News

All year I have been reading articles that paint an apocalyptic picture of humanities instruction in the age of artificial intelligence.

This article was adapted from a Berkeley Voices podcast episode. Listen to the original episode here.

When Winnie Wong first saw Dafen Oil Painting Village in 2006, it was nothing like she’d imagined. 

Christine Philliou is currently the Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and is a Professor in the Department of History. Professor Philliou specializes in the region of the Balkans and the Middle East, specifically focused on the emergence of the Greek and Turkish nation-states. She has published Biography of Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution (2011), as well as Turkey: A Past Against History (2021). Dr. Philliou received her M.A.

Sophie Cushman is a Ph.D. candidate in Classical Archaeology in the Department of Ancient Greek & Roman Studies at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on Aegean prehistory, with particular interest in Mycenaean mortuary practices, non-palatial communities, and material culture. Her dissertation, "Death and Taxes: Mortuary Perspectives on Non-Palatial Communities in the Mycenaean Argolid (ca. 1600–1070 BCE)," explores how small communities in the northeastern Peloponnese used chamber tombs in response to the rise of regional palatial authority during the Late Bronze Age.

We are thrilled to welcome 12 outstanding new faculty members to the Division of Arts & Humanities at UC Berkeley for the fall semester, beginning July 1, 2025. These scholars — artists, writers, historians, archaeologists—bring diverse perspectives, innovative research, and deep commitment to teaching that will enrich our departments and communities across campus. We look forward to the many ways their work will contribute to the intellectual and creative life of the division. Please join us in welcoming them to Berkeley.

UC Berkeley’s influence traverses the globe, and thanks to the Judith Stronach Travel Seminar, its creative scholars can as well.

This past November, art history professors Zamansele Nsele and Ivy Mills led a group of six graduate students to Senegal for an immersive, nine-day trip to the 2024 Dak'Art Biennale — a major art exhibition that showcases contemporary African art every other year.

As a child, Kimi Hill had seen the sketches that her grandfather, the well-known artist and UC Berkeley professor Chiura Obata, made while in World War II internment camps. But the artwork sat in storage, as quiet as the adults who never spoke of his incarceration.

“For many of my generation, we didn’t know anything because no one told us anything,” said Hill, now 70. “There was so much trauma and shame associated with being forced into the camps that parents generally didn’t want to talk about it.”

The Division of Arts & Humanities at UC Berkeley is proud to announce the launch of a new summer internship program in Taiwan, made possible by a generous $1 million gift from Steven and Constance Pan. This landmark investment will provide transformative international opportunities for all undergraduates at Berkeley, especially those studying East Asian Languages & Cultures and with majors in the Arts & Humanities Division, deepening their academic experience while equipping them for global careers.

We are proud to share that Aileen Zerrudo, a distinguished alumna of UC Berkeley’s Comparative Literature program, has been named the campus’s next Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications & Public Affairs and Chief Communications Officer.

Let me paint a picture for you all: about a month ago, I was giving a speech in front of Sproul Hall. Alongside many other Armenian students, I was protesting the cancelation of a film screening about the displaced people of Nagorno-Karabakh, which we had planned for Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Comparative literature student Frank Cahill competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee as an eighth grader. This year, on May 28 and 29, he’ll be on the other side of the stage.

There’s a word UC Berkeley comparative literature Ph.D. student Frank Cahill will never forget. He misspelled it as an eighth grader in the second round of the live televised Scripps National Spelling Bee finals. 

Porwigle. Yes, you read that correctly. The word was p-o-r-w-i-g-l-e, pronounced por·​wi·​gle.