A Chicanx educator and writer, Dr. Victoria Bañales is the founder and editor of Xinachtli Journal-–Journal X–a social justice literary arts magazine. Her poems and essays have been published in various journals and anthologies. She received her Ph.D. in Literature and Feminist Studies from UCSC and teaches in the English Department at Cabrillo College. More at vickybanales.com.

Angel Dominguez is is a Latinx poet and artist of Yucatec Maya descent, born in Hollywood and raised in Van Nuys, CA by their immigrant family. They now live amongst the Santa Cruz Mountains in Bonny Doon, CA. They’re the author of Desgraciado (the collected letters) (Nightboat Books, 2022), and other books. They are the 2023 summer writer in residence with the University of Arizona Poetry Center and have shared their work across the country in various venues, universities, and states of consciousness. You can find Angel’s words online and in print in various publications including BOMB Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, FENCE, Prolit Magazine, SFMOMA Open Space, and elsewhere. You can find Angel in the redwoods or ocean.

Gabriel Saloman Mindel is an interdisciplinary artist, musician and scholar based in Santa Cruz (USA). He is currently pursuing a PhD in the History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz where he is researching the relationships between noise and power, particularly the use of noise to extend beyond the limits of the body in struggles for space and political autonomy.

A’ai/Beyond

Conversation between humans and non-humans to protect aquatic photosynthetic organisms. 

A unique talk of a Pelican on the shore of the beach announcing the funeral dance of its kelp forest to a Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation woman.

(In English and Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation dialect.)

Kalie Granier, is a French interdisciplinary artist based in California. Her artistic practice explores life below the surface and the interdependence between humans and non-humans through Ecofeminist values. She questions the links between our underwater environments, their ecosystems, and our human bodies in the new geological era to raise awareness of social and ecological imbalances, while imagining alternative narratives for a more equitable future. Her research lies at the intersection of art, science, and activism, with a focus on marine plants and relies on a close dialogue between scientists and environmentalists. Her work has been exhibited in several galleries and museums in the US and Europe. She is also the co-founder of Loud Spring, a European-American Art Tank/Collective (and 501c3 Org) based in San Francisco/Oakland, inspired by Eco-Feminism.

Alexandra  J. Casares from Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation. The Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation is a historically documented previously recognized tribe. OCEN is the legal tribal government representative for over 600 enrolled members of Esselen, Carmeleno, Monterey Band, Rumsen, Chalon, Soledad Mission, San Carlos Mission and/or Costanoan Mission Indian descent of Monterey County. OCEN is known as the Monterey Band of Monterey County at the Sur Rancheria as a result of the Congressional Homeless Indian Acts of 1906, 1908 and later years. OCEN’s mission is to promote social and economic well being of our people, secure our aboriginal homeland, all natural resources and biodiversity oppressed for private profits. OCEN works with the support of archaeologists, linguists, scholars, anthropologists, artists, to preserve our culture.

Noel E. Smyth has a Ph.D. in Native American History from UC Santa Cruz. He currently teaches at UCSC, and he has previously taught at Gavilan Community College and Cabrillo Community College. Noel is writing his first book, “Surviving the Cataclysm: Reconstructing Diasporic Natchez History in the Atlantic World.” His research has been supported by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the American Philosophical Society, the Clements Library, the Huntington Library, Tulane’s Center for the Study of the Gulf South, Harvard’s Atlantic World Seminar, and the University of California Center for New Racial Studies. He is also a member of the Natchez Language Task Force with the Natchez Nation of Oklahoma.

Pedro Morales-Almazan is a teaching professor in the mathematics department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His interests include innovation in teaching methods and the incorporation of technology to improve engagement in and outside the classroom. He has explored applications of improv in the classroom and in professional development for mathematics instructors, using this as a way to complement active learning with active teaching. He has also implemented experiential learning in calculus using problem-based and project-based learning. He is involved in math circles and outreach, leading sessions and public lectures in the US and Latin America.

