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Many American monuments, including the White House, were built using slave labor. In a recent Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) Regeneration Talk, Black author Clint Smith spoke about his experience researching exploring many such institutions, where he found that most often the role slaves played in their construction and maintenance is left unacknowledged.
The Indigenous Khoi and the San people have been present throughout South African history, yet media and historians have chronically misrepresented them and overlooked their importance. In a recent Research Focus Group talk hosted by the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Indigenous social justice activist Attaqua Ethel Williams Herandien spoke on the importance of including Indigenous voices in South African history in order to correct negative stereotypes and "speak the [Khoi and San] people out of extinction."
Helen Murdoch, who received her master’s degree from UC Santa Barbara’s History Department, has spent more than two decades forging ties between the university and the Santa Barbara community, where she has taught history to high school students.
In a recent event hosted by the Latin American and Iberian Studies program, Brazilian politician and environmentalist Marina Silva discussed the social and environmental struggles facing the Amazon rainforest and their consequences to indigenous populations, and the world’s climate. She explained her opinion on the root cause of the problem, as well as how humans should move forward toward sustainability.
Meditation has become an increasingly popular practice and can aid in depression and anxiety. But the negative side effects of meditation are not well known. In a talk hosted by the East Asia Center, Pennsylvania State University professor Pierce Salguero discussed a phenomenon known as "meditation sickness" and the role of religious studies scholars in educating the public on the “dark side” of meditation.
In his new book, The Psychopathology of Political Ideologies, UC Santa Barbara writing lecturer and author Robert Samuels approaches American political ideologies through a psychological lens. He explores the guiding forces behind political ideologies and how they appear in current politics.
UC Santa Barbara honors Art student Andrew Wharton explores virtual objecthood in his most recent exhibit, “Virtual Shadows.” Through his work, Wharton merges nature and technology to produce captivating digital and physical pieces.
The city of New Orleans has recast a natural disaster symbol into an icon of its people’s resilience, an example of how visual rhetoric can function within a community, says researcher Sarah Hirsch, a continuing lecturer in the UC Santa Barbara Writing Program and the 2020-2021 Charles Bazerman Faculty Fellow.
Magic Lantern Films screened Save Yourselves! last weekend at Isla Vista Theater, the first Magic Lantern film night to air in person after 19 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the screening, there was a Q&A with the film’s co-writers and co-directors Eleanor Wallace and Alex Huston Fischer.
For Irwin Appel, UCSB theater professor and artistic director of the NAKED SHAKES company, there was no better play to highlight the return of in-person instruction than Shakespeare's famous comedy, Twelfth Night. Approximately 450 people attended four outdoor performances that marked the return of in-person theater this fall after 18 long months of remote performances.
The Division of Humanities and Fine Arts and the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture (AD&A) Museum is pleased to welcome Dr. Gabriel Ritter as the AD&A Museum’s new Director.
A team of UC Santa Barbara arts faculty and staff have received a $175,000 grant from the UC Office of the President’s initiative to advance faculty diversity by setting up an arts ‘commons’ that features an artists-in-residence program.It is the first arts initiative in the UC system to receive this diversity grant from UCOP, the office of the UC president, since the grant program began five years ago.
In the midst of a pandemic, UC Santa Barbara alumnus Marco Pinter has opened a new museum in Santa Barbara — the Museum of Sensory and Movement Experiences —which features work from other digital media artists affiliated with the university’s MAT graduate program. Pinter recently sat down for an interview with the HFA to discuss his work and the museum’s creation.
One student wrote powerful poetry about a prison hunger strike. Another explored sado-masochism and non-monogamy as safe spaces for healing. And another looked at the role hair plays in self-image. Whatever the project topic, a UC Santa Barbara writing fellowship funded by Santa Barbara author Diana Raab is changing lives.
In a UC Santa Barbara online forum, Taming Titans: How Should We Regulate Big Tech? four legal experts discussed the issue of large tech companies intruding people’s public and private lives with little regulation.
In a recent behind the scenes studio tour arranged by UC Santa Barbara’s Art, Design, and Architecture Museum, Los Angeles-based painter Sandy Rodriguez showed attendees her process for producing art from materials of the natural world. In addition, she previewed work that will be on display from January 8, 2022 until December 12, 2023 at the AD&A Museum.
The American Dream promises idealistic notions of upward mobility and economic prosperity, but is this narrative really accessible for all? In a recent Zoom event hosted by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, English professor Swati Rana discussed her new book, “Race Characters: Ethnic Literature and the American Dream.” The event was part of the IHC Humanities Decanted series, which highlights faculty members’ new work in an online interview/dialogue format.
Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the UCSB Dance Company had to forego its annual European tour and instead starred in its first documentary, UCSB Dance Company: In Flight and on Film. The film kicks off with a sequence of ten solo performances, each choreographed by the dancers themselves, expressing their feelings about the pandemic, followed by a group piece choreographed by company director Delilah Moseley, and three other films by guest choreographers.
Cecilia Méndez, director of the Latin American and Iberian Studies (LAIS) program at UC Santa Barbara, along with Spanish and Portuguese Professor Juan Pablo Lupi organized the second UCSB Latin American and Iberian Studies graduate student conference on the topic of Borders, Power, and Transgression last month. In an interview, Méndez said understanding the connections between power and transgression of borders is a global concern.
UC Santa Barbara graduate student Clint Terrell has been awarded a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship for his work examining themes of redemption in prison literature and narratives. After his own experience with incarceration, Terrell channeled his passion for reading classical literature in prison to obtaining a college education and further exploring narratives of prisoners. In a recent interview, Terrell described how he became inspired to pursue his Ph.D., why he chose prison narratives, and how the Ford Foundation Fellowship will impact his work and its societal reach.
