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If you are planning to submit applications in the coming months (with some deadlines in April, May, and June) we are here to help you write your application essays. This quarter is the start of the medical and health professional application cycle, so we are ready to assist you with the essays required for these kinds of applications.

The Buscadores Program is here to help you with all the writing components of your applications. Our support is continuous throughout the quarter. Specifically, we can assist you in developing critical application essays through our "Where-to-Start" Workshop Series, "Ask-me-Anything" Writing Labs, and 1:1 Consultations curated to fit your specific writing needs. In-person and online support are available.

HOW WE HELP:

We provide immediate access to an experienced team of University Writing Program Mentors who can help you develop and revise grad/med/professional school essay applications.Your mentors can guide you through any stage of the writing process in curated 1:1 Sessions or Ask-Me-Anything Writing Lab Communities.Simply exploring the potential of graduate school? Wondering how to ask for letters of recommendation at this crucial time? We can help you get started through our workshop series.Contact us if you have any questions. We are here for you. If you are interested in signing up for our workshops, writing labs, or 1:1 consultations, fill out this RSVP SIGN-UP FORM.

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View on site | Email this event

They can help with the following:

RegistrationQuestions about your degree auditCampus ResourcesGeneral questions you may have*You do not need to be in CHASS

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Our guest speakers will discuss the diverse career paths within education, government, and nonprofit work. This session is designed to provide you with a "behind-the-scenes" look at how these organizations operate, the tangible impact they have on communities, and exclusive insight into their application and selection processes.

Featured Organizations & Opportunities:

Inland Regional Energy Network (I-REN)

I-REN is a partnership based on a shared belief in saving energy and increasing equity for residents, businesses, and local governments throughout San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. They offer fellowships in the clean energy field that are open to all majors. Their opportunities are an amazing entry point for a growing and progressive industry.

Islamic Scholarship Fund (ISF):

ISF increases American Muslim representation in media and government to improve public policy and public opinion. ISF believes that the interests of the community can only be protected if we are part of the policy-making process. ISF scholars and alumni across the country and world are ensuring our voices are heard.

City Year:

City Year is built for those who want to see the immediate results of their service. As a Student Success Coach, you will work in high-need schools to provide academic and social-emotional support. This opportunity allows you to directly impact the trajectory of students' lives and strengthen the community fabric in cities across the country.

USC College Advising Corps:

If you are interested in a future in academia or student affairs, this program is the perfect place to start a career in higher education advising. You will be trained to serve as a full-time College Adviser in high schools, helping first-generation and low-income students navigate the path to university—a critical role in closing the educational equity gap.

Event Highlights:

Application Guidance: Panelists will provide specific tips on how to make your application stand out for their 2026 cohorts.

Career Roadmaps: Learn how a service year or fellowship can serve as a launchpad for long-term careers in law, public policy, and education.

Q&A Session: Engage directly with recruiters to get your specific questions answered.

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This talk begins by thinking with Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved, and her notion of a “too thick” love. Too thick feeling is a racially gendered problem for affect theory, one that not only exposes the latter's residual humanisms but that opens onto the possibility of thinking with the minor affective registers of Black existence. Highlighting the conjunction between Black critiques of humanism and those repertoires of wayward feeling that subtend Black existence, this talk argues that too thick feeling moves us through the undertheorized racially gendered declensions and transfigurations within registers of feeling such as slowness, exhaustion, bitterness, and perseverance. Moving between Beloved and Charles Burnett's 1978 film Killer of Sheep, this talk suggests that this indeterminate genre of feeling emerges precisely through its immanent exposure to and subjection before an anti-Black world that demands but cannot abide its intelligibility.

Rizvana Bradley is Associate Professor of Film and Media and Affiliated Faculty in the History of Art and the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley. Bradley has been named the John Grace Memorial Philosopher in Residence at the University of British Columbia. She was the 2023–24 Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Bradley is the author of Anteaesthetics: Black Aesthesis and the Critique of Form (Stanford University Press, 2023), shortlisted for the 2024 MLA Prize for a First Book and named one of the Top Books of 2023 by FRIEZE. The book was a recipient of the Creative Capital Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Bradley’s work examines modern and contemporary art, film and digital media, and literature through critical interrogations of aesthetic theory, Continental philosophy, and art history in order to rethink the stakes of and methods for the interpretation of aesthetic forms.

Her scholarship has appeared in Diacritics: A Review of Contemporary Criticism, Film-Philosophy, TDR: The Drama Review, Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture, Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, Black Camera: An International Film Journal, Film Quarterly, and Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. She serves on the advisory boards of October and Camera Obscura. Bradley’s art criticism has been published in The Yale Review, Artforum, e-flux, Art in America, and Parkett, as well as numerous exhibition catalogs, including for the Serpentine Galleries, the New Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, and the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Her work has been translated into four languages.

