2020
Graduation
H14 137
Comparative Literature Graduation Program 2020
Bachelor of Arts degree
Gilad Barach
Primary literature: Yiddish; secondary literature:
Spanish. Double major with Near Eastern
Languages & Literatures (Hebrew), minor in
Jewish Studies. His thesis is titled “Yielding and
Wielding Vernacular: The Reposition and
Examination of Power in Mati Shemoelof’s “To
the Son of a Whore” with Faculty Advisor
Professor Chana Kronfeld. High distinction in
general scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Dear Gilad,
Working with you over these past few years has been a real joy. Your Honors Thesis is
a remarkable contribution to the study of radical politics and poetics in contemporary
Hebrew literature, as well as to translation studies. You've never taken any shortcuts,
double-majoring in Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Studies and minoring in
Jewish Studies. Not only have you developed a remarkable fluency in Hebrew but
you've acquired a good command of Yiddish and film studies. Your intellectual and
creative talents are boundless, matched only by your energy. Power to you!
Chana Kronfeld
Dear Gilad, Congratulations on earning your BA in Comparative Literature. When I think
of you, I recall your excellent work on the midterm and final exam essays in my
“Comparative Mythology: Celtic, Norse, and Greek” course in spring 2018. I also
appreciated your thoughtful comments in class. I wish you much success in your future
academic endeavors. Annalee Rejoin
Gilad, you impressed me in two courses with his genuine desire to ask tough questions
and never accept trendy solutions. You were as talented analyzing the philosophy of
Peruvian punk as he was the anti-racist arguments of Ta-Nehisi Coates, and your
creative work, in sound and on film, stunned me with its sensitive understanding of
memory’s impact on the present. Tom McEnaney
Jessica Burr
Primary literature: English; secondary literature: Japanese.
Double major with English.
Faculty Comments:
Jessica, it was a pleasure having you in CL 155 last year. I
really enjoyed chatting with you about literary impressionism
and reading your thoughtful essays over the course of the
semester. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead! Karl
Britto
Jessica, you are a sensitive and insightful reader, attentive
to the subtleties of form. I was impressed by your fine paper
on Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, a complex novel
that she discussed with interpretive flair and a deeply personal touch. Mario Telo
Humberto Castorena
Primary Literature: English; secondary literature: Spanish.
Double major with History. Highest distinction in general
scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Humberto, it was great having you in not one but two classes.
I’m sure that your Comp Lit- developed skills in writing and
critical analysis will serve you well as you begin your studies
in Law. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead! Karl
Britto
Humberto, it’s spring 2017 and, as per the indexicality of
subject positions in narrative language that you so brilliantly analyzed, the now of what
is now a then is still unfolding and in it you are reading a story whose end you’ll never
reach composed of a “...senseless…[and] indeterminate heap of contradictory drafts”--
among them your own fabulous Barthes-inspired starring of this little encomium to a
truly amazing student who taught me to read “Right now (what a dumb word, now, what
a dumb lie). . .” --something to remember x years from now when now will be then. . .
Anne-Lise Francois
Bella Chavez
Primary literature: Spanish; secondary literature: Portuguese.
Double major with Spanish & Portuguese, minor in Education.
Served as Peer Representative and studied abroad in Lisbon,
Portugal, Azore Islands, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Faculty Comments:
Congratulations on your exceptional work, Bella. Your curiosity
and broad knowledge of literatures and cultures exemplifies
the discipline of Comparative Literature. Best of luck in the
future! - Tim Hampton
Bella, thanks for your participation in CL 100 last semester.
Your enthusiasm and insights really helped to make teaching
that class a special experience. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead! Karl Britto
Mixty Espinoza
Primary literature: Spanish; secondary literature: English.
Served on the Spring Research Symposium Committee.
Writer for the Daily Cal.
