News & Events
Alumna bell hooks—celebrated feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist, and writer—dies at 69
December 16, 2021
bell hooks was the author of over two dozen books that ranged from the groundbreaking text 'Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism' to her deeply felt memoir 'Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood'.
Karen Tei Yamashita receives 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
December 2, 2021
Yamashita used her acceptance speech, in part, to emphasize the significance of this medal being awarded to an Asian-American writer “especially this year, post-pandemic, having weathered the Twitter absurdity, corruption, and mendacity; the brutality of racial profiling; and the provocation of anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim, [and] anti-Asian hatred.”
New grant to support Dickens Project programming in year ahead
November 23, 2021
The programming in 2022 is focused on questions of race and social justice in the 19th century and today, with the summer's Dickens Universe event broadening its purview by pairing a British novel with an African-American novel.
Award-winning poet Gary Young to read at 12th annual Morton Marcus memorial event
November 10, 2021
Gary Young has written powerful, richly detailed verses often inspired by the bounty of the natural world. And as with most great poetry, Young’s work is great on the page, but truly comes to life when it is read aloud.
Karen Tei Yamashita to receive 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
September 13, 2021
UC Santa Cruz emerita professor of literature Karen Tei Yamashita will be awarded the 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards.
Humanities Institute and Bookshop Santa Cruz offer evening with bestselling author Sandra Cisneros
August 24, 2021
UCSC’s Humanities Institute is co-sponsoring a special online event with Bookshop Santa Cruz, featuring Sandra Cisneros, in conversation with Emmy Award-winning journalist Rubén Martínez, to celebrate her new book, "Martita, I Remember You / Martita, te recuerdo."
Dickens Universe celebrates 40th anniversary with ‘A Christmas Carol’
July 22, 2021
This summer, the Dickens Project at UC Santa Cruz—the largest multi-campus consortium on Victorian studies in the world—will present the 40th year of the Dickens Universe, a week of intense study and festivities.
‘Precarity & Belonging’ captures insights from global discussion of citizenship, migration, socioeconomic mobility
July 13, 2021
A new book from an interdisciplinary group of UC Santa Cruz scholars culminates more than five years of collaborative research and discussion that positioned the university as a convener of global thought leaders.
Graduate student organizing community workshops on the queer Black experience
June 25, 2021
Mia Boykin is expanding her Black.Queer.Alive. project to include four community workshops that will explore fitness, creativity, politics and entrepreneurship.
Graduate student explores gay literature's contributions to social movements, canon
June 21, 2021
Eric Sneathen explores how gay men, beginning in the 1960s, formed a literary community, wrote or curated poems and other literary works about their experiences, and how this community informed the more recent social movements around gay identity.
Registration open for the 40th annual Virtual Dickens Universe featuring ‘A Christmas Carol’
June 7, 2021
The Dickens Universe is an annual gathering of scholars, teachers, and members of the general public who share a love of Dickens's writings and his era. This summer, the Universe features A Christmas Carol and will take place online.
Alumna Reyna Grande wins Latino Spirit Award for Achievement in Literature & Advocacy
May 12, 2021
UC Santa Cruz alumna Reyna Grande (Kresge '99, B.A. creative writing, film & video) has received a 2021 Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus.
2021-22 Dickson Emeritus awards support faculty research in history, literature, and psychology
April 28, 2021
Karen Yamashita, professor emerita of literature; Dana Frank, research professor in history; and Thomas Pettigrew, research professor in psychology, were each awarded Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorships in recognition of their outstanding achievements in scholarship and teaching.
Inaugural Hayden White lecture to explore the afterlife of slavery with author Saidiya Hartman
April 9, 2021
Award-winning literary scholar and cultural historian Saidiya Hartman will be the featured guest at the inaugural Hayden V. White Distinguished Annual Lecture, a virtual event that takes place on April 19.
'Another glass ceiling shattered'
March 23, 2021
UC Santa Cruz student Gina Schneider became a part of history as one of the first women in the U.S. to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.
Founding UC Santa Cruz professor and revered literary and cultural critic Harry Berger Jr. dies at 96
March 22, 2021
Harry Berger Jr., professor emeritus of literature and art history at UC Santa Cruz, died on March 12, 2021, at age 96. An internationally recognized scholar and founding UCSC faculty member, Berger was known for a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary approach that goes far beyond traditional academic boundaries.
How to live like Shakespeare
March 11, 2021
A new series of conversations about Shakespeare that explore different aspects of human experience and the human condition kicks off April 5, co-hosted by Sean Keilen, director of UCSC's Shakespeare Workshop, and Julia Lupton, co-director of the New Swan Shakespeare Center at UC Irvine.
