The University of Chicago

10/31/2026

Spooky season at UChicago🎃

10/30/2026

At UChicago, Halloween is full of traditions! 🎃 Every October, we see trick-or-treaters fill Harper Avenue, students welcome local families into Max Palevsky Residential Commons and the University Symphony Orchestra take the stage for its annual costumed holiday concert. Here’s a look at this year's performance, set to “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”

Learn more: http://ms.spr.ly/6186aFvZa

10/30/2026

October in retrospect.

10/30/2026

What happens after a near-death experience? A new UChicago Divinity School course explores firsthand accounts of the afterlife through the lens of anthropology and Islamic thought, opening new perspectives on human consciousness and spirituality.

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In new UChicago Divinity course, students read accounts of the briefly deceased through the lens of anthropology and Islamic thought

10/29/2026

At Chicago Critic’s Table, everyone’s a critic—and that’s a good thing. The paid four-month fellowship from UChicago’s Arts and Public Life brings established and emerging arts and culture writers together to sharpen their voices and connect with the city's artistic community. Applications are open through Nov. 1.

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UChicago Arts + Public Life fellowship is seeking its next cohort as it builds community and trains a new generation of cultural critics

10/28/2026

A team of UChicago undergraduates built an instrument and partnered with NASA to reach the stratosphere. In early September, their creation—PASCAL—flew 122,000 feet up to collect particles scientists have rarely studied.

Learn more about their launch: http://ms.spr.ly/6187a0nj5

10/27/2026

When people doubt the watchdogs, warnings about threats to democracy can fall flat. UChicago political scientists Robert Gulotty and Zhaotian Luo show how contested trust in oversight bodies such as the press and courts can make democratic backsliding harder to prevent.

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Citizens are less likely to hold politicians accountable when they doubt the intentions of third-party watchdogs

10/26/2026

To map a tumor, UChicago researchers borrowed an idea from flocks of birds—studying not just how individual cells behave but how they act together as a collective. Their new AI tools can now sift through huge amounts of data to read a tumor’s “floor plans” to predict how cancer patients will respond to treatment.

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Borrowing from the study of complex systems such as flocks of birds, researchers built AI methods to compare the spatial organization of tumors-a step toward personalized cancer treatment

10/26/2026

Autumn from above.

10/25/2026

A global helium shortage, fueled by the war in Iran, is threatening scientific research worldwide. At UChicago, lab director Joe Sachleben told "60 Minutes" how the institution is navigating supply shortages that could disrupt research into breast cancer treatments, immunotherapies and Alzheimer’s disease.

Your Sunday Watch:

Helium, most closely associated with party balloons, but critical f...

10/23/2026

The reason you can't truly multitask may be hardwired into your brain. A new UChicago study finds that the moment you're unsure what matters most, the brain starts mixing up details it should keep apart—dragging down how well you do everything.

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UChicago study finds performance on tasks suffers when brain has to sort input by importance

10/22/2026

Every year, UChicagoans scatter across the globe to chase their biggest questions. This past summer meant studying human origins in a South African cave, gig-economy labor in the Chinese mega-city of Chengdu and the reality of mourning along Colombia’s rivers—just three of the journeys behind our latest dispatches.

Read them here:

Dispatches span research on human evolution, gig labor economics and ethnography of state violence

10/21/2026

UChicago’s Gothic spires and old, twisting trees have sparked the imagination of great thinkers for generations—and they draw artists, too. On a nice day, you might catch Chicago-based painter Seamus Wray setting up his easel on the quad to capture that mystical, calming atmosphere in watercolor, oil and pastel.

10/21/2026

UChicago Arts & Humanities Day returns Nov. 7 for a day of thought-provoking conversations in partnership with Chicago Humanities. Join artists and scholars on campus to reexamine the stories that shape our world, including the legacy of the Declaration of Independence 250 years later.

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Annual celebration spotlights UChicago scholars in conversation with award-winning authors, artists and thinkers