Barbara Van Nostrand
Q&A: Justin Torres on creating ‘sustained and deep engagement’ with literature
Justin Torres was just 31 years old when his first novel, “We the Animals,” caused a literary sensation. Narrated by a young boy of mixed heritage who is finding his way amid family struggles and a budding queer identity, the novel received the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and became a bestseller as well as an award-winning film. Since its publication more than a decade ago, Torres has experienced the kind of broad, enduring recognition that eludes many authors. The literary landscape has also changed significantly in the last decade; today, literature by and about Latinos continues to gain ground. Torres, a…
Art is their adventure: Graduate students will benefit from Peter and Sheri Weller’s beautiful vision
When he was working on his master’s degree at the highly selective program at Syracuse University’s campus in Florence, Italy, Peter Weller experienced firsthand the challenges of graduate work in art history: hours of archival research, hours in front of the art itself, fluency in multiple languages and, of course, the expenses of travel, school and life. “It was extraordinarily arduous, and I wanted to quit after a month,” he said with a laugh. An Oscar-nominated filmmaker and acclaimed actor of stage and screen, Peter persevered and even went on to earn his doctorate in art history from UCLA in 2014. However,…
New UCLA College webpage highlights books by Bruin authors
A new page on the UCLA College website celebrates the wide range of authors and expertise among College faculty, students, alumni and staff. The Bruin Bookshelf catalogs books published by scholars affiliated with the College, and all are invited to bookmark the site and use it as a resource. Through a link on the site, College-affiliated authors can submit information about books they wish to be included, and the page will be updated regularly.
Gefyra documents weaving traditions in Geraki, Laconia
From June 24 to July 14, 2023, graduate students from UCLA, Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia explored the artistry of weaving in Geraki, a Lakonian village where generations of women have preserved and passed down their craft. This comprehensive project, which forms part of Gefyra, a partnership between the SNF Hellenic Centers at UCLA and SFU, was generously funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The project was held in collaboration with the Cultural Society of Geraki and was further supported by the Municipality of Evrotas. The Ephorate of Antiquities of Laconia and The Geraki Project, affiliated…
Q&A: Harryette Mullen’s newest poetry brings us closer to nature
Harryette Mullen has a singular way of connecting readers with the world around them. This spring, her work was included in a public art installation as part of New York City’s Park Poems initiative, a collaboration with the Poetry Society of America. Previously, and closer to home, Mullen wrote an original poem for UCLA Magazine that celebrated the small pleasures of everyday life, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The celebrated poet, literary scholar and UCLA English professor was elected in April to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The same month, her collection “Open Leaves / poems from earth” was published by the independent Black Sunflowers Poetry…
Zrinka Stahuljak and Shannon Speed receive Mellon grant
Professors Zrinka Stahuljak and Shannon Speed received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support a project called Race in the Global Past through Native Lenses. Its goals include elevating Native American, Pacific Islander and other Indigenous scholarship on historical articulations of “race” and “Indigeneity” across the globe, and supporting efforts to recruit and retain Indigenous faculty at UCLA. In addition to creating a pipeline to study history more inclusively through these and other perspectives, the project will bring together community scholars-in-residence and deliver programming and outreach efforts led by Stahuljak, Speed and the respective interdisciplinary research centers they direct:…
Humanities for the 21st century: A conversation with incoming dean Alex Stern
Alexandra Minna Stern will become UCLA’s dean of humanities on Nov. 1, succeeding David Schaberg, who has helmed the division since 2011 and will return to teaching and research full time after a sabbatical. For Stern, who was most recently the associate dean for the humanities and the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan, the move is a homecoming — she grew up in California, earned her master’s degree in Latin American studies from UC San Diego and was an assistant professor at UC Santa Cruz. In her two decades at Michigan, Stern held academic appointments…
$1.2 million from Kachigian family trust establishes lectureship in Armenian studies
The UCLA Division of Humanities has received a $1.2 million bequest from the estate of siblings George and Alice Kachigian to support the Armenian studies program in the department of Near Eastern languages and cultures. As part of the gift, the department created the Kachigian Family Lectureship in Armenian Language and Culture. The inaugural holder of the lectureship will be Hagop Kouloujian, a UCLA scholar and instructor who specializes in Western Armenian, a language that since the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th century has been spoken almost exclusively by people in the diaspora. Kouloujian was instrumental in having it…
Clark Library receives centuries-old rare books from longtime donor
A new donation of 40 historical texts from Paul Chrzanowski further bolsters an already remarkable collection of early English texts at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The newly added items — including a 17th-century parchment with the seal of Queen Elizabeth I and a handwritten manuscript describing precious metals and gems — have been prepared for use by scholars as part of the library’s Paul Chrzanowski Collection. “This donation reflects the broader interests and learning needs of English readers at the time,” Chrzanowski said. A physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, Chrzanowski began donating rare books…