Bradley has curated a number of academic arts symposia, including events at the British Film Institute, London, the Serpentine Galleries, London, the Stedelijk Museum of Art, Amsterdam, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.

Her work has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Creative Capital, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2025, Bradley delivered the annual J. Fred Weintz and Rosemary Weintz Lecture in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. She has been invited to give keynotes at the Documenta Institut, Jeu de Paume, Kunstmuseum Basel, the University of Amsterdam, Rhode Island School of Design, Tate Britain, Modern Art Oxford, Utrecht University, and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. Bradley has also served as a visiting critic at the Yale School of Art, the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford, and was most recently a critic and theorist in residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is on the advisory board of the Centre for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto.

Before coming to UC Berkeley, Bradley was an Assistant Professor in the History of Art and African American Studies at Yale, an Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality at Emory University, and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of the History of Art at the University College London. She holds a BA from Williams College and a PhD from Duke University, and was a Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Rizvana Bradley’s participation in “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion” was co-curated and co-coordinated by Erika Villeroy da Costa & María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Department of Dance.

Part of “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion”

Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series: January 08 - March 12, 2026

– María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Curator & Coordinator

Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion was made possible through generous sponsorships from the California Center for Native Nations; the Rupert Costo Endowment in American Indian Affairs, University of California, Riverside; the CHASS Dean's Office and the Center for Ideas and Society; and the Departments of Music, Ethnic Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Media & Cultural Studies.

Many thanks to: taisha paggett (Department of Dance, Chairperson), Anthea Kraut (Department of Dance, Vice-Chair), Courtney Brubaker (Events Specialist), and Pete Pace (Technical Director) for their generous support of the Colloquium, and to Jonathan Ritter (Department of Music, Chairperson) and María del Rosario Acosta López (Professor, Hispanic Studies Department) for their vision and collaboration.

For Accessibility and Accommodations, contact mariafc@ucr.edu

Photo credits: Photo of Rizvana Bradley by Cassidy DuHon.

Parking Information

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Step 3: If the plate is non-California, select the appropriate state for the plate.

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Session Date/Time: Friday, February 6th., 2026 from 12-1pm

“Sonic Pedagogy: Lessons from Sacred Music Therapy” series Dates/Times:

Session 1: "Body as Instrument – Arrival & Awareness" - Offered TWICE: Fri., Feb. 13, 2026, 12-1PM AND Fri., March 6, 2026 12-1PMRecognise how nervous system state shapes attention, perception, and response before conscious thoughtDevelop embodied awareness through sound, breath, and listening to establish physiological safety and baseline regulationExperience the body as an instrument of regulation rather than a site of effort or control.Session 2: "Stillness as Skill" - Fri., Feb. 20, 2026, 12-1PMCultivate stillness as an active regulatory capacity that supports focus, clarity, and non-reactivityStrengthen the ability to pause under pressure without loss of authority, momentum, or presenceApply stillness as a practical tool for cognitive reset, decision-making, and emotional regulationSession 3: "Integration & Embodied Leadership" - Fri., Feb. 27, 2026, 12-1PMIntegrate sonic and somatic regulation practices into everyday leadership, teaching, and communication contextsDemonstrate embodied authority through regulated presence, tone, and pacing rather than force or performanceSustain self-governed regulation to support ethical decision-making, resilience, and long-term capacity

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This collaboration will bring brilliant minds and tantalizing beverages together for a night of education and indulgence.

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This panel will bring together experts on housing, energy, and government innovation to explore how we can achieve an abundant world through building enough clean power, affordable homes, and strengthening the public sector’s ability to deliver results.

Sara Mogulescu, President of the Volcker Alliance
Liza Reed, Director of Climate Policy at the Niskanen Center
Alec Stapp, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at the Institute for Progress

Moderated by Mark Long, Dean of the UCR School of Public Policy.

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If you are planning to submit applications in the coming months (with some deadlines in April, May, and June) we are here to help you write your application essays. This quarter is the start of the medical and health professional application cycle, so we are ready to assist you with the essays required for these kinds of applications.

The Buscadores Program is here to help you with all the writing components of your applications. Our support is continuous throughout the quarter. Specifically, we can assist you in developing critical application essays through our "Where-to-Start" Workshop Series, "Ask-me-Anything" Writing Labs, and 1:1 Consultations curated to fit your specific writing needs. In-person and online support are available.

HOW WE HELP:

We provide immediate access to an experienced team of University Writing Program Mentors who can help you develop and revise grad/med/professional school essay applications.Your mentors can guide you through any stage of the writing process in curated 1:1 Sessions or Ask-Me-Anything Writing Lab Communities.Simply exploring the potential of graduate school? Wondering how to ask for letters of recommendation at this crucial time? We can help you get started through our workshop series.Contact us if you have any questions. We are here for you. If you are interested in signing up for our workshops, writing labs, or 1:1 consultations, fill out this RSVP SIGN-UP FORM.

