Regents’ Lecturer in the UCSB Department of History Sander Vanocur News as Punditry: Less Is More Thursday, January 21 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Corwin Pavilion / Free History, Reality and Journalism Monday, January 25 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Location TBD / Free A forty-year veteran of print and broadcast journalism with extensive experience in national and international political reporting, Sander Vanocur’s career included work for The New York Times and Washington Post, NBC and ABC News where he was chief diplomatic correspondent and host of the weekly program Business World. He will give two talks during his residency at UCSB.

Jared Diamond Driving Forces in Long-Term History Tuesday, January 26 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Corwin Pavilion / Free Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Society, Jared Diamond conceives a totally original approach to why the evolution of societies over the last thirteen thousand years proceeded so differently on different continents. A UCLA Medical School professor of physiology, he is the recipient of a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.

Richard W. Murphy Middle East Challenges for America Friday, February 5 / 3 p.m. / UCSB Hatlen / Free Former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, Richard W. Murphy is a Senior Fellow for the Middle East with the Council on Foreign Relations. Having served as the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Syria and Mauritania, he uses his personal and professional expertise to assess and address global trouble spots. Part of the lecture series Global Peace, Security and Human Rights: The Next Millennium.

Regents’ Lecturer in the UCSB Department of Sociology Anita Roddick The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: What You Never Learn in Business School In conversation with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Wednesday, February 10 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall / Free The New Global Model: Business as UNusual Tuesday, February 16 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Corwin Pavilion / Free Founder and chief executive officer of The Body Shop, Anita Roddick is a leading activist for socially responsible business practices, environmental conservation and human rights. She’ll give two public presentations during her residency at UCSB.

Cristina García An Afternoon with the Author Thursday, February 18 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Corwin Pavilion / Free Born in Havana and raised in New York, Cristina García is the author of the National Book Award-nominated novel Dreaming in Cuban and more recently The Agüero Sisters. Her generous, affecting and personal storytelling style reaches deep into Cuban family life while addressing the impact of the revolution on Cubans, at home and in the U.S.

Special Event The Best of the 23rd Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival Friday, February 19 / 7 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall An evening of exciting new films about outdoor sports, mountain culture and the beauty and danger of nature. Highlights include films about the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, polar bears, snowboarding, extreme kayaking in Iceland and rock climbing in Vietnam.

Special Event Nicole Hollander, the Creator of “Sylvia” Friday, February 26 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall One of the country’s few nationally syndicated female cartoonists, Nicole Hollander has written the sarcastic, astute and hilariously funny Sylvia comic strip since the late 1970s. Creator of the wise-cracking Sylvia, The Woman Who Does Everything More Beautifully Than You, Fashion Cop, a pair of malicious cats, the Devil, fairy godmothers and long-suffering family members, Hollander is the author of 16 books, a regular page in Mother Jones magazine, and a new musical revue called Female Problems: An Unhelpful Guide. She’ll show slides and discuss her work.

The Inaugural Idee Levitan UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Lecture Simon Schama Rembrandt and Blindness Thursday, March 4 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Corwin Pavilion / Free Columbia University historian Simon Schama is noted for deeply probing the forces that shape how we understand the past—from the way a single painting can transform an ordinary man into a hero to the influence of hot air ballooning on the French Revolution. His many books include Landscape and Memory and Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. The art critic for The New Yorker, Schama has written a forthcoming book on Rembrandt and Rubens. In this talk, he’ll examine Rembrandt’s fixation on sight.

Maurice F. Strong A United Nations for the Next Fifty Years Friday, March 5 / 3 p.m. / UCSB Corwin Pavilion / Free Under-Secretary General and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Maurice Strong is a senior advisor to the World Bank, Earth Council Institute and the World Economic Forum. Known for his skill, vigor, vision and aplomb, he is currently charged with reforming the U.N. to serve the 21st century. Part of the lecture series Global Peace, Security and Human Rights: The Next Millennium.

Deborah Tannen The Argument Culture: Stopping America’s War of Words Friday, March 12 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall / Free Deborah Tannen will address the subject of her new groundbreaking book, an examination of the way we communicate in public—in the media, in politics in our courtrooms and in our classrooms. Dr. Tannen is University Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University and the author of the best-selling book You Just Don’t Understand, which looks at the differences in female-male communication.

The UCSB Bookstore will have copies of the authors’ books for purchase and signing at these events.

Winter lectures and special events are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures; the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center; Departments of Chicano Studies and Religious Studies; Global and International Studies Program; MultiCultural Center; Women’s Studies Program; Writing Program; Hillel; Women’s Center; UCSB Adventure Programs; Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation; Santa Barbara Committee on Foreign Relations; Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Pax 2100; SBCC International Studies Association; International Studies Program at Ventura College; Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation; Eagle Creek Travel Gear; Salomon Footwear; Sector Sport Watches; Sierra Designs Outerwear; PowerBar; Canadian Airlines International and National Geographic Society.