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UC Santa Barbara’s art department recently welcomed artist, Matt Mitros, executive director of the Clay Studio of Santa Barbara, to speak to students as part of the Visting Artist Speaker Series. Mitros shared his portfolio of work, along with some personal stories and words of encouragement for students looking to pursue an art career.
Faculty and students of UC Santa Barbara’s Religious studies kicked-off the academic year with hopes of peace and collaboration in the department and among religious groups worldwide. Department chair Juan Campo urged the campus to focus on efforts to foster peace as students and faculty navigate times of immense violence and suffering on all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The UC Santa Barbara Classics Department began the school year with an event that brought ancient myth to life. Interested students participated in a play through of the video game “Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical.” During the session, organized by Classics Ph.D. student Rick Castle, participants examined how contemporary adaptations of ancient stories portray marginalized communities, such people of color and queer people.
UCSB Theater and Dance department welcomed students back with The Death of Kings, directed and adapted by Irwin Appel. The Death of Kings combines Shakespeare's history plays, creating a 400-year timeline. The play features stage combat, live music composition, and more. Over the summer, the cast closed the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival with this production.
UC Santa Barbara’s newest construction project, the Interactive Learning Pavilion, has now been used by students and faculty for half a year and is inspiring many as the academic year starts. Working in ILP has motivated students in class and given professors ample resources to best lead their classes.
UC Santa Barbara Religious Studies professor Kathleen Moore recently sat down for an interview to discuss her introduction of Legal Humanities and Medical Humanities to UCSB in hopes of better-preparing students for their post-graduate careers.
UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) is closing out an active year of lectures, panels, fellowships, research and graduate programs. This year, IHC welcomed seven new graduate fellows into its Public Humanities program, and in June, seven other graduate fellows completed their programs. In addition, five graduate fellows won the annual IHC Dissertation Fellowship competition. This fall, IHC will start its 2023-2024 public event series, “Imagining California,” by inviting academics, activists, artists and writers to engage with California’s historical past and inspire a hopeful future.
Poet and comparative literature instructor Rick Benjamin has urged readers to engage in less self-absorption and make space for compassion for others, in his latest book of poetry, “The Mob Within the Heart.” He read excerpts from what is his fifth book at a recent launch event presented by the UC Santa Barbara student Poets’ Club. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic, it expresses the poet’s feelings about love, political conflict, illness and loss. He describes overwhelming love in his closest relationships and explores the complex responsibilities of being human.
Suigetsu, the Japanese term for reflected moon, often appears in Medieval Japanese literature and art. However, there is no consistent understanding for how the term is used metaphorically. UCLA Professor William Bodiford visited UCSB to explore this historical context and interpretation further, where he shared his own findings to do with reflected moons and explored the variance in metaphorical significance in different traditions.
Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, came to UC Santa Barbara recenlty for a poetry reading and Q&A session. She is the first Native American to hold the title of poet laureate and writes about colonization, love, fear and empowerment.
Eighteen students presented personal projects at the 2023 Raab Writing Fellow showcase, which included magazines, novels, interactive websites, comedy skits, and more. The showcase capped off a year of research, writing, and revising from the fellows, who expressed their gratitude for a generous grant from UCSB donor Diana Raab, that makes this opportunity possible.
London-based artist Wajid Yaseen said that cassette tapes give a rare glimpse into the lives and immigration experiences of Pothwari-speaking people, whose language has no written form. The lecture was hosted by UCSB’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Library Special Collections, and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
UCSB’s honors history students Cole Grissom, Madeline Josa, and Raana Naghieh recently spoke about the impact of women on politics in settings ranging from Ancient Rome to Georgian England, at a colloquium hosted by the History department.
Andrew B. Liu was hosted by the East Asia Center at UC Santa Barbara, where he discussed the complex relationship between China and the US and the effects of rising hostilities. He explained why economic decoupling remains unattainable and examined the business relations between the two countries.
Throughout America, the inner workings of the First Amendment right to free speech are constantly being discussed., especially at UC Santa Barbara. To continue to discourse, KCSB held a panel with UCSB activists and professors to understand how free speech operates on campus, and how to respond to adversity.
Cookbook author Benedetta Jasmin Guetta spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience about the evolution of Italian Jewish cuisine throughout history. The talk was sponsored by UCSB’s Taubman Symposium, a speaker series run by UCSB’s Jewish Studies Program.
UC Santa Cruz film professor Shelley Stamp said that the 1944 film noir classic “Gaslight” exposed sexual and psychological abuse in relationships and in Hollywood. She spoke at a “Classic” series screening hosted by UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center.
When a resident of Wuhan, China wrote an online diary criticizing the government’s response to Covid-19, authorities retaliated by launching a disinformation campaign and propelling online hate toward her. This weaponization of the internet for political purposes parallels the information wars that occurred in the United States during the pandemic, said UCLA Chinese culture professor Michael Berry at a recent UC Santa Barbara Center for Taiwan Studies event.
The Walter H. Capps Center invited a panel of UCSB faculty to discuss holistic approaches to ending sexual violence on campus. Panelists stressed the importance of informal healing processes, or ‘alternate resolutions,’ as valid and useful for survivors.
UCSB’s World Indian Ensemble led an hour-long performance in the Department of Music’s Music Bowl, as part of its World Music Series. The ensemble is headed by Department of Music professor Scott Marcus and will hold an end-of-year recital on June 8th.