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Facilitated by Graduate Writing Center staff, each Writing Circle will begin with a check-in for participants to set goals, followed by dedicated time for writing. During this writing time, participants should primarily be focused on their own writing. At the end of each session, participants will discuss together both roadblocks and successes from the writing session, share resources, and set writing goals for the next week.

Winter 2026

Tuesdays from Week 2 to Week 10

When: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Where: On Campus and Zoom (You must be logged in with your UCR NetID credentials)

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

If you are planning to submit applications in the coming months (with some deadlines in April, May, and June) we are here to help you write your application essays. This quarter is the start of the medical and health professional application cycle, so we are ready to assist you with the essays required for these kinds of applications.

The Buscadores Program is here to help you with all the writing components of your applications. Our support is continuous throughout the quarter. Specifically, we can assist you in developing critical application essays through our "Where-to-Start" Workshop Series, "Ask-me-Anything" Writing Labs, and 1:1 Consultations curated to fit your specific writing needs. In-person and online support are available.

HOW WE HELP:

We provide immediate access to an experienced team of University Writing Program Mentors who can help you develop and revise grad/med/professional school essay applications.Your mentors can guide you through any stage of the writing process in curated 1:1 Sessions or Ask-Me-Anything Writing Lab Communities.Simply exploring the potential of graduate school? Wondering how to ask for letters of recommendation at this crucial time? We can help you get started through our workshop series.Contact us if you have any questions. We are here for you. If you are interested in signing up for our workshops, writing labs, or 1:1 consultations, fill out this RSVP SIGN-UP FORM.

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The event will kick off with an industry panel featuring professionals from diverse work environments—including traditional professional, business casual, and creative or casual workplaces—who will share real-world insights on attire expectations, common mistakes students make, and how dress can differ based on role, company culture, and career stage.

After the panel, students will rotate through interactive stations staffed by employers, stylists, the R'Professional Career Closet, and the Career Center offering hands-on guidance, measurements, and resources you can use immediately.

This is a highly interactive event—come ready to ask questions, explore your style, and build confidence in how you show up professionally.

What You’ll Learn:

Differences between professional, business casual, and casual dress codesCommon attire mistakes and how to avoid themHow fit, tailoring, and small details make a big impactWays to express your personality while remaining professionalNon-verbal presentation tips that strengthen first impressions

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Please refer to the official schedule of speakers here: https://neuro.ucr.edu/seminars

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Learn about what makes the MPP program unique through its curriculum, faculty, experiential learning and research. Register now to learn more about the Master of Public Policy program at UC Riverside and for an exclusive opportunity to get your application fee waived.

Applications for fall 2026 are now being accepted.

Please note, registrants will receive Zoom link prior to the event.

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Lilian Mengesha

This talk will detail insights from Dr. Mengesha’s new book Critical Dreaming: Feminist Performances Across the Indigenous Americas, which is a transnational study of Indigenous artists that stages the urgency of embodied ways of knowing amidst the colonial decimation of culture, life, and land. In the 1990s, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and US and Canadian boarding/residential schools’ practices led to an increase in cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women from the US-Mexico border, Guatemala, Canada, and the United States. Indigenous artists aiming to recontextualize these state-sponsored instances of violence created works grappling with time, ancestry, and relationality. Dr. Mengesha interprets the works of these artists’ Indigenous contexts through an aesthetic frame she calls “critical dreaming.”

Using methods from performance studies, gender studies, and Indigenous studies, Critical Dreaming considers artists as expert world makers. Dr. Mengesha examines selected works by Lara Kramer, Regina José Galindo, Rebecca Belmore, Monique Mojica, LeAnne Howe, and Sky Hopinka, demonstrating how each materializes alternative modes of experiencing time, making kin, and communing with land. Revealing the long and interconnected patterns of feminicide across the Americas, the talk will detail how contemporary feminist artists use performance to sustain life amid devastating attempts at extermination.

Lilian Mengesha is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, and Affiliate faculty in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora at Tufts University which occupies Massachusett and Nipmuc territories. Her research and teaching live at the intersection of critical Indigenous studies, gender and sexuality studies and performance studies. Her talk will draw from her first book, Critical Dreaming: Feminist Performances Across the Indigenous Americas (NYU Press, 2025). You can find her other writing in the Journal for Dramatic Theory and Criticism, ASAP Journal, Canadian Theatre Review and The Drama Review. In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Mengesha is a director and dramaturge for experimental performance and new works.

Part of “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion”

Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series: January 08 - March 12, 2026

– María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Curator & Coordinator

Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion was made possible through generous sponsorships from the California Center for Native Nations; the Rupert Costo Endowment in American Indian Affairs, University of California, Riverside; the CHASS Dean's Office and the Center for Ideas and Society; and the Departments of Music, Ethnic Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Media & Cultural Studies.

