Prof. Tara Zahra has been reappointed as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago, Provost Katherine Baicker announced. Her new term will begin July 1, 2026.
Zahra will take a one-year faculty research leave after her current appointment ends June 30, 2025. During her leave, Prof. David Levin will serve as the Collegium’s interim director.
“Tara brings extraordinary creativity, rigor and vision to the Neubauer Collegium,” Baicker said. “She has expanded its global footprint, deepened its interdisciplinary collaborations and championed new ways to engage the public with research. Her reappointment ensures continued momentum for this vital hub of inquiry and exchange.”
Zahra, the Hanna Holborn Gray Professor of East European History and the College, has led initiatives that have expanded the Collegium’s international presence and interdisciplinary reach since she began serving as director in 2022. Under her leadership, the Collegium launched the Global Solutions Initiative, which brings leading artists and researchers from around the world to campus. She also strengthened ties to UChicago’s global centers, developed new partnerships, and elevated the role of the visual and performing arts in collaborative research.
Zahra is a leading scholar of modern European history whose research and teaching focus on transnational histories of migration, nationalism, the family and humanitarianism. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in history from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in history and economics from Swarthmore College.
“The Neubauer Collegium is an extraordinary hub of collaboration and innovation on this campus, and a critical source of support in a difficult time for humanistic research nationally,” Zahra said. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to continue this work in the coming years.”
Levin, the Alice H. and Stanley G. Harris Jr. Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Germanic Studies and Cinema & Media Studies, the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies, and the College, brings extensive interdisciplinary expertise to his interim role and has been deeply engaged with the Collegium since its inception, including service on its founding Faculty Advisory Board. A scholar of German opera, performance theory and practice, as well as the intersections of theater, opera and film, Levin has collaborated on major research initiatives and held multiple leadership roles at the University. His experience at the crossroads of scholarship and the arts positions him exceptionally well to lead the Collegium during Zahra’s leave.
