phd film berkeley

Department of Film & Media UC Berkeley

Dissertations and career paths.

Harry Burson Dissertation: “The World in Stereo: A Genealogy of Immersive Media”

Elisa Giardina-Papa Dissertation: “The Incomputable Image: Untraining AI”

Alina Predescu Dissertation: “People Have the Word: Experiments with Voice in Polish Documentary, 1960-1984”

Kaitlin Clifton Forcier Dissertation: “The Infinite Image: Digital Media’s Boundless Aesthetic”

Katherine Guerra Dissertation: “Framing the Void: Trauma, Historical Erasure and the Excesses of Horror”

Lisa Jacobson Dissertation: “Spy Craft: Seriality, The Americans, and Digital Ambivalence”

Tory Jeffay Dissertation: “Rogue Images: The Birth of Visual Evidence”

Lida Zeitlin-Wu  Dissertation: “Seeing by Numbers: Color Systems and the Digitization of Perception”

Jennifer Alpert  Dissertation: “Melodrama Undercover: Resistance as a Collective Project in Contemporary Argentinean Cinema”

Jianqing Chen Dissertation: “Touchscreen Media: The Touch and User-Spectators in Twenty-First Century China”

Jessica Ruffin Dissertation: “A World Divided: Schopenhauer, Aesthetics, and Cinematic Experience”

Diana Ruíz  Dissertation: “Resources of Perception: Visuality and Power at the U.S.-Mexico Border”

Althea Wasow Dissertation: “Moving Images/Modern Policing: Silent Cinema and Its Afterlives”

Hannah Airriess Dissertation: “Staging the Bright Life: White-Collar Cinema in Japan’s Era of High Economic Growth (1954-1971)”

Eliot Bessette Dissertation: “Thinking Through Fear in Film and Haunts”

Norman Gendelman Dissertation: “Coming Home: The Western, Media, and Masculinity”

Renée Pastel Dissertation: “War in Pieces: Narrative Figures Across Media in the “War on Terror””

Eliot Bessette Dissertation: “Thinking Through Fear in Film and Haunts”

Alexandra Bush Dissertation: “Cold Storage: A Media History of the Glacier”

Jennifer Blaylock Research Associate in Cinema Studies, Bowdoin College Dissertation: “Media/Fetish: A Postcolonial Archaeology of New Media and Africa”

Dolores McElroy Lecturer, UC Berkeley Department of Film & Media Dissertation: “Passionate Failures: The Diva Onscreen”

Justin Vaccaro

Dissertation: “Human Sciences, Human Monsters: the SF-Horror Film from the 1930s to 1960s”

Fareed Ben-Youssef

Global Perspectives on Society Teaching Fellow, NYU-Shanghai Dissertation: “Visions of Power: Violence, the Law and the Post-9/11 Genre Film”

Patrick Ellis

Brittain Fellow, Georgia Tech University  Dissertation: “Aeroscopics: Spectacles of the Bird’s-Eye View”

Jennifer Pranolo

Center for Humanistic Inquiry Fellow, Amherst College  Dissertation: “Studio/World: Photography’s Other Nature”

Robert Alford

Assistant Director, Donor Relations at UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture  Dissertation:“’To Know the Words to the Music’: Spatial Circulation, Queer Discourse and the Musical”

Christopher Goetz

Assistant Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Iowa  Dissertation: “At Home Everywhere: Empowerment Fantasies in the Domestication of Videogames”

Kristen Loutensock

Dissertation: “Genre Disorder: Autism and Narrative in American Popular Culture”

Nicholas Baer

Assistant Professor of Film Studies, University of Groeningen Dissertation: “Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism”

Irene Chien

Assistant Professor of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College  Dissertation: “Programmed Moves: Race and Embodiment in Fighting and Dancing Videogames”

Jonathan Haynes

Dissertation : “The Mid-Atlantic : Fantasmatic Genealogies of the French and American New Waves”

George Larkin

Chair of Filmmaking, Associate Professor, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA Dissertation: “Post-Production: The Invisible Revolution of Filmmaking”

Irina Leimbacher

Assistant Professor of Film Studies, Keene State College  Dissertation: “More Than Talking Heads: Nonfiction Testimony and Cinematic Form”

Erica Levin

Assistant Professor of History of Art, Ohio State University  Dissertation: “Social Media: The News in Experimental Film, Video Art, and Performance after 1960”

Kevin Wynter

Assistant Professor of Media Studies, Pomona College  Dissertation : “Feeling Absence: Horror in Cinema from Post War to Post-Wall”

Kris Fallon

Assistant Professor of Cinema and Digital Media, University of California, Davis  Dissertation: “Where Truth Lies: Political Documentary Film & Digital Media, 2000-2010”

Dissertation: “The Initimacy of Distance: South Korean Cinema and the Conditions of Capitalist Individuation”

Rielle Navitski

Assistant Professor of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Georgia  Dissertation: “Sensationalism, Cinema and the Popular Press in Mexico and Brazil, 1905-1930”

Damon Young

Assistant Professor of Film and Media and French, University of California, Berkeley  Dissertation: “Making Sex Public: Cinema and the Liberal Social Body”

Laura Horak

Associate Professor of Film Studies, Carleton University  Dissertation: “Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women and the Legitimation of American Silent Cinema”

Jennifer Malkowski

Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Smith College  Dissertation: “‘Dying in Full Detail’: Mortality and Duration in Digital Documentary”

Scott Ferguson

Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of South Florida  Research Scholar, Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity  Dissertation: “Recapitulation in close-up: Ontogeny, phylogeny, and the face of evolutionary time”

Meredith Hoy

Assistant Professor of Art History and Theory, Arizona State University  Dissertation: “From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics”

Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of South Florida  Dissertation: “‘Passionate Detachment’: Technologies of Vision and Violence in American Cinema, 1967 – 1974”

Associate Professor, Media and Communications, Muhlenberg College  Dissertation: “Traveling spectators: Cinema, geography, and multiculturalism in late twentieth-century America”

Douglas Cunningham

Adjunct Professor, Professor of Humanities, BYU  Adjunct Professor of Film and Media, University of Utah  Dissertation: “Imagining Air Force identity: Masculinity, aeriality, and the films of the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit”

Tung-hui Hu

Associate Professor of English, University of Michigan Postdoctoral Scholar in the Michigan Society of Fellows, and Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, 2009-2012  Dissertation: “Seeing Emptiness: Berlin, Nevada, and the Space of New Media”

Anupama Kapse

Associate Professor of Film Studies, Loyola Marymount University  Film and Media Studies, Queens College, City University of New York  Dissertation: “The moving image: melodrama and early Indian cinema 1913-1939”

Associate Professor of Critical Studies, School of Cinema, San Francisco State University Dissertation: “Life and death in the cinema of Weimar Germany, 1919-1924”

Hoang Tan Nguyen

Associate Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies, UC San Diego  Dissertation: “A view from the bottom: Asian American masculinity and sexual representation”

Scott Combs

Associate Professor of English, St. John’s University in Queens, New York City  Dissertation: “Final touches: Registering death in American cinema”

Minette Hillyer

Lecturer, Department of English, Film, Theatre, and Media Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand  Dissertation : “Making home: Film and the modern American everyday”

Ara Osterweil

Assistant Professor, Department of English, McGill University  Dissertation: “Flesh cinema: The corporeal avant-garde 1959-1979”

