News

Leah Binkovitz (History of Art, ‘10), a senior editorial writer at the Houston Chronicle, has been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing as part of the Chronicle’s editorial board.

UC Berkeley recently welcomed back acclaimed alumnus and professional language creator David J. Peterson, along with his partner and fellow conlanger Dr. Jessie Peterson, for a day of conversation, creativity, and career insight with students in the Division of Arts & Humanities.

David and Jessie—widely recognized as the leading international team of full-time language creators—spent the day meeting with undergraduates and then joined Dean Sara Guyer’s Humanities 20 class, where they spoke about turning a passion for language into a creative career.

Since graduating from UC Berkeley in 2012 with a dual major in dance & Performance Studies and Psychology, Megan Lowe has performed with esteemed San Francisco Bay Area dance companies like Flyaway Productions, Lenora Lee Dance, Dance Brigade, Scott Wells and Dancers, Lizz Roman and Dancers,  and Epiphany Productions, all while choreographing her own works presented both live and on film.

Megan is also the Program Manager for Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies!

Valerie Williams-Sanchez, Ph.D., is a UC Berkeley alum who graduated with an English degree in 1992. Today, Valerie is a consultant, researcher, publisher, and creator of the children’s picture book series, Cocoa Kids Collection®.

In this interview, Claire Marie Stancek (English, Ph.D.

As a student in 1978, Bettina Duval '82 recalls seeing an "earth mobile" — an old El Camino filled with plants — and Jane Fonda speaking at an environmental rally on Sproul Plaza. Whether she was in the classroom or walking around campus, Duval, chair of the UC Berkeley Foundation, always "had the opportunity to listen to new and different ideas." While that remains a hallmark of the Cal experience, a lot has changed since then.

What changes have you observed in undergraduate education?

A week before Halloween, University of North Carolina English professor Florence Dore released a new single, “Signs of Life,” on music streaming services.

Clara Olivares, who received her PhD in Music Composition from UC Berkeley in May 2021, will debut her second opera, Les Sentinelles, at the Opéra National de Bordeaux in November 2024, followed by performances at the Opéra de Limoges in January 2025 and the Opéra-Comique in Paris in April 2025. This opera is a joint commission from the three co-producing opera houses and has received support from the French Ministry of Culture's grant for original musical works, as well as the Beaumarchais - SACD Lyric Award.

Major(s): Rhetoric and Legal Studies

Alejandra Colon, a proud Latina and 2018 graduate of UC Berkeley, has continued to honor her heritage through her work and community involvement. She remains an active member of the UC Berkeley Chicanx Latinx Alumni Association, and has served on the executive boards of both the Orange County and Los Angeles chapters. 

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is organizing an exhibition of more than one hundred quilts by approximately eighty artists, the most expansive presentation to date of a transformative bequest of African American quilts that the museum received in 2019. Opening in Berkeley next year, Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California is a groundbreaking historical survey of the relationship between quiltmaking traditions and the history of Black migration to California from the Southern United States.

In community college, Jason Bircea came across UC Berkeley’s English department website and was blown away by a student’s honors thesis on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go. 

“I decided I wanted to go to a school that would teach me how to write like that,” Bircea recalls.

Bircea transferred to UC Berkeley in 2015. Several years later, he chose Berkeley again to start his Ph.D. in English literature.

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.

"One day I woke up and decided I wanted to learn every language on the planet." David J Peterson has created fictional languages for "Game of Thrones," "The "Witcher," "Dune" and other major works. He talks about his gift and love of language, as well as how going to Cal played a role in his career.

Listen to the full interview:

Michelle Robertson (English ‘16) describes the path that led to her current role as BART storyteller and explains why an English major will give you an edge in the workplace. 

Seven alums of the Division of Arts & Humanities were among the 188 Guggenheim Fellows whose names were announced on April 11, 2024.

Mai Der Vang

(B.A. English ‘03)
English Poet & Assistant Professor, Department of English, California State University, Fresno

When Nathanael Stephen Payne ’23 was developing Wrestle with Jimmy for UC Berkeley’s “Introduction to Playwriting” class, he had no idea where the project would take him. His answer came several years later, when he crossed the stage at graduation as one of two students to receive the Larry Belling Promising Writers’ Award.