Working Groups and Clusters

• The Science & Justice Working Group

Science & Justice brings together faculty and graduate students from all five academic divisions on the UC Santa Cruz campus to collaboratively address common problems. As science and technology increasingly shape our lives, the Science & Justice community generates modes of inquiry and empirically rigorous research that can enable a diversity of livable technoscientific worlds. To this end, over the course of the last six years, the University of California Santa Cruz has formed an innovative initiative in Science & Justice funded by the University and the U.S. National Science Foundation that is increasingly recognized nationally and internationally for its leading role in developing these new forms of inquiry and action at the intersection of science and society. The initiative builds on the UCSC campus' historic commitments to social justice and strengths in science studies and interdisciplinary research.

• Affect Working Group

The Affect Working Group brings together faculty and graduate students from across the University who are interested in the felt dimensions of social life. Themes that participants are currently addressing include: how race is lived now; the conditions of possibility for political hope and despair; and the affective dimensions of computer games.   

• Urban Studies Research Cluster

The Urban Studies Research Cluster formed in 2007 to provide a home for faculty and graduate students to explore the urban dimension of their research, engage with emerging approaches in the field of urban studies, and address pressing urban issues, both locally and globally.  In particular, we engage with three sub-areas that draw on research strengths at UCSC: urban cultural studies, urban environmental studies, and space and social justice. The cluster also aims to provide a fruitful space for urbanists of all stripes -faculty and students, artists and activists, planners, policy makers, and local residents- to come together, share ideas, and collaborate.  We do this through monthly meetings, a speaker series, and campus-wide events.

• International Development Research Cluster

The International Development Research Group (IDRG) provides a bi-weekly forum open to faculty and students from all disciplines for an in-depth discussion of issues in development theories and practices. Our sessions center around members’ own research, close readings of selected texts, and presentations from invited guests. As a transdisciplinary research group, we value the differing perspectives and experiences of development of our participant scholars who belong to various disciplines including economics, environmental studies, sociology, social psychology, engineering and anthropology. We envision the cluster as a space to workshop papers and presentations, collectively draft articles, share new readings and debate theories and practices of development.