UC Santa Cruz will celebrate its new Humanities Building with a reception and dedication ceremony on April 28 during the campus’s annual Banana Slug Spring Fair. The event is free and the public is invited.
From 3 to 4 p.m., the Humanities Division will host a reception featuring graduate student research in history, literature, philosophy, linguistics, and history of consciousness--along with live music, food, departmental displays, and the opportunity to interact with humanities faculty, students, and staff. Faculty authors will be available to talk about their recent publications and sign copies of their books.
The building dedication ceremony and ribbon-cutting event will begin at 4 p.m. UCSC’s Acting Chancellor George Blumenthal will speak about the significance of the humanities for the campus, while new Dean of Humanities Georges Van Den Abbeele will give a talk titled: “The Humanities: Present and Future.” Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education William Ladusaw will also speak about the design and concept of the Humanities Building complex.
In addition, Peggy Downes Baskin, research associate in feminist studies, will discuss her husband Jack Baskin’s recent gift to the university in her honor--the Peggy Downes Baskin Endowed Humanities Chair for Interdisciplinary Studies in Ethics—and her interest in ethical issues. Professor of literature and feminist studies Helene Moglen--UCSC dean of humanities from 1978 to 1983--will open the program and act as emcee.
The six-story Humanities 1 Building is now the home of nearly all faculty, departmental, and administrative offices for the Humanities Division. It is part of a $29.3 million complex that includes a 300-seat Humanities Lecture Hall, a landscaped courtyard with redwood benches, and a four-story adjacent structure that provides additional classroom space and computer labs for both the Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions. The building complex is located north of Cowell College at the northwest corner of Hagar and McLaughlin Drives.
Completed in late 2006, the new facilities now give the humanities a tangible presence on campus—not only centralizing faculty, staff, and students, but also making events and programs more visible and accessible to other campus community members and the general public.
"The new Humanities Building is significant because for the first time in the history of the campus, it brings together the majority of faculty teaching in the humanities fields,” noted Van Den Abbeele. “And it does so in close proximity to the founding site of the campus and to Cowell and Stevenson Colleges, which have been traditionally focused on the humanities," he added.
All dedication events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the UCSC Humanities Division at (831) 459-2696.
