What does it take to maintain hope in the face of hopelessness? Speakers and performers will address immigration, governance, education, climate change and AI. Featuring UCSC faculty members David Deamer, Barry Sinervo, Phil Hammack, and David Lee.

UCSC Crown Faculty, Nada Miljkovic, is a TEDxSantaCruz organizer and pleased to announce some of the speakers who will deliver talks at the organization’s fifth daylong live event. Those attending will hear local and national speakers and artists speak on a variety of topics curated to inspire and explore THE ART OF HOPE at the Rio Theatre Saturday, December 7, 2019, from 9:00AM to 5:00PM.  The event will also be live-streamed.

Speakers will include novelist and essayist Jonathan Franzen, social justice & environmental protection activist Sara Nelson, County Supervisor and Santa Cruz native & artist-activist Carolina Rubio Wright, and award-winning author Lara Love Hardin.

UCSC is a major partner/sponsor for the event and will be well represented by faculty members such as evolutionary biologist, Barry Sinervo, Kyle Robertson on the Philosophy of Hope, and Ryan Coonerty, immigration attorney, to name a few.

“We’ve curated an assembly of speakers who are providing a roadmap to a more equitable, sustainable future, speakers and performers whose creative approach to seemingly intractable problems provides hope in a time when our community and our nation seem to be mired down in division,” said TEDxSantaCruz organizer Irene Tsouprake. “We want to highlight some bright wins in our community, and to share ideas and solutions that demonstrate and reinforce our capacity for collaboration and innovation, our resilience in the face of daunting challenges. Speakers will address immigration, governance, education, climate change and AI. What does it take to maintain hope in the face of hopelessness?  Can hope be cultivated? How? Hope is unique to the human experience… to hope is to be human.”

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. In the past 6 years, the internationally renowned TED conference organization has grown to include TEDx events, which are local, self-organized events around the world.  TED licenses independently organized TEDx programs. TEDxSantaCruz 2019: THE ART OF HOPE will be the fifth daylong local TEDx conference. Past TEDxSantaCruz talks are posted online at TED’s YouTube channel and have been viewed online over a million times.