Are you a campus kimchi master? The Department of East Asian Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation Los Angeles (aT Center LA) are hosting a kimchi contest. Open to all University of Arizona students, faculty and staff, the contest offers a chance to showcase culinary creativity and love for Korean cuisine.

The contest will kick off with a first-round online competition via social media, followed by a virtual quiz show to determine eight finalists, who will compete in a cook-off at the Bear Down Building on Sept. 26. Winners of the scholarships, with the top prize being the Kimchi Scholarship of $1,500.

The final event will feature a variety of activities for participants and spectators alike, including Korean food product giveaways, a K-Food photo zone and product exhibitions. Additionally, there will be a special Kimchi conference presented by experts from the World Institute of Kimchi, along with a presentation by Ji Hye Kim, the award-winning chef and owner of Miss Kim in Ann Arbor, MI, who was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs of 2021 and is a four-time James Beard Award semifinalist. The event will also include a K-Pop dance performance and much more.

To participate:

1. Register here to get your kimchi.
2. Pick up your kimchi at the Learning Services Building, Room 102.
3. Share your recipe using kimchi on social media from Aug. 27 to Sept. 18. Use the hashtags #campuskimchimasters #UofAkimchimasters #arizonakimchimasters.
4. Join our Kimchi Live Quiz Show on Zoom (Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m.). Win Weee! gift cards, Korean food boxes, and more! The finalists will be announced for the Kimchi cook-off event at the end.
5. Finalists will compete in a cook-off at the Bear Down Building on Sept. 26, from 11 a.m. –  1 p.m.

The University of Arizona has been awarded a four-year federal grant to establish a Portuguese Flagship Program, with new resources available to advance students’ language skills and career opportunities, including a capstone year in Brazil.

The $1.2 million grant is part of the Language Flagship programs, a public/private partnership sponsored by the National Security Education Program of the Department of Defense and administered by the Institute of International Education. The program seeks to graduate students with professional-level proficiency in a language critical to U.S. national security, including Portuguese.

The program expects to enroll about 15 to 20 students annually, with the Flagship grant providing a myriad of resources to students studying Portuguese, including one-to-one advising and tutoring, career counseling with local professionals, summer study abroad opportunities in Salvador, the capital of Bahia in northeastern Brazil, and a capstone year in Brazil for additional classes and internships. After successfully meeting the program benchmarks, students receive a Flagship certificate.

“That’s what makes the difference on the job market. The students will have a document from the federal government that says they’re professionally proficient in Portuguese,” said Kátia Bezerra, Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and program director.

“Portuguese Flagship students will not only master the language and deepen their cultural insights but have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a Brazilian-language environment during the transformative capstone experience. In an increasingly competitive global economy, these skills are a must and often result in higher salaries.”

The U of A is one of two institutions awarded a Portuguese Flagship grant, joining the University of Georgia, and was also awarded a renewal grant for Arabic, making it one of four universities nationally with at least two flagship programs. In total, the 2024-2028 cycle awarded 19 grants to Language Flagship programs in six languages: Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese and Russian.

The U of A has nearly 50-year history teaching Portuguese, with a multidisciplinary curriculum that has attracted 1,551 students into Portuguese language and culture courses over the last five years. The basic language track has options for students with or without Spanish language skills, but the majority of students enrolled in Portuguese also speak Spanish as their first, heritage, or second language. With the U of A’s designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution, that pathway for Spanish-speaking students to add or transition to Portuguese is key, Bezerra said.

“The Portuguese program offers a strong foundation upon which Flagship students can thrive and succeed. It is a well-established, student-centered, outcomes-based, proficiency-focused, and innovation-friendly program with a track record of producing culturally knowledgeable and linguistically proficient U.S. citizens,” she said.

The faculty regularly update the Portuguese curriculum with new courses that extend beyond language and linguistics to cover literature, cultural studies, environment and business. The Flagship grant will also enable expansion of the Portuguese program. Antonio José Bacelar da Silva, Associate Professor of Brazil Studies and Linguistic Anthropology, is associate director of the Flagship program.

“The immersive and transdisciplinary Portuguese program at the University of Arizona shows a tremendous capacity to excite, educate and professionalize a wide range of students interested in Portuguese language and culture,” Bezerra said. “The Flagship Program will quickly prepare students linguistically and culturally, thus making them more agile, thoughtful and committed citizens of the world.”

