News

The Rhetoric Department is pleased to announce that Keoni Correa has received the 2025 UC Dissertation-Year Fellowship for After Destruction.  Keoni’s dissertation, chaired by Professor Daniel Boyarian, argues that if we are to understand the cultural and political challenges faced by present-day Indigenous peoples, we must grapple with the ways these communities continue to be shaped by the historic acts of genocide and destruction perpetrated against them.

Commencement FAQ for Students

Tuesday, May 20 | 7PM | Zellerbach Auditorium

The Rhetoric department commencement ceremony

The ceremony starts promptly at 7pm and lasts approximately 2 hours. 

The Division of Arts and Humanites recently featured an interview with re-entry undergraduate student and Rhetoric minor Orestes Sophocleous on the their website: Between theory and practice: A Re-Entry Student's Experience with Film and Media.

In Memoriam

Rhetoric PhD student Robin Manley's article The Disunity in Genealogy: Foucault’s Anti-Nietzschean Reading of History has been published in Theory, Culture & Society. From the abstract:

Reading Nietzsche against Foucault, this article investigates the conceptual foundations of the contemporary genealogical method, suggesting that Nietzsche may present an alternative – rather than precursor – to the Foucauldian paradigm.

Congratulations, Robin!

The Phi Beta Kappa Society is excited to announce that Professor Shannon Jackson is a 2025-2026 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar! 

Marianne Constable has been selected to be the inaugural recipient of the Distinguished Rhetoric Faculty Fellowship. The award was established in 2024 by two UC Berkeley rhetoric alums — Bettina Duval and Dana Slatkin — to provide two years of funding for awardees to pursue research projects. 

Ramona Naddaff, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and founding director of Art of Writing, interviewed Sonali Deranayigala, author of Wave, the New York Times bestseller and PEN Ackerley Prize (2013) winning memoir about all-consuming grief in the wake of a tremendous loss: In 2004, Deraniyagala was on vacation with her family on the coast of Sri Lanka when a tsunami struck, killing her husband, their two sons and her parents.

Rhetoric PhD candidate p. feijó has published a second book in in Portuguese, Episódios de Fantasia & Violência.

From the publisher, Orfeu Negro:

Faith Enemark, Department Manager & Academic HR Analyst for the Departments of Rhetoric, Film & Media Studies, has received the 2023–24 Golden Bear Staff Achievement Award in the Letters and Science Division. 

We cordially invite you to join us on Friday, October 11, 9-10AM PST for a virtual Q&A session with our PhD Admissions Chair, David Bates. This exclusive opportunity is designed for prospective applicants like you to gain valuable insights into our application process and program details.

Professor Marianne Constable has been awarded a 2024 Law & Society Association Stan Wheeler Mentorship Prize.

The Stan Wheeler Mentorship prize is given each year to a member of the Law and Society community who is regarded by their peers and students as an outstanding mentor for graduate, professional, or undergraduate students working on issues of law and society. To learn more about the Stan Wheeler prize see the award announcement on the Law & Society association website.

Professor James Porter will deliver the keynote lecture, ""Auerbach's Theory of the Sublime", at the conference, Erich Auerbach: eine synoptische Perspektive zur „verborgenen“ Theorie/Erich Auerbach: una prospettiva sinottica sulla teoria “nascosta”, in Villa Vigoni, Italy, July 7-11, 2024.

On May 14, 2024 Winnie Wong gave a talk at the University of Washington as part of The Katz Distinguished Lectures in the Humanities Series, "The Many Names of Anonymity: Rethinking Export Art." The lecture introduced the Chinese painters of the global maritime trade, based in the port of Guangzhou (Canton), circa 1700-1850.

We are thrilled to honor the recent achievements of our exceptional graduate students, who have secured prestigious fellowships, grants, awards, and placements. Congratulations to all on your well-deserved successes!

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS 

Aliosha Pittaka Bielenberg
US Department of Education, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Award, Turkish Language Study in Istanbul (Summer 2024)