Faculty Comments:
Mixty, you have been, as much as any single person could
be, the heart and soul of Comp Lit's relatively new group "El
Grupo," to which you’ve brought incredibly thoughtful ideas,
commitment, and amazing organizational skills. From
reading groups you’ve organized, to film nights, to
discussions of both the cultural and political resonances of
Spanish-language literature and art in the past and today,
you have constantly sparked us--and, we soon discovered,
you were exerting that kind of force not only within El Grupo,
but also in various other groups and committees around the
Department, as well as in your work for the Daily Cal. We've
been so lucky to you’re you with us, and we know that you’ve
got a terrific future ahead of you. Robert Kaufman
Mixty, it a pleasure having you in CL 155 last year. I am always in awe of students who
happily volunteer to do the very first presentation! Thanks for all that you brought to that
class. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead! Karl Britto
Elizabeth Gobbo
Primary literature: English; secondary
literature: Urdu. Double major with South and
Southeast Asian Studies. Her thesis is titled “
Unveiling the Invaluable: Female Voices,
Affective Labor, and Intimate Play in Reḵẖtī
Poetry.“ with Faculty Advisor Professor
Gregory Bruce. High distinction in general
scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Liz, your work is a sublime combination of scholarship and multimedia expression,
encompassing photography, poetry, and songs. You transfigure your personal
experience into archival compositions that remind me of Maggie Nelson, Julietta Singh,
and Valeria Luiselli. Your interventions in class were always probing and challenging,
modeling, for the other students, ways to put even the most influential theoretical
paradigms under pressure. Mario Tell
Liz, you challenged herself and our class with passion and courage. Your deep care for
art’s capacity to turn the most difficult moments into compassionate knowledge allows
you to discover connections in threads most of us lose or fail to see. Tom McEnaney
Christina Hui
Primary literature: English; secondary literature: Chinese.
Double major with Linguistics.
Faculty Comments:
Christina, you took the unreliability of memory and
knowledge as your central theme in our seminar and
produced a series of sharp, ambitious papers exploring
these ideas in Proust and Woolf. You homed in on small
details that others might easily overlook, balancing close
textual analysis with an admirable capacity for synthesis.
Your clarity of thought and willingness to engage with
difficult, abstract concepts were impressive (and all the
more so given that you were working in a non-native
language!). Dora Zhang
Christina, I very much enjoyed being at the intersection of your two majors, as you
applied cognitive linguistic models to Othello in Ling 128 - challenging models which you
applied to a challenging text. I hope those Shakespearean mental space analyses
remain with you as you graduate - and I know your versatile undergrad training at
Berkeley will serve you well! You then hung in through the toughest spring Berkeley
semester I've known - and now you've made it, you have every reason to be proud.
CONGRATULATIONS!! Eve Sweetser
Molly Kearnan
Primary literature: English; secondary literature: French.
Double major in French. Studied abroad in Lyon, France
in Spring of 2019. Served as Peer Representative and
Co-editor in Chief of the Comparative Literature
Undergraduate Journal (CLUJ). Her thesis is titled
“Piercing through White Noise: Assertion of the Poetic
Voice in Rita Bouvier and Marilyn Dumont’s Poetry“ with
Faculty Advisor Professor Karl Britto. High distinction in
general scholarship. Recipient of the Theresa Hak-Kyung
Cha Fellowship.
Faculty Comments:
Molly, it has been a great pleasure teaching you (in three
different classes, no less), and working with you on your
Senior Honors Essay. Thank you for introducing me to the
poetry of Rita Bouvier and Marilyn Dumont. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead!
Karl Britto
Dear Molly: I still recall your boldly comparative juxtaposition of French and Russian
material in your final essay for my class. I want to wish you every success in the future!
Harsha Ram
Luna Khalil
Primary literature: Arabic; secondary literature:
Spanish. Served as Peer Representative and on the
Spring Research Symposium Committee. Distinction
in general scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Congratulations Luna! Your work in Comp Lit 190 was
important in opening new perspectives for all of us in
the class. Your ability to move between cultures,
language, and media is remarkable. And you have the
rarest of talents, the ability to listen and engage
thoughtfully with your colleagues. Good luck! - Tim
Hampton
Luna, thanks for your participation in CL 155 last year.
I still recall your thoughtful presentation on Duras –
you really captured the interplay between money, fantasy, and despair in Un barrage
contre le Pacifique. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead! Karl Britto
Arianne Marcellin-Little
Primary literature: English; secondary literature:
French. Co-editor in Chief of the Comparative
Literature Undergraduate Journal (CLUJ). Highest
distinction in general scholarship. Recipient of the
Departmental Citation.
