The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz

Last November, a full house of nearly 300 people joined us for the 16th Annual Morton Marcus Poetry Reading featuring acclaimed poet Ellen Bass. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker and American Poetry Review, and her many honors include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Lambda Literary Award, and four Pushcart Prizes.

Presented by THI in collaboration with UCSC Living Writers, the program was hosted by poet Gary Young and also celebrated Morton Marcus Poetry Prize winners Elizabeth Jacobson (2024) and Joyce Victor (2025).

📷 Image descriptions (photo credit: Crystal Birns):
1. Ellen Bass smiles on stage at the 2026 Morton Marcus Poetry Prize.
2. Top image: photo of (from left to right) Farnaz Fatemi (2023-2024 Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate), Ellen Bass, and Nancy Miller Gomez (2025-26 Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate). Bottom image: photo of a Bookshop Santa Cruz table presenting the work of Ellen Bass across her career, including her newest book “Indigo.”
3. Top image: photo of the audience applauding the prize winners. Bottom image: photo from the stage looking out onto the crowd gathered at the UC Santa Cruz Merrill Cultural Center.

A few highlights from another amazing year collaborating with our friends at Bookshop Santa Cruz! 📚📖

We look forward to hosting more incredible authors and conversations in the academic year ahead!

📷 Image descriptions:
1. Top photo: The illuminated sign of The Rio Theater with George Saunders' name spelled out on the marquee. Bottom photo: George Saunders laughing as he speaks about his book “Vigil.”
2. Top photo: Julian Brave NoiseCat poses with Bookshop staff with his book “We Survived the Night.” Bottom photo: Julian Brave NoiseCat on stage at the London Nelson Community Center.
3. Top photo: Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon posing with the audience as they raise their books with smiles. Bottom photo: Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon speaking about their book “The Future is Peace” at an event moderated by Douglas Abrams.
4. Photo of Ocean Vuong (right) discussing his new book “The Emperor of Gladness” with Ronaldo V. Wilson (UCSC Professor of Literature) at the Rio Theater.
5. Faculty at UC Santa Cruz share their books. Top photo: Gregory O’Malley (UCSC Professor of History) in conversation with Vilashini Cooppan (UCSC Professor of Literature) on his new book “The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution” at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Bottom photo: Alice Yang (UCSC Professor of History), right, stands with Karen Tei Yamash*ta (UCSC Professor Emerita of Literature), on the left, holding Yamash*ta’s new novel “Questions 27 & 28.”
6. Top photo: Mary Roach (right) sits on stage smiling into her microphone while discussing her book “Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy” beside a Bookshop Santa Cruz sign at the London Nelson Community Center. Bottom photo: Image of a packed audience at the Rio Theater stage during a discussion of Isabel Allende’s book “My Name is Emilia del Valle.”
7. Colm Tóibín signing copies of his books at a THI and Bookshop Santa Cruz event at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn.
8. Megha Majumdar at Bookshop Santa Cruz with her novel “A Guardian and a Thief" in hand.

As part of our 2025-2026 focus on Nourishment, THI’s Abolition Medicine and Disability Justice project hosted a conversation earlier this year on caregiving, parenthood, disability, language, meaning, and technology. The panel centered on two books by UC Santa Cruz professors, Danilyn Rutherford’s “Beautiful Mystery: Living in a Wordless World” and Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s “Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Can a game take care of us?” The authors were joined by professors Donna Haraway and Megan Moodie, and the event was moderated by THI Faculty Director Pranav Anand.

In an increasingly careless world where cruelty is celebrated and disability mocked, Rutherford and Wardrip-Fruin’s books remind us that beautiful relationships of compassion, connection, communication, and empathy still exist. These scholar-parents give us extraordinary insight into the form of attention in which all our hopes rest: love.

📷 Image descriptions (photos by ):
1. The top image shows a photo of Danilyn Rutherford (left) and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (right). In the bottom left image, an attendee looks at Danilyn’s book “Beautiful Mystery.” In the bottom-right image, an audience member asks a question.
2. Megan Moodie, Abolition Medicine and Disability Justice project PI, speaks at the event.
3. The top image shows the audience for the event at the UC Santa Cruz Cowell Ranch Hay Barn. The bottom image shows (from left to right) Danilyn Rutherford (Professor Emerita of Anthropology), Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Professor of Computational Media), Donna Haraway (Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies), Megan Moodie (Professor of Anthropology), and Pranav Anand (THI’s Faculty Director and Professor of Linguistics).

