UC Santa Barbara students were met with standing ovations and enthusiastic cheers of appreciation when they performed Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). The comedic opera showcased the talents of many of the Voice Program’s top graduate students.
"When Japanese music composer, Kojiro Umezaki came to UC Santa Barbara to perform the ‘shakuhachi,’ a traditional Japanese wind instrument, I experienced insights that stayed with me through the following days. He told us the story of the instrument, which has been used by Zen Buddhists since the 15th century to enhance their practice of emptying the mind and focusing on one sound as opposed to many."
— Film and Media Studies student Austin Bernales
Award-winning author and freelance journalist Sam Quinones told a packed UCSB McCune Conference room exactly what needs to happen for America to overcome the effects of a 20-years opioid epidemic:
“We have to question the drugs that are marketed to us, demand that the government stop allowing [drug] advertisements on television, depend less on pills as solutions and depend on our grocers to stock better food,” he said.
UCSB constructed the AD&A Museum in 1959 for its art education department and now it is a fully independent gallery free to anyone who wishes to visit. The small size of the museum allows for a warm, personal ambience that can be difficult to find in the larger, more popular exhibition halls of major cities. The type of art shown in the galleries varies from photography to paintings to sculpture and even video.
When graduating from college, one can feel anxious about finding the first post-grad job in the ‘real’ world. But Film and Media alumna Isabelle Carasso’s story offers solace to those of us worrying about leaving the university. She dove head-first into a highly competitive field - the entertainment industry - and got a job as a Page at NBCUniversal.
Carasso graduated in 2016, but now lives in Los Angeles and now works on the development of television shows that are ready to be produced.
Novelist and filmmaker David Bezmozgis said his novel The Betrayers (2014) offers one “provocative” answer to the moral dilemma. “If we accept that there are sociopaths and psychopaths in this world, why would we not also accept that the opposite exists,” he asked. “That some people are good, because they are born that way? That there is a limit to how good anyone can actually be? The only way you will know is when you are tested.”
Registration for Grad Slam 2018 is open for UCSB graduate students until February 9 at gradpost.ucsb.edu/grad-slam. The slam will take place from April 9-20.
Students heard from social entrepreneur Jessica Jackley, author Reza Aslan, and producer Tim Kring about finding a career that “fits your passions,” as Jackley put it. A leader in international microlending, she said the humanities gave her the perspective that allowed her to navigate the world of non-profit global entrepreneurism. Jackley, who founded the non-profit microlending firm Kiva, had studied philosophy, poetry and political science.
Weihao Qiu, a UC Santa Barbara Media and Technology student, had to work quickly to design and modify his data visualization project for exhibition at the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation.
In the end, his hard work paid off. In a recent interview, he described how exciting it was to receive the commission for his piece and how thrilled he has been by the reaction of visitors who have interacted with it.
“When it was exhibited, I saw people playing with it, and that moment was very special,” he said. “You already know the tricks but they don’t. So you can see the process of them gaining knowledge to understand the piece.”
Verenice Zuniga, who graduated in 2017 with an emphasis in acting , has received an Indy Award from Santa Barbara’s The Independant newspaper, for her lead performance last May in the play Lydia by Octavio Solis. Zuniga says her BFA in Theater provided a rigorous program that prepared her the real world.
My partner stood up. “Her name is Leticia,” he said. “She is a twin. She is a history major who is going to be a teacher.”
To be fair, I did not inform my partner that I have wanted to be a lawyer since I was a child. But nor did I ever mention to him any desire to be a teacher.
Michael Curtin, a UC Santa Barbara film and media studies professor, has released his newest book Voices of Labor: Creativity, Craft, and Conflict in Global Hollywood, about the exploitation of labor in the entertainment industry.
"I don’t like to call it retiring, I like to call it reinventing."
— Writing Lecturer Cissy Ross
Each year, the Music Department at UC Santa Barbara hosts "Montage," a concert open to the public highlighting the diverse musical talents on our campus. The 2017 showcase was held on Sunday, November 12 at the Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Santa Barbara. HFA intern Giovanna Vicini spoke to Petra Peršolja, a graduate pianist, and Scott Marcus, chair of the Music Department, about their roles in the unique concert.
UC Santa Barbara’s hire Anne H. Charity Hudley believes linguistics is a discipline that offers insight into one of the most intriguing aspects of human knowledge and behavior: how we use language.
Syrian clarinetist-composer Kinan Azmeh captivated a Santa Barbara audience with a composition about a lover’s resilience in a war-torn Syrian village, which he dedicated to the Islamic philosopher Ibn ‘Arabi.
Azmeh appeared alongside the UCSB Middle East Ensemble for a concert, lecture, and poetry reading to open the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society’s annual conference “This Vast Earth,” hosted by UCSB’s Center for Middle East Studies.
“I was totally inspired by what I read,” Azmeh said, telling the audience how discovering Ibn ‘Arabi’s poetry led him to compose the music. “The piece ended up being a depiction of Ibn ‘Arabi’s journey, of love and fate intersecting.”
Insults can be used to empower people rather than demean them, says Chloe Brotherton, who won the 2017 Undergraduate Research Slam with her presentation “A ‘Bitch’ by Any Other Name: Reclaiming Gendered Insult Terms.” Brotherton, who graduated from UC Santa Barbara in Linguistics, is now a graduate student at UC Davis.
This is the story of how art museums became the place where I go to recharge my creative mind. I imagine others at UC Santa Barbara, who are creatively inclined, also gain inspiration by observing the artistry of others.
Trina Lazzara graduated last spring with two degrees from UC Santa Barbara, one in Psychology and one in English Literature. Throughout her time at UCSB, Lazzara was active in the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts as an English research assistant and as a mentor in the Campus Learning Assistance Services. She is currently tutoring young students in writing while volunteering at a domestic abuse treatment center in Fremont, California. Lazzara, who aims to become a social worker, says her passion for social justice combined with her undergraduate experience to place her on the road to success.
When I hear the term “ice breaker” I picture the Titanic’s engines at max capacity, steam escaping profusely from gigantic cylinders, a ship aiming right at me full speed ahead...
