Deep Read News Weekly Deep Read
2 May 2025 / 18 November 2025 by Lorraine Torres | 5 Comments on Week 4: Becoming James—Naming, Violence, and Unfinished Liberation
We have now reached the end of our time with Percival Everett’s James. If you’ve finished the book, you know that it is a journey that refuses tidy closure or clear […]
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24 April 2025 / 5 May 2025 by Lorraine Torres | 4 Comments on Week 3: History and Myth, Literacy and Resistance: Slavery in James
Welcome to Week 3 of our exploration of James. This week, we invite you to finish the novel and consider what it reveals about historical memory, the resistance to slavery, and […]
18 April 2025 / 18 April 2025 by Lorraine Torres | 8 Comments on Week 2: Doubled Voices: Language, Minstrelsy, and the Performance of Race
Welcome to Week 2 of our exploration of James. This week, we’re reading through Part One (Chapter 32) of the novel together with the help of Professor of Literature, Susan Gillman, […]
9 April 2025 / 10 April 2025 by Lorraine Torres | 7 Comments on Week 1: Conversations with Twain—James Speaks Back
Welcome to the 2025 Deep Read! This is the first of four emails exploring James by Percival Everett. Our email series aims to enhance your reading experience of the novel by sharing […]
Event Recaps
9 April 2025 / 29 July 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On April 9, 2025, Fred Moten gave The Hayden V. White Distinguished Annual Lecture entitled, “Theory and Practice of Contradiction.” Moten explored key theoretical and historical issues through the lens […]
6 April 2025 / 29 April 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On April 6, 2025, author Jan Grue in conversation with Pranav Anand Professor of Linguistics at UCSC and Megan Moodie Professor of Anthropology at UCSC, considered questions like: What does […]
11 March 2025 / 27 March 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On March 11, 2025, The Humanities Institute held a one-day conference “Critical Imagination in Crisis Times,” featuring presentations by: Iain Chambers, Former Professor of the Sociology of Cultural Processes, Oriental University, […]
4 March 2025 / 26 March 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On March 4, 2025, Jennifer Finney Boylan gave the annual Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture entitled, “Amelia Earhart, Saved from Drowning.” In this collage of story and song, Jennifer Finney […]
31 January 2025 / 27 February 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On January 31, 2025, The Humanities Institute and Kuumbwa Jazz were pleased to present American Patchwork Quartet (APQ) at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. This live concert was a powerful showcase […]
13 January 2025 / 23 January 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
Zionism is one of the most fraught terms in contemporary politics. But what exactly is Zionism, what is its history, and what have been (and are today) its many meanings […]
5 December 2024 / 26 March 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On December 5, 2024, The Humanities Institute and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music were proud to present a special event with composer Iván Enrique Rodríguez and UC Santa Cruz […]
3 December 2024 / 4 February 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
Marilynne Robinson, a prolific novelist and essayist, is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a National Humanities Medal. President Barack Obama […]
11 October 2024 / 5 November 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On October 11, 2024, we welcomed Professor Ana Celia Zentella (professor emerita, UC San Diego) to discuss the political, social, and educational barriers that California’s Spanish-English bilinguals must overcome to […]
5 June 2024 / 23 January 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On June 5, 2024, The Humanities Institute presented the 2024 Night at the Museum, featuring Watsonville is in the Heart and highlighting Sowing Seeds: Filipino American Stories from the Pajaro Valley, a community-driven […]
Event Recaps Feature
19 May 2024 / 8 May 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On May 19, 2024 The Humanities Institute produced its fifth annual Deep Read program. The 2024 Deep Read culminated in a live discussion of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Trust with author Hernan […]
9 April 2024 / 4 June 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On April 9th 2024, Dr. Shamam Waldman gave the annual Helen Diller Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies, entitled “What Can Genomics Teach Us About Jewish History?” The study of population […]
11 March 2024 / 20 March 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On March 11, 2024, Professor Pranav gave the March Slugs and Steins lecture on ChatGPT: A Selective History, and Notes on the Future of AI/ML Language Models. Drawing on the […]
22 February 2024 / 20 March 2025 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On February 22, 2024, Maryana Iskander gave the annual Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture entitled, “Humans in the Loop: Wikipedia’s Future in the Age of AI.” What role will humans […]
15 February 2024 / 13 March 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On February 15, 2024, Lisa Lowe gave The Hayden V. White Distinguished Annual Lecture entitled, “Histories of the Colonial Present.” In this lecture, Lowe examined colonial formations and their imbricated […]
1 February 2024 / 13 March 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On February 1st, 2024, Professors Elise Mitchell (Princeton), Kevin Dawson (UC Merced), and Greg O’Malley (UC Santa Cruz) explored the question: What actually happened in 1619? These three historians of […]
25 January 2024 / 8 July 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On January 25th, 2024, Reza Aslan signed and discussed his book, An American Martyr in Persia, in the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn. Set in 1907, educator and American missionary Howard […]
2 November 2023 / 6 December 2023 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On November 2, 2023, Dr. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni gave the 14th Annual Morton Marcus Poetry Reading. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning writer, activist, professor, speaker, and author of twenty-one […]
21 May 2023 / 19 November 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On May 21, 2023 The Humanities Institute produced our fourth and largest annual Deep Read program. Pulitzer. Prize-winning science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert and NY Times columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein spoke at UC Santa […]
15 May 2022 / 21 May 2024 by Lorraine Torres | Leave a Comment
On May 15, 2022 novelist Yaa Gyasi and UC Santa Cruz Professor Emerita of Literature Karen Tei Yamashita spoke at the Quarry Amphitheater, as we closed the book on the 2022 […]
