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Student Spotlight:  Finley and Blanco Zoom In with Protest Theater

Student Spotlight: Finley and Blanco Zoom In with Protest Theater

Why We March is a play written, directed and performed virtually, by UC Santa Barbara Theater students. The action takes place the night before the biggest fictional mass protest in the country. The play touches on heavy topics surrounding our world and the reform needed.

Our Changing Relationship with Images

Our Changing Relationship with Images

Stanford film professor Shane Denson spoke about his recent book Discorrelated Images for the Media Arts and Technology program’s Seminar series last week. He told a UCSB virtual audience that digital technologies bring us closer to the images we see in time and space and introduce an element of chance by regenerating moving images every time we see them.

Turning the Spotlight on Race in the News

Turning the Spotlight on Race in the News

UCSB Film and Media faculty members Lisa Parks and Anna Everett have launched a campaign to improve on the underrepresentation of people of color working in the news business — and featured on camera. They spoke in a recent webinar about how American media scholars can work to influence news executives to improve coverage of race issues in the news.

 Jesmyn Ward: Writing Through Trauma Toward Hope

Jesmyn Ward: Writing Through Trauma Toward Hope

The 2020 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence Jesmyn Ward and IHC Director Susan Derwin discuss Ward’s exploration of trauma in her work, in a virtual presentation hosted by the “Living Democracy” series of UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the Writing Program.

Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Learning Through Crochet

Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Learning Through Crochet

In a seminar hosted by Media Arts and Technology science writer and and artist Margaret Wertheim discussed the intersection of math and art in a project started with her twin sister Christine Wertheim, called Crochet Coral Reef, where they use the craft of crochet to create sculptural representations of coral reefs. The project was an artistic response to climate change and exists at the nexus of art, science, math, and community engagement.

Then and Now: Art and Literature for Social Change

Then and Now: Art and Literature for Social Change

UC Santa Barbara historian John Majewski explains how the artistic and literary creative works of Black abolitionists in the 1840s and 1850s acted as a critical catalyst for the abolition of slavery, and compares the creative political action of then to that of 2020.

Theater That Pushes Zoom's Boundaries

Theater That Pushes Zoom's Boundaries

UCSB Theater and Dance’s program Naked Shakes staged its first 100 % Zoom production of the fall season, Immortal Longings, where each actor, theater technician and the play’s adapter and director, Irwin Appel, presented the production from various locations across the country.

Focus on  Faculty: Let's Talk About Art

Focus on Faculty: Let's Talk About Art

New faculty member Iman Djouini shares her work and interests in the the first Art Colloquium presentation of the fall, hosted by the UC Santa Barbara’s Art Department.

A summer bootcamp for screenwriting

A summer bootcamp for screenwriting

This summer, the Carsey-Wolf Center and the Department of Film and Media Studies collaborate to create a new screenwriting course for students, Advanced Television Writing. The course will be broken up into two sections and will take place over the span of six weeks. The course aims to teach students how to create both a television script bible and a pilot screenplay.

Intern Noe Padilla sat down with the director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, Patrice Petro, to get a better understanding of the course.

Through My Ears: A New Music Department Podcast

Through My Ears: A New Music Department Podcast

The HFA sat down with Connor Long, the producer Through My Ears, a new podcast by UCSB’s Department of Music. Long discusses his original intent and message behind the podcast, as well as his hopes for how it can continue to grow in the future.

Korean Pop Goes Beyond the Music Scene

Korean Pop Goes Beyond the Music Scene

Dongguk University media and communication professor Ha Sung Hwang’s research focuses on the effects of social media and the role it plays in the global popularity of Korean pop music. In a lecture hosted by UCSB’s East Asia Center, where she is a visiting fellow, she discussed how BTS and its ARMY are contributing to a new and diverse boy band culture fueled by digital power.

The Bruhns Twins: A Profile of Two Arts Graduates

The Bruhns Twins: A Profile of Two Arts Graduates

As the academic year comes to a close, many stories from this years senior will go unheard as the pandemic forces Commencement to take place online. To highlight some graduates from the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, Noe Padilla an HFA intern, interviewed the Bruhns Twins, Cooper and Calvin, and asked them to reflect on their time at UCSB. Cooper is graduating in Theater and Calvin is graduating in Film and Media Studies.

 History Student Leads a UCSB Protest for a Better Future

History Student Leads a UCSB Protest for a Better Future

UCSB history student Michael Sanders recently organized the “Justice for George Floyd: Solidarity March,” to support the Black Lives Matter movement by peacefully protesting against police brutality. He sat down with HFA intern Raymond Matthews to talk about the protest and the experience of Black students.

Sharing Greek Mythology with Children Via Digital Storytime

Sharing Greek Mythology with Children Via Digital Storytime

In a time when a global pandemic has forced educators to design creative solutions to learning at home, UC Santa Barbara Classics professor Dorota Dutsch has partnered with the Goleta Valley Library to digitally recreate Greek Myths for children. The recreations are offered to the public virtually each Friday as part of the library’s newest program: Special Guest Storytime.

History Repeating Itself: How Epidemics Affect Latin America

History Repeating Itself: How Epidemics Affect Latin America

Brazil-based author, researcher, and professor Marcos Cueto examined how contradictory and inadequate government responses to epidemics in Latin America have been an historical trend that reappeared during the current COVID-19 pandemic. 

A Progressive Take on Classical Literature

A Progressive Take on Classical Literature

HFA conducted an interview with this year’s recipient of the Dean’s Prize Teaching award, Julio Vega. Vega, a PhD candidate teaching assistant in the Classics department, discusses his passion for the classics, his teaching techniques, and his work with the UCSB-Howard University Initiative.

Lights, Camera..... Now What?

Lights, Camera..... Now What?

New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis and Art House Convergence managing director Alison Kozberg say that art house film makers and large film production companies will continue to prioritize streaming over in-person moviegoing once the COVID-19 pandemic ends. They spoke at a recent Carsey-Wolf Center virtual event: "Moviegoing in the Age of COVID-19.