IHC Newsletter 2022-2023

DEAR IHC COMMUNITY,

I’m delighted to be able to welcome you back to the IHC, where, this year, we will be holding some of our events in person, others as webinars, and some in a hybrid format. Please check our website to stay up to date on our events.

The IHC is committed to fostering interdisciplinary research in the humanities and arts, through our individual and collaborative funding programs and by supporting faculty through all aspects of extramural research funding. Our Humanities Decanted series features faculty in dialogue about their new publications and creative projects, and our interdisciplinary Research Focus Groups (RFGs) provide the opportunity for faculty and graduate students to work together on shared research interests.

The IHC also advances the place of the academic humanities in the public sphere through our annual lecture series dedicated to exploring an issue of foremost concern to both academic humanists and the broader public. This year’s series, entitled Too Much Information , is examining life in the Information Age. This October, Prof. Wolf Kittler inaugurated our series with a lecture on the history of our relationship to information. Other speakers this year will be addressing topics ranging from the experience of information overload, to the role of the internet in the democratization of knowledge, to the ways in which the humanities provide the analytic skills necessary to discern true from false information.

In addition to its events in the academic humanities, the IHC is home to a variety of programs in the publicly engaged humanities, all of which are built around collaborations with community organizations that share the goal of advancing civic agency and cultural discovery. To mention only two of our programs: The Public Humanities Graduate Fellows Program prepares humanities and social sciences Ph.D. students to use their advanced academic skills in community settings, while Foundations in the Humanities is a correspondence program in literary studies staffed by graduate students who mentor more than 150

people incarcerated in California prisons. You can find descriptions of all of our programs on the IHC website (ihc.ucsb.edu), where you can also sign up for our mailing list.

As I reflect on the impact of our collective humanities endeavors and look forward to this new academic year of teaching, research, and programming, I am reminded of something I have seen time and again as a teacher. I have seen this in freshman seminars, when students read Primo Levi for the first time, and in prison classrooms, as twenty men discuss a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa, and in workshops with veterans who are writing about what it means as an 18 year old to have signed your life over to the military. As these students puzzle out the meanings of the words before them, something happens: they come alive. They come alive, I think, because in discovering the meanings in the words, they discover meaning in their own lives. In the two-way mirror that is literature, they see the world and their place in it.

This is the power and value of all of the disciplines that go by the name of the humanities, and I am energized by the work our humanities faculty and graduate students are doing to further the depth and relevance of the humanities on our campus and in our communities.

I and the IHC staff look forward to supporting the research of our faculty and graduate students and to bringing new faculty and graduate students into our programs. We also hope that you, our campus and community members, will join us this year at our upcoming events.

Best

wishes,

Susan Derwin, Director Interdisciplinary Humanities Center

TOOINFORMATIONMUCH TMI MUCHTOO

Too Much Information, the IHC’s 2022-23 public events series, will engage perspectives from the humanities to consider what it means to live in the Information Age. How does the human brain process the ceaseless influx of information in our media-saturated world? How are the capacities for attention and relaxation, and mental and physical health, affected by “information overload”? With the democratization of knowledge engendered by the internet, more people than ever have access to countless sources of information and misinformation. What role do the humanities play in propagating the skills needed to discern and discriminate between true and false information?

On a societal level, how are democratic practices, social movements, national policies and security decisions influenced by the global circulation of data and the ubiquity of misinformation?

TMI will also explore questions of access to and dissemination of knowledge, including the ethical use of genetic information, and how the suppression of knowledge in public education poses a threat to democratic governance.

2022–23 IHC ADVISORY BOARD

JULIE CARLSON English

ALENDA CHANG Film and mEdia studiE s

WILLIAM DAVIES KING thE atEr and dancE

XIAORONG LI E ast a sian l anguagE s & cultural studiE s

ROSE MACLEAN classics

JENNI SORKIN history oF a rt and a rchitEcturE CHRISTINA VAGT g Ermanic and slavic studiE s

OCT 6

OCT 13 FEB 16

SELECTION OF UPCOMING EVENTS

TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE?

