New Campus + Community center will facilitate community-engaged scholarship After more than 50 years of engagement in the region, UC Santa Cruz is launching a new center to coordinate campus and community connections for action-oriented scholarship that advances social justice. With support from the Institute for Social Transformation, Campus + Community (C + C) builds on previous efforts by the university to build meaningful local partnerships.
Center for Labor and Community opens on UC Santa Cruz campus
March 21, 2023
The Center for Labor and Community will build upon previous efforts on campus dedicated to studying low-wage work, the affordable housing crisis, and the challenges of the rapidly-changing economy.
Scientists, policy leaders, and insurance experts meet to address climate risks
March 21, 2023
Coastal scientists, insurance industry experts, and representatives of state and federal agencies came together at the meeting to address challenges and opportunities for building coastal resilience to climate change.
Cultivating equitable communications
March 20, 2023
Duffau was awarded the Frederico and Rena Perlino Memorial Scholarship in 2022 for her research centered around artificial agents and human communication.
Black Studies minor builds momentum
March 17, 2023
The Black Studies minor at the University of California, Santa Cruz has grown in size and influence at a time when the United States continues to grapple with its long history of racism.
Local educators shared expertise at the first STEM Education Central Coast Conference
March 14, 2023
The STEM Education Central Coast Conference, which was organized by California State University Monterey Bay in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz, was designed by and for local educators in science, technology, engineering and math. The goal was to share expertise.
Advocating for human rights
March 13, 2023
With the help of the Weiss Family Scholarship, Nicole Britton is entering her third year with the Human Rights Investigation Lab, and is currently working on a thesis looking into human rights abuse cases with a focus on the Americas.
Where is your squid coming from? Most likely unregulated waters, according to a new international study
March 10, 2023
Scientists and policymakers have voiced growing concerns about the decline of global squid stocks, but little has been done to date to target squid fishing activities that are expanding into unregulated spaces, according to a new international study.
Indigenous land management focus of this year’s Conversations on Climate Justice
March 7, 2023
Johnston, who is known in the music world as Lyla June, is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages. The focus of her upcoming discussion, “Architects of Abundance: Indigenous Regenerative Food Systems and the Excavation of Hidden History,” is centered on the findings from Johnston’s Ph.D. dissertation exploring how Indigenous Americans gardened the land on bio-regional scales to produce abundant food systems.
UCSC wins prestigious Highly Established Action Plan Seal for voter engagement
March 7, 2023
UC Santa Cruz has become one of only three University of California campuses awarded a Highly Established Action Plan Seal as part of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) for its voter engagement efforts. This seal is awarded to campuses that have worked to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement and graduate engaged voters by building a strong nonpartisan action plan as part of the 2022 election cycle.
Continuing an Academic Legacy
March 6, 2023
By pursuing an education in Intensive Psychology and Legal Studies, Guneet Hora aims to raise the mental health of marginalized communities in the face of the impact left by the immigration and justice systems.
New leaf wetness sensor will enable better plant disease forecasting and management
March 2, 2023
Commercial leaf wetness sensors exist, but are not able to provide an estimate that is specific to any particular type of plant, and so are often inaccurate. But through a collaborative effort, Professor Marco Rolandi, Professor Gregory Gilbert, and former graduate student Brian Nguyen have found a solution to this problem.
Leading and learning to save the world
February 21, 2023
Yana Garcia’s extensive career in policy and environmentalism began in the classrooms of UCSC. As Garcia leads CalEPA in tackling the climate crisis, she credits her UCSC education in assessing the big-picture priorities of droughts, flooding, and water management, and understanding how these key issues intersect in both their causes and impacts.
First In-Person Night at the Museum Since Pandemic Returns With “Resettlement: Chicago Story”
February 16, 2023
The Humanities Institute’s Signature Event, UCSC Night at the Museum, is returning to the MAH for a screening and panel conversation, featuring “Resettlement: Chicago Story,” a short fictional film and accompanying website about people of Japanese ancestry remaking their lives in the Midwest following their wrongful incarceration during World War II.
UCSC professor building collaborations to shape future minds through ethnic studies
February 15, 2023
Many believe we are at a pivotal moment in this country regarding anti-racist reforms, police abolition, and restorative justice. And according to Rekia Jibrin, an assistant professor in critical studies of education within UC Santa Cruz’s Education Department, engaging local communities is vital to bringing about transformative change.
Pursuing social justice
February 13, 2023
Elena Losada was awarded the Jessica Roy Memorial Award in 2022. The award is intended to provide its winners with stipends to support fieldwork, travel, and research.
