University Forum: Election Series

Dr. Sylvanna M. Falcón, founder of UC Santa Cruz’s Human Rights Investigations Lab for the Americas, will explain how human rights accountability has shifted in the digital realm and the ways in which a new generation of human rights activists are needed with critical digital literacy skills in search for the truth.  

The U.S. presidential election is on Nov 3. We will gather as a community the morning after to process the preceding night (and preceding years) and to think together about the weeks, months, and years to come. Gina Dent, Debbie Gould, and Savannah Shange will start off the conversation. And if it makes more sense to take to the streets on this Wednesday, then that’s what we’ll do. 

Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), is the featured speaker for the second event in Visualizing Abolition. Stevenson will join Professor Gina Dent for a conversation about art, culture, and activism, as well as how re-envisioning history can enliven contemporary struggles against racial inequality and the criminal justice system. 

We know that the turbulence of our time and places can only be navigated safely when we are ‘all-in’ ‘all-together’ to find creative ways to deploy our resources, resist the ongoing assaults on vulnerable communities, and renew our bonds of connection that sustain us. We invite our growing network(s) of scholars, organizers, community leaders, funders, and students to join a series of virtual events.

Lily Pearl Balloffet (Latin American and Latino Studies, UC Santa Cruz) will discuss her recent book, Argentina in the Global Middle East, in conversation with Devi Mays (University of Michigan). By following the mobile lives of individuals with roots in the Levantine Middle East, Balloffet sheds light on the intersections of ethnicity, migrant–homeland ties, and international relations.

Join Angela Y. Davis and Gina Dent, noted antiprison activists, scholars, and educators, for an online conversation about critical issues in the arts, visual culture, and abolition. This is the first in a series of events that questions what it means to think of abolitionism as a vision—one that challenges the social, economic, and political worldviews that prisons promote.

This two day workshop will explore the history of mass incarceration in California and examine the roles media played in influencing public opinion, policy, and more.

This series installment connects increased incarceration in the 1980s and 1990s to racist policies and politics at the time, with Black Lives Matter and movements on reform and abolition now, to Prop 16 (affirmative action). With Anjuli Verma and Craig Haney.

with Richard McGahey, Visiting IST Faculty and Senior Fellow at the New School for Social Research.

New York City faces a severe budget crisis driven by the Covid recession.  But the pandemic and recession are illuminating long-standing inequalities in the city’s economy, in spite of decades of policy aimed at supporting private sector development and restraining city spending and investment.  The city’s situation and future prospects are shaped by underlying forces including industry changes, federal and state policy, a politically fragmented region, and structural racism.  Like others in the U.S., New York cannot solve these problems on its own.  It also lacks a progressive movement with a unified approach to economic development, complicating its future prospects.

PIT-UN Speaker Series with Brandie Nonnecke, Founding Director of the CITRIS Policy Lab. Join us to learn about the CITRIS Policy Lab’s recent research, how it draws upon this research to support policymakers’ decisions in the public and private sectors, and strategies to help you translate your research into policy deliverables that can inform the ethical development and deployment of technology.

Free online workshop for PhD students in the humanities and social sciences, with a special focus on scholars of race, power, and difference. Deadline for applications is September 12th.

Urgent and complex global problems of modern times including, COVID 19 at one end and the sharpening of inequities on the other is creating multiple marginalities and livelihood insecurities. This calls for a deeper understanding of the society and the need to reimagine strategies for sustaining local livelihood practices and creating global solidarities for social transformation that envisions the ideas of justice and equity. The global dialogues on livelihoods, solidarity, and transformation is an effort in this direction to surface such urgent questions in this arena to build that collective global dialogue towards co-production of ‘knowledges’.

This series installment will explore how demographic changes—particularly within the larger Latin@ population and youth—have shifted politically in California. With Veronica Terriquez, Randy Villegas, Martin Higuera, and Ines Garcia.

The economic crisis associated with COVID-19 pandemic has altered all aspects of our lives. In a new CAFIN speaker series, we will focus on financial challenges and developments. Among the questions that are relevant are: What are the risks to the global financial system in the medium to long run? Is the banking system robust enough? What kinds of future policy interventions might be necessary? What changes to payment systems and other financial innovations have been accelerated by the crisis? How do contagion control policies affect populations that are traditionally underserved by the financial sector? Will financial inclusion be more difficult to achieve after the pandemic?

Join Right Livelihood colleagues for a conversation about the newly announced 2020 laureates. We will watch the short press briefing and have an open conversation.

University Forum Election Series with Daniel Wirls (Professor of Politics) and Kathay Feng (National Redistricting Director of Common Cause).

