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Social Consciousness

December 11, 2020
UCSC arts professor documents spread of COVID-19 inside prisons, jails, and detention centers
A new Interactive web project by film and digital media professor Sharon Daniel creates a cumulative public record and evolving history of the pandemic’s impact on those incarcerated
December 02, 2020
UCSC offers new M.F.A. degree program in Environmental Art and Social Practice
The UC Santa Cruz Art Department is now accepting applications for a new M.F.A. degree program in Environmental Art and Social Practice (EASP), set to begin in fall quarter of 2021.
November 30, 2020
UCSC iGEM team wins gold, nominated for best environmental project
Thirteen undergraduates were recognized for their research accomplishments at the world’s largest competition in synthetic biology.
November 19, 2020
'Living in a Frayed Democracy': Ethics lecture to feature noted alumnus Ezra Klein
UC Santa Cruz will present "Living in a Frayed Democracy," a trans-Atlantic public dialogue, featuring noted UCSC alumnus and journalist Ezra Klein and London political economist William Davies, as part of the Humanities Division’s Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture Series on Dec. 5.
November 16, 2020
Two UC Santa Cruz programs win funding for public interest technology
The Human Rights Investigations Lab and Everett Program at UC Santa Cruz will receive new grant funding through the Public Interest Technology University Network.
November 12, 2020
Humanities Institute to host acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates in special post-election event
Coates will be in conversation with Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic magazine, to discuss his acclaimed novel "The Water Dancer"—as well as the state of the country after the election
November 08, 2020
Arts professor micha cárdenas wins IndieCade Award for climate art game
Sin Sol (No Sun), an art game by UCSC assistant professor of Art & Design: Games and Playable Media, micha cárdenas, has won the Impact Award at the 2020 IndieCade International Festival of Independent Games.
November 06, 2020
Film professor Jennifer Taylor’s new documentary to screen online at DOC NYC film festival
America’s largest documentary film festival will be screening 'For the Love of Rutland'—the new documentary feature by UCSC associate professor of film and digital media Jennifer Maytorena Taylor—online throughout the U.S. this month.
November 04, 2020
Award-winning poet Morgan Parker to read at 11th annual Morton Marcus memorial event
Acclaimed poet, essayist, and novelist Morgan Parker will be the featured guest at the 11th annual Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Reading, which takes place this year as a virtual event on November 12.
October 26, 2020
Big Ideas contest offers up to $20,000 for big ideas in social innovation
Big Ideas contest, open to all UC students, seeks student-led, early-stage projects or ideas with a social impact focus.
October 26, 2020
MacArthur 'genius' grant winner reflects on early influences at UC Santa Cruz
Forrest Stuart has built his career pursuing burning questions about the societal underpinnings of poverty and criminalization across disciplines. Stuart said his research focus has been influenced both by his childhood and the formative experiences of his undergraduate education at University of California, Santa Cruz, where he earned his bachelor’s in politics in 2004.
October 21, 2020
Feminist studies Ph.D. student receives American Association of University Women fellowship
The program aims to tackle barriers women face in education by recognizing recipients whose academic work and community projects empower women and girls.
October 21, 2020
UCSC alumna Traci Chee named finalist for 2020 National Book Award
'We Are Not Free,' a work of historical fiction by UC Santa Cruz alumna Traci Chee, has been named a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
October 15, 2020
‘Visualizing Abolition’ series kicks off with conversation featuring Angela Davis and Gina Dent
The UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences has joined forces with associate feminist studies professor Gina Dent to offer a year-long online series featuring artists, activists, scholars, and lawyers united by their commitment to the struggle for prison abolition.
October 13, 2020
Challenging how we see the prison-industrial complex
An ambitious two-part exhibit, titled Barring Freedom and Visualizing Abolition, organized by the UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences, combines art and activism to address prison and policing issues.
October 07, 2020
10-screen film installation and photo exhibition by professor Isaac Julien opens at McEvoy Arts
The McEvoy Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco will present the West Coast debut of 'Lessons of the Hour,' a moving image and photography exhibition about the life of Frederick Douglass by British filmmaker, installation artist, and UC Santa Cruz professor of the arts, Isaac Julien.
September 21, 2020
LALS doctoral candidate Candy Martínez awarded Native American Scholars Initiative Fellowship
Candy Martínez, a PhD. candidate in Latin America Latino Studies, has been named a 2020-2021 Andrew W. Mellon Native American Scholars Initiative Fellow at the American Philosophical Society.
September 16, 2020
The global land rush
In her new book, 'Fields of Gold, Financing the Global Land Rush,' Madeleine Fairbairn looks at forces and players that have transformed farmland into a novel financial asset class.
