UCLA Alumni Association

Dr. Susan Kresin has been working in the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages since 1996, where she teaches a variety of language and culture courses. An area of personal interest is the reflection of regional history in film, reflected in a course titled “Introduction to Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures through Film” that introduces students to the multifaceted cultures and historical legacies of this fascinating part of the world. In 2017 she received a “Distinguished Service Award” from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages for her work promoting instruction of the “less commonly taught” Slavic, Central and East European Languages, and in 2025 she received the organization’s “Excellence in Teaching Award.”

Join Me!
Ramblas & Rivieras 9/5/2026-9/14/2026
Hosted by Professor Aaron A. Burke

Aaron A. Burke is Professor of the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Levant, and the Kershaw Chair of the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at The University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a member of UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, serving as its editor-in-chief since 2016. Since 1994, he has excavated in Israel but also Egypt and Turkey, and travelled extensively throughout the Levant from Syria to Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, and in Greece, collaborating in field research at Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Tel Dan. Burke’s research focuses on the social history of the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze and Iron Ages with a particular interest in identity transformations surrounding warfare, forced migration, and long-distance exchange. His first monograph, “Walled Up to Heaven”: The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant, addressed warfare during a period of Amorite political hegemony.