Legal Studies Program, Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office partner for National Public Defense Summit
February 9, 2023
Interested in learning about the importance of public defense and criminal law? The summit, titled Strengthening the Sixth in Santa Cruz: Building Cases and Community Through Holistic Defense, will feature a variety of nationally-recognized public defenders, including attorneys, social workers, and investigators, who are doing cutting-edge work in public defense, focusing on early representation, vertical representation, holistic representation, and participatory defense.
Pursuing cultural anthropology
February 6, 2023
Gabriel Ephraim Kaplan Wall was awarded the Jeremy Demian Marx Award for Cultural Anthropology in 2022. The endowment provides funding for an annual award for an outstanding undergraduate paper in cultural anthropology.
Funding opportunity to develop university innovations
February 3, 2023
The Innovation & Business Engagement Hub is now accepting applications for its new Innovation Catalyst Grant; a proof-of-concept program focused on providing targeted gap funding, training, mentorship, and support to UC Santa Cruz researchers in order to help de-risk and/or validate the implementation and adoption potential of early-stage technology innovations.
UCSC receives NEH awards that will further research in anthropology and musicology
February 3, 2023
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded over $5.6 billion toward humanities projects across the United States since its inception in 1965 — and this year, Santa Cruz-based educators joins this historic group of awardees.
Three UCSC faculty named 2022 AAAS fellows
January 31, 2023
Professor of Psychology Jean Fox Tree, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Lise Getoor, and Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering (BE) and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Alexander Wolf received the distinction of 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
University launches new center, Campus + Community, to facilitate engaged scholarship
January 31, 2023
Campus + Community (C + C) builds on previous efforts by the university to build meaningful local partnerships, such as the longstanding work of the Community Studies program, Santa Cruz Commons, and the UCSC Community Engagement Collaborative.
Sanya Cowal: Resilience and Agency
January 30, 2023
Cowal was awarded the Jessica Roy Memorial Award in 2022. Cowal says the scholarship has contributed to a research project investigating the role of gender-based differences in coffee producer adaptive management through the lens of female producer agency.
Five student teams embark on tech for social good projects
January 23, 2023
Teams of at least two undergraduate, graduate, and/or postdoctoral students were tasked with addressing domestic and global poverty, sustainability, government responsiveness and civic engagement, or enhancing education. Five student projects were chosen for funding this year and will show their work at the Tech for Social Good Showcase event this June.
UCSC leads new multicampus initiatives on climate change and bilingualism
January 23, 2023
UC Santa Cruz faculty are leading two new collaborative programs funded by grants from UC’s Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives (MRPI) program. Ecologist Erika Zavaleta leads an effort focused on biodiversity conservation, and linguist Mark Amengual leads an initiative to study Spanish-English bilingualism in California.
Alumni Councilor Mario Galdamez
January 19, 2023
Mario Galdamez (Merrill ’06, politics and Latin American & Latino Studies) has joined the UCSC Alumni Council for his second year and has made it his personal goal to increase the number of students that receive the alumni association scholarship each year.
UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences to open new, off campus galleries
January 17, 2023
The state-of-the-art facility will showcase the Institute of the Arts and Sciences’ groundbreaking exhibitions and programs, highlighting the work of major national and international artists working to address the most pressing issues of our day at the intersection of the arts and social justice
Leading the Change survey launching today
January 17, 2023
The strategic plan is our opportunity to chart a path for progress on our campus goals of advancing student success, amplifying our research profile, fostering an inclusive campus climate, and becoming more sustainable and resilient. The strategic planning process will include establishing metrics by which success will be measured over the next decade.
Zahirah Suhaimi: Exploring ecological states
January 16, 2023
Working alongside marine scientists and coastal communities, Suhaimi explores how local knowledge and experience of changes to seagrass meadows, microbial ecologies, mangrove forests, and engineered hydrologies can enrich academic understanding of drastic changes in ecological states.
Sensorium, a new project of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for the Study of the Force Majeure, to be an unprecedented experience of the world ocean
January 12, 2023
A new project in development by UC Santa Cruz’s Center for the Study of the Force Majeure will give the public a transformative opportunity to interact with the world’s ocean ecosystem in a fully immersive work of environmental art entitled Sensorium.
Alumni Weekend re-envisioned
January 12, 2023
A decades-long tradition, Alumni Weekend was created to welcome alumni back to UC Santa Cruz to reconnect with peers, Santa Cruz, and the campus community. In April, UCSC will host Alumni Reunion Weekend celebrating alumni who graduated 50+ years ago. Then, in August, the University will offer “Return to the Redwoods,” a first-of-its-kind residential campus experience where alumni will be able to stay overnight in the residence halls.