September 15, 2020
2020 Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture to feature visionary author Margaret Atwood
Award-winning poet, novelist and essayist Margaret Atwood will be featured in conversation with UCSC alumna Kate Schatz, the New York Times bestselling author of "Rad American Women A-Z," as part of the Humanities Division’s annual Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture Series.
September 10, 2020
New art game explores intersection of personal trauma and climate induced wildfires
Sin Sol (No Sun) is an augmented reality game that allows players to experience the feelings of a climate change event. Set 50 years in the future, it tells the story of environmental collapse from the past—which is our present in 2020.
August 31, 2020
History professor Eric Porter examines musical improvisation as a response to crisis
"Playing for Keeps: Improvisation in the Aftermath" is an exploration of the various ways that musical improvisation can be used as a method for responding to crisis and dealing with trauma and stress.
August 12, 2020
UCSC historian Greg O’Malley awarded NEH grant for research on slavery in early America
UCSC history professor Gregory O’Malley has received a Public Scholars Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a biography of David George, who was born a slave in 1743 and whose pursuit of freedom intersects with major events of the Revolutionary Era.
August 04, 2020
College Nine: Embracing world cultures and developing tomorrow’s leaders
College Nine encourages students to take part in experiential learning opportunities and inspires them to become global citizens.
July 29, 2020
New Sikh and Punjabi Studies chair to enhance Asian Studies with focus on social justice
Associate professor of literature Guriqbal Singh Sahota has been appointed the new Sarbjit Singh Aurora Endowed Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies.
July 23, 2020
Humanities Institute and Cabrillo Festival to celebrate fight for equal voting rights
The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz has teamed up with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Bookshop Santa Cruz to present "Celebrating Woman Suffrage and the Struggle for Voting Rights"—a live Zoom panel discussion followed by audience Q&A
July 20, 2020
Virtual Dickens Universe to spotlight link between Victorian and African American studies
For nearly four decades, the Dickens Project at UC Santa Cruz—the largest multi-campus consortium on Victorian studies in the world—has presented the Dickens Universe, a week of intense study and festivities among the redwoods. But this year, due to the pandemic, it will instead be hosting a weeklong "Virtual Dickens Universe."
July 13, 2020
New film by Jennifer Taylor portrays Vermont town as microcosm of divided America
"For the Love of Rutland," a new documentary by UCSC film professor Jennifer Taylor, is an exploration of the multiple problems now faced by rural America--most notably the opioid epidemic, income inequality, racism, and xenophobia.
July 07, 2020
Karen Yamashita offers dazzling short stories about growing up in Japanese America
Sansei and Sensibility, the latest book by UC Santa Cruz emerita professor of literature Karen Tei Yamashita is a dazzling collection of short stories about growing up and living in Japanese America.
July 06, 2020
Connecting on campus
Social psychologist Rebecca Covarrubias documents the experiences of students who are the first in their family to attend college.
June 15, 2020
UCSC’s SocDoc graduate documentary films to be screened online June 15 to August 31
UC Santa Cruz will present the premiere of thesis films by nine graduating M.F.A. students in the field of social documentation this year—in a special online presentation from June 15 to August 31.
June 04, 2020
Historian Greg O’Malley awarded ACLS grant to expand Intra-American Slave Trade Database
UC Santa Cruz associate history professor Gregory O’Malley has received a 2020 Digital Extension Grant from The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to expand coverage of the Intra-American Slave Trade Database.
May 05, 2020
Already vulnerable, gig economy workers in San Francisco suffer during coronavirus pandemic, survey reveals
A new survey of app-based ride-hailing and food and grocery-delivery workers in San Francisco underscores the financial vulnerability of workers in the gig economy—and the coronavirus has made their plight much worse.
April 24, 2020
Lecturer Ryan Coonerty named UC Free Speech Fellow
Ryan Coonerty, a longtime lecturer in the Legal Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2020-21 fellow of UC’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.
April 23, 2020
Watch UCSC participants talk about hope during TEDx Santa Cruz
Last December, TEDx Santa Cruz hosted a day-long extravaganza of talks curated around the theme of "The Art of Hope." Those talks, including ones by several UCSC affiliates, are now available for online viewing.
April 21, 2020
Agroecology major available this fall
Beginning this fall, students will have an opportunity to enroll in a new agroecology major, an interdisciplinary program housed in the Environmental Studies Department.
