Social Consciousness

Theater fireside chat aimed at bringing attention to African American students at UC Santa Cruz

Recently the founder and director of AATAT, Professor Don Williams, sat down with colleagues, including Lisa Marie Rollins, for a fireside chat about the organization and its future.

Creating enchantment in Senegal

UC Santa Cruz Humanities Professor Gina Athena Ulysse was invited to participate as a featured artist for the prestigious Dakar Biennale (Dak'Art), which the New York Times called “Africa’s hottest art event” and “Africa’s most prominent cultural gathering.”

Professor A.M. Darke creates groundbreaking work in Black representation

A.M. Darke, an associate professor of Performance, Play, & Design at UC Santa Cruz, has spent her career becoming one of the leading voices of diversity in games, especially in the context of representing Black hair. For her latest work Darke has helped compile a program that better represents coily hair in animation.

Modern politics reexamined through classic play ‘Inspector General’

Michael Chemers’, a professor of Performance Play and Design and chair of the department at University of California, Santa Cruz, most recent project adapts The Inspector General, a Russian play by Nikolai Gogol which criticized 19th century Russian politics, for a contemporary audience. The show will open on November 15 and runs through November 24 at the Theater Arts Mainstage on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus

UC Santa Cruz professor Derek Conrad Murray appointed Editor-in-Chief of leading arts publication

Derek Conrad Murray, Professor of History of Art & Visual Culture (HAVC), has recently been appointed editor-in-chief of Art Journal. After previously serving on the journal’s editorial board, Murray will be taking on an expansive position where he can shepherd the journal’s distinguished mission for the next three years.

New exhibition honors groundbreaking artist and professor emeritus Doyle Foreman

As part of the Mary Sesnon Porter’s Sesnon Art Gallery’s goal to place a greater emphasis on faculty, students, and alumni, they are opening the new school year with an exhibition featuring the work of Doyle Foreman.

UC Santa Cruz neuroscientist to provide rapid-response expertise for AI policymaking

Assistant Professor Dan Turner-Evans will spend the 2024-25 academic year in Washington, D.C., providing expertise to lawmakers as they develop federal policies on artificial intelligence (AI) as part of the rapid-response cohort of Science & Technology Policy Fellows chosen by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

$1M NSF grant expands open source software mentorship program for HBCU students

A $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation will expand a program that enables students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to gain coding experience and receive intensive mentorship in open source programming.

2024 Arts Division Convocation honors Eduardo and Alison Carrillo

The annual Arts Division Convocation brings together the community to celebrate the new school year. The Distinguished Banana Slug Awards in the Arts is given every year to an honoree who exemplifies excellence and a dedication to the Arts Division. This year’s recipients are (posthumously) former professor Eduardo Carrillo, and his wife Alison Keeler Carrillo.

Election forum series to foster dialogue and empower students for active democratic participation

This fall, the University of California, Santa Cruz will host the 2024 U.S. Elections Forum Series: Power, Politics, and Our Democracy, a six-part event series designed to foster open dialogue and engage students and the public in critical conversations about democracy, media, and voter participation.

A special look into art exhibition Seeing through Stone

For First Friday this September 6, Director and Chief Curator, Dr. Rachel Nelson will give a special curator-led walk-through of the major Visualizing Abolition exhibition, Seeing through Stone, at the UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences Gallery on the Westside of Santa Cruz.

New internship program gives high school students a hands-on education in art

A first for high school students in Santa Cruz County, the Institute for Arts & Sciences just wrapped up its inaugural youth program, Art For All. Funded by the Monterey Peninsula Foundation,The program brings together high school juniors and seniors from around the Santa Cruz area to give them a hands-on, behind-the scenes look at cultural spaces and exhibition curation.

UC Santa Cruz hosts HSRU Alliance conference to support Hispanic women in physical sciences and engineering

UC Santa Cruz hosted graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and staff from HSRU member institutions for a conference focused on supporting the success of Hispanic women in academic and professional physical science and engineering careers.

