Yann Robert named 2018 Humanities, Arts, Design and Architecture Rising Star
Yann Robert has been announced as the 2018 Rising Star Researcher of the Year for the Humanities, Arts, Design and Architecture by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. This award "honors early career researchers who show promise as future leaders."
The OVCR's description of Yann's contributions to the field show why he was selected for this highly competitive award:
Dr. Yann Robert has developed an innovative, interdisciplinary methodology bringing together law and literature studies with performance studies to analyze theater as justice and justice as theater. This novel approach has earned him funding from the Mellon Foundation multiple times over his relatively short career. His monograph Dramatic Justice: Trial by Theater in the Age of the French Revolution uses what he calls a “theatrical lens” to develop a new history of the French judicial system. This theatrical lens is touted as a brilliantly conceived optical device aimed at providing readers with a depth of field allowing them to simultaneously keep in focus developments in the two fields of theater and justice throughout the work. Dr. Robert has eagerly disseminated his scholarship to an ever-widening audience; articles in the popular press (NY Times, Chicago Tribune) coupled with his innovative digital humanities project launched in collaboration with the Newberry Library are ways his work is finding traction outside academia. Described by his colleagues as an ‘academic vagabond’ Dr. Robert leaves no stone unturned to answer the questions he pursues. His publication record is outstanding, with eleven articles published in the most reputable and widely-read journals in French studies in the past ten years with two more forthcoming. Highly engaged with his colleagues, he is very active organizing and chairing panels (6), presenting invited lectures (15) and speaking at important conferences in his field (15). His peers recognize him as a scholar of the first order who richly deserves the distinction of UIC Rising Star in the field of Humanities, Arts, Design and Architecture for 2018. (research.uic.edu/2018awards-recipients)
Yann's work was also highlighted in a recent issue of UIC Today as a result of his award.