Faculty Comments:
Dear Arianne: You are a born literary scholar, with
a fine ear for language, a knack for precise
formulation, and a capacity for real synthesis. It
was a pleasure to have you in class and I look
forward to hearing of your future successes!
Harsha Ram.
Arianne, your careful attunement to literary language broke new ground in the study of
how the 1960s New Journalists punctured the myths of American freedom, even while
propagating myths about themselves, as they reworked the codes of journalism and
realist fiction. And in a revelatory mixed media midterm project, you became a journalist
herself, exposing how new media platforms like Facebook can exploit the fading
divisions between private and public life. Tom McEnaney
Emily McKinney
Primary literature: English; secondary literature:
French.
Faculty Comments:
Dear Emily, warm congratulations to you on
earning your Comparative Literature BA. I
remember you from our “Comparative Mythology:
Celtic, Norse, and Greek” course in spring 2018
as being clear thinking and insightful on your
midterm and final exam essays. With your
knowledge of French and Arabic I hope you will be
able to continue your future academic studies on the post-graduate level. Annalee
Rejhon
Emily, thanks for all your contributions to our class this semester. And thanks especially
for your sharing your beautiful, moving reflection on reading To the Lighthouse after
moving back home. Your commitment to the capacity of art to help us make sense of
the world is clear, and I think it will serve you well. I wish you the very best in your next
chapter. Dora Zhang
Brian McKnight
Primary literature: English; secondary literature:
French. Double major in English. He
studied abroad in Paris, France.
Faculty Comments:
Loved your thoughtfulness in class--the muted desert
tones of your quiet mode of critique--and the way your
written work brought to life poetry’s capacity to
duplicate on the page a musician’s breath patterns. But
what remain with me most vividly are the words you
invented for our California-specific class glossary: if Cal
is now your scandon may its breesh follow you at
nastoo through the coolden:
Nastoo: when the mourning dove coos at dusk.
Breesh: the scent produced by the creosote bush after it rains.
Coolden: the space between a grouping of tall creosote bushes.
Scandon: an abandoned coyote den. Anne-Lise Francois
Dear Brian: I enjoyed your contribution to my class and still recall your paper on Babel’s
“Pan Apolek.” Best wishes for the future! Harsha Ram
Brian, I didn’t teach you in Comp Lit, but it was great having you in French 142AC.
Thanks for sharing your thoughtful reflections at the end of that semester—that day was
a real highlight. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead Karl Britto
Iris Morrell
Primary literature: German; secondary literature:
English. Her thesis is titled “Gender, Animality, and
Violence: Disfiguring Patriarchy in Kleist’s
Penthesilea“ with Faculty Advisor Professor
Winfried Kudszus. High distinction in general
scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Iris, you are one of the most engaged and engaging undergraduates I have met in my
career. Your observations, complex yet clear, counter-intuitive yet rigorously thought out,
helped move class discussions in surprising directions. In office hours, I also learned
about the ethical depth of your political activism. Mario Telo
Congratulations, Iris. I love your passion for the readings of German poetry and of
Kleist, your intellectual curiosity, and your dedication to the politics of scholarly work.
Every single discussion we have had about—mostly—Kleist’s “Penthesilea” and the
possible interpretations of this text was rich and often surprising. I thoroughly enjoyed
the way your readings developed, meandering at moments, but woderfully focused and
deeply engaged. I will you all the best! Niklaus Largier
Iris, though I didn't get to know you as well as I would have liked in Comp Lit 151, I
could see that you were thoroughly engaged in class and thinking hard. It was also a
thrill to hear about your honor's thesis work in office hours, and to see all the cool
connections you were making between your topic and the class materials. Leslie Kurke
Paola Padilla
Primary literature: Spanish; secondary literature:
English.
Faculty Comments:
Paola, you have a kind of literary sensibility,
intelligence, and insight that's made us terrifically
grateful to have you among us. It's almost impossible
not to learn from what you offer, from the ways you see
into literary "experiments" that cross various kinds of
what had seemed to be hard lines of sociopolitical and
cultural demarcation, separation, hierarchy. You have, in
her time with us, evidenced a very rare gift for
elaborating the ways that literary works tell us more
about how and why those demarcations took shape;
more of what they mean; and why our knowing more
about them, through literary experience, can give us the sense that we might have
something to say about their present and their future. You have a very bright future
ahead of her, a future that will, no doubt, make a difference to those around you.