With a population of more than 200 million, Brazil is the world’s seventh most populous country, while also being among the most ethnically diverse nations. Annual trade between the United States and Brazil, the second most populous country in the Americas, tops $120 billion.

“This investment can result in a relatively rapid and measurable increase in the national pool of proficient Portuguese-speaking U.S. citizens,” Bezerra said. “Expanding the number of opportunities for students to engage in speaking, listening, reading and writing in Portuguese, both inside and outside the classroom, is crucial for achieving this goal.”

The College of Humanities at the University of Arizona has achieved steady growth and attracted a diverse student population by investing in inclusive recruitment strategies and innovative curricula, according to a new report.

The National Humanities Alliance report, “Expanding Access to Undergraduate Humanities Education: Models and Strategies,” released in June, features 15 case studies that relate how faculty and administrators built initiatives that have succeeded in overcoming the barriers and expanding access to humanities programs, especially among underrepresented student populations.

“In a decade when many humanities divisions have experienced decline, the College of Humanities (COH) at the University of Arizona has grown at an impressive rate,” the report found, growing from 1,089 majors in 2010 to 1,972 majors in 2021, an increase of 81 percent compared to an overall increase in the student body of 15 percent.

Overall, the report lauded the college’s broader strategic vision that led the college to make such substantial investments in curricular innovation and marketing and to build recruitment into its management structure, which has helped it to attract a large number of students from historically underrepresented groups.

The report quoted COH Associate Dean of Research & Program Innovation Ken McAllister about initiatives to promote innovation, outreach and inclusion:

“From the creation of exciting new degrees and research centers to taking out billboards on major highways promoting the idea that ‘Humanities = Jobs,’ we all work constantly not only to grow the number of humanities majors, but also to ensure that the diversity of our college—its faculty, students, and program offerings—continues to expand,” he said.

Scholars from France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Arizona will present at a mini-conference on Environmental Justice and Cultural Resistance in Africa and Polynesia.

The conference and research are part of a historic partnership between the CNRS and the University of Arizona, which in 2021 established the France-Arizona Institute for Global Grand Challenges, a new international research center focused on the environment, space science, data science and global climate change.  

The most important contribution made by this research on Environmental Justice and Cultural Resistance in Africa is to show how culture operates and the vital role cultural resistance plays in moving forward differently, said Phyllis Taoua, Professor of French and principal investigator on the project.

“As our environment is increasingly endangered, literature and popular culture are playing a vital role in raising awareness and shifting the terms of the debate,” she said.

A main objective for the conference will be to allow our two doctoral students to present work from their dissertations funded by the grant: Margaux Vidotto at CNRS and Clara Randimbiarimanana at U of A. The PIs and co-PIs on the grant, Xavier Garnier and Elara Bertho from France, and Taoua and Aurélia Mouzet from the U of A, will also present their current research at the conference, as well as two guests: Maëline Le Lay from CNRS and Richard Watts from the University of Washington.  

Presentations will take place daily from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5 in room N604 of the ENR2 building, 1064 E. Lowell St. Excursions to Biosphere 2 and relevant ecological sites in Southern Arizona are scheduled for Sept. 6 and Sept. 7.

The conference is open to the campus community. Conference talks will be in French, with slides in English and Q/A in French and English. Find a full schedule online.

“Many of the environmental crises in Africa today are not of their own making, most derive from extraverted economies of colonial extraction and climate change due to industrial pollution elsewhere,” Taoua said. “Our team has explored how African actors resist environmental injustice through relevant and compelling forms of cultural expression.” 

The conference is sponsored by the International Laboratory iGlobes, France-Arizona Institute, Department of French and Italian, College of Humanities, School of Anthropology and Department of Africana Studies.

The College of Humanities is pleased to welcome new faculty for the upcoming academic year.