Many thanks to: taisha paggett (Department of Dance, Chairperson), Anthea Kraut (Department of Dance, Vice-Chair), Courtney Brubaker (Events Specialist), and Pete Pace (Technical Director) for their generous support of the Colloquium, and to Jonathan Ritter (Department of Music, Chairperson) and María del Rosario Acosta López (Professor, Hispanic Studies Department) for their vision and collaboration.

For Accessibility and Accommodations, contact mariafc@ucr.edu

Photo credits:

Photo of Lily Mengesha by María Fernanda Sánchez.

Photo of book cover, New York University Press.

Download the poster here [LINK COMING SOON]

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Presented by Brad Marston

Professor of Physics, Brown University

President of the American Physical Society

On behalf of the UCR Department of Physics & Astronomy and its new Center for Experimental Cosmology & Instrumentation (CECI), we would like to invite you to our next special event on the frontiers of cosmology. We will be hosting a reception on Thursday, February 26 at 5:00 pm to be followed by a public lecture by Dr. Brad Marston, Professor of Physics, Brown University and President of the American Physical Society. The event is titled the "Frontiers of Cosmology Lecture: Waves are Everywhere: How Oscillations Shape Technology, Earth, and the Universe." We would be honored if you are able to join us.The reception and lecture will be held on the UCR campus in the University Lecture Hall (UNLH 1000). Free parking is available in Parking Lot 24. Featuring introductory remarks by UCR Provost Elizabeth Watkins, CNAS Dean Peter Atkinson, and 2017 Nobel Laureate Prof. Barry Barish

5:00 PM: Reception

6:00 PM: Lecture

This event is free and open to the public. The local community, and middle and high school students, are strongly encouraged to attend.

Event Registration

Complimentary parking is available for all attendees in parking Lot 24. Advance vehicle registration via the link below is required.

Parking Registration

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TICKETING:

General Admission - $15UCR Alumni - $10Students - $8

Artistic Director: Joel Mejia Smith

Choreographers:

Neveaha Garcia

Danielle Guzman

Cesar Lopez

Stephanie Mendez

Jatziry Ponce

Darinka Rivera Ramirez

Taylor Thomas

PARKING:

Daily parking permits can be purchased through ParkMobile for Lot 6 Blue. On weeknights from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m., permits are not required when parking in Gold Lot 30.

Lot 6 Blue offers free parking on weekends, from 12:00 p.m. on Fridays until 6:00 a.m. on Monday mornings, when parking in the unreserved spaces. For any other questions about event parking, please email parking@ucr.edu between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday to Friday, and allow up to one business day to receive a response. Additional visitor parking info for events can be found at: performingarts.ucr.edu/parking

Learn more about UCR Visitor Parking.

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Session Date/Time: Friday, February 6th., 2026 from 12-1pm

“Sonic Pedagogy: Lessons from Sacred Music Therapy” series Dates/Times:

Session 1: "Body as Instrument – Arrival & Awareness" - Offered TWICE: Fri., Feb. 13, 2026, 12-1PM AND Fri., March 6, 2026 12-1PMRecognise how nervous system state shapes attention, perception, and response before conscious thoughtDevelop embodied awareness through sound, breath, and listening to establish physiological safety and baseline regulationExperience the body as an instrument of regulation rather than a site of effort or control.Session 2: "Stillness as Skill" - Fri., Feb. 20, 2026, 12-1PMCultivate stillness as an active regulatory capacity that supports focus, clarity, and non-reactivityStrengthen the ability to pause under pressure without loss of authority, momentum, or presenceApply stillness as a practical tool for cognitive reset, decision-making, and emotional regulationSession 3: "Integration & Embodied Leadership" - Fri., Feb. 27, 2026, 12-1PMIntegrate sonic and somatic regulation practices into everyday leadership, teaching, and communication contextsDemonstrate embodied authority through regulated presence, tone, and pacing rather than force or performanceSustain self-governed regulation to support ethical decision-making, resilience, and long-term capacity

View on site | Email this event

TICKETING:

General Admission - $15UCR Alumni - $10Students - $8

Artistic Director: Joel Mejia Smith

Choreographers:

Neveaha Garcia

Danielle Guzman

Cesar Lopez

Stephanie Mendez

Jatziry Ponce

Darinka Rivera Ramirez

Taylor Thomas

PARKING:

Daily parking permits can be purchased through ParkMobile for Lot 6 Blue. On weeknights from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m., permits are not required when parking in Gold Lot 30.

