From Kabul to Santa Barbara: Lowering Barriers in Computerized Art

June 16, 2022

Professor, artist, and PhD Student Masood Kamandy says his LGBTQIA+ identity inspires his artistry and drive to educate those locally and abroad in communities of Afghan heritage. He combines his passions for teaching, fine arts, and photography in his research on how to make the field of technology and computing more equitable. He creates programs and coding certificates refined for disadvantaged or minority students that otherwise would have limited access to these resources. He now teaches Javascript and Processing in the Art Department at UC Santa Barbara and Pasadena City College.

The IHC Continues Apace this Summer

June 15, 2022

By Denise Shapiro

Exciting news this June is coming from UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

For starters, 13 Graduate Teaching Fellows are wrapping up this year’s courses in Foundations in the Humanities prison correspondence program. In this IHC initiative, incarcerated individuals engage in a correspondence in literary studies with graduate student mentors. It has over 150 participants in California prisons. The program gives participants the opportunity to continue their education and stimulate their intellectual capabilities, while giving the graduate students the chance to reflect on their education privileges.

The IHC will also be busy this summer hosting student veterans from across the UC system in the 2022 UC Student Veterans Summer Writing Workshop. This workshop is a bonding experience for veterans as they share their stories and experiences, allowing them to relate to one another and move forward in their civilian lives. Narrative writing can act as a form of therapy and this program acts as a writing retreat where like-minded people can reflect, relate, and restore their souls.

Finally, a big congratulations goes out to the winners of the 2022-23 IHC Dissertation Fellowship competition. The following Fellows will be awarded $7,000 to support their research in the upcoming school year:

Christopher Erdman, Classics: “Voting Culture and Political Theater in Late Republican Lawmaking.”

Addison Jensen, History: “Blowin’ in the Wind: Media, Counterculture, and the American Military in Vietnam.”

Nicky Rehnberg, History: “White Roots, Redwoods: Racializing German and U.S. Conservation, 1920-1945.”

Isabella Restrepo, Feminist Studies: “Transcarceral Care: Racialized Girlhood, Behavioral Diagnosis, and California’s Foster Care System.”

Reem Taha, Comparative Literature: “‘Of Here and Everywhere’: (Re)Mapping Mediterranean Identities at the Ibero-African Frontier.”

Denise Shapiro is UC Santa Barbara student graduating this spring with a double major in Communication and Film and Media Studies. She has has spent the past two years as a Web and Social Media Intern, with an emphasis on video journalism, for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Student Spotlight: Self-Expression Through Art

June 14, 2022

UC Santa Barbara student Yulim Choi has been passionate about art since childhood. English was her second language, and she found she could use art to express herself better than she could words. She followed her passions into an art-focused high school and graduates this spring with a minor in Art and major in Communication.

The News Interview: A First Step Toward Professionalism

June 13, 2022

Ryan Greenberg’s beautiful ode to his aunt Leith Harmon discusses the optics behind cryptocurrency, family bonding during a pandemic, and shifting careers.

"Sound Can Move Us to Change"

June 11, 2022

After attending protests in both Japan and New York, Noriko Manabe, a leading scholar in ethnomusicology at both Stanford and Temple University, noticed that Americans are much quieter in protests than Japanese people. Manabe, who was hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, attributes this difference to increased police presence in Japan which forces protesters to split into smaller groups and use sound to find unity with one another.

Spreading Rumi's Wisdom

June 10, 2022

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.

Focus on Faculty: Expanding our Notion of Culture

June 9, 2022

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.

S.T.E.A.M.: Adding the ‘Arts’ into S.T.E.M.

June 8, 2022

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.

On Gender Neutrality in the French Language

June 7, 2022

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.

Kenneth Hiltner: Fixing the Climate is About Culture

June 6, 2022

UC Santa Barbara English professor Kenneth Hiltner was recently named a 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. As a professor of Environmental Humanities, Hiltner uses his popular Ecocriticism and climate crisis courses to educate students and the general public about environmental issues. In a recent interview, Hiltner discussed the evolution of his academic career, the human component of global climate change, and his recent award recognition.

Raab Fellows: A Year of Research, Writing and Self-exploration

June 3, 2022

The Raab Writing Fellows Program, sponsored by Santa Barbara writer Diana Raab, held its end of the year showcase at Mosher Alumni Hall last week. Students in the program presented their year-long research projects to students and faculty. Their projects featuring an array of academic articles, reports, memoirs, novellas, zines, and videos

The Art of Moving Through Space: Carmen Argote Speaks at UCSB

June 2, 2022

Carmen Argote, a Los Angeles-based, world-renowned artist draws influence from the physical world around her. Her latest presentation at UCSB Art Department’s Visiting Artist Colloquium series describes her collection Pyramids, inspired by her walks through Lincoln Park in Los Angeles and other works, explaining what drives her creative process.

Computerized Textiles Offer Emotional Support

June 1, 2022

Touch is the largest organ of our body, says Felicia Davis, professor of Architectural Design at Pennsylvania State University. Davis uses computer-manipulated textiles that change in response to their environment. The textiles could provide relief for people who have a hard time expressing or understanding their own emotions. Presented by the graduate program in Media, Arts and Technology, she discussed her project in a recent seminar.

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