About Us

Chicago Studies

Chicago Studies makes it easier for the University of Chicago College to forge genuine bonds with our amazing city. They offer O-Week and Welcome Week programming, sponsor classes and city-based research initiatives, and share resources to help you be more than a visitor while you're here, so you can better understand (and have a positive impact on) your new home.

Parker Otto

Parker Otto was the inaugural Herbert Zarr Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in GIS with the University of Chicago Library's Center for Digital Scholarship. He currently serves as the Graduate Research Coordinator for the Chicago Studies Program and is working on his masters in city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania. The underlying code and computational workflow that makes the Chicago Urban Heritage Project possible was developed by him in May of 2024 as part of the GIScience Practicum course at the University of Chicago.

Chris Skrable

Chris Skrable is the inaugural Executive Director of Chicago Studies and Experiential Learning and Assistant Dean of the College. In that capacity, he works to co-create respectful academic projects and partnerships that help the College learn from and with the communities of the city in which it makes its home.

Student Workers

The Chicago Urban Heritage Project would not be possible without the fantastic work of its student research assistants.

Inaugural Cohort (Spring 2025):

Student Researchers: Dave Rotblatt, Griggs Fuller, Hannah Chen, Sophia Liu, Yixin Chen, and Ana Estupinan.

Summer 2025 Cohort:

Partners: Dr. Emily Talen's Urbanism Lab; Summer Institute in Social Research Methods
Student Researchers: Dave Rotblatt, Griggs Fuller, Sophia Liu, Yixin Chen, Ana Estupinan, Elena Osse, Shiv Shamdasani, Alex Arnell, Ella Montgomery, Nathalie Lam, Micah Sheinberg

Fall 2025 Cohort:

Partners: Dr. Emily Talen's Historical Preservation Class
Student Supervisors: Griggs Fuller, Sophia Liu
Student Researchers: Yixin Chen, Ana Estupinan, Elena Osse, Alex Arnell

UChicago Library Center for Digital Scholarship

This website was designed with help from the Center for Digital Scholarship. The Center for Digital Scholarship is a resource hub for digital methods in research and learning. We provide consultations and services on digital projects, data, and research dissemination.