Guo-Juin Hong

Associate Professor, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Director, Program in the Arts of the Moving Image; Academic Director, Duke in LA Program; Duke University Dissertation: “Cinematograph of history: Post/colonial modernity in 1930s Shanghai and new Taiwanese cinema since 1982”

Maria St John

Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UC San Francisco; Chair, Feminist Psychology Program, New College Graduate Psychiatry Program  Dissertation: “The mammy fantasy: Psychoanalysis, race, and the ideology of absolute maternity”

Frank Wilderson

Professor, African-American Studies and Drama, UC Irvine  Dissertation: “Settler, ‘savage’, slave : cinema and the structure of U.S. antagonisms”

Dissertation: “Acoustic graffiti: The rock soundtrack in contemporary American cinema”

Domietta Torlasco

Associate Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature, Northwestern University  Dissertation: “Undoing the scene of the crime: Time and vision in Italian cinema”

Lecturer, Writing Program, University of California, Santa Barbara  Dissertation: “Beowulf in Hollywood: Popular Film as Folktale and Legend”

Catherine Zimmer

Associate Professor of English, Pace University  Dissertation : “Film on film: Self-reflexivity and moving image technology”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Designated Emphasis

Juan Ospina Leon (Spanish and Portuguese, 2015)

Asst. Professor of Hispanic Studies, Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures, The Catholic University of America

Todd Barnes (Rhetoric, 2010)

Associate Professor of Literature, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Mona El-Sherif (Political Science, 2010)

Assistant Professor of Arabic, Colorado College

David Pettersen (French, 2008)

Associate Professor of Film Studies, and French Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh

Elisabeth Anker (Political Science, 2007)

Associate Professor, American Studies, George Washington University

Zeynep Gürsel (Anthropology, 2007)

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Macalester College

June Hwang (German, 2007)

Associate Professor of German, University of Rochester

Rani Neutill (Ethnic Studies, 2007)

Harvard University, Committee on Degrees in History and Literature

Polina Barskova (Slavic, 2006)

Associate Professor of Russian Literature; Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies Faculty, Hampshire College

Jane McGonigal (Performance Studies, 2006)

Games designer and researcher, lecturer, consultant

Christopher Oscarson (Scandinavian, 2006)

Associate Professor, Department of Humanities, Classics and Comparative Literature, Brigham Young University

Minh-ha T. Pham (Ethnic Studies, 2006)

Associate Professor/Faculty Fellow of Social and Cultural Analysis, Pratt institute

Andrey Shcherbenok (Rhetoric, 2006)

Three-year post-doc, Columbia University, Society of Fellows; since 2010, Fellow, Russian and Slavonic Studies, The University of Sheffield

Reid Davis (Performance Studies, 2005)

Adjunct Professor, Department of Performing Arts, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga; also works extensively as a theater director.

Deborah Shamoon (Japanese, 2005)

Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Notre Dame

Andrew Uroskie (Rhetoric, 2005)

Associate Professor, Art Department, Stony Brook University (fields of specialization: Late Modern and Contemporary Art, Photography and the Moving Image)

Christopher Caes (Slavic, 2004)

Lecturer in Polish/Acting Director, East Central European Center, Columbia University

Kirsten Cather (Japanese, 2004)

Associate Professor, Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin

José Alaniz (Comparative Literature, 2003)

Associate Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Washington

Jennifer Kapczynski (German, 2003)

Assistant Professor, Germanic Languages and Literatures, Washington University, St Louis

Arne Lunde (Scandinavian, 2003)

Associate Professor, The Scandinavian Section, University of California, Los Angeles

Lucia Galleno (Spanish and Portuguese, 2002)

Associate Professor, Queens University, Charlotte, North Carolina

Jared Sexton (Ethnic Studies, 2002)

Associate Professor, African American Studies and Film and Media Studies, School of Humanities, University of California, Irvine

Cari Borja (Anthropology, 2001)

Clothes designer. See Cariborja.com

Lilya Kaganovsky (Comparative Literature, 2000)

Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

Ph.D. in Performance Studies

Welcome from the Head Graduate Advisor

Dear Prospective Student,

We are delighted by your interest in the Ph.D. Program in Performance Studies and hope you will find the website materials helpful. Our program is an unusually flexible one, designed to prepare students for advanced research in the field of performance studies. The program draws its strengths from a Graduate Group of faculty in disciplines ranging across a host of fields and departments. We encourage students to take the initiative in developing a program of coursework that will lead both to a solid command of a given field and to the kind of interdisciplinary research characteristic of the strongest work in performance studies today.

Although it’s certain that your interests and plans will evolve, it’s important to us to have as clear a sense as possible of who you are, of your intellectual and artistic interests and accomplishments, and of the critical orientation of your research. Your entire application—transcripts, letters of recommendation, both personal statements, and the critical writing sample—will be read by the admissions committee and some portions of the application receive particularly close scrutiny. We would like to encourage you to use the Personal Statement and Statement of Purpose in the application to outline where you’ve been and your orientation to future research. In our effort to assess whether a program like ours is a good “fit” for you, it’s very helpful to have a strong sense of the kind of work you are thinking about, your intellectual and critical style, and overall preparation for Ph.D. study.

We are committed to developing a diverse and energetic research community in the program and are eager to recruit students with a range of intellectual, social, and cultural backgrounds, and the diversity of our faculty is an important asset in this regard. Strong applications, then, usually address potential areas of research in the field of performance studies today. Given the depth and range of our faculty, we are interested in students working on both past and present performance traditions, on literary and non-literary forms of performance, and on a range of theoretical and methodological issues ranging across the spectrum of contemporary ethnic, cultural, and performance studies.

There is a great deal of excitement about the program, and about the students who have joined us thus far. Please take the time to carefully read over the graduate program website. If you have any questions, please email  [email protected] to contact Avy Valladares, Graduate Student Services Advisor. We look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Roshanak Kheshti Head Graduate Advisor

Preparation & Admissions

The Graduate Group admissions committee seeks applicants with qualities that will enable them to succeed in an intensive interdisciplinary program: creativity and analytical skills, practical experience, individual initiative, and intellectual rigor. Priority will be given to applicants whose research interests dovetail well with current faculty resources.

Candidates holding a bachelor’s degree in theater, literature, performance studies, dance, or any appropriate humanities-related field are eligible to apply for admissions. Candidates with a degree in another field, but with an M.A. or M.F.A. in any of the performing arts, are also eligible. The Graduate Group is particularly interested in applicants who have already formulated a specific focus of interest, including professional theater practitioners who demonstrate a capacity for and training in advanced scholarly study.

It is vital that you thoroughly read all the graduate program information provided on this website (including the  Admissions FAQ ) as well as the information that accompanies the online graduate application.

The application requires the following items:

• Personal Statement: Usually 2–3 pages, double spaced.
• Statement of Purpose: Usually 2–3 pages, double spaced.
• Critical Writing Sample: Follow the “Performance Studies Program” link in the application menu to upload this document. 15–20 pages, double spaced.
• Resume/CV: Follow the “Supporting Materials” link in the application menu to upload your CV. Publications, presentations, and honors/awards may be included in your CV or uploaded separately. A sampling of written work and a website link, also listed in this section of the application, are not required by our program.
• Three Letters of Recommendation
• All College Transcripts: Unofficial copies to be uploaded to the application.
• TOEFL Score (If Applicable): Less than 2 years old. Use Berkeley code 4833.
• Application Fee
• GRE Scores Are Not Required

Important Notes on Application Materials:

All items listed above are required by our program and your application will not be considered without them. However, not every graduate program at UC Berkeley asks for all of this information, so some of these items may not be listed as “Required” in the “Review” section of the general application. Missing items will not limit your ability to select “Submit.” Therefore, it is crucial that you ensure that your application include all of the Performance Studies requirements listed above before submitting it.

