Christiane Gruber, 2015-16 Charles P. Brauer Fellow and associate professor, history of art, has published "What Would a Muslim Want with a Portrait of Christ?" in Newsweek.

In the piece, Gruber addresses how "American journalists have been perplexed by the Salvator Mundi’s purchase by a (purportedly) Saudi patron and by its journey to the United Arab Emirates, a Muslim-majority country. Many have been quick to state, as we so often hear in the mainstream media, that 'Islam prohibits any work of art representing a human being, and that the depiction of any of the prophets is especially forbidden'" and how "some writers and scholars even have noted that it is “weird” that this “ distinctly non-Islamic Leonardo ” might be purchased by a Saudi patron, as a portrait of Jesus should be considered a most graven image in Islam."

Gruber participated in the 2016 Write to Change the World workshop, part of the Op Ed Project, a collaboration with ADVANCE and College of LSA Dean’s Office.

The OpEd Project is a think tank and leadership organization founded to ensure the full range of human voices is included in history. OpEd accelerates the ideas and public impact of underrepresented voices, including women. One near term goal is to increase the volume of women thought leaders in key commentary forums—which are a key source of history—to a tipping point. Partnering with universities, think tanks, non-profits, and corporations, OpEd targets and trains underrepresented experts (including women) to take thought leadership positions in their fields connecting them with a network of high-level journalist mentors; and channeling the best new experts and ideas to media across all platforms.  Op-ed is used (which is defined broadly, to mean an idea of public value in any media platform) as a strategic metric of concrete results.