Book Launch for FIRST EPISTLE TO THE AMPHIBIANS, a collection of poetry by Brazilian author Ricardo Domeneck, translated by Chris Daniels, published by World Poetry Books in April 2026. The event will consist of a reading and conversation with Ricardo Domeneck, Chris Daniels, and Patrícia Lino. Ricardo Domeneck is a Brazilian writer based in Berlin. He has published ten collections of poems and two of short prose in Brazil and Portugal. He is the recipient of two of Brazil’s most prestigious literary awards, the Prêmio Jabuti and the Prêmio Alphonsus de Guimaraens, and selected volumes of his poems have appeared…
Muslim charities and community organizations have assumed a significant role in refugee support since the Syrian catastrophe: in Jordan and Canada, as elsewhere, they deliver food aid, house orphans, and organize remedial education. But Islam is more than just a resource for humanitarian projects. The Dread Heights details how the Islamic tradition guides refugees, relief workers, and religious scholars in a world of brutal sieges and mass displacement. Even as refugees become objects of humanitarian concern suspended between national orders, this ethnography brings another suspension into view: a form of life whose gestures are illuminated by the Quranic figure of…
Monday, April 13, 2026 12:00 – 1:30 PM Haines Hall 352 MORE INFO Join us on April 13, 2026 at 12:00 – 1:30 PM in Haines Hall 352 for a colloquium with Eva Jablonka, hosted by the UCLA Department of Anthropology. This lecture is part of the Frank Marlowe Memorial Lecture Series, in the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture. There will be a reception to launch the exhibition of artwork by Jablonka’s collaborator, Anat Zeligowski, with food and drinks at 5:00 PM (location TBA). The Evolution of Animal Consciousness The study of animal consciousness is becoming…
Friday, April 10, 2026 4:00 – 6:00 PM Royce Hall 306 RSVP HERE Join us on April 10, 2026 for a colloquium with Eva Jablonka, hosted by the UCLA Department of Philosophy. The talk will take place from 4:00 – 6:00 PM in Royce 306. Evolutionary Theory and the Unification of Life Sciences in the 21st Century I argue that the changes in our current view of evolutionary theory are leading to a new unification of life-sciences, which is occurring, seemingly paradoxically, within the context of their increased specialization and fracturing. Unlike the modern evolutionary synthesis of the 20th century (the MS) which…
In this talk, historians Devi Mays and Julia Phillips Cohen discuss the unknown role that Jews from the eastern and southern Mediterranean played in the shaping of modern couture. Following two fashion houses run by an interconnected network of North African and Middle Eastern Jews in fin-de-siècle Paris, the talk reveals the participation of these firms in a global web of makers, suppliers, and designers stretching from Algiers and Constantinople to Cairo, Tabriz and Kyoto. Julia Phillips Cohen is an Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her publications include the books Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial…
This lecture will examine the discussion of pluralism in the field of comparative theology in light of a core question in the history of Israelite religion. It will create a dialogue between the work of historians of religion such as Yehezkel Kaufmann and theologians such as John Hick, with some reference to the Egyptologist Jan Assmann, moving from a close reading of passages in Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah to much broader theological issues. Benjamin Sommer is Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His books, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition (2015), The Bodies of God…
Misunderstanding in Ancient Interstate Relations The Arsacid Princes of the Roman Empire Jake Nabel (Pennsylvania State University) Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time Royce Hall 306 and Via Zoom Registration Link: https://forms.gle/ZFb7yBFBeEs2VfMt6 Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92060104969 In the first century CE, several Arsacid princes from the Iranian empire of Parthia were sent to live at the court of the Roman emperor. While Roman authors called these figures “hostages” and scholars have studied them as such, this talk will employ Iranian and Armenian sources to argue that the Parthians would have seen them as the emperor’s foster-children. These divergent…
Conference Page Please visit the conference page for additional information. Call for Papers Please view the Call for Papers here on the conference page. For non-participants: If you are not presenting but will attend the conference, please register to attend here. For participants: All submissions are through the conference portal, which will open in mid-February. ♦ A tentative title and proposal are due by March 2nd. Please submit them here. ♦ The finalized paper title and short abstract are due by April 10. Please submit them here. ♦ Slideshow presentations are due by date TBD. We are only accepting…
Hilton Als delighted the audience in part one of the 2025-26 UCLA Art Council Distinguished Scholar Lectureship in Art History on Wednesday, March 5th. If you missed this talk on Diane Arbus, you can watch it on YouTube here. Als will be returning to the Billy Wilder Theater on Wednesday, April 15th at 7:30 PM for a conversation with Zoë Ryan, Director of the Hammer Museum. The conversation will be on curating, and specifically giving attention to the many exhibitions he has curated both at the Hammer (Joan Didion) and elsewhere, specifically to the kind of artists and artworks he has highlighted,…
The Program in Experimental Critical Theory presents Living on After Failure A Talk with Irving Goh Tuesday, April 14, 2026 5:00pm PDT Kaplan Hall Room #348 In person Advanced Registration Advanced registration is required by Friday, April 10, 2026. REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE About the Talk In this talk, Irving Goh will present on his latest book, Living On After Failure (Duke UP, 2025). He will share his thoughts on failure as failure, that is, failure without recuperation, failure as all negativity. Such a thinking of failure as a thorough impasse not only resists narratives of progress…