Robert Kaufman
Congratulations to you, Paola, on earning your BA in Comparative Literature. I
remember you from our “Comparative Mythology: Celtic, Norse, and Greek” course last
spring. I recall that you were conscientious about always coming to class and that you
did especially well on the essay midterm. I wish you all success in your future career.
Annalee Rejhon
Hyeona Park
Primary literature: Korean; secondary literature: English.
Double major in English. Her thesis is titled
“Understanding the Self for Women in Naebangkasa
From Joseon Dynasty Period to the Present” with Faculty
Advisor Professor Youngmin Kwon. High distinction in
general scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Congratulations on graduation Hyeona! It was great to
have you in Comp Lit 190. Your thoughtful work in the
class, and your insightful approach to all of your studies
set a high standard for all of us. Good luck! Tim
Hampton
Dear Hyeona, congratulations on graduation! I vividly remember your contributions in
my class on “Luther, the Bible, and the Reformation,” your passion for the readings, and
your intellectual curiosity when we discussed the texts in class and in office hours. I
wish you success in your future career. Stay in touch. Niklaus Largier
Kara Poon
Primary literature: English; secondary literature: Chinese.
Double major in Theater and Dance Performance
Studies. She studied abroad in Cambridge, England in
summer of 2018.
Faculty Comments:
Congratulations Kara! It has been great to have you as a
student in Comp. Lit. 190. Your curious and probing
comments, your remarkable knowledge of a wide range
of musical and literary traditions, and your excellent
writing, have all helped make this a rewarding class for
your teachers and classmates. Good luck! Tim Hampton
Dear Kara, warm congratulations to you on earning your
BA in Comparative Literature. Your work in my
“Comparative Mythology: Celtic, Norse, and Greek” course during this current semester
has been very good indeed to date (especially the short essay on themidterm!) and I
have enjoyed having you in class and hearing your questions and comments, even
under these unusual online Zoom conditions. Take care, and best wishes for your future
career. Annalee Rejhon
Kara Poon: was Spring 2017’s CL 100 your gateway to the major? already in your first
year an incredibly incisive and insightful feminist reader, you lingered with Yu Tsun in the
Garden of the Forking Paths, pondering the “ins” and “outs” of the sham inclusivity of
Western universalism, later turning to film’s power to visualize what patriarchy might but
does not hear, and vocalize what it might but does not see, a chiasmus that kept you
from plunging head on and mistaking art for life as Scottie and Harry did. Here you are
on the other side--congratulations! Anne-Lise Francois
Haley Rome
Primary literature: English; secondary literature:
French.
Faculty Comments:
Haley, it was a pleasure having you in CL 155 last
year. Your presentation on L’aventure ambiguë was a
real highlight, and I thank you for all of your
enthusiasm and thoughtful comments. Wishing you all
the best in the years ahead! Karl Britto
Haley, with your actor's sensibility to turn
"interpretation" into performance as analysis, you
produced a phenomenal audio essay that could have
been Sherwood Andersen's Winesburg, Ohio updated for the present. Skillfully edited,
you let the subtleties of tone, accent, and timbre turn family squabbles into a study of
how we make meaning through the stories we tell ourselves in order to live. Tom
McEnaney
Cole Smith
Primary literature: English; secondary literature: French.
Double major in Computer Science, minor in French.
Studied abroad in Lyon, France. Distinction in general
scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Dear Cole: I vividly recall your presentation on Isaac Babel
and your marvelous final paper for my class. I want to wish
you the very best as you move into the wider world! Harsha
Ram
Possessed of both a keen sensitivity to literary effects and a
disarming sense of humor, you had an uncanny ability to
respond to your peers and open up whole new conceptual terrains during class
discussions. You were a terrific reader of Proust, and your thoughtful, moving meditation
on reading the "Time Passes" section of To the Lighthouse during the pandemic led me
to see a familiar text anew. Dora Zhang
Cole Smith--with Humberto and Kara you came down the garden of the forking paths.
did you end up climbing over its fractal walls as you encouraged the reader to in your
first essay? Even then you were keeping faith with Borges’s secret desire for an active
reader by refusing to take his text at face value. At the reception i’d want to ask you
about the affective attachments that have since taken hold. In the absence of
champagne you’ll have to take Sedgwick’s reparative hand; early on you’d caught on
that one secret may hide another and intrigue between characters was only there to
distract you from what was happening between author and reader. Anne-Lise Francois
Sean Stover
Primary literature: English; secondary literature: Spanish.
