HFA videographer Denise Shapiro checked in with Humanities and Fine Arts students during fall 2020, to see how they were coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and to hear their perspectives on studying remotely. From writing commentaries to producing a mockumentary, UC Santa Barbara's students are keeping up with their education and keeping themselves entertained while social distancing.
For more information on how to protect yourself amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, check out UCSB’s Resource Index at www.ucsb.edu/COVID-19-information/resource-index.
Greg Silver, a student in the Writing Program, shares a deeply personal journey about how he came to love writing.
With a new year comes new leadership for the Walter Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life. Greg Johnson, formerly a professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado and board member of the American Academy of Religion, assumed the role of Director earlier this month, hoping to increase the Center’s engagement with UCSB’s undergraduate population and focus the Center around contemporary topics such as climate change and the collapse of democracy.
Norwegian theologian LeRon Shults visited UCSB to share his work on Human Simulation, an interdisciplinary research project that combines the expertise of humanists and scientists to study the past and predict the future.
Production Designer Michael Bricker visited UC Santa Barbara’s Pollock Theater to discuss how his use of cinematography and set design shaped the plot and aesthetic behind Netflix’s original series, Russian Doll.
Word Magazine explores life in Isla Vista, the neighborhood next to campus. As current art director of the magazine, Alaska Yokota is one of a team of students who writes for the magazine and designs its layout. In a recent interview, Yokota discussed her experience with Word Magazine and her views on the future of digital humanities.
The Los Angeles landscape does not adapt to the people living there, says Elizabeth Timme, co-founder of urban design non-profit LA-Más. “We have this environment that is friendly to the rules and unfriendly to people.” In her talk at UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Timme discussed efforts to make L.A. more habitable, vibrant, and pedestrian-friendly.
This series of videos, produced by UC Santa Barbara students, showcases the creative talent of students, faculty, and alumni from Humanities and Fine Arts.
Author and environmentalist T.A. Barron has $500,000 to establish endowed fund for environmental leadership in the humanities that benefits undergraduate students.
“Environmental advocacy is above all else an act of persuasion,” said John Majewski, the Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at UCSB. “Given all the ways in which our culture communicates about significant and important issues — including literature, music, film and the arts — the humanities have a vital role in addressing the critical environmental issues that now confront us.”
With more than 70 faculty members who teach courses that address issues in the environmental humanities, UCSB already is an international leader in the field. The campus already has a range of related programming, from the English department’s Literature and the Environment Center, to the Environmental/Climate Justice Hub based at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, among others.
Commencement 2018 speaker Katy Tur of MSNBC tells UC Santa Barbara graduates in Humanities and Fine Arts and Social Sciences how studying philosophy helped her navigate the world of broadcast journalism.
“Do what you like. Do it for a cause that is bigger than you. And you will have fun,” Tur said at the Sunday, June 17, graduation ceremony. “Sometimes what makes a job fun is that it matters.”
Tur graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2005, majoring in philosophy. She is author of the 2017 bestseller Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History.
The UC Santa Barbara Writing Program is pleased to announce the creation of the Charles Bazerman Endowed Faculty Fellowship for Professional Development in Writing. This endowed fund supports an annual, competitive, two-course fellowship for a Continuing Lecturer in the Writing Program.