Lot 6 Blue offers free parking on weekends, from 12:00 p.m. on Fridays until 6:00 a.m. on Monday mornings, when parking in the unreserved spaces. For any other questions about event parking, please email parking@ucr.edu between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday to Friday, and allow up to one business day to receive a response. Additional visitor parking info for events can be found at: performingarts.ucr.edu/parking

Learn more about UCR Visitor Parking.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

TICKETING:

General Admission - $15UCR Alumni - $10Students - $8

Artistic Director: Joel Mejia Smith

Choreographers:

Neveaha Garcia

Danielle Guzman

Cesar Lopez

Stephanie Mendez

Jatziry Ponce

Darinka Rivera Ramirez

Taylor Thomas

PARKING:

Daily parking permits can be purchased through ParkMobile for Lot 6 Blue. On weeknights from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m., permits are not required when parking in Gold Lot 30.

Lot 6 Blue offers free parking on weekends, from 12:00 p.m. on Fridays until 6:00 a.m. on Monday mornings, when parking in the unreserved spaces. For any other questions about event parking, please email parking@ucr.edu between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday to Friday, and allow up to one business day to receive a response. Additional visitor parking info for events can be found at: performingarts.ucr.edu/parking

Learn more about UCR Visitor Parking.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Facilitated by Graduate Writing Center staff, each Writing Circle will begin with a check-in for participants to set goals, followed by dedicated time for writing. During this writing time, participants should primarily be focused on their own writing. At the end of each session, participants will discuss together both roadblocks and successes from the writing session, share resources, and set writing goals for the next week.

Winter 2026

Tuesdays from Week 2 to Week 10

When: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Where: On Campus and Zoom (You must be logged in with your UCR NetID credentials)

View on site | Email this event

Please refer to the official schedule of speakers here: https://neuro.ucr.edu/seminars

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Connect with professionals from the Western Plant Health Association and leading agriculture-industry employers over a great meal. This is your chance to:

Meet representatives from top companies supporting agriculture.Discover career and internship opportunities.Build relationships with professionals in your field.Who should attend?
Open to all CNAS students in Plant Biology, Entomology, Botany, Earth Sciences, and anyone interested in agricultural careers.

Space is limited—register now to secure your spot!

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On March 4, we’re bringing together a group of professionals who work in and around the creative arts to talk about how they navigated their careers. We’ll be discussing everything from the logistics of studio operations to the mission-driven work of arts nonprofits. If you want to know how to bridge the gap between your creative interests and a paycheck, join us for this virtual Q&A.

What we’ll cover:

Moving from "student" to "professional" in the creative sector.Roles, opportunities, and internship programs you might not know exist Active internships and entry-level fellowships for 2026.Current Panelists:

Warner Bros. Studio Burbank - Ian Corrigan, Studio Operations Executive DirectorSeattle Repertory Theatre – Blanca Chavez, RecruiterTelevision Academy Foundation Creative Artists Agency - TBDSmithsonian Institution - TBD

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They can help with the following:

RegistrationQuestions about your degree auditCampus ResourcesGeneral questions you may have*You do not need to be in CHASS

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By calling in Hortense Spillers’ theory of flesh, we name the labor of Black women/femme scholars and artists who have contributed to shaping Dance Studies. We continue to interrogate racialized and gendered assumptions of personhood that underlie foundational terms and keywords in dance and performance, such as choreography, technique, performativity, and “the body.” We are interested in how academic research, aesthetic practices and teaching methodologies may contribute to disrupting or upholding hegemonic structures that condition our ways of being and perceiving the world.

Organizing Committee

dan delê, Chair

Michelle Cole, Co-Chair

SUR Sanford

Sam Briseno Jimenez

NO FEES FOR CONFERENCE. FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED.

RSVP HERE

We are excited to introduce two of the scholars that will be joining us for Critical Dance Experiments.

Dr. Mlondi Zondi (USC Dornsife) will join us as the conference's keynote speaker, bringing his work into conversation with our graduate student community with the lecture "The Loss of Loss: Dance and the Psychopolitics of Re-Assembly”. Our keynote is part of a collaboration with the 2026 Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series.

Professor Moncell Durden (USC Kaufman) will join us as the conference's invited artist and scholar offering two intensive workshops entitled “In the Groove” & “Aesthetic Flow” connecting conceptual and movement aesthetics from Jazz to House and Hip Hop.

Parking Information

Step 1: Click Here

Step 2: Enter your license plate in the “License Plate Number”

Step 3: If the plate is non-California, select the appropriate state for the plate.

Step 4: Press ‘Park’

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Mlondi Zondi

Hybrid / Join In-Person or Join on Zoom

Faustin Linyekula’s performance practice addresses historical violence and the violence of History. Sustained in his inquiry is an effort to recover absented maternal heritage. To what extent does the recognition of this absented (maternal) knowledge reveal “truth” and transmit memory beyond the document, and how far does this recovery through performance reconsign African immaterial heritage into the logic of the archive? What kind of philosophy of history emerges through contemporary African dance?

