{"id":327564,"date":"2026-05-22T08:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/327564\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T08:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:41:11","slug":"uc-berkeley-letters-science-announces-2026-ls-faculty-award-recipients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/327564\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley Letters & Science announces 2026 L&S Faculty Award recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roshanak Kheshti, Professor in the Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotProfessor Kheshti is a pivotal figure in Sound Studies and a queer cultural theorist whose work explores how sound functions beyond traditional musical forms. Her research spans performance, race, sexuality, gender, and the senses, established through three influential books: Modernity\u2019s Ear, Switched-on Bach, and her latest work, We See with the Skin. Additionally, she has published extensively on Iranian diaspora cultural production in sound and cinema. At UC Berkeley, Professor Kheshti is a transformative leader and a staunch advocate for diversity. She has been instrumental in building the Iranian Studies initiative and leading the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture. As a key figure in the President\u2019s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP), she actively fosters inclusive academic pipelines. Her interdisciplinary approach and institutional leadership make her an indispensable contributor to the Berkeley community.<\/p>\n

Cristina Mora, Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Sociology, Professor of Chicanx Latinx Studies, and Co-Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotProfessor Mora, who earned her BA at UC Berkeley before returning as faculty member in 2011, is the Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology. A first-generation scholar, her award-winning research illuminates the critical intersections of racial and ethnic categorization, politics, and immigration. She is an exceptionally productive scholar and a visionary leader on campus, serving as Co-Director of the Institute for Governmental Studies and as the founding director of the Latinx Social Science Pipeline. She has secured significant funding for the Latinx and Democracy faculty cluster and remains deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of underrepresented students. In 2022, Professor Mora was awarded the prestigious Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity. Producing scholarship that is both groundbreaking and consistently published in top venues, she fills an indispensable role as a public sociologist addressing the most timely and consequential issues of our time.<\/p>\n

Aaron Parsons, Professor in the Department of Astronomy<\/p>\n

\"HeadshotProfessor Parsons earned his PhD in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley in 2009 and returned to join the faculty in 2011. Often described as an “unsung hero” of the Astronomy Department, he is the Director of the Radio Astronomy Lab and a world-leading instrumentalist who has made fundamental contributions to both radio instrumentation and radio cosmology. Notably, he designed and led the HERA experiment in South Africa, an ambitious project dedicated to detecting the first stars and galaxies forming in the universe. A dedicated departmental citizen who keeps the radio astronomy lab course running for undergraduates, Professor Parsons also recently published the science fiction novel Coherence. He is a world-leading researcher, a dedicated and thoughtful classroom teacher, a sought after mentor, and a well-respected faculty colleague with an excellent service record.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roshanak Kheshti, Professor in the Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies Professor Kheshti is a pivotal figure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-327564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}