Faculty/Department

Mural pays respect to remains of women found near the U.S.-Mexico border

As you walk along Pacific Avenue in Venice, there’s a tattoo parlor — its side wall covered in graffiti — scraps of trash strewn about. Across the alley, interrupting the classic beach community scene, you encounter a wall installation of 389 pink and purple wooden crosses affixed to a 90-foot panoramic backdrop of cacti, sand and desert brush. Names adorn the crosses: “Paulina,” “Rosa,” “Maria,” “Fabiola,” are among them, but so many are “unidentified.” Each cross represents a female migrant who died in Pima County, Arizona, near the U.S.–Mexico border from January 2001 through May 2021. The exhibit is one…

Spanish Government to honor UCLA professor for promoting language and culture

The Cervantes Institute, a Spanish government agency dedicated to promoting Spanish around the world, has chosen Barbara Fuchs, UCLA professor of Spanish and English, to receive its inaugural Ñ Prize, honoring her work disseminating Spanish language and culture through theater and literature. The president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, will join Fuchs on July 22 at UCLA as part of an event to announce the first Instituto Cervantes branch in Los Angeles, which will be the seventh such center in the United States. In October, Spain’s King Felipe VI will present the bronze Ñ Prize to Fuchs in person in Madrid. Read the…

UCLA SNF Center for Study of Hellenic Culture Director, Sharon Gerstel, awarded Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, Greece’s highest honor

News Release (Los Angeles, CA – June 30, 2021) UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture (UCLA SNF Hellenic Center) Director Sharon E. J. Gerstel, for her contributions to the promotion of Hellenic Culture, has been named a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, one of Greece’s highest honors. In April, Dr. Gerstel was bestowed with honorary Greek citizenship, which took place at the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles. “I am humbled by this distinction,” said Dr. Gerstel. “My love for the country runs very deep and my heart is with its people….

UCLA Library acquires new materials based on student proposals in English capstone course

It’s been more than a year since the coronavirus halted physical access to the UCLA Library. Rather than seeing it as a hurdle, Matthew Fisher, associate professor of English, and Devin Fitzgerald, curator of rare books and the history of printing, devised a series of remote-learning alternatives for students to research, think and write about books and book collections in new ways, culminating in a final writing project that allowed students to explore an unfamiliar role: special collections curator. The capstone course, “Writing the Digital Archive: Old Books in New Worlds,” was originally designed for students to work hands-on with…

Spanish and Portuguese department awards inaugural Dolores Huerta Community Service Award

Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and community organizer. She has worked civil rights and social justice for over 50 years. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She served as vice-president and played a critical role in many of the union’s accomplishments for four decades. In 2002, she received the Puffin/Nation $100,000 prize for Creative Citizenship which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF). DHF is connecting groundbreaking community-based organizing to state and national movements to register and educate voters; advocate for education reform; bring about infrastructure improvements in low-income communities; advocate…

Russian Flagship senior wins Boren Award, State Department internship

Joseph Matveyenko (UCLA 2021) will graduate from UCLA later this week with a double major in Russian studies and political science. Not only did he complete two B.A.s at UCLA, he wrote two research theses — one for each program — and presented them during undergraduate research week. “I had only one and a half quarters on campus at UCLA before the pandemic hit,” says Joseph, who transferred to UCLA from Portland Community College (PCC) in fall 2019. His academic achievements have been considerable despite the challenges of remote classes and a tough start in the UCLA Russian Flagship Program. The…

Three UCLA Russian Flagship students win Critical Language Scholarships

UCLA International Institute/ UCLA Russian Flagship Program, May 13, 2021 — This year, three of UCLA’s Russian Flagship students were awarded the prestigious Critical Language Scholarship (CLS). CLS is a fully-funded intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. With an acceptance rate of only 10%, the summer CLS program is very selective. Although the program will take place remotely this summer, the host sites for Russian language include Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir in Russia, and Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. Allison Verbil is a fourth-year linguistics major and Russian language minor who started learning Russian through the State…

NELC professor Domenico Ingenito speaks to KCRW about Persian literature

On Thursday, May 27, at 1:30pm PST,  Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Professor, Domenico Ingenito, will be appearing on the KCRW radio show, Bookworm, hosted by Michael Silverblatt, to talk about Persian literature and the opportunities that UCLA offers to study Persian language in Southern California. During the show, Michael Silverblatt will also present Prof. Ingenito’s book, “Beholding Beauty: Sa’di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry.” Silverblatt, whom Normal Mailer defined as the “best reader in America.” Prof. Ingenito will also read some of his English translations from Sa’di’s lyric poems.

UCLA SNF Hellenic Center receives Olympios Family Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship

LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture (UCLA SNF Hellenic Center) received a generous gift from Stavros Olympios in memory of his parents to create the George and Barbara Olympios Family Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship. The George and Barbara Olympios Family Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship will provide assistance to support graduate students in Hellenic Studies, helping emerging scholars to deepen their connection to Greece through research and study. “On behalf of the Center, we thank Stavros Olympios for the generous donation to support our graduate research program,” said Sharon Gerstel, Director of…

UCLA Announces New Digital Hub For Globalizing Japanese Studies

In 2013, the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures faced a troubling possibility: its entire program in Japanese literature and culture might collapse. Both its faculty members in this popular field of study were being courted by an Ivy League institution, jeopardizing its efforts to hire a third faculty member. In the years since, however, the Japanese humanities have emerged as one of the greatest success stories in UCLA’s Division of Humanities. In 2017 and 2019, the department succeeded in recruiting two additional scholars of Japanese film and kabuki, respectively, transforming its program into one of the most robust in…