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Research Focus Group Talk: Gilgamesh and the Many Faces of Mesopotamian Heroism

Zoom

Please join us on Friday, May 1 at 1:30PM PST for a virtual lecture by Eric Harvey on "Gilgamesh and the Many Faces of Mesopotamian Heroism." Harvey will introduce the Epic of Gilgamesh alongside other Mesopotamian narratives of kings, warriors, and sages, illustrating the strikingly varied vision of heroism produced in the ancient Near East. Eric Harvey holds a PhD from Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, with a specialization in Bible and ...

On Fire Talk: Mass Deportation as Racial Engineering

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Ahilan Arulanantham will describe the role race discrimination has played in immigration and refugee policy and how that history continues to play out in the current struggle over the Temporary Protected Status program, which allows individuals to remain in the United States because of unsafe conditions in their home countries. Audience Q&A and a reception will follow. Ahilan T. Arulanantham is Professor from Practice and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) ...

On Fire Talk: The Fires Last Time: Landlord Arson and the Reverb of Racial Capitalism

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Last year's wildfires in L.A. turned a spotlight on a corner of the insurance world that typically exists in the shadows: the California FAIR plan, the state's insurer of last resort. Though it is now synonymous with wildfire risk, the FAIR plan is the byproduct of a very different conflagration: the Watts uprising of 1965. The strange career of the FAIR plan illustrates the links between the urban crisis of the late twentieth century and ...

New Research in the Humanities: Presentations by the IHC’s 2025-26 Faculty Fellows

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Please join us in celebrating our 2025-26 Faculty Fellows, whose works-in-progress are supported this year by IHC release-time awards. Fellows will give a short presentation of their work. A reception will follow. Alicia Boswell, History of Art and Architecture “Ancient Moche Metals from Loma Negra, Peru: Performance in the Past and Present” Heather Blurton, English “Piety and Prejudice: The Ritual Crucifixion Accusation in Late Medieval England” Howard Chiang, East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies “The ...

Research Focus Group Talk: The Funny Thing About Noise: Film Sound Aesthetics in the Cold War Cinema of Taiwan and South Korea

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Taiwanese and South Korean film comedies of the 1960s and 70s were swarming with funny noises, from cymbal crashes to dog barks and glissandos of all timbres. Why all the ruckus? Was this simply a relic of the bygone era, an early sound film aesthetic arrived late in a developing nation? Examining the ways in which these sounds emanate from the bodies of comedians to make them larger, unrulier, or simply noisier than life, Shih ...

Research Focus Group Event: Undergraduate Research and Creative Showcase

6206C Phelps and Zoom UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States

This undergraduate showcase will feature a research presentation by Fiona Boborci, titled “Translating Childhood: Untranslatability, Linguistic Hospitality, and Reader Perception in The Little Prince.” In her talk, Fiona explores the linguistic, philosophical, and cultural dimensions of translation in children’s literature, examining how different English translations of Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince produce distinct understandings of childhood, imagination, and moral responsibility. Drawing on both French and English traditions, the presentation highlights translation as an active and transformative ...

Humanities Decanted: Josephine Metcalf

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Join us for a dialogue between Josephine Metcalf (University of Hull) and Ben Olguín (English) about their new co-edited volume, The Life, Literature and Legacy of Luis J. Rodríguez: In the Long Run. Luis Rodríguez is a prominent Latinx poet, memoirist and activist renowned for his candid visceral accounts of urban working-class life that includes youth gang violence, incarceration and drug abuse, gruelling factory work and union organising activities and collective approaches to redemption and ...

Research Focus Group Talk: Re-negotiating the Algorithmic Contract: The Need for a Politics of Potentiality

3605 South Hall Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Jose Marichal is a professor of political science at California Lutheran University specializing in studying the role that algorithms and AI play in restructuring social and political institutions. His book entitled You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem was published in 2025 with Bristol University Press (UK). The book explores the unwritten social contract we have with the algorithms that shape what we see, hear and think. His next project (expected 2026) is entitled Machine Liberalism: ...

Public Humanities Graduate Fellows Program Capstone Presentations

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Join us to celebrate our 2026 program graduates! Katherina Gontaryuk (Philosophy) Olivia Henderson (English) Martina Mattei (Comparative Literature) Claudia Mendoza Chavez (Anthropology) Russell Nylen (Anthropology) Edward Reyes (Chicana/o Studies) Eunwoo Yoo (Theater and Dance) Each Fellow will present on their training, work, and identity as a public humanist. Hear about their projects and learn more about the Public Humanities Graduate Fellows Program! Audience Q&A and a reception will follow.