Arts & Humanities

Fakes, replicas and forgeries: What counts as art?

April 2, 2025

In the early 2000s, UC Berkeley rhetoric professor Winnie Wong visited Dafen village in China, where artists painted replicas of famous pieces like the Mona Lisa and Starry Night. It dramatically changed how she thinks about art and those who make it.

When Winnie Wong first saw Dafen Oil Painting Village in 2006, it was nothing like she’d imagined.

The Chinese village was known for mass producing copies of Western art. She’d read about it in The New York Times, which described a kind of compound where thousands of artists painted replicas of famous artworks...

Creativity is What Comes Next: An L&S Lunch and Learn Conversation

March 27, 2025

On Tuesday, March 18, the College of Letters & Science Administrative Advisory Committee (AAC) hosted a conversation between Professors David Nadler and Shannon Steen on the topic “What is Creativity?” at its second L&S Lunch and Learn convening. Moderated by Aileen Liu, Director of Curricular Engagement Initiatives, this discussion afforded L&S staff the opportunity to thoughtfully engage with the scholarship of the College and connect with their colleagues....

In Memoriam: Remembering Ben Dillon

March 11, 2025

Headshot of Ben DillonIt is with profound sadness that we share the passing of our dear colleague and friend, Ben Dillon. Ben, our dedicated marketing and communications manager, passed away the morning of March 4, 2025 after a sudden and intense battle with cancer.

There are no words to fully express the depth of our sorrow. Ben was a bright light in our department—a colleague whose generosity, compassion, and kindness touched...

Novel ‘Highway Thirteen’ traces the ripple effects of one man’s violence

March 25, 2025

In the 2024 book, nominated for The Story Prize, English Professor Fiona McFarlane tells 12 short stories that look past a serial killer's crimes and focus on the lives of those still living.

Person in black and white color stands against blue graphic background next to the cover of a novel, Highway Thirteen

Photo design by Neil Freese/UC Berkeley

In the...

Language, Identity, and Ecolinguistics: An Interview with Nataliia Goshylyk on Teaching Ukrainian at Berkeley

March 25, 2025

Nataliia Goshylyk is a lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, where she teaches Ukrainian. Dr. Goshylyk received her M.A. in Philology from Lesya Ukrainka Volyn State University, and her PhD in linguistics from Kharkiv National University. She is the recipient of the Berkeley Language Center Summer Fellowship in 2022, as well as a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship from 2021-2022, and she was an Erasmus Mundus Ianus II recipient in 2015, where she did research in Graz, Austria. Some of her main areas of focus include ecolinguistics, language pedagogy, and...

AAC Brings “What is Understanding?” Conversation to L&S Staff

October 22, 2024

Aileen Liu (left), Jennifer Johnson-Hanks (middle), and Hernan Garcia speak in a panel.

On Wednesday, October 9, the College of Letters & Science Administrative Advisory Committee (AAC) hosted its inaugural L&S Brown Bag Lunch and Learn. One of several new initiatives by the recently revamped AAC, the Lunch and Learn provides L&S staff members an opportunity to connect with their colleagues and...

Funding Early-Career Faculty: The Transformative Impact of the Hellman Fellows Program

February 27, 2025

Inspired by UC Berkeley Professor Frances Hellman and started at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, the Hellman Fellows Fund(link is external) provides much needed support to pre-tenure assistant professors who have served for at least two years. Established in 1995, the Hellman Fellows Program has since expanded to include all ten UC campuses and a handful of private institutions.

Over 2,000 faculty have...

Why conspiracies are so popular — and what we can do to stop them

February 6, 2025

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, false narratives can be incredibly sticky. Many people insist that the earth is flat, that childhood vaccines cause autism, or that climate change is a hoax, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary.

“Stories are very powerful,” said Timothy Tangherlini, a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Scandinavian and the School of Information. “We’re much more comfortable with hearing stories that confirm our beliefs than ones that challenge...

UC Berkeley Awarded $2.6 Million Grant for “A Counter-Imaginary in Authoritarian Times”

December 20, 2024

Berkeley, CA UC Berkeley’s Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry (CICI) and the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP) have been awarded $2.6 million to support a groundbreaking multi-year initiative titled “A Counter-Imaginary in Authoritarian Times.” Through collaborative workshops, conferences, performances, publications, and a dynamic, open-ended digital platform, this project brings together academics, artists, activists, and other community members to develop concrete strategies, tools, and proposals to create a counter-...

No. 1 book of the century, ‘My Brilliant Friend’, is subject of UC Berkeley research, courses

December 17, 2024

My Brilliant Friend, by the pseudonymous Italian author Elena Ferrante, is the New York Times’ No. 1 book of the century. This recognition, and the recent adaptation of Ferrante’s four-novel Neopolitan Quartet into an HBO series, underscores this writer’s profound influence.

Ferrante’s popular novels, translated into English by Ann Goldstein, are an intimate exploration...