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Arthur Szyk often said, “Art is not my aim, it is my means.” Yet, his contemporaries praised him as the greatest illuminator-artist since the 16th century. He saw himself as a fighting artist, enlisting his pen and paintbrush as his weapons against hatred, racism, and oppression before, during, and after World War II. As the leading anti-Nazi artist in America during the War, Szyk also created the important and widely circulated art for the rescue ...

Cantor Marc Childs (Congregation B’nai B’rith, Santa Barbara) Cantor Marcus Feldman and Organist Aryell Cohen (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles) and Cantor Shmuel Barzilai (Chief Cantor of the Vienna Jewish Community) Sponsored by the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies

Eighteen years ago, Israeli author Ruby Namdar arrived in New York, not knowing that he had just taken the first step of an incredible literary, cultural, and personal journey. The novel The Ruined House, winner of the 2014 Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award, was an artistic response to Namdar’s wonderful experience of discovering America, American Jewry, and American Jewish literature. Translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin, The Ruined House was recently published ...

Abigail Pogrebin is the author of the recently published book, My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew, which was reviewed by David Gregory in the New York Times and featured on the Today Show. Her first book, Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish, was adapted for the Off-Broadway Stage and her second book, One and the Same, covered her every aspect of being a twin. A former producer for Mike Wallace ...

Rabbi Prof. Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is the Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature and History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. She is the first woman appointed as a professor to the rabbinical faculty since the founding of Hebrew Union College in 1875. At Hebrew Union College, Dr. Eskenazi trains rabbis, educators, and Jewish communal service professionals, as well as graduate students in Judaic Studies. Dr. Eskenazi is an ...

David Bezmozgis is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. He is the author of several books, including Natasha and Other Stories (2004), The Free World (2011), and The Betrayers (2014). His writing has been published in The New Yorker, Harpers, Zoetrope All-Story, and The Walrus, among other publications. Bezmozgis is currently the head of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto. Sponsored by the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies

Past Events Taubman Symposia Talk: Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of HistoryMay 13, 2019Read More Taubman Symposia Screening: Film Marking Yom ha-ShoaMay 2, 2019Read More Taubman Symposia Screening: Film Marking Yom ha-ShoaApril 28, 2019Read More Taubman Symposia Talk: Arthur Szyk: Soldier in ArtApril 14, 2019Read More Taubman Symposium Talk: The Strange Stories of Yiddishland: What the Yiddish Press Reveals about the JewsMarch 3, 2019Read More Taubman Symposium Talk: The Three CantorsFebruary 24, 2019Read More Taubman ...

To commemorate Yom HaShoah, the Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies will present the Central Coast premiere of Amichai Greenberg’s award-winning film, The Testament. The screening will take place at 7:00 pm and will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Harold Marcuse (UC Santa Barbara Department of History) and Mashey Bernstein (Emeritus Faculty Member, UC Santa Barbara Writing Program). The event is free and open to the public.

Tony Michels is the George L. Mosse Professor of American Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History (2012) and A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York (2005). Michels is the co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 8. The Modern World, 1815-2000 (2017). Sponsored by the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

Rabbi Donniel Hartman (President of Shalom Hartmann Institute) May 19, 2016 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel One of the few constants throughout Jewish history years is that Jewish identity has never been simple, and the answer to the question of “Who is a Jew? – far from clear-cut. At key moments over the last 3000 years, we have reinvented or reimagined ourselves in the context of the unique reality in which we lived. The ...

Ruth Wisse (Emeritus Research Professor in Yiddish and Comparative Literature, Harvard University) April 14, 2016 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In her critically-acclaimed book, No Joke: Making Jewish Humor, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius of spontaneous Jewish joking—as well as the brilliance of comic masterworks by writers like Heinrich Heine, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, S. Y. Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and ...

Anat Hoffman (Executive Director, the Israeli Religious Action Center) Thursday, March 10, 2016 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road, Santa Barbara Jerusalem is a harsh city to live in. It is a city in struggle, a struggle between narrow-minded Judaism and pluralistic Judaism, a battle for appropriate representation for all city inhabitants, a struggle to make it a better place for all to live in. The talk will touch on ...

David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) February 24, 2016 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall As the Mideast chaos has focused elsewhere, the Israeli and Palestinian issue has been largely sidelined. Negotiated peace, the classic paradigm for the last few decades, has been put aside. What will take its place? What new paradigm can offer peace to both sides and put aside this tragic conflict? What can the United States ...

