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Double major Eric Olliff’s inquisitive view of the world has helped earn him the 2012 University Medal, UC Berkeley’s top prize for graduating seniors.
Arts & humanities archive
Stellar student photos from London, Varanasi, Kilimanjaro …
December 15, 2011: Berkeley Study Abroad has announced the winners of its 2011 photo contest — featuring students’ images from the streets of London and Varanasi, fjords of Sweden, watering holes of Kilimanjaro and more.
‘Everyday Dogs’ book depicts allure of man’s best friend 
December 6, 2011: New book drawn from the Bancroft Library’s vast Pictorial Collection celebrates the powerful connections between people and pets.
In architecture prof’s SoMa loft, a vibrant mix of life and work
December 2, 2011: Thai-born designer/artist Raveevarn Choksombatchai replaced a ramshackle San Francisco teardown with a prize-winning urban home. The New York Times’ Home & Garden section offers a brief profile and a multimedia tour.
ASUC Art Studio opens 2011 ‘Holiday Pop-up Shop’
November 28, 2011: The ASUC Art Studio ‘Holiday Pop-Up Shop’ — open for two weeks, Nov. 30 through Dec. 14 — features handmade ceramics, photography, jewelry and more by campus and local artists.
Berkeley grad looks to Burma to complete film on ‘art as a weapon’
November 21, 2011: Jeff Durkin, a 1999 College of Environmental Design graduate, fell in love with filmmaking more than a decade ago. Now he’s hoping to get to the Thailand border to explore the connections between “street art, Buddhism and democracy” in Burma.
Desdemona takes the microphone: A conversation with Toni Morrison 
November 17, 2011: In conjunction with Cal Performances’ recent U.S. premiere of “Desdemona,” the Townsend Center for the Humanities brought together the project’s collaborators — director Peter Sellars, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison and singer/songwriter Rokia Traoré — in conversation with faculty members Abdul JanMohamed (English), Tamara Roberts (music); Darieck Scott (African American Studies). Video of the event is now available.
Renowned Chilean musician visits Berkeley
November 8, 2011: The renowned Chilean musician-composer Horacio Salinas is on campus this week, teaching a short course on Latin American music. He gave an intimate recital for the Center for Latin American Studies and other members of the campus community Nov. 1.
Choruses round out students’ music education
November 2, 2011: The music department’s University Chorus and Chamber Chorus offer opportunities for students to study and sing a rigorous repertoire of choral music. On Saturday, Nov. 5, the former will perform “Hail, Britannia!,” featuring British masterworks from the Renaissance to the 20th century.
Tick tock, tick tock, last call for campus artists
October 20, 2011: The deadline for a novel campus street-art competition to transform utility boxes into artful conversation-starters is fast approaching.
Johnny Depp, Tom Waits storm through Berkeley
October 18, 2011: In a big night for celebrity stalking in Berkeley, Johnny Depp appeared in Wheeler Hall Monday evening to answer questions about his new film, “The Rum Diary.” Then Depp, along with singer Tom Waits, moved down to the Shattuck Down Low. Berkeleyside reports.
Expanding the guftugu — or conversation — about South Asia
October 14, 2011: Leaders of UC Berkeley’s new Urdu and Pakistan Initiatives will welcome visitors to the Berkeley Art Museum this Sunday (Oct. 16) for a special program on South Asian art.
Call for ‘Streets Alive!’ designs by campus artists
October 3, 2011:
The Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund has provided funding to place artistic treatments, on the theme of sustainability, on seven utility boxes on the campus edge. Members of the campus community are invited to submit design concepts and portfolio samples by Nov. 1.
Lecturer Chika Shibahara teaches Japanese by way of culture
September 30, 2011: Chika Shibahara, a native of Osaka, is known for incorporating elements of her country’s culture into her Japanese language classes — as well as for her fabulous boots. The Berkeley Language Center profiles a longtime Berkeley teacher.
Vets turn military fatigues into ‘Combat Paper’ artworks
September 29, 2011: Veterans transformed their military clothing into pulp, then paper, at a three-day workshop at Wurster Hall Sept. 21-23, led by the nonprofit group Combat Paper. Artworks made by vets — and others touched by war — will be exhibited at Worth Ryder Gallery in October.