“These are outstanding scholars who represent the breadth and diversity of Humanities scholarship and teaching,” said Dorrance Dean Alain-Philippe Durand. “Their expertise in languages and cultures around the world will further our mission of graduating students equipped with the skills they need to succeed on the global job market.” ​​​

Image

Lawrence N. Berlin, Director
Center for English as a Second Language (CESL)

Lawrence N. Berlin is the incoming Director of the Center for English as a Second Language. An international educator and researcher, he holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona, an M.A. in Foreign Languages from West Virginia University and a B.F.A. in Drama from New York University. Most recently, he has been working as an independent consulting professor based in Medellin, Colombia. From 2000-2017 he served as a Professor of TESOL at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, serving successively as Coordinator of the English Language Program, Interdisciplinary Coordinator of the First-Year Experience Program, Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Linguistics, Philosophy, and TESOL, and then simultaneously as the Director of International Programs and Director of the School for the Advancement of English Language Learning, which he founded. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the Academic Director of Languages at EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia, where he spearheaded the renovation of the curriculum and teaching method across 8 languages, and in 2022 he served as Senior English Language Specialist at the National Academy for Educational Management of the Ministry of Education in Dhaka, Bangladesh where he led the faculty of English language teacher trainers in the redesign of English language teacher training for secondary education across the country. He has demonstrated expertise in teacher training, program and project development and management, curriculum design and innovation, grant writing, and strategic planning, and presented and published widely on English language teaching, pragmatics, and political discourse analysis.

Image

Colin Law, Visiting Lecturer
Department of Religious Studies and Classics

Colin Law’s academic background in Religious Studies includes an M.A. from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa.  Dr. Law’s research explores the intersections of religion, politics, culture, and civic space.  His current project utilizes an interdisciplinary approach exploring U.S. history, American civil religion, symbolic representations of identity, and the contentious debates surrounding monuments and memorials.  He is particularly interested in how civil and religious sacred sites construct cultural identities and practices.  Additionally, he examines material religion, investigating how religious objects and artifacts influence religious beliefs and practices.  Through Dr. Law’s research, he aims to uncover how space and place shape religious experiences and contribute to the broader understanding of cultural and religious dynamics.

Image

Matthew M. Mars, Professor
Department of Public and Applied Humanities

Matt Mars is an interdisciplinary scholar who teaches and writes about community innovation and the influence of market narratives on everyday life and routines. Prof. Mars’ research is published in a diverse range of journals that span sociology, marketing, community development, and higher education. Some examples of the journals he has published in include Community Development, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Higher Education, Marketing Theory, and Minerva. Prof. Mars’ current work explores the influence of visual narratives on the creation and identities of local consumption spaces, whether they be coffee shops, craft breweries, or farmers’ markets. Prof. Mars is currently the Co-Editor of Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth series (Emerald), Associate Editor of Community Development, and a member of the editorial board of Local Development & Society.

Prof. Mars has received multiple teaching awards and recognitions including being named Dorrance Scholarship Program Professor of Excellence in Teaching (2017-present), the USDA/APLU Excellence in College and University Teaching Award – Western Region (2020), and the APLU Innovative Teaching Award (2018).

Prof. Mars earned his PhD through the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The University of Arizona. He also holds an MEd in Counseling and Human Relations from Northern Arizona University and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Utica College of Syracuse University.

Image

Victoria Meyer, Associate Professor of Practice
Associate Director of Interdisciplinary Studies Program

Dr. Victoria N. Meyer is the incoming Associate Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program for the College of Humanities.  She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona before earning her Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia. For the past several years she has supported University of Arizona initiatives in the Near You Network and served as the Director of Distance Initiatives for the College of Humanities generally and for the Interdisciplinary Studies specifically. Her research and teaching interests cover the history of medicine and public health, gender and sexuality, health humanities, and the histories of the early modern world, and modern Europe.

Image

André Pettman, Assistant Professor
Department of French and Italian

Dr. André Pettman holds a Ph.D. in French from Columbia University (2024). He also holds an M.A. in French (2017) and B.A. degrees in French and Psychology (2016) from the University of Arizona. A specialist of contemporary French & Francophone literature, his research interests include critical theory, politics, film studies, and translation. His current book project examines twenty-first-century French literature as a site of radical political imagination. His book project questions the narrow political frameworks through which twenty-first-century French literature continues to be read and demonstrates how radical politics appear in unexpected ways in a period of literature sometimes reduced to the reactionary or the apolitical.

