News

Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in America (2/25)

This talk will survey the fields of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in America from their origins to the present. It will consider the ways in which they intersect and how they are distinct. How does the relationship between these separate yet related fields play out across higher education, particularly at public universities? Drawing on archival research, surveys, and comparisons with the current state of ethnic and area studies, this talk explores the roles Jewish Studies and Israel Studies have played and continue to play on campus.

Kaleidoscope: Pluralism, White Supremacy, and American Religious History, with Catherine L. Albanese (2/21)

This talk will use Albanese's forthcoming book Kaleidoscope to reflect retrospectively on her work as a historian of American religion. Charged in graduate school with the question "How do you dream America?" Albanese sketches out the golden futures and the nightmares that are intrinsic to the challenge. Especially, she focuses on the collision between on-the-ground pluralism and an ideology of white supremacy that has always thrived concurrently.  

Religion's Love Language - William Robert (2/18)

Why does love so often push language to its limits? And what might this love-language problem have to do with religion? This talk responds to these questions in conversation with premodern Catholic mystical traditions.

William Robert is UCSB's 2025–26 J.E. and Lilian Byrne Tipton Distinguished Visiting Professor in Catholic Studies. Robert is also a professor of Religion at Syracuse University and author of the award-winning Unbridled: Studying Religion in Performance (The University of Chicago Press, 2022).

Professor Pérez wins River Heron Editors' Prize for her poem "Independence Night"

The department is pleased to announce that Dr. Elizabeth Pérez received the River Heron Editors' Prize for her poem "Independence Night." Dr. Pérez based this poem on the true story of her father's flight from Cuba and dedicated it here to immigrants and those advocating for them.

(Feb. 4) Luis Leal Award Ceremony with bestselling author Julissa Arce

The Walter H. Capps Center is pleased to co-sponsor the 2026 Luis Leal Award Ceremony for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature with Julissa Arce, bestselling author of My (Underground) American Dream: My True Story as an Undocumented Immigrant Who Became a Wall Street Executive (2016); Someone Like Me: How One Undocumented Girl Fought for Her American Dream (2018); and You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation (2022). Arce is an author, producer, public speaker, and former Goldman Sachs vice president.

(Jan. 21) Healing Together: Refugees, Immigrants, and Mental Health

The Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) is a humanist, feminist, trauma-informed community mental health center devoted to supporting refugees and immigrants as they rebuild their lives with dignity, strength, and renewed possibility. In this talk, Mona Afary will discuss how healing unfolds in community through connection and shared humanity. CERI provides spaces where refugees and immigrants can speak their truth, mourn what has been lost, witness their own resilience reflected in others, and celebrate the empowerment that comes from being seen and valued.

(Jan. 12) A Legal Sanctuary: Religious Freedom Laws and Immigration Enforcement

This talk will discuss how organizations and individuals have relied on religious freedom protections to assist immigrants. The landscape around legal protections for religious exercise has changed significantly since the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. This talk examines recent and ongoing litigation at the intersection of religious freedom, humanitarian assistance, immigration raids, and protests.

Allan Grapard - In Memoriam

Allan Grapard, professor emeritus of Japanese religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the inaugural holder of the International Shinto Foundation Chair in Shinto Studies, passed away on December 8 in his beloved Hawai‘i. He was among the most influential scholars of Japanese religious history over the last half century.