Staff

37th Annual Excellence in Management Awards Celebrate L&S Staff Members

May 2, 2025

The Berkeley Staff Assembly recently announced the recipients of the 37th annual Excellence in Management Award, who are recognized for leading their teams and team members to meaningful accomplishments this past year. This year’s award theme, “A Culture of Excellence: Inspiring Performance and Growth," highlights leaders who foster an environment where innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement thrive, empowering their teams to achieve their full potential and drive organizational success.

The award recipients were honored at a ceremony on April 30, where Chancellor...

Curriculum planner Alli Warren balances creativity and precision while supporting Berkeley’s mission

May 6, 2025
Chauncey Walker
Meet Alli Warren, Curriculum Planner for UC Berkeley’s Geography Department and Interdisciplinary Social Science Programs (ISSP). With a background in nonprofit work, graduate school administration, and campus curriculum planning, Alli brings a thoughtful, detail-oriented approach to scheduling, enrollment management, and course development. A published poet as well, she balances creativity and precision—both in her writing and in supporting Berkeley’s academic mission behind the scenes.

Social Sciences Fest 2025 celebrates faculty and staff

May 2, 2025
By Jessica Ballardo

UC Berkeley’s Social Sciences Division recently celebrated its faculty and staff at Social Sciences Fest, an annual gathering dedicated to recognizing the remarkable contributions and accomplishments of the Berkeley Social Sciences community.

Berkeley Social Sciences Dean Raka Ray welcomed guests by first acknowledging the current challenges facing higher education, while commending faculty and staff for remaining dedicated to Berkeley’s core values during these uncertain times.

“Through it all, you remain...

L&S Staff Honored with 2025 Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Awards

May 1, 2025

event image for Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Awards with a bear statue against a graphic blue background

Five individual staff members from the College of Letters & Science are recipients of the 2025 Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Awards (COSA). One of the highest honors bestowed upon staff by the Chancellor, the COSA awards are presented to individuals who, in addition to performing their normal job duties with excellence, "...

UC Berkeley-led study reveals undercounted COVID-19 deaths in Pune, India

August 8, 2024
By Lilah Klein

A groundbreaking study led by UC Berkeley Psychology Postdoctoral Research Fellow Aakash Chowkase showed the official number of COVID-19 deaths in Pune, India may be significantly underreported.

Published in Nature's Scientific Reports on May 6th, 2024, the research estimates that from March 2020 to December 2021, Pune...

Professor Nicole Starosielski (Film & Media) launches world's first certificate in internet infrastructure at Berkeley

April 2, 2025

This month, The Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) at the University of California, Berkeley, launched the Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure(link is external), the first and only program of its kind in higher education.Created and led by internet infrastructure expert and Professor Nicole Starosielski(link is...

https://artshumanities.berkeley.edu/news/professor-nicole-starosielski-film-medi…

Extraordinary Stories and People: New program highlights the breadth of Palestinian and Arab studies

April 2, 2025
Jackie Krentzman
New Palestinian and Arab studies program to explore a wide array of topics including poetry, legal studies, ecology, and much more.

In Fall 2024, the Division of Social Sciences announced that it was forming a new program in Palestinian and Arab Studies. The program, led by the holder of the new May Ziadeh Chair Ussama Makdisi, a professor of History, was created to deepen understanding of Palestinian and Arab history, politics, and culture. Makdisi says the program is one of the first of its kind in the United States.

“The program is a long overdue step in...

https://diversity.berkeley.edu/news/extraordinary-stories-and-people-new-program…

Fakes, replicas and forgeries: What counts as art?

April 2, 2025
Anne Brice

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...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/03/31/berkeley-voices-transformation-series-ep-6-…

2025 UC Berkeley Alianza Latinx Staff Awards honor L&S staff

March 21, 2025

Image featuring some of our awardees.

Alianza at UC Berkeley, a Chicanx/Latinx staff organization, recently announced the winners of the 2025 UC Berkeley Alianza Latinx Staff Award. This award is designed to "recognize and honor the remarkable achievements, contributions, and talents of our Latinx-identifying staff members." Congratulations to all of this year's recipients, which include the following L...

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

March 27, 2025
Lauren Miller

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....