A science historian studying the complex history of sociogenomics, a historian revealing the lives of Chilean children during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, and a researcher chronicling the performances of contemporary Black women poets are among this year’s UC Davis recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Professor emerita and groundbreaking multimedia artist Lynn Hershman Leeson returns to campus as a Manetti Shrem California Studio artist-in-residence to screen several of her films and give a talk. At UC Davis from 1993 to 2004, she is a pioneer in the fields of photography, video, film, performance, artificial intelligence, installation, interactive and net-based media art.

In rural Nigeria in 2014, 276 teenaged girls were abducted from their school by the militant Islamist group, Boko Haram. A few escaped, some were later released, but nearly a decade later about 100 are still missing.

Fukushima, Japan, was struck by a triple disaster on March 11, 2011 — earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant failure. The disaster and its impact on the nation’s psyche has been explored extensively through film, literature and art during the decade since the disaster.

Two undergraduate students, a professor and a graduate student in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science recently received 2021 Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Since 1994, these awards have recognized outstanding undergraduate students for their research, scholarship or creative activity and faculty, graduate students and postdoctorate individuals for excellence in mentorship.