Mlondi Zondi (they/he) is an assistant professor of global Black studies in comparative literature at the University of Southern California. They hold a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and an MFA in Dance from UC Irvine. Zondi is currently working on a monograph entitled Unmournable Void: Figuration, Violence, and Corporeal Integrity in Contemporary African (Diaspora) Expressive Arts. Forthcoming or published essays by Zondi appear in TDR: The Drama Review, ASAP Journal, Contemporary Literature, Espace Art Actuel, Liquid Blackness, Mortality, Performance Philosophy, and Safundi. In addition to scholarly research, Zondi practices performance and dramaturgy.

Part of “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion”
Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series: January 08 - March 12, 2026.

– María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Curator & Coordinator.

Mlondi Zondi’s participation in “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion” was curated by the 2026 Dance GSA “Critical Dance Experiments” Conference Organizing Committee (Erika Villeroy da Costa, Chair; Michelle Cole, Co-Chair; SUR Sanford; and Sam Briseno-Jimenez) and co-cordinated with María Regina Firmino-Castillo. This collaboration centers graduate students’ vision in the forging of new directions in dance making and study.

Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion was made possible through generous sponsorships from the California Center for Native Nations; the Rupert Costo Endowment in American Indian Affairs, University of California, Riverside; the CHASS Dean's Office and the Center for Ideas and Society; and the Departments of Music, Ethnic Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Media & Cultural Studies.

Many thanks to: taisha paggett (Department of Dance, Chairperson), Anthea Kraut (Department of Dance, Vice-Chair), Courtney Brubaker (Events Specialist), and Pete Pace (Technical Director) for their generous support of the Colloquium, and to Jonathan Ritter (Department of Music, Chairperson) and María del Rosario Acosta López (Professor, Hispanic Studies Department) for their vision and collaboration.

For Accessibility and Accommodations, contact mariafc@ucr.edu

Photo credits: ©Studio Kabako, 2018.

Download the poster here [LINK COMING SOON]

Parking Information

Step 1: Click Here

Step 2: Enter your license plate in the “License Plate Number”

Step 3: If the plate is non-California, select the appropriate state for the plate.

Step 4: Press ‘Park’

View on site | Email this event

By calling in Hortense Spillers’ theory of flesh, we name the labor of Black women/femme scholars and artists who have contributed to shaping Dance Studies. We continue to interrogate racialized and gendered assumptions of personhood that underlie foundational terms and keywords in dance and performance, such as choreography, technique, performativity, and “the body.” We are interested in how academic research, aesthetic practices and teaching methodologies may contribute to disrupting or upholding hegemonic structures that condition our ways of being and perceiving the world.

Organizing Committee

dan delê, Chair

Michelle Cole, Co-Chair

SUR Sanford

Sam Briseno Jimenez

NO FEES FOR CONFERENCE. FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED.

RSVP HERE

We are excited to introduce two of the scholars that will be joining us for Critical Dance Experiments.

Dr. Mlondi Zondi (USC Dornsife) will join us as the conference's keynote speaker, bringing his work into conversation with our graduate student community with the lecture "The Loss of Loss: Dance and the Psychopolitics of Re-Assembly”. Our keynote is part of a collaboration with the 2026 Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series.

Professor Moncell Durden (USC Kaufman) will join us as the conference's invited artist and scholar offering two intensive workshops entitled “In the Groove” & “Aesthetic Flow” connecting conceptual and movement aesthetics from Jazz to House and Hip Hop.

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Session Date/Time: Friday, February 6th., 2026 from 12-1pm

“Sonic Pedagogy: Lessons from Sacred Music Therapy” series Dates/Times:

Session 1: "Body as Instrument – Arrival & Awareness" - Offered TWICE: Fri., Feb. 13, 2026, 12-1PM AND Fri., March 6, 2026 12-1PMRecognise how nervous system state shapes attention, perception, and response before conscious thoughtDevelop embodied awareness through sound, breath, and listening to establish physiological safety and baseline regulationExperience the body as an instrument of regulation rather than a site of effort or control.Session 2: "Stillness as Skill" - Fri., Feb. 20, 2026, 12-1PMCultivate stillness as an active regulatory capacity that supports focus, clarity, and non-reactivityStrengthen the ability to pause under pressure without loss of authority, momentum, or presenceApply stillness as a practical tool for cognitive reset, decision-making, and emotional regulationSession 3: "Integration & Embodied Leadership" - Fri., Feb. 27, 2026, 12-1PMIntegrate sonic and somatic regulation practices into everyday leadership, teaching, and communication contextsDemonstrate embodied authority through regulated presence, tone, and pacing rather than force or performanceSustain self-governed regulation to support ethical decision-making, resilience, and long-term capacity

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Participants Include: Jos Charles; Simone Chess; Andrea Denny Brown; Alice Fulmer, Kersti Francis, Colby Gordon; Miles Grier; Bryan C. Keene; Nic Helms; Olivia Henderson; Bradley Irish; Jaye Johnson; Bellee Jones-Pierce; Paul Kelleher; Sawyer Kemp; Carla Mazzio; Harry McCarthy; Shaun Nowicki; Michele Raheja; Jennifer Eun-Jung Row; Pasquale Toscano and Lindsey Row-Heyveld, with Heidi Brayman, Jacques Lezra and Fuson Wang as Panel Chairs. For the full conference program and speaker bios, please click here.

