Humanities
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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.
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The language of food: entrepreneur Kendra Baker (Crown, ‘01, language studies) is this year’s Humanities Alumni Award honoree
Kendra Baker, co-founder of the Penny Creamery and The Picnic Basket, is this year’s UC Santa Cruz Distinguished Humanities Alumni Award recipient, an honor that highlights a career shaped by the study of language and culture.
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Alumna and Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei and civil-rights activist Dolores Huerta named in Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2026
Daniela Amodei graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2009 with a B.A. in literature and a minor in politics. In 2022, UCSC’s Research Center for the Americas was renamed in honor of social justice icon Dolores Huerta; the university continues to collaborate with the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
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United by loss, a Palestinian and Israeli walk together on a path to peace
Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian peacebuilder, and Maoz Inon, an Israeli entrepreneur and activist, will speak on Monday, April 20, in Santa Cruz about their work promoting understanding and reconciliation in the region.
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A Deep Read interview with Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life
The British biologist Merlin Sheldrake, this year’s featured author for The Humanities Institute’s (THI) seventh annual Deep Read, spoke with UC Santa Cruz about the strange, generative intelligence of fungi and what it can teach us about connection, creativity, and survival.
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Long days, snacks, and scan-a-thons: student archivists stepped up to save a treasure trove of Okinawan-American memories
In a cramped conference room, a small group of students spent countless hours digitizing the photos, slides and artworks of the Okinawan American community in Los Angeles County. These students work for the Okinawa Memories Initiative.
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Making ethics accessible
Alumnus Tim Shannon (Cowell ’71, history) has philanthropically supported the Humanities at UC Santa Cruz for 15 years. His support of the Norcal Regional Highschool Ethics Bowl, hosted annually at UC Santa Cruz, has opened doors for public schools across the region.
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Damming the Nile and the devastating cost of human progress
In her upcoming Nauenberg History of Science Lecture, World Wounds: The Damming of the Nile River and the Transformation of Medicine, Associate Professor of History Jennifer Derr will explore how massive infrastructure projects contributed to widespread illness, and offer insights into the global history of medicine.
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$2 million grant to propel UC Santa Cruz humanities careers
Since launching in 2023, the Employing Humanities initiative has provided hundreds of undergraduates with real-world work experience—as resource development coordinators, editorial writers, digital marketing interns, and archivists—that helps prepare them for impactful careers after they graduate. Underscoring the initiative’s impact, UCSC was just awarded a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation.
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Humanities EXPLORE Fellows bridge history, culture, and community
This year’s Humanities EXPLORE Program fellows are adventurous and ambitious, transcribing 300-year–old texts, helping to revitalize forgotten languages, exploring archives, and learning from faculty mentors. This winter, two fellows were given film cameras to preserve and share their experiences of connection, creativity, and purpose.
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In Memoriam: David Couzens Hoy
Hoy had a world-renowned reputation as a scholar in Continental philosophy and critical theory.
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Humanities skills are transferable skills
UC Santa Cruz humanities students graduate with a toolkit of transferable skills in high demand across fields ranging from academia to the entertainment industry and high-tech startups. Here are the stories of UC Santa Cruz humanities graduates thriving in a wide range of jobs.