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.

Situating Recent Iranian Modern and Contemporary Art Scholarship: Katrin Nahidi (Universität Graz) and Mohammadreza Mirzaei (UCSB)

In recent years, we have witnessed a fortunate upsurge in the publication of books dedicated to the exploration of various facets of Iranian modern and contemporary art. These publications have significantly contributed to our understanding of Iranian artistic culture. The Graduate Center for Literary Research at UCSB is pleased to host three separate events that brings together three distinguished scholars, each of whom has recently authored a work on Iranian art in the twentieth century. Please join us on Zoom for the third and final event of this series on Friday, April 19, at 9am PST. To register for this Zoom event, please use this link.

Navalny and Putin, Two Poles of Russia: A Talk by Victor Erofeiev

What do we mean when we say Russia? Russia of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? Russia of Lenin and Stalin, or Russia of Gorbachev? There are a lot of Russias. Today we have at least two. the Russia of Putin and the Russia of Navalny. What kind of future will we have after Putin?

Please join us for a guest lecture by Victor Erofeiev, a well-known writer, television, and radio personality, and a professor of literature at Luneburg University in Germany. The event will take place on Thursday, April 25th, at 12:30 pm in HSSB 6020 on UCSB's campus.

Situating Recent Iranian Modern and Contemporary Art Scholarship: Hamid Keshmirshekan (SOAS) and Hemed Yousefi (Northwestern University)
In recent years, we have witnessed a fortunate upsurge in the publication of books dedicated to the exploration of various facets of Iranian modern and contemporary art. These publications have significantly contributed to our understanding of Iranian artistic culture. The Graduate Center for Literary Research at UCSB is pleased to host three separate events that brings together three distinguished scholars, each of whom has recently authored a work on Iranian art in the twentieth century. Please join us on Zoom for the second event of this series on Friday, April 12, at 9am PST. To register for this Zoom event, please use this link.
 
 
 
Spring Weekly Writing Group

Every quarter the GCLR hosts a weekly writing group where graduate students can carve out dedicated time to work on their papers, dissertations, or projects. While people are writing independently, this space provides an opportunity to find community and accountability in writing. Coffee and snacks are provided weekly. Come by Phelps 6206C and join us every Wednesday this Spring Quarter anytime, between 10am-1pm! All are welcome.

Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Research and Teaching

“Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Research and Teaching” is the XXII Hispanic and Lusophone Conference organized by the graduate students of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Santa Barbara. This year’s event will take place in the Flying A Room at the University Center in UCSB from 9am to 5pm on April 11, 2024. This conference is open to the public and is a platform for graduate and undergraduate students to present their research. The keynote speaker this year is Dr. Omar Pimienta, Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCSB. We look forward to seeing you there!

Situating Recent Iranian Modern and Contemporary Art Scholarship: Pamela Karimi (UMass Dartmouth) and Maryam Athari (Northwestern University)

In recent years, we have witnessed a fortunate upsurge in the publication of books dedicated to the exploration of various facets of Iranian modern and contemporary art. These publications have significantly contributed to our understanding of Iranian artistic culture. The Graduate Center for Literary Research at UCSB is pleased to host three separate events that brings together three distinguished scholars, each of whom has recently authored a work on Iranian art in the twentieth century. Please join us on Zoom for the first event of this seriees on Friday, April 5, at 9am PST. To register for this Zoom event, please use this link.

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