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UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture Announces Appointment of Sharon E. J. Gerstel as Director

The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture today announced the appointment of Sharon E. J. Gerstel as its inaugural director, effective July 1, 2019. Gerstel has served as the acting director of the Center since 2017. In her role as director, Gerstel will develop a long-term vision for the Center, building on the university’s research and teaching strengths in Hellenic studies, including the expansion of courses in Modern Greek language and culture. Under her guidance, the Center will continue to forge strong partnerships with Hellenic organizations in Southern California. “As someone who has worked in…

“Build Bridges, Paint Walls” Event to Strengthen Los Angeles Community Bonds

By: Megan Reusche Build Bridges, Paint Walls is a project hosted by the UCLA Arts Initiative and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese taking place from April 29 to May 5. The event will feature a documentary screening, the 16th Annual Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Conference, community programming, and an art exhibition at the Rendon Gallery. All events will be free and open to the public. The project director, Kristal Bivona, and the project coordinator, Isaac Gimenez, are both Ph.D. students in the Spanish and Portuguese Departments. Bivona will be graduating in 2019 and her research focuses on representations…

Professor von Falkenhausen Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

By: Megan Reusche Lothar von Falkenhausen, Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History at UCLA and head of the East Asian Laboratory at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, has been awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The Foundation receives over 3,000 applicants annually for the coveted fellowship and this year, 168 fellowships were awarded. As a Guggenheim Fellow, Falkenhausen plans to focus on writing a sequel to his book, Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence (Cotsen Institute Press, 2006). “The Guggenheim Fellowship is wonderful because it’s one of the only…

Professor Meredith Cohen Discusses Rebuilding and Restoring Notre Dame Cathedral

By: Megan Reusche Feelings of grief and despair were felt across the globe on Monday, April 17, 2019, when a devastating fire erupted at Notre Dame Cathedral. Individuals around the world collectively mourned the state of the 850-year-old Paris landmark, posting photos and exchanging memories of the cathedral. After officials began to assess the damage, it became clear that it will take multiple experts to develop a plan to restore and rebuild the structure, including conservators, engineers, and art historians. Meredith Cohen, associate professor of medieval art and architecture in the UCLA Art History Department, is a specialist in Gothic…

Professor Shu-mei Shih Acquires Leadership Role in ACLA

By: Megan Reusche Shu-mei Shih, Professor of Asian Languages & Cultures, Comparative Literature, and Asian American Studies, has been elected second vice-president of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). Founded in 1960, the ACLA represents the field of comparative literature and is a crucial meeting place for academics and students around the world, with a membership of around 3,000 individuals. This interdisciplinary and transnational field is a vibrant and vital area of humanistic inquiry, particularly because scholars must know three languages and use this proficiency to compare cultural texts amongst various languages, historical contexts, and cultures. Shih, who received her…

New Professional Writing Minor Drafts Curriculum to Teach Career-Specific Skills

UCLA Daily Bruin BY JACQUELINE ALVAREZ Posted: April 7, 2019 at 11:45 pm UCLA will offer a professional writing minor for students to improve their practical writing skills. The minor offers an array of specialized writing courses in topics including web literacy, entertainment, business, science and technology, nonprofits and public engagement. Students can enroll in the minor after satisfying their Writing II requirement and submitting a brief application essay. UCLA Writing Programs and the English department began developing the minor in 2015 to address the lack of a coherent, intensive writing program for students across all disciplines, said Lowell Gallagher, the English…

Diverse female filmmakers celebrated at 7th annual Latin American, Latinx and Iberian Film Festival

Hosted by the UCLA Spanish and Portuguese Department and co-sponsored by many entities on campus, the 7th Annual Latin American, Latinx and Iberian Film Festival: Women’s Voices will take place April 15-18, 2019 and feature free screenings of twelve films at multiple locations across UCLA’s campus, including the James Bridges Theater. Originally conceived as an important event that fosters diversity at UCLA and beyond, over the years the annual festival has featured a wide variety of comedies, dramas, biopics and documentaries from countries whose films are rarely projected in Los Angeles, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and Paraguay. This…

Silence is the failure to do things with words

While delivering her vision of how we might “reimagine free speech,” philosopher Rae Langton outlined four required conditions for a healthy free speech environment. First, free speech is for people not for corporations. Second, a successful free speech culture depends upon equality — everyone should feel empowered to participate without fear of reprisal from whomever — whereas forced silence is the result of hierarchy. Third, it requires a supportive community that provides people the training and education necessary to pursue and insist upon the truth. A society that is serious about free speech, Langton said, needs to be serious about…

The parallels of female power in ancient Egypt and modern times

Over the course of 3,000 years of Egypt’s history, six women ascended to become female kings of the fertile land and sit atop its authoritarian power structure. Several ruled only briefly, and only as the last option in their respective failing family line. Nearly all of them achieved power under the auspices of attempting to protect the throne for the next male in line. Their tenures prevented civil wars among the widely interbred families of social elites. They inherited famines and economic disasters. With the exception of Cleopatra, most remain a mystery to the world at large, their names unpronounceable,…

Professor Maite Zubiaurre explores generosity and political activism in ‘The Wall that Gives/El muro que da’

Walls are typically barriers that divide and separate us. For UCLA Germanic Languages and Spanish & Portuguese Professor Maite Zubiaurre, “The Wall that Gives/El muro que da” is one way to encourage generosity amongst individuals and create a community that promotes reciprocity rather than exclusion, especially in today’s political climate. Zubiaurre’s alter ego, Filomena Cruz, is a Venice, California, visual artist and trash-collagist. She was inspired to create this piece because “today’s world, and our current US government in particular, seem more keen than ever to create walls that separate and exclude. In reaction against hostile walls that take away,…