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The Childhood Landscapes of Author Maurice Sendak

The Childhood Landscapes of Author Maurice Sendak

Legendary author and illustrator Maurice Sendak confronted his past in the dozens of books he both wrote and illustrated. As a Jewish child growing up in Brooklyn in the mid-20th century, Sendak was constantly sick and had an innate fear of surviving and dying in the world. His parents instilled in him anxiety and shame, which he captured in his books, said Tulane University professor of Jewish Studies Golan Moskowitz at UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s talk last week.

Moskowitz went through Sendak’s life and experiences during an hour-long Zoom talk last week to kick off the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Global Childhood Ecology series.

Documenting Africa on Film

Documenting Africa on Film

Filmmaker and scholar Florence Ayisi gave a talk at UC Santa Barbara titled “Realities, Representations and Reflections” about documentary films on Africa. After moving to the United Kingdom from Cameroon and seeing how her country was being displayed, she became devoted to documenting its people, and culture, exploring in particular the women of Cameroon.

The Unifying Power of Music

The Unifying Power of Music

UC Santa Barbara’s Middle East Ensemble collaborated with two student organizations — the Persian Student Group and the Iranian Jewish Student Association — on a Persian music night last week. Students, community members and faculty came together to enjoy a night of cultural music, dancing and singing. Attendees were able to donate to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Love Poems to Santa Barbara

Love Poems to Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara English professor emerita Shirley Geok-lin Lim shared her new poems from “In Praise of Limes,” her 11th poetry collection, at Writers & Wordsmiths of Santa Barbara II, an open mic poem reading event at the UCSB Library. Following Lim, UCSB English professors Stephanie Batiste and Swati Rana as well as Chryss Yost and George Yatchisin of the Gevirtz School of Education, and several members from the Santa Barbara community shared their poems.

Weaving Protest: The Rise of Belarusian Craftivism

Weaving Protest: The Rise of Belarusian Craftivism

Sasha Razor, a Belarus native and international activist, presented an afternoon colloquium at UCSB last week discussing the rise of feminist craftivism and her latest exhibition, “The Code Of Presence: Belarusian Protest Embroideries and Textile Patterns.”

Healing and Connection in Prison: Two Writers Work Towards Change

Healing and Connection in Prison: Two Writers Work Towards Change

Author Luis J Rodriguez and Memoirist Kenneth Hartman spoke at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s second installment in their TMI Talk series at UCSB to discuss their new book Make a Poem Cry: Creative writing from California’s Lancaster Prison. Both men having gone through the first hand experiences of incarceration, Hartman and Rodriguez spoke about their journey, advocacy, and how writing is a gift of healing and self-exploration for incarcerated individuals.

The Glass Box Gallery: Self-Reflection Through Art

The Glass Box Gallery: Self-Reflection Through Art

Eighteen students spent over 40 hours on two paintings during a summer course with Yumiko Glover, a visiting lecturer in UC Santa Barbara’s Art Department. But the long hours motivated them, knowing that their work would be on display in the Glass Box Gallery in the Fall. The exhibit ran for five days last week.

A Sense of Wonder in Art and Film: Satyajit Ray

A Sense of Wonder in Art and Film: Satyajit Ray

Experts from universities across the globe converged at UC Santa Barbara last weekend for a three-day conference—Satyajit Ray and the Sense of Wonder—to celebrate the centenary of the birth of acclaimed Indian author, graphic artist, and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Speakers sang Ray’s praises, sharing discoveries they’ve made about his life and how he inspired them.

Premiere: An Eclectic Composition Created for the AlloSphere

Premiere: An Eclectic Composition Created for the AlloSphere

UC Santa Barbara’s AlloSphere hosted the premiere of “Musics Of The Spheres,” an experimental work by eclectic composer Robert Morris. His piece uses the full surround-sound capabilities of the AlloSphere to feature music from all across the globe.

Religious Dietary Practices: UCSB Support for Students

Religious Dietary Practices: UCSB Support for Students

UC Santa Barbara religious studies professor Juan Campo and Arabic language lecturer Magda Campo spoke last week on Jewish kosher food and Islamic halal food, and they prepared a chicken and couscous meal for a CalFresh enrollment party co-hosted by UCSB Health & Wellness, Thrive, and the Educational Opportunity Program. The event publicized the CalFresh program and UCSB’s Halal and Kosher Grocery Program for food-insecure students who observe these religions’ dietary laws.

