The Scherer Center Seminar

The Scherer Center Seminar, led by Eric Slauter, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Karla Scherer Center, surveys the rich and varied multidisciplinary study of American culture as it is currently practiced at the University of Chicago. Seminar members read and discuss recent work by faculty specialists from the Humanities, the Social Sciences, the Booth School of Business, the Divinity School, and the Law School at Chicago. During the last half of seminar meetings, the authors join students for a focused discussion of their work.

Fall 2025:

AMER 50001/1 [44513]: Multidisciplinary Study of American Culture

This proseminar surveys the advanced study of American culture as it is currently practiced at the University of Chicago. Seminar members read and discuss recent work by and then meet with faculty specialists from departments and programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences as well as from the the Divinity School, the Law School, and the Booth School of Business. Though interested in how different disciplines frame questions and problems, we will be attuned to convergences in themes, approaches, and methods. During the last half of our seminar meetings, our authors will join us for a focused discussion of their work. Many of our guests will also deliver public lectures the day before visiting the seminar. 

Published Alumni:

Philippa Koch,

Course of God’s Providence

 

Sarah Imhoff,

Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism

The Lives of Jessie Stampter

 

Adrian Anagnost,

Spatial Orders, Social Forms

 

Kathryn Schumaker,

Troublemakers

 

Alda Balthrop-Lewis,

Thoreau’s Religion

 

Shaul Mitelpunkt,

Israel in the American Mind

 

Hannah Brooks-Motl,

Earth

 

Korey Garibaldi,

Impermanent Blackness