50th Anniversary event takes place on February 28, 2025 at The City Club of San Francisco
Special guests include:
ROB BONTA, 34th Attorney General of California
MICHELE ELAM, William Robertson Coe Professor of Humanities in the English Department at Stanford University
DAMON HOROWITZ, philosopher and technology entrepreneur
RACHAEL MYROW, Senior Editor of KQED’s Silicon Valley News Desk
TANI CANTIL SAKAUYE, President & CEO, Public Policy Institute of California, former Chief Justice of California, who will receive the Spirit of Humanities Award
Please visit click here for more information
This event is free and open to the public; please click here to register
(Los Angeles, CA) Wednesday, January 22, 2025 – California Humanities, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to promoting the humanities and their vital role in our culture, proudly announces its 50th anniversary celebration, which will take place on Friday, February 28, 2025, at The City Club of San Francisco. For five decades, California Humanities has connected people through the exploration of ideas, history, and diverse cultural expressions, fostering understanding and dialogue across the Golden State and giving voice to voices seldom heard.
Founded in 1975, California Humanities is a partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) that promotes the humanities as a relevant, meaningful way to understand the human condition and connect us. The independent, nonprofit organization produces, funds, creates, and supports humanities-based projects and programs and eye-opening cultural experiences and conversations. California Humanities has awarded more than $44 million in grants across every Congressional district in the state since its founding in 1975, has served and supported 2,175 organizations, uplifting voices of more than 11 million Californians.
“This is a very special and timely milestone for California Humanities, as we celebrate 50 years of funding and launching projects that showcase the remarkably diverse cultures and people that are distinctly Californian,” said Rick Noguchi, President and CEO of California Humanities. “This celebration comes at a time when it is imperative to embrace the most human part of the humanities—the power of storytelling to connect, inspire, and foster understanding across our differences while advancing equality for all.”
California Humanities’ 50th-anniversary celebration will feature a thought-provoking conversation on the impact of Artificial Intelligence with Damon Horowitz, AI specialist, entrepreneur, philosopher, and former California Humanities Board Member (2011-2013) known for his work in artificial intelligence and ethics, and Michele Elam, William Robertson Coe Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. Rachael Myrow, Senior Editor of KQED’s Silicon Valley News Desk, will moderate the discussion. This discussion will explore how the humanities can revolutionize artificial intelligence.
Rob Bonta, 34th Attorney General of California, will also speak about the legacy of California Humanities and the importance of the humanities and artificial intelligence on government and society.
Rick Noguchi will open the evening and present the Spirit of the Humanities Award to Tani Cantil-Sakauye, President & CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, recognizing her significant contributions to the intersections of the humanities, criminal justice, and social policy.
“Tani Cantil-Sakauye embodies the spirit of leadership and service that inspires us all,” said Rachel Hatch, California Humanities Board Chair. “Her profound commitment to justice, equity, and community has left an indelible mark on California and beyond. All of us up here in a more rural part of the state such as Redding appreciate that she has made efforts over the years to tune in to what is happening in our civic life. We are honored to celebrate her remarkable contributions to the cultural life of our state, with all of its geographic diversity.”
Since its founding in 1974, California Humanities has supported thousands of projects, from oral history initiatives and documentaries to cultural festivals and educational programs. These efforts have illuminated the rich tapestry of California’s past and present while sparking conversations that bridge divides and celebrate diversity.
California Humanities Programs and Initiatives
California Humanities current programs and initiatives include the California Documentary Project (CDP), a grant program that supports the creation of documentary films, audio projects, and other media that explore California’s history, culture, and diverse communities. Since 2003, California Humanities has been the leading funder of documentary films, podcasts, and interactive media projects by, for, and about Californians. California Humanities has awarded over $8.5 million through the CDP grant program to nonfiction film, audio, and interactive media projects documenting California in all its complexity, earning Academy Award nominations, Emmys, and Peabody Awards. These works have aired on PBS and NPR, streamed on Netflix and HBO, and premiered at global film festivals. More importantly, CDP projects engage Californians in classrooms, public libraries, community screenings, and cultural centers, sparking conversation on critical and provocative topics.
Since 2017, California Humanities Library Innovation Lab (LIL), a nationally recognized program, has supported California’s public libraries through training, support, and resources for programming librarians. This support enables them to design and implement new public humanities projects that reach and engage underserved immigrant groups in California, who make up 25% of the state’s population. As of 2024, 84 libraries have participated in the program, offering hundreds of public humanities programs and experiences, reaching over 100,000 Californians.
Humanities for All is a grant program that supports locally initiated public humanities projects that respond to the needs and interests of Californians, encourage greater public participation in humanities programming, particularly by new and/or underserved audiences, and promotes understanding and empathy among all our state’s peoples to cultivate a thriving democracy.