Dr. Pettman is also an active translator whose work focuses on Francophone literatures and cultures. He has co-translated, with Soraya Limare, Assia Djebar’s inaugural speech at l’Académie Française and is currently writing a critical introduction to accompany its publication. His articles and book reviews appear or are forthcoming in French Forum, Nottingham French Studies, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES, French Studies Bulletin, Modern Language Quarterly, and Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, and an entry in the Dictionnaire Assia Djebar, edited by Maya Boutaghou & Anne Donadey (Paris: Honoré Champion). His translations have appeared in Yale French Studies and in the edited volume Hip Hop en français: An Exploration of Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World, edited by Alain-Philippe Durand (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

Image

Veronika Williams, Assistant Professor of Practice
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies

Veronika Williams is an educator, mentor, and event planner. Dr. Williams joined the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies as a Lecturer and Event and Recruitment Coordinator in 2020 after working with international students at the Center of English as a Second Language. Dr. Williams received her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching in 2016 and her MA in Russian Studies in 2010 from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Williams’ primary research focuses on language pedagogy, in particular learner autonomy and language learning strategies.  Other areas of interest include methodology in Russian language teaching, intercultural competence, and intersection of Russian language and culture.  Currently, Dr. Williams is exploring the connections between Russian rap and politics.

Image

Sarah Matthews, Visiting Lecturer
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies

Sarah Matthews is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Southern California. Her dissertation compares the poetry of Vladislav Khodasevich and T.S. Eliot in the context of European Modernism. She argues that their poetry is a unique lens to reexamine and redefine the relation of the material and the metaphysical. At the University of Southern California, she was awarded the Teresa Wilson Endowed Fellowship for her dissertation and the Teaching Excellence Award for Assistant Lecturers from the Center of Languages and Cultures for her work as an instructor of the Russian language. She is passionate about teaching Slavic language and cultural courses. Ms. Matthews earned her master’s degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Southern California in 2021 and two bachelor’s degrees in Russian and English from Brigham Young University in 2019. Her current research interests include Russian poetry, Polish poetry, English poetry, Modernism, ecopoetry, environmental humanities, comparative literature, formalism, structuralism, and religion.

Digital technology use has led to a new diversity in Black religious life, starting before but accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic, with changes in both beliefs and practices, according to a new study.

The Connected Faith Survey, to be released this week, is the first study to explicitly explore the association between digital technology use and Black religious life. Based on online surveys and interviews with 400 participants in 2022 and 2023, the study reveals a new fluidity in faith for Black Americans, who’ve used podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and more to create and sustain meaningful religious communities, said Erika Gault, the study’s principal investigator.

“Black people are not contained to the Black Church,” said Gault, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Arizona. “Digital technology has facilitated the emergence of those best described as Christian + or Faith Fluid, those who identify as Christian while openly embracing other religions and religious practices or those who move across or borrow from multiple faith expressions. People have a lot more options when they are not going to churches, synagogues or mosques at certain times each week.”

To date, most studies that have examined Black religion, or even the relationship between technology and religion, have focused on church attendance, physical houses of worship, rituals or personal beliefs and have largely studied particular religious communities. But Gault’s study instead centered on the digital spaces themselves and covered diverse religious and spiritual practices by using both quantitative and qualitative measures.

“Religion, and thus studies of religion, are still quite siloed in the minds of many. However, this report suggests that that’s not quite the case when a digital lens is used to study religion. Black religion is diverse. Digital technology, particularly post-COVID, has made room for that diversity, explicitly so,” she said.

Since the start of online messaging and social media, people’s digital lives have been interwoven with their religious beliefs and practices in a myriad of ways, but the physical isolation of COVID-19, as well as concurrent social activism related to Black Lives Matter, both deepened and broadened various trends, Gault said.

“All of these things were happening before and there were a number of people who were participating in religion digitally, but the acceleration of these practices on a wide scale and people articulating them for what they were happened in the pandemic,” she said. “Facebook groups and Instagram lives were important for some people, operating pretty much like houses of worship. It was where they gathered to have spiritual encounters. That was church for them and community for them as they participated in religious discourse and learned from each other.”

Whether on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, participation in replies and comments cannot be discounted, Gault said, opening ways for individuals to actively join discussions and engage with others.