Partnerships formed quickly during this evolving health crisis. Salud Para La Gente, the Santa Cruz Community Foundation, Santa Cruz Community Health Clinics, and the UC Santa Cruz Molecular Diagnostic Lab are working jointly to test and treat the most vulnerable in Santa Cruz County. Join us for a conversation with community health leaders as they take us inside the collaborative response to address the pandemic. Moderated by Ryan Coonerty.

This workshop for UCSC faculty and graduate students will explore Twitter as a tool for social impact. The presenters will share tips and guidance about how to reach influencers and policy makers, how to communicate research via Twitter, and how to gain followers.

University Forum Election Series with Dean Mathiowetz (Associate Professor of Politics), Debbie Gould (Associate Professor of Sociology), and Cristina Beltrán (NYU Associate Professor).

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans have started ordering groceries online for the first time. Levels of ecommerce for major grocery chains, including Walmart, Kroger’s and AmazonFresh/Whole Foods have doubled or tripled since last year, building on double digit growth from previous years. What are the implications of this trend for the people doing the work of fulfilling online orders and delivering food? Featuring Dr. Chris Benner, Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship, and a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology.

With Right Livelihood Laureates Miyuki Kinoshita of Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative (Japan) and Helena Norberg-Hodge of Local Futures (Global).  

Restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus have an outsized impact on small businesses and entrepreneurs. Stores, factories and many other businesses and services have closed by policy mandate, reduced demand, and health concerns, among other factors. What are the disproportionate effects on female, minority and immigrant business owners? Governmental responses have been disparate. Featuring Rob Fairlie, professor of economics.

While we are all in this together as human beings it has become clear that our unequal conditions of being human have made for vast variations in how the pandemic has been experienced. Featuring Matt Sparke, professor of politics and member of the team at UCSC developing the new global and community health program at UC Santa Cruz, and Nancy Chen, professor of anthropology and former director of the UCSC Blum Center on poverty, social enterprise, and participatory governance.

In the long term, not just in the current emergency, mutuality matters, not only morally but economically too. An ethos of mutual caring and support not only leads to better health outcomes, but also helps to generate a more prosperous and resilient economy and society. Professor Chris Benner discusses how we urgently need to think long-term—both about the things that got us into this crisis, and how we can refashion our economy and society as we eventually emerge.

Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz is pleased to partner with Local Futures for World Localization Day. A world-changing programme of inspirational talks, interviews, films, humour and music with Russell Brand, Vandana Shiva, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Alice Waters, and many more.

La Acción del Estado y la Defensa Socio-territoral en Tiempos del Coronavirus. Co-sponsored by the UCSC Research Center for the Americas.

The nation and the world are bearing witness to yet another spate of police violence against Black people. This is an urgent moment, one that calls for resolve, thought, and action. Join us on Zoom for a conversation with Angela Y. Davis (Emerita, UCSC), Herman Gray (Emeritus, UCSC), Gaye Theresa Johnson (UCLA), Robin D. G. Kelley (UCLA), and Josh Kun (USC). Hosted by UCHRI. 

Graduate students in the collaborative (previously ALSiNG) will present one-minute flash talks about their interdisciplinary research, identifying the cultural strengths of learning by children and students from historically underserved populations and ways to leverage those strengths.

Please join us for flash talks by Social Sciences faculty on current work related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderated by Dean Katharyne Mitchell.

With Right Livelihood Laureates, Glorene Das / Tenaganita (Malaysia) & Manfred Nowak / Global Campus for Human Rights (Austria).

PIT-UN Speaker Series with Cheryl Holzmeyer, Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley. This talk will discuss emerging landscapes of bioengineering, and of science and technology policies (or lack thereof), with an eye to social determinants of health and health equity. 

View Dr. Holzmeyer slides here.

RSVP here.

With Sociology Professor Miriam Greenberg. The increase of California wildfires has raised awareness of the dangerous spread of housing development in the Wildlands Urban Interface (WUI).

With Right Livelihood Laureates Frances Moore-Lappé (USA) & Vesna Teršelič (Croatia)

With Right Livelihood Laureates Maude Barlow (Canada), Robert Bilott (USA) & Andy Szasz (USA, moderator)

The year’s conference marks the 10th anniversary of the UC Global Health Institute and will feature talks related to COVID-19 that highlight the One Health perspective, gender, and socioeconomic disparities, and panelists from Africa, India, and South America.

UC Santa Cruz was recently accepted as a member of the national Public Interest Technology – University Network (PIT-UN), run by the nonprofit New America foundation.