Join Ronaldo Wilson and special guests for a site-specific, endurance performance as part of there are no words, but melodies. The exhibition emerges at the intersections of Black poetics, performance, and visual art to shuttle between verbal and non-verbal forms of language, rendering the boundaries of identity and meaning slippery. Drop in and visit Wilson’s […]

The Seeds of Resurgence cluster presents an artist talk with Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library. Oftentimes when Palestinian farmers put seeds in the ground, they mutter a quiet prayer, “may we eat and may we feed others”. This and many other linguistically profound sayings provide a lens into a cultural design based […]

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 […]

Join us for a nocturnal celebration of art, philosophy, and activism! As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its independence, the 2026 Santa Cruz Night of Ideas invites us not to celebrate the Enlightenment, but to interrogate it. Long associated with democracy, progress, and universal reason, the Enlightenment’s legacy remains deeply ambivalent - […]

The Future We Share: Activism, Creativity, and Collective Imagination Join us on April 4, 2025 for the Night of Ideas in Santa Cruz, a nocturnal celebration of art, philosophy, and activism! From solar energy and housing justice to communal music and movement, Night of Ideas – Santa Cruz invites you to explore interactive sessions on […]

A global event, taking place simultaneously in more than 100 countries and 22 cities in the United States, Night of Ideas invites thought leaders, activists, performers, authors, and academics to engage the public in discussions around central questions that address major, contemporary global issues. First introduced in the United States in 2015 by the French […]

Large and small, visible and hidden, borders weave in and out of our lives along varied dimensions. Some we can see, many we cannot. Some we celebrate, others confine us. Some we are aware of, many remain undiscovered. There are political borders and national borders; psychological, social, scientific, and biological borders. What are borders? Can […]