To: Senior Administrators
From: Katherine Baicker, Provost
Subject: Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Reappointment
Date: May 20, 2025
I am delighted to share that Tara Zahra, the Hanna Holborn Gray Professor of East European History and the College, has been reappointed as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, effective July 1, 2026.
Tara will take a one-year faculty research leave when her current appointment concludes on June 30, 2025. During this time, David 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, will serve as interim director.
Since becoming director in 2022, Tara has brought visionary leadership to the Collegium. Under her direction, the Collegium has expanded its global reach through strengthened connections with the University’s network of global centers and the launch of the Global Solutions Initiative, which brings arts and research leaders to campus. She has established new partnerships, deepened public engagement with dynamic programming, and championed the integration of visual and performing arts into collaborative research. With clarity, creativity, and a bold sense of purpose, Tara has articulated an ambitious vision for advancing the Collegium’s impact in the years ahead.
Tara 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. Tara holds a PhD and MA in history from the University of Michigan and a BA in history and economics from Swarthmore College.
David brings deep interdisciplinary expertise and longstanding engagement with the Collegium, including service on its founding Faculty Advisory Board and collaboration on several major research initiatives. A scholar of German opera, performance theory and practice, as well as the intersections of theater, opera, and film, he has held multiple leadership roles at the University. His experience at the crossroads of scholarship and the arts makes him an ideal choice to guide the Collegium during Tara’s leave.
Please join me in congratulating Tara on her reappointment and thanking David for stepping into this important interim role.