Wolf D. Kittler (UCSB)

MAKE A POEM CRY: CREATIVE WRITING FROM CALIFORNIA’S LANCASTER PRISON

Kenneth E. Hartman and Luis J. Rodríguez

THE CLIMATE INFOWHELM

Heather Houser (University of Texas at Austin) CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT): WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT ISN’T, AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Taifha Natalee Alexander (UCLA)

GPS FOR THE BRAIN: NETWORKS, URBANISMS, ALGORITHMS

Laura Kurgan (Columbia University)

CREATING, WEAPONIZING, AND DETECTING DEEP FAKES

Hany Farid (UC Berkeley)

HOW ARE YOU? SENTIMENT, SURVEILLANCE, AND ANTI-ASIAN RACISM

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Simon Fraser University)

2021–22 IHC FELLOWSHIP AND AWARD WINNERS

FACULTY FELLOWSHIPS

Given to ladder-rank faculty members to release them from teaching for one quarter in order to concentrate on research projects

HEIDI AMIN-HONG , English: “A Contaminated Transpacific: Ecological Afterlives of the Vietnam War”

CHARMAINE CHUA , Global Studies: “Logistics Leviathan: Counterrevolutionary empire and just-in-time distribution in the Indo-Pacific”

RAQUEL PACHECO, Anthropology: “Remaking the Peasant Countryside: Intimate mestizaje in Neoliberal Mexico”

FACULTY COLLABORATIVE AWARDS

Support for campus or local conferences; collaborative research or instructional projects by faculty members in one or more departments/programs; and initiatives to bring visiting scholars and arts practitioners to campus for collaborative research or teaching

The Global Imagination of Racial Justice: Coalition, Comparativism, Community SWATI RANA , English STEPHANIE BATISTE , Black Studies & English

Silicon Valley Requiem ANDREW WATTS , College of Creative Studies

WILLIAM DAVIES KING , Theater and Dance

Ecologies of Childhood: An Interdisciplinary International Research Conference SARA PANKENIER WELD, Germanic and Slavic Studies

IHC DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIPS

Support for doctoral candidates whose research facilitates dialogue across the traditional disciplinary boundaries within the arts and humanities and/or between the arts & humanities, sciences, and social sciences

CHRISTOPHER ERDMAN , Classics: “Voting Culture and Political Theater in Late Republican Lawmaking”

ADDISON JENSEN , History: “Blowin’ in the Wind: Media, Counterculture, and the American Military in Vietnam”

NICKY REHNBERG , History: “White Roots, Redwoods: Racializing German and U.S. Conservation, 1920-1945”

ISABELLA RESTREPO, Feminist Studies: “Transcarceral Care: Racialized Girlhood, Behavioral Diagnosis, and California’s Foster Care System”

REEM TAHA , Comparative Literature: “‘Of Here and Everywhere’: (Re)Mapping Mediterranean Identities at the Ibero-African Frontier”

GRADUATE COLLABORATIVE AWARDS

Annual project awards to encourage graduate student collaboration beyond the confines of individual departments and disciplines within the arts and humanities and between the arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences

Alt-Right Media Literacy Series

ADAM BURSTON , Sociology

CHELSEA KAI ROESCH , Film and Media Studies

KYNA MCCLENAGHAN , Film and Media Studies

Healing Communities

GIULIA GIAMBONI , History

MICHAEL J. IOANNIDES , Anthropology MARIAH MILLER , Global Studies

Ninth Annual American Indian and Indigenous Collective (AIIC) Virtual Symposium: “Imagining Indigenous Futurities”

ALESHA CLAVERIA , Theater and Dance SAGE GERSON , English ANDREA GUERRA , Global Studies

KENDALL LOVELY, History

MAITE URCAREGUI , English

IHC VISUAL PERFORMING MEDIA ARTS AWARDS

These awards support innovative projects in the visual, performing, and media arts that engage creatively with issues of interdisciplinary concern.

