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Innovation the Swedish way: Darja Isaksson delivers Possible Worlds lecture

In the latest installment of the Possible Worlds lecture series, Darja Isaksson — an internationally recognized innovation and sustainability expert — joined UCLA students, faculty and community members on March 11 to discuss innovation’s role in shaping the future. The event was held in person at Royce Hall, with a livestream reaching additional audience members virtually. In her talk, Innovation the Swedish Way, Isaksson explored Sweden’s role as an early industrializer and examined the current narrative around innovation. She underscored the importance of the humanities in effecting change and driving new ideas. “I think people in the humanities are often…

New course helps students make educated decisions when entering workforce after graduation

Humanities students often face structural gaps when it comes to preparing for careers after graduation. A new class, Careers in Humanities (COMPLIT 191P/ENG M191P) aims to change that, offering students career advice; opportunities to build their personal portfolio, CV or resume; and help with general interviewing skills. It is a collaborative effort between the Department of Comparative Literature and the UCLA Career Center, with Professor David MacFadyen teaching the course and Senior Director of Alumni Career Engagement Gloria Ko arranging alumni speakers to bolster students’ understanding of the concepts and career pathways taught. “I just felt that there was a…

Near Eastern Languages and Cultures works with Howard University to offer pipeline to Ph.D. for Black students in Egyptology

To increase inclusivity within the field of Egyptology, the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department at UCLA is collaborating with Howard University to offer a pipeline program for Black students. “Summer Research Internship and Pathway to PhD’s in Ancient Egyptian, North African, and Western Asian Studies” is an eight-week course that will start this summer. In it, four to five students from historically Black colleges and universities will be brought to UCLA to learn about the field of study while also receiving mentorship and support from faculty which will extend beyond the program. Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian Art…

UCLA professor Yogita Goyal has won numerous awards for her book ‘Runaway Genres: The Global Afterlives of Slavery’

Yogita Goyal, professor of English and African American studies, has won a slew of awards for her book Runaway Genres: The Global Afterlives of Slavery, including the 2021 René Wellek Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association prize, the Perkins Prize from the International Society for the Study of Narrative and honorable mention for Modern Language Association’s James Russell Lowell Prize.   “I’m honored to receive this recognition; but there is so much entrenched resistance to recognizing the formative role the study of race has had in literary study,” Goyal said. “So what I find especially gratifying is that it’s recognition…

Q&A: Jenny Sharpe on equity, diversity and inclusion in the Humanities Division

We sat down with Jenny Sharpe, Professor of English, Gender Studies, and Comparative Literature, to discuss her role as the Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the Division of Humanities. How would you characterize the last few years of your work? Jenny Sharpe: It has to be contextualized by recent events. In 2019, I was working mostly with Lisa Felipe, who runs the Excellence in Pedagogy and Innovative Classrooms (EPIC) program – designing inclusive teaching workshops. After the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, there were calls across the university to address structural racism. So Barbara Van…

Gift to UCLA’S Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies bolsters field of Moroccan Jewish studies

The UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies has received a pledge of $100,000 from its Moroccan academic partner, the Université Internationale de Rabat (UIR) to support Arabic translation projects pertaining to Moroccan Jewish studies. Moroccan Jewish studies is an emerging field that focuses on the history of Sephardic Jewish communities in Morocco. Following the final expulsion of Jews in 1492 and Moriscos (converted Muslims) in 1609 from the Iberian Peninsula, many went on to establish Sephardic communities in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. Although there is considerable academic literature and studies about Sephardic communities of the Ottoman…

Q&A: Maite Zubiaurre on her documentary Águilas, recently shortlisted for the Academy Awards

Courtesy of Águilas Press Kit We sat down with Maite Zubiaurre, a professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies (ELTS) and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA, to discuss her short documentary Águilas, recently shortlisted for the 94th Academy Awards in the documentary short category. Zubiaurre co-directed, co-produced and co-wrote it with Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, an Associate Professor at the School of Theater, Film and Television. What does this recognition of Águilas mean to you? Maite Zubiaurre: The recognition is very important to us because this is a documentary on a very important subject: migrant deaths…

Reimagining the scope and approach of the UCLA Center for Early Global Studies

Journalists, businesspeople and politicians working in foreign countries often depend on fixers — resourceful, problem-solving guides with a sophisticated grasp of local languages, cultures and customs. Zrinka Stahuljak has long considered herself a fixer, both literally — she was a wartime interpreter in her native Croatia during the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia — and metaphorically, in her role at UCLA. “I’m fascinated and inspired by the transcultural work of fixers, who ultimately help people make transformative connections,” she says. It’s in that spirit that Stahuljak has overseen the thoughtful transformation of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance…

From fiction to action on climate change: Kim Stanley Robinson delivers Possible Worlds lecture

For the third installment of the Possible Worlds lecture series, Kim Stanley Robinson —recognized as one of the greatest living science fiction writers — joined students, faculty and UCLA community members Nov. 30 to discuss climate change advocacy and the incredibly high stakes facing our planet. “[We] are standing on the edge of creating a mass extinction event that would hammer humanity,” said Robinson in his talk, “Optopia: From Fiction to Action on Climate Change.” A collaborative effort between the Division of Humanities at UCLA and the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute, Possible Worlds invites today’s most imaginative intellectual leaders and…

Poet Rhiannon McGavin ’20 Awarded Mitchell Scholarship

Rhiannon McGavin ’20 was watching the 1984 cult classic Repo Man at the Los Feliz 3 theater when she got the call.  “They have such a strict no-phone policy,” she laughs, “so I tore outside the theater as soon as I felt that ring.”  The news was worth missing a movie for — McGavin discovered she earned a slot as one of the 12 members of the George J. Mitchell Scholar Class of 2023, one of Ireland’s most prestigious scholarship programs. The 2016 Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, author of Grocery List Poems and only the third UCLA grad to win the honor in the past 20 years, McGavin will spend her scholarship year studying creative…