On average, the English Department graduates between 300 and 400 majors every year–in 2012-13, the specific number was 375. These people go on to a variety of surprising and exciting careers. In this new series, we ask alumni to talk to us about where English has taken them.
READ MORE Alumni Stories: Sylvia Gonzales Discusses her Passion for Teaching
In response to his recent op-ed in the NY Times, Professor Scott Saul received a number of missives from alums of the department and from far-flung acquaintances. In this post, he opens his mailbag for our perusal.
A reflection on the surprisingly close relationship between bicycles and books during the first half of the 20th century.
At the end of every spring semester, the English Department awards the Bronson Prize to the graduating senior, whose thesis is deemed the best that year. In 2013, it looks like we couldn’t choose: both Stephanie Ranks and Lily Rosenthal received the prize. Remarkably, both wrote on 17th-century poet John Milton. In separate reflections, Stephanie and Lily discuss the pleasures and difficulties of reading and writing about Milton.
READ MORE Why Milton?: Reflections from the Winners of the Bertrand H. Bronson Prize
On average, the English Department graduates between 300 and 400 majors every year–in 2012-13, the number was 375. These people go on to a variety of surprising and exciting careers. In this new series, we ask alumni to talk to us about where English has taken them.
READ MORE Alumni Stories: Whitney Magruder Talks about the Ups and Downs of Editing
Sixth in the series is Christian Durán (’13), whose senior honors thesis — “Reconciling Daniel Venegas: Las Aventuras de Don Chipote in the Balance of History” — was recently recognized with an honorable mention from the Undergraduate Library Prize, one of Berkeley’s most distinguished awards for undergraduate research.
Prachi Naik, now a Berkeley graduate, was chosen to speak at the English Department’s 2013 Commencement Ceremony.
READ MORE Our Hronir, Ourselves: A Commencement Address by Prachi Naik (’13)
Fifth in the series is a reflection from Nashilu Mouen-Makoua (’13), who explored three different archives in France, each housing different manuscripts related to the poet and statesman Aimé Césaire.
READ MORE The Lure of the Archive (V): Nashilu Mouen-Makoua’s Detour par Paris
On April 17th, hundreds of people filled Wheeler’s Maude Fife Auditorium to hear Anne Carson read a selection of poems from her new volume.
READ MORE Holloway Poetry Series: Anne Carson + Gillian Osborne
Lili Loofbourow is a seventh-year graduate student, who works on early modern constructions of reading as a form of eating—theologically, physiologically, etc.
READ MORE The Virtues of Excrement: Lili Loofbourow on Blogging and the Academic Life
Fourth in the series is a reflection from Spencer Janssen (’12), who visited the Cormac McCarthy papers, which are located in the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.
Simon Palfrey, Professor of English Literature at Oxford, traveled to Berkeley on April 1st to give a talk entitled “Shakespeare: Where is the Life?”
Justin Park, a senior in the English Department, has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship; only 39 students nationwide received the award this year, out of 769 applicants.
READ MORE Justin Park (’13) Wins Prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Third in the series is an interview with Lauren Ballard (’12), who worked with dozens of surviving original editions of Susanna Rowson’s novel Charlotte Temple housed at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.
From February 22nd to 24th, the UC Berkeley English Department hosted its first ever Conference on Ecopoetics.