“The way you might say ‘Amen’ in a church service, they were talking back and felt like they were part of a community and had transformative encounters in the comments section,” she said. “In some ways were talking about something that’s totally new and transformative about the way people engage with religion. In other ways, it’s what people have always done and digital technology is just mediating that.”

Previous studies have pointed to some similar trends relating to Americans’ religious beliefs, but Gault’s survey took a different approach, focusing on individuals rather than starting from the perspective of organized religions and spiritual leaders.

“This is the first survey that’s asked these questions and gotten to the answers this way. People who are in positions of authority answer questions quite differently than people who sit on the back pew or those whose faith needs no pew” she said. “We got a more thorough understanding of what the average person is thinking about religion vs. what the person in charge says religion is for them. From the CFS report, we now know life satisfaction is down among the highest users of digital technology. Yet, life satisfaction goes up for users of digital technology for religious and spiritual purposes. ”

Gault, who has been studying Black faith and technology use for the past 15 years, started the Connected Faith Survey after completing an ethnographic study into emerging faith practices of Black millennials and a two-year study of the digital lives of six Christian millennials, which became Networking the Black Church: Digital Black Religion and Hip Hop.

The Connected Faith Survey, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Louisville Institute, involved a team of social scientists, web developers, influencers, content creators and religious leaders who designed an approach that itself existed in and took advantage of unique elements of the digital realm.

“Again and again over this two-year process, I’ve been awed and humbled by their insights and passion for revealing and documenting the shape of Black religion at present. I hope we have created a useful tool for researchers and religious practitioners to better understand and discuss faith in the digital,” she said.

Ultimately, the Connected Faith Survey can have potential insights for American religion in a larger context, Gault said.

“What we’re really talking about is a shift overall in American religious beliefs. Black folks are a significant population, but we can also talk about the trends that African Americans create online as an indicator of what all Americans are experiencing regarding religion,” she said. “The more we know about how the digital functions in the religious life of Black Americans the more we understand ‘the next’ in religion in America and across the globe.”

In celebration of Juneteenth, the Connected Faith Survey report goes live on June 19 at www.digitalblackreligionsurvey.com.

Dr. Rob Stephan, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Religious Studies and Classics, has been awarded the University’s 2024 Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award.

Announced by the Office of the Provost, the award is given by the University of Arizona Foundation in recognition of “unusually outstanding teaching methodologies; a demonstrated effort to ensure the quality of students' learning experiences; and consistently high scholarly standard in both rigor and currency of course content.” Stephan will receive a $2,500 award and the placement of a plaque in the Donna Swaim Honors Lounge in the Student Union Memorial Center. 

Since arriving at the University of Arizona in 2016, Stephan has become known for his creativity and passion, attracting thousands of students each year (4,467 students during the 2023 calendar year) and putting large introductory courses in Classics at the top of students’ lists of “must-take” classes, for any major. 

“Dr. Stephan has the kind of presence in the classroom that can hold the attention of hundreds of students, and his presentation of materials, both in class and online, are visually and pedagogically stunning,” said Karen Seat, Head of the Department of Religious Studies and Classics. “A consistent theme in student testimonials is how Dr. Stephan put them at ease as nervous freshmen entering large lecture halls for the first time, and how he always made the time to help them overcome stress and uncertainty in pursuing their studies. Clearly, Dr. Stephan is doing important work at our university as we endeavor to recruit and retain students, including first-generation and underserved student populations.”

“He doesn’t just stand out as the best teacher at the university, both for general undergraduate courses and advanced graduate ones, he reinvents what it means to be the best and sets a higher standard for other teachers,” wrote one student. “He is an unending fountain of enthusiasm and knowledge, capable of keeping up with all the students he speaks with and approaching them in both a friendly and scholarly manner.

“From the three classes of his that I have taken, Dr. Stephan has consistently been a passionate, caring professor who puts his all into his classes to make sure that they are fun, thought-provoking, and accessible,” wrote one student nominator. “I have never had another professor dedicate this much time and energy to perfecting their classes, and that has made my college experience all the better. Dr. Stephan has turned me, a STEM nerd, into a lover of the ancient world. That is something I had thought impossible until I took his classes.”