ALEXANDRA BIRCH , Music and History: “Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin”

CATHY THOMAS , English: “Echolocating the Caribbean Diaspora”

VISITING SCHOLARS

The IHC’s Visiting Scholar Program provides humanities and fine arts faculty from other institutions the opportunity to make use of UCSB’s facilities while they are in residence in Santa Barbara. Visiting Scholars participate in the Center’s public events and research groups.

ELIZABETH GUFFEY, Art History, State University of New York at Purchase

GRADUATE TEACHING FELLOWS PROGRAM

Graduate Teaching Fellows instruct in a correspondence program on Foundations in the Humanities for incarcerated students in California state prisons.

DEENA AL-HALABIEH , English MICHAEL FIDDLER , Linguistics

MARGARET FISHER , English GRACE KIMBALL , Theater and Dance CELESTE MCALPIN-LEVITT, English CHRIS MORALES , Religious Studies NICOLE REHNBERG , History MADELEINE ROEPE , English

EMMANUELA SCHOINOPLOKAKI , Classics

MEGAN SHEARD, History of Art and Architecture

MAITE URCAREGUI , English

LAUREN VANDERLINDEN , Ethnomusicology

IAN WALLER , Sociology

IHC PUBLIC HUMANITIES PROGRAMS

PUBLIC HUMANITIES GRADUATE FELLOWS PROGRAM

The Public Humanities Graduate Fellows Program prepares students for careers as dynamic, socially engaged humanists both within and beyond the academy. Through seminars, practical experience, and a capstone project, fellows become conversant with the history, theories, and methods of public humanities. They gain insight into the social reach and relevance of their scholarship and learn how to be publicly engaged academics. Fellows also use their skills in a variety of social and professional environments, including museums and other cultural institutions, government, education administration, and nonprofit organizations.

Current Public Humanities Graduate Fellows:

KWABENA AGYARE YEBOAH , History

MAISNAM ARNAPAL , Feminist Studies

VICTORIA BALLMES , Religious Studies

GUILLEM BELMAR VIERNES , Liguistics

TANNISHTHA BHATTACHARJEE , History

RICARDO DELGADO SOLIS , Chicano and Chicana Studies

SOLAIRE DENAUD, Comparative Literature

ALEXANDRA ELEAZAR , Sociology

OLIVIA HENDERSON , English

DANA HUGHES , History

EMMA JOHN , History

GRACE KIMBALL , Theater and Dance

YAN LIU, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies

SOMAK MUKHERJEE , English

HEATH PENNINGTON , Theater and Dance

MEGAN SHEARD, Art and Architecture

MARIACAROLINA SINTURA , English

LAUREN SMYTH , Anthropology

JUNGAH SON , Media Arts and Technology

ABYLAY STAMBAYEV, History

MORGANE THONNART, Religious Studies

MIKA THORNBURG , History

SHANNON TORIBIO, Religious Studies

JORDAN TUDISCO, Comparative Literature

ESRA TUNC , Religious Studies

MACKENZIE WADE , Anthropology

KIRA WEISS , Music

GEORGE YGARZA , Global Studies

EUNWOO YOO, Theater and Dance

MAYA ZAYNETDINOVA , Global Studies

MARIA ANNA ZAZZARINO, Comparative Literature VIEW

FOUNDATIONS IN THE HUMANITIES PRISON CORRESPONDENCE PROGRAM

Foundations in the Humanities is a correspondence program for people incarcerated in California prisons. The curriculum consists of short works of fiction, poetry, and essays. Unlike courses that require on-site contact hours or the use of computers, this unique correspondence format enables students to work independently on their assignments, including during lock-downs. The individualized feedback they receive has proven to incentivize participants to pursue other programs in higher education. The course is taught by UCSB graduate students, who have the opportunity to explore issues of civic engagement and social justice, as well as to gain experience teaching in the humanities, working with non-traditional students, and alternative course delivery.

INTERPRETING IN OUR LOCAL SCHOOLS

In the Interpreting in Our Local Schools program, UCSB graduate and undergraduate students who are heritage and bilingual Spanish speakers serve as paid interpreters at local elementary schools during parent/guardian-teacher conferences. By drawing upon their language expertise to meet the needs of elementary students and their families, UCSB student interpreters gain experience using their academic and language-brokering skills in a broader social environment that includes community members, teachers, and school administrators.

