Arts & Culture
Donna Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department, receives international honors
This spring, Donna Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department, received two international honors for her impact not just within academia, but across disciplines, borders, and possible futures.
Donna Haraway with her dog Shindychew. PHOto credit: Clara Mokri
This spring, Donna Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department, received two international honors for her impact not just within academia, but across disciplines, borders, and possible futures.
Haraway was named the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. In the announcement, curator Carlo Ratti called her “one of the most influential voices in contemporary thought,” praising her unique ability to imagine hybrid futures in which the natural, the artificial, and the collective are not separate spheres, but deeply entangled realities.
Her work, Ratti noted, offers “alternative worlds” and cultivates “new kin”—concepts now rippling into architecture, design, and environmental politics.
It is a singular honor in a space traditionally dominated by architects, and a striking testament to the imaginative reach of feminist science and technology studies, Ratti said.
Haraway was also named a recipient of the 2025 Erasmus Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious recognitions for contributions to culture, society, and social thought.
These twin honors—infused with celebration and urgency—come at a moment when Haraway herself continues to emphasize the role of collectivity, resistance, and interdisciplinary scholarship in the struggle against rising authoritarianism.
Responding to these awards, Haraway said, “I am amazed and honored by both prizes. They bring home to me forcefully the strength of our collaborative and transdisciplinary networks of thinking and feeling in hard times. ‘Staying with the trouble’ is my motto, when I’m not shouting the schutzhund dog-training slogan, ‘Run Fast! Bite Hard!’”
On Tuesday, June 3, the McHenry Library Special Collections & Archives will host “THICK, SLIMY, SQUISHY, SQUIGGLY & GENERATIVE: A Conversation with Donna Haraway,” featuring Haraway in conversation with three of her former graduate students——Chela Sandoval (Chicana Studies, UCSB), Katie King (Women’s Studies, UMD), and Caren Kaplan (American Studies, UC Davis).
All four thinkers are rooted in the History of Consciousness program, which was launched in 1965, the year of UC Santa Cruz’s founding.
Remembering the people and the mid-1980s, Haraway said, “Che, Caren, Katie and I lived in a magical and hard-working place and time. That legacy is part of today too, in this event in Special Collections and beyond.”
This event, co-organized by the Center for Archival Research and Training (CART) and CART Fellow Annika Berry (UCSC Literature PhD Candidate), will revisit those years—and the interdisciplinary ecosystem that made them possible.
The conversation promises to map the “generative entanglements” of ideas and friendships that have animated decades of scholarship—and to affirm, in Haraway’s words, that “integrity, humor, and collectivity” are essential tools for navigating the urgencies of the 21st century.
This event also marks the public opening of the Donna Haraway Papers, newly processed and now available for research at McHenry Library. These archives offer future scholars a tactile connection to Haraway’s process—her marginalia, drafts, collaborations, and provocations—a vital inheritance for students, thinkers, and builders of other worlds.
Humanities Dean Jasmine Alinder praised the way Haraway’s work bridges disciplines. “In her work, Donna Haraway disregards the false boundaries that so often divide the humanities from science, or theory from practice,” Alinder said. “At a time when our world demands bold, collective imagination to confront ecological crisis, technological upheaval, and political instability, her scholarship offers a model of how interdisciplinary thinking can be both rigorous and radically hopeful. These international honors remind us that the humanities are not only relevant—they are indispensable.”