UCSC alumni awarded large NSF grant to grow virtual reality physical rehabilitation startup Immergo Labs

The National Science Foundation awarded three Baskin Engineering alumni with a $1,000,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant to support the research and development of an extended reality platform for full-body physical rehabilitation.

Annual event at Lick Observatory links modern astronomy to native perspectives

In collaboration with the UC Santa Cruz American Indian Resource Center, the University of California Observatories (UCO) recently hosted the second annual Native Star Stories Night at Lick Observatory. Held this year on May 9, the special event is intended to show that this traditional way of engaging with the cosmos remains as relevant and valuable today to indigenous communities as it was thousands of years ago.

UC Santa Cruz alumnus named semi-finalist in Student Academy Awards

Despite having only graduated last June, John Ortiz (M.F.A. ‘24, Social Documentation) is already finding success in the film industry. His documentary, Jerhy, is in the running for a Student Academy Award. He and his film currently rank as semi-finalists in the documentary category.

Artist-led walk-through offers rare opportunity to hear a creator discuss their own work in relationship to peers'

Seeing Through Stone opened in April, but is now hosting a unique opportunity to walk through the exhibition with one of the artists.

The UCSC Arts Division & Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery present 'Material Matters'

Once a year the art department hands out its most prestigious award, the William Hyde Irwin and Susan Benteen Irwin Scholarship. Every year twelve students receive this merit scholarship to help them create work that will be presented in the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery. This year the 38th annual Irwan Exhibition runs from May 29 through June 15.

The UCSC Arts Division presents Los Mejicas annual Spring show ‘Grupo Folklorico’

As one of the oldest organizations on campus, Los Mejicas has over half a century of bringing people together to celebrate their Mexican heritage. Their upcoming annual spring show, which marks the 52nd anniversary of the groups existence, celebrates traditional dance forms from six different regions in Mexico.

Championing Native American DNA

Kimberly TallBear, this year’s recipient of the University of California, Santa Cruz Distinguished Humanities Graduate Student Alumni Award, is being honored for her work in championing indigenous rights and protecting Native American DNA from exploitation.

UCSC will lead a Regional Hub of the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Alliance: the Engineering PLUS Alliance to serve those underrepresented in STEM

The Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz has been selected to lead the inaugural Western regional hub for the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Alliance: the Engineering PLUS Alliance to serve underrepresented academics in engineering.

UC Santa Cruz Arts Division presents Prahlad Singh Tipanya

University of California, Santa Cruz is happy to welcome Prahlad Singh Tipanya and his ensemble for a rare performance of Indian folk music featuring the poetry of singer-saint Kabir. The Sunday performance will include music that is rarely heard in the United States.

UC Santa Cruz Digital Arts and New Media program presents the 2024 MFA exhibition: "Embodiments"

The Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) program is showcasing the students’ best work in its annual MFA exhibition. Entitled Embodiments, the show features multimedia exhibits including visual novels, games and virtual reality as explorations into identity.

The Institute of Arts and Science & the San Jose Museum of Art present "Seeing Through Stone"

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz (IAS) and San José Museum of Art (SJMA) are pleased to present Seeing through Stone, a multi-sited exhibition bringing together works by international artists whose works engage a history of struggle against prisons and their harms.

UC Santa Cruz Arts Division presents “Search Party”

The Environmental Art & Social Practice (EASP) MFA looks at the intersection of the arts in terms of climate change and other systemic conflicts. This year’s MFA show is the second ever and features work from seven artists.

April in Santa Cruz Creative Music and Arts Festival 2024: "A Time For Change"

The annual month-long celebration of the arts is back at UC Santa Cruz. There will be a dozen performances by talented professionals in art forms including dance, animation and much more.

The Hindustani music concert featuring Uday Bhawalker accompanied by Sukhad Manik Munde

As a part of the (unofficially titled) Indian Music Series, University of California, Santa Cruz is welcoming Uday Bhawalkar to campus for a concert on Friday, April 12. The renowned vocalist will be performing Dhrupad music, one of the oldest musical genres in the Hindustani tradition.