April 21, 2020
Delivery and ridehailing workers lack critical protections from coronavirus
Chris Benner led an online survey of app-based workers in San Francisco, and preliminary results reveal significant financial hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
March 12, 2020
New book debunks myths about who causes crime and why
Craig Haney, a distinguished professor of psychology, is the author of the new book Criminality in Context: The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform, a comprehensive analysis of 40 years of research into the root causes of criminal behavior.
February 21, 2020
UC Santa Cruz joins national "tech for social good" network
UC Santa Cruz has been accepted into a new national network of colleges and universities that have made an explicit commitment to developing technology that will advance the public interest.
February 20, 2020
Aquaculture to benefit people and the environment
Two graduate students have received a one-year, $150,000 grant to create environmentally sound seaweed and sea cucumber farms on the coasts of Kenya and The Gambia.
February 20, 2020
Norris Center aims to inspire naturalists across campus
Jessica Correa has loved insects since she was a little girl. Today she is an instructor with the Bird School Project. The Norris Center for Natural History gave her the support that launched her career in environmental education.
February 18, 2020
Art professor’s exhibition in Spain addresses algae and climate change
UC Santa Cruz art professor Jennifer Parker believes that algae are an “unsung hero of the planet”--noting that these photosynthetic organisms produce one half of the total global oxygen, while absorbing one third of the carbon dioxide produced worldwide...
February 13, 2020
Using isotopes to reconstruct life histories within the transatlantic slave trade
Four hundred years after the displacement of millions of Africans began, anthropologist Vicky Oelze wants to use isotope biogeochemistry to trace back and identify the origins of individuals who were abducted and perished in the Americas.
February 11, 2020
Bringing new perspectives to astronomy
An array of grants from the Heising-Simons Foundation is helping UC Santa Cruz accelerate astrophysics and other sciences while changing what we think an astrophysicist looks like
February 06, 2020
Humanities Institute launches new ‘Deep Read’ initiative with spotlight on Margaret Atwood
The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz has launched “The Deep Read,” a new initiative that invites the campus—and the community at large—to take a deep dive into literature, art, and the most pressing issues of the day.
February 03, 2020
Engineering speaker series highlights diverse voices in tech
The Baskin School of Engineering is presenting Diverse Voices 2020, a professional speaker series running through May 14 and featuring a diverse group of industry leaders, including alum Tara Hernandez.
February 03, 2020
Craig Haney testifies before committee charged with revising state's penal code
Craig Haney, distinguished professor of psychology, was the only witness to testify during the first meeting of the newly formed Committee on Revision of the Penal Code.
January 23, 2020
Questions That Matter: Reporting the Middle East and the future of investigative journalism
The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz will present "Reporting the Middle East and the Future of Investigative Journalism"—the sixth installment of its Questions That Matter series—on Feb. 4 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in downtown Santa Cruz.
January 22, 2020
The power of research
Wilfrido Hernández Flores discovered social science research in the Culture and Achievement Collaborative, and it changed his life
January 16, 2020
Breaking down barriers to success
First-gen student Reina Garay-Solis is doing undergraduate research to help identify common challenges for first-gen and underrepresented students and find effective institutional practices to address them
January 16, 2020
$2.6 million grant funds program to increase diversity of conservation leaders
New funding for the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UC Santa Cruz builds on the program’s successes in training the next generation of diverse conservation leaders.
January 15, 2020
‘We The Enemy’ solo show by artist Carlos Motta explores the politics of borders
'We the Enemy,' the first West Coast solo exhibition of artworks by internationally acclaimed artist Carlos Motta, opens at the Sesnon Gallery on Jan. 23. It will be accompanied by 'Bodies on the Border,' a symposium at UCSC and SFMOMA, organized by the artist in collaboration with UCSC's Institute of the Arts and Sciences.
January 13, 2020
New online course supports first-time graduate student teaching assistants
A new online course aims to prepare new graduate student Teaching Assistants (TAs) for the important role of supporting student learning and promoting educational equity at UC Santa Cruz.
January 09, 2020
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to kick off ‘Beyond the End of the World’ lecture series
The Humanities Institute and the Center for Creative Ecologies at UC Santa Cruz will launch the "Beyond the End of the World" lecture series with award-winning author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, on January 23, at the Music Center Recital Hall.
January 08, 2020
Arts professor’s anthology named one of 'Best Art Books of the Decade'
'Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology'--a diverse collection of essays edited by UCSC history of art and visual culture professor Jennifer González--has been named one of the "Best Art Books of the Decade" by ArtNews.
January 06, 2020
Food and anti-corporate globalization activist Vandana Shiva coming to campus Jan. 25-26
The public is invited to attend two events with legendary food activist Vandana Shiva, who will be at UC Santa Cruz on January 25 and 26.