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.
(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.
One of the most anticipated movies of the Holiday Season is due to hit cinemas on Christmas Day. The Boys in the Boat, directed by George Clooney, finally brings to the big screen Cal alum Daniel James Brown's mega-bestselling book about the American crew team that triumphed in the so-called Nazi Olympics of 1936.
Adrian Tomine earned a B.A. in English in 1996.
Ana de Alba holds multiple degrees from UC Berkeley. She graduated in 2002 with a dual major in Spanish & Portuguese and Political Economy of Industrial Societies and earned her J.D. at Berkeley Law in 2007.
A first-generation Mexican American who worked in the fields with her farmworker parents has been elevated to the largest federal appeals court.
Mona Simpson made her mark on the literary world with her very first major work, the critically praised novel Anywhere But Here (1986), which was later adapted into the 1999 film by the same name starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. Since then, the Berkeley alum ('79) has added five more books to her name and garnered high-profile awards including a Whiting Prize, a Guggenheim, and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Ron Stroud, a leading expert in the study of Greek epigraphy, taught in the Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies from 1965 until 2007. He helped found the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology (AHMA) in 1968 and was instrumental in building AHMA into the premier program of its kind in the nation.
The protagonist of Susanna Hoffs' debut novel, Jane Start, probably listens to Dionne Warwick to hype herself up in the morning. Start is 33 and living with her parents – her days of pop stardom, for one song, are 10 years behind her. But in This Bird Has Flown, a romantic spark reignites a second chance for her creative endeavors, too. Hoffs tells NPR's Andrew Limbong how her own experiences as a rockstar influenced the story, which she's adapting into a feature film.
A few years ago, when Heesoo Kwon was visiting South Korea during a summer break from her MFA program at Berkeley, she found old home videos of her family. Watching the decades-old interactions among her family members and the Catholic rituals they practiced fascinated her. But in one video, her mother stood by the table while others ate, waiting to serve them. It made Kwon angry.
Ed Roberts (B.A. '64, M.A. '66) is known as the father of the disability rights movement. “But if he’s the father, Zona is the grandmother. She’s the wheel behind his wheelchair,” says Donna Mitroff, founder of the Kidvocate Group media consultancy, who is filming a documentary about Zona’s life.
Read more about Zona Roberts (B.A. English '69) and her tireless advocacy for Ed Roberts and his legacy.
Pulitzer-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen '92, Ph.D. '97 found at UC Berkeley the intellectual home, identity, and political passion that ultimately led to his creative success.
Before she was a chef and an internationally-known cookbook author, Samin Nosrat (B.A. '01) was an English major at Berkeley. She talks about the writing process—and why a day of writing is so hard—in this Freakonomics Radio interview.
Meg Parker graduated from UC Berkeley in 2010 with a double major in French and Rhetoric, then went on to earn her JD from Georgetown University Law Center.
