UC Santa Barbara faculty member Sarah Hirsch has turned her passion for New Orleans into a cornerstone of her academic and teaching career. In an interview, she discusses her journey from growing up in California to discovering a deep connection with the city while researching seaports and literature of the sea for her doctoral dissertation. Now a Continuing Lecturer in UCSB’s Writing Program, Hirsch desribes how her fascination with New Orleans inspired her signature course, “The Cross-Cultural Mapping of New Orleans,” and how she brings the vibrant city to life for her students.
Ian Kellett, a UC Santa Barbara professor co-leads the Coastal Media Project. It’s a nine-week, 12-credit intensive summer course focused on environmental media production and documentary studies, offered through UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. It combines a passion for film with environmentalism as students adventure through nature, telling meaningful stories.
In an interview, UCSB Writing Program faculty member Craig Cotich discusses his new course, "Writing for Change." Cotich designed the course to teach strategies to help students overcome resistance to change with a curriculum that encourages creativity. Cotich's teaching style incorporates storytelling and hand-drawn illustrations to engage students. The course, open to upper-division students, aims to improve writing skills and prepare students to manage both personal and societal change.
Allen Schultz, a Writing and Literature major specializing in film and screenwriting at UC Santa Barbara, took on the job of production manager in the student-produced film, “Overture". In this interview, he delves into the logistics of creating a student-made film about a young boy, who is both blind and deaf, overcome by his love for music as he experiences the vibrations of sound. Allen also discusses his rewarding role as director in his own short film “Disposable,” a story about life as a UCSB student and Jewish identity.
UC Santa Barbara Germanic and Slavic Studies professor Fabian Offert teaches a course called “Critical AI.“ Offered through the Comparative Literature department, he explores and critiques artificial intelligence’s current abilities with his students, which puts potential threats in perspective.
Meagan Carter, a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, developed and taught a course during Summer 2023 that takes on translation and interpreting as professional field, the evolving technologies in use, and ongoing research into what happens in the mind while a professional is at work.
Writing Program lecturer Christian Thomas recently developed UCSB’s first interactive, choose-your-own-adventure game for an undergraduate writing course. The game responds to the player’s choices, and exposes students to Rome’s rich history of art and archaeology,
Shu-Chuan Chen’s, Professor in UCSB’s Department of East Asian Language and Cultural Studies, Chinese class offers students an immersive experience into Chinese culture. From hands-on cooking classes, New Years tea celebrations, and honoring the Lantern Festival, Chen’s class is praised by students for her ability to craft an informative yet engaging course. In this article, Chen sits with Isabella Genovese to talk about her teaching, life, and hopes .
Mariano Silva is an instructor for UCSB’s Exercise and Sports Studies (ESS) program who teaches a class on Capoeira, a Brazilian martial arts dance form that emphasizes cultural history, personal growth, and inclusive community. UCSB economics major Maiya Nishime explores Silva’s class in a video she produced for her Digital Journalism class.
Diarmid Flatley, a Ph.D. candidate enrolled in UCSB’s Media Arts and Technology Program, discussed artificial intelligence and his work with “transmodal” arts in an interview with Environmental Studies major Lucian Scher.
What if you could forget anything you wanted to? To make all your worries and regrets dissipate into nothingness. Would you take the opportunity?
That’s the premise of fourth-year film student Noah Freeman Hecht’s newest short film, Forget Me Again, produced through UC Santa Barbara Film and Media Studies department’s Crew Production course — which he has taken four times in his college career.
Fast fashion is a major contributor to climate change, to research taught in a class called “Climate Crisis 101,” taught by UC Santa Barbara English professor Ken Hiltner.
Olivia Candelaria is one of many UCSB students taking matters into their own hands by thrifting second-hand clothing instead of giving into fast fashion trends. Hiltner’s “Climate Crisis 101” course provides students with concrete, information about the current state of the climate crisis and what can be done to mitigate it, Calendaria writes.
Eighteen students spent over 40 hours on two paintings during a summer course with Yumiko Glover, a visiting lecturer in UC Santa Barbara’s Art Department. But the long hours motivated them, knowing that their work would be on display in the Glass Box Gallery in the Fall. The exhibit ran for five days last week.
Ryan Greenberg’s beautiful ode to his aunt Leith Harmon discusses the optics behind cryptocurrency, family bonding during a pandemic, and shifting careers.
UCSB English professor Cathy Thomas focuses on the Caribbean to lift up minority perspectives in literature and show her students a community they might not be familiar with. By building a class around the festival of Carnival, Thomas introduces her students to Caribbean culture through the examination of different forms of literary and creative expression.
Determined to include the arts in the future of STEM, third year UC Santa Barbara biology student Emily Nguyen incorporated technology and science with artistic expression in UCSB’s Art , Science and Technology course. She used her creativity in a project ,The Dexcavator, and in another which has taught her how to collect data from local beaches and apply it to the science behind ocean acidification.
For many students the names Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Chet Baker are just random names. That changes quickly for those, like anthropology student Jennifer Yoshikoshi, who take the course “Listening to Jazz,” taught by Jon Nathan in UC Santa Barbara’s Music Department. She describes how this course deepened her knowledge of music and music history.
Student Engagement and Enrichment in Data Science (SEEDS) at UC Santa Barbara is a cohort of students from a variety of majors and diverse backgrounds who study data science ethics and how algorithms have biases that further social, political, and economic divides. The students are mentored by professors, including UCSB’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sharon Tettegah. And they hear presentations from researchers in various data science fields.
The student dancers of UC Santa Barbara’s Theater and Dance Department have stepped back in the studios with modern dance teacher Christina Sanchez,adapting class structures to incorporate COVID-19 safety precautions and protocols. Read how she does it and watch a video by student Morgen Allen to get a glimpse into the dancer experience and hear Sanchez’s insights on teaching dance in the midst of a global pandemic.
UCSB professor Stephanie Hom is applying her research background in Italian colonialism to probe how the experience of Blackness is translated in literature. In a recent virtual interview, Hom discussed her new course, The Art of Translation, in the Department of French and Italian, and how language and translation can be used to evaluate complex cultural issues.
