This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won first place in the prose category.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won second place in the prose category.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won third place in the prose category.
This spring, UC Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted an annual contest to highlight creative student work from across the campus. The following are winning submissions in the Visual Art category.
This spring, UC Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted an annual contest to highlight creative student voices across the campus. The following are winning submissions in the Poetry category.
This spring, UC Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted an annual contest to highlight creativity across the campus. The following are winning submissions in the Music category.
This spring, UC Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted an annual contest to highlight creative students across the campus. The following are the winning submissions in the Photography category.
UC Santa Barbara alum Nori Muster joined filmmaker Jason Lapeyre and moderator David Gartell, a religious studies expert in the UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections, for a screening and post-screening discussion of docudrama Monkey on a Stick hosted by UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. Muster was recruited by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) when she was a sociology senior at UCSB in 1978. She was a historical advisor for the film.
At a UCSB Humanities Decanted event, historian Juan Cobo Betancourt discussed his new book The Coming of the Kingdom, which explores how Indigenous leaders in colonial Colombia used Catholic institutions to hold onto power and support their communities. The event was hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center.
At 41, Jose Alejandro Mendoza represents a growing wave of non-traditional college students navigating higher education after decades in the workforce. His journey—marked by resilience, mental health battles, and creative achievements—challenges traditional timelines and redefines what it means to belong on a college campus.
L.A. artist Amir H. Fallah paints portraits without faces, telling life stories through objects and symbols instead. Speaking at UCSB, he described how his work reflects his Iranian-American identity and challenges how we define people. From stained glass to sculpture, his art explores memory, culture, and the unseen layers of identity.
The 2025 winners of the UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts Division’s Give Day Creativity Contest joined HFA faculty and donors at a lunch last week to receive awards for their original work in writing, photography, art and music.
Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera visited UC Santa Barbara in in an interdisciplinary event in which he highlighted poetry's power to honor ancestors by sharing their stories with others. He shared poems on social issues such as police violence and immigration.
In a lecture as part of Art Department’s Visiting Artist Speaker Series at UCSB, artist Eamon Ore-Giron explores the fluid movement of cultural narratives across borders, blending ancient traditions with contemporary expression. His work insists that art, like history, is never singular—it's a conversation in motion. Currently on display at the AD&A Museum as half of the art duo Los Jaichackers, Ore-Giron walks the audience through his creative journey.
Olga Faccani believes Ancient Greek theater remains relevant today, shaping how we understand justice, democracy, and human connection. Through her Ph.D. work at UCSB, particularly with The Odyssey Project, she explored how classical texts resonate with marginalized voices, helping incarcerated youth navigate themes of isolation and trauma.
Writing Program professor Victoria Houser draws upon her teaching experiences to create an inclusive learning environment that engages students of diverse backgrounds. Houser prioritizes class discussions and encourages students to set clear goals for their writing. In a recent interview, she spoke about strategies to support multilingual students.
Authoritarian leaders use fear, crisis, and rebranding to push far-right agendas and erode democracy, NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat told a UCSB audience at the inaugural Charles R. Ross Distinguished Lecture in the Department of Italian Studies. She highlighted how figures like Mussolini, Meloni, and Trump manipulate public perception to justify extreme policies.
Selene Kalra is an Environmental Studies exchange student from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who found her passion in the Jazz program in UCSB Music Department.
A panel held by the Religious Studies Department at UCSB called on the university to strengthen its efforts to return Native ancestors' remains and cultural objects, highlighting the spiritual and human rights importance of repatriation. Panelists stressed that education and understanding are key to addressing the long-standing harm caused by the desecration of Native burial sites.
UC Santa Barbara music student Donavan Walker’s senior recital, Layers, was an immersive performance blending original compositions, live music, and set design to explore the connection between dreams, nightmares, and creativity. Centered around a bed symbolizing his restless mind, the show built to a breathtaking ensemble finale, capturing the exhaustion and rewards of the creative process.