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2021 International

October 13, 2021
Reimagining our economy for the benefit of all
Faculty members at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Southern California released a new book that offers a road map and conceptual framework for equity-driven economic reform in the United States.
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.
October 01, 2021
Professor’s TED talk on body ideals warns against ‘conflation of appearance with health’
UC Santa Cruz professor and medical anthropologist Nancy Chen gave a popular TED Salon talk that has been viewed more than 780,000 times online.
September 30, 2021
Graduate student studying New Orleans' Latin American connections
Rafael Delgadillo, a UC Santa Cruz doctoral student in Latin American and Latino Studies, is looking at how New Orleans' colonial foundations set a tone for its distinctiveness within the United States.
September 24, 2021
Mellon Foundation grant will support national initiative in Latinx studies
Through a three-year, $5 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, UC Santa Cruz will be part of a national initiative in Latinx studies called “Crossing Latinidades: Emerging Scholars and New Comparative Directions.”
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 14, 2021
Pairing research excellence and status as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, UC Santa Cruz launching new programs to advance educational equity
Committed to creating educational equity that will help lead to real, transformative change, UC Santa Cruz will launch an array of new programs to support the success of Latinx, low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students and prepare them for rewarding careers once they graduate.
September 14, 2021
The writing on the wall: exploring the cultural value of graffiti and street art
Doctoral candidate’s research interprets graffiti’s deeper meaning among Latinx and Black urban subcultures in Los Angeles.
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.
September 07, 2021
UC Santa Cruz course tutorial wins national online learning award
Three UC Santa Cruz staff members have been honored for creating an online instruction tutorial last year after the campus shut down and suspended in-person teaching because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 02, 2021
Psychologist shares tips for studying smarter this school year
Assistant Professor of Psychology Hannah Hausman and colleagues translated findings from more than 100 research papers to offer students and teachers a guiding framework and practical tips for making the most of study time.
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 23, 2021
Experts weigh in on the future of drought management
UC Santa Cruz experts share insights on how technological innovations and long-term policy vision could help protect water supply.
August 18, 2021
The legacy is in the soil
Acclaimed chef/farmer and CASFS apprenticeship graduate Matthew Raiford will share his heritage-based approach to food and farming during an August 25 event on campus.
August 17, 2021
UCSC theater arts alumna nominated for Emmy Award in television writing
UC Santa Cruz theater arts alumna Ashley Nicole Black is on a roll. The 36-year-old comedian has the distinction of being nominated twice in the same category of television writing for the upcoming 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards.
August 10, 2021
Preserving the caring, compassion that helped us through the CZU wildfire
Watching the wildfires now burning throughout California takes me back to the anxious, uncertain days one year ago when the CZU Lightning Complex wildfire was burning through our county.
August 09, 2021
Doctoral candidate’s award-winning research documents experiences of Latina girls growing up in rural California
UC Santa Cruz graduate student Roxanna Villalobos recently won a national dissertation scholarship award from Sociologists for Women in Society that will support her research with Latina girls in rural California.
August 02, 2021
Switzer Fellowship will help graduate student engage communities in climate planning
Coastal Science and Policy Program master’s student Diana Fu won a Switzer Foundation fellowship to support her work advancing environmental justice through climate change adaptation.
July 30, 2021
Climate change poses threat to ‘tuna dependent’ Pacific Islands economies
Shifting distributions of key tuna species could have serious economic impacts for island nations in the Western and Central Pacific, according to a new paper coauthored by Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Katherine Seto.
July 29, 2021
Oakes Founding Provost J. Herman Blake receives lifetime achievement award
Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founding Provost of Oakes College J. Herman Blake is being recognized by the American Sociology Association for his distinguished career spent advancing access and equity in education.
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 22, 2021
Racial and colonial histories offer insights on refugee crisis in ‘The Black Mediterranean’
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Camilla Hawthorne coedited a first-of-its-kind new book called "The Black Mediterranean," which examines the African diaspora within the region.
July 20, 2021
Susana Ruiz awarded ACLS digital grant to develop VR documentary of 2011 Egyptian Uprising
UC Santa Cruz assistant film and digital media professor Susana Ruiz has received a 2021 Digital Extension Grant of $150,000 from The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for her project, Arab Data Bodies: Social Media in Mixed Reality.
July 15, 2021
Statistical analysis quantifies how chemistry undergraduates benefit from graduate student diversity
A study of chemistry lab courses at UC Santa Cruz suggests that diversity among graduate student teaching assistants may be among the most essential factors in retaining underrepresented minority undergraduates in STEM courses.
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 02, 2021
Unusual currents explain mysterious red crab strandings
New findings suggest that abnormal ocean currents cause the occasional appearance of pelagic red crabs outside their native range.
July 02, 2021
Quantitative ecologist Kai Zhu wins NSF funding for climate change research and education
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Kai Zhu won an NSF CAREER award to support research and education focused on the interconnections between climate change and plant phenology.
July 02, 2021
New research on aquaculture feed will test alternative ingredients to help minimize water pollution
A new grant will support UC Santa Cruz’s ecological aquaculture lab in their efforts to increase the variety and quality of low-polluting aquaculture feed options available to fish farmers.
June 23, 2021
Tracking data show how the quiet of pandemic-era lockdowns allowed pumas to venture closer to urban areas
During regional shelter-in-place orders, declining levels of human mobility emboldened local pumas to use habitats they would normally avoid out of fear of humans.
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
New study shows how loss of drought-sensitive species could affect health of California grasslands
At a grassland site near San Jose, scientists studied experimental research plots to determine what might happen if the plants that ecologists expect to be hit hardest by drought actually disappeared.
June 16, 2021
Hydrologist Margaret Zimmer wins NSF CAREER Award
Margaret Zimmer, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has received an award from the National Science Foundation to support her research on the role of Earth’s subsurface in regulating the water cycle.
June 15, 2021
Dialogues, collaborations, and the success of 'slow science'
With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, the new Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions Initiative takes a methodical approach to worldwide social and environmental challenges
June 09, 2021
Doctoral student wins Ford Foundation fellowship for work on gender, race, and policing
Uriel Serrano recently won a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to support his research on how gender ideologies are formed in relation to carceral violence.
June 09, 2021
Research partnership will highlight STEM learning in local community garden
A grant from the Spencer Foundation will help UC Santa Cruz researchers document the many types of STEM learning taking place in a Latinx immigrant-led community garden in Watsonville.
June 07, 2021
Snowflake morays can feed on land, swallow prey without water
While most fish need water to feed, the unique anatomy of moray eels gives snowflake morays the ability to grab and swallow prey on land.
May 28, 2021
Professor Karen Holl wins MacArthur Foundation endowed chair to support work on natural climate solutions
Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation Chair at UC Santa Cruz for her work to increase the effectiveness of forest restoration efforts in combating climate change.
May 26, 2021
Visualizing global representation for Indigenous nations
A new book by Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies Hiroshi Fukurai shows how Indigenous “original nations” around the world are fighting for sovereignty and the ecological preservation of their ancestral homelands.
May 26, 2021
Somalia’s fight for God-given rights
The latest book from Politics and Legal Studies Professor Mark Fathi Massoud challenges Western notions of Islam and secular law-making by revealing how Somali Muslims have embraced Sharia as a force for progress and liberation.
May 25, 2021
Growing heritage and healing through traditional Asian vegetables
Faculty, staff, and alumni are drawing upon and strengthening their cultural heritage and connection to Asian foodways to cultivate traditional vegetables.
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 20, 2021
Study shows which North American mammals live most successfully alongside people
Researchers analyzed camera trap data from across the continent to better understand how particular species of mammals respond to different types of human disturbance.
May 19, 2021
UC Santa Cruz names Celine Parreñas Shimizu new dean of Arts Division
UC Santa Cruz has appointed award-winning filmmaker and film scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu as dean of the Arts Division, effective July 1.
May 17, 2021
Climate change sends tropical species racing to higher elevations while temperate counterparts lag behind
A new paper shows that, in mountain habitats, species' responses to rising temperatures vary by latitude, but researchers fear there may be no clear winners among these strategies.
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 12, 2021
Virtual reality warps your sense of time
Psychology research demonstrates the unique "time compression" effect of virtual reality.
May 06, 2021
Creating a soundtrack and adding a heartbeat to the struggle for prison abolition
UCSC’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences will present ‘Music for Abolition'--an artist panel featuring three-time Grammy-award winning musician Terri Lyne Carrington with a dozen prominent guest musicians.
May 04, 2021
Strauss Foundation award recognizes student’s work with families affected by incarceration
Legal studies undergraduate Matt Sioson recently won $15,000 in funding from the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation.
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 29, 2021
Fellowship win supports doctoral candidate’s research on national security policy
Cesar Estrella, a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American and Latino studies, won an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship to support his study of the ideologies that drive U.S. national security policy.
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 27, 2021
Faculty experts share pandemic-era lessons for the future of K-12 education
UC Santa Cruz researchers who have studied the pandemic’s impact on K-12 education share lessons they hope will be remembered for the future.
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 23, 2021
Professor Anne Kapuscinski will speak at upcoming Nobel Prize Summit
Environmental Studies Professor Anne Kapuscinski, director of the UC Santa Cruz Coastal Science and Policy program, will present recommendations on strengthening sustainability education during the “Our Planet, Our Future” Nobel Prize Summit next week.
April 21, 2021
UC Santa Cruz and United Way partner to empower youth through research in local communities
A research partnership between UC Santa Cruz and United Way of Santa Cruz County will offer local youth and UCSC undergraduates new leadership platforms and support college-readiness and success.
April 19, 2021
Live reading of The Comedy of Errors to benefit new scholarship for theater students
UCSC’s Arts Division will present a live virtual reading of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors on Friday, April 23, to honor Theater Arts professor Danny Sheie, who is retiring this year after three decades at the campus.
April 16, 2021
Alumna Terri McCullough, chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will make a virtual campus visit for Alumni Week
This year’s Alumni Week will feature a virtual fireside chat with Terri McCullough, an Oakes '91 politics alumna who is now chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
April 15, 2021
Two UC Santa Cruz arts professors receive 2021 Guggenheim Fellowships
Film and digital media professor Irene Lusztig and art professor Elizabeth Stephens were among the 184 artists, writers, scholars, and scientists selected this year from nearly 3,000 applicants to receive Guggenheim Fellowships.
April 13, 2021
Study of U.S. tuna fisheries explores nexus of climate change, sustainable seafood
A new study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz and NOAA examines traditional aspects of seafood sustainability alongside greenhouse gas emissions to better understand the carbon footprint of U.S. tuna fisheries.
April 12, 2021
Sharing insights from more than six decades of social psychology research
New book by Professor Emeritus Thomas Pettigrew distills themes across his storied career
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.
March 29, 2021
Teens describe their gender and sexuality in diverse new ways, but some are being left behind
Psychology Professor Phil Hammack’s latest research shows how regional differences and other social factors can either hinder or support expression of diversity in sexual and gender identity among teens and young adults.
March 25, 2021
UC Santa Cruz faculty recognized for excellence in ecology
The Ecological Society of America announced its 2021 Fellow and Early Career Fellow awards, and UC Santa Cruz’s faculty were the most decorated of any university on this year’s list.
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 18, 2021
UCSC professor contributes to new study showing how parts of the US will ‘tropicalize’ as climate changes
Environmental Studies Professor Michael Loik is a coauthor on a new paper describing how warming winters are allowing some tropical plants and animals to replace temperate communities in southern portions of the country.
March 18, 2021
New analysis shows potential for ‘solar canals’ in California
UC Santa Cruz researchers and their partners published a new study that suggests covering California’s water delivery canals with solar panels could be an economically viable means of advancing renewable energy and water conservation.