Uncovering America's Forgotten Religious Rituals

Uncovering America's Forgotten Religious Rituals

UC Santa Barbara’s Religious Studies librarian David Gartwell explores Western esoteric traditions and their movement into publishing and modern spiritual practices in his new exhibit “Lifting the Veil.” The exhibit, created using publications from UCSB’s American Religious Collection, in now open to the public at the UCSB Library.

Unsettling: Confronting California's Past Through Art

Unsettling: Confronting California's Past Through Art

As part of UC Santa Barbara's Migration Initiative, the Mellon Sawyer Seminar hosted Unsettling California, a student-curated art exhibition at the Glass Box Gallery. The exhibition, which ran through September, featured 11 artists and built dialogues on race and migration in California. The project continues to display art virtually.

Seeking Knowledge in an Era of Information Overload

Seeking Knowledge in an Era of Information Overload

Wolf D. Kittler, a professor in UCSB’s department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, delivered the inaugural lecture for Interdisciplinary Humanities Center’s new series: Too Much Information, which explores the implications of our access to abundant information.

Chinese Poetry in a Global Context

Chinese Poetry in a Global Context

UCSB’s department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies organized a two-day internationally-attended symposium on Zoom titled “Translatability/Transmediality: Chinese Poetry In/And the World.” Hangping Xu of the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies department and Yunte Huang of the English department organized the symposium to promote a special edition of a scholarly journal they wrote along with 10 scholars from around the world.

Shakespeare Returns to UCSB's Studio Theater

Shakespeare Returns to UCSB's Studio Theater

After two years of pandemic-related prohibitions the UC Santa Barbara Theater and Dance Program ‘s a Naked Shakes company returned indoors this fall with its production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Performances were packed for the in-person audience experience. Director Irwin Appel discusses the show and the theater experience of recent years.

The IHC Continues Apace this Summer

By Denise Shapiro

Exciting news this June is coming from UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

For starters, 13 Graduate Teaching Fellows are wrapping up this year’s courses in Foundations in the Humanities prison correspondence program. In this IHC initiative, incarcerated individuals engage in a correspondence in literary studies with graduate student mentors. It has over 150 participants in California prisons. The program gives participants the opportunity to continue their education and stimulate their intellectual capabilities, while giving the graduate students the chance to reflect on their education privileges.

The IHC will also be busy this summer hosting student veterans from across the UC system in the 2022 UC Student Veterans Summer Writing Workshop. This workshop is a bonding experience for veterans as they share their stories and experiences, allowing them to relate to one another and move forward in their civilian lives. Narrative writing can act as a form of therapy and this program acts as a writing retreat where like-minded people can reflect, relate, and restore their souls.

Finally, a big congratulations goes out to the winners of the 2022-23 IHC Dissertation Fellowship competition. The following Fellows will be awarded $7,000 to support their research in the upcoming school year:

Christopher Erdman, Classics: “Voting Culture and Political Theater in Late Republican Lawmaking.”

Addison Jensen, History: “Blowin’ in the Wind: Media, Counterculture, and the American Military in Vietnam.”

Nicky Rehnberg, History: “White Roots, Redwoods: Racializing German and U.S. Conservation, 1920-1945.”

Isabella Restrepo, Feminist Studies: “Transcarceral Care: Racialized Girlhood, Behavioral Diagnosis, and California’s Foster Care System.”

Reem Taha, Comparative Literature: “‘Of Here and Everywhere’: (Re)Mapping Mediterranean Identities at the Ibero-African Frontier.”

Denise Shapiro is UC Santa Barbara student graduating this spring with a double major in Communication and Film and Media Studies. She has has spent the past two years as a Web and Social Media Intern, with an emphasis on video journalism, for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.

"Sound Can Move Us to Change"

"Sound Can Move Us to Change"

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.

Kenneth Hiltner: Fixing the Climate is About Culture

Kenneth Hiltner: Fixing the Climate is About Culture

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.

Raab Fellows: A Year of Research, Writing and Self-exploration

Raab Fellows: A Year of Research, Writing and Self-exploration

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

The Art of Moving Through Space: Carmen Argote Speaks at UCSB

The Art of Moving Through Space: Carmen Argote Speaks at UCSB

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.