts, specializing in Chinese opera and the classical tale. Her work combines literary history with other disciplines, such as performance, music, visual and material culture, medicine, gender studies, and film. She is also a faculty member on the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies. In this episode, she shares how a little luck is needed when building her career, along with lots of passion and hard work.
Professor Jasmin Tiro is a professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago She is the Associate Director of Cancer Prevention and Population Science at the NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Chicago. Her program of research identifies multi-level determinants of cancer prevention and early detection behaviors. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods to develop, test, and implement interventions. In 2014, Professor Tiro received the Outstanding Mentorship Award from the Center for Translational Medicine at UT Southwestern. In this episode, you will hear her share how her passion for science and experiments led her to the field of Public Health.
Professor Peter Littlewood is the chair of the University of Chicago's Department of Physics. He was formerly the Associate Lab Director and then Lab Director at Argonne National Lab. Professor Littlewood also serves on the advisory boards of several institutes, including the Faraday Institution, the Simons Foundation, the Paul Scherer Institute, the Carnegie Institute for Science, and the Max Planck Institutes at Halle and Hamburg. In this episode, he shares his journey to creating and teaching as a scholar and his aspirations for the future.
In this episode, Associate Professor Leslie Rogers from the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics talks about her path to becoming a UChicago Professor specializing in exoplanets. From stargazing as a child in Nova Scotia to graduate school at MIT to realizing at CalTech that she had a passion for working with students, Leslie Rogers describes a path where, at so many points, "the stars aligned."
Professor Genevieve Lakier, from the University of Chicago Law School, teaches and writes about freedom of speech and American constitutional law. Her work examines the changing meaning of freedom of speech in the United States, the legislatures' role in safeguarding free speech values, and the fight over freedom of speech on social media platforms. Professor Lakier talks about her circuitous career path and how she found her niche in the First Amendment and became a University of Chicago law professor.
The University of Chicago Assistant Professor Wilma A. Bainbridge, from the Department of Psychology, leads the Brain Bridge Lab, which focuses on examining the bridge between perception and memory, through the lens of psychophysical experiments, neuroimaging, and drawing studies. In this episode, she talks about her undergraduate experience as a professional guinea pig, studying abroad in Japan, learning languages, and finding her way to researching memory. Professor Bainbridge's career path to becoming a University of Chicago professor continues to evolve as she grows in her multiple roles as a mentor, researcher, mother, and many more.
Associate Professor Paul Poast from the Department of Political Science teaches and researches international relations and is a foreign policy fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a world affairs columnist for World Politics Review. Professor Poast talks about his career path, from potentially becoming a lawyer and athletic coach to becoming a University of Chicago professor. He compares being an academic to running a small business and credits his father for his entrepreneurial skills. Listen to the many anecdotes Professor Poast shares in this episode.
In this episode, organic chemistry Professor Scott Snyder discusses his career path to becoming a faculty at the University of Chicago. He describes science as "in his DNA" and discusses first falling in love with organic chemistry as an undergrad, a fruitful Ph.D. experience, and a professional career path that has included teaching at Columbia University, Scripps Research Institute, and now at the University of Chicago. Listen to Professor Snyder share how he juggles his various hats from co-authoring textbooks, leading a research lab, and working in an administrative role, but continues to enjoy organic chemistry though movies, the kitchen, and exercising.
Entering college with little idea of what she wanted to major in, Assistant Professor Sarah Newman took various courses and discovered archeology as her main interest. As an archeologist in the Department of Anthropology, she continues her field trips and research on ancient Maya and Mesoamerica in hopes of understanding the various perspective of human, animal, and environmental relationships throughout the years. Share Professor Newman's enthusiasm for the many new opportunities and collaborative discussions she gets from being a faculty member.
Assistant Professor of Law, Adam A. Davidson, majored in theatre, minored in business, and taught as a substitute teacher but discovered his true passion for law when googling for answers. Listen to this episode to find out what Professor Davidson was searching for, which eventually led him onto a completely different career path. As a law professor now, he finds fulfillment by contributing to the legal system through his research, producing knowledge, and having a role in the legal academy and mentoring students.
Louis Block Professor of Public Health Sciences, R. Tamara Konetzka, had an unusual career path that took her to various roles and places before finding her true passion in public health, health economics, and health policy. In this episode, where she talks about her research experience and career stories, she also emphasizes the importance of finding the right fit, be it the right Ph.D. school, the right job, the right research topic; fit is a recurring theme that guided her along the way. As a leading expert in her field, Professor Konetzka continues her work to mentor students, find evidence in research, influence policy-makers, and make better changes for society.
Inspired by his own family history and the neighborhood he grew up in, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Ryan Cecil Jobson, found anthropology as the tool for him to systematically understand the collective human emotions. Along the way of his personal, academic, and career persuasion, he has found significant mentors who taught and supported him as he trailblazed a new research path for himself. Listen to his story of making sense of human history, emotions, climate, natural resources, legacy economies, and many more in the Caribbean.
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