UC Santa Barbara student Yulim Choi has been passionate about art since childhood. English was her second language, and she found she could use art to express herself better than she could words. She followed her passions into an art-focused high school and graduates this spring with a minor in Art and major in Communication.
Ryan Greenberg’s beautiful ode to his aunt Leith Harmon discusses the optics behind cryptocurrency, family bonding during a pandemic, and shifting careers.
After attending protests in both Japan and New York, Noriko Manabe, a leading scholar in ethnomusicology at both Stanford and Temple University, noticed that Americans are much quieter in protests than Japanese people. Manabe, who was hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, attributes this difference to increased police presence in Japan which forces protesters to split into smaller groups and use sound to find unity with one another.
UC Santa Barbara biopsychology major Kiana Ranjbaran devotes herself to the study of Islamic poet Rumi and holds an internship with the Rumi Education Center via the Department of Religious Studies. She says everyone can benefit from reading Rumi, who writes about the interconnectedness of humanity, the world, and the divine.
UCSB English professor Cathy Thomas focuses on the Caribbean to lift up minority perspectives in literature and show her students a community they might not be familiar with. By building a class around the festival of Carnival, Thomas introduces her students to Caribbean culture through the examination of different forms of literary and creative expression.
Determined to include the arts in the future of STEM, third year UC Santa Barbara biology student Emily Nguyen incorporated technology and science with artistic expression in UCSB’s Art , Science and Technology course. She used her creativity in a project ,The Dexcavator, and in another which has taught her how to collect data from local beaches and apply it to the science behind ocean acidification.
Developing gender-neutral vocabulary in French can be challenging due to the highly gendered nature of the language and resistance from French academics and politicians. But Jordan J Tudisco, a doctoral student in Comparative Literature and French teacher at UC Santa Barbara, looks to provide students with the inclusive vocabulary they need to express themselves. In a recent interview, Tudisco discussed their work, some of the challenges that hinder the use of inclusive language in French, and what they see for the future of inclusive vocabulary.
UC Santa Barbara English professor Kenneth Hiltner was recently named a 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. As a professor of Environmental Humanities, Hiltner uses his popular Ecocriticism and climate crisis courses to educate students and the general public about environmental issues. In a recent interview, Hiltner discussed the evolution of his academic career, the human component of global climate change, and his recent award recognition.
The Raab Writing Fellows Program, sponsored by Santa Barbara writer Diana Raab, held its end of the year showcase at Mosher Alumni Hall last week. Students in the program presented their year-long research projects to students and faculty. Their projects featuring an array of academic articles, reports, memoirs, novellas, zines, and videos
Carmen Argote, a Los Angeles-based, world-renowned artist draws influence from the physical world around her. Her latest presentation at UCSB Art Department’s Visiting Artist Colloquium series describes her collection Pyramids, inspired by her walks through Lincoln Park in Los Angeles and other works, explaining what drives her creative process.
Touch is the largest organ of our body, says Felicia Davis, professor of Architectural Design at Pennsylvania State University. Davis uses computer-manipulated textiles that change in response to their environment. The textiles could provide relief for people who have a hard time expressing or understanding their own emotions. Presented by the graduate program in Media, Arts and Technology, she discussed her project in a recent seminar.
The Humanities and Fine Arts division hosted a panel of three UC Santa Barbara faculty members to discuss Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. They said the need for a designated time to pay attention to AAPI individuals’ experiences indicates a need for societal change in America.
Yuval Cohen is finishing up her final year at UCSB as President of Associated Students. As this academic year winds down, Cohen says she has learned many lessons about the power of influence and leadership.
More than a dozen UC Santa Barbara students gave moving accounts of their COVID-19 pandemic experiences at a showcase last week that marked the close of a nonfiction narrative project that received funds from the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office. The Pandemic Stories Creative Nonfiction Project gave each student the opportunity to collaborate with faculty and staff to creatively express the unique struggles and triumphs they faced throughout the pandemic.
Will Hahn, a UC Santa Barbara ice hockey team alum and now a Cal State Northridge graduate film student, works as production assistant for the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings. He has recently combined his passion for film and hockey by writing and directing a film about UCSB’s very own ice hockey team.
Environmental Studies Major and Indigenous Studies Minor Katie Miller is an Intern for the Walter H. Capps Center at UC Santa Barbara, which focuses on the connection between environment, society, and ethics. Miller is workign at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to catalog and preserve plants native to California. She met with UCSB Writing student for an interview and accompanying video.
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the worst incidents of racial violence in America’s history. Yet, for decades Tulsa residents have kept silent about the event, author and historian Scott Ellsworth said at a recent event hosted by UCSB’s Humanities Center (IHC). Ellsworth told the audience that learning about the causes and consequences of the Tulsa Race Massacre is essential in helping Tulsa, and the U.S. as a whole, confront a long history of racial violence.
We tell stories to make sense of the world, and science fiction offers a way to explore complex moral dilemmas, award-winning author Ted Chiang told a UC Santa Barbara audience last week. At a recent event jointly hosted by the UCSB Library and UCSB Arts and Lectures, Chiang discussed his science fiction writing and short story collection Exhalation, which touches on themes of freewill, memory, and technology in a futuristic world. The English Department’s Melody Jue moderated.
Shortly before the American theatrical release of Lebanese writer and director Oualid Mouaness’ film “1982,” he sat down with UC Santa Barbara chair of Global Studies Paul Amar to discuss the film and his country. Mouaness said he hopes his portrayal of the 1982 Lebanese War will humanize battle for audiences unfamiliar with the realities of fighting. It did that for UCSB student Colleen Coveney, who describes her reaction in this article.
“Toxic Seas,” a create-in event hosted earlier this month by UCSB’s Literature and the Environment Research Center, tackled ocean dumping through a creative humanities lens. Students read excerpts from Silent Spring, thinking of ways to raise awareness through mediums like poetry.