BAM/PFA advances plans for new facility, presents schematic design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro architectural firm to public
September 14, 2011: The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, at a Sept. 14 community meeting, shared plans for its future home in the downtown Berkeley arts district. Designed by the renowned New York City-based firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), the project will re-purpose the former UC Printing plant at Oxford and Center streets, tying it in with an exciting new multipurpose structure.
Lunch Poems kicks off 17th year
September 8, 2011: Lunch Poems, the popular campus poetry reading series, launched its 17th year on Sept. 1, with favorite readings by members of the campus community, including the executive vice chancellor and provost, a campus gardener, a Doe Library employee, a Ph.D. student and several professors.
Photos, photography and the black freedom struggle
September 6, 2011: African American activists have long recognized the potential power of visual imagery to advance their quest for self-determination. Faculty member Leigh Raiford, in a new book, explores the role of photography in the black freedom struggle — from the heyday of the white lynch mob to the Civil Rights movement and the Black Power era.
Students’ Bollywood music video remix a hit on YouTube
September 6, 2011: UC Berkeley engineering students and dance team members collaborated this summer on a music video remix of Indian singing star Akon’s “Chammak Challo,” and their work has already been seen by more than 150,000 people on YouTube.
Namwali Serpell wins prize for promising women writers
September 6, 2011: UC Berkeley’s Namwali Serpell, an assistant professor of English and a novelist, is one of six winners of the 2011 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, which is given annually to women writers who demonstrate excellence and promise in the early stages of their careers.
Ishi’s life and legacy
September 2, 2011: Mari Lyn Salvador, director of UC Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, answers questions about “A Century of Ishi,” a Sept. 8 conference about one of the most well-known American Indians of the past 100 years.
Center for Buddhist Studies announces 2011 “Toshi” Book Prize winner
September 2, 2011:
UC Berkeley’s Center for Buddhist Studies has awarded the 2011 Toshihide Numata Book Prize to Todd Lewis and Subarna Man Tuladhar for their book about the epic poem about the life of Buddha by Nepalese poet Chittadhar Hridaya.
ASUC Art Studio classes begin Sept. 6
August 31, 2011:
BERKELEY —
Sept. 10 colloquium to examine roles of history, culture in teaching and learning foreign languages
August 30, 2011: Organizers say that since the attacks of 9/11 – despite increased awareness of the importance of history and culture in language instruction – some topics remain off-limits in the classroom.
Posters, pizza and outdoor Roger Corman movie part of BAM/PFA’s fall semester welcome for new students
August 23, 2011: The Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive will put on a spread Thursday, Aug. 25 for new, incoming students, treating them to free classic art posters from previous BAM/PFA exhibitions, music, pizza and an outdoor screening of Roger Corman’s classic sci-fi thriller, “It Conquered the World.”
Elaine Tennant named new Bancroft Library director
August 22, 2011: Elaine Tennant, a medieval and early modern specialist in the German and Scandinavian departments at the University of California, Berkeley, will become the James D. Hart Director of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library starting in September.
No artist is an island, says faculty author Shannon Jackson
July 22, 2011: Art that looks directly at the institutions that, for better or for worse, surround and support our lives is the subject of a new book, “Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics,” by Shannon Jackson, professor of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies.
Misrach donates 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm photos to BAM/PFA
July 15, 2011: In commemoration of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the devastating Oakland Hills firestorm, celebrated Bay Area photographer Richard Misrach has donated to UC Berkeley’s BAM/PFA prints of 33 photos he took immediately after the blaze.
The soundtrack of Berkeley
June 30, 2011: California magazine’s summer music issue features “hillbillionaire” Warren Hellman, the culture of KALX, the scholarship of musicology, life in the Cal Band, and more.
California Language Archive clicks with multiple resources
June 20, 2011: The new California Language Archive (CLA) website at UC Berkeley – the largest indigenous language archive at a U.S. university – is now accessible free of charge to anyone with Internet access.
On the Same Page gets new students talking with voice sample map
June 14, 2011: With a welcome video and an experiment mapping the voices of this year’s incoming class, the L&S program On the Same Page is highlighting the linguistic diversity of UC Berkeley.
