Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

U. of I. scholar chosen to lead Chicago Humanities Festival

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Matti Bunzl, the director of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, a unit in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois, has been appointed as the next artistic director of The Chicago Humanities Festival, the largest humanities festival in the U.S. The appointment will be effective at the conclusion of the 2010 festival, which will run Oct. 24-Nov. 14.

Bunzl will succeed Lawrence “Ren” Weschler, who has served as artistic director for four years but plans to step down at the conclusion of this year’s festival to focus on his literary career. Weschler will continue in a consultative role as artistic director emeritus.

Bunzl, who joined the festival as associate artistic director in January while Weschler was on sabbatical, was responsible for organizing the 2010 festival, selecting about 35 of the nearly 100 programs that will be presented at 20 venues throughout Chicago this year.

Themed “The Body,” the 2010 festival comprises lectures, panel discussions, film screenings and performances on various topics, including health care and immigration policy, representations of doctors on television, tattoos, mummies, food anthropology and torture.

“It’s the biggest festival of its kind in the country, and central to Chicago’s intellectual and cultural life, so I wanted our campus to be involved in it, and to me it was like a dream to work with them,” Bunzl said about his past involvement with the CHF.

On the faculty of the U. of I. since 1998, Bunzl is a professor of anthropology, Germanic languages and literatures, history, and Jewish culture and society, among other disciplines. He served as the director of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities from 2003-2007 and has been the director of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society since 2008. He will continue with his appointments at the U. of I. while organizing the CHF.

“They like the artistic director to be rooted at an institution because they want the festival to be in partnership with the academy,” Bunzl said. “So there’s precedent for the artistic director’s job being done on a part-time basis.”

In addition to the artistic director and board of directors, the CHF has a staff of more than 20 people and an overall budget of about $3 million.

Bunzl said he won’t be taking a salary as artistic director, but asked the CHF to give the funds that the organization has earmarked for the position to the U. of I. instead, thereby compensating the university for the time he will spend working on the festival.

One of the most prominent venues for the public humanities in the U.S., the CHF serves as a conduit for translating humanities scholarship from the academy to the public, Bunzl said. “This is incredibly important both in terms of content, because we need to explain to the public what we do, but also politically. The humanities have an important role to play in educating our citizenry and in continuing to know and appreciate what is great – and not so great – in our culture, the cultures of the world and history.”

Several faculty members from the U. of I.’s Urbana campus will be among the presenters at this year’s festival:

• Luke Batten, a professor of photography in the School of Art + Design, is among the artists who will lead tours through eight exhibitions at galleries in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. The 90-minute tours will begin hourly from noon until 4 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 13.

• Martin Manalansan, a professor of anthropology and of Asian American Studies among other appointments, and Mary Weismantel, of Northwestern University, will co-present “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: An Anthropologist’s View.”

Manalansan and Weismantel will examine how food gives meaning to our lives, its place in the global economy and the blending of taste with the other senses. The presentation, to be held 2-3 p.m. on Nov. 7, will be in Ruggles Hall at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St. General admission is $5, free for students and teachers.

• John Polk, a professor of anthropology, and his former postgraduate adviser, Daniel Lieberman, chair and professor of human evolutionary at Harvard University, will co-present their research on the evolution of the human gait and bipedalism. The lecture, “Why We Run,” will be held 10-11 a.m. on Nov. 14 in the Heller Auditorium at Francis W. Parker School, 2233 N. Clark St., Chicago. General admission is $10, students and teachers $5.

• Gene Robinson, a professor of entomology and of neuroscience at Illinois as well as the University Swanlund Chair and director of the Bee Research Facility, will discuss his research on honey bees and its implications for research on human genes and behavior. The lecture, “What Honey Bees Can Teach Us about Human Nature,” will be held 3-4 p.m. Nov. 13 in the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. General admission is $5; the lecture is free for students and teachers.

• Paula Treichler, who holds appointments in several units at Illinois, including the College of Media, the College of Medicine, and Gender and Women’s Studies, will discuss the condom’s influence on the history of sexuality and its representations. Her lecture, “The History of the Condom,” will be held 3-4 p.m. on Nov. 6. Treichler’s lecture, which is presented in partnership with IPRH, will be at the U. of I. at Chicago Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Road. General admission is $5, free for students and teachers.

More information about the festival and presenters – as well as Bunzl’s blog as artistic director – is available on the CHF website.

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