UChicago Arts & Humanities Day 2025

What makes us human? On October 18, Chicago Humanities and the University of Chicago Arts & Humanities Division join forces to explore this timeless question through a dynamic series of events. For more than four decades, UChicago’s distinguished faculty have hosted an annual Humanities Day each fall — presenting vibrant humanistic research and teaching to a broad audience. Together, we’re expanding this beloved tradition, creating new opportunities to discover how the arts and humanities allow us to understand, individually and collectively, who we’ve been, who we are, and who we might become.

Celebrate 20 years of the worldwide sensation Freakonomics; Nick Offerman discusses coming up as an actor in Chicago; Harvard professor Stephanie Burt highlights the genius of Taylor Swift; bestselling author Amitav Ghosh on literature, empire, and the environment; acclaimed photographer Sally Mann details her creative career; Pulitzer Prize finalist Steven Pinker explores human psychology and "common knowledge"; Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber on academic free speech; Russian-American author Gary Shteyngart brings his signature blend of psyche and style as he discusses newest book; we partner with the Lyric Opera of Chicago to present a live musical excerpt from Medea, followed by a conversation with UChicago faculty; and Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Bad Feminist, reflects on the 10th anniversary of the iconic book.