Books & Culture

UC San Diego Humanities Professor Awarded Fellowship to Study Lithium Triangle

University of California San Diego’s Luis Martin-Cabrera has been named a 2016 Whiting Public Engagement (WPE) Fellow by the Whiting Foundation for his proposal to investigate the lives of indigenous groups living in a region known as the “Saudi Arabia of Lithium.” A key component in rechargeable batteries for laptops and cell phones, lithium is actively mined in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. This activity is changing the landscape and the lives of people living in the region. As a fellow, Martin-Cabrera will receive $40,000 to fund six consecutive months of leave to work on his ambitious, public-facing project.

UC San Diego History Professor Receives Treasured First-Book Award

University of California San Diego Department of History Professor Mark G. Hanna recently earned the 2016 Frederick Jackson Turner Award, an annual prize from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) given for an author’s first scholarly book about a certain aspect of American history. Hanna earned the prestigious award for his book, “Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570 – 1740” (University of North Carolina Press), which demonstrates that pirates were essential to British colonialism, including patterns of development that shaped early America.

NSF Awards $232K to Study Environmental Impacts on Ancient Maya Port

Proyecto Costa Escondida (or Hidden Coast Project), co-led by researchers at CISA3, is an investigation of environmental and ecological factors that affected ancient Maya ports in a network of trade routes linking people, goods and ideas from across Mesoamerica.

UC San Diego Cyber-Archaeology Researchers Launch Crowdsourcing Portal to Monitor At-Risk Sites

UC San Diego students are on the front lines of a new crowdsourcing experiment to monitor damage and destruction in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq by analyzing satellite images. It's part of the new Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability.

UC San Diego Receives Its First New Directions Fellowship Grant from Mellon Foundation

The University of California, San Diego has received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship grant—an award intended to assist humanities scholars in acquiring systematic training outside their areas of special interest—for the first time. The $209,000 grant will support Department of History Professor Mark Hendrickson’s efforts to explore how the work of American mining engineers and geologists working abroad between 1880 and 1930 helped shape the development of 20th-century American capitalism, science and foreign policy.

UC San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities Faculty Excel on Campus

The University of California, San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities will be well-represented during the 42nd Annual Chancellor’s Associates’ Faculty Excellence Awards April 14, 6:00 p.m., at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine on campus. During the event, Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla will celebrate six exemplary faculty—three of whom hail from the arts and humanities division. They are: David O. Brink, distinguished professor in the Department of Philosophy, recognized for excellence in research in the humanities and social sciences; Teddy Cruz, professor of public culture and urbanism in the Department of Visual Arts, recognized for exemplary community service; and Anya Gallaccio, professor of visual arts, recognized for excellence in the performing and visual arts.