UCSC’s Rachel Carson College will use UCSC Alumni Association Distinguished Visiting Professor funds in fiscal year 2011-12 to support the lecture series, “What’s Next Lectures—Change: Mobilizing People, Capital and Ideas.” The lecture series is presented in collaboration with NextSpace Co-working + Innovation and the City of Santa Cruz. The lecture series will be comprised of five events over 5 quarters exploring how change makers are using entrepreneurship, technology and collaboration to address economic, environmental and social challenges. The series will be open to UCSC students, faculty, business people and the general public. The speakers will provide tools to emerging and established companies, inspiration to students, and help brand UCSC and Santa Cruz as the location of cutting edge research and thinking. Undergraduates at Rachel Carson College will interact with leading entrepreneurs, internationally recognized thought leaders while participating in collaborative efforts between the University, the City of Santa Cruz, and local business leaders.

Cowell and Stevenson Colleges will present an integrated program between Cowell, Stevenson, and Kresge Colleges will focus on the theme: Pac-Rim wars and peaces. Core Course reading lists will include readings and articles by Professor Donna Nagata, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, on the internment camps that incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II. Nagata will be in residence at Cowell. Core Course readings will also include works by Professor Shunya Yoshimi, the Director of the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo. Yoshimi will visit Stevenson College and give public lectures for students, faculty, and alumni at Stevenson and Cowell Colleges. The Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery will host an exhibit of the work of Coeleen Kiebert, with an emphasis on her work in Asia and display the current work of Myumi Wabinashi. Winter term, the main gallery will house a special exhibit on recollections of the Pacific Theatre of World War II, assembled by Professor Alan Christy in collaboration with Stevenson Provost Alice Yang. At the same time, the small gallery will concentrate on an exhibit of kimonos. The year will culminate with an ambitious origami exhibit. The exhibit will integrate art and math and pay homage to the importance of multiple points of view. Transformative Action and Sustainable Food Systems is a five-credit course that has been developed in collaboration with Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS).  The theme of cooperation, peace, and non-violence, that runs through the course, echoes the theme of the Pac-Rim War and Peace theme.

College Nine will present speakers on international issues commemorating the first decade of College Nine.  Speakers throughout the 2010-2011 academic year will cover both political-economy and cultural issues.  The series will begin in fall 2010 with Leslie Chang, author of Factory Girls:  From Village to City in a Changing China, and former correspondent with The Wall Street Journal. College Nine will invite alumni back for the weekend of May 14, to join us for music and spoken word performances.

As Distinguished Visiting Professors, HeadRush Crew (HRC) visited UCSC during Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters 2009-2010. HRC is a performance group drawing on “theater of the oppressed” methodologies to generate conversation and social action around pressing issues affecting young people and people of color in the United States. The members of HRC bring together backgrounds in teatro campesino, creative writing, experimental performance, and education.  HRC performed for the Practical Activism Conference and again for the Oakes Core Course. HRC facilitated a theater of the oppressed workshop during the Practical Activism Conference. HRC Crew taught a 5-unit course titled “Performance-Based Techniques for Social Transformation” for Oakes students. Students performed pieces based on issue relevant to the audience. Students performed pieces, facilitated critical dialog, provided opportunities for action, and conducted a post-event survey among audience members to evaluate the impact of their work. In Spring, HRC participated in organizing a one-day festival for “Performance and Social Transformation” showcasing the students’ final projects. In addition, Oakes College held a one day “Women’s Health and Justice for All” conference bringing together students, faculty and staff, and members of the local community (about 50 or so from off-campus) and featured about 14-15 nationally recognized women’s health experts and activists.

Porter College brought Professor Jon Appleton, professor emeritus from Datrmouth College to UCSC during fall quarter 2008; and NNeka Isaac Moses & Metche Isaac Moses, distinguished producers, directors, and actors in Nigerian film industry during spring quarter 2009. Appleton is a seminal composer of electro-acoustic and computer music.  He is internationally known for developing the “Synclavier” – the first sophisticated digital electro-acoustic instrument designed for performance as well as composition. The Moses’ produce, direct, and star in the television series “Goge Africa”—a travel show that explores African culture, festivals, and arts—airs throughout the African continent and in a few areas of the United Kingdom and the USA. The Moses’ presentation included an African Film Festival, guest lecture in HAVC and Film and Digital Media undergraduate courses, and participate in discussion groups.

