UC Davis is hosting two internationally acclaimed artists who will give public talks, screen films and work directly with students in May. Lynn Hershman Leeson and Shimon Attie are presented by The Manetti Shrem California Studio in the Department of Art and Art History, housed in the College of Letters and Science. The California Studio is part of UC Davis art studio and underwritten by a gift from Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem.

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.

Julia Koerner, who worked on the Black Panther movie and is at the forefront of 3D printing and sustainable design, will be the guest for the UC Davis Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design. Koerner, whose creative endeavors include architecture, fashion, sculpture and product design, will give a presentation titled “Models & Models” on April 22 at 4 p.m.

A new movie about AIDS activist Hank Wilson by a UC Davis cinema and digital media professor will be shown on campus Jan. 15. “Thanks to Hank,” directed by Bob Ostertag, is a tribute to Wilson, who radically altered LGBTQ+ life and rights in the Bay Area. The film includes archival footage, animation and interviews with collaborators and friends of Wilson, who died in 2008.

From the history of black women chefs to a documentary film on dwarfism to African music in Brazil, the UC Davis Humanities Institute’s new faculty research fellows will pursue a wide range of topics this year. The fellowship promotes interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, who will meet weekly to discuss their research and creative work.

Christopher Markus (M.A., English, ’96) was co-writer, with Stephen McFeely (M.A. English,’96), of the just-released movie "Avengers: Endgame.” The two met at UC Davis in the creative writing program. They've written scripts for the "Captain America" films, the "Chronicles of Narnia" movie franchise, and won an Emmy for their screenplay of HBO movie, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers."