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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Humanities Institute
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260531T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260531T160000
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
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UID:10007796-1780243200-1780243200@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:The Deep Read - A Conversation with Merlin Sheldrake
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a free\, public conversation with British mycologist and author\, Merlin Sheldrake\, at UC Santa Cruz’s Quarry Amphitheater on May 31\, 2026. He’ll discuss his New York Times bestseller\, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds\, Change our Minds\, and Shape our Futures with Associate Professor of History Benjamin Breen and the Deep Read community. Together\, we’ll explore the dependence of all life—human\, plant\, animal\, and beyond—on fungal networks and how the resulting interconnections provoke us to reconsider our understanding of existence\, identity\, intelligence\, and more. \n \nEvent Schedule: \n\n3:00pm: Doors Open\n3:15-4:00 pm: Musical performance by Le Jazz Hot Duo – (Nelsen Hutchison & Paul Mehling) will play acoustic jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France. Expect a mix of Parisian waltzes\, jazz standards\, bossa nova\, and reimagined pop tunes\, all driven by energetic improvisation\n4:00-5:30 pm: Main program\n5:30-6:00pm: Book signing\n\n\nADA & General Public Parking: \nFor our ADA guests\, the ADA accessible parking will be available at the Hahn Student Services/Lot 101. Please follow directional signs that will lead you to this Lot. Disability Van Services will be available to support guests that require transport. An ADA placard will be required to park in this lot. \nGeneral parking is located at the East Remote. Carpooling is highly recommended. Parking will be free and a courtesy shuttle will be available to and from the East Remote to the Quarry Amphithater. Directional signage will be posted starting at the base of campus. \nIt is up to a 20 minute walk to the Quarry Amphitheter from the East Remote Lot. \n\nAdditional Events of Interest: \nEntangled Life Faculty Salon: On May 19\, 2026\, at 6pm\, we will hold a salon-style event at the Hay Barn on campus where a group of Deep Read faculty—Professors Breen\, Gilbert\, and Haraway —will give brief presentations and discuss Entangled Life with moderator Laura Martin and the Deep Read community. Participants can also attend virtually. \nThe Literature and Poetics of Fungi Salon: On May 26\, 2026\, at 6pm\, we will hold a salon at the Hay Barn focused on the literary and poetic influence of fungi and its relation to Entangled Life. The salon will feature Professors Cole\, Hillman\, Palmer\, and Tseng in conversation with moderator Laura Martin and the Deep Read community. Participants can also attend virtually. \n \nThe Deep Read is an annual program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz made possible through the generous support of the Helen and Will Webster Foundation. We invite curious minds to think deeply about books and the most pressing issues of our contemporary moment.
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/the-deep-read-a-conversation-with-merlin-sheldrake/
LOCATION:Quarry Amphitheater
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260601T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260601T133000
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
CREATED:20260318T190225Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260609T211059Z
UID:10007886-1780315200-1780320600@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:CMENA Student Choice Lecture:  Razan Ghazzawi -Carceral Geographies to Racialized Borders: A Queer Feminist Ethnography
DESCRIPTION:Join us for the annual student choice lecture presented by the Center for the Middle East and North Africa:  Razan Ghazzawi\, “Carceral Geographies to Racialized Borders: A Queer Feminist Ethnography.”  From a positionality of an exiled protestor in Europe and a former political prisoner in Syria\, this project traces the journeys of eight self-identified Syrian and Palestinian LGBTQ artists\, workers\, performers\, and refugees from their temporary exile locations in Lebanon to their refugee destinations in Europe. It explores the interlocutors’ temporal encounters with geographies of checkpoints and prisons in Syria and Lebanon\, on one side\, and racialized borders of Europe\, on the other. This project investigates narratives of what Rima Hammami calls “carceral geographies” as well as surviving checkpoints\, prisons\, and asylum journeys from Syria and Lebanon to Europe. The talk will focus on one of the book’s chapters\, which examines stories of navigating and surviving racialized borders as LGBTQ refugees of color\, and how this experience is securitized and militarized; it will also explore emotional labor and care as affective forms of protest within the context of military carceral states in Syria and Lebanon as well as Europe’s “refugee crisis.” \nDr. Razan Ghazzawi (they/them/هي\هن) is an award-winning human rights defender\, former political prisoner\, and recovering blogger. They are an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women\, Gender\, and Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University. A MESA Global Academy Fellow for 2024–2025\, Ghazzawi’s work has appeared in ARTE\, Al Jazeera English\, The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication\, and Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research. They are currently developing their first book monograph\, an ethnographic study of sexuality politics in Syria and Lebanon that examines revolution\, the “war on terror\,” and the “refugee crisis” from south–south perspectives. \n\nCo-presented by the Center for the Middle East and North Africa and the Arab Students Union. Lunch will be served during the talk.
