Brady received a PhD from the Department of English at the University of Chicago in March 2015. He teaches and writes about African literature and the environmental humanities, as well as postcolonial studies, world literature, urban studies, oceanic literatures and the history of children’s literature. He joined the CCT and the Department of English as a Humanities Teaching Fellow in the Fall of 2015.
Marcus Lampert
Humanities Teaching Fellow, 2016-2017
Marcus Lampert received his PhD in December 2015 from the Department of German Studies at the University of Chicago after defending his dissertation entitled "Infinite Mind: Morality, Self-Expression, and Imagination in German Idealist Thought." This project examines Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s philosophy of mind from the 1790s and the influence that this philosophy had on two of Fichte’s contemporaries, the essayist and language theorist Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Romantic poet Novalis. His research in general is focused on German literature and philosophy around 1800, particularly the relationship between German Idealism and German Romanticism. Marcus has taught and continues to teach numerous first-, second-, and third-year German language courses at the University of Chicago. In the Spring Quarter 2016, he will also be teaching in the Humanities Core.
Katherine Pukinskis
Humanities Teaching Fellow, 2016-2017
Katherine Pukinskis received her PhD in Composition June 2016 from the Department of Music at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation was a large-scale composition for choir and chamber orchestra entitled "And it was Quiet." The work focused on the processing of grief through music, as it juxtaposed the liturgical text of Mary grieving the crucifixion of Jesus with a contemporary poem from Libby Chaney, whose son died in a car accident a decade ago. Dr. Pukinskis's scholarly research revolves around notions of nationalism and cultural identity, diaspora, traditional folk and choral music, and the twentieth-century histories of Latvia and the Baltic nations. Katherine has taught in the Music Department since 2015 and will also be teaching in the Humanities Core beginning in Fall 2016.
Daniel Nichanian
Social Sciences Teaching Fellow, 2016-2017
Daniel Nichanian is a political theorist who received his PhD in September 2016 from the Political Science Department at the University of Chicago. His dissertation, Seizing a Seat at the Table: Participatory Politics in the Face of Disqualification, examines how people work to contribute to the business of government in situations where they are not recognized as having the proper qualifications to do so. His research interests include democratic theory, political participation, American and French political history and thought, and the role of expertise in democratic government. He has taught courses on the history of political thought and on contemporary democratic theory. He holds a B.A. from Yale University (2008) and an M.A. from Université Paris VII-Diderot (2010). He grew up in Paris and in New York.
Nora Taplin
Social Sciences Teaching Fellow, 2016-2017
Nora will receive her PhD in the Sociology Department at the University of Chicago in December 2016. Her research and teaching interests include urban sociology, race and the sociology of technology. More specifically, her current work investigates how African-American households make decisions about housing in the context of a racially segregated metropolitan region. She is working on a book based on this research, titled Grasping at the American Dream: The Home Ownership Process for Middle-Income African Americans in a Racially Segregated Metropolitan Region. She joined the CCT and the Department of Sociology as a Teaching Fellow in Fall 2016. She will be teaching the Power, Identity and Resistance Core Sequence and Sociology of Social Media.