Join us for the 2026 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music! 🎶

Framed by the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, The Humanities Institute is excited to co-sponsor “We the Dreamers,” Cabrillo Festival’s 2026 season that asks: Who is the “we” of America—and who are “we” still becoming? This year’s contemporary classical music festival from July 26 through August 9 offers a compelling portrait of our contemporary moment through the lenses of history, civic reckoning, and global perspectives.

Two UC Santa Cruz Humanities scholars will offer free public talks in conversation with Cabrillo Festival composers before their performances. On July 30, David H. Anthony III, Professor Emeritus of African History, will talk with composer James Lee III about his piano concerto “Shades of Unbroken Dreams,” inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. On August 7, THI Faculty Director Pranav Anand will join composer Clarice Assad and D. Riley Nicholson, Executive Director of the Cabrillo Festival, for a pre-rehearsal discussion about the inspirations for Assad’s piece “Kontrol,” which explores the impacts of AI on musical creation and performance, both now and in the near future.

UC Santa Cruz Humanities students are also helping behind the scenes with community engagement and education outreach at the festival. Since January, Alison Abravanel and Winnie Cook have been working with the Cabrillo Festival as Humanities EXCEL Fellows.

We hope to see you for this powerful season of contemporary music.

📷 Image Descriptions:
1. The text says “We the Dreamers” with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music logo above an image of an orchestra performance from last year’s festival.
2. Photo of Alison Abravanel (left) and Winnie Cook (right) with the text “2026 Humanities EXCEL Fellows with the Cabrillo Festival.”

In February, we brought Marion Nestle, a consumer advocate, nutritionist, award-winning author, and academic who specializes in the politics of food and dietary choice, to a sold-out event at the UC Santa Cruz Hay Barn. Her Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture, “Sustainable Food in the Trump Era,” offered a bracing look at what’s on today’s menu and what’s in store.

If you missed the event or want to revisit the conversation, you can watch the recording on our website.

📷 Image descriptions (photo credit West Cliff Creative):
1. Photo of Marion Nestle standing at a podium addressing the audience with a smile.
2. Top image shows a photo of (from left to right) Pranav Anand (THI’s Faculty Director), Marion Nestle, and Jasmine Alinder (Dean of Humanities). The bottom image shows a photo of several of Marion Nestle's books displayed on a Bookshop Santa Cruz table.
3. Top image of Marion Nestle signing her book for student attendees. Bottom image of an audience member asking a question.

Mabuhay! We’re thrilled to be in the Philippines with Watsonville is in the Heart for Saritaan, a community-engaged research initiative documenting transnational stories of migration, agrarian life, and kinship. 🇵🇭🌏🌾

UC Santa Cruz students are partnering with undergraduate researchers from Pangasinan Polytechnic College (PPC) in Lingayen to collect oral histories and archival materials from families in the region.

The trip is also a profound balikbayan journey, an intergenerational return, for our Tobera Project partners, descendants of Filipino migrants who came to the Pajaro Valley in the 1920s. They are here to contribute to the research and learn more about their families’ histories.

📸 Image descriptions:
1. Humanities EXPLORE Fellow Aldrine Gatpo gives two thumbs up while sitting in a green moto tricycle in the Philippines.
2. PPC Fellows CJ De Guzman (center) and Zoren Franco (right) look at a historical photo for the research project with an archive contributor in San Nicolas. There is a painting of the Filipino American labor organizer Larry Itliong in the background.
3. Tobera Project partner Maurice Carrillo points to Binalonan on a map, where his family is from.
4. UCSC History Professor Kat Gutierrez speaks in the top left photo, PPC International Relations Officer Nicanor Germono Jr. speaks in the top right photo, and collaborators from Santa Cruz and Lingayen dance together in the bottom photo.
5. Top photo shows from left to right, UC Santa Cruz alumna Maia Mislang and Humanities EXPLORE Fellows Aldrine Gatpo, Kai Sotto, Nancy Ortiz and Jamie Dy. The bottom photo shows UCSC Sociology Professor Steve McKay in front of a sign that says “Lingayen.”
6. UCSC joins PPC for a sports day. Top photo shows students and staff sitting in the stands. In the bottom left photo, Maia sports her jersey. In the bottom right photo, players high-five before a volleyball game.
7. PPC students and Saritaan fellows Rodel Cuison (left) and Jesel Bacallo (right) rock their UCSC Humanities Division shirts.
8. Around Lingayen: The top photo shows people on motorcycles and tricycles in the town center, and the bottom photo shows people fishing at sunrise. Courtesy of Steve McKay.
9. Top photo: left to right, PPC students and Saritaan fellows Zoren Franco, Rodel Cuison, Jesel Bacallo, and CJ De Guzman. Bottom photo: Tobera Project partner Juanita Sulay Wilson laughing with students Nancy and Zoren during an oral history workshops.
10. A team photo at the Banáan Pangasinan Provincial Museum.

