CAHSS Signature Events
Our College offers a wide range of arts and lectures programming open to campus and community, a number of which have been annual mainstays since the opening of CSUMB. We invite you to join us at these signature events to engage with cutting-edge creative and intellectually-stimulating guests alongside faculty, students, staff, and our community partners.
CAHSS Brown Bag Series
A College effort brought forward through the SBGS faculty, the CAHSS Brown Bag Series highlights faculty research in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. These monthly events welcome all CAHSS faculty to present their research to fellow faculty, administration, students, invited guests and the public at large.
Dia de los Muertos
The Visual & Public Art Department’s Dia de los Muertos Celebration and Annual Sugar Skull Workshop provides students with an opportunity to learn traditional art such as making sugar skulls, papel picado (paper cutting), flower arch preparation, and altar construction. Annually, this event draws between 200-300 participants across the campus and our community as a place for family-based gathering as a contemporary cross-cultural ceremony of memory.
Monterey Jazz Festival Partnership-Music & Performing Arts
In 2018, The Monterey Jazz Festival and CSUMB entered into a unique educational partnership launching a series of jazz education activities and events for the campus and community. The partnership includes a master class featuring jazz leaders for Music and Performing Arts students and public performances open to all.
Social Justice Colloquium
Since 1997, the Social Justice Colloquium has grown to be a collaborative effort across the college spanning a week or more of guest speakers in keynote, plenary, and classroom workshops across the college community. These events bring thought leaders on the social justice issues of our time into conversation with campus and community members and afford focused guest lectures and workshops in our classes across the curriculum.
Spotlight on Student Success
The Spotlight on Student Success Series highlights high-impact practices and innovations in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Each Semester, the Office of the Dean brings together students, faculty, and staff from all disciplines across campus to this innovative series, which hosted the inaugural event in Fall of 2018.
VPA Visiting Artist Series
The Visual & Public Art Department’s Visiting Artist Series provides a forum for engagement and dialog with emerging and established figures in contemporary art and culture through a three-day mini-residency that includes a public lecture, workshop with students, and studio visits where students receive advice, exposure to professional opinions, and one-on-one creative criticism and feedback. Each semester, the Visual & Public Art Department ’s Visiting Artist Series brings to campus prominent artists and scholars to give free, public on-campus presentations engaging our greater community, critique student work and participate in events, projects, and lectures.
Writers from the Edge: Humanities & Communication
The annual Writers from the Edge series provides an opportunity to engage with some of the best young contemporary authors, known and emerging, in the United States. These authors bring important perspectives on key concerns and issues confronting our nation and the world. The subject matter — migration, ethnic histories, transnational histories, and sexual identity, among other concerns—are relevant and important for our students and community, and also align with our curriculum.
World Theater
CAHSS is also home to the World Theater, a 400+ seat performing arts facility that serves as instructional space for performance-based classes and hosts student productions and performances. Requests may be entered in 25 Live.