literature | UC Davis College of Letters and Science

Faculty in History and English Named Guggenheim Fellows

Two UC Davis College of Letters and Science faculty members have been awarded 2019 Guggenheim Fellowships. History professor Ari Kelman and English professor Elizbeth Carolyn Miller will receive the prestigious awards. They are among 173 winners in the U.S. and Canada selected from 3,000 applicants.

Society and Culture

Novelist John Crowley to Give Lunn Lecture on History in Fiction

John Crowley, award-winning author of Little, Big, the four-book Aegypt series and other novels, will give a talk on Thursday, April 11, at UC Davis on “Transformations of History in Fiction.” Crowley will deliver this year’s Department of History Lunn Lecture at 4:10 p.m. in the Buehler Alumni Center’s AGR Hall.

Society and Culture

Book about Mining’s Effect on Literature Garners Support from NEH

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a fellowship this week to English professor Liz Miller to support her work on a book about industrial mining and its effects on 19th- and early 20th-century literature. The $60,000 award, announced Dec. 12, will enable Miller to spend the 2019 calendar year writing Extraction Ecologies and the Literature of the Long Exhaustion, 1830s-1930s.

Society and Culture

English Professor Explores Rediscovered Writer for Groundbreaking 'Digital Collaboration'

Frances Dolan spent much of last year in the company of Hester Pulter, a little-known 17th-century British writer. Dolan, distinguished professor of English in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, has done extensive research and writing for The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making, a “digital collaboration” launched in November.

Arts

What Sets African Sci-Fi Apart

In recent years, Africa has developed a rich culture of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative fiction with several internationally prominent writers, online journals, blogs, and even creation of the African Speculative Fiction Society. Moradewun Adejunmobi, a UC Davis professor in the College of Letters and Science’s Department of African and African American Studies, will speak on the topic at the International House.

Arts

Humanities academic advisor Amy Lowrey says the humanities major is valuable for future careers, explaining the skills gained that make these graduates valuable employees. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)

3 Mythbusters About Humanities Majors

Debunking Criticisms About the 'Real World' Value of the Humanities

From books to careers: English majors find they have many skills to offer in the job world. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)

What UC Davis Graduates Are Doing With an English Degree

Find Ideas of How This Major Could Help Develop Into a Great Career

Get inspired by what our UC Davis English majors are doing in their careers. The Department of English also collects alumni stories that show the many paths its students have taken since graduation. Check them out, too.

Event Turns to Novelist, Artist, Diplomats and a Defector to Explain the Mysteries of North Korea

A recent colloquium—“Understanding North Korea: Literature, Politics, Art, Life”—brought a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and a South Korean artist to UC Davis to talk about the power of narrative and imagination to reveal truths about one of the world’s most closed countries.

Society and Culture

Faculty Win International Awards

David Traill has won the Schliemann Medal for his work on one of the world’s best-known archeologists. Eva Mroczek's book The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2016) has been awarded the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise.

Society and Culture

Persian Studies Program Receives $1.5 Million from Iranian-American Philanthropist

Silicon Valley philanthropist and humanitarian Bita Daryabari has made a $1.5 million gift to UC Davis to broaden its Persian studies program. The gift will establish the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Persian Language and Literature and help transform UC Davis into a leading force in teaching, research and outreach that advances global understanding of Persian language and culture.

Society and Culture