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‘They’re torturing me’: ICE uses solitary confinement to scare people into self-deporting
Craig Haney, a UC Santa Cruz psychology professor and solitary confinement expert, described social isolation as a “psychological toxin.” He said solitary confinement can cause depression, anxiety, hopelessness, the atrophy of social skills, and in more severe cases, hallucinations, cognitive impairment and PTSD. “It’s cruel because it hurts people,” Haney said of solitary confinement. “It’s…
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Redistricting battles and primary fights reshape political landscape ahead of midterms
Nolan Higdon, a political history lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, said the redistricting push will make things more difficult for Democrats but may not be a decisive blow. “A lot of this redistricting is attempting to cut into any lead Democrats may have in the general,” Higdon said. “But this could be something that backfires…
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Have astronomers spotted an exploding primordial star?
“It’d be great if it’s true, and it might be,” says Stan Woosley, a theorist at the University of California, Santa Cruz who has played a key role in developing models of pair-instability supernovae. Detecting even one such bright example corresponding to a star at the heavy end of the mass range would imply that…
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How damaged is Angeles Crest Highway? I hiked it to find out
“If our storm and other conditions were normal, we would expect closures and losses at some points,” said Michael Beck, director of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience.
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Why are so many Bay Area theaters staging ‘Dracula’ in 2026?
If you need a symbol for fascism, economic precarity or rapid technological advancement, try “Dracula.” Renee Fox, an associate professor of literature at UC Santa Cruz and a co-director of the school’s Center for Monster Studies, sees a throughline in the eras when vampire stories peak.
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Luminous new historical fiction
The New York Times’ book columnist Alida Becker called Emeritus Professor of Literature Karen Tei Yamashita’s new book ‘luminous’ and listed it among the month’s best new book releases.
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The Book That Plunges You Into Messy American History
The Atlantic Monthly ran a detailed feature story about Professor Emeritus of Literature Karen Tei Yamashita’s new book and how she “challenges readers to join her in deciphering a shameful moment from the nation’s past.”
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Karen Tei Yamashita began with Japanese American History. Then She Made Things Up.
In her sprawling new novel, Professor Emeritus of Literature Karen Tei Yamashita sprinkles fanciful details (a trombone narrator!) into the bracing story of World War II internment.
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Deep space photography to go on view at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
A selection of celestial photographs will be on the display in the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History’s atrium starting Thursday. The gallery is a collaboration between the museum and UC Santa Cruz’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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Popular Miyawaki reforestation method lacks evidence, study finds
Reforestation expert Karen D. Holl, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the U.S., who wasn’t involved with the study, told Mongabay that she has personally heard the Miyawaki method mentioned in meetings about tropical forest restoration strategies as a promising approach to enhance carbon and biodiversity. This despite the method being,…