Leah Grossman's Journey Through Storytelling

Leah Grossman's Journey Through Storytelling

Leah Grossman, an award-winning screenwriter and graduating UCSB student, has turned a childhood passion for storytelling into a promising career in film. Her character-driven work, including the surreal short Hollow, has earned festival recognition and a fellowship that now propels her to the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

The Santa Barbara Chinese School is Back at UCSB

The Santa Barbara Chinese School is Back at UCSB

The Santa Barbara Chinese School was established in 1985 and has been hosted in a few different spaces over the years. It was held at UCSB in the early 2000s and moved over to the Chinese Evangelical Free Church of Santa Barbara in the 2010s. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a transition into exclusively online lessons. Now, the Chinese School is back at UCSB in partnership with the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies.

How One UCSB Student Swapped Calculus for a Camera

How One UCSB Student Swapped Calculus for a Camera

After a transformative backpacking trip during the pandemic, UCSB alum Malakai Isaacs shifted from environmental science to filmmaking, discovering a passion for nature-based, underwater, and adventure storytelling. Now a freelance filmmaker, Isaacs credits UCSB’s production courses—particularly the Coastal Media Project—for equipping him with the skills he continues to use in his documentary and commercial work.

After a Life of Duty, Edo-Japan Women Found Freedom on the Road

After a Life of Duty, Edo-Japan Women Found Freedom on the Road

In Edo-period Japan, a growing number of women embarked on long pilgrimages after retiring from household duties — journeys that offered not just spiritual fulfillment, but personal freedom. UC Santa Barbara graduate student Erin Trumble explores how these women used travel and writing to reclaim a sense of identity beyond domestic life.

Hidden Truths Behind Official Histories: IHC Fellows Speak

Hidden Truths Behind Official Histories: IHC Fellows Speak

At the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s Faculty Fellows showcase, three UCSB professors presented research that shatters conventional historical narratives. Their work focuses on urgent contemporary questions about power, resistance and the gap between official stories and hidden realities.

Abuse of Native Children and the Stories We Must Remember

Abuse of Native Children and the Stories We Must Remember

At a UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center screening of the documentary Sugarcane, UC Santa Cruz professor Caitlin Keliia emphasized the power of film in preserving the violent histories of Indigenous children who were taken from their families and forced into labor and abuse at residential schools. Drawing from her own research on Native women in domestic labor, Keliia highlighted how remembering these stories through media and discussion is essential for truth, accountability, and healing.

The Struggles of Growing Up in the Digital Era

The Struggles of Growing Up in the Digital Era

The Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara hosted a screening and panel called Panic!: Social Studies, about a new docuseries by Lauren Greenfield that explores the impact of social media on teens’ mental health, identity, and activism. Featuring candid stories from diverse youth, the series invites critical reflection on how corporate algorithms shape the digital lives of a generation.

Podcasting to Expand the Study of Black Life

Podcasting to Expand the Study of Black Life

Earlier this month, 2025-26 postdoctoral fellow at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Adam McNeil gave a talk hosted by UCSB History on the importance of podcasting for the study of Black life. McNeil, from Rutgers University, has interviewed over 110 intellectual scholars about their field of study and believes his work as an African American podcast host is changing the world.

From UC Santa Barbara to Center Stage

From UC Santa Barbara to Center Stage

Gabriela Smith, a Sacramento native and 2024 UC Santa Barbara Dance alum, is now dancing professionally with the City Ballet of San Diego, having recently performed in Carmen and Divertimento. In an interview, she reflects on how her training at UCSB—particularly under former New York City Ballet dancers—deepened her artistry and versatility, ultimately helping her earn her first professional contract and shaping her career path in ballet.

Artificial Intelligence and Homer's  "Odyssey"

Artificial Intelligence and Homer's "Odyssey"

At a recent talk, Classics scholar Brett M. Rogers from the University of Puget Sound visited UC Santa Barbara to discuss the seemingly impossible link between Homer’s epic poemThe Odyssey and artificial intelligence. The event was hosted by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

Filmmaker Wendy Jackson’s Dual Calling as Producer and Teacher

Filmmaker Wendy Jackson’s Dual Calling as Producer and Teacher

UCSB film lecturer Wendy Jackson brings her industry expertise and passion for storytelling to the screen with Facing the Falls, a documentary short about one woman’s courageous journey through the Grand Canyon while battling a rare muscle disease. Balancing her roles as a producer and educator, Jackson uses the film to highlight themes of resilience, accessibility, and the transformative power of perseverance.

