As a young kid growing up in Mexico City, UC Berkeley Professor Chris Batterman Cháirez would always hear music — it seemed to be playing everywhere he went, a kind of soundtrack to his daily life.
Hannes Bajohr is a Professor in the Department of German. Dr. Bajohr’s primary areas of focus include digital writing and literature, German philosophy of the 20th century, and political theory. He received the N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature by the Electronic Literature Organization in 2024. Dr. Bajohr studied philosophy, German literature, and modern history at Humboldt University of Berlin, and received his PhD from Columbia University.
Eric Naiman is a Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. He is the author of the books Sex in Public (Princeton University Press, 1997) and Nabokov, Perversely (Cornell University Press, 2010). His teaching mainly focuses on 19th and 20th-century Russian literature, as well as early Soviet culture. Dr. Naiman received his JD from Yale Law School, and his PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley.
This month, theatergoers watched the new Superman movie in 76 countries. Though the film played in many different languages, every showing included a new language created by David J. Peterson ’03 and his wife, Jessie Peterson.
The duo created Suh Ankripton, the latest version of the Kryptonian language used on Superman’s home planet. A pivotal scene that changes the world’s opinion of Superman involves characters speaking the language.
“I can’t believe this is real,” thought Andrea Chavez as nearly 2,000 concertgoers rose to their feet and began clapping in unison. Chavez had been playing the double bass for the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for two years, but this was among the most rapturous responses she’d seen from an audience yet.
Quick: Think of “folklore.” Did images of witches, trolls, goblins or other fairytale creatures and stories populate your mind?
Next, think of something “computational.” Did you conjure a spreadsheet? An artificial intelligence prompt window? Zoolander famously looking for the files “in the computer?”
Now put the terms together: “Computational Folklore.” Sounds like a pretty wild collabo, huh?
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.
Hong Joo Ryoo is a UC Berkeley alum, having completed a quadruple major in Math, Physics, Philosophy and Cognitive Science in 3.5 years. He is currently pursuing a dual graduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, working toward a PhD in Physics and a Masters in Philosophy as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow. At Berkeley, he was a recipient of the SURF and Rose Hills Fellowships, and was also a member of the Arts & Humanities Dean's Leadership Team.
Dr. Ramona Naddaff is an associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric. Professor Naddaff is also the director of the Art of Writing program. She is a co-director and editor of Zone Books, an independent nonprofit publisher focused on the humanities and social sciences. Professor Naddaff’s research interests include Ancient Greek philosophy, culture, poetics and rhetoric; the history of philosophy; theory of literary censorship; theory of the novel; and aesthetics.
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.
