Category: Alumni

  • Meet an Alum – Bradley Gardner (MA ’06)

    What was your favorite part of MAPH? What do you remember most fondly about MAPH? MAPH gives you a lot of time to do things you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise, and think about things you’re unlikely to think about later. A lot of the overarching goals of my work – finding persuasive ways…

  • Michael Robbins’ Poetry Reviewed in n+1

    Michael Robbins, whose poetry has appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry, Harper’s, and Boston Review among other places, graduated from MAPH in 2004.  His MAPH thesis focused on lyric subjectivity after language poetry. He has since earned a PhD in English from UChicago, published two books, and published critical articles and continues to teach creative writing. Frank Guam just…

  • Meet an Alum – Jeff Gilliland (MAPH ’13)

    Below is a blog post from Jeff Gilliland, who during his MAPH year, completed a creative thesis and worked for the Illinois Humanities Council through a Maph Summer Internship (which you can read about here!). Jeff currently works in Washington D.C. as the Communications Associate at Young Playwrights’ Theater. Bringing Arts Education to Life AfterMAPH The…

  • Meet an Alum- Jenny Gavacs (MA ’05)

      What was your favorite thing about your MAPH year? Although Jay’s eyebrows and Candace’s cats are up there, I think my favorite times were when I was sitting in Third World Cafe writing and other MAPHers would end up coming by to share their work or talk over the Core readings.   What were…

  • Meet an Alum- Alissa Smith (MA ’12)

    Check out this interview with Alissa Smith, who graduated from MAPH in 2012. Since MAPH, Alissa has worked in the nonprofit sector and speaks about her experiences in MAPH and how they lead her to her current position. What is your current job? I currently serve as the Corporate and Foundation Relations Manager for City…

  • EdTech: Emily Schickli(’14) on her Internship with PinkThink

    Instead of writing about my experience as the MAPH-sponsored Programs and Partnerships Intern at the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) this summer, I thought I would share a second, unique-to-UChicago opportunity that I enjoyed. In addition to interning at IHC, I worked as a content writer/editor for PinkThink, a startup formed in 2013 by Booth student…

  • Hannah on History: 2014 MAPH History Museum Internship

    From day one of the program, my fellow MAPHers and I were told about the coveted MAPH Internships and what great opportunities they offered upon graduation; just nine months away! I was eager to apply to these internships (indeed I planned on applying to ALL of them; I had jobs on my mind from the…

  • Moments that Make a Museum: Mike O’Malley (’14) on his Internship with the Smart Museum

    “That’s my claim to fame,” he said. “I took Frida Kahlo to the movies.” It was 1937. Leon Despres, Chicago alderman and activist, was visiting Mexico, sitting on a couch chatting in French with Diego Rivera while the artist painted a portrait of Despres’s wife, Marian. “I sat there in the morning while he painted…

  • Continued Education in Chicago: Ellen Mueller (’14) on her Internship with The Odyssey Project

    I began the Odyssey Project internship knowing its reputation for being a choose-your-own adventure process and an exercise in multitasking. I left the summer feeling like the internship had transformed in ways I never had imagined. Unlike the interns before me, I didn’t teach a class as part of my summer internship, but I was,…

  • Learning How to Read with Browne & Miller: Emily Nordling on her MAPH Internship

    Before my internship with Browne and Miller Literary Associates, I had glimpsed the world of publishing from a few different angles. However, from my first day setting foot in the historic Fine Arts building in downtown Chicago, I discovered that my work as writer, editor, and reviewer barely gleaned the surface of this vast and…