The Graduate Application for Admission and Fellowships for UC Berkeley is available online in early September and is due December 1st (or the following Monday when the 1st is a Saturday or Sunday) at 8:59 pm (PST), California time, for consideration for the following academic year. Applicants will hear about the status of their application by late March.

Applications for the 2025–2026 Academic Year will be available in September 2024

Graduate Student Services Advisor

Avy Valladares

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +1 510-664-7613

Office: 15 Dwinelle Hall, Level C

Departments & Programs

Ancient Greek & Roman Studies

The Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies (formerly known as the Department of Classics, now DAGRS) at UC Berkeley is a leading center for studying Greco-Roman antiquity, offering excellent undergraduate and graduate education in language, literature, history, philosophy, religion, and archaeology. It is the intellectual home of a distinguished faculty, superb graduate students, and an extraordinarily talented and diverse group of undergraduates. Our community is also enriched by visiting scholars, including the annual Jane K. Sather Professor of Classical Literature.

Undergraduate Program  | Graduate Program

Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology

UC Berkeley offers an interdisciplinary program of graduate study in Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Archaeology (AHMA). The program is conducted by an interdisciplinary group that includes more than 20 faculty members affiliated with 7 different Berkeley departments and the Graduate Theological Union. A chair, a graduate adviser, and student affairs officers administer the program. The AHMA program offers MA and PhD degrees in areas that combine work in archaeology and history and related disciplines of ancient studies.

Graduate Program

Art Practice

UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice provides rigorous practical, conceptual, critical, and professional training within the context of a world-renowned public research university. The department prepares students for professional lives within contemporary art, while acknowledging that these can take multiple forms and approaches. The department emphasizes an ethical, global scope, with a necessary encouragement of diversity of viewpoints and modes of practice. It offers innovative media-specific, and interdisciplinary courses leading to BA and MFA degrees.

Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program

Buddhist Studies

The Berkeley Group in Buddhist Studies offers an interdisciplinary program of study and research leading to a PhD in Buddhist Studies. The group, which cooperates closely with the Departments of South and Southeast Asian Studies (SSEAS) and East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC), emphasizes the study of Buddhism in its many forms within its Asian historical and cultural context. The group also offers an undergraduate minor in Buddhist Studies.

Celtic Studies

The Celtic Studies Program is an undergraduate degree program housed by the Department of Scandinavian at the University of California, Berkeley. Its purpose is to bring together faculty and students with interests in the cultures, languages, literature, and history of the Celtic regions.

Undergraduate Program

Comparative Literature

The UC Berkeley Department of Comparative Literature is dedicated to comparative literary study that is both historical and theoretical, covering literary traditions from several inter-related regions and traditions. This combination of intensity and breadth is reflected in the composition of our faculty, seventeen of whom are jointly appointed with national literature departments; the remaining two are closely involved with and provide an important link to the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory. Our signature combination of teaching and research on literature, film, and other media is based on knowledge of original languages, an understanding of historical context and production, and theoretically innovative perspectives.

Critical Theory

The Designated Emphasis (DE) in Critical Theory permits interested graduate students already enrolled in UC Berkeley PhD programs to specialize in critical theory and to obtain certification of this specialization while pursuing the doctoral degree in their home departments. (The program in Critical Theory is not an independent degree-granting program.) Students admitted to the program's DE and who complete its requirements will receive a parenthetical notation to that effect on their doctoral degrees.

Digital Humanities

The digital and data revolutions have transformed our world. For students of the humanities, these revolutions have made new kinds of study possible.

In our Summer Minor or Certificate Program in the Digital Humanities, you will explore questions about art and culture using digital tools. You will learn to search through large collections of sources instantly using text analysis. You will learn to analyze and present your research vividly in visual formats. You will learn to design dynamic and interactive projects on digital platforms. Above all, you will learn how to employ these cutting-edge techniques to investigate subjects in the humanities in new and fascinating ways.

Summer Minor / Certificate Program

Dutch Studies

Introduce yourself to the language, literature, culture and history of the Netherlands, Flanders, the Dutch Caribbean, and Suriname. Dutch Studies offers English-taught courses on Dutch cultural history, literature, and linguistics, as well as four levels of Dutch language courses, a reading and translation course, and a Summer Abroad Program to the Netherlands and Belgium. 

East Asian Languages and Cultures

East Asian Languages and Cultures is the core department for East Asian Humanities on campus, and home to the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and Tibetan language programs. As the campus center for teaching and research in the literatures and cultures of East Asia, our mission is to train students to understand the texts (written, as well as visual, aural, and material) at the core of its literary, religious, and philosophical traditions. Our curriculum centers on the acquisition of the modern and classical forms of the languages, the informed and engaged reading of a wide variety of East Asian texts in their historical and cultural contexts, and the development of effective writing skills and critical thinking.

The Department of English offers courses in literature, in language, and in writing. The courses in literature have many different focuses: major authors, historical periods, genres, critical theories and methods, and cultural and multicultural studies. Courses in language offer instruction in both the history and the structure of the English language. Writing courses offer training in both expository and creative writing.

Film & Media

The Department of Film & Media offers innovative, interdisciplinary programs leading to a BA in Film and a PhD in Film & Media. It also provides curricular support for the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies for doctoral students in other departments. The department teaches students to think historically, theoretically, and analytically about film and media within the broad context of humanistic studies. Students and faculty engage with all forms of moving-image culture, including film, still photography, television, and digital media. The Department also offers courses in screenwriting, curating, and digital video production.

In the Department of French, you can study French and francophone literature, culture, and film, along with the French language and French linguistics.  For its undergraduate majors and minors and its graduate students, the Berkeley French Department provides thorough coverage in the traditional, historically-based divisions of French literature and culture, as well as in francophone literatures. It blends this coverage with the study of a wide array of related fields and topics — from literary history and theory to philosophy, to social and cultural theory, to the study of gender and sexuality, historiography, visual arts and film, music, popular culture, and politics. We encourage independent and innovative thinking and research at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

The Department of German offers language and literature classes in German, Dutch, and Yiddish, as well as breadth requirement courses (taught in English) on German philosophy, linguistics, political culture, and cinema. The department's degree options include an undergraduate major, a minor, and a PhD. Our renowned doctoral program is affiliated with the departments of Comparative Literature and Film and Media, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Graduate Group in Critical Theory.

History of Art

We are a vibrant learning community of researchers committed to advancing the study of visual arts, material culture, and built environment through interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching, and public engagement. Our internationally recognized faculty and lecturers, outstanding graduate students, talented undergraduate students, and exceptional group of department staff all contribute to making us one of the world’s leading art history departments. Our teaching encompasses a broad range of questions and specializations, spanning the globe and traversing cross-regional zones of contact. Employing diverse methodologies, including formal analysis, social and cultural history, gender and sexuality studies, critical race theory, eco art history, and digital humanities, our faculty and students investigate the production, circulation, reception, and meaning of visual forms across different media, genres, geographies, and regimes of perception. We seek to cultivate critical thinking, visual literacy, and cultural awareness in our teaching and to promote diverse perspectives, inclusivity, and social justice in our scholarship and pedagogy.