Kresge College used the fund to augment undergraduate education over a two-year period 2007-2009. Kresge presented a Globalization series: Fall 2008 and Winter 2009. Visiting professors were: Toby Miller “A Critique of Cultural Citizenship,” Lisa Hajjar “Globalization of Human Rights,” and David Bacon“Migration in a Global Perspective.” Toby Miller is a Professor in the Departments of English, Sociology, and Women’s Studies and Director of the University’s Program in Film and Visual Culture at UC-Riverside. Lisa Hajjar is Associate professor and Chair of the Law and Society Program at UC-Santa Barbara. David Bacon, senior fellow at the Oakland Institute, is a writer and photojournalist based in Oakland and Berkeley, California. He is an associate editor at Pacific News Service, and writes for TruthOut, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Progressive, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. He has been a reporter and documentary photographer for 18 years, shooting for many national publications. He has exhibited his work nationally, and in Mexico, the UK and Germany. In partnership with the Porter Sesnon Gallery, Kresge brought photographer Margot Herster and her show, “GUANTANOMO: pictures from home” to UCSC October 2007. Kresge also brought the LA filmmakers/performing artists Stanya Kahn and Harry/Harriet Dodge fall 2007.

Dr. Jonathan Moreno, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor and and of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, will offer three lectures at Stevenson college in October 2007: “The Ethics of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” “The Ethics of Human Experimentation for National Security Purposes,” and “Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense.”

Merrill College brought Dr. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o to campus November 26-28, 2006. He lectured to more than 425 Core Course students, faculty, staff, and local alumni. He also presented a seminar for faculty and graduate students; and gave a reading/book signing at a local bookstore. Dr. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o was noted for his new book: Wizard of the Crow. He is on faculty at UC Irvine. His work has, in the past, been part of the Merrill Core Course curriculum. Merrill also plans to bring an additional professor to campus in the fall of 2007.

Crown College coordinated their DVP program with the celebration of College’s 40th Anniversary throughout 2006-07. On November 13, 2006, Dr. William Hurlbut addressed an audience of more than 375 students of the Crown core course (CRWN 80A/B Ethical Issues in Emerging Technologies: Transgenics, Clones, Cyborgs), faculty, and alumni in the music recital hall on campus. He is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. His spoke directly to the ethical issues of human enhancement through genetic engineering.

During winter quarter Kathy Sullivan (Cowell ’73) was the featured speaker for the Crown College Family Day. Sullivan is the first American woman to walk in space. In her career since the space program-now science adviser at the Center of Science & Industry in Ohio-Sullivan has worked as an educator and advocate for increasing public understanding of science and for promoting science education, especially for young women and girls.

During spring quarter, Cheryl Scott (Oakes ’74) was the keynote speaker at Crown’s 40th Anniversary Reunion event. Scott CDC is currently Medical Officer/Captain, U. S. Public Health Service, California Dept. of Health Services, Tuberculosis Control Branch. She was the founding Country Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Tanzania.

Stevenson college has planned an ambitious program spanning two academic years; 2005-06 and 2007-08. Richard White (Cowell ’69, history), the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford, visited UCSC February 13-15, 2006. White is an eminent scholar in three related fields: the American West; Native American history; and environmental history. He is the author of five books, including The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republic in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1851, which was named finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize. Among other honors, he is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. While at UCSC, White lectured on Native American History; held a seminar on his current work; and lectured on corporate and personal failure. Plans for 2006-7 include brining two distinguished professors in linguistics; Professor Stephen Pinker (Harvard), and Professor Geoffrey Nunberg (Stanford).

