Telluride MOUNTAINFILM Tour Tuesday, April 4 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall A special evening of films from the United States’ premier environmental film festival, committed to social change, the outdoor spirit, and the unique and varied ways of mountain life. Curated and introduced by MOUNTAINFILM director Rick Silverman. Students: $6. General: $8. Tickets in advance and at the door, beginning at 7 p.m.

Steve Schalchlin Living in the Bonus Round—A Performance Wednesday, April 19 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall Singer/songwriter Steve Schalchlin plays piano and performs songs from his L.A. Drama Critics’ Award-winning production The Last Session and tells the stories that inspired them in this moving and uplifting program about living with AIDS. Students: $5. General: $6. Tickets in advance and at the door, beginning at 7 p.m.

Chris Carter A Conversation with the Creator of The X-Files Friday, April 21 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall Described by Time magazine as a “televisionary” and “seer,” Chris Carter—in his capacity as the producer/writer/director of The X-Files—has transformed the idea of extraterrestrial life and the search for truth into a cultural phenomenon with millions of devoted fans. He also created the FOX series Harsh Realm and Millennium. Carter will show clips and discuss his work in a conversation with UCSB Film Studies faculty. Students: $5. General: $8. Tickets in advance and at the door, beginning at 7 p.m.

45th Annual Faculty Research Lecturer Francesca Bray How Wholesome Is That Soup? The Political Contents of the Refrigerator Wednesday, April 26 / 4 p.m. / UCSB Hatlen Theater / Free A distinguished scholar of the history of technology and the chair of the UCSB Anthropology Department, Francesca Bray has received numerous honors in recognition of her scholarship. Her current research on the political and cultural aspects of everyday technology in contemporary California informs this annual lecture that she was selected by her faculty peers to present.

Regents’ Lecturer in the UCSB Departments of Art Studio and Chicano Studies Rupert Garcia The Virgin of Guadalupe in the Art of Mexico and Mexican America Wednesday, May 3 / 4 p.m. / UCSB MultiCultural Center Theater / Free The Art of Rupert Garcia: Ways of Knowledge, Feeling and Enchantment Tuesday, May 9 / 5 p.m. / UCSB Isla Vista Theater / Free A pioneer artist in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and early ’70s, Rupert Garcia’s outstanding work combines images from the mass media, art and social histories of different periods and cultures. His paintings and poster art address the wonder of existence as well as moral and spiritual dilemm

Dave Foreman The River Wild: Rewilding in the Context of Conservation History Thursday, May 4 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall Earth First! co-founder, author of Confessions of an Eco-Warrior and The Big Outside, and chairman of The Wildlands Project, Dave Foreman is singularly committed to the protection, recovery and preservation of the natural heritage of North America through the establishment of a connected corridor of wildlands. Students: $5. General: $6. Tickets in advance and at the door, beginning at 7 p.m.

Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the UCSB College of Creative Studies Leon Botstein Educating the American Adolescent Thursday, May 11 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Hatlen Theatre / Free President of Bard College in New York, music director of the American Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra, Leon Botstein recently authored Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture. He also edits The Musical Quarterly.

Regents’ Lecturer in the UCSB Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies Ilya Kabakov Total Installation: How Art Shapes Our Experience of Space and Time Postponed Until Fall Known for creating large-scale installations that evoke with wit and irony life under Soviet totalitarian rule and for his extensive body of drawings as an “unofficial artist,” Ilya Kabakov spent the bulk of his adult life in the former Soviet Union. Now living in New York, he continues to explore the catastrophic results of socialism. Kabakov is considered one of the most important Russian artists of the late 20th century.

Sogyal Rinpoche The Transformative Power of Healing and Dying Friday, May 19 / 8 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall Author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and one of the world’s most renowned teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, Sogyal Rinpoche brings to this lecture his ease and humor, insight into the Western mind and gift for communication. Educated in Tibet and at Cambridge, he is one of the foremost interpreters of the ancient wisdom of Tibet. Students: $8. General: $10. Tickets in advance and at the door, beginning at 7 p.m. Presented as part of The Influence of Mind on Healing and Dying, the 3rd Annual UCSB Conference on Global Medicine.

Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the UCSB College of Creative Studies Kenzaburo Oe An Afternoon with the Author and Nobel Prize Laureate Thursday, June 1 / 4 p.m. / UCSB MultiCultural Center Theater / Free Winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, Japan’s Kenzaburo Oe’s books, including A Personal Matter, The Silent Cry, A Quiet Life and Hiroshima Notes, are infused with humanism, brooding darkness and vivid reality. One of the most original, prolific and important writers of our time, Oe’s body of work has won almost every major international literary honor.

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

Spring lectures and special events are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, College of Creative Studies, Departments of Film Studies and Religious Studies, Adventure Programs, Global Medicine Project, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, MultiCultural Center, Office of International Students and Scholars, Student Health Service, Sexual Health Peers, AIDS Task Force, the Conception Coast Project, SBCC Continuing Education, St. Francis Medical Center and The Wildlands Project.