2021
Humanities News
- December 16, 2021
Tyler Stovall, renowned history professor and former humanities dean, dies at 67
Stovall was a faculty member of the UC Santa Cruz Humanities Division for 13 years, including three years serving as the chair of the History Department and provost of Stevenson College.
- December 16, 2021
Alumna bell hooks—celebrated feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist, and writer—dies at 69
bell hooks was the author of over two dozen books that ranged from the groundbreaking text 'Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism' to her deeply felt memoir 'Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood'.
- December 15, 2021
UC Santa Cruz receives Mellon Foundation humanities grant to investigate race, biomedicine
Faculty and students at UC Santa Cruz will critically investigate the relationships among medicine, race, and the environment both in the United States and in other regions of the globe shaped by the influence of American medicine.
- December 02, 2021
Karen Tei Yamashita receives 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
Yamashita used her acceptance speech, in part, to emphasize the significance of this medal being awarded to an Asian-American writer “especially this year, post-pandemic, having weathered the Twitter absurdity, corruption, and mendacity; the brutality of racial profiling; and the provocation of anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim, [and] anti-Asian hatred.”
- November 23, 2021
New grant to support Dickens Project programming in year ahead
The programming in 2022 is focused on questions of race and social justice in the 19th century and today, with the summer's Dickens Universe event broadening its purview by pairing a British novel with an African-American novel.
- November 15, 2021
Exhibit showcases remarkable lives of everyday Santa Cruz residents
Sponsored by The Humanities Institute and curated by THI’s Summer Public Fellow Morgan Gates, 'Do You Know My Name?' highlights the stories of everyday Santa Cruzans throughout the region’s history who were neither rich nor famous but whose lives are remarkable.
- November 10, 2021
Award-winning poet Gary Young to read at 12th annual Morton Marcus memorial event
Gary Young has written powerful, richly detailed verses often inspired by the bounty of the natural world. And as with most great poetry, Young’s work is great on the page, but truly comes to life when it is read aloud.
- October 28, 2021
How one tiny island influenced the world
Egill Bjarnason, journalist and Soc Doc alumnus, explains the big history of his native Iceland in a "joyously peculiar book."
- October 12, 2021
Ensuring student success in both the short and long term
This wide-ranging effort will increase financial support for our undergraduate and graduate students, and advance their access to the guidance and experiences fundamental to their education and ultimately future success.
- October 05, 2021
Mellon Foundation award to support UC Santa Cruz’s ‘Visualizing Abolition’ initiative
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1,977,000 grant to support 'Visualizing Abolition,' the nation’s most ambitious and sustained art and prison abolition initiative.
- September 23, 2021
Stellar new faculty strengthen campus research, teaching
To build on existing research strength and branch into new areas of inquiry, UC Santa Cruz has recruited 40 new tenure-track faculty members for the academic year that starts this week.
- September 15, 2021
Felicity Schaeffer named Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies
Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, the new Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies, plans to address the most pressing issues of the department’s focus on social justice.
- September 13, 2021
Karen Tei Yamashita to receive 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
UC Santa Cruz emerita professor of literature Karen Tei Yamashita will be awarded the 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards.
- August 31, 2021
Fundraising push seeks to bring Afghan thought leaders to safety on UCSC campus
UC Santa Cruz has launched an Afghanistan Visiting Scholars Emergency Support Fund, which aims to raise $100,000 before midnight, Sept. 3. as part of an effort place at least two at-risk Afghans into visiting scholar appointments.
- August 24, 2021
Humanities Institute and Bookshop Santa Cruz offer evening with bestselling author Sandra Cisneros
UCSC’s Humanities Institute is co-sponsoring a special online event with Bookshop Santa Cruz, featuring Sandra Cisneros, in conversation with Emmy Award-winning journalist Rubén Martínez, to celebrate her new book, "Martita, I Remember You / Martita, te recuerdo."
- August 10, 2021
Two new grants support faculty diversity and retention
UC Santa Cruz was awarded grants from the University of California to support two collaborative multi-campus projects for advancing faculty diversity.
- July 22, 2021
Dickens Universe celebrates 40th anniversary with ‘A Christmas Carol’
This summer, the Dickens Project at UC Santa Cruz—the largest multi-campus consortium on Victorian studies in the world—will present the 40th year of the Dickens Universe, a week of intense study and festivities.