Undergraduate Program | Graduate Advising

Italian Studies

The Italian Studies Department is an interdisciplinary enterprise. You will find courses in Italian language, literature, history, cultural studies, film, and folklore offered by the department, both in Italian and in English. You will also discover that courses with significant Italian content are often taught in other departments and programs, including History of Art, Music, Comparative Literature, Film Studies, Anthropology, Political Science, History, and Medieval Studies. The department's diverse faculty includes scholars of literature, history, music, anthropology, art history, architecture, and cinema. We are also fortunate to have frequent visiting faculty from Italy and elsewhere.

Jewish Studies

UC Berkeley has long been a national leader in Jewish Studies, especially notable for the innovative scholarship promoted in its graduate program. The Center for Jewish Studies provides a strong new focus and a vivid presence for the many varied activities associated with Jewish Studies on the Berkeley campus. It oversees the Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies for graduate students and the undergraduate minor in Jewish Studies. Additionally, the center is home to UC Berkeley's two annual endowed lecture series, sponsors conferences and public lectures, offers a congenial setting for graduate student colloquia, and serves as an attractive meeting place for the many visiting scholars in the field who come to UC Berkeley each year.

Medieval Studies

The Medieval Studies Program is an interdisciplinary group that coordinates and sponsors lectures, events, and visiting professorships; promotes scholarly interests common to medievalists of different academic departments; and communicates information of interest among them. The Committee on Medieval Studies offers a concurrent PhD program in which candidates have both a home department and training in the core disciplines of medieval studies. The program also offers an undergraduate minor.

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC) studies the languages, literature, and cultures of the ancient, medieval, and the modern Middle East. The department offers specialized training in archaeology, art history, Assyriology, Egyptology, Iranian studies, Judaic studies, Islamic studies, comparative Semitics, and Turkish, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian languages and literature. Students can explore the interconnected worlds of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and their neighbors, as well as the modern literature and diverse cultures and societies of the modern Middle East. Students are given the opportunity to participate in a discovery experience that is innovative, collaborative, transdisciplinary, and features digital research.

The Department of Music fosters the cultivation of music on campus through undergraduate and graduate programs of study; and also through public concerts and lectures in Hertz Hall, Morrison Hall, and elsewhere. For undergraduates, the department offers a major in music, as well as numerous nonmajor courses for students with little or no previous experience in music. A minor in music draws on courses for either majors or nonmajors, depending on student qualifications. For graduate students, the department offers programs leading to the MA/PhD or PhD degrees in musical composition, history and literature, or ethnomusicology.

The  Department of Philosophy  at the  University of California, Berkeley  offers both a  BA  and a  PhD  in Philosophy. In addition, we offer many  courses  for students who specialize in other disciplines, and we offer a lively series of  philosophical events . The  faculty  and  graduate students  have research interests covering the whole field of philosophy, from antiquity to the present day, and represent both the analytic and continental traditions.

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

The Designated Emphasis (DE) in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies draws on UC Berkeley’s exceptional faculty strength in Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences to foster interdisciplinary research on the Renaissance and Early Modern period and to provide an intellectual community for those working in these areas. It offers comprehensive training in a wide range of departments and disciplines. Students combine seminar work in intellectual and cultural history, material culture, and languages to supplement their traditional doctoral studies. The DE fosters cutting-edge research and close collaboration with faculty.

The Department of Rhetoric is a leading center for interdisciplinary research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences. Linked by a common interest in the functions of discourse in all its forms, faculty and students engage the theoretical, historical, and cultural dimensions of interpretation and criticism, in fields as diverse as political theory, gender, law, media studies, philosophy, and literature. The department is also committed to the study of rhetorical traditions, from the classical era to contemporary rhetorical theory.

Romance Languages and Literatures

The Romance Languages and Literatures (RLL) interdepartmental PhD program is a joint venture by the Departments of French, Italian Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese. It offers students a unique opportunity to work with distinguished faculty in all three departments as they take advantage of Berkeley's unmatched resources for comparative study of the literatures and linguistics of the Romance language family.

Scandinavian

The languages, literature, and cultures of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) are the focus of teaching and research in the department. The interdisciplinary curriculum ranges from topics in Viking and Medieval Scandinavian history and literature to the influential cultural contributions of the successful Nordic societies of more contemporary times. Instructors regularly teach beginning and intermediate classes in all five modern Nordic languages as well as reading and grammar classes in Old Norse at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students in the undergraduate major choose a concentration in medieval studies or in one of the modern language areas while also working in comparative and interdisciplinary ways with other cultural materials from the region. Graduate students pursuing the Ph.D. train to become comparative Scandinavianists while also developing depth and expertise in a more specific scholarly field.

Slavic Languages and Literatures

The Slavic Department studies and teaches languages, literature, and cultures of the Russian and other Slavic peoples and their immediate neighbors in East and Central Europe (Hungary and Romania) as well as the Caucasus and Central Asia (hence the terms “Eurasia” and “Eurasian”). Over the centuries, these peoples shared linguistic, literary, cultural and historical experiences, which both united and divided them. These experiences include their intermediary position between the “West” and the “East,” participation in large multi-national states and empires, membership in the Soviet bloc in the twentieth century, and, in recent decades, the transition to post-socialism. In a word, we represent peoples who have influenced the history of a large part of the world.

South and Southeast Asian Studies

The Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies offers programs of both undergraduate and graduate instruction in the languages and cultures of South and Southeast Asia. It offers opportunities to explore the rich cultural, social, and religious histories as well as the living contemporary cultures of these areas. The curriculum covers modern cultural history, the classical literary canon, religious literature, folk and popular works, oral traditions and performance media (including recitation, musical and dramatic performance, dance, media, and film), and modern literatures of the colonial and post-colonial period. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the extensive opportunities for interdisciplinary linkages by pursuing courses offered by the South and Southeast Asia faculty in other departments at UC Berkeley.

Spanish & Portuguese

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is big enough to offer a wide variety of approaches to teaching and research, yet small enough to afford students at both the graduate and undergraduate level personal attention and mentoring. We offer an abundance of opportunities to learn and achieve mastery of the languages and cultures we study, which include Catalan, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Romance Studies, and Spanish. Our programs are specially designed for highly-motivated, imaginative students with a passion for other languages, literatures, and cultures and the ability to carefully cross traditionally defined geographic, linguistic, and disciplinary borders.

Study of Religion

The Designated Emphasis in the Study of Religion (DESR) supports graduate training in Religious Studies and in the Theory of the Study of Religion, promotes graduate research on topics related to religion, and brings together a cross-disciplinary faculty Group in the Study of Religion.

Recognizing that many Berkeley students across the Humanities and Social Sciences are already deeply engaged in the study of religious phenomena, the DESR creates a space where those students may come together and focus on the history and theory of how others have approached such phenomena. Since Berkeley currently has no department of Religious Studies, the DESR also integrates professional approaches derived from Theology and Religious Studies, alongside those derived from other cultural traditions and critical approaches to religion.

Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) teaches performance as a mode of critical inquiry, creative expression, and public engagement. Through performance trainin g and research, we create liberal arts graduates with expanded analytical, technical, and imaginative capacities. As a public institution, we make diversity and inclusion a key part of our teaching, art making, and public programming.

