Faculty/Department

Students make remarkable finds in ‘Encountering Arabic Manuscripts’ course

If there was any question that UCLA Library Special Collections’ vast array of handwritten medieval manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and early Ottoman Turkish contained undiscovered historical gems and unique avenues for groundbreaking research, just ask doctoral student Brooke Baker. While studying an untitled text as part of UCLA’s “Encountering Arabic Manuscripts” course, Baker found that it contained a work by Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha’rani, the 16th-century mystic and scholar who founded an Egyptian order of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam. Thinking she might have stumbled onto something rare, she showed it to Associate Professor Luke Yarbrough, who teaches the course. “On a…

Grant supports Hellenic studies pilot program at UCLA, Simon Fraser University

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation has awarded more than $1.2 million to the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University. This grant will support a collaborative, three-year pilot program to enhance academic mobility for faculty, staff, and students traveling between the two institutions and to bridge the geographical gap that divides academics and cultural producers in Greece and the West Coast of North America. The grant will also help both institutions expand on highly successful programming initiated in the last two years. The pilot program offers opportunities for…

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture announces SNF & Ioannis P. and Eirini Caloyeras Lectureship

The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture announces the establishment of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation & Ioannis P. and Eirini Caloyeras Lectureship in Modern Greek. The endowment, jointly funded by the SNF and Peter J. Caloyeras, creates a permanent, full-time lecturer position in Modern Greek Language and Culture, ensuring that courses in these subjects will be permanently offered at UCLA. The courses will be housed in UCLA’s Department of Classics, which has recently added a Minor in Greek Language and Culture. Dr. Simos Zenios, Associate Director of the Center, will become the inaugural holder of…

Commencement speaker Robert Buswell reflects on the past, looks toward the future

UCLA Buddhist studies scholar Robert Buswell will be the keynote speaker for the Division of Humanities commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 11 at Royce Hall. Buswell, a distinguished professor who holds the Irving and Jean Stone Endowed Chair in Humanities, will retire this year after more than three decades at UCLA, where he founded the Center for Buddhist Studies and Center for Korean Studies. He and his wife, Christina Buswell, also recently made gift commitments to establish both an endowed chair and a graduate fellowship in Buddhist studies at UCLA. Buswell said that he was fortunate to have joined UCLA…

Writer-in-residence Elaine Kahn discusses her experience

Elaine Kahn, a writer and artist based in Los Angeles, is the writer-in-residence in the UCLA Department of English for spring 2022. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Kahn has taught at Pomona College, Saint Mary’s College of California, the University of Iowa and elsewhere. She is the author of the full-length poetry collections “Women in Public” and “Romance or The End,” and her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Art Papers magazine and other publications. She founded the Poetry Field School, where she teaches independent workshops to writers of all levels. Kahn held a…

Angela Davis addresses audience on ‘international solidarity’

Angela Davis, the internationally celebrated author, scholar and activist, delivered the second annual Edward W. Said Lecture in the UCLA Department of Comparative Literature on April 14. Davis, a distinguished professor emerita at UC Santa Cruz and a former UCLA professor of philosophy, is renowned for her decades-long commitment to social justice movements around the world. Her lecture, “International Solidarity in the Era of Black Lives Matter and Justice for Palestine,” was delivered virtually to more than a thousand audience members in the UCLA community and beyond. “Contemporary racism — whether against Black, Latinx, Indigenous communities, or Asian American communities…

Q&A: Dean David Schaberg on Humanities Advocacy Day

We interviewed David Schaberg, dean of the Division of Humanities, about his recent trip to Capitol Hill for Humanities Advocacy Day, where state-based delegations meet with members of Congress and their staff to make the case for federal funding for the humanities. The annual event is organized by the National Humanities Alliance, a coalition of over 200 member organizations including universities, cultural institutions and more. How was your Humanities Advocacy Day experience? Schaberg: This year’s visit was pretty high-powered advocacy. The group was led by Vice Chancellor Roger Wakimoto, who was there to represent UCLA in its overall engagement in…

Professor Dominic Thomas honored as Officer in the Order of Academic Palms

Dominic Thomas, Madeleine Letessier Professor of French in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, has been named an Officer in the Order of Academic Palms, or l’Ordre des Palmes académiques. The Academic Palms is the oldest civilian award given out and is second only in age to the Legion of Honor. They were created in 1808 by Napoléon Bonaparte to honor university professors. The French Minister of National Education recommends nominees for the honor to the French Prime Minister, who, if she or he is in agreement, issues an official decree naming recipients. Julie Duhaut-Bedos, Consul General of France…

Department of Asian Languages & Cultures receives $3.7 million in gift commitments

The UCLA Department of Asian Languages & Cultures has received $3.7 million in gift commitments from distinguished professor of Buddhist studies Robert E. Buswell Jr. and his wife, Christina Lee Buswell, a translator of Korean religious scriptures. The couple’s gift commitments created the Chinul Endowed Chair in Korean Buddhist Studies—the first permanent endowed chair in Korean Buddhism outside of Korea—and the Robert E. and Christina L. Buswell Fellowship in Buddhist Studies in support of graduate students in the department. The endowments will be funded as a blended gift with a portion paid over five years and the balance as a…

Professor Maite Zubiaurre selected to join Faculty Mentoring Honor Society

Professor Maite Zubiaurre has been selected to join the Faculty Mentoring Honor Society. The society recognizes UCLA faculty who have given much time and effort to the work of mentoring early and mid-career faculty, especially underrepresented faculty at UCLA. The work of mentoring is too often invisible and unrecognized, and such faculty contribute disproportionately to mentoring on campuses and deserve recognition. The society honors the mentorship of underrepresented faculty with respect to identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and disability. For more information on Professor Zubiaurre’s accomplishments and featured work, please click here.