“Jesus’s words and deeds made him one of the most impactful historical figures in the world,” writes student Yasmeen Faris, in a personal reflection on the intersection between her secular studies and her own faith.
In this piece, Faris talks about how a course in the Religious Studies department at UCSB changed her outlook on Jesus Christ, expanding her understanding of his impact on her personal life and religion and the effect that he had on the history of the world.
Visiting poet Tyree Daye says his process for exposing reality in a poem is more fantastical and imaginative than literal. “Imagination. Magic all day long,” Daye told a recent gathering of UC Santa Barbara students interested in poetry, or aspiring to be poets themselves. Daye recited selections of his work at the 2019 annual event to honor the Diana and Simon Raab Writer in Residence.
Created in 2017 by theater professor Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, New Works Lab is a workshop production program that gives students the unique opportunity to see their works come to life. It brings together student directors, playwrights, designers, stage managers, publicists and actors to put on original plays written by UCSB students. In the fall, students submit their scripts, after which a committee of students and faculty choose their top five or six scripts to which to give developmental productions. Directors, stage managers, designers and actors are then chosen in the winter and the shows are put into production in the spring. Every two weeks, each show performs their play in front the New Works Lab class and receives feedback from other students and faculty mentors.
In a recent interview, Cowhig spoke more about the class and its growth since its conception.
“My work is about vulnerability, desire, and fear,” Los Angeles ceramicist Lauren Gallaspy said in an installment of the Spring 2019 Arts Colloquium. “I’m interested in the recolonization of the territory of our minds and our bodies.”
Gallaspy’s work explores the transitional state that separates life from death, and creatures from objects. She seeks to convey wholeness and brokenness in her ceramic pieces, breaking the rules of ceramics and completing the process in unorthodox ways.
“Once you start seeing these links between Cold War propaganda and scientific freedom, you can’t un-see them,” Philadelphia-based writer, editor, and historian Audra J. Wolfe told a UC Santa Barbara audience. Wolfe discussed her recent book Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science as part of the Lawrence Badash Memorial Lecture Series, sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
UC Santa Barbara alum Brian Yaeger is the author of Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey and Oregon Breweries. But before he became a published author, he graduated from UCSB in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies. He has now returned to his alma mater to teach a course about beer through UCSB’s Department of Recreation.
Directors rely on history to be a backdrop and to set the scene for their storytelling, Film and Media Studies and History double major Ryann Stibor says. In a recent interview, she answers questions about how knowledge of history affects society today and how that knowledge intersects with her second major in film.
“‘You won’t make any money.’ It’s a myth all creatives hear constantly and one that up until my second year of college I believed to be true.”
In her piece, Tatiana [LAST NAME] discovers through the Humanities and Fine Arts, and specifically a Film and Media Studies course on media criticism, that her creativity not only applies to the hobbies that fill up her free time, but is also a viable skill that could contribute to a future career path.
“I never considered that I wanted to be a director until I realized that you had to put yourself in the position of an actor,” Theater and English student Katherine Hamilton admitted in a recent interview. She discusses what influenced her to change her focus from acting to directing, and how that choice—and her subsequent directing of “I Didn’t Want a Mastodon,” a student-produced, one-act comedy—has influenced her in return.
On Thursday evening, UCSB alumnus and artist John Nava returned to his alma mater to discuss his creative evolution with students, staff, and community members at the Art, Design, and Architecture Museum. Nava channels his fascination with the fine details of the human figure into his work and credits his UCSB art education as the catalyst that led him to discover his artistic voice.
Writing Program lecturer Robert Krut’s newest book, The Now Dark Sky, Setting Us All on Fire, has been awarded the Codhill Poetry Award by the Codhill Press. The award is given to the poet whose work stood out as the best of the year among all other submitted poetry. “It is always a nice feeling to know that someone appreciated what you’ve written,” Krut said.
“Inspired by my family roots in Italy and my obsession with spaghetti, I decided to dip my toes into the culture, society, and entertainment of the country. As a Communication major, I would never have thought that a course in Humanities and Fine Arts would play such a huge part in enriching my time at UCSB.”
Mia Sheffield describes how an Italian Cinema class changed how she felt about General Education courses.
“Any excessive emotion, that’s where it comes in, because you got nothing but emotion to the rest of the aria,” said mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of the music world’s most beloved figures, mentoring students at a recent UCSB Department of Music’s “Guest Artist Masterclass.” Students Kelly Guerra, Byron Mayes and others brought their best work for von Stade to critique.
“Remember that you’re not trying to prove that you know more than your parents. Instead, you’re allowing yourself to grow and discuss things,” writes author and escapee from South Vietnam Thi Bui. In this piece, Communication and Music Studies student Esther Liu draws connections from the writer’s experiences into her own life as an Asian American.
UCSB Writing Program lecturer Ellen O’Connell Whittet examines the art and tradition of ballet, with the critical eye of a writer and the perspective of a former ballerina. In this interview, she discusses her experience as a dancer and her memoir, which explores the intersection of feminism and ballet.
Garrett Gerstenberger, who graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2011, began his printing business in a garage near campus almost a decade ago as a Film and Media student. Today he runs Isla Vista Screen Printing and Embroidery a nine-person firm that produces dozens of unique UCSB and Isla Vista custom-designs. Gerstenberger matched his passion for business with his interest in the arts.
“All voices were hushed and eyes were drawn toward the stage at UC Santa Barbara’s Studio Theater. The lights dimmed and black silhouette-like dolls walked out onto the stage. I looked on in awe at the undergraduate UCSB dance majors performing in a student-choreographed modern dance recital. I was then a sophomore but butterflies struck my stomach, reminding me of the nervousness I had felt years earlier before a dance competition. Then I realized I was no longer the one who was looking out from the stage into the black sea of an audience, but rather the one spectating a university dance student performance.”
Here, Katie Orr recalls the jarring moment in a UCSB Humanities course in which she realized that dancing on a stage was still calling to her years after she had stopped her practice.
Recent UC Santa Barbara alum Kian McHugh graduated from Film and Media Studies already with a solid foothold in the music industry, as one of the principals of The Kollection, a website devoted to alternative music. “You get a taste of that life and it’s just something you’re kind of addicted to,” he recalls. “Then you realize that it could be a job someday, and that’s when it gets really exciting.” Read an interview with him here.
As the director of UCSB’s Center for Taiwan Studies, Kuo-Chi’ng Tu aims to promote Taiwan Studies in America through events such as the recently held conference, “World Literatures in Chinese: Transnational Perspectives of East Asian Cultures.” In this interview, Tu speaks about the conference, as well as how the Center for Taiwan Studies came to be.
Kaili Emery, a UC Santa Barbara global studies major, spent her fall quarter pursuing an international marketing internship in in Colombia. In an interview, Emery explains how her UCSB education influenced this experience abroad.