Ronaldo V. Wilson, PhD,  is an award-winning poet, interdisciplinary artist, academic and author of six collections of hybrid and experimental works spanning poetry, fiction, mixed genre theory, performance, and visual art.  He is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at U. C. Santa Cruz.  He is the author of Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man, winner of the Cave Canem Prize; Poems of the Black Object, winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and the Asian American Literary Award in Poetry; Farther Traveler: Poetry, Prose, Other, finalist for a Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry; and Lucy 72.  His latest books are Carmelina: Figures and Virgil Kills: Stories.  The recipient of numerous fellowships, including Cave Canem, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Ford Foundation, Kundiman, MacDowell, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Yaddo, Wilson is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at U.C. Santa Cruz, serving on the core faculty of the Creative Critical PhD Program; principal faculty member of CRES (Critical Race and Ethnic Studies); and affiliate faculty member of DANM (Digital Arts and New Media).

SMITH is a french artist and researcher (PhD) born in 1985. His works focuses on human identity and its metamorphoses, alterations, hybridization, and borders (animals, technologies, other worlds…), through archipelagic undisciplinary projects that bring together photographs, sculptures, choreographies, performances and films. SMITH is represented by Christophe Gaillard gallery in Paris. 

@traumsmith

During this talk, the artist, director and researcher SMITH, who is visiting Santa Cruz through the Villa Albertine project, will share the strategies put in place in his artistic work where a world with porous borders is imagined ; where exclusions leave room for all that “trans-“ : transitions, transitivities, transits. 

Somreeta Paul is a second year PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, currently working on philosophy of mind, philosophy of gender and aesthetics.

Jeanne Proust has studied Humanities, Philosophy and Visual Arts in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris. She has been teaching Philosophy for the last 13 years in the US. Her PhD dissertation (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) focused on the pathologies of the willpower, both in philosophical and psychological perspectives, but her interests are wide: among many fields, she does research in Ethics, Philosophy of Technologies, Bioethics, Feminist theory, and Aesthetics. While teaching at different universities in New York, Jeanne has been advocating for a widening of philosophical education beyond the Academia frontiers by participating in different events open to the general public. She taught at Rikers Island as a volunteer, and regularly gives public talks in philosophy, leading her to recently produce her own podcast, “Can You Phil It?”. She also collaborates with artists on her photography, drawing and painting works. Jeanne currently teaches as a lecturer for UC Santa Cruz and is involved with the Center for Public Philosophy. This Spring, she is leading the production of this “Crossing Borders” event, along with workshops for undergraduates on the Ethics of New Technologies based on the TEQ Deck project.

The chorale performs choral works of diverse periods, genres and traditions, both unaccompanied and using professional soloists, instrumental ensemble and orchestra. The Santa Cruz Chorale makes such music accessible to the broadest possible audiences while enabling member singers to experience the delight and artistic growth inherent to sophisticated music-making.

Watsonville Taiko was founded by Jim Hooker in September 1991 as a Taiko drumming community of performers and supporters. Ikuyo Conant was appointed artistic director in 1992 and set the group’s goal to strive through exploration of Taiko to develop an art that combines drumming with folklore, mythology and symbolism. Watsonville Taiko creates opportunities to make meaningful connections through taiko drumming.

The Philosophical Slug Society aims to create an environment which encourages students of all backgrounds to participate in thoughtful and respectful philosophical discourse as well as an opportunity to expand their philosophical literary horizons. The group meets once a week to hold open discussions on chosen reading materials. Additionally, department professors and graduate students will be invited to give talks on their own research relevant to our readings!

The Film and Digital Media major at UC Santa Cruz offers an integrated curriculum where students study the cultural impact of movies, television, video, and the internet and also have the opportunity to pursue creating work in video and interactive digital media, if so desired. Graduates of the UC Santa Cruz Film and Digital Media program have enjoyed considerable success in the professional world and have gained admission to top graduate schools in the field.