Film and Media

• Undergraduate Program

Introduction to the Major

The Film & Media major is an interdisciplinary program that offers rigorous engagement with the entire culture of moving images. The program teaches students to think historically, theoretically, and analytically about a wide range of cinematic forms, and encourages students to look at moving images from the vantage point of other disciplines. Students may complement their study of the history and theory of moving images with the hands-on experience provided by production and screenwriting classes. Students can also take advantage of internship opportunities at the affiliated Pacific Film Archive and with local film production companies.

The Film & Media department also offers a three-course Summer Certificate in Film & Media Industries and Professions (FMIP).

The Film and Media Curriculum 

Core courses for the major include lower division courses on Film History and Film Theory, as well as a third course on either Film Aesthetics, Digital Media Studies or Television Studies. Upper division offerings cover Documentary, Avante-Garde/Experimental Film, Global Media and Media Technologies. Electives include courses on Genre, Auteurs and semesterly Special Topics. The Film & Media department has also expanded its production course offerings. Existing courses such as Screenwriting and Advanced Digital Production are now accompanied by Documentary Production, TV Writing, Advanced Film Writing, The Essay Film, Experimental Production, and more production courses to come in future semesters.

Amplify Your Major

• Get involved with a student organization like Cinebears , CalTV , or GiANT Filmmakers .
• Learn the workings of professional and non-profit media companies with a Film & Media internship .
• Challenge yourself with the Honors Program in Film & Media .
• Explore research and internship opportunities with Berkeley Center for New Media , BAM/PFA , and Berkeley Arts + Design .

As Film & Media major, I studied films that were made against all odds—I learned about film movements, and auteurs that defied convention. In the process, I finally developed the confidence to tell my own stories, make my own films in forms that authentically articulate how I see the world. Sara Boutorabi, class of 2019

• Four-Year Student Timeline

Explore Your Major

• Meet with your major and college advisor to discuss your academic plans.
• Review major and college requirements .
• Start on the two core courses required for the major: FILM 10 and FILM 20.

Connect and Build Community

• Get 1:1 mentoring with Berkeley Connect .
• Find study groups, tutoring, and academic support at the Student Learning Center .
• Enroll in UGIS 98: College Success in L&S.
• Explore the Library’s Media Resources Center .

Discover Your Passions

• Discover new interests in a Freshman Seminar , L&S 1 , or a student-run DeCal course .
• Attend the Undergraduate Research and Scholarships Fair in October.
• Explore doing a certificate , course thread , or summer minor .

Engage Locally and Globally

• Attend the Calapalooza student activities fair and get involved with a student organization.
• Find service opportunities through the Public Service Center .
• Explore study, internship, and research abroad options with Berkeley Study Abroad .
• Attend film screenings at BAMPFA and check out local film festivals .

Reflect and Plan Your Future

• Visit Berkeley Career Engagement and the Career Counseling Library .
• Sign up for Handshake and CareerMail .
• Explore career s  in the Career Connections Series or Cal Job Shadow Program .
• Explore career resources on the Arts and Humanities website .

Second Year

• Declare the major after you have completed FILM 10 or 20 and at least 30 units.
• Complete your lower division course requirement (FILM 30, 35 or 45) and optional elective (FILM 25).
• Explore film and media courses in other departments such as English, Ethnic Studies, or French.
• Review major guidelines for study abroad.
• Join a student organization such as Cinebears , CalTV , and GiANT Filmmakers .
• Start attending department events like the Film & Media Seminar, Conference on Film & Media, and lectures and symposia.
• Get to know professors and graduate student instructors during their office hours.
• Enroll in a Sophomore Seminar , Big Ideas Course or Discovery Course .
• Assist faculty in their research through URAP .
• Consider a summer certificate in Film & Media Industries and Professions .
• Experience life at another UC or college on a visitor and exchange program .
• Work with a community organization in an American Cultures Engaged Scholarship course .
• Get involved with the BAMPFA Student Committee .
• Discuss career options and goals with a Career Educator .
• Think about doing an internship and attend an internship fair .
• Learn about graduate and professional school . See Step-by-Step for planning help.
• Reflect on your education so far and continue to set goals for yourself.
• Focus on upper division requirements and electives.
• Consider a Film & Media internship for academic credit.
• Review your degree progress with your major and college advisor.
• Ask your major advisor about the Honors Program in Film & Media .
• Taking a production course? Check out the Digital Media Lab for digital photography, video editing, sound, green screen, and mixed-use performance space access.
• Explore Undergraduate Research Fellowships or the Undergraduate Certificate in New Media .
• Planning a senior thesis or project? Apply to the Haas Scholars Program or SURF .
• Curious about entrepreneurship? Enroll in HUM120: Entrepreneurship for All .
• Hone your writing skills through an Art of Writing seminar .
• Consider taking a semester or year abroad through UC Education Abroad Program .
• Go on a service-learning trip with the Alternative Breaks Program .
• Consider a Berkeley Global Internship in the United States or abroad.
• Explore internship opportunities with local organizations like SFMOMA .
• Update your resume and LinkedIn profile.
• Discuss post-graduate options with advisors and professors.
• Attend career and graduate school fairs .
• Ask professors and graduate student instructors for recommendation letters.

Fourth Year

• Do a degree check to ensure you are on track to graduate.
• Submit your capstone statement .
• Complete any “bucket list” courses and remaining major , college , and campus requirements .
• Join a professional association such as the Society for Cinema and Media Studies .
• Get support for your thesis project in the Townsend Honors Thesis Workshop .
• Connect with alumni groups and build your network as you prepare to graduate.
• Submit a film or creative work for consideration for the Eisner Prize .
• Teach your own DeCal course .
• Undertake an optional honors thesis or independent study and submit your work to the Berkeley Undergraduate Journal .
• Keep pursuing your interests through a fellowship or gap year after graduation.
• Hone your leadership skills with the Peter E. Haas Public Service Leaders program .
• Interested in a public service career? Apply for the John Gardner Fellowship .
• Explore service opportunities after graduation, such as Peace Corps , Teach for America , or U.S. Department of State .
• Utilize job board tools in your job search.
• Meet employers at Employer Info Sessions and On-Campus Recruiting .
• Apply to jobs, graduate school, and other opportunities.

What Can I Do With My Major?

The Film & Media major prepares students for film-related careers as well as business, law, and the arts and humanities. Many students pursue graduate study in film, the humanities, law, and business, with others finding exciting work in media.

Jobs and Employers

• Asst. Creative Producer, MasterClass
• Asst. Producer, Full Frame Productions
• Editor, Millenium Film Journal
• Educational Specialist, UC Berkeley
• Junior Video Editor, Yelp
• Manager, Berkeley Art Museum
• Publicity Coordinator, Allied Integrated Marketing
• Researcher, Launchpad Entertainment 360
• Sales Administrator, Kanopy
• Software Engineer, OpenTable
• Videographer, Honeydue

Graduate Programs

• Art History, PhD
• Film, Masters
• Film Archival, Masters
• Film & Media Production, Masters
• Film & Media Studies, PhD
• Fine Arts, Masters
• Information Management & Systems, Masters
• Journalism, Masters
• Public Policy, Masters

Examples gathered from LinkedIn and the First Destination Survey of recent Berkeley graduates.

Connect With Us

Come to Berkeley’s annual Open House in April for information sessions, campus tours, special talks, and more.