- July 16, 2021
History professor wins prize for article on post-Civil War incarceration of African American children
Associate professor of history Catherine Jones has been honored with the 2021 Richards Prize for the best article published in The Journal of the Civil War Era in 2020. The journal explores how knowledge of the Civil War era informs our understanding of 21st-century politics and society.
- July 13, 2021
‘Precarity & Belonging’ captures insights from global discussion of citizenship, migration, socioeconomic mobility
A new book from an interdisciplinary group of UC Santa Cruz scholars culminates more than five years of collaborative research and discussion that positioned the university as a convener of global thought leaders.
- July 06, 2021
Library’s new Community Archiving Program to broaden scope of Regional History Project
The University Library has announced the establishment of a new Community Archiving Program that will build on the foundation of its decades-old Regional History Project.
- June 25, 2021
Graduate student organizing community workshops on the queer Black experience
Mia Boykin is expanding her Black.Queer.Alive. project to include four community workshops that will explore fitness, creativity, politics and entrepreneurship.
- June 22, 2021
Nathaniel Deutsch’s ‘A Fortress in Brooklyn’ reveals provocative counter-history of American Jewry
A new book by UC Santa Cruz history professor Nathaniel Deutsch details how a group of determined Holocaust survivors survived in one of the roughest parts of New York City—reshaping the urban landscape of postwar Brooklyn.
- June 21, 2021
Graduate student explores gay literature's contributions to social movements, canon
Eric Sneathen explores how gay men, beginning in the 1960s, formed a literary community, wrote or curated poems and other literary works about their experiences, and how this community informed the more recent social movements around gay identity.
- June 10, 2021
Pulitzer Prize-winning UCSC alumnus Jeffrey Stewart gives keynote address at Humanities Spring Awards
UC Santa Cruz alumnus Jeffrey Stewart (Cowell College ’71, philosophy) delivered the keynote address at the annual event celebrating the achievements of students, faculty, and alumni of the Humanities Division.
- June 07, 2021
Registration open for the 40th annual Virtual Dickens Universe featuring ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Dickens Universe is an annual gathering of scholars, teachers, and members of the general public who share a love of Dickens's writings and his era. This summer, the Universe features A Christmas Carol and will take place online.
- June 07, 2021
Jonah Gertz
Jonah Gertz tried to choose between his two academic passions: intensive history and music. But, he said, the choice was impossible since he was surrounded by so many different opportunities to grow as both a historian and musician.
- June 07, 2021
Katharina Pierini
The qualities of patience, perseverance, focus, hard work, and striving to achieve an elusive goal helped Katharina Pierini hold the course toward a UC Santa Cruz diploma, an educational path she completed in spite of a 27-year-long delay and a devastating wildfire.
- June 03, 2021
Feminist studies Ph.D. student receives Institute for Citizens & Scholars fellowship
Claire Urbanski, a Ph.D. candidate in feminist studies, has been named a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation).
- May 24, 2021
‘We Are What We Eat’: Alice Waters to celebrate new book in live event with Michael Pollan
Renowned chef and food activist Alice Waters will be in conversation with bestselling author Michael Pollan at a live virtual event presented by Bookshop Santa Cruz and Extended Session, and co-sponsored by UCSC’s Humanities Institute.
- May 23, 2021
UC collaboration launches first online course in the Punjabi language
The first online Punjabi language course for University of California students that launched earlier this year is a collaboration of several UC campuses, centered on UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis.
- May 12, 2021
Alumna Reyna Grande wins Latino Spirit Award for Achievement in Literature & Advocacy
UC Santa Cruz alumna Reyna Grande (Kresge '99, B.A. creative writing, film & video) has received a 2021 Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus.
- May 04, 2021
Preserving the legacy of Watsonville’s first Filipino immigrants
In partnership with the university, the community-led Tobera Project will develop an oral history archive and digital exhibition to be housed at McHenry Library.
- April 28, 2021
2021-22 Dickson Emeritus awards support faculty research in history, literature, and psychology
Karen Yamashita, professor emerita of literature; Dana Frank, research professor in history; and Thomas Pettigrew, research professor in psychology, were each awarded Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorships in recognition of their outstanding achievements in scholarship and teaching.
