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Awards and Honors

Comp Lit alumna Carribean Fragoza earns prestigious creative writing award

Tucked away in the San Gabriel Valley, South El Monte is not a place often featured in literary fiction. But it’s where Carribean Fragoza’s work takes root. The author of the evocative 2021 short story collection “Eat the Mouth That Feeds You,” Fragoza, a 2003 UCLA graduate who majored in comparative literature and Chicana and Chicano studies, has dedicated herself to unearthing the subtleties and concealed narratives of her hometown, channeling them into her distinct brand of surrealistic storytelling. It’s earned her vast critical acclaim — and, last spring, the prestigious Whiting Award, which recognizes emerging talents with a $50,000…

Arushi Avachat selected as 2024 Marshall Scholar

Arushi Avachat, who plans to graduate in June with degrees in English and political science and a South Asian studies minor, is the latest UCLA student to win the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. This is the third consecutive year in which a UCLA student or alumnus has received the highly competitive scholarship, which funds up to three years of graduate study in the United Kingdom for U.S. undergraduates or recent graduates. Avachat is one of 51 winners chosen from among more than 1,000 applicants for 2024. She plans to pursue master’s degrees in English and American studies, and in global and imperial…

English major named fifth Arthur Ashe Jr. Scholar

Sydney Do credits an entire community with paving her path to UCLA. After high school, the Maryland native moved to California to live with her grandparents and attend community college. But when her grandmother died and her grandfather’s health failed, the teenage Do found herself living on her own with no family support. Searching for connection in the wider world, she volunteered at Mary’s Kitchen, an Orange County nonprofit supporting people experiencing homelessness. When the city temporarily shut down the facility, Do became an advocate for its guests, many of whom had mental illnesses or disabilities. She also volunteered at…

4 Humanities graduate students receive Fulbright-Hays fellowships

Four Humanities graduate students are among the 12 UCLA scholars overall who have received Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowships for 2023. UCLA received more Fulbright-Hays awards than any other university. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Fulbright-Hays program allows awardees to study aspects of a society or societies, including their culture, economy, history and international relations. The fellowship is designed to contribute to developing and improving the study of modern foreign languages and area studies in the U.S. UCLA’s 2023 fellows come from diverse disciplines, and they will conduct their research in Brazil, Chile, England, Japan, Mexico,…

Book by Bryant Kirkland – his first – is honored by Society for Classical Studies

UCLA professor Bryant Kirkland’s first book, “Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature,” has been recognized as one of the books of the year by the Society for Classical Studies. Kirkland, a UCLA associate professor of classics, won the Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit, which each year honors three outstanding contributions to classical scholarship. “This is a highly original book, a real crucible of scholarly analysis that obliges us to think in fresh ways about the interrelationships between different texts, allowing us to calibrate voice, ethos and thought across genres and time,” the award citation reads. “One of the study’s many engaging qualities…