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/from-carceral-geographies-to-racialized-borders-a-queer-feminist-ethnography/
LOCATION:Humanities 1\, Room 210\, 1156 high st\, Santa cruz\, CA\, 95060\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T130000
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
CREATED:20260527T193109Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260527T193607Z
UID:10007960-1780401600-1780405200@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:PhD+ Workshop with ARI — Grants and Fellowship Funding
DESCRIPTION:Arts Research Institute (ARI) workshop with Holly Unruh (ARI Executive Director) and Hannah Jasper (ARI Research Development Analyst) on finding funding to support your work\, and proposal writing 101. This workshop is geared toward graduate students and early career faculty\, and is appropriate for anyone wanting to hone their grant-seeking skills. \n**Please rsvp to Hannah (hannahjasper@ucsc.edu) for the zoom link. \n\n\nThis event is co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute as part of the PhD+ Workshop Series. Learn more about the Arts Research Institute on the ARI website.
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/phd-workshop-with-ari-grants-and-fellowship-funding/
LOCATION:Virtual Event
CATEGORIES:PhD+ Event
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T133000
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
CREATED:20260521T164517Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260528T191051Z
UID:10007956-1780401600-1780407000@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:Allen Riley - Critical Play with Large Language Models
DESCRIPTION:The idea of keeping the “human in the loop” is offered as a way to make AI “human-centered” and to safeguard against AI mischief\, but how does being in a loop with AI shape our communication with each other? Over the last 20 years\, Allen Riley created dozens of interactive artworks that explore mediated communication with youth and adults in venues including performance spaces\, museums\, festivals\, and schools. He discusses three recent projects that explore how large language models affect interpersonal communication. \nThe first project is an imaginative storytelling game called Popcorn Movie in which players are constantly interrupted by LLM summaries as they attempt to co-create a story together. Next\, he adapts the game into a satirical live performance titled Human Feedback in which an LLM facilitates a panel discussion among people who do not know what they are talking about. In a third iteration titled The Last Chat\, Riley reimagines the LLM as a social operating system. \nLanguage models are not grounded in the practical circumstances in which we use them. As a result\, they drift and hallucinate. When players hear an AI summary\, its semantic noise becomes part of their shared reality\, and the story spirals in on itself. Players navigate changing and often humorous conditions of coherence and confusion. He argues that this is an essential literacy for critical engagement with LLMs. Allen Riley proposes an alternative way of thinking and playing with AI as a feedback channel for socially interactive creative projects that critically play with AI. \nAllen Riley is an artist and curator who specializes in socially interactive media. He designs hands-on learning pedagogy at Beam Center and builds arcade games as a form of public art with Arcade Commons. Riley’s artwork has been presented at the Smithsonian American Art Museum\, Slamdance Film Festival\, and the Museum of the Moving Image. He received an MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics and is a PhD candidate in Film & Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz. \n\nThis event is presented by The Humanities Institute’s ± AI Initiative
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/critical-play-with-large-language-models/
LOCATION:Humanities 1\, Room 210\, 1156 high st\, Santa cruz\, CA\, 95060\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T133000
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
CREATED:20260526T204808Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260609T211019Z
UID:10007959-1780407000-1780407000@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:Jacqueline Gallant - Law For a More-Than-Human World
