At an HFA Speaks event “Post-Election Reflection,” three UCSB faculty panelists gathered to discuss the threats America faces in human rights, academic freedom, and democracy under a Trump administration.
UCSB English, Dance and Black Studies Professor Stephanie Batiste lead a post-screening Q&A with world-renowned movement duo Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and Jon Boogz in UCSB's Pollock Theater about their careers and Netflix documentary “Move.” The duo seeks to give a voice to the voiceless and use movement to heal painful emotions, offering their audiences a story within their dance.
UC Santa Barbara faculty member Sarah Hirsch has turned her passion for New Orleans into a cornerstone of her academic and teaching career. In an interview, she discusses her journey from growing up in California to discovering a deep connection with the city while researching seaports and literature of the sea for her doctoral dissertation. Now a Continuing Lecturer in UCSB’s Writing Program, Hirsch desribes how her fascination with New Orleans inspired her signature course, “The Cross-Cultural Mapping of New Orleans,” and how she brings the vibrant city to life for her students.
The four-person UCSB band Wahoo was formed last year in a dining hall and the members have since established themselves as rising stars by playing at The Rose Bowl’s Bruin Fest for Hispanic Heritage Month. Andrew Adorno (on guitar), Carlo Lapayese-Calderon (on Cajon), Matthew Diaz (lead vocals) and Abhi Sahota (on bass) aim to keep performing on larger stages. Andrew Adorno sat down for an interview to talk about Wahoo’s Rose Bowl performance, how UCSB fostered the creation of Wahoo, and his personal journey with music.
As part of his senior directing concentration, UCSB student Alex Guaydacan tackled his biggest project yet: solo directing “The Incident Report” for the Fall One Acts. In an interview, he reflects on the directing process, from navigating friendships with cast members to building confidence as a director. Guaydacan speaks about the process of bringing his vision to life for UCSB’s annual theater showcase.
Ian Kellett, a UC Santa Barbara professor co-leads the Coastal Media Project. It’s a nine-week, 12-credit intensive summer course focused on environmental media production and documentary studies, offered through UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. It combines a passion for film with environmentalism as students adventure through nature, telling meaningful stories.
UC Davis professor Kathleen Cruz was hosted by UCSB Classice for a lecture on modern Latine writers who draw on classical mythology, particularly the story of Ariadne, to explore themes of ethnic identity, feminism, and social exclusion. In her lecture, Cruz highlighted works by Chicana poet Analicia Sotelo and Puerto Rican poet Etnairis Rivera, showing how these poets use Ariadne’s myth to reflect on experiences of “othering,” reclaiming identity, and the challenges of diasporic life.
Filmmaker and director Persis Karim visited UC Santa Barbara for a screening of her film The Dawn is Too Far, hosted by the Center for Middle East Studies. The film details how art serves as a cultural creative outlet for many Iranian immigrants who moved to America.
UC Santa Barbara’s Walter H. Capps Center hosted a virtual panel last week about the influence of religion in politics and the 2024 election. Panelists were University of Pennsylvania religious studies professor Anthea Butler, North Florida University professor Julie Ingersoll, and UC Santa Barbara professor Joseph Blankholm. The audience heard that Christian nationalists aim to establish a theocratic government, viewing a figure like Donald Trump as a vehicle for gaining political and religious power. Panelists warned of potential violence as these movements see themselves in a battle of good against evil.
Jewish Israeli Rotem Levin and Palestinian Osama Iliwat discussed their transformative life experiences and the different realities they face in the same land, in a discussion hosted by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. As violence escalates in the Middle East, leaving many devastated, the two activists are holding conversations around the world, to encouraging individuals to listen to one another and challenge presumptions. By doing so, they aim to foster a future of peace and freedom for all.
UC Riverside religious studies professor Melissa M. Wilcox spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience last week about her research on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an international group of drag queens and queer activists. Wilcox was invited by UCSB's Walter H. Capps Center as part of its 60th-anniversary celebrations. Her book, Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody, explores how the Sisters blend drag, activism, and religious imagery to challenge societal norms around gender and morality.
UC Santa Barbara students recently took to the stage in an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing through the Naked Shakes theater program. They brought their own interpretations to Shakespeare’s work under the direction of UCSB Theater professor Irwin Appel. The actors explored the impact of spoken word, delighting several audiences over the course of an October weekend.
In a lecture last week, English professor Sowon Park spoke about how human writing is born from creativity and a need to make sense of the world, whereas AI-based writing can only be formed from a prompt and cannot pull from real emotion. Park explored the notion of AI replacing human writing through her own experience as a judge in the UCSB Mellichamp Initiative’s AI and Human Writing Competition.
Cinema sound editor Javier Umpierrez joined UCSB Film and Media Studies professor Greg Siegel for a post-screening discussion on the 2021 fantasy mystery film Memoria, which was the inaugural feature of “Panic!,” a fall series presented by UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. Umpierrez spoke about his role in Memoria’s sound design and the film’s portrayal of bodies and locations recording history.
In a milestone for the campus, UC Santa Barbara has received visionary commitments totaling $22 million — including a record gift of $13.5 million in support of the arts and humanities — from alumnus and UC Santa Barbara Foundation Trustee John Arnhold ’75 and his wife Jody Arnhold, with their Arnhold Foundation.
Spring One-Acts, an annual UCSB student director-led event, featured three one-act plays individually directed by senior Theater students, who each took several months to create and direct their plays, providing a night of provocative entertainment for the audience.
The story of how UCSB college band Rebelution put themselves on the map, garnering a global audience of millions and a Grammy nomination. A feature story written by UCSB student Emily Ferguson.
UCSB’s Department of Music hosted an Opera Gala last month, showcasing the talents of UCSB and Ventura College students in three separate performances: one at UCSB, one at Ventura College and an abridged version at the Casa Dorinda retirement community. The primary focus of the Gala was six opera singers, all graduate students in UCSB’s music department. The event also featured a chorus, orchestra, and dancers .
Valeria Perez, host of Grrrls Who Rock!!! at UCSB’s radio station KCSB, sits down to discuss women and gender-expansive people in rock, finding your path in college, and radio show hosting.
George Legrady is director of UC Santa Barbara’sn Experimental Visualization Lab in the Media Arts Technology (MAT) graduate program. He discusses artificial intelligence's positive and negative impacts on art and art engineering in an interview with Humanities and Fine Arts.