“His passion for Classics is undeniable and he shares this passion with each of his students through incredibly engaging video lectures, creative assignments and well-structured learning modules. He cares deeply about the success of his students and makes that readily apparent through quick replies to emails as well as personalized feedback on every assignment,” wrote another student. “His enthusiasm for the Classics is contagious as his video lectures are filled with striking visuals, witty humor, and incredible storytelling that capture the minds of his students and draw us into the life of these ancient civilizations. There truly is no other professor like Dr. Rob Stephan.”

This is just the latest teaching award for Stephan, who won both the Margaret M. Briehl and Dennis T. Ray Five Star Faculty Award and Gerald G. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2021 and has received the College of Humanities Distinguished Teaching Award, in 2020, and Distinguished Undergraduate Advising/Mentoring Award, in 2019

Dr. Harris Kornstein, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, has been awarded a University of Arizona Early Career Scholar Award. 

Sponsored and announced by the Office of the Provost, the award “recognizes outstanding early career faculty who are at the forefront of their disciplines and make highly valued contributions to the teaching, creative activity, and service priorities set out in the University's Strategic Plan Five Pillars.” Recipients receive $5,000 in University funds to facilitate further work within their discipline. 

“Dr. Harris Kornstein is already a distinguished scholar and embodies the spirit of public enrichment and inclusive excellence that define UArizona’s mission and Strategic Plan. Given their impact across several disciplines and on many contemporary challenges—especially related to technology, culture, and education—their work has, and will continue, to address grand challenges, impact local and international communities, and improve near and long-term student success,” according to a nomination letter written by colleagues in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, joined by professors from the LGBTQ+ Institute, Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, School of Art, and outside scholars.

Since joining the department in 2021, Kornstein “has demonstrated outsized public impact through research, art practice, teaching and service,” including receiving a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and securing more than $100,000 in grants, the nominators wrote.

“Kornstein’s community-engaged and interdisciplinary work has been celebrated in the academy, popular media, and non-profit and government sectors, shaping global debates about culture and creating educational spaces where people of all ages and backgrounds can express their identities and ideas freely and safely,” the nominators wrote. 

“Dr. Kornstein’s research, teaching, and outreach focus on what they term queer play, and consider how historically-marginalized communities can imaginatively challenge social norms—especially relating to digital technologies, media activism, and creative pedagogies—in order to create a more just and joyful society. This spirit embodies and enhances the university’s mission of public inquiry and service, offering a unique approach to solving entrenched social challenges through projects that foreground curiosity, creativity, and care.” 

“That Harris’ work is widely-read, interdisciplinary, spans forms/genres, and moves throughout academic and public spheres is impressive on its own account. However, when one takes into account the intense anti-queer climate both in the state of Arizona and across the United States, Harris’ work takes on additional importance and significance. That is, Harris’ work is not only resistant to anti-queer attacks, but also, due to its highly-read and cited nature, provides an important reminder or queer livingness for queer and trans youth and their families of support,” wrote another nominator, Z Nicolazzo, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice. 

The Early Career Scholars award is the latest in a string of honors Kornstein has earned, including the College of Humanities Chatfield Impact Award—honoring work that celebrates new voices, fights systemic bias, connects the University to the community, and measurably improves the world—as well as grants from the University’s Office of Research, Innovation and Impact, and a Digital Humanities Seed Grant from the NYU Center for the Humanities

“Dr. Kornstein demonstrates an unusual capacity to carry out highly impactful, long-term, and collaborative scholarly projects—often inextricably and complexly interwoven with community engagement work,” wrote Ken McAllister, Associate Dean of Research and Program Innovation. “Kornstein also has a finely trained capacity for cross-disciplinary collaboration, particularly where questions about the good of the community are concerned, and is a fierce champion for matters related to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.”

Congratulations to the College of Humanities' Outstanding Senior for Spring 2024, Mason Maltbie!

Maltbie graduates with a 4.0 GPA, triple majoring in Russian, Religious Studies and Creative Writing. 

“Through speaking new languages, forming deeper understandings of others, and visiting places once locked behind the pages of literature, we’ve translated ourselves into the world and come to know people from worlds quite different from ours,” Maltbie told fellow Humanities graduates at Saturday’s convocation. “The true spirit of the Humanities is knowing that the ‘other,’ no matter how seemingly distant, feels and struggles just like you.” 

