What Graduate Students Are Reading

Daniel Martini is reading "Does Beauty Build Adapted Minds? Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Aesthetics, Fiction and the Arts" by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides (2001), which can be found in De Gruyter's Handbook of Empirical Literary Studies (2021).
 
This piece informs Daniel's dissertation on the affordances of literature, specifically the means by which texts communicate through non-semantic stylistic features like parallelisms. 

Naz Keynejad is reading Persian poet Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami's "Yusuf and Zulaikha" (15th century CE).

The story of Yusuf and Zulaikha appears in Jami’s Haft Awrang (Persian: هفت اورنگ‎, meaning "Seven Thrones"). According to the story, Yusuf’s arresting beauty captures the hearts of all of the women he encounters. Zulaikha, unable to quell her thoughts of Yusuf, attempts to seduce him, but he rejects her advances until they meet again and marry many years later. 

Graham Feyl is re-reading/revisiting There's a disco ball between us: a theory of Black gay life (2021) by Jafari S. Allen. Lyrical and genre transforming/bending, Allen presents an ethnographic and intellectual history of what he calls "Black gay habits of mind"  as a way of renarrating and reconsidering Black, gay histories. Moving across various temporalities and spaces, and using pieces from visual art, performance and literature, Allen considers how Black gay life has resisted and survived under systems of oppression through community, radical joy and care. Graham reaches for Allen's text because of his prose and methodological approach to history as flashes that are still present today. The text itself acts as an example of community: first names are used, there are reminders to take deep breaths, and it is a chorus of voices that come together to formulate alongside Allen. 
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Surojit Kayal is reading The Marvelous Clouds by John Durham Peters.

In The Marvelous Clouds, the author argues that though we often think of media as environments, the reverse is just as true—environments are media. Drawing from ideas implicit in media philosophy, Peters argues that media are more than carriers of messages: they are the very infrastructures combining nature and culture that allow human life to thrive.  

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Richard Nedjat-Haiem is reading Broadcasting Change: Arabic Media as a Catalyst for Liberalism by Joseph Baude.

Amid civil war, failing states, and terrorism, Arab liberals are growing in numbers and influence. Advocating a culture of equity, tolerance, good governance, and the rule of law, they work through some of the region’s largest media outlets to spread their ideals within the culture. This book analyzes this trend by portraying the intersection of media and politics in two Arab countries with seismic impact on the region and beyond. 

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James Nichols is reading Exorcismos de la memoria: Políticas y poéticas de la melancolía en la España de la transición by Alberto Medina Dominguez. 

Through an interdisciplinary approach in which the analysis of philosophical, filmic, literary and political texts coexist, the book deals with a reading hypothesis of the period in which the lines of demarcation between the aesthetic and the political are blurred.

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Ursula Friedman is reading The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, edited by Wilt L. Idema and Beata Grant.

Because of the burgeoning interest in the study of both premodern and modern women in China, this anthology offers a glimpse of women's writings not only in poetry but in other genres as well, including essays and letters, drama, religious writing, and narrative fiction.

Rachel Feldman is reading Suddenly in the Depths of the Forest (Hebrew: פתאום בעומק היער: אגדה‎) by Amos Oz. 

A dark, yet gen­tle, "fable for all ages" about silence, tolerance, and the role of language, orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in Hebrew in 2005. The narrative is based in a mysterious town without animals or birds. Legend tells that they have been spirited away by the Pied Piper figure of Nehi, the mountain demon. Two children set out into the forest to find out more. 

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GCLR Event Proposal 

As we begin working to fill our calendar for the upcoming academic year, students and faculty, please submit your event suggestions for the GCLR by completing this form. All submissions will be reviewed by the GCLR board.

Comparative Literature Alumni Career Panel

Please join us for the return of Drs. Arpi Movsesian, Christene D'Anca, and Dustin Lovett (not pictured), all recent graduates from the UCSB Comparative Literature Program, as they share insights from their time on the academic job market and their careers beyond. Be sure to stay for the following reception!

Time: Friday, March 14th. Talk 3-5pm, Reception 5-6pm

Place: GCLR Seminar Room, Phelps 6206C

"From Digital Humanities to AI Humanities" Todd Presner's _Ethics of the Algorithm_
Dear friends of the GCLR,
 
Please, join us for our 4th Brownbag Series event on Monday March 3rd, 12:00-1:30, Phelps 6206C.
 
Prof. Todd Presner (UCLA, European Languages and Transcultural Studies) will present on the digital humanities in the age of A.I. in relation to his new book Ethics of the Algorithm: Digital Humanities and Holocaust Memory (Princeton UP, 2025).
 
RSVP HERE for FREE LUNCH!
Prospectus Workshop with Katya Lopatko - "Global Cinema in the Cold War: Exchanges between Eastern European and Third World Cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 1962 and 1964"
The GCLR is happy to announce that Katya Lopatko (Comparative Literature) will be participating in one of our prospectus/dissertation workshops! Her project is entitled "Global Cinema in the Cold War: Exchanges between Eastern European and Third World Cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 1962 and 1964" and an abstract can be found here. 
 

We expect that the event will be of great interest to scholars with interests in Comparative Literature, Film and Media Studies, Cold War and Postcolonial Studies especially, but we encourage professors and fellow graduate students from all backgrounds to attend and offer constructive feedback on Katya's intriguing work!

 

Time: Thursday, February 20th, 3-4:30pm 

 

Place: Phelps 6206C

 

 

Online Lecture with Prof. Dmitry Bresler: "'New Theatre': The Journal 'Mitin' and the Pragmatics of Self-Publishing in the Perestroika Era"

Please join us for an exciting upcoming virtual lecture by Prof. Dmitry Bresler (University of Macerata/Italy) which will explore how the journal Mitin navigated the complex landscape of samizdat during Perestroika, providing insight into its cultural role and its influence on Russian art and literature and beyond.

Time: Tuesday, February 18, 2025, 5PM - 6PM / Place: On Zoom

 
"Two Spatial Turns": Claudio Fogu and Eric Prieto in Dialogue
The GCLR invites you to join us for the next entry in the Interdisciplinary Brown Bag Lunch Series wherein professors Claudio Fogu and Eric Prieto will be discussing the role of spatial representation, thinking, and constructs in their respective research. Please see the attached flyer for more details and RSVP at the following link for a provided free lunch option. 
 
Time: February 11th, 12:00-1:30pm
 
Place: Phelps 6206C
2025 Winter Roundtable

The GCLR is pleased to announce our upcoming 2025 Winter Roundtable! Preempting our annual international student conference of the same theme, this quarter's roundtable will focus on "Blue Humanities and Aquatic Media." We hope to see many of you there! Please see the attached poster for more details. 

Time: Thursday, February 7th from 5-6:30pm. 

Place: GCLR Conference Room (Phelps 6206C). 

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