Anthropology major Manniah Harrison reflects on her childhood love of dance—a passion she rediscovered through a UCSB Dance Department intermediate class. Dance, writes Harrison, unites mind, body and spirit and is a worthwhile elective for students of any major.

A presentation hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center explored how an Inupiaq folktale about the “Berry People” challenges Western and Catholic views of children as passive or in need of correction, instead presenting children as sacred, wise, and relational beings. Drawing from her Indigenous heritage and personal experience, UCSB Religious Studies postdoctoral fellow, Elisha Chi, used the story to highlight the harm done by colonial religious systems like residential schools and to propose a care-centered, reciprocal approach to understanding childhood.

UC Santa Barbara Biology student Maritza Ramos Leon is proving that science and art don’t have to live in separate worlds. While pursuing a STEM degree, she wrote and directed a short film that explores a tender queer relationship, drawing from personal experiences and a desire for authentic representation. Ramos’ journey reflects the power of following all your passions—even when they seem to pull in opposite directions.

UC Santa Barbara literature and film professor Eloi Grasset, who has taught at Harvard and the University of Barcelona, now brings his expertise in Spanish and Iberian culture to a new course open to all majors: Soccer in the Hispanic World. 

The Center for Middle East Studies recently held a graduate panel to highlight student’s research, a part of the center’s Spotlight Series. Camilla Falanesca, Giovanni Vimercati, and bridge mcwaid all presented their research, spanning from the film distribution in Beirut, to the fish market in 1950’s Palestine, to the oilfield in El Borma, Tunisia.

Student journalist Rosie Bultman channels her passion for social justice into powerful storytelling through radio and film, using platforms like KCSB’s People’s Program and her award-winning documentary The Takeover to spotlight historic and ongoing struggles for equity. With a background in the History of Law and Public Policy as well as Black Studies, she weaves activism and media together to educate, inspire, and mobilize change on campus and beyond.

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 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.

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.

Christina Han, an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, visited UCSB to present on the 17th-century Korean Sihwa ch'ongnim 詩話叢林 Compendium of Poetry Talks and the importance of collaborative, transnational scholarship in digital humanities.

Harvard University professor and filmmaker Vincent Brown spoke at a UCSB Key Passages series talk titled “Black History’s Warning to the World” and gave insights on the past, present, and future of Black history in the United States and internationally.

Dian Zeng’s experience providing music therapy during the Covid-19 pandemic led her to explore the broader impact of music on well-being, from supporting overwhelmed doctors to working with cancer patients. Now a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara, she researches how elderly Tai Chi practitioners in Los Angeles use music to enhance both their physical and mental health . At the same time, she works as a teaching assistant in Music and Asian American Studies.

The newly opened exhibit Creative Currents: Student Expression in the Arts at UC Santa Barbara’s Sara Miller McCune Arts Library showcases decades of student creativity, spanning from 1960 to 2017. Curated by graduate student Carlyle Constantino, the exhibit highlights emotionally resonant works while exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the evolving role of curation in amplifying historically overlooked voices.