Faculty/Department

COVID 19 Fiat Lux Seminars: Shedding Light on the Pandemic (Part 1)

With many of us now living under government-issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, Raymond Knapp is taking a musical approach towards how people are coping. Knapp is the Academic Associate Dean at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and a distinguished musicology professor. He also serves as the Director of the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, and is among the many UCLA faculty members teaching a Spring 2020 COVID-19 Fiat Lux seminar. Knapp’s Fiat Lux seminar, titled “COVID-19: Inspirational Songs from Musicals in a Time of Crisis,” focuses on how many turn to songs from musicals during difficult times, oftentimes…

Center for Jewish Studies Director Sarah Stein named to new Viterbi Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies

Prominent historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein has been named the inaugural holder of the Viterbi Family Endowed Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies in the UCLA College divisions of humanities and social sciences. Stein, who directs the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and is a history professor, has received prestigious accolades for her scholarship, writing and teaching, including two National Jewish Book Awards, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. She previously held the Maurice Amado Endowed Chair in Sephardic Studies at UCLA for 12 years. Stein’s 2019 book, “Family Papers: A Sephardic…

Maite Zubiaurre’s “Talking Trash: Cultural Uses of Waste” receives Vanderbilt University Press award

“Talking Trash: Cultural Uses of Waste” by Maite Zubiaurre is the winner of the 2020 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize. Awarded by the Vanderbilt University Press, the book has been recognized as the best book in the area of art or medicine. Zubiaurre’s book explores the often overlooked significance of litter in the urban landscape, particularly looking at litter in its early stages. “Talking Trash” touches upon a variety of disciplines and areas of interest, from anthropology and sociology to visual media and material culture. The book also focuses on the non-urban desert landscape, where clothing and other…

ACLS selects Javier Patiño Loira and David Kim for 2020 Fellowship Program

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has selected UCLA Humanities faculty Javier Patiño Loira and David D. Kim for its 2020 Fellowship Program. The ACLS Fellowship Program awards fellowships to scholars in the humanities and social sciences, not limited to any specific time period, world region, or humanistic methodology. Applicants submit a proposal for a major scholarly work and, if chosen as fellows, receive funding to complete their research over the course of six to 12 continuous months. Loira is an assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and Kim is an associate professor in the…

UCLA receives $25 million from Uniqlo founder for Japanese literature and culture studies

UCLA has received a $25 million gift from Tadashi Yanai, the chair, president and CEO of Japan-based Fast Retailing and founder of clothing company Uniqlo. The funds will endow the Tadashi Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, which will bolster UCLA’s status as a leading center for the study of Japanese literature, language and culture. The gift is the largest from an individual donor in the history of the UCLA College’s humanities division. A previous donation of $2.5 million from Yanai in 2014 created the Yanai Initiative, a collaboration between UCLA and Waseda University, one of Japan’s most prestigious universities….

UCLA French and Francophone professor named one of 2019’s 100 most influential Africans

Alain Mabanckou, literature professor in the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies, has been named one of 2019’s 100 most influential Africans by leading politics and culture magazine, “New African.” A renowned novelist, poet and professor, Mabanckou is recognized for his contributions to the global literary scene. Known for his novels and non-fiction writing depicting the experience of contemporary Africa and the African diaspora in France, he is among the most recognized writers of Franco African contemporary literature. His most recent novel, “Black Moses,” winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, follows the story of an orphan navigating his way through…

Linguistic Society of America elects Professor Nina Hyams as 2020 fellow

The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) has selected professor Nina Hyams to be a fellow for its 2020 cohort. Since the early ’80s, Hyams has been a member of the LSA, an organization dedicated to fostering a community of linguistic professionals. The LSA aims to further advance the study of linguistics and promote public education, outreach, and advocacy by supporting its members’ research efforts. LSA Fellows are nominated and chosen by committee voting based on the merit of their contributions to the field of linguistics. Outside of her teaching as a distinguished professor in the UCLA Department of Linguistics, Hyams…

International Association of Egyptologists elects director of Cotsen Institute as president

Willeke Wendrich, director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, has been elected to serve as President of the International Association of Egyptologists (IAE) for the next four years. The IAE is a global organization of scholars and non-scholars alike who contribute to the field and study of Egyptology. Dr. Chris Naunton, the outgoing President, announced Wendrich as his successor at the 12th International Congress of Egyptologists (ICE), which met from Nov. 3–8 in Giza, Egypt. Held every four years, ICE is a unique opportunity for Egyptologists and others in the field from around the world to read and…

Theresa and Henry Biggs endow chair in Linguistics to honor Prof. Bruce Hayes

UCLA Department of Linguistics celebrated the appointment of professor Bruce Hayes to the newly established Theresa McShane Biggs and Henry P. Biggs Centennial Term Chair in Linguistics. The department held an installation ceremony and reception on October 30 in the California Nanosystems Institute. UCLA Dean of Humanities David Schaberg and Professor Patricia Keating, who is the current department chair, gave opening remarks. The Biggses endowed the new faculty chair, which was supplemented by the UCLA Centennial fundraising campaign. The Biggs Chair will fund both graduate and research support for Hayes. “It will be helpful to my individual area within the…

Teaching with teddy bears: Lecturer uses stuffed animals to engage classes

Every day, professors look for new ways to encourage active participation in their classes. Quyen Di Chuc Bui takes a unique approach. When teaching his introductory Vietnamese courses, the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures lecturer hands out stuffed animals to his students as a way of motivating and rewarding them for their work. After a Twitter video of his teaching method went viral with over 7.7 million views and counting, Chuc Bui found himself in the spotlight. In the viral Twitter video, Chuc Bui counts more than five stuffed animals that he plans to hand out to students…