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Data Art in Cyberspace: George Legrady on Remote Learning

Data Art in Cyberspace: George Legrady on Remote Learning

UCSB Professor and internationally-renowned data visualization artist George Legrady recently sat down for an interview to discuss how remote placement has affected the data visualization course he is offering in the Winter.


Of Memes, Linguistics and Creative Computing

Of Memes, Linguistics and Creative Computing

Thanks to UC Santa Barbara’s Creative Computing Initiative, graduate student Kevin Whitesides incorporated hands-on multimedia projects in his Linguistics course Memes: When Language and Culture Go Viral . Donor Ross Dowd ‘94, has provided funds for Humanities and Fine Arts instructors and students to apply computer technology and digital tools to their areas of study.

A summer bootcamp for screenwriting

A summer bootcamp for screenwriting

This summer, the Carsey-Wolf Center and the Department of Film and Media Studies collaborate to create a new screenwriting course for students, Advanced Television Writing. The course will be broken up into two sections and will take place over the span of six weeks. The course aims to teach students how to create both a television script bible and a pilot screenplay.

Intern Noe Padilla sat down with the director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, Patrice Petro, to get a better understanding of the course.

Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration

Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration

Second year psychological and brain sciences major Eddie Lo delves into an engaging experimental course called “Memory: an Interdisciplinary Exploration.“

Where Literature and Neuroscience Meet

Where Literature and Neuroscience Meet

Saige Heitman delves into the benefits of studying both the sciences and the humanities through the lens of an innovative course taught by neuroscience professor Kenneth Kosik, and English professor Sowon Park, called “Literature and the Human Mind.“ This interdisciplinary course stresses the importance of both subjects, and how they can complement each other.

A Literary Approach to Mental Illness

A Literary Approach to Mental Illness

Jesse Miller, a postdoctoral fellow of English and medical humanities at UCSB, is teaching an English course this spring called U.S. Cultures of Mental Illness. In a recent interview, Miller discussed his goals in designing the course and its relevance in the current social climate that has resulted from the coronavirus pandemic.

Teaching Dystopian Fiction During a Pandemic

Teaching Dystopian Fiction During a Pandemic

This spring, UCSB English lecturer Brian Donnelly is teaching a course on dystopian fiction with themes that apply to the conditions students face during the COVID-19 crisis. In a recent Zoom interview, he said his initial apprehension proved unfounded as the course created a place for students to creatively engage with this time in their lives.

Finding My Creative Voice

Finding My Creative Voice

Originally a literary arts magazine club, The Catalyst magazine now offers a four-unit course at UCSB, providing creative collaboration as a means to fulfill the unit requirement.  UC Santa Barbara undergraduate student Renee Whalen delves into how mixing poetry and art in this course changed her relationship with writing.

The Writing Minor: A Complement to Any Major

The Writing Minor: A Complement to Any Major

The Professional Writing Minor at UC Santa Barbara.held its annual information session last week, marking a pivotal moment for its applicants: It’s time to start preparing to apply for the coming year. The Minor has launched a new Journalism track, and now offers students a choice of six distinct areas of professional focus. The other tracks are: Business Communication, Civic Engagement, Multimedia Communication, Professional Editing, and Science Communication. Read more about this popular program here.

A New Generation Discovers Philosophy

A New Generation Discovers Philosophy

UC Santa Barbara's Philosophy Department boasts the fastest growing Humanities major among undergraduates. Along with three recent faculty hires, new courses such as the Philosophy of Economics have been added to the curriculum and there are plans to keep expanding. In this video by HFA intern Calvin Bruhns, faculty and students describe how Philosophy has become a go-to major to prepare for post-graduate work and professional schools.

Buying a Prius Won't Solve the Climate Crisis

Buying a Prius Won't Solve the Climate Crisis

Small, individual acts of environmental consciousness ─ while worthwhile for the planet ─ are nothing compared to the massive policy change needed to solve the climate crisis, Northwestern University religion and culture professor Sarah McFarland Taylor told a UCSB audience earlier this month. The Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life hosted Taylor, who discussed her book Ecopiety: Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue.

Isla Vista 2014: Moving the Lens from Shooter to Victims

Isla Vista 2014: Moving the Lens from Shooter to Victims

UC Santa Barbara film students Cameron Leingang and Lexi Lunchick are producing a documentary about the 2014 Isla Vista shooting called “Not One More,” to premiere next March, at the Pollock Theater on UCSB’s campus. The film is being made as a part of a Film and Media Studies course called Crew Production.

Environmentalism Meets Game Design

Environmentalism Meets Game Design

"Green Games" is a class offered in the Film and Media Studies department that mixes environmental studies, media studies, and game design into one hands on course. For this session, the class is joined by visiting professor of architecture Janette Kim of California College of the Arts, who demonstrates her board game "Bartertown," which illustrates how climate change affects society.

Coming to UCSB: Embark on a Virtual Excavation in Rome

Coming to UCSB: Embark on a Virtual Excavation in Rome

History of Art and Architecture professor Claudia Moser and Writing Program lecturer Christian Thomas have received a $94,000 grant from UC Santa Barbara’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI) to develop an interactive, game-based course called Rome: The Game. The lower division course, which will be available to students in winter 2021, is an introduction to the art, archaeology, and history of ancient Rome, with an emphasis on writing and research.

A Closer Look at Linguistics: Speech Therapy and Beyond

A Closer Look at Linguistics: Speech Therapy and Beyond

While Olivia Saunders isn’t majoring in Linguistics, her major in Communication has provoked many questions from others about whether she wants to pursue speech therapy. That led her on a search to learn more about Linguistics, the major that is most closely linked to speech therapy. She found that its career options and students’ pursuits go much further, as she explains in this article.

Religious Studies: Yasmeen Faris on the Course that Changed Her Life

Religious Studies: Yasmeen Faris on the Course that Changed Her Life

“Jesus’s words and deeds made him one of the most impactful historical figures in the world,” writes student Yasmeen Faris, in a personal reflection on the intersection between her secular studies and her own faith.

In this piece, Faris talks about how a course in the Religious Studies department at UCSB changed her outlook on Jesus Christ, expanding her understanding of his impact on her personal life and religion and the effect that he had on the history of the world.

Hunter Johnsen: Creative Freedom in Crew Production

Hunter Johnsen: Creative Freedom in Crew Production

Student film director Hunter Johnsen discusses his passion for film and his involvement in the Film and Media Studies Crew Production class. His movie called “Obsolete,” a project for this course, is set to premiere March 22 at the Pollock Theater.

“You Again?”: Rediscovering a Friend in UCSB’s Music Program

“You Again?”: Rediscovering a Friend in UCSB’s Music Program

A little curiosity about a Music course in UCSB’s College of Creative Studies leads Phillip Mitchell to reunite with a classmate from his past. In this piece, Mitchell explores this long-lost connection, what has changed about it, and what significance of his old friend’s passions.

Student Spotlight: An Art Director On Digital Humanities

Student Spotlight: An Art Director On Digital Humanities

Word Magazine explores life in Isla Vista, the neighborhood next to campus. As current art director of the magazine, Alaska Yokota is one of a team of students who writes for the magazine and designs its layout. In a recent interview, Yokota discussed her experience with Word Magazine and her views on the future of digital humanities.