Golden Bear Orientation

Join your peers in the campus-wide UC Berkeley orientation program for all new students.

Attend department events with students, staff,  and faculty. Participate in our ongoing BFMS Series , with several events every semester featuring Film & Media guest speakers. Visit  filmmedia.berkeley.edu for news and updates.

Students interested in declaring the Film & Media major, or who wish to obtain more information, should make an appointment with the Undergraduate Major Advisor Hedi Vafaeenia by emailing [email protected]

For advising hours and locations, visit filmmedia.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-advising/ .

How to Use this Map

Use this map to help plan and guide your experience at UC Berkeley, including academic, co-curricular, and discovery opportunities. Everyone’s Berkeley experience is different and activities in this map are suggestions. Always consult with your advisors whenever possible for new opportunities and updates.

• What Can I Do with My Major?

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'Graduate' 50th anniversary: On the hunt for Mrs. Robinson in Berkeley, Calif.

BERKELEY, Calif. — Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.

December marks the 50-year anniversary of the release of “The Graduate,” named the seventh best American movie of all time by the American Film Institute. The film, which won an Oscar for director Mike Nichols, defined the zeitgeist of a generation starting to rebel against convention and pre-ordained life paths.

The spirit of the groundbreaking movie, immortalized by Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson seducing an angst-filled Dustin Hoffman, still survives in this free-thinking college town in which parts of the movie were filmed.

To mark the anniversary, the Berkeley Historical Society is offering a walking tour Nov. 11 to see the sites shown in the film, many of which are still in use. Steve Finacom, a past president of the society, will guide the tour. He said interest is strong and more tours might be added.

“I think people are interested in seeing places from history — even fictional history,” Finacom said. “The ‘60s has a hold on the imagination. Berkeley did really capture the attention of the nation in that era.”

Start at The Graduate Hotel

I recently spent a long weekend in Berkeley on my own self-guided tour into cinematic history. I was too young to see the movie when it first came out, but I’ve seen it numerous times as an adult. “The Graduate” spoke to me on so many levels. I also wanted to learn more about Berkeley, a city of about 120,000 people just north of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco. It's known as a boisterous epicenter of left-wing political activism.

Appropriately, I stayed at The Graduate Hotel, which made a brief appearance in the movie and is one block from the University of California-Berkeley campus. Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock, pursued Elaine — a Cal-Berkeley student and Mrs. Robinson’s daughter — in hopes of winning Elaine’s heart.

But the hotel’s name has nothing to do with the movie. Known as the Hotel Durant when the movie was filmed, it became The Graduate last summer when it was acquired by a company that owns a chain of 10 hotels in university communities around the country. (The Graduate Tempe is on Apache Boulevard across the street from Arizona State University's campus.)

Nevertheless, the hotel has capitalized on its name, hanging “The Graduate” movie posters in each of its 144 rooms and offering occasional “vinyl nights” in the hotel bar, in which the movie’s famous soundtrack — recorded by Simon and Garfunkel — spins on an old turntable. Berkeley's quirky counterculture is represented by bong-shaped lamps in the guestrooms and a restroom urinal painted with the logo and colors of Stanford, Cal-Berkeley’s arch-rival.

A 'Graduate' walking tour

As I took a short walk from the hotel to Telegraph Avenue to explore the filming sites, I passed the types of shops one might expect to see in Berkeley — a Buddhist bookstore, a restaurant selling “America’s first USDA certified organic fast food” and tie-dyed shirt stalls. A man known simply as “The Wizard” gazed into a crystal ball while predicting the futures of passersby on a busy street corner.

My first stop was a stately Victorian house built in 1895 at the corner of Channing Way and Dana Street that served as Ben’s boarding house in the film. This is where a crotchety landlord played by Norman Fell (who later starred as Mr. Roper on TV’s “Three’s Company”) accused Ben of being an “outside agitator” before evicting him.

Today, the building is divided into six apartments. Finacom is petitioning the city to have the building designated as a historic landmark, noting that it’s “already an informal landmark; it should be an official one.”

Two blocks away, I stopped at the now-closed Caffe Mediterraneum, where Ben sipped a beer while surreptitiously watching Elaine emerge across Telegraph Avenue from Moe’s Books, a Berkeley staple known for its eclectic selection of used books and posters. 

Moe Moscowitz, who founded the store in 1959, passed away 20 years ago. His daughter Doris Moscowitz runs the business and proudly displays a large photo of the storefront seen in “The Graduate.” She said it’s a point of pride that Moe’s Books appeared in such a landmark movie, adding that Nichols did a wonderful job of capturing “Berkeley’s iconic funkiness.”

Just down the block from my hotel I found the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house, where Ben frantically parked his red Alfa Romeo Spider convertible and rushed inside to find out where Elaine was getting married. It’s still an active frat house but no one answered the door when I knocked on a Saturday morning.

Cal-Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, the main square on campus, also was shown in “The Graduate,” although parts of the movie were filmed at USC and UCLA in Los Angeles.

Today, Cal-Berkeley remains a hotbed of student activism. Free campus walking tours are offered every morning at 10, leaving from the football stadium. The tour I took was briefly interrupted by a passing march for women’s rights.

Beyond 'The Graduate'

There aren’t a lot of typical tourist attractions in Berkeley. Perhaps the most noteworthy landmark is Sather Tower, at the center of campus. At 307 feet, it’s the third-tallest bell-and-clock-tower in the world. For $3, you can take an elevator to the top, where there is a 61-bell carillon, not to mention stunning views of San Francisco.

But visitors typically don’t come to Berkeley for the sights. They come to experience the vibe.

A sample of the city’s energy and rich musical history is on display at the Historical Society, which recently opened an exhibit called “Soundtrack to the 60s: The Berkeley Music Scene.” It runs through April.

My visit coincided with the exhibit’s opening, featuring a performance by the legendary Country Joe McDonald, a Berkeley fixture who has lived here since before “The Graduate” was made. As the lead singer of Country Joe and the Fish, McDonald, now 75, wrote and recorded one of the most famous anti-Vietnam War anthems of the ‘60s .

Like a 50-year-old suede vest with bright psychedelic trim, Berkeley is a bit frayed at the edges, and homelessness is a serious problem. But Berkeley's charm, vibrant spirit and retro feel remain attractive.

Just like Ben experienced with Mrs. Robinson 50 years ago, once you get past the brazen exterior, you’ll likely be seduced into wanting more. 

Berkeley, Calif.

Berkeley is an easy weekend getaway from Phoenix, with several daily two-hour non-stop flights to Oakland International Airport. From there, Berkeley is a 30-minute ride on the BART, the Bay Area’s train/subway system. The Graduate Hotel and most of the sites related to "The Graduate" movie are a 20-minute walk from the downtown Berkeley BART stop.    

Berkeley tourism:  visitberkeley.com .

Graduate Hotel Berkeley:  graduateberkeley.com .

Berkeley Historical Society:  berkeleyhistoricalsociety.org .

More articles by Dan Fellner

• Testing the retirement potential of Chiang Mai, Thailand

• Spitsbergen: Polar bears and glaciers in the Arctic

• Cruising the scenic Rhine River gorge

Dan Fellner of Chandler is a faculty associate at Arizona State University and freelance travel writer. Visit his website at Global-Travel-Info.com .

UC Berkeley firebomb suspect, 34, lives with parents, has PhD

• Copy link to this article

Casey Goonan was arrested Monday morning at his parents’ $1.1 million home in Pleasant Hill on suspicion of a string of arson attacks at UC Berkeley from June 1 to 16.

