Home > Giving to Chicago > Why Give to Chicago?
Abigail Zitin
Why fellowship support is valuable
The Neubauer Fellowship was a critical factor in my decision to come to the University of Chicago. Chicago was my first choice in terms of its academic program, but entering graduate school in my late twenties, I was also concerned about practical issues: health insurance, for example. Chicago’s humanities department, unlike those of many of its peer institutions, cannot afford to subsidize insurance premiums for all PhD students. The fact that the Neubauer Fellowship covered this cost made the difference in my evaluation of my options. My fellowship allows me to concentrate on my coursework in the English department and plan for the teaching, research, and writing I will undertake in the years to come, without having to worry about financial security.
Why I chose Chicago
My mentors, from my high school teachers to my undergraduate advisor, had always spoken of Chicago as a unique, and uniquely intense, academic hub; consequently, it had taken on something of a mythical cast in my imagination. Gaining exposure to the University seemed as much an essential rite of passage as did choosing to live in New York City at an earlier stage in my life: both experiences involve committing oneself to a vital kind of difficulty. I have not been disappointed: my peers, as well as my professors, are brilliant, yet also extraordinarily generous, supportive, and engaging. The spirit of curiosity and intellectual rigor transcends individuals; it seems genuinely to permeate the institution and shape its ethos, which is, I think, a rare and valuable thing.
Plans for the future
The next five years will provide ample opportunities for writing and teaching here at Chicago; I hope to continue these pursuits as a professor after I complete my PhD.
About myself
I grew up outside of Boston, and then majored in Women’s and Gender Studies as an undergraduate at Columbia University. In my senior year, I won a university scholarship that funded two years of study at Cambridge University in England; while there, I completed a second bachelor’s degree, this one in English Literature. I was lucky, upon my return to New York in 2001, to find a job in the humanities. For three years, I worked as a lexicographer in the North American Editorial Unit of the Oxford English Dictionary. It was challenging and interesting work, but I missed the exchange of ideas that takes place in the classroom.
