The Arts Research Institute
What we do
Artists create meaning, solve problems, and challenge expectations. The Arts Research Institute at UC Santa Cruz supports UC faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students involved in creative research, scholarship, and publicly-engaged practice. We are particularly interested in fostering critical interdisciplinary collaborations that reach across disciplines and genres and engage a broad range of off-campus partners, organizations, and communities. We are committed to supporting the diverse artists and scholars of our campus in an environment of respect, support, innovation, and exploration.
We do this by building and supporting Arts Division research initiatives, coordinating and managing strategic planning and fundraising to elevate the visibility of the arts, placing equity and inclusion at the center of our work, coordinating cross-divisional, multi-campus, and national arts research collaborations, administering the ARI faculty grant program.
Who we are
ARI Staff
Dee Hibbert-Jones —Faculty Director
Hannah Jasper —Research Development Analyst
Dr. Holly E. Unruh —Executive Director
Eric Sneathen —Research Development, graduate students
ARI Executive Committee
Elisabeth Cameron —Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture (2020-23)
Kate Edmunds —Professor of Theater Arts (2020-23)
Nicol Hammond —Assistant Professor of Cultural Musicology (2021-24)
John Jota Leaños* —Professor of Film & Digital Media (2020-23)