Humanities
-

Seeking Okinawan rights
UC Santa Cruz doctoral candidate Lex McClellan-Ufugusuku appeared before the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, exploring whether the people of Okinawa could be recognized as Indigenous—meaning they might have the right to block or stop new military bases under guidelines about Indigenous people set up by the U.N.
-

Chailen August
Chailen August’s time at UC Santa Cruz put him on a path he never expected. Not only did he embark on a study of drill rap and its interpretation in Ghana, Africa, but, as part of a study-abroad program, he also had a visceral experience of what his enslaved ancestors may have endured.
-

Sean Lawrence
With his work studying the relationship between Germany’s Deutsche Bank and the Ottoman Empire, Sean Lawrence shows that many things we think of as unique to our modern capitalistic world really have roots dating back much further.
-

New Department of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies invites students to think critically about race during a time of global reckoning with racism
CRES was first introduced as a degree program in 2014 and, thanks to its rapid growth and strong faculty and student advocacy, gained departmental status in 2021.
-

The Newton you don’t know
Caltech professor Jed Buchwald will lecture on Isaac Newton’s attempt to change the history of civilization at inaugural Nauenberg Lecture on May 13
-

Deep Read welcomes author Yaa Gyasi to UC Santa Cruz
The annual program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz has brought together students, faculty, alumni, and other curious minds from across the globe to unpack and discuss Transcendent Kingdom, the most recent novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi.
-

Puzzling it out
Linguistics student David Tuffs started making crossword puzzles to stave off boredom during COVID-19 restrictions. Now he’s had his third puzzle published in the New York Times.
-

Wisdom Cole: Paving the way for a new generation of Black leaders
National Director of the NAACP Youth & College Division and UCSC alumnus Wisdom Cole (Oakes ’15, chemistry) will be a keynote speaker at the John R. Lewis College dedication ceremony on May 6.
-

Linguist Sandra Chung elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Sandra Chung, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Linguistics, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.


