The Humanities Institute: The Deep Read

Match Opportunity: DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT! Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar up to $2,500 throughout the day.

Matching funds were generously provided by UC Santa Cruz Foundation Trustee Linda Peterson (Stevenson ’70, History) and SB Master (Cowell ’75).

This Giving Day, show your love for the Deep Read!

Are you passionate about books, critical thinking, and the exchange of ideas? The Deep Read is an annual program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz that focuses on a recent book by an award-winning author and invites our community of curious readers to think deeply about books and the most pressing issues of our moment.

This year, we are reading Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, by British mycologist Merlin Sheldrake. A New York Times bestseller, Entangled Life reveals the foundational and nourishing role of fungal webs in our world, both in the past and today. Together, we’ll explore the dependence of all life—human, plant, animal, and beyond—on fungal networks and how the resulting interconnections provoke us to reconsider our understanding of existence, identity, intelligence, and more.

Every year, Deep Readers are guided by weekly emails, online forums, and community events with presentations by UC Santa Cruz faculty. At the end of the program, we bring the author to campus to discuss their work at a free, public event at the Quarry Amphitheater.

The Deep Read is for everyone—current UC Santa Cruz students, staff, faculty, alumni, community members, community college students, high school students, and truly anyone, anywhere, who’s interested in reading deeply and engaging with important ideas. We have built a community of 10,000 Deep Readers in Santa Cruz and around the world, and we’re still growing.

Support the Deep Read today and help us continue to provide free access for students and the public to our author events, virtual and in-person salons with UC Santa Cruz faculty and community partners, and email series exploring the Deep Read book. Your gift also means we can give free books to every interested student each year.

We launched the Deep Read seven years ago to show our love for reading, thinking deeply, and our community. Now is your opportunity to show your love for the Deep Read. If the Deep Read has inspired you, reignited your love of books, or helped you change your frame of reference for a book, issue, or author, SHOW YOUR LOVE. Give what you can—help us keep these events free for everyone and continue to grow this incredible community.