Writing Program professor Victoria Houser draws upon her teaching experiences to create an inclusive learning environment that engages students of diverse backgrounds. Houser prioritizes class discussions and encourages students to set clear goals for their writing. In a recent interview, she spoke about strategies to support multilingual students.

Authoritarian leaders use fear, crisis, and rebranding to push far-right agendas and erode democracy, NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat told a UCSB audience at the inaugural Charles R. Ross Distinguished Lecture in the Department of Italian Studies. She highlighted how figures like Mussolini, Meloni, and Trump manipulate public perception to justify extreme policies.

Selene Kalra is an Environmental Studies exchange student from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who found her passion in the Jazz program in UCSB Music Department.

A panel held by the Religious Studies Department at UCSB called on the university to strengthen its efforts to return Native ancestors' remains and cultural objects, highlighting the spiritual and human rights importance of repatriation. Panelists stressed that education and understanding are key to addressing the long-standing harm caused by the desecration of Native burial sites.

UC Santa Barbara music student Donavan Walker’s senior recital, Layers, was an immersive performance blending original compositions, live music, and set design to explore the connection between dreams, nightmares, and creativity. Centered around a bed symbolizing his restless mind, the show built to a breathtaking ensemble finale, capturing the exhaustion and rewards of the creative process.

Christina Han, an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, visited UCSB to present on the 17th-century Korean Sihwa ch'ongnim 詩話叢林 Compendium of Poetry Talks and the importance of collaborative, transnational scholarship in digital humanities.

Harvard University professor and filmmaker Vincent Brown spoke at a UCSB Key Passages series talk titled “Black History’s Warning to the World” and gave insights on the past, present, and future of Black history in the United States and internationally.

Dian Zeng’s experience providing music therapy during the Covid-19 pandemic led her to explore the broader impact of music on well-being, from supporting overwhelmed doctors to working with cancer patients. Now a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara, she researches how elderly Tai Chi practitioners in Los Angeles use music to enhance both their physical and mental health . At the same time, she works as a teaching assistant in Music and Asian American Studies.

The newly opened exhibit Creative Currents: Student Expression in the Arts at UC Santa Barbara’s Sara Miller McCune Arts Library showcases decades of student creativity, spanning from 1960 to 2017. Curated by graduate student Carlyle Constantino, the exhibit highlights emotionally resonant works while exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the evolving role of curation in amplifying historically overlooked voices.

UCSB alumna Alexandra Goldberg turned her passion for journalism into a career in broadcast news. From reporting at UCSB to working at WHAS11, an ABC-affiliated TV station in Louisville, Kentucky, Goldberg believes her time at UCSB helped her develop key journalism skills. Now, she shares how her college experience shaped her path to the professional newsroom.

University of Washington humanities scholar Kathleen Woodward shared the literary connections she has made between both aging and the Anthropocene last week at a Key Passages talk held by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

UCSB English student and actor-turned-director Curran Seth made his directorial debut with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, collaborating with the UCSB Music Department and Shrunken Heads Production Company to bring the dark, character-driven story to life. Emphasizing emotional depth over technical precision, Seth guided his cast—many of whom were primarily singers—to tap into their characters' psychology, resulting in a raw and immersive production.

Five years after COVID-19’s initial outbreak across the U.S., Letty García, Nomi Morris and Nathan Roberts from the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts gathered to unpack its impacts on film, the performing arts, writing and academia for a UC Santa Barbara audience. While quarantine fostered artistic innovation and collective creativity, it also transformed university students in both positive and negative ways, according to the speakers.

Amanda Harris, a UCSB Art major, uses painting to explore memory and healing. From childhood sketches to public art projects like Santa Barbara’s Painted Pianos on State Street, her work reflects a deep connection to nostalgia. As she prepares for a career in art therapy, she hopes to use creativity as a tool for healing and self-expression.

Shane Book, a poet and filmmaker, spoke at An Evening of Film and Poetry with Shane Book last week. Co-sponsored by the College of Creative Studies, Film and Media Studies, and the Center for Black Studies Research, Book spoke about his poetry books, his two short films, and his time spent learning and living in a myriad of different cities.

