Category: Humanities

  • Lighting the Way Through Literature

    Anthony Doerr says his very first book, “Mollusks,” which he wrote when he was kid for a class project, was probably very unsatisfying to his readers. But that didn’t deter him. He went on to write his other ‘first’ novel, “All the Light We Cannot See,” which by all accounts was a blockbuster. It remained […]

  • American Literary Legend N. Scott Momaday Talks About the Sacredness of Words

    The Kiowa poet and novelist Navarre Scott Momaday was 8 years old when he told his mother he wanted to be a writer. He said she was pleased, possibly because she was a writer herself. That little boy grew up to become a great American writer, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his first […]

  • Rex Pickett’s New Book Weaves Together Murder, Mystery and Library Archives

    Best known for his Academy Award-winning adapted screenplay “Sideways,” author Rex Pickett is out with a new book. The UC San Diego alumnus, who graduated in 1976, sets his latest work in a fictional Geisel Library. “The Archivist” is a murder mystery that takes a deep dive into the inner workings of the process of […]

  • Tribute to Arts & Humanities Producer John Menier

    It is with great sadness that we announce that the long-time UCSD-TV Arts and Humanities producer John Menier died on November 14th after a brief illness. As one of the original television producers at UCSD-TV, he was instrumental in the launch of the station that grew to include the far-reaching UCTV. He worked with artists, […]

  • Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural Address

    On March 4th, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. He considered it his greatest speech and best effort. Join Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss and best-selling Lincoln biographer Dr. Ronald C. White for a fascinating look at the Second Inaugural Address. Through a powerful, fascinating voyage of discovery, one comes away with […]

  • The Making of Timbuktu with Abderrahmane Sissako

    In this Carsey-Wolf Center Global presentation, acclaimed co-writer/director Abderrahmane Sissako discusses his film “Timbuktu” with moderators Richard Watts and Peter Bloom. “Timbuktu” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and in 2016 was voted as one of the top 50 films of the 21st century. Sissako details the development of the […]

  • Up with Uptalking? How Language Marks Shifts in Generations

    “Recognize that nothing is new, everything is changing, and that we need to wake up to a new form of English that we ourselves may not share but that can be as creative, as poetic and as imaginative as any that we’ve had in our lifetime.” Seth Lerer, Distinguished Professor of Literature and Dean Emeritus […]

  • The Harrowing Journey of Jews Across the European Landscape

    When we think of the Holocaust, images of the horrific suffering of millions of people come to mind. For British historian Tim Cole, the physical environment that the victims of the Holocaust encountered is a complex story of death and survival. Cole says that for many Westerners, images of the genocide come from the liberation […]

  • Bringing Dinosaurs to Life: How a Best-Selling Novel Became a Major Motion Picture

    Screenwriter David Koepp had only six motion picture screenplay credits to his name when he was tapped to help best-selling author Michael Crichton adapt one of his novels for the silver screen. Even as a novel, “Jurassic Park” was ahead of its time – using futuristic DNA cloning techniques to return dinosaurs to the planet […]

  • Artificial Intelligence with Kate Crawford 

    The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the capture of digital material for machine learning production. Kate Crawford, author of “Atlas AI: Power, Politics and Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence,” is a leading international scholar of the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. In two new programs, Crawford explores the ways training […]