2025-26
2025-2026 Applications for the Morvarid Guiv Graduate Fellowship in Zoroastrian Studies Open
Call for Applications for the Morvarid Guiv Graduate Fellowship in Zoroastrian Studies The Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World announces a call for applications for the Morvarid Guiv Graduate Fellowship in Zoroastrian Studies. This fellowship is awarded to outstanding graduate students whose works encompass different facets of Zoroastrian studies, that is, the […]
A connection forged by language
Maltese is spoken by only about 530,000 people worldwide, but it sparked a friendship between 2 UCLA grad students Jacqueline Jacobo | January 9, 2026 If you’re looking for an example of how language can bring people together, look no further than Richard Assaley and Glen Spiteri. Assaley is a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Near […]
An overlooked empire: Persian literature
written by Nicole Karraa January 20, 2026, taken from Bruin Life The Iranian studies program at UCLA is a beating heart rich with history and literature. Along with centers dedicated to the study of ancient Iranian and Persian literary traditions, the Program of Iranian Studies is the foothold to one of the most overlooked historical empires. Persian […]
Anthology edited by Carol Bakhos covers nearly a millennium of Jewish history
A new book edited by Carol Bakhos covers the extensive period between the rise of Alexander the Great and the emergence of Islam. A 1,360-page book covering more than 900 years of Jewish history? It’s no wonder Carol Bakhos compares the completion of her latest project to finishing an endurance race. “I do run marathons and I […]
Archaeology meets social media literacy in an innovative Fiat Lux seminar
Sean Brenner/UCLA Humanities
As ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ turns 45, an archaeologist separates fact from fiction
Lara Fabian considers the myths of Indiana Jones Indiana Jones was interested in shiny objects; in reality, UCLA professor Lara Fabian says, ancient garbage pits are more interesting. Forty-five years after its June 1981 release, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is a cinematic treasure sealed in amber. Although she has never been chased by a […]
Doctoral student Charles Rhodes gives Geffen Academy classes an inside look at Egyptology
Sean Brenner | February 26, 2026 Charles Rhodes didn’t discover Egyptology until his junior year of college. But on Feb. 24, Rhodes — now a fourth-year UCLA doctoral student in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures — gave UCLA Geffen Academy ninth-graders a major head start on their exposure to the field. Speaking to two classes taught by Johanna Day and […]
Gurdjieff Armenia 2025 Conference
When: September 17-20 Organized by the Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies, UCLA Co-sponsored by the Institute for Armenian Studies, Yerevan State University, together with the Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies, University of Southern California, and with the support of the George Ignatius Foundation and the Armen and Gloria Hampar Family Foundation, Los Angeles. Wednesday: September […]
How Arabic helped shape everyday English
Lecturer Kinda Al Rifae explores words that traveled from the Islamic Golden Age into modern English UCLA Newsroom | April 29, 2026 Many English speakers use Arabic-derived words every day without realizing it. In a new video produced by UCLA Newsroom, Kinda Al Rifae, a lecturer in Arabic in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, highlights how centuries of […]
Jonathan Winnerman among 7 new Humanities faculty appointments for 2025-26
Jonathan Winnerman, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, studies kingship and sacred power in ancient Egypt and from a comparative perspective. He specializes in the texts and visual culture of the New Kingdom through Late Periods, and teaches all phases of the ancient Egyptian language, including Greco-Roman and Enigmatic hieroglyphs. As associate director of Global Antiquity, he […]
Susan Slyomovics receives American Anthropological Association book award
Sean Brenner | December 5, 2025 For her 2024 book, “Monuments Decolonized: Algeria’s French Colonial Heritage,” Susan Slyomovics has been honored by the American Anthropological Association. Slyomovics, a UCLA distinguished professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures, and of anthropology, received the association’s Edward M. Bruner Book Prize. “Monuments Decolonized,” published by Stanford University Press, examines what became of […]