Books & Culture

Celebrating Freedom through Education

Nearly 200 UC San Diego volunteers gathered at Howard Pence Elementary School on Sunday to revitalize the school’s garden, paint murals on the playground and much more. The service project, held as part of the campus’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, was organized by Volunteer50 and the Center for Student Involvement to educate students about the impact they can make in the local community. Following the Day of Service, about 500 campus members represented UC San Diego in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade, celebrating “Freedom Through Education.”

Grant to Fund Restoration of Stuart Collection Artwork by ‘Grandfather of Video Art’

If you’ve ever wondered about the old television sets scattered around the lawn in front of the Media Center/Communication Building, wonder no more. The TV graveyard – along with a reproduction of Rodin’s famous “Thinker” and several small statues of Buddha gazing into the empty monitors – is the exterior portion of “Something Pacific” by Nam June Paik (1932-2006). Commissioned as part of the university’s renowned Stuart Collection of public art, “Something Pacific” was in 1986 Paik’s first permanent outdoor installation. The indoor portion is in the building lobby: a bank of 24 cutting edge and interactive TVs – except that they are no longer interactive or cutting-edge. A recent grant from the National Endowment of the Arts will change that.

Squidtoons: Sparking Scientific Curiosity through Comics

As a young boy growing up in Hong Kong, Tsz Fung Kwan looked forward to reading the famous Jim Davis comic strip Garfield in the Sunday paper. Something about the iconic orange, lasagna-loving cat struck a chord with Kwan, and, at the age of 7, when his family immigrated to the United states in search of a better life, he paid homage to his comic hero by choosing “Garfield” as his new American name.

Adele E. Shank, Developer of UC San Diego’s Playwriting Program, Dies

Playwright Adele Edling Shank, who developed and led UC San Diego’s playwriting program, died Nov. 27 in San Diego. She was 74.

UC San Diego Celebrates Diversity with International Education Week

UC San Diego joined more than 100 countries across the globe in celebrating the world’s cultures, peoples and languages for International Education Week (IEW), Nov. 17 to 21. The week of events allowed students to participate in performances about their heritages, view an international film festival and compete in UC San Diego’s very own “Triton World Cup” soccer match.

UC San Diego Extension to Present California Historian Kevin Starr

Eminent California historian Kevin Starr, long an expert on the state’s growth and influence, will explore how San Diego has expressed its civic ambitions for more than a century through the development of the city’s iconic Balboa Park.