Holding onto History—A Call to Protect Truth in the Digital Age

Holding onto History—A Call to Protect Truth in the Digital Age

As concerns over journalistic freedom and erasure of history grow under the Trump administration, a UC Santa Barbara panel warned that cuts to public broadcasting and higher education threaten the preservation of truth for future generations. Emphasizing the urgent need for digital documentation, panelists highlighted how archives and accessible historical records are vital tools for resisting propaganda, preserving marginalized histories, and empowering communities to challenge injustice.

Life as a Student Literary Editor

Life as a Student Literary Editor

Natalie Riley is a third-year UCSB student majoring in English. The Catalyst is a creative writing and visual art class, as well as one of UCSB’s few literary arts magazines. The course is offered every quarter to any UCSB students who wish to join the editorial team led by an Editor-in-Chief, a a Managing Editor, Literature Editor, and an Assistant Editor. As Literature Editor, Riley promotes The Catalyst through social media, specifically Instagram, and accept outside submissions.

The Student Band ‘Big Hungry’ on the Big Stage at Shabang

The Student Band ‘Big Hungry’ on the Big Stage at Shabang

Big Hungry, one of Isla Vista’s most successful rising bands, began with a spontaneous connection during UCSB’s 2022 summer orientation and has since electrified local music lovers with over 60 shows and a recent festival debut at Shabang on the Central Coast of California. Lead singer Nolan Guss credits UCSB’s vibrant music scene and ethnomusicology program for inspiring his artistic journey and shaping the band’s distinctive sound.

Rediscovering Dance: A Personal Essay

Rediscovering Dance: A Personal Essay

Anthropology major Manniah Harrison reflects on her childhood love of dance—a passion she rediscovered through a UCSB Dance Department intermediate class. Dance, writes Harrison, unites mind, body and spirit and is a worthwhile elective for students of any major.

Indigenous Storytelling: Berry People, Cherished Children

Indigenous Storytelling: Berry People, Cherished Children

A presentation hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center explored how an Inupiaq folktale about the “Berry People” challenges Western and Catholic views of children as passive or in need of correction, instead presenting children as sacred, wise, and relational beings. Drawing from her Indigenous heritage and personal experience, UCSB Religious Studies postdoctoral fellow, Elisha Chi, used the story to highlight the harm done by colonial religious systems like residential schools and to propose a care-centered, reciprocal approach to understanding childhood.

STEM and Storytelling: Following Interdisciplinary Passions

STEM and Storytelling: Following Interdisciplinary Passions

UC Santa Barbara Biology student Maritza Ramos Leon is proving that science and art don’t have to live in separate worlds. While pursuing a STEM degree, she wrote and directed a short film that explores a tender queer relationship, drawing from personal experiences and a desire for authentic representation. Ramos’ journey reflects the power of following all your passions—even when they seem to pull in opposite directions.

Studying Soccer: A User-Friendly Approach to Cultural Studies

Studying Soccer: A User-Friendly Approach to Cultural Studies

UC Santa Barbara literature and film professor Eloi Grasset, who has taught at Harvard and the University of Barcelona, now brings his expertise in Spanish and Iberian culture to a new course open to all majors: Soccer in the Hispanic World. 

Of Land and Memory in the Middle East

Of Land and Memory in the Middle East

The Center for Middle East Studies recently held a graduate panel to highlight student’s research, a part of the center’s Spotlight Series. Camilla Falanesca, Giovanni Vimercati, and bridge mcwaid all presented their research, spanning from the film distribution in Beirut, to the fish market in 1950’s Palestine, to the oilfield in El Borma, Tunisia.

Student Spotlight: Using Radio and Film for Social Change

Student Spotlight: Using Radio and Film for Social Change

Student journalist Rosie Bultman channels her passion for social justice into powerful storytelling through radio and film, using platforms like KCSB’s People’s Program and her award-winning documentary The Takeover to spotlight historic and ongoing struggles for equity. With a background in the History of Law and Public Policy as well as Black Studies, she weaves activism and media together to educate, inspire, and mobilize change on campus and beyond.