The University of California, Santa Cruz brought on a new Interim Assistant Dean of Diversity Equity and Inclusion for the Arts Division. John Jota Leaños, a professor of Film and Digital Media (FDM) and Guggenheim Fellow, is a Mexican/Italian-American and Chumash-award winning interdisciplinary artist, documentarian, animator, and social art practitioner whose work engages the intersections of history, memory, and power through a social justice lens.

UCSC’s Art 139 course created a mural celebrating El Centro’s 30th anniversary, honoring the cultural resilience of Black, Indigenous, and Latiné communities through dance while fostering belonging and showcasing the power of art and collaboration.

A mural by Irene Juarez-O’Connell, addressing community safety and policing, is now on display at the Porter Study Center at Porter College.

Last year in February 2022, The Minneapolis Institute of Art presented Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, curated by Dr. Robert Cozzolino. This collection featured works centering their authors’ varied connections to exotic states of consciousness and experiences beyond the pale of the ordinary.

Thirty-one years ago, UC Santa Cruz opened the Research Center for the Americas — renamed the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas last year in honor of the labor leader and civil rights activist — as the first research center in the University of California system to combine Chicanx/Latinx and Latin American studies.

Professor of Film & Digital Media (2020-24): John Jota Leaños is a Mestizo (Xicano-Italian-Chumash) interdisciplinary artist and animator concerned with the embattled terrains of history and memory as they relate to nation, power, and decolonization.

UC Santa Cruz assistant professor of film and digital media John Jota Leaños has been awarded a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship for the creative arts.

John Jota Leaños is known for Frontera: Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande (2014), Los ABCs: ¡Que vivan los muertos! (2006) and Deadtime Stories (2008).

UC Santa Cruz associate professor of film and digital media John Jota Leaños is the recipient of a 2017 California Documentary Project grant from California Humanities.

La Mezcla & Ayudando Latinos A Soñar: A Collaboration to Bring Dance to the Fields. Invisible Labor on California’s Central Coast.

Ethnic Studies educators — please join the History & Civics Project at UC Santa Cruz and the Central California Writing Project for this exciting panel discussion moderated by Professor John Jota Leaños and featuring Special Guests!