Shaul Bassi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy) Tuesday, January 26, 2016 / 8:00 PM Corwin Pavilion Two landmark anniversaries will coincide in 2016: the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish Ghetto of Venice, a place that would give its name to such segregated areas worldwide and serve as the historical backdrop for Shakespeare’s most controversial play, The Merchant of Venice. Founded in 1516, the ...

Ambassador Dennis Ross Friday, November 20, 2015 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Ambassador Dennis Ross will discuss and sign copies of his just-released book, Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama, at 3:00 p.m., Friday, November 20 at UCSB (Location To Be Announced). Former special assistant to President Obama, National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, for more than twelve ...

Yoram Peri (Abraham S. and Jack Kay Chair in Israel Studies at the University Maryland at College Park) Sunday, October 18, 2015 / 8:00 PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall Professor Yoram Peri will present a free, public lecture on “The Second Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Cultural War in Israel,” at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, October 18, in UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall (see attached). Former political advisor to the late Prime Minister, Peri is ...

Monday, November 9, 2015 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall A superlative saga of courage and compassion, Run Boy Run tells the extraordinary true story of a Polish boy who seeks the kindness of others in his solitary struggle to outlast the Nazi occupation and keep alive his Jewish faith. Escaping the Warsaw ghetto at the behest of his father, nine-year old Srulik (movingly portrayed by twin child actors Andrzej and Kamil Tkacz) flees to ...

Monday, May 18 / 7:00 PM New Vic Theatre 33 West Victoria Street, Santa Barbara FREE This feature-length documentary recounts the history of Zionism, its leaders, its influence on the Jewish and Palestinian peoples and the inevitable differences between its ideals and its real world embodiment. The screening will feature a personal appearance by Oren Rudavsky, the co-producer/ director, who will participate in a Q&A session afterwards. Since the film runs 2 hours and 30 ...

Glenn Kurtz (author) Thursday, April 16 / 8:00  PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall In Europe in August 1938, one year before the outbreak of World War II, Glenn Kurtz’s grandfather captured three minutes of ordinary life in a small, predominantly Jewish town in Poland on 16mm Kodachrome color film. More than seventy years later, through the brutal twists of history, these few minutes of home movie footage would become a memorial to an entire community—an ...

Eric Lichtblau ( investigative reporter, The New York Times) Monday, January 26 / 8:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion Eric Lichtblau unveils the secret history of how America became home to thousands of Nazi war criminals after World War II, many of whom were scientists and spies brought here by the OSS and CIA as possible assets against new Cold War enemies. Ironically, the Nazis began their flight to America in the months immediately after the ...

Rabbi David Wolpe (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles) Sunday, November 16 / 3:00 PM UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall Out of all the figures in the Bible, David is one of the most perplexing and enigmatic. Rabbi David Wolpe takes a fresh look at the biblical David in an attempt to find coherence in his seemingly contradictory actions and impulses. David Wolpe, Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California is the author of national best-sellers ...

Kati Marton (former NPR and ABC News Correspondent, author of The Great Escape) Wednesday, October 29, 2014 / 8:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion In her critically-acclaimed account of The Great Escape, Kati Marton follows nine survivors over the decades as they flee fascism and anti-Semitism, seek sanctuary in England and America, and set out to make their mark. The scientists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner enlist Albert Einstein to get Franklin Roosevelt to ...

Monday, April 28 / 7:30  PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall The Santa Barbara premiere screening of Aftermath, winner of the Yad Vashem Chairman’s Award at last year’s Jerusalem Film Festival.  The riveting story of two Polish brothers who come to terms with their village’s long hidden role in the Holocaust, Aftermath offers “a highly unsettling look at lingering prejudice and collective guilt” (New York Daily News). “A bombshell disguised as a thriller” (Los Angeles Times ...

Ambassador Dennis Ross (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ghaith al-Omari (Executive Director, the American Task Force on Palestine) Wednesday, March 5 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Veteran Middle East peace negotiators, Ambassador Dennis Ross (counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy) and Ghaith al Omari (Executive Director of the American Task Force on Palestine) discuss the framework of principles for the negotiations leading to a ...

