Arts & humanities archive

The verdict on tiger-parenting?

June 18, 2013:

Long before Amy Chua’s provocative 2011 memoir,Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, raised the bar for tough-love parenting, psychologists at UC Berkeley were studying the effects of three kinds of child-rearing: authoritarian (too hard), permissive (too soft) and authoritative (combo). Now, with the recent release of Berkeley alumna Kim Wong Keltner’s memoir, Tiger Babies Strike Back, along with other scholarly works and testimonials, the results are in.

Versatile University Medalist reflects interests from Chinese literature to forestry

May 8, 2012:

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.

English student going to Cannes Film Festival to serve on jury

May 7, 2012:

Graduate student Ryan Lattanzio is heading to the Cannes Film Festival, where he’ll help select the winner of the “Visionary Award,” for a fledgling independent filmmaker.

New Summer Creative Writing Program aims to bring out your inner author/poet

May 2, 2012:

Daniel Alarcon and Camille Dungy are among authors lined up to teach in UC Berkeley’s new, intensive Summer Creative Writing Program, for aspiring, practicing and experienced writers alike. Applications are now being accepted; the six-week program starts May 21.

Picturing UC’s future: position sousaphones, reshoot, remix

May 1, 2012:

At a precise location near Sather Gate, members of the Cal Band gamely shouldered their instruments Monday for a technically demanding photo op. The goal: to recreate a shot taken close to half a century ago by photographer Ansel Adams — this time for a 21st-century campus project on “picturing” UC’s future.

Crawford Greenewalt receives prestigious award for work at site of ancient city of Sardis

April 26, 2012:

This year’s Bandelier Award for Public Service to Archaeology goes to a UC Berkeley classics professor emeritus, for his decades-long work exploring the ancient city of Sardis, capital of the ancient empire of Lydia.

Berkeley student team takes third in national poetry slam

April 25, 2012:

A team of students from UC Berkeley took third place in the poetry-slam invitational hosted by the Association of College Unions International April 18-21. Poets from 48 campuses across the U.S. competed for top honors.

Cal Performances announces 2012-13 season

April 24, 2012:

Matías Tarnopolsky’s third season as director of Cal Performances, announced Tuesday, will feature 113 artists and ensembles in music, dance and theater performances ranging from Bach to Ionesco, Swan Lake to Einstein on the Beach.

Film and Slavic-language scholar now a kids’ book author, too

April 18, 2012:

Slavic languages scholar Anne Nesbet has long been moved, as a reader, and intrigued, as a teacher and academic, by children’s literature. Now her “a-shimmer with magic” debut novel, The Cabinet of Earths, is on the kids’ book shelves.

Graduate students in linguistics leaving legacy for speakers of endangered language of Garifuna

April 17, 2012:

Linguistics graduate students’ efforts examining the little known Garifuna language may help with its revitalization.

Tansman chosen new director for Townsend Center for the Humanities

April 3, 2012:

Alan Tansman will direct the Townsend Center for the Humanities, starting in July.

Never-before-released Toklas oral history highlights exhibit of Bancroft Library’s LGBT collections

March 29, 2012:

A Bancroft Library exhibit opening April 4 provides a salon-like setting for conversations about the artistic contributions of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual artists through the years.

When he’s not making resonators, he’s making music

March 26, 2012:

Of the 34 accomplished violinists in UC Berkeley’s Symphony Orchestra, one dons a Tyvek cap, coveralls and booties at the campus’s Marvell NanoLab by day. He is Ernest Ting-Ta Yen, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student who researches microelectromechanical systems, also known as MEMS.

Bancroft showcases rare collection of Shakespeare works

March 22, 2012:

The mini-exhibit features four bound editions of collected plays printed in folio format during the 17th century.

Exhibit of Botero ‘Abu Ghraib’ artworks, on loan from Berkeley, opens at Chilean human-rights museum

March 16, 2012:

Thirty-seven paintings and drawings from Fernando Botero’s “Abu Ghraib” series, donated by the artist to UC Berkeley three years ago, are on display at Chile’s Museum of Memory and Human Rights through June 24.

Linguistics students explore communication in ‘Journey’ video game

March 16, 2012:

In a series of videos presented by GameSpot, UC Berkeley linguistics students analyze the communication system of the video game “Journey,” in which players interact without words or text.

Berkeley Art Studio session begins March 11

February 29, 2012:

Registration is open for the Berkeley Art Studio’s second set of spring 2012 classes, which begin March 11.

Huts, artifacts in Jordanian excavation offer new perspectives on life 20,000 years ago

February 21, 2012:

Archaeologists working in eastern Jordan have announced its discovery of 20,000-year-old hut structures, the earliest yet found in that country. Along with materials found in the huts, the find suggests the area was once intensively occupied and offers a new perspective on how humans lived at the time.

The world according to musicologist Richard Taruskin

February 16, 2012:

Music professor Richard Taruskin, best known for his six-volume “Oxford History of Western Music,” was honored at a recent professional conference in Princeton. In tribute to a man known to suffer no fools, a colleague offered a serenade: “My fearsome valentine/big scary valentine/you make me quake in my boots.”

Solving the Brueghel ‘imbroglio’ with modern, digital tools

February 7, 2012:

Thanks to a grant from CITRIS, associate art professor Elizabeth Honig is employing some decidedly 21st century digital tools to help sort out a controversy surrounding Brueghel scholarship.

Berkeley’s writing requirement? Bold vision, endless revision

January 31, 2012:

College Writing Programs, or CWP, has come a long way from its 19th-century origins, when students were schooled in Subject A, “Oral and Written Expression.” The 21st-century Berkeley program offers more than 20 courses in everything from public speaking, creative nonfiction and travel writing to new media.

Indian Country comes to Berkeley (and vice versa)

January 20, 2012:

Berkeley faculty, staff and alumni — and participants from as far away as Alaska — collaborate on a four-day, first-of-its-kind Native American Museum Studies Institute designed to give Indians the tools to “tell their own stories, and to tell the stories from their perspective.”

Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life to open Jan. 22

January 19, 2012:

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, the latest addition to the city’s burgeoning downtown arts and culture district, is opening to the public on Sunday, Jan. 22.

Reading Room offers adventures in poetry and experimental fiction

January 13, 2012:

A series of readings by local writers, a listening station featuring recordings of selected poets, plus the opportunity to take home a free book from local presses highlight the The Reading Room, a special project dedicated to poetry and experimental fiction that opens Sunday at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA).

Media Advisory: Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life open house Jan. 22

January 12, 2012:

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life to welcome the public to its new home with a Jan. 22 open house.

Botanical art as ‘capturing a plant’s soul’

January 6, 2012:

A camera can record a plant, but a botanical artist captures its soul, says botanical illustrator Catherine Watters in an audio interview with Paul Licht, director of the UC Botanical Garden. Works by Watters and other artists, along with classes and programs, will be featured at the Garden’s third-annual Plants Illustrated exhibition, Jan. 14 to Feb. 3.