Impact Report

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Cultivating a New Kind of Institute.

The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz is a global hub for academic research, cross-discipline collaboration, and public engagement. We support the work of faculty and students, and collaborate with our community partners to tackle the questions that matter to all of us.

We incubate ideas and foster collaboration by funding projects, centers, and research clusters that connect different scholars (often in different disciplines) to work on some of the biggest problems of our day. We see the big picture and the details. We see the forest and the trees.

Understanding the Humanities Today

Humanities are not a luxury; they are a necessity. We live in an era of fake news, big data, and debates over free speech.

That is why we are committed to engaging with the broadest community possible—from first-generation students and scholars in every discipline, to local residents and anyone interested in making sense of our complex world.

History, Literature, Language, Philosophy—the core elements of the Humanities—are also basic building blocks of a liberal arts education. And this kind of education, for which UC Santa Cruz is justly famous, remains more important than ever as science and technology increasingly shape our world. The Humanities have always played a crucial role in producing engaged citizens and critical thinkers.

Get Involved with The Humanities Institute

Today more than ever, we need critical thinking, human understanding, abstract thought, and curiosity. These tools are essential to our understanding of the world and will help us chart our way in a constantly evolving culture and society.

What we do is as diverse as UC Santa Cruz’s student body. On any given day, the work we support could help frame breaking news from China, Algeria, or Venezuela. An understanding of Shakespeare’s use of language informs how we think of identity, gender, even humor. And responsible progress in Artificial Intelligence needs ethical thinking and humanistic underpinnings.

The skills of the Humanities are critical. The work of the Humanities is a public good and it’s up to our most inclusive public institutions, and their supporters, to advance this research and share it with a wide audience.