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English major to publish debut novel 

Arushi Avachat, a third-year English and political science undergraduate student at UCLA, will see her debut novel, “Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment,” hit bookstore shelves next year.  A longtime, avid reader and writer, Avachat has also authored short stories — one of which served as the novel’s inspiration. “I had written a short story my freshman year of high school that I was really attached to,” she said. “I had a lot more to say about those characters — and then I had the idea that I wanted my novel to read like a Bollywood drama.”  Avachat worked on outlining and…

‘The New Treaties of Globalization’: Gabriel Zucman delivers Possible Worlds lecture

In the latest installment of the “Possible Worlds” lecture series, French economist Gabriel Zucman joined UCLA students, faculty and community members on October 11 to discuss the link between globalization, taxation and inequality. The event was held in person at Royce Hall, with a livestream reaching additional audience members virtually.  In his talk, “The New Treaties of Globalization,” Zucman discussed a range of topics, including the concept of implementing a progressive wealth tax to better reflect modern society. The lecture was followed by a Q&A session moderated by Juliana Londoño-Vélez, an assistant professor of economics at UCLA and a faculty…

Professor Elizabeth DeLoughrey discusses Guggenheim Fellowship

Elizabeth DeLoughrey, a UCLA professor of English who also holds an appointment in the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, received a 2021 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the category of literary criticism in recognition of her existing work and future potential.  DeLoughrey teaches postcolonial literature courses on the environment, globalization, and the Anthropocene with a focus on the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. She has published several books, including her latest, “Allegories of the Anthropocene” (Duke University Press, 2019), and co-founded the UCLA Postcolonial Literature and Theory Colloquium. In addition to being honored with a Guggenheim, DeLoughrey has…

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…

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…

$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…

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…