Arts & Culture
State assemblymember honors The Humanities Institute
The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz celebrated its 25th anniversary with a lively Night at the Museum event at the MAH, featuring speculative fiction projects, public scholarship, and a special commendation from State Assemblymember Gail Pellerin.
From left to right: Pranav Anand (THI Faculty Director), Irena Polić (THI Managing Director), and Lisette Jones (Field Representative, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin).
Hundreds of people filled the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) earlier this month for The Humanities Institute’s 25th anniversary end-of-the-year celebration and Night at the Museum featuring Amending Worlds: Projects from the Coha-Gunderson Creativity Workshop. Attendees got a chance to hear scholars’ insights on speculative fiction, visit the Amending Worlds exhibition, and enjoy cupcakes and a toast to a quarter century at The Humanities Institute (THI). As part of the celebration, THI received a special certificate of recognition from State Assemblymember Gail Pellerin.
“Your dedication, creativity, and leadership have had an immeasurable impact on the community,” Assemblymember Pellerin wrote to Irena Polić, THI’s Managing Director, to offer her congratulations. “Your tireless efforts have not gone unnoticed, and the humanities community is better because of your work.”
Assemblymember Pellerin made a special note about the “outstanding work” of the Deep Read program. This year’s Deep Read brought together 11,000 readers to discuss James, Percival Everett’s reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and winner of the 2025 National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. The Deep Read is one of The Humanities Institute’s signature programs and exemplifies THI’s rich tradition of public scholarship, creating research and learning communities that connect the university and the world.
THI’s annual Night at the Museum, which features scholars in conversation in a museum setting, also reflects the institute’s longstanding commitment to community engagement. This year’s event Amending Worlds featured a panel conversation and speculative futures exhibition, which contemplated and proposed alternative futures to respond to the most pressing issues of our time.
As Humanities Dean Jasmine Alinder noted in her remarks at the event, “Night at the Museum was created almost ten years ago, and it fosters dialogue between humanists at UCSC and the broader Santa Cruz public to invite that public to think with us as humanists who are dedicated to research and ideas that are at their most vibrant when they are considered in community. We do that through the powerful medium of museum exhibitions which encourage people to cultivate deeply humanistic skills.” As she concluded, “Humanists at UCSC are proud and grateful to stand with our colleagues at the MAH in the study and exploration of the human experience.”
A spirit of community and boundary-crossing collaborations has been at the heart of The Humanities Institute’s work. As Assemblymember Pellerin shared in her congratulations, THI is “a welcoming, dynamic space for students, alumni, and community members alike.” In a night to culminate the celebration of 25 years at THI, the museum filled with a shared sense of purpose to build more connected, creative, and just futures together.