On the next Fiat Lux Redux, Tuesday, March 17 at 9AM, literary legend, feminist icon, and social activist Isabel Allende joins Dean Sara Guyer of the Division of Arts & Humanities for a conversation exploring the intersections of storytelling, memory, political resistance, and the creation of art under authoritarianism. She discusses exile, grief, loss and the enduring human necessity for stories in an era of rapidly advancing technology.
A native of Chile, Allende was forced into exile following the assassination of her uncle, President Salvador Allende. Since then, she has written over 27 books and is the founder of the Isabel Allende Foundation, which promotes and preserves the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected. Allende has received fifteen honorary doctorates and has received the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama awarded Allende the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018 she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.
Sara Guyer is the Irving and Jean Stone Dean of Arts & Humanities and Professor of English at UC Berkeley. Since September 2021, during her term as dean, Arts & Humanities undergraduate enrollments at Berkeley have reached their highest level in fifteen years, and she has established new clusters of excellence in the Interdisciplinary Arts, African Humanities, and Latinx Cultural Expression. Guyer is director of the World Humanities Report, a large-scale research project with over a dozen teams on six continents and former president of the international Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes.
This event took place November 5, 2025, at the Morrison Library of UC Berkeley and was presented by the Arts Research Center in celebration of 25 years as an incubator, nexus, and advocate of the arts on & off campus. Additional support was provided by the Dean’s Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities and the Departments of English and Comparative Literature, and the Center for Race & Gender.
Fiat Lux Redux presents previously aired lectures, conversations, and podcasts originating on the campus of UC Berkeley every other Tuesday from 9am to 9:30am. These often-lengthy original programs have been edited to a 30-minute format by experienced KALX producers. The show’s name, Latin for “Let there be light”, is a reference to the University of California’s motto, which is also Fiat Lux. The show’s goal is to provide listeners with a window into the intellectual and cultural life of UC Berkeley and to showcase the wide range of subjects and diversity of thought and ideas that are present at UC Berkeley.
This program was edited by Lisa Katovich. If you have questions or comments about Fiat Lux Redux, contact lisa.katovich@gmail.