E. Randol Schoenberg (Burris, Schoenberg & Walden, LLP) Thursday, February 20 / 8:00  PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall The recent disclosure of more than 1,400 artworks found hidden in the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt has generated renewed interest in the subject of Nazi-looted art. The upcoming release of The Monuments Men, a film about the World War II platoon tasked by the Allies with preserving cultural treasures confiscated by the Nazis, promises to bring ...

Barbara Mann (The Jewish Theological Seminary) Thursday, January 23 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista This event has been cancelled due to illness. Jews have historically been considered “the people of the book,” a rootless, diasporic collection of communities whose true “place” is always theologically elsewhere.  However, Jewish cultures in diverse geographic settings have also been characterized by a broad array of spatial practices.  This talk explores this fundamental ...

Gideon Raff (Director, Prisoners of War) Sunday, November 24 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Gideon Raff, creator, writer and director of the award-winning Israeli television drama series, Prisoners of War (Hatufim), which served as the inspiration for its critically acclaimed US adaptation, Homeland, shows clips from and explores the connections between what The New York Times called “two TV siblings.” Sponsored by The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies, ...

Leon Wieseltier (Literary Editor, The New Republic) Thursday, November 14 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Leon Wieseltier, noted writer, critic, and literary editor of The New Republic, is the author of Kaddish (1998), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Against Identity (1996), and Nuclear War, Nuclear Peace (1983). He has also written influential essays spanning a broad range of topics that include culture, politics, religion, foreign ...

Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer Sunday, October 20 / 3:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion With Palestinian-Israeli peace talks underway, it is more imperative than ever to learn and apply the lessons of past negotiations, so as to create an opportunity for a peaceful resolution of the longstanding Arab-Israeli conflict.  Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, a veteran U.S. diplomat with extensive experience in Arab-Israeli affairs, will analyze the current negotiations against the backdrop of historical experience and assess the ...

Karen Wilson (History, UCLA) Thursday, May 30 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Limited Seating and RSVP Required: 964-7869 or audrey@cbbsb.org    Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic, a groundbreaking exhibition on display at the Autry National Center in Griffith Park, tells the story of neighborhoods like Boyle Heights and Fairfax, people like Billy Wilder, Max Factor, and Frank Gehry, and lynchpin industries like the movies and suburban land development. ...

John Connelly (History, UC Berkeley) David Nirenberg (History, The University of Chicago) Monday, May 6 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista This event marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and features a dialogue between John Connelly, author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965, and David Nirenberg, author of Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition.  The Second Vatican Council signaled a ...

Sunday, April 7 / 3:00 PM Lotte Lehman Concert Hall Josh Aronson (director, Orchestra of Exiles) Orchestra of Exiles recounts the dramatic story of Bronislaw Huberman, the celebrated Polish violinist who rescued some of the world’s greatest musicians from Nazi Germany and then created one of the world’s greatest orchestras, the Palestine Philharmonic (which would become the Israeli Philharmonic). This feature-length documentary mixes period photographs, newsreels, and interviews with Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell ...

David Makovsky (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ghaith al-Omari (The American Task Force on Palestine) Wednesday, February 27 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is the author of Imagining the Border: Options for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Territorial Issue and the co-author with Dennis Ross of Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding ...

Dov Waxman (Political Science, CUNY) Monday, February 11 / 8:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion One in five citizens of Israel is Palestinian.  What does this mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish state and for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This talk tackles these crucial questions and examines the status of Israel’s Palestinian minority and current Jewish-Arab relations in the country. Waxman specializes in International Relations and Middle East politics. He is the co-author ...

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth) Tuesday, November 27 / 8:00 PM Campbell Hall For Jews and for Judaism the twentieth century brought unprecedented suffering and incredible achievements – but as a new century gets going, their role in the future is up for grabs.  The Chief Rabbi’s book Future Tense refutes the arguments for isolationism and the self-sufficiency of  “people that dwells alone” that have proven so tempting down through ...

Martin S. Indyk (Vice President, Director for Foreign Policy, the Brookings Institution) Sunday, November 4 / 3:00 PM Corwin Pavilion Ambassador Martin S. Indyk will analyze the dramatic developments in the Arab world and their impact on Iran’s bid for dominance in Israel’s neighborhood, including through its nuclear weapons program. What does it all mean for Israel’s security and its hopes for peace with its Arab neighbors? Middle East expert and former U.S. Ambassador to ...

