Arts & Humanities

This week, the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners announced by Columbia University included six UC Berkeley alumni, and additional members of the campus community were finalists for the prestigious award.

Announced each May, the prizes are considered the country’s most sought-after awards in journalism, arts and letters and have been awarded since 1917. Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911, left money to Columbia University to launch a journalism school and establish the Pulitzer Prize. An...

On a sunny Saturday in March, dozens of onlookers watched Jasmine Nyende charge, pull, twist, and duck under ropes held by six other performers. Nearby, portable speakers blared punk rock. Nyende’s performance — titled “Sankofa Moshpit” — was a joyful memorial to her late friend, Láwû. It was also one of the featured events during UC Berkeley’s MFA Open Studios.

Six UC Berkeley faculty members from a diverse range of fields are among nearly 250 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the organization announced in a recent press release. The new Berkeley electees include leading experts in mathematics, statistics, computer science, molecular biology, neurobiology and comparative literature.

Since 1780, the academy has honored excellence and convened leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas, address...

Philosopher Hannah Ginsborg will use the award to write a book about the relation between norms and reasons, while chemical engineer Markita del Carpio Landry will try to find molecules in little-studied plants that could treat neurological disorders.

For the past 100 years, the Guggenheim Foundation has bestowed one of the highest intellectual honors on North American academics and creatives: the Guggenheim Fellowship. Zora Neale Hurston penned Their Eyes Were Watching God during her time as a fellow; James Baldwin and UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna are also alumni...