Fundamentals alumni have found success in a wide array of careers. Our graduates go on to become medical professionals, lawyers, academics, journalists, religious leaders, public servants, teachers, and more. Others have pursued advanced degrees in classics, English, comparative literature, Slavic, history, philosophy, social thought, theology, religious studies, clinical psychology, political science, development economics, mathematics, film studies, education, and many other fields.
Below are just a few updates from our alumni.
Conor Bulkeley-Krane, AB '20
Fundamentals and German
Fundamentals Question: What is the non-propositional form of knowledge offered by art?
Conor is a recipient of the Fulbright Austria Combined Award 2020/21 and serves as a researcher at the Sigmund Freud Museum and foreign language assistant at Musik Gymnasium Wien.
Ariella Carmell, AB '19
Fundamentals Question: What does it mean to be inhuman?
Ariella was awarded the 2019 Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting, had a play virtually staged by the Los Angeles-based Blank Theatre in November 2020, and was recently been published in Alma and is forthcoming in the Sierra Nevada Review. Ariella is currently working at Barnes & Noble while applying to grad school for creative writing.
Jonathon Catlin, AB '15
Fundamentals and Jewish Studies
Fundamentals Question: What is the human response to catastrophe?
Recipient of the first annual Jamie Redfield Prize for Excellence in Fundamentals
Jonathon is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in History and Interdisciplinary Humanities at Princeton University and is writing a dissertation on the intellectual history of the concept of "catastrophe" in twentieth-century German and Jewish thought focused on the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Since graduating from the Fundamentals program, Jonathon earned an MA in Philosophy from KU Leuven, in Belgium, and won a Fulbright Award to Germany to undertake his dissertation research.
Hilary Clifford, AB '14
Fundamentals Question: How does deviance inform identity?
Hilary served in the Peace Corps in Mianyang, China. She also worked as a speechwriter to a senior member of Congress for three years. Hilary is now the Speechwriter to the President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Karlee Esmailli, AB '16
Fundamentals Question: What is a father?
Karlee has worked at Cards Against Humanity and Kickstarter and currently writes romance novels and dirty jokes for video games.
Joshua Fox, AB '13
Fundamentals Question: What is the ethical significance of vulnerability?
Joshua is a doctoral candidate in the UChicago philosophy department, and the author of papers in Apeiron and The Journal of Nietzsche Studies.
Blaize Gervais, AB '16
Fundamentals Question: Does good and evil exist beyond human experience?
Blaize is currently a PhD Candidate in Religious Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Charlotte Greenberg, AB '20
Fundamentals Question: Can one ever justifiably prioritize himself over ethics?
Charlotte is currently pursuing an MA in International Relations at the University of Chicago.
Alanna Heyer, AB '16
Fundamentals Question: What is the relationship between memory and personhood?
After graduating, Alanna worked as an analytics consultant for the US federal government before returning to school to pursue a Master of Public Policy. Since returning to school Alanna worked as a policy fellow for the Chicago Mayor's Early Learning team, developed a monitoring and evaluation strategy for an education nonprofit, and is currently interning with the UNHCR's education section in Copenhagen.
Ariella Katz AB '18
Fundamentals and Classics
Fundamentals Question: How does love help us understand politics?
Ariella is a recipient of the Amy Kass Prize for excellence in the Fundamentals Junior Paper: "Thirteen Conversations about Love," mentored by Professor Robert Bird.
Ariella is pursuing a JD at Harvard Law School. She spent a year in Russia as a Fulbright Fellow starting a creative writing program for formerly incarcerated people transitioning to life after prison. Her students published a book A Literary-criminal Almanac (Translit, 2018). Ariella also wrote about her experiences in Russia in Mouse Magazine, a journal started by Morley Musick, Fundamentals '18. After returning to the U.S., Ariella represented low-income families before the Massachusetts Department of Transition Assistance as an AmeriCorps Advocate at the Welfare Law Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services.
Max Miller, AB '19, MPP '20
Fundamentals Question: How can we achieve utopia?
Max completed a Master’s in Public Policy at UChicago in 2020 and is now working as a Nonprofit Consultant in Washington, D.C
Scott Singer, AB '19
Fundamentals and Economics
What are the sources of and means of effectively mediating cross-cultural tension?
Scott is pursuing an MPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford. His thesis explores how direct exposure to terrorism influences the strategic interaction among terrorists, civilians, and policymakers, using Israel as his primary case study. In addition to his research on terrorism, Scott is separately working on projects on trade dispute settlements and the supranational interaction of pro-democracy movements.
Ethan Stockwell, AB '16
Fundamentals Question: Why do we create art?
Ethan obtained his MFA in Film from ArtCenter College of Design and produces educational video content for online arts curricula.
Jasmine Throckmorton, AB '16
Fundamentals Question: What is the relationship between form and meaning for a reader?
Jasmine taught Western Literature at a high school, before going on a Fulbright to Ireland and earning a Masters in Creative Writing. Jasmine is now working on a short collection of poetry while managing the family equestrian business and teaching a few courses at a community college.