University of California, Irvine. Dept. of English and Comparative Literature.

The Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine was formed when the campus opened in 1965. The units of English and Comparative Literature are united under the single administrative unit of the School of Humanities. One benefit of placing English, Comparative Literature, and Creative Writing under a single unit is that students may select courses within and across all three programs. The Department of English and Comparative Literature maintains strong ties with the School of Humanities, where faculty combine differing perspectives for collaborative programs and research. Humanities faculty are involved with the Writing Center, the School for Criticism and Theory, University Studies, and the Graduate Critical Theory Emphasis Program (under the School of Humanities). UCI's faculty in English and Comparative Literature has been the recipient of various prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the "Extraordinarious" award, National Endowment for the Humanities grants, and the National Book Award. The department co-sponsors and hosts various symposia and international events.

From the description of University of California, Irvine, Department of English and Comparative Literature publications, 1966 - 1990. (University of California, Irvine). WorldCat record id: 646897497

Historical Background

The Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine was formed when the campus opened in 1965. The units of English and Comparative Literature are united under the single administrative unit of the School of Humanities. One benefit of placing English, Comparative Literature, and Creative Writing under a single unit is that students may select courses within and across all three programs. The Department of English and Comparative Literature maintains strong ties with the School of Humanities, where faculty combine differing perspectives for collaborative programs and research. Humanities faculty are involved with the Writing Center, the School for Criticism and Theory, University Studies, and the Graduate Critical Theory Emphasis Program (under the School of Humanities).

UCI's faculty in English and Comparative Literature has been the recipient of various prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the "Extraordinarious" award, National Endowment for the Humanities grants, and the National Book Award. The department co-sponsors and hosts various symposia and international events. U.S. News & World Report' s 2001 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools" ranked UCI's graduate program in English among the top 20 in the country and first in the specialization of Literary Criticism and Theory. This ranking was awarded because of the diversity of critical approaches, the inclusion of American literature and creative writing, and the presence of scholars and critics who contribute to the department's intellectual achievements and growth.