Maggie Anton (Author, Rashi’s Daughters) Wednesday, October 17 / 7:30  PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista Maggie Anton, award-winning author of the historical fiction series Rashi’s Daughters, discusses her latest novel, Rav Hisda’s Daughter, which brings to life the world of the Talmud  from a woman’s perspective.  Anton skillfully weaves together Talmudic sources to create a vivid picture of what life might have been like for the daughter of a prominent ...

Rabbi Rick Jacobs  (President-Elect, Union for Reform Judaism) Sunday, May 20 / 8:45 AM Breakfast $5.00 Suggested Contribution Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road The Future of Judaism Lecture Series Inaugural Event At this dramatic moment of Jewish history, we must harness the innovation and creativity of those inside and outside our community to ensure a vibrant Jewish future.  Join Rabbi Rick Jacobs as he highlights some of the pioneering developments at the ...

Lawrence Baron  (History, San Diego State University) Monday, May 14 / 8:00 PM Pollock Theater Ever since it premiered in 1927, “The Jazz Singer” has been considered the paradigmatic film about the Americanization of the children of Jewish immigrants. The movie has inspired remakes and retakes on the theme of the son’s rebellion against his father’s traditions. This lecture examines how and why subsequent versions altered the original plotline and message to reflect the values ...

Yehuda Bauer (Academic Advisor, Yad Vashem) Thursday, April 19 / 8:00 p.m. Campbell Hall Holocaust Remembrance Week Inaugural Event What do we mean by “genocide”? Why are humans the only living creatures that kill their own kind in huge numbers?  What place does the Holocaust occupy in the history of genocides? What are the essential similarities and differences between the Holocaust and other genocides, particularly ones that have occurred during the last hundred years – ...

David Makovsky (Director, the Project on the Middle East Peace Process) Ghaith al-Omari (Executive Director, the American Task Force on Palestine) Wednesday, February 15 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UCSB Fifteenth Anniversary Event. David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is the author Imagining ...

Ron Hassner (Political Science, UC Berkeley) Monday, February 6 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar Holy places create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, as evidenced by the ongoing struggle over Jerusalem. Drawing on his recent book, War on Sacred Grounds, Ron Hassner argues that sacred sites are particularly prone to conflict because they cannot be divided. The management of conflicts over sacred sites requires cooperation religious leaders who ...

Dara Horn (author of In the Image, The World to Come, and All Other Nights) Monday, January 23 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Award-winning novelist Dara Horn will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing American Jewish writers, and will share many adventures from her own work, including tales of stolen paintings, kidnapped software executives, a Confederate Jewish spymaster who was saved by a talking parrot, and the possibility of ...

La Rafle (The Round Up) directed by Roselyne Bosch, 2010, 115 min. Wednesday, November 16 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall In picturesque Montmarte, three children wearing a yellow star play in the streets, oblivious to the darkness spreading over Nazi-occupied France. Their parents do not seem too concerned either, somehow putting their trust in the Vichy Government. But beyond this view, much is going on. Hitler demands that the French government round up its ...

Simon Sebag Montefiore (International Best-Selling Historian, author of Catherine the Great & Potemkin, Stalin, and Young Stalin) Thursday, November 3 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgment Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations.  In his latest bestseller, Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore presents an epic history of ...

Helmi Kittani  (Executive Director, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development) Eytan Biderman,  (Director, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development) Sunday, October 16 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Fifteenth Anniversary Inaugural Event Helmi Kittani, an Arab Israeli economist, became Executive Director of the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development in 1992, after 20 years of managerial experience at one of Israel’s largest banks. In 2002, Kittani was awarded the Knesset’s Quality of Life Award, along with ...

Samuel Heilman (Sociology, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY) Sunday, May 8 / 3:00 PM UCSB MultiCultural Center From the 1950s until his death in 1994, Menachem Mendel Schneerson–revered by his followers worldwide simply as the Rebbe–built the Lubavitcher movement from a relatively small sect within Hasidic Judaism into the powerful force in Jewish life that it is today. Swept away by his expectation that the Messiah was coming, he came to believe that he ...

Deborah E. Lipstadt (Religion, Emory University) Sunday, May 1 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Lipstadt offers a compelling reassessment of the groundbreaking trial that has become a touchstone for judicial proceedings in which victims of genocide confront its perpetrators. As the world continues to confront the ongoing reality of genocide and ponder the fate of those who survive it, this “trial of the century” offers a legal, moral, and political framework for coming to ...

