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Telling stories about books by campus scholars

fighters raising their arms and waving a flag
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Book cover detail for "When Rebels Win" by Kai Thaler (Cornell University Press, 2025).

Why some rebel victories build states — and others break them

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Two students look at the UCSB Reads book exhibition
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Courtesy UCSB Library
The university’s award-winning common book program is the focus of "Creating Community Through Books: 20 Years of UCSB Reads," on display until Dec. 11.

New library exhibition celebrates 20th anniversary of UCSB Reads
color photographic portrait of writer julissa arce

Mexican-American Dreamer Julissa Arce wins Luis Leal literary award
book shelves in library
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Jeff Liang

How books helped make computers mainstream
Older woman with grey hair and blue coat sits outside rustic building
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Elana Resnick
Baka, a waste collector, at home.

How Europe’s green transition is reinforcing racial inequality
color photograph of professor Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky
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Matt Perko
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, December 2024

A feat of multilingual research, Hamed-Troyansky’s “Empire of Refugees” wins eight book prizes
black and white image of an older person's face
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Courtesy Image

Michael Gurven reframes aging as evolutionary success
bloody face man holding mask and shovel
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Detail of "Queer Traffic" book cover with art by Lechevirgen Trimegisto

Free trade, moral panic and the politics of belonging
Headshot of Paul Leonardi next to cover of his book, "Digital Exhaustion."
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Courtesy UCSB Engineering
Paul Leonardi

In ‘Digital Exhaustion,’ Paul Leonardi shares how to make technology work for you
color portrait of poet robert krut with his new book

Poet Robert Krut on the oblivion between tectonic plates
close up of woman at beach
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Courtesy
Detail, book cover for "Unfaithful: A Translator's Memoir" by Suzanne Jill Levine, Bloomsbury, 2025

New memoir explores the art of translation and Latin American literature
A hotshot in an orange hardhat, yellow Nomex jacket and sunglasses glances to the right backlit by an inferno engulfing the pines a few dozen yards behind him, with the book cover to the right.
Photo Credit
Jordan Thomas/ Penguin Publishing Group
Centuries of misguided policy, politics and prejudice have primed the land for the unprecedented infernos that wildland firefighters now face every year.

Hotshots, history and the human choices behind megafires
water color painting of small boats arriving to shore
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Courtesy
Illustration by Ishtar Bäcklund Dakhil for Mona Damluji's “I Want You to Know."

A mother’s poem becomes a book about displacement, resilience
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