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Student Spotlight
UC Santa Barbara biopsychology major Kiana Ranjbaran devotes herself to the study of Islamic poet Rumi and holds an internship with the Rumi Education Center via the Department of Religious Studies. She says everyone can benefit from reading Rumi, who writes about the interconnectedness of humanity, the world, and the divine.
Developing gender-neutral vocabulary in French can be challenging due to the highly gendered nature of the language and resistance from French academics and politicians. But Jordan J Tudisco, a doctoral student in Comparative Literature and French teacher at UC Santa Barbara, looks to provide students with the inclusive vocabulary they need to express themselves. In a recent interview, Tudisco discussed their work, some of the challenges that hinder the use of inclusive language in French, and what they see for the future of inclusive vocabulary.
Yuval Cohen is finishing up her final year at UCSB as President of Associated Students. As this academic year winds down, Cohen says she has learned many lessons about the power of influence and leadership.
Environmental Studies Major and Indigenous Studies Minor Katie Miller is an Intern for the Walter H. Capps Center at UC Santa Barbara, which focuses on the connection between environment, society, and ethics. Miller is workign at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to catalog and preserve plants native to California. She met with UCSB Writing student for an interview and accompanying video.
Classical music is often typified by staples of the concert repertoire, such as Beethoven and Mozart, but musicians are pushing for change. In a recent interview, Music major and composer Mia Paul discussed the importance of diverse representation in classical music. Identifying as a woman of color composer with a background primarily in Western classical music, she looks to reinvent the way people view classical music
Theo Hirschfield, an art major in the UC Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies, originally planned to use the coronavirus lockdown as a mere opportunity to work on his pottery, but was able to merge his artistic passion with a career by posting his creative process to TikTok. In a matter of months, Hirschfield grew his following from 3,000 followers to over 250k, and can now support himself financially while creating art that represents his personal growth.
The Glass Box Gallery, a student ran exhibition space on campus, kicked off Spring quarter by hosting UCSB Art student Anna Sophia Monzon. Last week, Monzon displayed her colorful art series “Up, Up, and Away.” Monzon spoke about her journey as a painter and the events that brought the series to life.
Art student Jasmin Tupy hosted an art show gallery in her Isla Vista home last month featuring several other student artists – to showcase the talents of the college town next to UC Santa Barbara.
Yin Yu, a graduate student in UCSB’s Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program, debuted her 3D fusion of biology and technology recently at the Art Department’s Glassbox Gallery. Yu’s pieces “OctoAnenome” and “SoftVoss” are a representation of her desire to portray the potential of robots to behave realistically with life-like motions.
UC Santa Barbara second-year dance and biology double major Riley Haley balances being a full-time student and performing with the Santa Barbara Dance Theater, a professional dance company. Though she must devote a significant chunk of her time to these academic and artistic passions, she is grateful to UCSB that she does not have to choose between the two.
Earlier this month, students in UC Santa Barbara’s Honors Arts Program opened their studio spaces to the public — the first time they have held such an event since 2020. UCSB Honors Art students Grace Warren, Madeleine Galas, and Marlena Goodman were among those who exhibited their completed and ongoing works, as well as their work spaces. Viewers were able to stroll through the studios and meet the student artists.
The Center for Taiwan Studies has come back to campus in full force this year, with a roster of speaker events that stress the ties between Taiwan studies and other departments, and also enhance the artistic component of its lectures to bring Taiwan studies alive beyond textbooks. In one week alone, the department was abuzz with a total of three lectures, in both the center’s Workshop series and Sounds, Screens and Stages series.
Victoria Korotchenko, the child of Russian immigrants, is combining her knowledge of Russian with a passion for teaching. As a peer tutor at the Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS), the third-year UC Santa Barbara student helps teach anything related to Russian to fellow students - from the alphabet to grammar to speaking, or writing.
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.
UC Santa Barbara Film and Media Studies major Dylan Ruebenstahl creates films in the absurdist comedy genre. On a recent Sunday, about fifty UCSB students and Isla Vista locals gathered together to watch his latest, SOUP, an experimental horror film about a man whose life becomes fully consumed by soup.
Matthew Limb, History of Art and Architecture graduate student at UCSB, was awarded The Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in 2020. In a recent interview, Limb spoke about this fellowship and his dissertation, “'Living on the Edge': Ceramics and the Environment in the American West, 1961-2000,” which focuses on the overlap of craft production with the environmental movement within the United States.
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.
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.
William Chavez, a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara, has studied exorcism, dark fantasy and science fiction. Currently an Engaging Humanities Graduate Fellow at UCSB, he has been exploring terrorism’s links to nihilism – an absence of morals, values or beliefs - and how both are incorporated into the Joker, a fictional supervillain created in the 1940s for the comic book Batman.
UCSB Writing and Literature student Via Bleidner has her first book coming out on August 10, 2021. The book is a collection of short stories and personal essays detailing her life growing up in Calabasas. Bleidner recently sat down for an interview to discuss her journey to becoming a published student author.
