Through a rich and interwoven mix of the humanities — literature, human rights, ethnic studies, art — UC Davis faculty and students are deepening the world’s understanding of climate change and its lasting grip on the human experience.
Recent graduate Jumana Esau (B.A., English, ’20) combined her passions for literary scholarship and human rights to explore climate change and its impact on overlooked and vulnerable populations. Her honors thesis examines African futuristic works in climate fiction.
The Creative Writing Program of the UC Davis Department of English is expanding its reading series with online and in-person readings by visiting writers, creative writing Master of Fine Arts candidates, lecturers in the Creative Writing Program, and projects created in collaboration with art and music students.
Many faculty members in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science have done extensive research, writing and teaching connected to the discourses currently running through our daily lives and news feeds — racism, protests, police violence, monuments, incarceration, slavery, genocide and colonialism.
Each year, the UC Davis College of Letters and Science names two graduating seniors as the Herbert A. Young Award and Leon H. Mayhew Memorial Award recipients in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, community service and extracurricular involvement in the college. The college honors and celebrates the incredible leadership that both these students have shown our academic community.
An English major — who aims to use fiction to address climate change and help its refugees — will be honored as the top graduating senior at the University of California, Davis, during its online graduation celebration Friday, June 12. Jumana Esau is being awarded the University Medal, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate studies, outstanding community service, and the promise of future scholarship and contributions to society.
Whether writing scientific articles or screenplays, UC Davis College of Letters and Science alumna Laura Marsh sees a common core in her work: storytelling. Now, the wildlife ecologist is reimagining her own life story. She hopes to become a published novelist after winning the college’s 2020 Maurice Prize for Fiction for her manuscript "SAV•AGE(S)."
UC Davis College of Letters and Science graduate students aren’t letting the lack of a physical space stop them from celebrating and sharing their work with the public. The Arts & Humanities 2020 Graduate Exhibition, usually held at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, will instead take place on the museum website May 28–June 28.
Seven College of Letters and Science faculty members are among the professors honored by the UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation for their teaching, research and public service.
Colin Milburn, Gary Snyder Chair in Science and the Humanities, has been selected as the first recipient of the Dean’s Prize for Distinguished Contributions to the Liberal Arts and Sciences.
English major Jumana Esau ’20 has won a prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship that will fully fund her Master of Philosophy in Criticism and Culture at the University of Cambridge, where she will examine the intersection of climate fiction and human rights.
