Mellon Assistant Professor In Residence at UCLA:

The Mellon-funded interdisciplinary program Mediterranean Studies: East and West at the Center invites applications for the position of Assistant Professor in Residence for a 2-year term beginning in the fall of 2010. The successful candidate must have earned a doctoral degree no earlier than January 2004 and no later than June 2010. He/she will have competence in at least one western (Catalan, French, Italian, Latin, etc.) and one eastern (Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish) Mediterranean language, although other combinations of areas of expertise will be considered. The program’s focal point has extended from 900 to 1700, but we especially encourage applications on topics in the period from year 1000 to 1500. Its ultimate objective has been to help transform the way in which the humanities are taught at UCLA, by using the methodology of the Mediterranean (instead of in the Mediterranean) and by emphasizing transdisciplinarity beyond the traditional national, cultural, geographic and disciplinary categories that have dominated scholarly discourses regarding the development of society, culture, human relations and institutions in Europe, Africa and the Near East. For more information, please visit our website.

The Mellon Assistant Professor in Residence position carries a salary of $53,000 a year, standard fringe benefits, a one-time moving allowance of $1,500, plus a research budget of $2,000. The Assistant Professor will be housed in Comparative Literature and, if appropriate, in another relevant home department for which he/she will teach two courses per academic year. The Assistant Professor is required to be in residence and to participate in the Mellon Mediterranean Studies Seminar, the scholarly activities of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, as well as the on-going intellectual life of his/her home department(s). Position is subject to final budgetary approval.

Applicants should send a cover letter, a description (no more than 1500 words) of the scholarly project relevant to the program, a CV, a writing sample of no more than 25 pages, and three letters of recommendation by March 15, 2010 to:

Professor Zrinka Stahuljak
c/o Comparative Literature
Mellon Mediterranean Studies Search Committee
361 Humanities Building
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7233
USA

A Letter from Ali Behdad:

This past year was a truly exceptional year for the Department, and there have been many successes and accomplishments.  

First, as many of you know, Eleanor Kaufman was awarded the prestigious Mellon New Directions Fellowship. Please join me in congratulating her in this most impressive achievement.

I am also delighted to report that, in spite of the dearth of academic positions this past year, our students did extremely well on the job market.  Several received tenure-track and adjunct positions as well as postdoctoral positions.  These include:

Tenure-track Positions

Ryan Kernan (Rutgers)

David Gabriel (Yale)

Julie Townsend (Univ of Redlands)

Brian Martin (Williams)

Postdocs

David Fieni (Cornell)

Jeannine Murray-Roman (Mellon)

Adjunct Positions

Carole Viers (Tulane)

Joe Jenkins (UCI)

Jennifer Gully (Claremont)

Indra Mukhopadhyay (USC)

 

I congratulate all of them in their successes and again express my gratitude to Efrain Kristal, Nouri Gana, and Kirstie McClure for their consummate mentorship as members of the Placement Committee. 

Finally, I should note that many other students received prestigious grants and fellowships this year. Please join me in congratulating them all on these wonderful awards:

Mangasar M. Mangasarian Fellowship

Tamar Boyadjian
 

Will Rogers Memorial Fellowship

Theri Pickens

Dissertation Year Fellowship

Guilan Siassi
Rachelle Okawa

Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grant

Theri Pickens

Graduate Research Mentorship

Hoda El Shakry
Duncan Yoon

Graduate Summer Research Mentorship

Nasia Anam
Zen Dochterman
Leah Feldman
Inkoo Kang
Michelle Lee

Collegium of University Teaching Fellows (CUTF) Award

Tamar Boyadjian

FLAS - Portuguese

Inkoo Kang

Lenart Travel Award

Shad Naved

International Institute Fellowship

Nahrain Al-Mousawi
 

Middle East FLAS - Summer

Michelle Lee

UCLA/Mellon Program in Holocaust in American and World Culture Research Fellowships

Simchi Cohen

Noa Bar

Kirk Sides

Philip and Aida Siff Education Foundation Scholarship

 Simchi Cohen

UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Interdisciplinary Grant

Katherine McLoone