UC STUDENT VETERANS SUMMER WRITING WORKSHOP

The seventh annual UC Student Veterans Summer Writing Workshop, held at the IHC from June 12-16, brought seven UC students to Santa Barbara for an intensive writing program. The workshop enabled veterans to develop skills in the craft of personal narrative so that they can communicate with the civilian population about their military experiences. The instructors who led the workshop met daily with students, and communal meals and evening events reinforced the work done during the day and strengthened social cohesion among the participants. The 2022 Workshop was supported by the UC Office of the President and through gifts from the Gretler Foundation; from Danelle Storm Rosati ’77 and Mario Rosati; and from Laureen Seeger and David Elliot Cohen.

To learn more about these programs and how you can participate, visit ihc.ucsb.edu/public-humanities.

RESEARCH FOCUS GROUPS

RFGs bring together faculty and graduate students with shared research interests from different fields and departments/programs to foster the development of interdisciplinary research agendas. Convened by individuals from at least two departments/programs, RFGs meet regularly during the academic year to present work in progress, read and discuss texts and current scholarship, and/or plan and implement common research projects.

2022–23 Research Focus Groups:

AMERICAN INDIAN AND INDIGENOUS COLLECTIVE

Sarah Roselena Brady (Art), Kendall Lovely (History), Margaret McMurtrey (English), Daina Sanchez (Chicana/o Studies)

ANCIENT BORDERLANDS

Elizabeth DePalma Digeser (History), Rose MacLean (Classics)

THE ASIAN/AMERICAN STUDIES COLLECTIVE

Diane Fujino (Asian American Studies), erin Khuê Ninh (Asian American Studies), Michael Nishimura (Sociology), Lisa Park (Asian American Studies), Tandee Wang (History), Maile Young (English)

CARIBBEAN STUDIES

Stephanie Batiste (English), Solaire Denaud (Comparative Literature), Mireille Miller-Young (Feminist Studies), Swati Rana (English), Saide Singh (English), Roberto Strongman (Black Studies), Cathy Thomas (English), Maria Zazzarino (Comparative Literature)

DISABILITY STUDIES INITIATIVE

Isidro Gonzáles (History), Olivia Henderson (English), Shanna Killeen (Comparative Literature), Rachel Lambert (Education), Catherine Nesci (Comparative Literature)

EMOTIONS IN HISTORY

Hongbo Yu (Psychological and Brain Sciences), Ya Zuo (History)

GLOBAL CHILDHOOD ECOLOGIES

Solaire Denaud (Comparative Literature), Rachel Feldman (Comparative Literature), Sara Pankenier Weld (Germanic and Slavic Studies)

LEGAL HUMANITIES

Ahmad Atif Ahmad (Religious Studies), Jeannine DeLombard (English), Elizabeth DePalma Digeser (History), Greg Johnson (Religious Studies), Elinor Mason (Philosophy), Kathleen Moore (Religious Studies), Giuliana Perrone (History)

LISO (LANGUAGE, INTERACTION, AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION)

John Du Bois (Linguistics), Amy Kyratzis (Education), Kevin Whitehead (Sociology)

MACHINES, PEOPLE, AND POLITICS

W. Patrick McCray (History), Lisa Parks (Film and Media Studies)

RE-CENTERING ENERGY JUSTICE

Jéssica Coyotecatl Contreras (Anthropology), Mona Damluji (Film and Media Studies)

REIMAGININGS: DEVELOPING CREATIVE CRITICAL WRITING PRACTICES

Felice Blake (English), Vickie Vertiz (Writing Program)

SLAVERY, CAPTIVITY, AND THE MEANING OF FREEDOM

Manuel Covo (History), Jeannine DeLombard (English), Evelyne LaurentPerrault (History), Rose MacLean (Classics), John Majewski (History), Giuliana Perrone (History), Cathy Thomas (English)

SOUTH ASIAN RELIGIONS AND CULTURES

Barbara Holdrege (Religious Studies), Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies)

