Mellon Graduate Fellowship for Post-Classical Latin

The UCLA Department of Classics was awarded $700,000 grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Division of the Humanities to support the preparation and training of young scholars in post-classical Latin for graduate programs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. This program has been funded for three years (2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017).  The graduate component of the grant (Please see the Mellon Program in Post-Classical Latin for more information) will provide up to two graduate fellowships each year to assist in the recruitment of students entering UCLA who intend to pursue Ph.D. programs in areas whose research involves the study of post-classical Latin texts. The department packages will provide six years of support by combining fellowships and teaching employment. The first year is provided by the Mellon grant, and includes the payment of all university fees and a stipend of $27,000. This year’s recipients are Karime Parodi (Spanish and Portuguese) and Jonathan Bellairs (English).

2016-2017 Recipients

 

image1Jonathan Bellairs | Department of English

Jonathan Bellairs is a PhD student in the English department at UCLA. He was born in the Los Angeles area and received his BA from UC Irvine. His research interests include the formation and evolution of meaning in language, and poetic language in particular, and the use of poetic forms in works of philosophical, theological, and political significance. These interests lead to an emphasis on the confluence of English and Latinate literature of the medieval and early modern periods, but also extend to the Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse literature of the early medieval period.

 

pictureKarime Parodi | Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Karime Parodi studies Hispanic languages and literatures in the Spanish and Portuguese Department at UCLA. In 2014 she received a B.A in Spanish Linguistics and Literature from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso where she afterward studied law. Karime is interested in the problematics offered by colonial discourse, particularly the early treatises advocating for indigenous slavery in Spanish America. At the momento she is studying a very particular treaty written in colonial Chile which takes the form of an scholastic disputatio. Her interests also include the relationship between Law and Literature, Political theory and Racial Politics.

 

2015-2016 Recipients

 

bonnici_Kate Bolton Bonnici | Department of English

Kate Bolton Bonnici is a PhD student in UCLA’s Department of English. Originally from Alabama, Kate is a graduate of Harvard University and New York University School of Law. In 2015, she received her MFA in creative writing from UC Riverside. Her essays and poetry have appeared in Arts & Letters, Southern Humanities Review, NANO Fiction, and elsewhere. Her current research, which emerges from foundations in government, law, and poetry, considers classical reception and other forms of intertextuality in early modern English literature.

 

hmthomsonHannah Maryan Thomson | Department of Art History

A Bay Area native, Hannah Maryan Thomson attended the University of California, Berkeley for her undergraduate degree. She graduated with honors in 2011 with a BA in Art Practice. During a year abroad in Bilbao, Spain she learned Spanish and fell in love with the Basque Country. After graduating she moved back to Spain in order to teach English where she solidified her decision to pursue a career in education. In 2014 she completed a Post Baccalaureate in Classics at UCLA. She interned at the Getty Villa in the education department and taught Latin at UCLA and a LAUSD elementary school for a year while applying to graduate school. She is now in the first year of her PhD in Art History at UCLA studying medieval architecture of northern Spain. Her research interests revolve around the manifestations of power as witnessed through architecture as well as artistic exchange, particularly along pilgrimage routes. When not studying, she plays drums in an all female punk band, paints portraits, and takes well-deserved naps with her one-eyed cat, Jaqui.

2014-2015 Recipients

 

kardoshJohn Kardosh | Department of Philosophy

John Kardosh studied philosophy at the University of Alberta, where he earned his BA and graduated with First Class Honors. He went on to pursue graduate studies in philosophy and later received his MA from the same institution. While an MA student, John was awarded a Canadian national research fellowship (SSHRC), which allowed him to study as a Visiting Fellow at both Harvard University and the University of Toronto. As his master’s thesis focused on Leibniz’s theories of metaphysical and divine causation, John has particular interests in the metaphysical causation in Leibniz’s thought, and broader interests in the early modern period of philosophy.

gobielleChristopher Gobeille | Department of French and Francophone Studies

Christopher Gobeille graduated from UCLA in 2012, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in French and Francophone Studies, and a minor in Central and Eastern European Studies with an emphasis on Romanian language and culture.  His principal research interests involve the establishment of French linguistic and cultural identity in the early Middle Ages, following the collapse of the Roman Empire and during the ascent of the Merovingian Dynasty. Mr. Gobeille is also interested in the study of French medieval music, more specifically the works of Gillaume de Machaut, which he intends to research from both a literary and musicological perspective.  His musicological interests also extend into early modern music and the influence that French baroque composers exerted on the evolution of western music and the development keyboard technique.  Mr. Gobeille is an accomplished classical pianist and during the last eight years, has served on the faculty of various private fine arts institutions in the greater Los Angeles area.