Maltbie served for two years as president of the Slavic and Eurasian Studies Club and received myriad awards over the course of his studies: the SILLC Global Award, the B.G. Thompson, Jr. Study Abroad Award, the Donna Swaim International Award for Religious Studies, the Rombach and Bretall Scholarship, the Donna Dillon Manning and Larry Horner Endowed Humanities Award for Study Abroad and the Fearless Inquiries Abroad Scholarship.

“Mason is one of the finest students—and human beings—that it has been my privilege to teach, and to learn from, over my 16 years of teaching. He is brilliant, but he is humble. As a person, he is thoughtful, caring, collegial, and quick to share. As a budding scholar, he is disciplined, motivated, meticulous, and always curious to probe deeper,” wrote Suzanne Thompson, Assistant Professor of Practice and Undergraduate Advisor in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, in nominating him for the award. “I have taught him in many classes—culture, literature, and language—and he has a powerful combination of language aptitude and sophistication in understanding the written word.” 

Maltbie’s honors thesis explored how structural forces of poverty and historic discrimination influence gang violence and formation, and how an interdisciplinary approach utilizing psychology, sociology and Religious Studies can help understand the issues and lead to policy reforms. 

Maltbie studied abroad in Astana, Kazakhstan in 2023 and will be studying abroad at the School of Russian and Eurasian Studies in Uzbekistan during the summer of 2024.

“Mason's academic journey showcases his exceptional qualities and achievements, and his relentless pursuit of knowledge and his deep-seated desire for immersive cultural experiences,” wrote Assistant Professor Liudmila Klimanova, who led the Kazakhstan program. “The fervor and depth with which he engaged in this program were profoundly inspiring, not only to me but also to our esteemed colleagues at Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan.” 

“Mason embodies the qualities of an outstanding senior: academic excellence, leadership, and a deep commitment to embracing the humanities and fostering understanding across cultures and communities.”

Steve Kerr, an NBA champion, award-winning coach, social justice advocate, philanthropist and beloved Wildcat, received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree at the 2024 University of Arizona Commencement. 

“Steve Kerr's storied career in the NBA—as a player, a general manager, and a coach—has been marked by an impressive array of accolades, including multiple championship titles and personal honors,” said Alain-Philippe Durand, Dorrance Dean of the College of Humanities. “His advocacy for social change reflects a rare blend of intellect, compassion and unwavering dedication. He has had a profound and indelible impact on our community and beyond.”

A standout basketball player, Kerr graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in General Studies and is a College of Humanities alumnus. He earned all-American honors his senior year before being drafted in the NBA’s second round. As a player, he won five championships in his 15 years and continued his success as a broadcaster and general manager. In his current role as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, he’s won four NBA titles and was named Coach of the Year in 2016. 

Before the Friday night Commencement, Kerr was honored by the College of Humanities during a morning ceremony, where he spoke about his international upbringing, his commitment to teaching and mentorship as a coach, and the value of studying the humanities. 

“I choose the humanities because it offers an incredibly well-rounded education and teaches people to connect with one another and to collaborate,” Kerr said. 

Kerr spoke about deciding on a General Studies major and how it united several of his academic interests. 

“There’s no question that with a diverse education, a broad education teaching the core values of humanity, compassion, and empathy, you can go anywhere,” he said. “It helps you find your way.” 

For today’s students and graduating seniors, Kerr said learning is a process that never stops and it’s important to adopt an inquisitive mindset. 

“The advice that I give to all young people who ask me, no matter what they study, is what I’ve learned is none of us know everything,” he said. “One of the strongest signs of intelligence is admitting you don’t know something and being comfortable with that. We’re all lifelong learners.” 

Kerr’s nomination for the honorary degree was initiated by Dr. Caleb Simmons, Director of Interdisciplinary Studies (the new name of the General Studies degree that Kerr obtained), who highlighted Kerr’s advocacy for important issues like racial justice and gun violence prevention.

“His embodiment of ethical values and his unwavering commitment to social justice exemplify the very essence of what the humanities seek to cultivate – a more inclusive, empathetic, and enlightened society,” Simmons wrote.