As the theater faculty at fictional Riverbottom College brainstorm ways to shore up their department’s faltering budget, some interesting proposals emerge. These include issuing a departmental meme coin, creating a faculty boudoir calendar, and selling blood plasma. “You get $85 for plasma if you’re over 175 pounds,” says Burt (...

More than four years after Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been several developments in Ukraine's favor. President Trump, who has vacilated on his support of Ukraine, said he would sell Patriot missile technology to Ukraine. Ukraine has started an effective strategy of targeting fuel tankers Russia relies on to supply...

In a black-box theater with dark walls, bright lights, and an empty stage, student actors relied solely on their voices and expressions to bring a series of 10-minute plays to life at UC Riverside's 19th Playworks event. Covering topics ranging from the impacts of ICE and AI to experiences with...

For more than 30 years, there have been episodic, gloomy reports about the fate of social security. And politicians have broached this “third rail” of the American political landscape with great trepidation. Recent reports are sounding the alarms again, with Social Security trustees saying that, by 2032, 30% of Americans...

A new exhibition at a Mississippi arts and cultural center explores the work of UC Riverside professor John Jennings in centering Black characters in graphic novels. “John Jennings: Build Your World,” an immersive display of four of Jennings’ projects, opened June 20 at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, or...

Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober, a former UCR graduate student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the...

A roundup of commencement must-knows for graduating students and their families.

In March, “Golden” from the film “KPop Demon Hunters” became the first K-Pop song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. Celebrating that moment at the 98th Academy Awards was DaEun Jung, a UC Riverside assistant professor of dance, who participated in a live performance of “Golden” as a...

This month, thousands of Highlanders will cross the stage at UC Riverside’s 72nd Commencement. While they will celebrate as one class, each arrived at this milestone through a distinct journey. Here, nine graduating seniors share stories that defined their UCR experience. Standing atop the campus’s iconic stretch of lush green...

The numbers are startling. Chronic illnesses afflict an estimated 129 million Americans and cause roughly 70% of all deaths nationwide. Of the more than $4 trillion spent each year on healthcare in the United States, 90% is incurred by people with chronic and mental health conditions. These statistics and many...

A spirited new multimedia exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution tells the story of salsa with the help of a UC Riverside associate professor of music. Xóchitl Chávez contributed research and writing about the genre’s history, luminaries, and cultural influence to the curation of “ ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of...

UC Riverside faculty and alumni authors are set to appear at the 31st annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest book festival in the country, which runs April 18-19. For the second year in a row, UCR’s Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA Program is sponsoring the festival, which takes...

UC Riverside’s annual festival of prose and poetry kicks off May 5 and runs through May 8 with a diverse slate of presenters, including several of today’s most distinguished authors. Writers Week, California’s longest-running free literary festival, marks its 49th year with readings by 11 fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and...

UCR professors Jennifer Nájera and Catherine Gudis provide thoughts on how we should assess and recognize the contributions César Chávez made to the farmworkers’ movement in light of the allegations against him.

The Wong family pays tribute to their parents by establishing an endowment to support AAPI programming at UCR ARTS.

In a new book, sociologist Brandon Andrew Robinson calls for abolishing sexual identities. Robinson, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at UC Riverside, knows it’s a provocative thesis.

Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times political columnist and a provocative voice on social media, will be the speaker for the 2026 Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture at UC Riverside. The talk, “What’s the Matter with American Democracy?” will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2 at the University...

What is the secret of happiness? Sonja Lyubomirsky, a distinguished professor of psychology at UC Riverside, used to dread that question; she considered it reductive. As a leading expert on the science of happiness, however, it was an occupational hazard, and she would answer it by explaining that there are...

A teacher-incentive program in South Carolina has led to striking long-term benefits for students, including lower rates of felony arrest and reduced reliance on government assistance in early adulthood, a new study reports. Ozkan Eren, a professor of economics at UC Riverside, co-authored the study with colleagues at the University...

With Venezuela in the thrall of U.S. oil demands and Cuba confronting massive fuel shortages due to an American blockade, the two countries face a more uncertain future than at any time since becoming close allies at the start of the 21st century. We turned to David Pion-Berlin, a distinguished...