On July 1, 2023, the Division of the Arts & Humanities welcomed new chairs and directors for 12 departments, centers, and programs:
Mark Csikszentmihalyi, Chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures: Csikszentmihalyi is a Professor of the Chinese Program and holds the Eliaser Chair of International Studies. He uses both excavated and transmitted texts to reconstruct the religions, philosophies, and cultures of early China.
Justin Davidson, Director, Romance Languages and Literatures: Davidson is an Associate Professor of Hispanic and Romance Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Davidon's research explores the linguistic and social variation present in Hispanic communities across the world, especially in multilingual communities in which Spanish is either a majority or minority language.
Eric Falci, Chair, Celtic Studies: Falci is Professor and Chair in the English department and specializes in Irish and 20th and 21st century British poetry.
Kate Heslop, Chair, Department of Scandinavian: Professor Heslop’s research centres on Old Norse textual culture, especially skaldic and eddic poetry, the sagas and the heroic tradition.
Shannon Jackson, Chair, History of Art Department: Jackson is the Cyrus and Michelle Hadidi Professor of the Arts & Humanities and holds appointments in the departments of Rhetoric and Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. She specializes in collaborations across visual, performing, and media art forms and the role of the arts in social institutions and in social change. She will serve as chair following outgoing chair and professor Greg Levine.
Ethan Katz, Director, Center for Jewish Studies: Katz is Associate Professor in the Department of History and is a historian of modern Europe and the Mediterranean, with specialties in modern Jewish history and the history of modern France and its empire.
Duncan MacRae, Co-Director, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion: MacRae is Professor in the Department of Ancient Greek and Roman and specializes in the religious history of the Roman world, particularly in the late Republican and early imperial periods.
Anne Nesbet, Chair, Slavic Languages and Literatures: Nesbet is a professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and in the Department of Film and Media. Her research focuses on silent and early sound film in France, Germany, and Russia as well as early Soviet culture. A current project centers around Soviet cinema and the construction of architectural space.
Poulomi Saha, Co-Director, Critical Theory program: Poulomi is Professor in the Department of English and is a faculty member of the Critical Theory designated emphasis, as well as affiliated faculty in the Programs of Gender and Women’s Studies and Folklore; the LGBT Citizenship Cluster at the Othering and Belonging Institute; the Center for Race & Gender; Asian American Research Center; and the Institute for South Asia Studies.
Sylvia Tiwon, Chair, Department of South and South East Asian Studies: Sylvia Tiwon teaches literature, gender, oral and cultural studies of Southeast Asia with a focus on Indonesia. Her areas of interest include national and pre-national literatures, oral discourse and mythologies, as well as socio-cultural formations at the national and sub-national levels.