Welcome to the Walter H. Capps Center
Greetings for the new academic year from the Capps Center!
We are eager to welcome students and community members back to campus, including new cohorts of Mendell Fellows and McCune Interns.
It is my great pleasure to announce two major staffing additions to the Capps Center.
· First, as of September 1st we have a new Associate Director, Dr. Dusty Hoesly. Having completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at UCSB under Wade Clark Roof in 2018, Dusty has considerable familiarity with the history and ethos of the Capps Center. He possesses a wide skill set and an active scholarly profile that articulates well with our mandate. I look forward to working with Dusty to build community and advance the initiatives of the Capps Center.
· Second, I am pleased to introduce Dr. Adrián Flores, who joins us for a two-year postdoctoral appointment as an ACLS Emerging Voices fellow. Dr. Flores received his Ph.D. in Gender and Women’s Studies from University of Arizona in 2020 before moving to UCLA for a President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Flores’s research focuses on suicide studies and other topics concerning race, gender, sexuality, and healthcare. In addition to facilitating programing, teaching, and conducting his research, Dr. Flores will be a contributor to the Medical Humanities Initiative at UCSB during his time with us.
This Fall Quarter the Capps Center is delighted to host three events, all of which center on newly released books of interest to our community. Please check our events page for more details. Our schedule begins on October 7th with a symposium co-sponsored by the Humanities and Social Change Center and the Department of Religious Studies in honor of our colleague and Advisory Board member Joseph Blankholm’s book, The Secular Paradox: On the Religiosity of the Not Religious. On October 28th we are again co-sponsoring an event with the Humanities and Social Change Center and the Department of Religious Studies, welcoming Mona Oraby (Howard University) to campus to discuss her book, A Universe of Terms: Religion in Visual Metaphor. Finally, on November 16th we will be hosting Erica Gies, a journalist who covers science and the environment, for our Ethics Forum. She will speak about her book, Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge. These events are planned to be in-person. We hope to see you!
Sincerely,
Greg Johnson
