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 Art, Design, and Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara has multiple art exhibitions on display year-round. Currently, it is showing a collection of instruments used for gagaku, an ancient Japanese style of orchestral music and dance.
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.
At the turn of the 20th century, the United States saw a boom in Japanese immigration. But as the Japanese American population increased, campaigns to exclude immigrants grew as well. In a recent talk for the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UC Berkeley English professor Andrew Way Leong examined Japanese literature in the context of these acts of exclusion. He explained how the immigration ban led many Japanese Americans to emphasize reproduction as a way to build a future in America, excluding individuals in queer or other non-traditional relationships.
Nowadays, machines are so technologically advanced that they can handle problems humans are ordinarily responsible for. But, we should view artificial intelligence in cultural rather than technological terms, French AI researcher Alexandre Gefen recently told a UC Santa Barbara audience at an event sponsored by the Comparative Literature Program and the English Department’s Transcriptions Center.
Television has changed since the beginning of the 21st century, with streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu now allowing us to watch thousands of television series that offer more diversity and global perspectives, says UCSB Film and Media lecturer James McNamara. Television series, he told a virtual audience this month, allow people to connect with one another through shared experiences, not only in America but around the world, giving the medium a new educational role in society.
The UC Santa Barbara Writing Program is beginning a creative nonfiction initiative in which 19 students will work with faculty members to create multimedia stories about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences.
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.
Theater, Dance, and Music at UC Santa Barbara have persisted through the COVID-19 pandemic with a common strength: creativity. Theater and Dance department chair Irwin Appel, UCSB Dance Company director Delilah Moseley, and UCSB Gospel Choir director Victor Bell recently spoke at a Humanities and Fine Arts Division event HFA Speaks: Arts Evolving in a Pandemic, to discuss how the arts have changed, struggled, and adapted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adapted for film from the acclaimed science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, son of the noble family that governs the planet Arrakis, and his epic destiny-driven journey to the most dangerous realm in the universe. Dune has been celebrated by both critics and audiences for its exciting storytelling and vivid world building– and coming up with the successful feature adaptation was no small feat. Dune screenwriter and UCSB alumnus Eric Roth spoke with a student audience about his creative process for the film at a recent installment of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Script to Screen series.
Known for his literary works about immigrants and Chicano Studies, author and professor, Rubén Martínez, has been awarded UC Santa Barbara’s 17th annual Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature.
