Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz

Title of entry: UCSC Alumni Achievement Award Video: bell hooks

About this entry: UC Santa Cruz is renowned for its research excellence, historical activism, and alumni who create transformational change. When UCSC alumna bell hooks (Ph.D. ’83, literature) was posthumously awarded the Alumni Achievement award, we knew her story - all she has and still is accomplishing through her legacy - was too big to tell within the confines of one evening at an awards event. Therefore, we brought together key people to create a meaningful, creative, and celebratory video that could tell her story more broadly. The result? The video debut at the UCSC Alumni Awards Celebration event on October 27, 2023 brought many to tears and elicited a standing ovation. The video's impact continues as it is shared, viewed, re-watched, and sent out via the UCSC YouTube platform where it now resides. The investment in the bell hooks video was worth the reaction that night, and knowing future generations will be inspired by it as they glimpse into the life and legacy of bell hooks.