Humanities
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Learning beyond the classroom: ten UC Santa Cruz students immerse themselves in Japanese art and culture
Ten students took part in an intense and immersive ten-day trip to Japan. Throughout the journey, they engaged in translanguaging, a practice that allows students to shuffle between two languages or more to deepen comprehension, express complex ideas, and build linguistic proficiency rather than treating languages as separate systems.
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Shining a light on Bleak House: 46th annual Dickens Universe embraces Charles Dickens’s dark masterpiece
Bleak House, a 377,000-word page turner about family intrigue, wicked lawyers, and grinding legal bureaucracy, will be the focus of the 46th annual Dickens Universe this summer.
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From Homer to Hollywood: The enduring fascination with The Odyssey
Ahead of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film release, UC Santa Cruz classics professors discuss the enduring fascination with The Odyssey
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Celebrating teaching
The Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching (COT) has selected the 2025-26 Excellence in Teaching Award recipients and the 2025-26 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient.
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Thirty years of investing in communities: Alumna Shannon Lawder on language, philanthropy, and following your passion
UC Santa Cruz alumna Shannon Lawder (Kresge ’91, Russian studies) is the director of the Civil Society Program at the Mott Foundation. The Mott Foundation has supported communities worldwide for 100 years, and Lawder has been part of that mission for 31 years.
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What can you do with a humanities degree? A new UC Santa Cruz course has answers
Launched this spring by the Humanities Division, “What Can I Do with My Degree? Humanities-Powered Jobs” introduces students to the professional possibilities of a humanities education while helping them develop collaboration, leadership, and communication skills that extend far beyond the classroom.
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Celebrating the Humanities at UC Santa Cruz
The annual Celebrating the Humanities gathering was more than just a way to recognize excellence across the division. This event, which filled the Merrill Cultural Center, was also a strong reminder of the relevance and career power of humanistic studies in an era of artificial intelligence.
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Humanities students are rethinking incarceration through VAST and EXCEL programs
Humanities students at UC Santa Cruz are finding new ways to think about incarceration through art, literature, journalism, and community internships.
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Art, research, and Night at the Museum: The flourishing partnership between UC Santa Cruz Humanities and the Museum of Art and History
Over the past ten years, the Humanities Division and The Humanities Institute have had a unique and successful partnership with the Museum of Art and History, working closely on exhibitions, public programming, student fellowships, and research initiatives that connect the university with the broader Santa Cruz community.
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A path shaped by passion: Alumnus David Gleason’s lifelong dedication to Russian studies and supporting the Humanities
UC Santa Cruz alumnus David Gleason supports the university through charitable gift annuities. His philanthropic support of UC Santa Cruz is rooted in a deep gratitude for how his time there shaped the path that followed—working for Apple in the Soviet Union at one of the most pivotal moments in modern history.
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Alumnus John Kim receives multiple film festival selections for his debut independent feature film Reunion
John Kim’s (Porter ’84, creative writing and literature) debut independent feature film Reunion follows an Asian American funeral home worker who attends his high school reunion hoping to jump-start his life, only to be mistaken for a successful alumnus from another school—a billionaire whom no one has seen since graduation.
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A reckoning in fiction: Karen Tei Yamashita returns to Bookshop Santa Cruz with acclaimed new novel Questions 27 & 28
Bookshop Santa Cruz will host the celebrated novelist and Emeritus Professor of Literature Karen Tei Yamashita for the launch of her new book, Questions 27 & 28, in conversation with History Professor Alice Yang.