This academic year, we celebrate a remarkable milestone — 25 years of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. For a quarter of a century, THI has fostered bold ideas, championed groundbreaking research, and helped bridge the university with the greater community and broader world. Through its dedication to research excellence, student success, and public engagement, the institute has cemented its place as one of the most vital centers of inquiry on our campus.
Housed in the Humanities Division but working with scholars across our campus, the institute has had far-reaching impact. It has incubated transformative research, empowering scholars to push the boundaries of humanistic inquiry. The projects it has fostered range from the Intra-American Slave Trade Database to the Okinawa Memories Initiative to Watsonville is in the Heart, a public history initiative that seeks to preserve and celebrate the stories of Filipino Americans in the Pajaro Valley.
THI has built invaluable connections between UC Santa Cruz and the greater Santa Cruz community through partnerships with local institutions such as Bookshop Santa Cruz, the Museum of Art & History, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare. The incredibly successful Deep Read program invites curious minds to think deeply about literature and the pressing issues of our day, and has brought world-renowned authors to our campus to discuss their work.
And THI is providing students — both undergraduate and graduate — with unparalleled experiential-learning opportunities that prepare them for meaningful careers. The institute’s Public Fellowships program creates opportunities for humanities students to contribute to research, programming, communications, and other activities at nonprofit organizations, companies, and cultural institutions. The program meshes perfectly with two of the most exciting initiatives within the Humanities Division today:
- The Employing Humanities initiative, led by Humanities Dean Jasmine Alinder and supported in part by a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, is transforming how we prepare students for life beyond the university. By offering hands-on learning opportunities, including service learning, undergraduate research, and paid internships, Employing Humanities is demonstrating the real-world value of a humanities education. The initiative’s partnerships extend throughout our region, too, ensuring students not only gain valuable professional experience but also contribute to their communities in meaningful ways.
- The Humanizing Technology Certificate Program is equally bold, providing humanities training to early-career engineering undergraduates on our campus. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities under their Humanities Initiatives at Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, the project brings humanistic methods and thinking to contemporary issues in technology and engineering.
At a time when humanities disciplines face national declines in enrollments, THI’s public programs, and the Humanities Division’s Employing Humanities Initiative, including the Humanizing Technology certificate, reaffirm the value of humanistic study and its relevance to contemporary society.
We are a better university because of The Humanities Institute. It is a cornerstone of UC Santa Cruz’s commitment to provide students with a broad education — one that fosters critical thinking, creativity, and a deep understanding of the world around us. As we celebrate this silver anniversary, it is clear that The Humanities Institute has become and will continue to be a place where students and scholars ask bold questions, where new ideas take root, and where the university and the broader world come together in pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
Cindy
Cynthia Larive, Chancellor