Consortium for Literature, Theory and Culture
The Consortium for Literature, Theory and Culture brings together faculty and graduate student from the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, as well as affiliates from other disciplines, to advance collaborative research in literary studies, broadly defined. While grounded in the study of national literary traditions, it seeks to encourage interdisciplinary and theoretical reflections on literature and culture in global and comparative contexts.

Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
One of the nation’s most active and innovative centers for conferences, lectures, panels and other intellectual events that cross the disciplines and draw a wide spectrum of international scholars. In the recent past, the Center has mounted major conferences and lecture series on a diverse group of topics including “Turn-of-the-Century China: Identity & Cultural Production in a Global Context,” “Borders and Bridges: Exploring the Relationships Between Humans and Animals,” “Women Transforming the Public,” “Trauma, Absence, Loss,” “Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niño and the Fate of Civilizations,” “Science and Pornography,” “The Tears of Philosophy: Jacques Derrida and Death,” and “The Philosophy of John Locke: Reason, Empiricism and Common Sense.”

The IHC also sponsors research projects proposed by individual UCSB faculty members and graduate students and sponsors interdisciplinary team-taught seminars such as “The Invention of the Author” and “The Construction of Gender in the Jewish and Christian Traditions.”

The Center has hosted a variety of national conferences for associations like the Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the American Society for Aesthetics. In the fall of 1995 it hosted the Western Humanities Conference.

Women’s Studies Program
An interdisciplinary program in which the varied experiences of women and the systematic study of gender are explored. The program offers courses and teaching opportunities to Comparative Literature graduate students.

Women’s Center
A Center devoted to understanding the evolving roles of women and men and to expanding educational, professional and personal opportunities for women. The Women’s Center Gallery exhibits the work of women artists, and the Women’s Center library houses a special collection of books and periodicals pertaining to women. The Center also maintains up-to-date files on hundreds of gender-related topics. In cooperation with other departments and student groups, the Women’s Center brings dozens of eminent women — writers, artists and public figures — to campus each year. In addition, the Faculty Lectures Series features feminist scholars whose research and teaching are expanding the traditional curriculum and unfolding new ways of thinking. Recent guests have included Paula Vogel, Sandra Cisneros, Jewelle Gomez, Anita Roddick, Dr. Bidyut Mohanty (from India), Luisa Valenzuela and Nicole Hollander.

Center for Black Studies
A Center conducting research on the historical, social, economic and political forces that have affected people of African descent throughout the world. The Center sponsors a faculty development program that awards doctoral fellowships to Ph.D. candidates. It also organizes and presents seminars, lectures and symposia and serves as a liaison between the campus and the Santa Barbara community.

Center for Chicano Studies
Created to develop, conduct and support interdisciplinary research on the history and contemporary conditions of the Mexican-origin population in the United States. The Center also organizes, promotes and sponsors a variety of special public-service events that are conducive to a better understanding and appreciation of Chicano/Mexicano society and culture and that work to advance Chicano scholarship.

Dramatic Art
A department whose distinctive feature is its wide range of offerings in dramatic literature, theory and theater history. The Ph.D. program concentrates on literary, critical and historical research and welcomes graduate students from other humanities departments.

Medieval and Renaissance Studies Programs
Programs designed to bring together faculty members and students from various disciplines that are concerned with the Middle ages and Renaissance. Both programs provide an opportunity for the kind of boundary crossing that is an important part of much current work in the humanities. The programs sponsor lectures, faculty and student colloquia and occasional interdisciplinary courses that enhance graduate study.

Davidson Library
UCSB’s major research facility. As a member of the Association of Research Libraries, it participates in cooperative programs and policy development with other major research libraries to provide collections and services for the UCSB community. The library has over two million books and bound journals and is linked by computer to the University of California’s entire collection, which includes over twenty-three million volumes. The UCSB collection grows by about fifty-thousand volumes annually. CD-ROM is available for free researching of MLA bibliographies, Dissertation Abstracts International and other sources. Researchers may request on-line searches in such data bases as MLA’s complete on-line files and The Arts and Humanities Citation Index. The Interlibrary Loan Service offers computerized access to research materials and is linked to libraries around the world. Faculty and students may also utilize MELVYL, an on-line catalogue for holdings of the entire UC System, and the library’s Research Consultation Service, which provides individual consultation for complicated research problems.

Library: Department of Special Collections:
The Department of Special Collections collects, maintains and makes accessible rare, valuable and unique materials which support UCSB students, faculty and research programs, as well as the local national and international scholarly community. Special Collections acquires materials by gift, transfer and purchase, in accordance with general library procedures. The department’s holdings are non-circulating but are available for research in the reading room during posted hours. http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/

Division of Humanities and Fine Arts
Ranging from traditional areas that have been at the heart of a liberal arts education for thousands of years (such as Classics, History, and Philosophy) to programs that are redefining the university in the 21st Century (such as Media Arts and Technology and Film Studies) the arts and humanities at UCSB represent both the past and the future. The Division of Humanities and Fine Arts includes a broad spectrum of languages and literatures, as well as the performing and visual arts. Our departments and interdisciplinary programs focus on the intellectual, historical, and artistic traditions of cultures throughout the world and the modes of expressions and representation that have given them voice and form. Building on this foundation, the arts and humanities are responding to the cultural changes that must be engaged in the university and in a global society of the 21st century.

For information on Arts and Lectures Program, Computer Resources, Counseling and Career Services, Special Services Program, Veteran’s Support Services, University Art Museum, University Children’s Center and other university resources, visit UCSB’s campus home page at www.ucsb.edu.