Feds, cops and CalFire allege the 34-year-old, a Northwestern University doctorate of African American studies, firebombed a Berkeley campus police car and carried out three other arson incidents on university grounds June 1, as well as last Thursday and Sunday.

Charges were filed Thursday by the Alameda District Attorney’s Office. The felony charges include arson, weapons offenses, possession of a “destructive device,” and violent conduct.

“He will enter a not guilty plea and fight these charges,” his attorney, Jeff Wozniak, said Friday. “No evidence has been presented yet connecting him to these allegations.”

Wozniak confirmed multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, raided the home where Goonan lives with his parents in Pleasant Hill at around 10 a.m. Monday morning. A bio from a 2018 academic journal states Goonan “considers himself a scholar-activist” and an aspiring professor. No social media profiles, including LinkedIn, could be found for Goonan. 

“Casey got his PhD! Onto job apps,” Goonan’s mother wrote in a 2022 Instagram post. He previously completed his undergraduate degree at UC Riverside.

Another bio from 2019 described Goonan as an “abolitionist currently living and working in Chicago.”

In online articles, Goonan has described the United States as a “god-awful fascist hell hole” where social injustices are “concealed under the blinders of white supremacist American reason.”

One magazine article titled “Defining Social Reality in a Revolutionary Way” praises the Black Panther Party for establishing “a blueprint for U.S.-based radical organizations experimenting with the scientific, premeditated, and necessarily methodical artistry of social revolution.”

Posts online claiming credit for the torchings point to acts being carried out in protest of the war in Gaza. The Indybay.org post from Sunday titled “retaliation arson attack on construction site at university of kkkalifornia berkeley,” claimed the pro-Palestine group going by the handle Marilyn’s Daughters had looted a university supply building of “thousands of dollars,” firebombed a police car, carried out “experimental burning of dry grass hills on the interior of campus,” torched a building on the campus perimeter, and set fire to a construction site.  

“This was done to further retaliate against the UCPD for attacking students at UCSC and UCLA,” the post states. 

Another post claiming credit for a firebombing writes, “EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED.”

“This is a political investigation,” said Wozniak in an email before charges were filed by the district attorney. “It is an investigation focused on Mr. Goonan’s political beliefs in a free Palestine and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. If charges are filed, Mr. Goonan’s legal team will aggressively fight the charges. It is my hope, however, that [District Attorney Pamela Price] does not engage in this political persecution, does not file charges and that Mr. Goonan is released from jail.”

Wozniak said the search warrant specifically sought “documents related to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.”

Wozniak is already defending Goonan in a San Francisco felony vandalism case. Prosecutors say Goonan wielded a hammer during a protest outside the Women’s Declaration International USA conference in September last year. Court documents say police saw Goonan smash the Hilton Hotel sign on Kearny Street with a hammer before he was pulled from the crowd and arrested. Protesters had gathered at the conference, which they deemed anti-trangender.

Women’s Declaration International has said that the concept of “gender identity” threatens the rights of women and that transgender women “should not be included in the category women in the context of women’s human rights.”

Goonan pleaded not guilty to felony vandalism, and the case continues; the next hearing is scheduled for Friday in San Francisco. He was scheduled to appear Thursday in Alameda County court for arraignment on arson charges. His bail has been set at $1 million. 

A thread of posts Monday night to X by the Escalate Network encouraged support for “someone” who was “accused of using improvised devices to start fires and damage property in retaliation for police brutality against Gaza solidarity encampments.” The posts called the actions “logical,” saying that even if the arrested person was innocent, they should be supported “as if they truly did take bold and heroic actions to save millions of lives” and calling the deeds “something we should all aspire to, tactics aside: selfless and urgent action to stop the war.”

Update: This story has been updated to include confirmation charges were filed by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office on June 20.

George Kelly can be reached at [email protected] Tomoki Chien can be reached at [email protected] Michael McLaughlin can be reached at [email protected]

Filed Under

With newly digitized slave ship logs, Berkeley Ph.D. student examines race, power — and literacy

William Carter was in a National Archives reading room in the United Kingdom staring at a box of tattered pages covered in cursive writing, sea water stains and smears of blood. It smelled musty, and his hands became smudged turning the soot-covered pages. 

Carter, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidate in geography, was mining these centuries-old slave ship logs in 2020 as part of his research into the transatlantic slave trade and what lessons from then might apply to our own understandings about race, literacy and power today. 

But there was a problem: He couldn’t read a single sentence.

For even the most skilled readers, the faded, swooping lettering would be nearly indecipherable. But it was especially inaccessible for Carter, who has dyslexia and whose screen reader tools for written notes and published books didn’t work on 400-year-old slave ship logs.

So in collaboration with  UC Berkeley’s Disabled Students’ Program  (DSP), Carter created a first-of-its-kind research solution to allow him to read these centuries-old materials. Carter finds logbooks and takes digital photos of the pages, which he then shares with DSP’s accessibility experts. That team works with a company to digitize the files in a layout mirroring the original documents, almost as if a deckhand in 1691 pulled out a typewriter or opened a Google Sheet.

The result is a file that Carter’s screen reader can interpret. For the first time in their history, these handwritten stories are available for Carter — and one day, he hopes, others — to listen to, analyze and write about. 

Postdocs, Instructors, and Morreys

Khalilah beal, catherine k. a. cannizzo, colleen delaney, zhiyan ding, emiliano gómez, nicolle gonzalez, peter haine, ryan a. hass, jiang hu (户将), mihaela ifrim, eyal kaplan, sergei korotkikh, patrick lutz, borislav mladenov, federico pasqualotto, rohil prasad, kendric schefers, arun sharma, norman sheu, forte shinko, kevin stubbs, kelli talaska, krutika tawri, alexandra utiralova, jikang wang, mengxuan yang, dongxiao yu.

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

What Inside Out 2 Reveals About the Diversity of Emotions

In 2015, Inside Out hit theaters and soon became renowned for its creative and scientific brilliance . In the movie, nine-year-old girl Riley moves with her mother and father from Minnesota to San Francisco, which means she needs to navigate a new life–social, school, and home.

Riley’s primary emotions become characters in the movie, each with their own personalities: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. The story largely takes place inside Riley’s head, in a place called Headquarters, where these emotions work together to help her to find her way in a new city–and to achieve a balanced emotional state.

Inside Out is more than just an animated film. It’s a thoughtful and profound exploration of the human emotional experience, highlighting the importance of all emotions, not just happiness, for one’s positive well-being. By creatively and empathetically portraying the inner workings of Riley’s mind, Inside Out reminds us that understanding and embracing our emotions while prioritizing positive relationships fosters a sense of safety and belonging despite the challenges we encounter.

This past Friday, Pixar released a sequel to Inside Out . In part two, Riley is now thirteen years old and she’s pushed into a new development stage, which brings to life new emotions inside of her: Anxiety, Ennui, Nostalgia, and Embarrassment, each one a complex character in its own right. She is changing. Her body is changing. Her mind is changing. Her social world is changing. As time passes and interactions unfold, her body or emotions keep the score and are reflected in her everyday behaviors. On her journey, Riley feels true pain, hurt, remorse, and, most importantly, grief—the grief of her past self–and the grace required to heal, along with the challenges of unconditionally loving the new self.

