The University of California, San Diego is an institution known for achieving scientific and creative innovations. So it is no surprise that the Department of Visual Arts broke boundaries and crossed audiences when it recently transformed a 2,500 square-foot, San Diego Art Institute (SDAI) project-space at Horton Plaza into an unexpected home for innovative contemporary art.
UC San Diego Department of History Professor Natalia Molina, who also teaches urban studies and serves as associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity and equity, was recently awarded the 2015 Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship for her book, “How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts.” Molina’s publication examines Mexican immigration from 1924 to 1965 to understand how broad themes of race and citizenship are established. She will discuss her research publicly as the next keynote speaker in the Division of Arts and Humanities’ Degrees of Health and Well-being lecture series, Wednesday. Jan. 27, 7:00 p.m., in UC San Diego’s Great Hall.
The University of California, San Diego’s New Writing Series (NWS) is anything but new. In fact, the series, originally rooted in poetry, is among the longest running programs in the state, dating to the early 1970s. Each quarter the Department of Literature hosts the “new” writing series, and this winter’s series, which began Jan. 13 and runs through March 2, takes a transnational focus with guest writers John Gibler, Lorena Gomez Mostajo, John B. Washington and Marivi Blanco. The next presentation, featuring Washington, takes place Jan. 27, 4:30 p.m., in the Visual Arts Presentation Lab on campus.
Composer Lei Liang and Soprano Susan Narucki from the University of California, San Diego have won $50,000 in grant-funding from Creative Capital—a group known for applying principles of venture capital to arts financing—for their project, “Inheritance,” a proposed chamber opera addressing the complex issues of gun violence in America.
The University of California, San Diego is celebrating the 20th annual Lytle Scholarship Concert with renowned jazz trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and the Mambo Messengers on Sunday, Jan. 31 at 3 p.m., at the Department of Music’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall. For two decades, the annual concert has raised funds for the Lytle Scholarship Endowment, which benefits UC San Diego undergraduate students.
Alumni play a key role in a university’s fundraising efforts. Casey and Matthew Shen are prime examples. The University of California, San Diego alumni couple recently donated one-half million dollars to their alma mater to establish the Casey and Matthew Shen Endowment to support graduate student fellowships in the Department of Literature.
Keep up with all the latest from UC San Diego. Subscribe to the newsletter today.