Sponsors: This conference is possible thanks to support from the University of California Office of the President ("Abolition Medicine and Disability Justice" Grant ID: M23PR5992) and UCR’s Health Humanities and Disability Justice Lab (hhdj.ucr.edu), and generous co-sponsorships from UCR's the Center for Ideas and Society and the Dean's Office, UCR Departments of English, History, and Religious Studies, and Wayne State University Center for Gender and Sexuality.

Dates, Times, Format: This conference will be held in person in downtown Riverside, CA on Friday, March 6th (noon-5PM, with registration and a light brunch served from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM and a reception at 5:00 PM) & March 7th, 10AM-3:15 PM, with breakfast served at 9AM and lunch provided in the afternoon. in Riverside, CA. This in person only event (we regrettably do not have virtual access at this time) is free and open to the public by advance RSVP/Registration only (click here to register). Once you register, you will get an email from us with further information about the conference !

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The discussion will cover the following careers in the legal profession:

 Public sector careers and required qualifications.

 Private sector careers and required qualifications.

The discussion will cover the following careers outside of the legal profession:

 Book editor.

 Law School/University/College Professors.

 Management with public entities.

 Management positions with private corporations.

*Open to all students

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Learn about what makes the MPP program unique through its curriculum, faculty, experiential learning and research. Register now to learn more about the Master of Public Policy program at UC Riverside and for an exclusive opportunity to get your application fee waived.

Applications for fall 2026 are now being accepted.

Please note, registrants will receive Zoom link prior to the event.

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AP Readiness allows students to work with master Math, Science, Social Science and English instructors, who prepare them for the rigorous curriculum that they will face in AP courses. Concurrently, their AP teachers observe and learn from the master instructors, gathering a framework for how to successfully conduct an AP course. This unique program allows for students and teachers to learn together. Both teachers and students also become an essential part of a network of AP support and excellence.

This event is free, and open to the public.

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Participants Include: Jos Charles; Simone Chess; Andrea Denny Brown; Alice Fulmer, Kersti Francis, Colby Gordon; Miles Grier; Bryan C. Keene; Nic Helms; Olivia Henderson; Bradley Irish; Jaye Johnson; Bellee Jones-Pierce; Paul Kelleher; Sawyer Kemp; Carla Mazzio; Harry McCarthy; Shaun Nowicki; Michele Raheja; Jennifer Eun-Jung Row; Pasquale Toscano and Lindsey Row-Heyveld, with Heidi Brayman, Jacques Lezra and Fuson Wang as Panel Chairs. For the full conference program and speaker bios, please click here.

Sponsors: This conference is possible thanks to support from the University of California Office of the President ("Abolition Medicine and Disability Justice" Grant ID: M23PR5992) and UCR’s Health Humanities and Disability Justice Lab (hhdj.ucr.edu), and generous co-sponsorships from UCR's the Center for Ideas and Society and the Dean's Office, UCR Departments of English, History, and Religious Studies, and Wayne State University Center for Gender and Sexuality.

Dates, Times, Format: This conference will be held in person in downtown Riverside, CA on Friday, March 6th (noon-5PM, with registration and a light brunch served from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM and a reception at 5:00 PM) & March 7th, 10AM-3:15 PM, with breakfast served at 9AM and lunch provided in the afternoon. in Riverside, CA. This in person only event (we regrettably do not have virtual access at this time) is free and open to the public by advance RSVP/Registration only (click here to register). Once you register, you will get an email from us with further information about the conference !

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Facilitated by Graduate Writing Center staff, each Writing Circle will begin with a check-in for participants to set goals, followed by dedicated time for writing. During this writing time, participants should primarily be focused on their own writing. At the end of each session, participants will discuss together both roadblocks and successes from the writing session, share resources, and set writing goals for the next week.

Winter 2026

Tuesdays from Week 2 to Week 10

When: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Where: On Campus and Zoom (You must be logged in with your UCR NetID credentials)

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Please refer to the official schedule of speakers here: https://neuro.ucr.edu/seminars

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Unsettling and Unbuilding

Melissa Melpignano

What does it mean to conceive the body as “home” in choreography when the historical and political reality of “home” for the performers signals dispossession, military control, and violence? This talk looks at political conceptualizations of “home” in Palestine-Israel through the choreography and performance of four solo works by Hadar Ahuvia (Israeli-American based between Boston and NYC), Leila Awadallah (Palestinian-American based in Minneapolis), Yasmeen Godder (Israeli based in Jaffa), and Farah Saleh (Palestinian from Ramallah based in Scotland).

