Humanities Institute

The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz is a hub for academic research, cross-discipline collaboration, and public engagement. We incubate ideas and foster innovation by funding projects, centers, and research clusters that enable faculty and students to work on some of the biggest problems of our day.

The Institute is a source, resource, and force for Humanities-based inquiry and engagement with world events. We’re passionate about expanding the field of Humanities scholarship with digital tools and an interdisciplinary focus. And we believe strongly that the core subjects of the Humanities—philosophy, history, language and literature—should be accessible to everyone. That’s why we’re committed to engaging with the broadest community possible—from first-generation undergraduate students, to local residents, to anyone interested in compelling ideas and making sense of this increasingly complex world.

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Events from this organizer

Today

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    Aziz Abu Sarah & Maoz Inon – The Future is Peace

    Temple Beth El 3055 Porter Gulch Road, Aptos, United States

    Two lifelong peace activists and guides to Israel/Palestine, both of whom have lost family in the conflict, take readers on a revealing life-changing journey across this holy, bloodstained land and discover the mythic, political, and personal history that divides but also binds them and their peoples. In The Future Is Peace, Sarah and Inon take readers […]

  • HWL Cast Back to Camera

    The Tallest Dwarf—film screening and talk with Julie Wyman

    Communications Building 7487 Red Hill Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    UC Santa Cruz affiliates are invited to a screening and discussion with filmmaker Julie Forrest Wyman. The Tallest Dwarf charts the filmmaker’s quest to find her place within the little people (LP) community at a moment when dwarf identity is poised to radically change. Wyman’s work engages issues of embodiment, body image, and the possibilities […]

    FREE and open to UCSC affiliates

  • Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed

    Merrill Cultural Center 200 McLaughlin Dr, Santa Cruz, CA

    Please join us as Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff discuss their new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (April, 2026). A Financial Times Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of the Year • A Kirkus Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of Spring 2026• A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year A pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar […]

    Free – Registration link below

  • Rasanblaj as Spirit Turn: Gina Athena Ulysse in Conversation with Jennifer González

    Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States

    Please join us for a conversation between Gina Athena Ulysse and Jennifer González, discussing Ulysse’s solo exhibition Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements. The internationally-lauded work of humanities professor Gina Athena Ulysse is on view at the IAS as an inaugural Faculty Spotlight Exhibition. The site-specific installation, produced in community from things collected, found, purchased and donated, […]

  • Picture of Cindy Cohn and Privacy's Defender book cover

    Privacy’s Defender: Fight Against Digital Surveillance with Cindy Cohn

    Humanities 1 Building 257 Cowell-Stevenson Road, Santa Cruz, CA, United States

    Privacy’s Defender Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Executive Director Cindy Cohn’s Journey Inside the Privacy Battles That Shaped Today’s Internet Cindy Cohn has devoted her life to the fight for digital rights. She’s tangled with federal officials to keep our online conversations secure from the government’s prying eyes, fought to ensure that you are told when […]

  • Ronaldo V. Wilson

    Office Hours Under the Sea

    Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States

    Join Ronaldo Wilson and special guests for a site-specific, endurance performance as part of there are no words, but melodies. The exhibition emerges at the intersections of Black poetics, performance, and visual art toshuttle between verbal and non-verbal forms of language, rendering the boundaries of identity and meaning slippery. Drop in and visit Wilson’s office […]