His thesis is titled “Tradition and Innovation in Jazz and
Hip-Hop Improvisation“ with Faculty Advisor Professor
Tim Hampton. Distinction in general scholarship.
Faculty Comments:
Congratulations Sean! It’s been a true pleasure working
with you in Comp Lit 190, and on your senior thesis,
which has taught me a lot about how music and
improvisation work. I’m even starting to understand Hip
Hop! You are an original reader of both music and
literature and an accomplished essayist. Good luck in the future! Tim Hampton
Dear Sean: Congratulations on completing your studies at Berkeley. I still remember
your great presentation in my class on Eisenstein’s montage and your final paper on
instinctual drive and its relationship to revolution. Wishing you the very best for your
future! Harsha Ram.
Chase Wilmot
Primary literature: English; secondary
literature: Scandinavian. Minor in Creative
Writing.
Faculty Comments:
Chase, it was great having you in CL 155 last
year. I hope that you will have the chance to
read more of Djebar’s work – I really
appreciated your thoughtful engagement with
Les enfants du nouveau monde. Wishing you all the best in the years ahead! Karl Britto
Your podcast project for COML 190’s “Against Fiction” was inspiring in the ways you
investigated your mother’s personal history with a steady style that transformed familial
experience into a broader examination of how belief can fracture and heal depending on
how it’s used. You have a keen ear for the politics of prose. Tom McEnaney
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree
Nicole Adair
Under the direction of Professors Tim Hampton (Chair), Vicky
Kahn, and Diego Pirillo. she has written a dissertation entitled
“The Hermeneutics of the Veil: Reading Faith in Early Modern
Poetry”. She has also completed the Designated Emphasis in
Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. She will be pursuing
creative writing in New York City.
Keru Cai
Under the direction of Professors Andrew Jones (Chair),
Sophie Volpp, Harsha Ram,
and Edward Tyerman, she has
written a dissertation entitled “Poverty and Squalor in Modern
Chinese Realism”. In the fall she will be starting a Junior
Research Fellowship (Fellowship by Examination) at the
University of Oxford (Magdalen College), and has accepted a
job offer to start at the Pennsylvania State University in Fall
2022 as Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative
Literature.
Bristin Jones
Under the direction of Professors Anne-Lise Francois and
Barbara Spackman (Co-chairs), Albert Ascoli, and Francine
Masiello, she has written a dissertation entitled “First Person
Animals: Interspecific Communication in the Anthropocene”.
After graduation, Bristin will continue to teach environmental
humanities courses at UC Merced as she works towards
publishing her first novel.
Maya Kronfeld
Under the direction of Professors Judith Butler (Chair),
Robert Kaufman, C.D. Blanton, and Stephen Best, she
completed her dissertation entitled “Spontaneous Form:
Four Studies in Consciousness and Philosophical
Fiction.” She will be joining the Princeton Society of
Fellows in the fall.
Danny Luzon
Under the direction of Professors Chana Kronfeld (Chair),
Dorothy Hale, Niklaus Largier,
and Julian Levinson of the
University of Michigan, he has written a dissertation
entitled “Translational Encounters: Modernism, Jewishness
and Translation in Literatures of the Mass Migration
Period.” He has also completed the Designated Emphasis
in Jewish studies. He has accepted a position as Assistant
Professor of English at the University of Haifa.
Under the direction of Professors Professors
Barbara
Spackman (Chair), Lyn Hejinian, Chana Kronfeld, and
Mairi McLaughlin, she has written a dissertation entitled
“Original Echoes: Poetic Subjectivity and Translation
between Italy, France, and the US.”
university of california, berkeley
Graduation Ceremony
✯ In recognition of your participation in your graduation ceremony.
✯ Congratulations on your outstanding achievement. May your graduation
from the University of California, Berkeley inspire a lifetime of new endeavors
and accomplishments.
carol t. christ
chancellor, university of california, berkeley
janet napolitano
president, university of california