Now six weeks into the fall semester, Irving & Dorothy Levy Hall teems with history students studying for midterms, grabbing coffee at the Hosto Cafe, and dropping by the new SuccessWorks Gateway career center to polish their resumes ahead of this fall’s career fairs. Levy Hall gives the History Department a new home for faculty offices, classrooms, and student meeting places. 

As the days get shorter, the building’s two-story windows keep study areas bright and provides spectacular views of the campus’ early autumn foliage. The state-of-the-art building opened this September thanks to the generous donations of alumni brothers Marv and Jeff Levy, in the name of their parents Irving and Dorothy Levy, in addition to those from our history alumni and friends.  

Described by Interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots as an expression of UW–Madison’s “strong commitment to the humanities,” the new building gives the History department a new home alongside seven other departments in the College of Letters & Sciences, including African American Studies, American Indian & Indigenous Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, History, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies. History professors have already expressed how powerful they find it to share adjacent office and classroom spaces with their colleagues across the humanities.

Christy Clark-Pujara, African American Studies Chair and History Faculty Affiliate, told The Cap Times that the new building’s energizing atmosphere allows our faculty to “serve our students in the way that we’ve always wanted.” Her sentiment is reflected in comments from History students themselves, who say they are spending more time studying with their friends in the building’s common spaces and having meaningful debates in its new classrooms, confirming the History Department Chair Neil Kodesh’s sentiment that students “are hungry” to learn the humanities. 

As the History department increases in enrollment and doubles its majors, the new building ensures space for students to make valuable connections, find mentors in faculty, and collaborate on projects. With its donor wall emblazoned with the word “FORWARD,” Irving & Dorothy Levy Hall guarantees an exciting future for the humanities at UW–Madison.  

Read more about the buildings’ first days from The Cap Times here: https://captimes.com/news/education/see-inside-uw-madisons-new-humanities-hub-its-an-energizing-place/article_1ed5013c-7537-49e7-be97-a613f2f4c583.html