AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Robert Cancel, a leading proponent of a new African American Studies minor, has been appointed a member of the minor's Executive Committee.Senior Vice Chancellor Marsha Chandler recently announced the new minor, as follows: "UCSD has created a new minor in African American Studies effective Fall Quarter 2005. This interdisciplinary minor, led by faculty from the Departments of Communication, Ethnic Studies, History, Literature, Music, Sociology, and Theatre and Dance, is open to all UCSD undergraduate students. ... The minor is offered under the auspices of Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD, and is directed by Interim Provost and Professor of Linguistics Robert Kluender. Professor Kluender is joined by Professors Robert Cancel of the Department of Literature, Cecil Lytle of the Department of Music, and David Pellow of the Department of Ethnic Studies in forming the Executive Committee for the minor."

EXAMS & DEFENSES

Qualifying Exam

Aimee Bahng – January 9, 2006

"The Dilemma of Diaspora: Buenos Aires 1910"

Mónica Szurmuk, who graduated from UCSD in fall 1994 with a PhD in Spanish Literature, is a native of Argentina. Currently on the faculty at the Instituto Mora in Mexico City, she has also taught at the University of Oregon.

A specialist on women in the literature of the Southern Cone, Szurmuk is known for her book Women in Argentina: Early Travel Narratives (University Press of Florida, 2000), which examines the writings of Argentine women and European women who traveled to Argentina.

Literature Majors Meeting
Tuesday, February 7th at 3:30
Academic Internship Conference Room
Literature Building, Second Floor

We will be discussing academic internships and career options for Literature majors.

San Diego Public Library to Host Three-Part Book Discussion Series: “Reconceptualizing Blackness”

The San Diego Public Library will host a three-book discussion series entitled “Reconceptualizing Blackness: The Black Arts Movement and Beyond” in February and March.

Camille Forbes, Ph.D., a professor of African American Literature at UCSD, will facilitate these free discussions at 6:30 p.m. in the Wangenheim Room of the Central Library, located at 820 E St., on the following dates:

• Feb. 8: “The Dutchman” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
• Feb. 22: “Funnyhouse of a Negro” by Adrienne Kennedy
• March 8: “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

Spoken Word at the Museum

 "Poets Respond to the Permanent Collection"

February 9, Thursday – 7:00 pm
James S. Copley Auditorium San Diego Museum of Art
 http://www.sdmart.org

 free with museum admission

This event, presented by the San Diego Museum of Art in conjunction with UCSD, features two acclaimed poets responding to works in the museum's collection.

David Antin invented a whole new literary genre; his improvised talk-poems are like nothing before or since. Each is invented for its occasion, unique to its time and place. It’s especially exciting that he will be creating one in response to SDMA and “the whole nature of museums.” Antin has a long career as an art critic and former Professor of Visual Art at UCSD. He has written on Duchamp, Warhol, Alex Katz, John Baldessari, etc. His criticism has appeared in Art in America and Art News. His most recent book is john cage is still cagey from Singing Horse Press. i never knew what time it was, a collection of improvised talk-poems dealing with time, memory, and human fallibility, has recently been published by UC Press. David Antin is a new Renaissance man, a philosopher, story-teller, and cultural critic par excellence.

Eileen Myles is a poet, novelist, librettist, virtuosic performer, and total original. In poetry, her attention and intelligence are mercurial as she processes an extended and ever-changing present. Her most recent books of poetry are Skies from Black Sparrow and on my way from Faux Press. Of her first novel, Cool for You, Jonathon Letham writes, “Cool is hot, a poet’s thrilling invention of the novel as though from Mars or some more distant body.” Myles has recently finished a novel called The Inferno, which she describes as being “about the hell of being a female poet.” In 2001, she wrote the libretto for a new opera, “Hell,” composed by Michael Webster. “Hell” has been performed in NYC, LA, San Diego, and Tijuana and is now gearing up for a New York premier in April of 2006. On top of this, Myles is an art critic who has written for Art Forum and Art in America. (On Feb. 9 she will respond to paintings by Zurbaran, Reubens, and El Greco.) Wherever her restless intellect carries her, Myles makes real discoveries.

Sponsors: The San Diego Museum of Art, UCSD Center for the Humanities, and the UCSD Department of Literature

Did you ever wonder how to get from theory to praxis? Come hear what grass-roots activists in San Diego are accomplishing on a daily basis. Presenters will include members of Students for Economic Justice, the Zapatista solidarity network "La Otra Campaña," California Committee Against Poverty, Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, and Iraq war resister Pablo Paredes.

Sponsored by the California Cultures in Comparative Perspectives (CCCP) and the Chicano/a~Latino/a Arts and Humanities Program (CLAH).

Michel deCerteau in the Americas

Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Reception following -
Room 155 (deCerteau Room) Literature Building

British poet Tom Raworth, author of more than forty books, has been Resident Poet at King's College, Cambridge, and has taught at several universities, including the University of Cape Town and UCSD.
(Photo credit: Caroline Forbes)

THESE READINGS ARE SPONSORED BY THE DIVISION OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES,
THE MANDEVILLE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY, THE DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE,
AND THE MUIR PROVOST’S HUMANITIES FUND.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

The UCSD Center for the Humanities and Eleanor Roosevelt College present:

MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD | WINTER 2006
a "short version" of the college's world civilization sequence

All lectures will be held at 7:00pm in the Great Hall, UCSD Eleanor Roosevelt College
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Wednesday, February 1, 2006
"Exodus: Myth or History?"
Shawna Dolansky Overton, UCSD Lecturer in Religious Studies

Wednesday, February 8, 2006
"A City on a Hill (in the desert): Models of Christian Community from Constantine to George Bush" Matthew Herbst, UCSD Lecturer, Making of the Modern World

Wednesday, February 15, 2006
"The Medieval Church as Congregation and State"
Stanley Chodorow, UCSD Professor Emeritus of History and former Dean of Arts and Humanities

Thursday, March 2
Azar Nafisi: "Reading Lolita in Tehran"
contact: Steven Cassedy

All students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to the UCSD Language Conversation Tables. Language Conversation Tables bring together native speakers and language learners in an informal setting. All are welcome, including all levels of language experience.

Meetings take place in Café Ventanas (the ERC Dining Hall next to RIMAC).

WEEKLY TABLES
FILIPINO - FRENCH - GERMAN - HEBREW - HINDI - ITALIAN - JAPANESE - KOREAN - MANDARIN - PERSIAN - PUNJABI - PORTUGUESE - ROMANIAN - RUSSIAN - SPANISH -VIETNAMESE

SPECIAL TABLES
ARABIC - ARMENIAN - CATALAN - CANTONESE - DUTCH - SERBIAN/CROATIAN/BOSNIAN - SWEDISH - TAMIL - THAI - URDU