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Society + Culture

color photographic portrait of professor Joseph Blankholm
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Religious studies associate professor Joseph Blankholm, November 2025

$1.5 million grant advances UCSB leadership in the study of modern spirituality

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A 3D render of team communication and abstract social network connection symbols with a hand in the background.
Photo Credit
Wirestock via iStock

Advanced mortality modeling earns UCSB team international actuarial prize
A log cabin sits amid a pine grove in the late afternoon light.
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
The Old Valentine Cabin has been hosting visitors to Mammoth for over 100 years.

Historic cabins from the early days of Mammoth now serve scientists and students
book cover art of many Asian men coming out of a door down a rainbow
Photo Credit
Top Shelf Productions
Book cover art for “It Rhymes with Takei,” illustrated by Harmony Becker

Star Trek actor George Takei and coming out in 2005
US map breaking apart
Photo Credit
iStock

Could America break apart? UCSB expert explores the possibility
Five Black men in different uniforms and non uniformed dress are in a group talking
Photo Credit
UN Photos
UN peacekeepers and members of the Malian military discuss outbreaks of violence with village residents in Mopti, Mali.

Trust in peacekeepers linked to reduced violence
Courtney Wright
Photo Credit
Courtesy

Commencement speaker Courtney Wright reflects on a transformative journey
people in India working on top of large bags of waste
Photo Credit
Dana Kornberg
Workers in India's waste economy

Race and caste capitalism: Who gets access to status and wealth?
A set of hands holding up champagne flutes in a cheers at night
Photo Credit
iStock

Alcohol marketing ushered in a golden age of drinking in America
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Pete Buttigieg to speak at Arlington Theatre; free simulcast for UCSB students on campus
Christopher Parker, Black man with yellow background and abstract effect
Photo Credit
Photo illustration by Matt Perko
Carnegie Fellow Christopher Parker, a UCSB political science professor, researches how polarization affects communities of color.

Political scientist Christopher Parker named a Carnegie Fellow
A women sitting in a red vinyl booth inside a diner
Photo Credit
Courtesy Jason Lapeyre
Nori Muster was a devotee of the Hare Krishna movement of the 1970s and 1980s

Seeking inner peace, finding moral rot
Two adults facing each other, surrounded by yellow flowers
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
The sum total of our daily communication comprises our “social biomes.”

Improve your life by embracing everyday, even mundane, conversations? Research says yes.
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