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At a recent UCSB lecture hosted by the Walter H. Capps Center, professor Lloyd Barba traced the history and ongoing relevance of the U.S. Sanctuary Movement, describing it as a sacred form of resistance rooted in religious tradition and moral duty to “welcome the stranger.” As immigration crackdowns intensify under Trump’s renewed presidency, faith-based communities—including those in Santa Barbara —are preparing to once again offer refuge and protection to vulnerable immigrants.
UCSB’s 2025 Raab Writing Fellowship Showcase featured student writing projects that blended personal storytelling with broader social themes. From poetry to investigative multimedia, the event highlighted a year of independent writing and mentorship.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won first place in the prose category.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won second place in the prose category.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won third place in the prose category.
This spring, UC Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted an annual contest to highlight creativity across the campus. The following are winning submissions in the Music category.
UC Santa Barbara alum Nori Muster joined filmmaker Jason Lapeyre and moderator David Gartell, a religious studies expert in the UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections, for a screening and post-screening discussion of docudrama Monkey on a Stick hosted by UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. Muster was recruited by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) when she was a sociology senior at UCSB in 1978. She was a historical advisor for the film.
At a UCSB Humanities Decanted event, historian Juan Cobo Betancourt discussed his new book The Coming of the Kingdom, which explores how Indigenous leaders in colonial Colombia used Catholic institutions to hold onto power and support their communities. The event was hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center.
L.A. artist Amir H. Fallah paints portraits without faces, telling life stories through objects and symbols instead. Speaking at UCSB, he described how his work reflects his Iranian-American identity and challenges how we define people. From stained glass to sculpture, his art explores memory, culture, and the unseen layers of identity.
The 2025 winners of the UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts Division’s Give Day Creativity Contest joined HFA faculty and donors at a lunch last week to receive awards for their original work in writing, photography, art and music.