Shoshana Medved, a graduating student, has already begun refining her creative expertise in the professional world, gaining hands-on experience with top entertainment brands such as Beats by Dre and Paramount’s Pluto TV. In an interview, she shares insights into her internships and the lessons she’s learned.

Sociologist Claudio E. Benzecry explores the blurred boundaries between humans and objects, revealing how people project themselves onto their surroundings and, in turn, become shaped by them. Through studies on opera lovers, shoe models, and museum guards, he uncovers the ways in which passion and perception transform inanimate things into active participants in human experience.

Meena Ki Kahani (Stories of Meena), a beloved animated series created by UNICEF in 1993, has become a cultural phenomenon in South Asia, addressing critical issues like gender inequality, child labor, and trafficking. Speaking at a UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities event, Indian scholar Jawa Jha highlighted the series’ profound societal impact. Jha believes the series shows how media can inspire social change.

From Netflix, PBS, Discovery, The History Channel, and more, film professor Chris Jenkins brings his professional documentary experience to the classroom to teach students the art of film production. The poplular, two-term course Crew Production teaches pitching, networking, and all that goes into workting with a production team.

As the fall quarter comes to a close, UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center had a busy and successful quarter filled with lectures and events. Additionally, they have provided new announcements and opportunities for both faculty and graduate students at UCSB.

Cheri Steinkellner has had a successful career in television, film, and theater and is now writing a novel. She continues to be a legend in the storytelling world, sharing her expertise with UCSB film students and insider stories from the industry. In an HFA interview, Steinkellner discusses her experiences working on iconic projects like Cheers and her unique creative teaching methods.

The UCSB Chamber and Concert choirs held their fall concert earlier this month in downtown Santa Barbara, carrying themes of hope and light through their music in a concert titled, “Hope Finds Light.”

Alice Madrigal, a 2023 UC Santa Barbara Art Honors graduate, is breaking ground in the art world with bold, colorful illustrations that explore identity and self-expression. Her work challenges societal norms of beauty and self-perception while celebrating body positivity and authenticity. Now preparing for her first New York City art show, Madrigal credits UCSB’s Honors Art Program for fostering her growth.

This fall, UC Santa Barbara's MultiCultural Center hosted Echoes of Empowerment, a student-led art exhibit showcasing creative work such as poems, collages, and paintings. The pieces in this collection convey resilience, hope, and the transformative power of art to mend and uplift the human spirit, a space for connection and inspiration for students of color and others who feel marginalized.

Movies and media shape children’s understanding of culture and morality, but the “Disneyfication” of literature often raises questions about what is gained or lost in the process. Martina Mattei, a Comparative Literature Ph.D. student at UC Santa Barbara, examined Disney’s adaptations of Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid. She noted how Disney simplified the dark moral complexity of Pinocchio into a more uplifting tale and highlighted the backlash against Halle Bailey’s casting in the 2023 remake of The Little Mermaid, reflecting nostalgia for Disney’s earlier portrayal. Mattei argues that simplified adaptations can risk erasing the cultural richness of the originals, shaping how future generations understand these tales.

Julia Lupton was hosted by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center for her talk When Life is a Shipwreck: Key Passages in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and discussed Shakespearean themes of transition, exile, and crisis, along with the role of dual identity in regards to queerness and the gender spectrum.

Kaitlyn Ugoretz, a UCSB Ph.D. candidate, delves into the evolving practice of Shinto outside Japan, highlighting how sacred spaces are created through rituals rather than geography. Her research explores how Shinto is flourishing in the U.S. among non-Japanese practitioners, driven by global influences like anime and inclusive spiritual values.

Euskara, the oldest language of the Basque Country, is a symbol of cultural survival. At UC Santa Barbara, lecturer Maitane Murumendiaraz Arana teaches students in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese about the language and culture of her own heritage. Through her classes and events, she keeps the Basque spirit alive and growing at UCSB.

UC Santa Barbara alumna Delaney Shanley has gone from an aspiring young dancer to a professional performer in an NFL arena as a rookie Raiderette. In a recent interview, Delaney reflected on her early dance inspirations and how her experiences majoring in Dance at UCSB helped her secure her spot on her dream team.