- April 23, 2021
Three UCSC professors elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Angela Davis, distinguished professor emerita of history of consciousness and feminist studies; James Estes, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Barbara Rogoff, distinguished professor of psychology, are among the newly elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- April 09, 2021
Inaugural Hayden White lecture to explore the afterlife of slavery with author Saidiya Hartman
Award-winning literary scholar and cultural historian Saidiya Hartman will be the featured guest at the inaugural Hayden V. White Distinguished Annual Lecture, a virtual event that takes place on April 19.
- April 06, 2021
UC Santa Cruz to launch new support center to advance the university’s innovation, industry engagement
UC Santa Cruz is launching a new support center to advance innovation, entrepreneurship and business engagement that will leverage the campus’s innovative spirit and be guided by its deep commitment to environmental and social justice.
- April 06, 2021
Proud Slugs making a difference through public service
A Superior Court judge. The director of the public art program for Los Angeles. A defense attorney. They all believe in public service, and they all say their time at UC Santa Cruz changed their lives in permanent ways.
- March 23, 2021
'Another glass ceiling shattered'
UC Santa Cruz student Gina Schneider became a part of history as one of the first women in the U.S. to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.
- March 22, 2021
Founding UC Santa Cruz professor and revered literary and cultural critic Harry Berger Jr. dies at 96
Harry Berger Jr., professor emeritus of literature and art history at UC Santa Cruz, died on March 12, 2021, at age 96. An internationally recognized scholar and founding UCSC faculty member, Berger was known for a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary approach that goes far beyond traditional academic boundaries.
- March 18, 2021
UC Santa Cruz joins new consortium to ensure future of SlaveVoyages database
UC Santa Cruz has joined a newly formed consortium of institutions to ensure the preservation, stability, and future development of what has become the single most widely used online resource for anyone interested in slavery across the Atlantic world.
- March 11, 2021
How to live like Shakespeare
A new series of conversations about Shakespeare that explore different aspects of human experience and the human condition kicks off April 5, co-hosted by Sean Keilen, director of UCSC's Shakespeare Workshop, and Julia Lupton, co-director of the New Swan Shakespeare Center at UC Irvine.
- February 26, 2021
Deep Read to present Tommy Orange in conversation with literature professor Micah Perks
Award-winning novelist Tommy Orange will be featured in conversation with literature professor Micah Perks, director of UCSC’s Creative Writing Program, in a free virtual event on Wednesday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m.
- February 24, 2021
Notes of resistance
History Professor Eric Porter delves deeply into jazz improvisation as a means for "resistance, survival, and promoting one’s own resiliency."
- February 22, 2021
LASER talk to feature research by UCSC deans of the humanities and social sciences
The event will feature research presentations by Jasmine Alinder, Dean of the Humanities (“Representing Japanese American Incarceration”), and Katharyne Mitchell, Dean of the Social Sciences (“Sanctuary Space and Insurgent Memory”).
- February 11, 2021
Annual Jewish Studies Diller Lecture to feature award-winning author Sarah Stein
This year’s Helen Diller Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies will feature guest author and scholar Sarah Abrevaya Stein—in conversation with UCSC’s Neufeld-Levin Chair of Holocaust Studies, Alma Heckman—on Wednesday, February 17, at 5 p.m.
- January 28, 2021
UCSC awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grants to support faculty research
UC Santa Cruz has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support faculty research and writing leading to book projects.
- January 19, 2021
In Memoriam: Buchanan Sharp (1942–2020)
With profound sadness, we announce the death of Buchanan Sharp, professor emeritus of history, an extraordinary person, a lively spirit, and one of our department's most outstanding teachers.
- January 14, 2021
Humanities Institute launches 2021 Deep Read with Tommy Orange’s novel ‘There There’
Following the success of last year’s Deep Read with guest author Margaret Atwood, The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz has announced the second installment of its new program that invites the campus and community to think deeply about literature, art, and the most pressing issues of the day.
- January 08, 2021
UCSC’s Living Writers Series a place to shelter in the storm
“Shelter and Place” is the theme of the 2021 winter installment of the Living Writers Series at UC Santa Cruz. Curated by Micah Perks, professor of literature and director of the Creative Writing Program, the now virtual series will run from January 14 through March 4, on Thursday nights throughout the winter quarter.
- January 04, 2021
UC Santa Cruz scholar of Chinese American history Judy Yung dies at 74
Judy Yung, a pioneering author and scholar of Chinese American and women's history, died on December 14, 2020.
