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.

Sign up for THI’s email list to stay updated on event details and announcements.

Events from this organizer

Today

  • The trial of spock hero image

    The Trial of Spock—An Opera Workshop

    The Trial of Spock
    Music Center Recital Hall 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    The creators of The Trial of Spock—An Opera In Three Acts present concert performances of five scenes from an opera-in-progress at the UC Santa Cruz Music Center Recital Hall.  Captain Christopher Pike is gravely injured. Lieutenant Spock is behaving strangely. Charged with protecting Pike in his state of extreme need,Vulcan Commodore T’or suspects that Lieutenant […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • Black and white photo of spock's head

    Questions that Matter – How to Live Long and Prosper: Lessons from a Star Trek Opera

    The Trial of Spock
    Kuumbwa Jazz Center 320-2 Cedar St, Santa Cruz, United States

    What do we need to live a fulfilling life? This essential question of the humanities feels especially pressing now, on the precipice of profound changes to our planet, our bodies, and our sense of human exceptionality. Join us for a conversation — and a music-and-drama masterclass — about speculative fiction from the Star Trek world, […]

  • redwood trees and shells

    Celebration of Spring Exhibitions at the IAS

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

    Join us to celebrate the opening of three new exhibitions at the IAS: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right, the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj, a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian kreyol conception of rasanblaj; and Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But […]

  • Banner

    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 • […]

    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, […]