When it comes to our alumni, the richness and diversity of the stories they study during their time on campus is mirrored in their lives after they leave Cal. The Alumni Stories series seeks to share these stories. This piece is from David Corvo (’72) as part of our 2015 Newsletter. In this piece, David, NBC Senior Executive Producer of Primetime News, reflects on how studying narrative led him...
When it comes to our alumni, the richness and diversity of the stories they study during their time on campus is mirrored in their lives after they leave Cal. The Alumni Stories series seeks to share these stories. This piece is from Matt Young (’10) as part of our 2015 Newsletter. From Berkeley to the Forest Service to eBay to Zambia, Matt talks about how studying literature opened...
Earlier this year, B.A. and Ph.D alumnus Viet Thanh Nguyen* published his first novel, The Sympathizer, to great critical esteem. The novel, heralded by Maxine Hong Kingston as “(a) book that will go down in history as an important novel of the war in Vietnam,” has appeared on numerous best novels lists, including The New York Times and The Guardian. Recently, Viet...
The following article was written by Steven Czifra, an English Undergraduate transfer student. The piece is a reflection on reconciling his “past as a formerly incarcerated person,” with his “new life as a Berkeley English undergrad” upon transferring into the Department. Steven has won multiple campus awards, including a 2014-2015 Hass Scholars Humanities Fellowship for his work titled, “Emerging Discourses in California’s Solitary Confinement Debate.” He...
READ MORE Undergraduate Voices: Steven Czifra reflects on the pull of activism and academia
Berkeley Connect, a mentoring program connecting graduate-student mentors with small groups of undergraduates, began in the English Department in 2010 with a gift from Peter Chernin (’73). This year will mark the fifth anniversary of the program, which has recently expanded to other departments. To celebrate, we will be publishing a series of reflections by mentors in the coming weeks. Throughout...
In Spring 2015, department alumnus Steven Isenberg taught a Special Topics course titled “Fathers and Sons” in Berkeley. Here is his account of the course and his experience of returning to Cal.
READ MORE Return of the Native: Steven Isenberg on teaching in the English Department
Berkeley Connect, a mentoring program connecting graduate-student mentors with small groups of undergraduates, began in the English Department in 2010 with a gift from Peter Chernin (’73). This year will mark the fifth anniversary of the program, which has recently expanded to other departments.
Amy Clark is a graduating senior, and was recently awarded the Charlene Conrad Liebau Library Prize for her English honors thesis, “More than Meets the Eye: Cultural Color Resonances in Old English Literature.”
Samuel Diener is a senior finishing an Honors thesis this year on the General History of the Pyrates and the early seafaring novels of Daniel Defoe. He will go on to a Ph.D. program in English at Harvard this fall, where he hopes to continue to study the novel, the eighteenth century, and voyage narratives in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
Dennis Velasquez (‘15) was given the opportunity to pursue independent research through the McNair Scholars Program and the Haas Scholars Program (the only student awarded both research fellowships for 2014-15). His project is a comparative study of strategies of literary defiance of English Linguistic Imperialism across disparate temporal and geocultural locations.
READ MORE From the Western U.S. to Western Europe: Running the Archive Gauntlet
Charlotte Hull is a fourth year, double major in English Literature and History. Her academic interests include community building in Colonial New England, the impact of space and environment on society, and the ways in which stories shape and reflect our own histories.
In Spring 2014, Rebecca Solnit taught a course in prose nonfiction at Berkeley. This is her account of some of the joys and difficulties encountered in teaching the course.
Anne earned her Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1993, taught for three years at the University of Colorado as an Assistant Professor, and then came home to the Bay Area after joining the faculty at Sonoma State. Nominated for a National Magazine Award, “Stargazing in the Atomic Age” appeared in the Georgia Review in 2006 and was listed as a “notable” essay in Best American Essays 2007.
David Adam Getman, a brilliant writer, artist, son, brother, and friend, died in a traffic accident in the early morning hours of August 25th, 2014. David, who was a 2010 graduate of the Milken Community Schools in Los Angeles, is survived by his three sisters and his parents.
Karen Leibowitz was a graduate student in the department from 2001 to 2008 and returned as a post-doctoral fellow during the 2010-2011 school year. She is now a food writer who has published in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, and Modern Farmer as well as a partner in restaurants including Mission Chinese Food and Commonwealth in San Francisco and Mission Cantina in New York City.
