The Interdisciplinary Humanities Center offers awards of up to $1,000 to support an innovative project in the visual, performing, and media arts that engages creatively with issues of interdisciplinary concern. The competition is open to faculty and graduate students. Both individual and collaborative projects are eligible. Click here for more information about visual, performing, and media arts awards.
The following lists winners by award date:
Winter 2024 Award Winners
Alexandra Birch, History: “‘This is Saamiland’ – Reimagining the Gulag on Solovki”
Ramsha Usman, Anthropology: “The labor of being ‘able’: Injury and Disability in Pakistan’s Special Economic Zones”
Winter 2023 Award Winners
Alexandra Birch, History, “GULAGSound: A Rediscovered Concerto for Ukraine”
Dozandri Mendoza, Linguistics, “Ball de Palabreo”
Alison Williams, Writing Program, “Wildlife Salvage Permit”
Winter 2022 Award Winners
Alexandra Birch, Music and History, “Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin”
Cathy Thomas, English, “Echolocating the Caribbean Diaspora”
Winter 2021 Award Winners
Sihwa Park, Media Arts and Technology, “A Study on Cross-modal Generative Modeling for Visual Music”
Lydia Borowicz, Theater and Dance, “Climate Change Theatre Action”
Yan Liu, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, “Hong Kong at the Crossroads”
Gehad Abaza, Anthropology, “Making Homes in the ‘Non-Existent’: Syrian War-Time Migration to Abkhazia”
2019–20 VPMA Projects
Heena Yoon, Music, “B”
Jungah Son, Media Arts and Technology, “Reconstruction of Kandinsky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus”
2018–19 VPMA Project
Marshall Sharpe, Art, “Memory, Nostalgia, and Privilege in the South”
Maiza Hixson, Art, “CHIMERA”
Jimmy Miracle, Art, “INSIDE”
2017–18 VPMA Project
Alesha Claveria, Moving the “Body Indian”: Creating Space for Native American Theater at UCSB
2016–17 VPMA Project
Scott Slade Wagner, Art, An Historically Colorful Mirror
2015–16 VPMA Projects
Peter Romaskiewicz, Religious Studies, Encountering a Buddha: An Early History of Buddhist Imagery in Mass Media
Emily C. Thomas, Art, Infinite Human Night Light
Shannon Willis, Art; Tim Wood, Media Arts and Technology, Quantum Love Story
2014–15 VPMA Projects
Jeff Mills, Theater and Dance, La La LaStrada
Pablo Colapinto, Media Art and Technology, Motion Structures: 3D Printed Studies in Bioconstructivism
2013–14 VPMA Project
Sienna Cordoba, History; Warren Taylor, Materials Research Lab; Secret Texts
2012–13 VPMA Projects
Xarene Eskandar, Media Arts & Technology; SoundCloud
David Gordon, Music, Kon-Hyong Kim, Media Arts & Technology; SoundGene
Solen Kiratli DiCicco, Media Arts & Technology; Soundfield
2011–12 VPMA Projects
Desiree D’Alessandro, Art, Spectatorship in Art and Athleticism: The Form and Physicality of Boxing
Marco Pinter, Media Arts and Technology, Fragmented Reality: Perceptual Art at the Intersection of Sculpture, Dance, Media and Technology
2010–11 VPMA Projects
Stephanie L. Batiste, English/Black Studies, Stacks of Obits: a choreopoem
Deborah Spivak, Art History, Taylor and Mathias Film Archive: Ethnographic Study of South American Medicines
Raymond Uhlir, Art, The Tumulus, The Allegorical, and Sacred Space
2009–10 VPMA Projects
Salman Bakht, Media Arts and Technology (MAT), Christopher Jette, Music Department, Lovely Weather
Elizabeth Folk, Art, Pedestal Cafe
Julianne P. Gavino, History of Art and Architecture, Local Sitings/Global Inscriptions: the Public Life of Posters in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Manilatown, and Japantown
2008–09 VPMA Projects
Christopher Pilafian, Nancy Colahan, Gianna Abondolo, Melissa Ullom, Theater & Dance, Anemone
Alejandro Casazi, Harry Reese, Art Studio, Lungen
Graham Wakefield, Haru Ji, MAT, Artificial Nature as an Infinite Game
2007–08 VPMA Project
Beth Wynstra, Theater and Dance, Nuestra Voz
2006–07 VPMA Projects
Lisa Jevbratt, Art and MAT, Anne-Marie Hansen, Art and MAT, Dan Overholt, Art and MAT for Pulse
Jenn Figg, Art Department for Garden of Murmurs
John Thompson, Music Department, Dan Overholt, MAT for Sonofusion
2005–06 VPMA Projects
Naomi Iizuka, Dramatic Art and Dance, for the Summer Theatre Lab panel discussions
Stephanie Nugent, Dramatic Art and Dance, for Hanging Outside the House, a collaborative dance piece later retitled One
2004–05 VPMA Projects
Naomi Iizuka, Dramatic Art and Dance, for the Summer Theatre Lab panel discussions
Celine Shimizu, Asian American Studies, for the experimental documentary film Birthright