DESCRIPTION:Jackie Gallant will join the More-Than-Human(ities) Lab to discuss her work with the More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program\, an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to the advancement of rights and well-being for humans\, nonhumans\, and the web of life that sustains us all. The Program has two primary goals. First\, using the tools of the law\, MOTH offers answers to key questions raised by a host of disciplines concerning human relationships—institutional\, political\, legal\, and cultural—with the natural world\, including in the context of pressing ecological challenges. These questions include: \nHow can the sciences—from mycology to botany and ecology to marine biology—be translated into and transform the law to better protect life on Earth? How can Indigenous and Western sciences join forces to create and transform legal protections for the more-than-human world? \nHow can we strengthen the implementation of the growing number of rights of nature rulings and laws to ensure they have material impact? \nHow do we give back to nature for its contributions to human activities and endeavors? \nHow can we bridge concern for humans and nonhumans as we ratchet up decisive actions to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies? How can a holistic approach to these and other ecological challenges contribute to reducing societal polarization as well as individual and species loneliness? \nHow can we best use technology – and guard against its excesses – to better understand and relate to nonhumans and nature more generally? \nThe answers—developed through MOTH actions—aim to protect the living world and its many beings while achieving more-than-human rights in practice. \nSecond\, MOTH nurtures and consolidates the field of practice and inquiry dedicated to more-than-human rights and related topics. In particular\, MOTH builds bridges between disciplines and nurtures intercultural and interdisciplinary collaboration and ideation. \nThe MOTH Program is an initiative of Earth Rights Research and Action (TERRA)\, a program based at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. \nJackie Gallant is a lawyer and the Director of Programs at the NYU MOTH Program. At MOTH\, she leads legal actions and programs which address major ecological challenges\, like climate change\, and pressing questions concerning legal\, political\, and cultural relationships with the more-than-human world. \n  \n 
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/law-for-a-more-than-human-world-a-conversation-with-jacqueline-gallant/
LOCATION:Humanities 1\, Room 202
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260603T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260603T160000
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
CREATED:20260512T204840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260528T191251Z
UID:10007949-1780491600-1780502400@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:2026 Graduate Research Symposium
DESCRIPTION:This event celebrates and highlights the work of UCSC graduate students in all academic divisions. Any enrolled graduate student is welcome to present either a poster\, talk\, or mixed media presentation. (Recipients of qualifying fellowships\, ARCS\, PPPF\, Dissertation Quarter\, etc. are required to participate.) The event is free and open to the public. For more information and to see past winners: 2026 Graduate Research Symposium
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/2026-graduate-research-symposium/
LOCATION:UCSC
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260604T172000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260604T185500
DTSTAMP:20260618T072010
CREATED:20260402T175729Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260407T031639Z
UID:10007905-1780593600-1780599300@thi.ucsc.edu
SUMMARY:Living Writers Student Reading
DESCRIPTION:In Nourishment\, Us. \nLiving Writers Spring 2026: Our Nourishment\, US features poets\, writers\, critics\, visual and performance artists\, who demonstrate how writing and art enacts around the idea of freedom and the imaginary in the face of the constant threat of terror and erasure. In the presence of who we all are within marginalized yet expansively powerful fields of racialized and multiply lived complex and diverse identities\, please come as we convene in spirit\, deep celebration\, and resource with one another. \nAbout the Living Writers Series\nThe Living Writers Series (LWS) is a live reading series organized especially for the Creative Writing Program community at UCSC. There is a new series each quarter\, and each series features writers with unique voices. The LWS is open to all creative writing students and the public. \n\nSponsored by the Porter Hitchcock Poetry Fund\, The Humanities Institute\, The Laurie Sain Endowment\, and the Bay Tree Bookstore.
URL:https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/living-writers-student-reading-8/
LOCATION:Humanities Lecture Hall\, Santa Cruz\, CA\, 95064\, United States
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