Giving

The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz is a collaborative research hub with a strong public mission. We take a bold approach to incubating new ideas, supporting faculty and student research, working across disciplines, and sharing what this yields with the public through creative and vibrant programming.
Join us. Invest in our work fostering excellence in faculty research and public events. Invest directly in the success of our students through research fellowships that lend vital support to their studies. And learn how gifts to our endowment can ensure that The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz remain an essential public good for future generations.

Support Our Work

Invest in our most vital interdisciplinary projects, and we’ll leverage your support to garner additional public and private funds. We have a proven track record accelerating faculty and student research, and bringing stimulating public events to our community.

Give Now

“My struggles growing up as a Chinese-Vietnamese American helped drive home the concept that History and the Humanities are incredibly relevant in the modern era, where STEM seems to reign supreme.”


Robert Potmesil, Humanities Institute Undergraduate Research Fellow 2017-18,  Bertha N. Melkonian Prize recipient

“How are you going to create a different way of living in the world, a more loving and generous way of being in the world, if you can’t imagine what that might look like?”


Sandra Harvey, Graduate Research Fellow 2016-17

Support Our Students

Be a part of the Institute’s mission of giving bright and curious minds access to the resources they need to become tomorrow’s thought leaders. By supporting our students, you will invest in a new generation of critical thinkers, change-makers, and public influencers. Gifts to the following fellowships provide graduate and undergraduate students with much needed time and funds to pursue their research and exercise leadership in the humanities both within the university and in the public sphere.

  • Undergraduate Experiential Learning Fellowships

    Undergraduate Experiential Learning Fellowships empower undergraduates to have immersive, in-depth, hands-on learning experiences—locally, nationally, and internationally and enable them to bridge the gap between theory and practice to prepare them for a range of careers.

    Give Now

    Undergraduate Research Fellowships

    Sponsor undergraduate research in the humanities. Your gift to this endowment fund will empower and enable undergraduates to dive into their chosen research project. Up to 10 awards in the amount of $500 each are given every year.

    Give Now

    First Generation Fellowships

    Join The Humanities Institute and the UC Santa Cruz campus in their effort to celebrate and promote first generation students. First Generation Fellowships allow students who are the first in their immediate families to attend college to pursue their passion for research in the humanities.

    Give Now

  • Graduate Student Fellowship Fund

    With your support, The Humanities Institute is able to provide funding to graduate students throughout their graduate career at UC Santa Cruz. Graduate Research Fellowships provide grad students funding to complete their research as well as the needed time to focus on their research and to write their dissertation. This fund also provides support to our Public Fellows Program, which gives humanities doctoral students opportunities to contribute to research, programming, communications and fundraising at non-profit organizations, cultural institutions, or companies, allowing them to apply and expand their skills in a non-academic setting while engaged in graduate study.

    Give Now

Support The Humanities Institute’s Endowment

Your gift to this fund will have the deepest impact: securing a future in which The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz continues to pioneer interdisciplinary scholarship that has been its hallmark since the founding of the university. Your support will enable The Humanities Institute’s essential programs like undergraduate and graduate student research projects, visiting scholars, faculty research, and humanities in the public sphere.

Contact Senior Director of Development, Cari Napoles, at cmnapole@ucsc.edu for any questions or to discuss your gift to The Humanities Institute.

Give Now