THEORIES OF MEDIA AND TECHNIQUES IN THE WAKE OF POSTCOLONIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (TMT)

Stephen Borunda (Film and Media Studies), Paul Kim (Film and Media Studies), Anna Schewelev (Comparative Literature), Christina Vagt (German, Comparative Literature), Tinghao Zhou (Film and Media Studies)

UN-DISCIPLINING PREMODERN HISTORIES OF RACE AND GENDER Debra Blumenthal (History), Heather Blurton (English), Daniel Reeve (English), Reem Taha (Comparative Literature), Jessica Zisa (English)

IV ARTS

Isla Vista Arts re-started its free film series with the recent box office hit, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, shown to over 100 audience members of all ages at Isla Vista’s outdoor amphitheater in Anisq’oyo Park. Friday night outdoor screenings continued into October with other community friendly, PG-rated films.

IV Arts’ program “Nuestra Voz,” a free theater day camp for young people at the St. George Youth Center YMCA, recently wrapped up its summer of teaching and learning. The young campers especially enjoyed their field trip to The Sound of Music in Santa Maria. Many campers had never seen a live performance of a musical before. These students enjoyed learning about how costumes, sets, and props are designed and created through guided tours of UCSB Theater and Dance Department’s theaters and workshops.

New performing arts programming will be offered this winter in Embarcadero Hall in Isla Vista, where IV Arts will produce a free, serialized weekly improvised theater performance, performed by undergraduates. Finally, student journalists from IV Arts’ Word Magazine presented at the Associated Collegiate Press’ national conference in Long Beach in two separate and well-attended panels. New issues of Word Magazine hit newsstands in September for all incoming students.

PLATFORM

Originating from the French word plateforme , meaning “ground plan” or “flat shape,” Platform is a public exhibition space at the IHC that features the work of emerging and established artists displayed as two-dimensional printed media. The artwork displayed in the 2022–23 Platform exhibition brings the University’s academic and community guests into dialogue with the IHC’s annual public events series theme, Too Much Information , in creative ways. View the current and previous exhibitions online at ihc.ucsb.edu/platformgallery

2021–22 HUMANITIES DECANTED SERIES

Talk: Clint Smith Talk: Caroline Levine

Talk: Alexandre Gefen and Sandra Laugier Talk: Vivian Gornick Talk: Monica Bethe Talk: Dexter Filkins Talk: Scott Ellsworth

Talk: Elizabeth Kolbert

Inaugural Lecture: David Pellow

Artist Talk: Harmonia Rosales

IHC STAFF

SUSAN DERWIN

Director

T: (805) 893.8538 Office: 6046A HSSB derwin@ihc.ucsb.edu

ERIN NERSTAD Associate Director

T: (805) 893.3137 Office: 6046B HSSB nerstad@ihc.ucsb.edu

CHRISTOFFER BOVBJERG Assistant Director

T: (805) 893.2004 Office: 6038 HSSB cbovbjerg@ihc.ucsb.edu

SAMANTHA OGLESBY Business Officer

T: (805) 893.8727 Office: 6050 HSSB samantha@ihc.ucsb.edu

PAULA SCHAEFER Senior Artist

T: (805) 893.4315 Office: 6046C HSSB pschaefer@ihc.ucsb.edu

Interdisciplinary Humanities Center

6046 HSSB. UC Santa Barbara

JARRED PELAYO Payroll and Financial Assistant T: (805) 893.5541 Office: 6054 HSSB jarred@ihc.ucsb.edu

CAROLE STREHLOW Contracts and Grants Coordinator T: (805) 893.5073 Office: 6036 HSSB carole@ihc.ucsb.edu

GABBY REYNA Administrative Assistant T: (805) 893.3907 Office: 6046 HSSB gabbyreyna@ihc.ucsb.edu

ANNA JENSEN Director of Isla Vista Arts T: (805) 893.4809 Office: 6034 HSSB akjensen@ihc.ucsb.edu / ihcucsb

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-7100 T: (805) 893.3907 F: (805) 893.4336 admin@ihc.ucsb.edu