Richard Neer is Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, Cinema & Media Studies and the College at the University of Chicago. From 2010 to 2018 he was the Executive Editor of Critical Inquiry, where he continues to serve as Co-Editor. He works at the intersection of aesthetics, archaeology and the history of art in multiple fields: Classical Greek sculpture, early modern French painting, theories of style, and mid-20th century cinema. His Ph.D. is from the University of California at Berkeley (1998), his A.B. from Harvard College (1991). He has received fellowships and awards from the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the American Academy in Rome. His most recent books are Pindar, Song and Space: Toward a Lyric Archaeology, co-authored with Leslie Kurke of UC Berkeley (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), winner of a 2019 PROSE award from the Association of American Publishers; an edited volume, Conditions of Visibility, (Oxford University Press, 2019); the second edition of Art and Archaeology of the Greek World: A New History, 2500–100 BCE (Thames & Hudson, 2018); and Davidson and His Interlocutors, a special issue of Critical Inquiry co-edited with Daniele Lorenzini (Winter 2019).  His next book, Painting as a Way of Life, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press.

Neer is a member of the international advisory board of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and the National Committee for the History of Art.

The Franke Institute is a site for invention in Humanities, an interdisciplinary crossroads for people, ideas, and disciplines to mix. Managing interdisciplinarity is an oxymoron, but we provide possible pathways (like the 'Big Problems' curriculum in the College). I'm at home in interdisciplinary Humanities - an M.A. from Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, my Ph.D. is in the History of Human Sciences (UChicago). I've taught in the Humanities Common Core as a Harper Instructor, and teach courses now on “Digital Cultures” and “Media Ecology.”

Mai is the Assistant Director for both the Center for Disciplinary Innovation and the Franke Institute for the Humanities. She manages proposals, courses, and stipends for the Center for Disciplinary Innovation (CDI) while overseeing the internal programs, Mellon grant-related projects, and Institute publications for the Franke. You might work with Mai if you are proposing a course to the CDI, giving a Franke Forum lecture, or working on a Franke Mellon grant. Mai received her M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago and her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture from Scripps College. Mai studies Improv at the Revival and voice/guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

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Rachel has been the Institute's part-time web and graphic designer for 18 years. She graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in English. She is a Chicago native and a performing singer-songwriter.