We’re so grateful for such a warm welcome from our partners in the Philippines and excited about this month of collaborative research with Pangasinan Polytechnic College and Watsonville is in the Heart!

Joeb Stout recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz as an intensive History major with a concentration in Europe. During his 2025-26 THI Undergraduate Research Fellowship, he examined the phenomenon of Die neue Frau or “The New Woman” — a feminist ideal of a working, independent, and educated woman — as a transatlantic expression of the late 1920s. We caught up with him at the end of the academic year to learn more about his project and his experience conducting independent research, including archival work at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Joeb reflected: "One of the biggest lessons I learned is that research is not a linear endeavor; rabbit holes and memoirs will constantly throw you 100 ft away from your question, and you have to learn to adapt and change your perspective as you go. The amount of new essay prompts I could write from just one short fellowship has truly inspired me.

📷 Image descriptions:
1. Photo of Joeb in front of his THI research poster at the 2026 Celebrating the Humanities event.
2. Joeb’s quote with three stills from the film Pandora’s Box (1929) featuring Louise Brooks as “Lulu.” The visuals show a woman in a layered dress with a feathered fan, two women in an embrace, and a lively conversation between a woman and a man.

We can’t wait for Santa Cruz Shakespeare this summer! 🎭

The Humanities Institute is co-sponsoring the 2026 season, featuring Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth. Opening night is July 16!

Alongside the performances, THI’s Shakespeare Workshop will present Weekend with Shakespeare on August 8 and 9. The event includes engaging lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities for audiences to deepen their understanding of the productions.

We are also delighted to support the annual C.L. Barber Fellowship, providing an opportunity for a UCSC student to serve as an assistant dramaturg. This year's C.L. Barber Fellow is Lily Grimes, a PhD student in the Literature Department.

We hope you’ll join us this summer for the performances, conversations, and community around Shakespeare in Santa Cruz!

Image Descriptions:
1. Photo of Santa Cruz Shakespeare with performers on stage leaping in the air. Photo credit: Kevin Lohman
2. Black and white photo of people around a table and the text “Weekend with Shakespeare.”
3. Photo of Lily Grimes with her name and the text “2026 C.L. Barber Fellow with Santa Cruz Shakespeare.”

In March, as part of The Humanities Institute’s Questions That Matter series, Ben Leeds Carson (Professor of Music), Camilla A. Hawthorne (Associate Professor of Sociology), and Pranav Anand (THI Faculty Director and Professor of Linguistics) at UCSC, along with librettist Perre DiCarlo, came together for “How to Live Long and Prosper: Lessons from a Star Trek Opera” to consider the question: What do we need to live a fulfilling life?

Through speculative fiction from the Star Trek world, the myth of Orpheus, and a music-and-drama masterclass, the event explored what the operatic form can teach us about intelligence, humanity, and the good life.

If you missed it or want to revisit the conversation, you can watch the recording on our website.

📷 Image descriptions (photo credit: West Cliff Creative):
1. Photo of the panelists in front of the event venue, the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
2. Top image of Ben Leeds Carson playing the piano and bottom image of the audience at the event.
3.(From left to right) Ben Leeds Carson (Professor of Music), Pranav Anand (THI Faculty Director and Professor of Linguistics), librettist Perre DiCarlo, and Camilla A. Hawthorne (Associate Professor of Sociology), on stage at the event.
4. Photo of two performers from Star Trek Opera The Trial of Spock, with members of the San Francisco and San Jose Opera companies accompanied by San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet.