The Humanities Division at UC Santa Cruz is recognized nationwide for its innovation and research impact as well as a distinguished alumni base that includes college presidents, cultural critics, award-winning authors and winners of the MacArthur “Genius” Award and Marshall Scholarships.
Now, the strength and influence of the Humanities on the UCSC campus is being recognized by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), which has invited UC Santa Cruz to join the ACLS Research University Consortium.
The consortium of 43 eminent institutions plays an essential leadership role in helping to sustain and enhance the national infrastructure of humanities and humanistic social sciences research.
Every month, the member institutions meet virtually, discussing research and scholarship.
“Being part of this valuable consortium will make it possible for me and my colleagues across the United States to work together more closely at a time when humanistic inquiry has never been more important,” said UCSC Humanities Dean Jasmine Alinder.
“We are excited and honored to welcome the University of California, Santa Cruz as a member of the ACLS Research University Consortium,” said ACLS President Joy Connolly. “UC Santa Cruz has a distinctive reputation for creative interdisciplinary exploration across the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Its Humanities Institute is an exemplar of public engagement.”
“Having come to know members of the UC Santa Cruz community through our Design Workshop in recent years, we look forward to working with Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer, Dean Jasmine Alinder, and their colleagues to advance the fields we value so deeply,” Connolly said.
Connolly is a distinguished scholar of ancient Roman rhetoric and political thought and their enduring influence, as well as a thought leader on the future of the humanities and fostering a more just and diverse academy.
Connolly delivered the 2023 UC Santa Cruz’s Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture, “A Connected Planet: Scholarship for the Global Good” this winter.
Consortium member institutions include Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Columbia University, New York University, and seven other campuses in the UC system including UCLA and UC Berkeley.
