The Humanities Institute: The Deep Read

Match Opportunity: DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT! Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar up to $5,000 throughout the day. Matching funds have been generously provided by UC Santa Cruz Foundation Trustee Linda Peterson (Stevenson ’70) and Jim Gunderson (Rachel Carson '77).

Today is Giving Day, and we are asking our community to help us get more Deep Read books to students!

Each year, the Deep Read, an annual program of The Humanities Institute, invites our community to think deeply about a contemporary book by an award-winning author and explore important issues of our contemporary moment. 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 significant ideas.

Since 2020, we have built a community of 11,000 Deep Readers in Santa Cruz and around the world, and, while we’re still growing, we remain true to our roots of critical engagement and meaningful discussion in real time and around physical books. This year, we are excited to read the novel You Dreamed of Empires, by Mexican author Álvaro Enrigue, and explore translation, cross-cultural communication, power, and the ways language shapes history and historical knowledge, among other issues and themes.

An important pillar of the Deep Read is providing free books to students, and every year we give away over 2,000 student books. Your gift this year will enable us to continue our commitment to offering free books to students, so that every student who wants to join can be a meaningful part of the program. Support the Deep Read today by pledging $20 (or more!) to buy a book for a student! Your gift will not only benefit students, but it will also help us keep the Deep Read open to everyone—ensuring free access to author events, virtual and in-person salons with faculty and community partners, and our email series exploring the Deep Read book.

If you donate between 3 and 4 p.m. PST today you can help us win an extra $1,000 for the Deep Read as part of UCSC’s “Happy Hour Challenge.” All gifts, big or small, make a difference!

If the Deep Read has inspired you, reignited your love of books, or changed your frame of reference for a book, issue, or author, give $20 for a student book. Help us ensure that every student can participate, and help us keep the Deep Read free and open to everyone. Together, we can support this incredible community that reads deeply, thinks critically, and connects meaningfully—one book at a time.