Saleh’s What My Body Can/t Remember (2019) is the fourth part of the project Archive of Gestures, started in 2014. Godder’s Practicing Empathy #3 (2022) is the second-to-last part of a multiyear series on empathy started in 2014. These two solos stem from experiences of forced home confinement, differently motivated: military curfew for the former, pandemic lockdown for the latter. In contrast, nefesh (2024), a solo that has also been presented as a duet, explores Ahuvia’s reconnection to a pre-Zionist Ashkenazi Jewish spirituality. In YISSH (Yalla Imshi, Shway Shway Habibi), a solo presented in various iterations between 2019 and 2024, Awadallah reconnects to her Palestinian roots and the Palestinian people while immersed in the American political system. In these latter two works, the body reclaims an imagined ancestral connection and moves to rematerialize an erasure.

While the metaphor of “body as home” has been used in dance practice and scholarship to signal embodied agency, somatic refuge, or kinesthetic belonging, these four solo works expose the limits of this metaphor when the very notion of home is unsettled by historical and ongoing violence and territorial contestation. The individual political investments and trajectories of each choreographer nuance and differentiate their approaches to this shared epistemic problem of “home.”

My analysis draws on the framework I am developing in my book manuscript Unsettling Choreographies: Dancing Livability in Palestine-Israel, where I examine how choreographic practice undoes settler colonial paradigms. In this paper, I argue that Godder and Ahuvia, in their specific ways, engage in nation-unbuilding from the rubble of the ongoing Nakba, while Saleh and Awadallah unsettle the political restrictions imposed on Palestinian bodies by moving through the ruins of a history that keeps unfolding. I will specify the differences between rubble and ruins, both conceptually and choreographically, and situate my analysis in relation to recent scholarship on Palestine and Israel in dance studies. Moreover, I will problematize the notion of “home” in this specific context, considering it not only epistemically but in the material terms of architecture, urban planning, and land governance.

This talk also offers an opportunity to discuss the relationship between dance studies and MENA studies, and the contributions that choreographic and performance-based frameworks offer for thinking about Palestine and Israel, both scholarly and publicly.

Melissa Melpignano is a dance scholar and practitioner, working as Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Texas at El Paso. She received her PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA. Her research at large investigates how dance and choreography contribute to theorizations of conflict and settler colonialism in contested and militarized regions (such as Palestine-Israel and the Mexico-U.S. border) and in public discourses (particularly around healthcare access and water distribution). Her current book project, Unsettling Choreographies: Dancing Livability in Palestine-Israel, examines choreographic practices that, since the 2014 war on Gaza, denormalize and invalidate settler-colonial ideas and mechanisms, thereby generating new trajectories and models of livability. Her article “A Necropower Carnival: Israeli Soldiers Dancing in the Palestinian Occupied Territories” (TDR: The Drama Review, 67, 1, 2023), received the 2024 Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics from the American Society for Aesthetics. Her scholarship also appears in Dance Research Journal, Journal of Dance Education, The Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance, 50 Contemporary Choreographers (3rd edition), Contemporary Choreography (3rd edition), among others.

Part of “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion”

Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series: January 08 - March 12, 2026

– María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Curator & Coordinator

Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion was made possible through generous sponsorships from the California Center for Native Nations; the Rupert Costo Endowment in American Indian Affairs, University of California, Riverside; the CHASS Dean's Office and the Center for Ideas and Society; and the Departments of Music, Ethnic Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Media & Cultural Studies.

Many thanks to: taisha paggett (Department of Dance, Chairperson), Anthea Kraut (Department of Dance, Vice-Chair), Courtney Brubaker (Events Specialist), and Pete Pace (Technical Director) for their generous support of the Colloquium, and to Jonathan Ritter (Department of Music, Chairperson) and María del Rosario Acosta López (Professor, Hispanic Studies Department) for their vision and collaboration.

For Accessibility and Accommodations, contact mariafc@ucr.edu

Photo credits: Leila Awadallah in “YISSH (Yalla Imshi, Shway Shway Habibi),” by Isabel Fajardo.

Download the poster here [LINK COMING SOON]

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Please refer to the official schedule of speakers here: https://neuro.ucr.edu/seminars

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This prestigious event showcases outstanding research from students representing 58 community colleges across California. The HTCC annual conference provides community college honors students with the opportunity to present their academic work in a professional setting.

We welcome research-based presentations, posters, and creative performances spanning the humanities, sciences, arts, social sciences, and pre-professional programs, as well as research exploring the honors experience.

This event is free and open to the public.

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Turchin founded Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution. He is also a founding director of the Seshat: Global History Databank. He was a director of the Evolution Institute. In 2021, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor Turchin’s talk will be about his recently published The Great Holocene Transformation: What Complexity Science Tells Us About The Evolution of Complex Societies;

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