Equity, civic-mindedness drive UC Santa Cruz’s Global and Community Health Program

Many of UC Santa Cruz’s core values are embodied in the Global and Community Health Program, which draws students who seek to study real-world problems encountered locally and worldwide, preparing them for a career in health care, policy, research or advocacy.

Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu launches her new book: "The Movies of Racial Childhoods"

To celebrate, Shimizu will be hosting a book launch on the University of California, Santa Cruz Campus at the Sesnon Gallery, where the book will be available for purchase from Two Birds Books. The book will be discussed in conversation with Shimizu and the Sesnon Gallery director Valeria Miranda.

The Center for Creative Ecologies presents "Nuclear Nows: Contemporary Art, Radiation, and Militarized Ecologies”

This two-part symposium is the work of Zoe Weldon-Yochim, a Ph.D. Candidate in Visual Studies, in collaboration with T.J. Demos, Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture and Director of the Center for Creative Ecologies, and will discuss the intersection of contemporary art, militarized ecologies, and nuclear nationalism.

The UCSC Music Department presents "The World Making Aura of Sonic Blackness" with Moor Mother & James Gordon Williams

On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, the University of California, Santa Cruz Music Department presents a very special performance by guest artist Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) and James Gordon Williams, assistant professor of music composition at UC Santa Cruz in the Recital Hall of the Music Center.

After Man: Alterhuman Ethics and Poetics at the Climate Change Tipping Point

Join associate professor micha cárdenas for her talk about the meeting point between the end of humanity and contemporary art.

The UCSC’s African American Theater Arts Troupe presents Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage

Light-hearted comedy captures the struggles of the formerly incarcerated staff as they hope for a better life

UCSC Central Asian Ensemble honors traditional Uzbek music with special guest master dutarist Rozibi Khodjaeva

UC Santa Cruz is home to the only Western dutar ensemble. They will be playing along with Rozibi Khodjaeva, a master dutar player who is visiting from her home in Uzbekistan. Under the instruction of associate music professor Tanya Merchant, the show will be a culmination of what her students have learned so far.

Bryant Terry touts power of food and community at 2024 Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation

Food justice advocate, chef, and author Bryant Terry called on people to seek alternatives to the industrialized food system during his keynote address for UC Santa Cruz’s 40th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation.

Renowned Sitarist Nishat Khan playing at UC Santa Cruz

The classical Indian musician will play at Music Center Recital Hall along with tabla player Nitin Mitta. The two are internationally recognized musicians. We will be welcoming Khan back after he last played in 2015.

Music Professor Russell Rodriguez wins the Américo Paredes Prize

The American Folklore Society awarded UC Santa Cruz professor Russell Rodriguez the annual Paredes prize in recognition of his work in the arts with the local community and his contributions to folklore and tradition.

National Endowment for the Humanities gives $60,000 award to two UCSC faculty members

The National Endowment for the Humanities included two UC Santa Cruz professors in their most recent round of grants and awards. Drs. Jennifer Derr and Stacy Kamehiro are using their newly awarded funding to continue in the projects that focus on diverse groups and global impacts.

Renowned chef, food activist Bryant Terry to deliver keynote address at 40th Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation

Acclaimed chef, author, and food justice advocate Bryant Terry will deliver the keynote address at UC Santa Cruz’s 40th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Institute of the Arts & Sciences announces inaugural artists in the Coha Nowark Art + Science Residency Program

Duke University Press publishes Arts Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu’s new book: The Movies of Racial Childhoods

UC Santa Cruz’s Dean of the Arts Division, award-winning filmmaker and author publishes her fourth sole-written book, exploring contemporary representations of Asian American youth.

UC Santa Cruz Humanities Division secures $1 million grant for Employing Humanities initiative

Investment from the Mellon Foundation will propel new program focused on experiential learning and career readiness for humanities students.