News

Judith Butler appeared on City Arts and Lectures on June 13 in conversation with Poulomi Saha. 

Professor Whitney Davis (History of Art) was granted the 2024 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and human progress through their groundbreaking, innovative and collaborative research.

The plot of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film, Rope, is a disturbing one:Two men in their shared apartment strangle a former classmate to death. Then, they host guests — including the victim’s family — at a dinner party. It’s an attempt to prove their superiority by committing the “perfect murder.”  

Although the killers — Brandon and Phillip — live together, it’s never acknowledged openly that they’re a couple. (At the time, the Motion Picture Production Code prohibited the depiction of “sex perversion,” which included homosexuality, on the big screen.) 

Nicole Daena Leon Loya, a Berkeley transfer student from San Joaquin Delta College, has managed to balance numerous responsibilities while pursuing her educational goals. Loya brings a wealth of experience and a deep love for languages and education to Berkeley. Before coming to UC Berkeley, she worked full-time as a Spanish teacher. “I have been an assistant teacher at an Elementary Montessori school teaching Spanish since 2021 and I love the environment and their philosophy on teaching.”

Folger Shakespeare Library director Michael Witmore (Rhetoric Ph. D. '97) calls the Folio — a collection of 36 of Shakespeare's plays, published by his friends in 1623, seven years after his death — "the ultimate message in a bottle." A new expansion to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. makes that message more accessible.

In episode 202 of the Berkeley Talks podcast series, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik discusses liberalism — what it means, why we need it and the endless dedication it requires to maintain. 

Liberal democracy, he said at a Townsend Center event in April, depends on two pillars: free and fair elections and the practice of open institutions, places where people can meet and debate without the pressures of overt supervision. 

When you start with language, whose meaning is more often than not taken for granted and then use it to mean differently, multiply, and unconventionally, in literature, you enter a world where resolution won’t be found or even assumed. At best, you will propose a sufficiently acceptable explanation of meaning, something we have to acknowledge is temporary, experimental, and hopeful.

It won’t be the last reading or the only one, but it will reflect your effort, your humility, and your sense. 

How often do undergraduates get a chance — in person — to ask a best-selling writer about their creative process?

Of the four finalists for this year's University Medal, two of them are Arts & Humanities majors. Meet Skylar Li Song (Art Practice), Bryce Wallace (English and Linguistics), and their fellow finalists for Berkeley's highest academic honor for undergradautes.

We talked to graduating senior Wilson Wang about his experiences at Berkeley. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.