March 16, 2021
Campus holds first Sexual Violence Sexual Harassment Research Symposium
UC Santa Cruz will hold its first-ever research symposium — and a first for a UC campus — highlighting research by campus scholars on issues of sexual violence and sexual harassment Friday, April 2.
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.
March 11, 2021
Disrupting harmful food systems to prevent future pandemics
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Maywa Montenegro de Wit is exploring how lessons from the abolition movement could help agroecology combat the agro-industrial complex to prevent future pandemics.
March 03, 2021
Girl activists are more visible than ever. Is this progress?
In the past decade, there’s been an explosion in media coverage of girl activists. Professor Jessica Taft, a leading expert in youth activism, sees opportunity in this visibility, but her research has also identified many troubling trends in how girl activists are portrayed.
February 26, 2021
Massive debris flow swamps Big Creek Reserve as heavy rains follow summer wildfire
Boulders the size of vehicles and decades-old redwoods were ripped from the banks of the Big Creek drainage when an atmospheric river inundated the Landels-Hill Big Creek Natural Reserve on the Big Sur coast in late January.
February 25, 2021
Forest monitoring efforts contribute to new understanding of climate change impacts
Data collected by student interns at UC Santa Cruz’s Forest Ecology Research Plot recently contributed to a breakthrough in understanding how climate change affects forests.
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.
February 04, 2021
Three UCSC film alumni recognized by International Documentary Association
Three alumni from UCSC’s Film and Digital Media Department received nominations for this year's prestigious International Documentary Association Awards (IDA).
February 04, 2021
Rob Fairlie testifies before Congress on inequality in pandemic economic impacts
Rob Fairlie testified before the House Committee on Small Business to share his latest research on the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, including the disproportionate hardships faced by minority-owned businesses.
February 02, 2021
Robert Bocking Stevens, fifth UCSC chancellor, dies at age 87
Robert Bocking Stevens, a legal scholar in England and the United States who served as the fifth chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, died Jan. 30 in Oxford, England, at age 87.
February 01, 2021
Green New Deal architect Rhiana Gunn-Wright will make a virtual campus visit
Gunn-Wright previewed some of the insights she'll share on climate policy and environmental justice during her February 10th event with the Institute for Social Transformation.
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 25, 2021
Energy spent avoiding humans linked to smaller home ranges for male pumas
New research shows that fear of humans causes mountain lions to increase their energy expenditures as they move through the landscape, and this can ultimately limit the size of the home ranges they’re able to maintain.
January 22, 2021
New book by arts professor takes fresh look at controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe
UCSC history of art and visual culture professor Derek Conrad Murray offers the first dedicated book-length critical study of Mapplethorpe's lesser-known still life flower photographs.
January 20, 2021
Italian newspaper ranks sociology professor among top women of the year
Camilla Hawthorne is being recognized for shedding light on emergent Afro-Italian identities and activism during a time of racial reckoning in Italy and beyond.
January 19, 2021
Grant funding will advance aquaculture research in UCSC’s new state-of-the-art facility
Researchers won a USDA grant in support of their efforts to develop ocean-friendly feed formulas for farm-raised rainbow trout. This work will take place in the team's new aquaculture facility at the UCSC Farm.
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 08, 2021
Professor recognized among the art world’s top influencers for 2020
Anthropology professor Anna Tsing won international acclaim for an interdisciplinary project that documents drivers of the Anthropocene in creative new ways.
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.
January 04, 2021
Uncovering the social factors lurking within diabetes risk
Assistant professor of sociology James Doucet-Battle's new book challenges assumptions about race within diabetes research and delves into the issue through the lens of African American experience.
January 04, 2021
Shedding light on one of environmental policy’s most under-the-radar strategies
Associate professor of environmental studies Sikina Jinnah studies the environmental provisions contained within trade agreements and wants to help policymakers better navigate this space.