• 1965: University of California, Irvine opened.
• 1966: The UC Irvine Writing Center was established by Board of Regents, James B. Hall dir. (April). First issue of Synapse, UCI literary magazine published; Tony Gregory ed. (November). The California Poetry Reading Circuit permanently headquartered at UCI, James B. Hall Dir. (December). Murray Krieger and Oakley Hall accepted positions. James B. Hall departed to UC Santa Cruz.
• 1968: KBS Committee staged a rally on campus with 500 out of the 4,100 students participating. "KBS movement" was a student movement whose goal was to pressure the university to retain or rehire three instructors that had not completed their requirements to keep their positions. The assistant professors were George Kent (History), Donald Brannan (English) and Stephen Shapiro (English).
• 1972: Robert L. Montgomery, professor of English and Comparative Literature, was appointed acting Dean of the School of Humanities (October).
• 1973: Hazard Adams, Vice Chancellor--Academic Affairs, announced his resignation, effective July 1, 1974, to begin sabbatical leave and return to full-time teaching as professor of English in January 1975.
• 1974: Murray Krieger, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, was named one of nine University Professors by the Regents (April). Hazard Adams, Professor of English received Guggenheim Fellowship (May).
• 1975: Hazard Adams, Professor of English and Comparative Literature received "Extraordinarius" award (April). Harold Toliver and Charles Wright, English and Comparative Literature, received Guggenheim Fellowships (April).UCI, the only university in the country offering a doctoral degree in critical theory, chosen as the location for the founding of the School for Criticism and Theory, under direction of Murray Krieger, University Professor of English, and Hazard Adams, Professor of English and Comparative Literature (May). A National Endowment for the Humanities grant of $245,000 was awarded to Krieger and Adams for the start of this school (August).
• 1976: Albert O. Wlecke, Associate Professor of English, was honored for teaching at UCI Alumni Association at the Lauds and Laurels banquet for excellence (May).
• 1977: Charles Wright, Professor of English and poet, was named as one of the 14 American writers to receive an award from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letter (April). James McMichael, Professor of English, received a Guggenheim Fellowship.Bruce R. Hallet, a senior majoring in English, took office as president of the Associated Students.
• 1978: Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship was awarded to Murray Krieger, University Professor of English. A scholarship fund was established in memory of Howard S. Babb, Professor of English and chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature (June).
• 1979: Robert Folkenflik, Associate Professor in English, received a Guggenheim Fellowship (April). Department hosted an eight-day festival honoring the writer George Sand (November).
• 1982: Major symposium on "Goethe's Narrative Fiction," attended by scholars from the United States, Canada and Germany (April). 12th annual Alumni Association Lauds and Laurels Banquet awarded Dr. Harold Toliver, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, the Distinguished Research Award; Dr. Murray Krieger, University Professor of English, received the 1982 Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award (May). Robert Stone, National Book Award Winner and author of Dog Soldiers, came to UCI as a visiting writer (May).
• 1983: Professor of English Charles Wright named co-recipient of the American Book Award in Poetry for his work, Country Music: Selected Early Poems, (April). Dr. Murray Krieger, University Professor of English was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (May).
• 1984: Professor of English Robert Peters staged his one man show, MadLudwig of Bavaria (May)
• 1985: Myron Simon, professor of English, received a Fulbright grant. Novelist MacDonald Harris was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship, the highest honor bestowed on UCI faculty by their colleagues. Harris is the pen name of Donald Heiney, professor of English and Comparative Literature.
• 1986: English professor Oakley Hall published his 19th novel, Apaches, the last of his trilogy of novels on the American West (July). New master's degree program in English designed especially for secondary school teachers announced (November).
• 1987: British detective novelist P. D. James was a visiting professor for three weeks (January). Prizewinning writer Donald Heiney, a UCI professor of Comparative Literature, published his 13th novel, Glowstone (May).
• 1988: John Carlos Rowe, professor of English, was awarded the 1988-89 Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Teaching (April).
• 1991: 21st Lauds and Laurels banquet awarded J. Hillis Miller, professor of English and Comparative Literature the Academic Senate's Distinguished Lectureship Award for research (April). Georgina Dodge, a senior in English won a 1991 Melon Fellowship in the Humanities (May). Michelle Latiolais, Program in Writing alumna and academic coordinator of undergraduate creative writing, won the gold medal for diction from the Commonwealth Club of California for her first novel, Even Now, joining former recipients John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner and Amy Tan (May). Miriam Burstein, a junior Campuswide Honors English major, received a $2,200 National Endowment for the Humanities Younger Scholars Award (June). Prize-winning Australian novelist Thomas M. Kneally was appointed distinguished professor of English and Comparative Literature and joined the faculty of the graduate Program in Writing (June).
• 1992: Katherine Vaz, 1992 Program in Writing graduate, sold the hardcover and paperback rights to her first novel, Saudale, to Ballantine Books in New York (January). The UCI graduate English program ranked 15th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report (March). Judith Grossman, English-born novelist, appointed Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the Graduate Program in Writing. Grossman, from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, is author of the critically acclaimed novel Her Own Terms (May).
• 1993: Maxine Hong Kingston, author of best-selling novels, spoke as part of her appointment as a Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature (January). Thomas Keneally, distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (April). Alexander Gelley, Professor of Comparative Literature, became a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Gelley will study Walter Benjamin's position as critic (April).
• 1994: Pulitzer prize awarded to alumni Yusef Komunyakaa, MFA in English 1980, for poetry (April). John Carlos Rowe, director of UCI Critical Theory Institute and professor of English and Comparative Literature, was awarded a $106,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to organize a five-week summer institute in 1995 for high school, college and university teachers to focus on incorporating multicultural issues in teaching American literature (August).
• 1995: James McMichael, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, was awarded the $30,000 Whiting Writer's Award by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation (October).
• 1996: Novelist Wilton Barnhardt, author of Emma Who Saved My Life and Gospel, joined UC Irvine's renowned Program in Writing as a visiting writer for the 1996-97 academic year (October). Rey Chow, a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC Irvine, was winner of the prestigious James Russell Lowell Prize for her book on contemporary Chinese cinema (November). Richard Ford, MFA in Creative Writing, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Independence Day. Richard, graduate student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UCI from 1968-70, graduated with his MFA in June 1970.
• 1999: Peter Goldman, an advanced graduate student in English and Comparative Literature, was selected as the first recipient of the Michael and Stacy Koehn Research Assistantship in Critical Theory (July).
• 2000: Gabriele Schwab, Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature in the School of Humanities, was honored with the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Teaching. Schwab's presentation is titled "Imaginary Ethnographies: The Boundaries of the Human" (November).
• 2001: The critical theory emphasis in the Department of English and Comparative Literature ranked the top program in the nation by U.S. News and World Report (March). The graduate program in English ranked 15th, tied with Duke University. Michael Chabon, a graduate of the Creative Writing Program in the School of Humanities, wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. J. Hillis Miller receives the UCI medal, honored for his international preeminence as a literary scholar, critic and theorist. Miller is also cited for his role in securing top national rankings for UCI's graduate programs in Critical Theory and Comparative Literature, and the Department of English (November).

From the guide to the Department of English and Comparative Literature publications, University of California, Irvine, 1966-1990, (University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.)