Marek Halter Wednesday, March 30 / 5:00 PM Bronfman Family Jewish Community Center, 524 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara In The Jewish Odyssey, Marek Halter charts the course of Judaism from its origins in Mesopotamia to its place in the world today. Predating all Western culture, its early development of the written word enabled it to lay the foundations of modern civilization.  It is the far-reaching story of a people that, despite facing perpetual struggle, has ...

Judy Klitsner (Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem) Sunday, February 6 / 8:45 AM Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Road, Santa Barbara What do the infertile, tent-dwelling mothers of Genesis have in common with the military and spiritual leaders of the book of Judges? In our sweeping exploration of biblical woman, we will read the stories of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel in light of the chronicles of Deborah, Yael, and the unnamed “wife ...

Pierre Sauvage, Documentary Filmmaker of Weapons of the Spirit Tuesday, January 18 / 8:00 p.m. Campbell Hall Pierre Sauvage, award-winning documentary filmmaker and child survivor of the Holocaust, screens and discusses excerpts from his upcoming feature documentary And Crown Thy Good: Varian Fry in Marseille (2011), as well as his recent documentary short, Not Idly By–Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust (2010).  His timely presentation addresses one of the enduring questions of the Shoah: What ...

Sue Fishkoff, National Correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Thursday, November 11 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista In this captivating account of a Bible-based practice that has grown into a multibillion- dollar industry, journalist Sue Fishkoff travels throughout America and to Shanghai, China to find out who eats kosher food, who produces it, who is responsible for its certification, and how this fascinating world continues to evolve. Courtesy ...

Moshe Halbertal & Raghida Dergham Sunday, October 17, 2010 / 3:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion A dialogue between Moshe Halbertal, noted Israeli pholosopher, award-winning author, and Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at Hebrew University and Raghida Dergham, columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat, and political analyst for NBC, MSNBC, and Arab satellite LBC. Moshe Halbertal is the Gruss Professor at NYU Law School and a Professor of Jewish Thought and ...

Russell Steinberg, composer/pianist Mitchell Newman, LA Philharmonic violinist Monday, October 11 / 8:00 PM Geiringer Hall Featuring music by Russell Steinberg and text by Daniel Pearl, performed by LA Philharmonic violinist Mitchell Newman and composer/pianist Russel Steinberg. Limited seating, reservation required: please call (805) 893‐2317. Presented in conjunction with Daniel Pearl World Music Days and co-presented with the Department of Music. The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UC ...

Ian Buruma (Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism, Bard College) Tuesday, May 11 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Award-winning author and journalist Ian Buruma will discuss the debates about Muslim radicalism, immigration, and the challenge from religion in several European countries where anti-immigrant populism is on the rise and Islam is the main focus. Is the danger posed by Muslim immigrants real?  If it is exaggerated, then why the general hysteria? Buruma will address these ...

Norman H. Gershman Sunday, April 11 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Fine art photographer Norman Gershman spent five years collecting the stories of Albanian Muslims who, at grave risk to themselves and their families, harbored Jewish refugees during WWII as part the Islamic tradition of Besa, or sanctuary. They protected the entire Jewish population of their cities and villages and also saved thousands of Jews from other European countries who were fleeing the Nazis.  ...

Michael Fishbane (Jewish Studies, University of Chicago) Tuesday, March 2 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista Michael Fishbane will discuss the role of spiritual practices in Judaism — through ritual and meditation — which cultivate different types of consciousness and awareness. He will consider diverse examples from the full range of Jewish religious history, including related topics from his recent book Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology.  Fishbane is the ...

Ethan Bronner (Jerusalem Bureau Chief, New York Times) Monday, February 8 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall – Free Ethan Bronner, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The New York Times will combine diplomatic and political analysis with behind-the-scenes stories from his reporting to explore the challenges faced by a journalist covering two distinctly opposing narratives: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2010. He will address such issues of balance, fairness, access and reader expectations. Website: https://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/events/endowed/taubman The Herman ...