As many Greater Good readers already know , Pixar turned to the Greater Good Science Center and our faculty director (and my mentor), Dacher Ketlner, for help in grounding Inside Out and its sequel in the science of emotion. And indeed, science and art converge ever so gently in these two movies, reminding us of our innermost and outer (childlike) selves. But, when you look closer to the margins, major question is raised as a critical emotion science scholar: what does the new movie reveal about the science of our emotions, and what or who was left out of the film?

The beauty of emotion science on screen

While many scientists agree that emotions are universal and inherited, more and more scholars see how they are expressed as very social. These researchers study how our daily interactions with others shape our feelings, thoughts, and actions.

In the film, Riley’s emotions are influenced by her interactions with others and her social environment, like a hockey camp with high-school girls. Riley is shown to be easily influenced by the social expectations around her. The first Inside Out movie suggests that emotions are linked to past experiences, especially in how childhood experiences shape our understanding of feelings, ourselves, and the world.

In the new movie, Riley’s emotions intensify as she tries to maintain her relationships with her best friends while trying to impress a new group of friends. This storyline demonstrates how social expectations and norms affect our emotions and behavior as Riley shifts between the two groups.

The film emphasizes that emotions are key to communication, and her emotions help Riley build and repair relationships with her peers. Emotions/characters like Fear, Disgust, Anger, and Embarrassment act as signals to protect her in different situations, like pulling away after realizing she held her friend Val’s hand for too long. Inside Out 2 clearly shows that emotions are social and serve social functions, demonstrating that our interactions, cultural backgrounds, and everyday experiences shape our feelings.

There are also sociological perspectives on emotions. In the early 1980s, sociologists focused on feelings and emotions, exploring their role in human motivation and social structures. Many argue that emotions are inherited and biological but still shaped by historical, social, and political contexts. Although Inside Out 2 doesn’t explicitly follow this sociological view, it aligns with Arlie Hochschild’s “Emotional Labor” and “Feeling Rules” concepts.

Emotional Labor is about managing feelings and behaviors to show certain emotions publicly, often to fit in or be accepted. Feeling Rules are social guidelines that tell us how and when to feel certain emotions, varying across different contexts. In the film, Riley adjusts her emotions to get positive reactions from others, and she follows social-feeling rules, which increases her anxiety.

That concept is rarely applied to children, but my own “Emotion as Play” research examines how young African American people use Emotional Labor and Feeling Rules. Watching the film, I realized that emotional labor is like a weight people carry, and they need social, emotional, and physical effort to manage it. Riley’s struggles with moving into different spheres and fitting into them show how these pressures build up over time, affecting her deeply. In this way, Inside Out 2 highlights that adolescence is a critical time when mental health issues often become more noticeable and intense.

The scientific power of the humanities

Inside Out 2 is such a beautiful display of science and art. It opens our minds to possibilities and reminds us of how central emotions are to our humanity. However, the film missed a vital opportunity to bring to light the real stars of the show, who seemed to have been pushed out on the margins. Just where are Love, Grace, and Empathy?

While some argue that love is not an emotion in the strictest scientific sense, both science and the humanities have long considered Love–along with Grace, and Empathy–as crucial to the development of communities of wellness. By using research from the humanities, we can see how they appear in the film and how they could help build families and communities that focus on mental health and well-being. Inside Out 2 hints at these deeper connections and helps us to understand what they reveal about ourselves and each other–and they led me to reflect on how the movie highlights certain concepts from science and the humanities

A Critical Love Ethic: This is a conception of love that requires truth, understanding, and acceptance. Through her various moments, Riley was forced to sit with herself–as she spent time tossing and turning in her bed alone, her mind working, her emotions intense. It seemed like the only thing that freed her from herself and the expectation of her environment was love from her best friends Bree (of African descent) and Grace (of Asian descent). These two possess what thinkers like bell hooks, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison refer to as a Critical Love Ethic.

As bell hooks outlines, Riley is suffering from the oppressive forces of societal expectation or pressure that led to the distortion of her sense of self and, most importantly, her connection to herself. Critical Love Ethic is a counter-cultural idea that argues for collective resistance to the social norms, feelings rules, and social expectations that lead to the suppression of emotions to help create a society of human flourishing. A Critical Love Ethic equates love with strength, courage, and truth, which was displayed beautifully by both Bree and Grace as they, through the power of love, bridge differences and provide Riley the reassurance to feel safe but held accountable for her behavior without further embarrassment.

Although I yearned for love throughout the film, I found my moments and rejoiced in it because I had the chance to witness young people practice a Critical Love Ethic. Integrating love into children’s or youth films is not a superficial act but a radical act of care, compassion, and belonging that will have the power to change the world around us for all.

Grace Abundance: Grace is a multifaceted concept that encompasses love, gentleness, and a sense of inner peace and disrupts traditional definitions. In many eyes, Grace is something we all need to show others and show ourselves as the world around us gets faster and more complex. Many of us have the weight of the world on our shoulders–with stress compounding and trauma continuing to increase, taking a tremendous toll on our mental health. We are sometimes hardest on ourselves –when we do not meet expectations and deadlines or show up as our best selves. Grace is the ability to slow down, get grounded, and speak life into the nooks and crannies of your imperfections–because for others, your imperfections are beautiful, too.

Riley needs some Grace (literally and emotionally) in her life to ease the weight she carries trying to be all the things all at once. But, as marginalized groups have always done due to the realities of an unjust world, we rely on unique, often not spoken or understood emotions to uplift and, at times, resist in order to thrive. Riley’s best friends extend Grace to her, reminding her that their love is unwavering, that their care is unconditional, and that it will simply be okay. It seems to me that Inside Out 2 missed an opportunity in not explicitly naming and making space for Grace in Riley’s story.

Empathetic Desires: Empathy is the ability to understand why someone feels the way they do, why they are doing the things they do, and how that is informed by who they are as an entire person (e.g., identity, lived experiences, upbringing). Empathy requires sensitivity to the world, a desire for a deep sense of connection, and acknowledgment that other people are different from you and have different feelings.

When individuals truly understand and feel what someone else is going through, they are more likely to offer support, comfort, or assistance. This compassionate response is fundamental in nurturing and sustaining personal and professional relationships. Riley, through her ups and downs, is extended empathy by those around her, even those who she is trying to impress, like her new friend Val, who was a simultaneous source of anxiety and comfort.

Despite Riley’s awkward and quirky behavior, Val is gentle to her, comforts her, celebrates her, and cares for her. She simply wants Riley to be herself and not conform to the expectations that are both explicit and implicit. In the end, Inside Out 2 reminds me of James Baldwin’s liberating words in The Fire Next Time: “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word love here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”

About the Author

Demond Hill Jr.

Demond Hill Jr. is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the mental health and emotional well-being of Black children and youth, their families, and communities.

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Graduate Student wins IEEE Communications Society & Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award

by Gloria Tao on June 21, 2024

EECS graduate student Justin Kang has won the IEEE Communications Society & Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award.

Kang and co-author Professor Wei Yu from the University of Toronto were selected for their work on “Minimum Feedback for Collision-Free Scheduling in Massive Random Access.”

Granted annually, the award recognizes outstanding papers at the intersection of communications and information theory published within the previous three years. Papers are selected based on “quality, originality, utility, timeliness, and presentation.”

Kang’s research focuses on machine learning, privacy in learning, and data valuation. He is currently advised by EECS Professor Kannan Ramchandran.

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