91抖阴 Berkeley English is delighted to announce that Professor Eric Falci will deliver the 2026 Charles Mills Gayley Lecture. Professor Falci's lecture,聽鈥淕erard Manley Hopkins and the Conditions of Music,鈥� will take place on聽Friday, April 24, at 4 pm in the Maude Fife Room (Wheeler 315).聽聽
Eric Falci joined the faculty at U.C. Berkeley in Fall 2006 after finishing his PhD at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His first book,聽,聽appeared in 2012. A second book,聽, was published in 2015; a third,聽,聽appeared in 2020. His first book of poetry,聽聽was published in 2019. He serves as the series editor of聽, and editor of聽The Cambridge History of Irish Poetry, which is scheduled to appear in late 2026. From 2017 through 2021, he was Associate Dean in the Graduate Division, and from 2022-2025 he served as chair of the English department. He currently serves as the director of the Celtic Studies Program.
Named in honor of the first Chair of the Berkeley English Department, The Charles Mills Gayley Lecture is delivered each year by a member of the faculty chosen by their peers. Gayley (1858-1932) was a transformational figure in the history of the University of California. A wildly popular teacher whose lectures filled the Greek Theatre, and a wide-ranging scholar among whose many books include聽Classical Myths in English Literature聽(1893) and聽Shakespeare and the Founders of Liberty in America聽(1917), Gayley served as the Chair of the English department from 1889 until his retirement in 1923. The Gayley Lecture was established in 1933, and the first Charles Mills Gayley Lecturer was Benjamin Kurtz, Gayley鈥檚 student, colleague, and eventual biographer. The topic of Professor Kurtz鈥檚 inaugural Charles Mills Gayley lecture was the scholarship of Charles Mills Gayley. Delivering the Gayley Lecture is the highest honor that the department bestows upon a member of its faculty, and it remains the highlight of the academic year.聽
