New dean of faculty and 13 new full-time faculty

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is pleased to welcome Martin Berger as the school’s dean of faculty and vice president of academic affairs in addition to 13 new full-time faculty members who have joined the school this fall.

Berger comes to SAIC from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he most recently served as the associate vice provost for academic affairs and associate campus diversity officer for faculty as well as professor of the History of Art and Visual Culture. Berger’s academic work has a particular focus on the construction of gender and race, which is well-suited to SAIC’s ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts described in the strategic plan, NEXT.

In the last two years, six of the new full-time faculty members joining SAIC were former part-time faculty. The new faculty members represent a diverse range of practices, media, and methodologies and exemplify SAIC’s focus on interdisciplinary studies. Teaching in six departments across the school, the new faculty include Danielle Andress (Fiber and Material Studies), Jeremy Biles (Liberal Arts), Julietta Cheung (MFA 2012, Contemporary Practices), Mike Cloud (Painting and Drawing), Ryan Edwards (Liberal Arts), Maura Frana (Visual Communication Design), Marie Herwald Hermann (Ceramics), Suma Ikeuchi (Liberal Arts), Salvador Jiménez-Flores (Ceramics), Piotr Michura (Visual Communication Design), Hương Ngô (MFA 2004, Contemporary Practices), Kirin Wachter-Grene (Liberal Arts), and Jade Yumang (Fiber and Material Studies).

See the full list, with links for more information about each faculty member.

About SAIC 
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman.