Dear faculty, staff, and friends,
I am pleased to share exciting news regarding UCLA’s world-class hub for scholars working in periods from the 3rd to the 17th century CE across the world. More than a half-century after its founding, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) will now be known as CMRS Center for Early Global Studies (CMRS–CEGS).
Under the leadership of director Zrinka Stahuljak, CMRS–CEGS exemplifies the breadth of forward-thinking research and scholarship happening across fields. The updated name represents UCLA’s diverse faculty and graduate student body across a wide spectrum of disciplines, and reflects the Center’s new mission to promote and sustain transdisciplinary studies of the period from late antiquity to the early modern era across the globe.
Using an axis-based research plan, CMRS-CEGS has indeed adopted a global model that responds to the challenge of regional world systems and weakly connected early worlds. It promotes the study of a multi-centered world in which methodology and comparison connect distinct areas of the globe, allowing scholars to exchange effectively from within their fields or work together innovatively across them. You can learn more about the emerging vision and impact of the CMRS–CEGS name change in the Center’s latest newsletter.
On behalf of the Division of Humanities, I would like to thank Professor Stahuljak for her bold vision. I look forward to witnessing the many ways in which the Center’s cross-disciplinary work will motivate creative thought with its new, global model. I am proud to join our colleagues in late antique, medieval, and Renaissance studies in celebrating this step forward as we work together to fulfill UCLA’s mission of teaching, research, and public service.
Sincerely,
David Schaberg 史嘉柏
Dean, UCLA Division of Humanities
Senior Dean, UCLA College of Letters & Science
Professor, Asian Languages & Cultures