Jessica Guerrieri (B.A., English, ’07) is this year’s winner of the Maurice Prize for Fiction. The prize, which includes a $10,000 award, is given to a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published a novel.
Guerrieri wrote the novel she submitted, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, during the COVID pandemic lockdown. The book chronicles the highs and lows of a large family living in Half Moon Bay, California. It is about coming to terms with family, addiction, recovery, children and, not the least, motherhood.
Among Rhonda Morris’ many honors are selections as a National Academy of Human Resources Fellow; Most Influential African Americans in Business from the National Diversity Institute; Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business from the San Francisco Business Times; and Most Powerful Women in Corporate America from Black Enterprise.
The annual Templeton Colloquium in Art History at UC Davis this year brings together scholars speaking about the women’s movement and how women were portrayed in the media during 20th-century modernization in Tehran, Cairo, Istanbul and Beirut.
The presenters, coming from around California, Michigan, Indiana and Lebanon, will show the shifting ways women activists and organizers were encouraged to be modern, then criticized and satirized for doing so.
The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies in the UC Davis Department of Art and Art History will welcome acclaimed painter Jennifer Packer to campus in February. Packer currently has solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. She will work with students and give a public talk.
Julia Koerner, who worked on the Black Panther movie and is at the forefront of 3D printing and sustainable design, will be the guest for the UC Davis Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design. Koerner, whose creative endeavors include architecture, fashion, sculpture and product design, will give a presentation titled “Models & Models” on April 22 at 4 p.m.
Alumni and longtime university supporters Lois and Darryl Goss are creating a presidential chair in African American and African studies at the University of California, Davis, to provide sustained funding for teaching, research and outreach about the history and culture of communities of African descent around the world.
Although Jainism is one of the world’s oldest religions and continues to have significant influence globally, it isn’t widely known. Thanks to a $1.5 million gift from longtime UC Davis supporter Mohini Jain and the recent hire of Assistant Professor Lynna Dhanani in the Department of Religious Studies, UC Davis is helping to increase the visibility of Jainism through research, academic and public programming, and course offerings.