TALK:Classroom Chronolects: Creating Contexts for Learning Science in Racially and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms Patricia Baquedano-López (Education, UC Berkeley) Friday, September 25 / 1:30 PM 1623 South Hall (Note special location) MEETING: LISO Fall Organizational Meeting DATE CHANGED: see below MEETING: LISO Fall Organizational Meeting (note date change) followed by TALK: Non-minimal Responses to Polar Interrogatives in Mandarin Chinese Kobin Kendrick (Linguistics, UCSB) Friday, October 9 / 1:30 PM Education 1205 IHC OPEN HOUSE Thursday, October ...

TALK: Archaeological Perspectives on the Qin Unification of China Lothar Von Falkenhausen (Archaeology and Art History, UCLA) Thursday, January 8 / 5:00 PM McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB TALK: Moche Socio Political Evolution: A Tale of Adaptation, Divergence and Luis Jaime Castillo (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru) Monday, January 12 / 5:00 PM 2001a HSSB CONFERENCE: The American Right and U.S. Labor: Politics, Ideology, and Imagination Friday-Saturday, January 16-17 McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB MEETING: ...

CONCERT: Tertulia Colombiana Friday, September 19 / 7:00 PM CCS Old Little Theater SYMPOSIUM: A Symposium on the Writings of Pat Mora Thursday, September 24 / 4:00 PM South Hall 1623 SYMPOSIUM: Writing, Performance, and Theatricality in George Sand’s Works Thursday-Saturday, September 25-27 various campus locations TALK: The End of Southern Liberalism: Race, Class and the Defeat of Claude Pepper in the 1950 Florida Democratic Primary Alex Lichtenstein (History, Florida International Univ.) Friday, September 26 ...

CONFERENCE: Annual International Graduate Conference on the Cold War Friday, April 4 – Saturday, April 5 Keynote address: Emily Rosenberg (History, UC Irvine) Friday, April 4 / 1:00 PM McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020 TALK: Flight of Fancy: Whiteness, Suburbanization, and Identity in San Juan, Puerto Rico Since 1940 Luis Figueroa (History, Trinity College) Friday, April 4 / 1:00 PM HSSB 4041 MEETING: Environmental Media Research Focus Group Friday, April 4 / 1:00 PM RESEARCH ...

TALK: Loser Take All: Election, Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008 Mark Crispin Miller (New York Univ.) Tuesday, January 15 / 4:00 PM McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB TALK: Dorothea Lange and Visual Democracy Linda Gordon (New York University) Friday, January 18 / 11:00 AM 4041 HSSB VISITING ARTIST: Carla Kihlstedt RESEARCH FOCUS GROUP: Environmental Media Friday, January 18 / 1:00 PM McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Visiting Artist: Liz Phillips January 21-25, 2008 ...

SCREENING: Lost Souls (dir Natalie Sanderson & Sumnima Udas, 2007) Wednesday, April 4 / 6:00 PM Multicultural Center Theater TALK: Radio Was Discovered Before it Was Invented Douglas Kahn (Technocultural Studies, UC Davis) Thursday, April 5 / 5:00 PM Old Little Theater (CCS) Sound in the Arts RFG meeting 3:30 PM CONFERENCE: Latin American Drama Conference: The Works of Griselda Gambaro Thursday, April 5 / 4:00 PM Conference Room, Theater and Dance Building TALK: ‘Did ...

VISITING ARTISTS: Todd Reynolds and Luke Dubois January 10 –- 12, 2007 Residency Activities VISITING ARTISTS: Keith Johnson in Residence at UCSB Jan 14 – 21 Iridian Arts Presents: Still Life with Mic Todd Reynolds and Luke Dubois Thursday, January 11 / 6:30 talk & 8:00 PM performance Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum 2nd Floor Arts Terrace, Paseo Nuevo TALK: Neoliberalism and the Good Society in Latin America Miguel Angel Centeno (Princeton Institute for International ...

EXHIBITION: PATTERN LANGUAGE: CLOTHING AS COMMUNICATOR July 7 – August 27, 2006 / University Art Museum CONFERENCE:Languages and Genes an Interdisciplinary Conference Friday / September 8th – 10th / 8:30 AM McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB RESEARCH FOCUS GROUP: Music as Media John Hajda and Howie Giles Friday, September 29 / 12:00 PM/ IHC Seminar Room, 6056 HSSB CONFERENCE: Activist Scholarship: Documenting Undocumented Spaces Guest Speaker Prof. Laura E. Pérez (Ethnic Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, ...