Impact Report
Download THI’s 2023-2024 Annual Impact Report (PDF)
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.
490
+Public Programs (since 2012)
13,099,940
Extramural Funds (since 2009)
1,240
+Fellows Supported (since 1999)
147
Research Projects
6,799,940
Research Fellowships (since 1999)
YEAR IN REVIEW 2023-2024
Leading Public Engagement
We are engaging broad communities in dynamic Humanities scholarship through public events, campus and community partnerships, and experiential learning programs.
Community Impact by the Numbers
78
COMMUNITY EVENTS
-35
PUBLIC FELLOWS AND COMMUNITY-ENGAGED SCHOLARS
-23
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Programming Highlights
DEEP READ
THI’s Deep Read program brings together students, staff, faculty, alumni, and members of the public to explore a compelling book by a living author. In 2024, we read Trust by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hernan Diaz. Together, we considered how the technologies of finance and fiction overlap in this novel about capitalism and its social, cultural, and political power in the U.S. Over 10,000 Deep Read subscribers were given the opportunity to read together, share their insights, attend presentations from UCSC faculty on the book, and see Diaz in conversation with Associate Professor of Literature, Zac Zimmer.
TECHNOLOGY
We dedicated 2023-2024 to the theme of Technology and hosted dozens of interdisciplinary events with scholars and public intellectuals that reached thousands of households around the world. Our theme opened up forums for discussions, promoted critical reflection, and offered fresh perspectives on Technology to highlight the power of the Humanities to make sense of our complex world and motivate new approaches for a more just future.
PUBLIC FELLOWSHIPS
Our Public Fellowships create opportunities for faculty and students to work with partners in our community. 25 scholars collaborated with more than two dozen partners, including Lookout, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, and the GLBT Historical Society.
YEAR IN REVIEW 2023-2024
Cultivating Excellence
The Humanities Institute provides scholars with vital support to pursue groundbreaking research and public humanities projects. We incubate ideas by funding projects, centers, and clusters that enable faculty and students to ask innovative research questions.
Campus Impact by the Numbers
409,579
Graduate Support
60 graduate fellows and researchers
127,490
Faculty Support
61 faculty, 30 projects
135,590
Undergraduate Support
37 fellows and research assistants
Recent Grant Highlights
UCSC MOVING IMAGE LAB
Isaac Julien, Distinguished Professor of the Arts and Humanities (History of Consciousness); Mark Nash, Professor of the Arts and Humanities (History of Consciousness)
Mellon Foundation
$1,000,ooo
OAXACAN LANGUAGES OF THE TRANSNATIONAL CENTRAL COAST
Pranav Anand (Linguistics) et al.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
$607,783
THI RECEIVES GLOBAL PUBLIC HUMANITIES AWARD
In 2024, THI was honored as one of the two inaugural winners of the “Public Humanities Award for Leadership in Practice and Community” from the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), a global network of centers and institutes.