Cowell College: In their commitment to fostering an environment of interdisciplinary inquiry and exploring ways to bridge the gaps of understanding between the cultures of the sciences and the humanities, Cowell College has planned four interrelated activities, in a two-year plan: Richard Harris (Crown ’80) award-winning science correspondent for NPR, spoke and visited the campus in April, 2005. Arielle Saiber , assistant professor of Italian at Bowdoin College whose research focuses on how mathematics impacts and infiltrates the literary imagination, taught a two-week, two-credit course during winter quarter 2006. Johanna Drucker , who has published and lectured extensively on topics related to the history of typography, artists’ books, and visual art, will be on campus during spring quarter 2006. Chris Drury , who is categorized as a land artist or someone who works with art and nature, has created works both gallery-based and out-of-doors; temporary and permanent installations. Drury will visit UCSC for one week in November, 2006, to meet with students and art faculty to discuss a possible installation for UCSC.

In keeping with the John R. Lewis College theme of Social Justice and Community Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, and David Shipler spoke at the college during the 2004-05 winter and spring quarters. Students taking the College’s Social Justice Workshop worked with the writings from these award-winning journalists. Goodman received the 1st Annual Rueben Salazar Award. Juan Gonzalez spoke received the 2nd Annual Ruben Salazar Journalism Award and delivered an Alumni Association’s Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture in February, 2005 at the College Nine/John R. Lewis College Multipurpose Room.

Nobel Laureate Economist Amartya Sen, presented by College Nine and the Division of Social Sciences,

co-sponsored by the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics; the Satyajit Ray Film and Studies Program; the Center of Justice, Tolerance and Community; and the Center of Global, International and Regional Studies.

A prominent economist and philosopher, Indian scholar Professor Amartya Sen was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics for his remarkable contributions to the research on welfare economics. By combining tools from economics and philosophy, he has developed ethical dimensions to the discussion of economic problems.Sen was featured as the centerpiece of a set of events featuring guest speakers on the theme of “global policy and social justice.” On April 30, 2002 400 UCSC students, faculty members, alumni, and members of the Santa Cruz community gathered at the UCSC Media Theater to hear Sen speak on “Clashing Civilizations and Lesser Tales.” Other speakers included UC-Berkeley Economics Professor Pranab Bardhan.

The Environmental Speakers Series brings a series of distinguished historians and sociologists doing environmentally-related research to Rachel Carson College. Speakers for the series include: Professor J.R. McNeill, an environmental historian; Robert Gottlieb; Henry R. Luce, professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College; Michael Dorsey, author of The Other Drug War: Plants, Politics, and Bio-Piracy in Amazonia; Carolyn Merchant, author of Death of Nature; Don Worster, author of Rivers of Empire; Paul Hirt, author of A Conspiracy of Optimism; Fred Buttel, coeditor of Hungry for Profit; Al Gedicks, author of The New Resource Wars; Mark Hertsgaard, author of Earth Odyssey; Harvey Molotch, co-author of Urban Fortunes; William Freudenburg, author of Oil in Troubled Waters; J. Donald Hughes, author of Ecology in Ancient Civilizations; Phil Brown, co-author of No Safe Place; James O’Connor, author of Natural Causes; Steve Kroll-Smith, co-author of Bodies in Protest; and John Opie, author of Nature’s Nation.

Distinguished Visiting Professor Endowment funds are being used for a series of events to enhance residential life. A Core Course workshop co-sponsored by Empower Perspectives was presented, and played a vital role in training of Oakes College residential life staff.

The Writing Life Course was developed by Farnaz Fatemi (Porter ’91), lecturer for the Kresge Writing Program. The course brought distinguished alumni writers into the classroom to discuss their work with students. Among the alumni writers who came back to UCSC were Gloria Anzaldua (Literature major); Don Wallace (Literature-English); Lorna Dee Cervantes (History of Consciousness), William Finnegan (Cowell ’74, B.A. Literature-English) of the New Yorker; Doug Foster (Kresge ’75, Individ. major), Martha Mendoza (Kresge ’88, Individ. major), and Mark Jarman (Porter ’74, B.A. Literature-English).