Lucille Lorenz, Arts & Humanities writer-in-residence
Roni Masel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, and holds the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Jewish Studies. Professor Masel’s main research interests include Hebrew literature, Yiddish literature, Jewish history, queer theory, and postcolonial theory. Masel is currently completing a book for which the working title is, Bad Readers: Misreading, Mistranslation, and Other Textual Malpractices in Hebrew and Yiddish.Dr. Masel received a PhD from New York University, and a B.A. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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.
Aileen returns to Berkeley with more than 20 years of experience leading communications for major global companies. At Clorox, where she spent 18 years, she helped reposition the company as a leader in sustainability and transparency. As Vice President for Communications, Sustainability Integration, and Crisis Management, she navigated...
Frank Cahill, a doctoral student in comparative literature at UC Berkeley, is the national word list coordinator for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Marcus Gabbert/For the S.F. Chronicle
Hundreds of logolept tanquams will compete against hindermates this week in the famous Scripps...
Comparative literature student Frank Cahill competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee as an eighth grader. This year, on May 28 and 29, he’ll be on the other side of the stage.
UC Berkeley Ph.D. student Frank Cahill worked with a team to build this year's Scripps National Spelling...
Angel's passion for Comparative Literature continues to drive her exploration of literature, history, and philosophy across cultures. For the second year in a row, Angel has been awarded the prestigious Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship. This summer, she will travel to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where she will continue her studies of Russian.
Congratulations to Angel on receiving her second FLAS Fellowship!
LOS ANGELES — Theatergoers are in for a very special occasion—a revelation, it’s not too excessive to say—if they will expand their horizons a bit and embrace a Native American perspective on view now.
Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary season, Native Voices presents the world premiere of Beth Piatote’s Antíkoni at the historic Southwest Campus of the Autry Museum of the American West, formerly known as the Southwest Museum...
We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Autotheories, co-edited by Alex Brostoff and Vilashini Cooppan. Coming out with MIT Press / Penguin Random House next week, this collection explores the evolving field of autotheory—a genre-bending synthesis of autobiography and critical theory. Notably, Autotheories has already been recognized on two "Most Anticipated of 2025" lists: The Millions Most Anticipated - The Great Winter 2025 Preview and Choice360 - Forthcoming Titles in Art & Architecture, 2025....
Roxana (Qinhong) Wang, a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley class of 2024, has been awarded a 2025-26 Schwarzman Scholarship. Wang, who studied Comparative Literature and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies in the College of Letters & Science, was selected as one of 150 scholars from a pool of nearly 5,000 candidates. She is Berkeley’s sixteenth recipient of the award since its inception in 2013.
“Many highly qualified Berkeley students apply for the Schwarzman Scholarship every year, so it is impossible to predict who will be offered a place in the program's...
Muskaan Shah, a senior majoring in Comparative Literature and Molecular and Cell Biology, was invited to present her paper, "The Impact of Cultural Identity in Irish and Indian Plays in the Post-Colonial Context" at the 43rd Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium from 11th to 13th October 2024. She was one of only two undergraduates in attendance.
On October 1st, we had the immense pleasure of hosting renowned writer Maya Arad for an intimate conversation in the Comparative Literature 100 "Crossing Borders" class. The discussion centered her 2018 novel, The Hebrew Teacher, which was recently translated into English by the one and only Jessica Cohen. Our conversation explored matters of translation, hyphenated identities, and the role of literature in presenting history and politics as much more murky and complex than one might expect. It was a true pleasure.
