August 13, 1999

Conflict Over a Divisive Scholar Combines Issues of Art, Sexuality, and Teaching Style

By COURTNEY LEATHERMAN

Is Kelly Dennis a victim of gender bias and religious fanaticism, or of her own abrasiveness?

Students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago are never neutral about Kelly Dennis and her teaching. Some love her. Some send her death threats.

In 1997, her first year at the institute, student evaluations of Ms. Dennis's art-history survey described her alternately as "brilliant," the kind of "strong

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