Please visit https://calhum.org/programs-initiatives/ for more information about California Humanities’ current and past programs.
All proceeds from California Humanities’ 50th anniversary celebration will benefit programs and initiatives that amplify underrepresented voices, foster cultural understanding, and bring the humanities to communities across California.
CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
California Humanities 50th Anniversary Celebration
February 28, 2025, at 6:30 pm
The City Club of San Francisco
155 Sansome St, 10th floor, San Francisco, CA 94104
With special guests:
Rob Bonta, 34th Attorney General of California
Damon Horowitz, philosopher and technology entrepreneur
Michele Elam, William Robertson Coe Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University
Rachael Myrow, Senior Editor of KQED’s Silicon Valley News Desk
Tani Cantil Sakauye, President & CEO, Public Policy Institute of California, Public Humanities Award recipient
This event is free and open to the public. Please click here to register and for more information.
About California Humanities
The mission of California Humanities is to connect Californians to ideas and one another in order to understand our shared heritage and diverse cultures, inspire civic participation, and shape our future.
What Are The Humanities Anyway?
About Rob Bonta
Rob Bonta is the 34th Attorney General of the State of California, the first person of Filipino descent and the second AsianAmerican to occupy the position. In elected office, he has taken on powerful interests and advanced systemic change—pursuing corporate accountability, standing up for workers, punishing big polluters, and fighting racial injustice. He has served in the State Assembly, and as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco.
About Michele Elam
Michele Elam is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Humanities in the English Department at Stanford University, Former Associate Director and currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and a Race & Technology Affiliate at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Former Director of African & African American Studies, Elam is also affiliated with the Clayman Institute for Gender Research and with the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute. Elam’s research in interdisciplinary humanities connects literature, social sciences, and STEM in order to examine changing cultural interpretations of gender and race. Her work is informed by the understanding that racial perception and identification in particular impacts outcomes for health, wealth and social justice. Her most recent book project, Race Making in the Age of AI, considers how the humanities and arts function as key crucibles through which to frame and address urgent social questions about equity and social justice in socially transformative technologies. Her other books include Race, Work, and Desire in American Literature, 1860-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2003); The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millennium (Stanford University Press, 2011); and The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin (Cambridge University Press, 2015). She is currently on the Advisory Boards of Stanford’s Symbolic Systems Program; the Program in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies; the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Studies; the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity; and the Director’s Council for the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school). Dedicated to teaching, Elam has been awarded many teaching awards including the 2018 Walter J. Gores Award, the University’s highest teaching honor.
About Rachel Hatch
Rachel Hatch serves as Chair of the Board for California Humanities. She is author of Museum 2040: Citizen Artists & the New Economy (American Alliance for Museums) and a featured speaker for “Forecasting Four Alternative Futures for California” hosted by the California Research Bureau.
About Damon Horowitz
Dr. Damon Horowitz works at the intersection of technology and the humanities. As a professor, he has taught courses in philosophy, literature, AI, and cognitive science at Columbia, NYU, Stanford, U Penn, and San Quentin State Prison; and he has served on the Board of several arts and humanities non-profits, including California Humanities. In industry, he built several startup companies based on his natural language processing research, including Aardvark (acquired by Google), Perspecta (acquired by Excite), Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and NewsDB (Daylife); and he was the first “In-House Philosopher” at Google, leading a company-wide personalization initiative with a focus on data privacy issues. He is a popular public speaker at venues ranging from TED to AAAI to O’Reilly conferences, and his work has been featured in media ranging from The New York Times to The Chronicle of Higher Education to NPR to TechCrunch. He earned his BA from Columbia, his MS in Artificial Intelligence from the MIT Media Lab, and his PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University.
About Rachel Myrow
Rachael Myrow is Senior Editor of KQED’s Silicon Valley News Desk. You can hear her work on NPR, The World, WBUR’s Here & Now and the BBC. She also guest hosts for KQED’s Forum. Over the years, she’s talked with Kamau Bell, David Byrne, Kamala Harris, Tony Kushner, Armistead Maupin, Van Dyke Parks, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tommie Smith, among others. Before all this, she hosted The California Report for 7+ years. To learn more, please visit https://www.kqed.org/author/rachael-myrow.
About Tani Cantil-Sakauye
Tani Cantil-Sakauye is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California’s Future. From 2011 to 2022, she served as the 28th Chief Justice of California and led the judiciary as the chair of the Judicial Council—the constitutional policy and rule making body of the judicial branch—the first person of color and the second woman to do so. Before she was elected statewide as the Chief Justice of California, she served more than 20 years on California appellate and trial courts and was appointed or elevated to higher office by three governors. Earlier in her career she served as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and on the senior staff of Governor Deukmejian, first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary. She holds a BA and a JD from the University of California, Davis.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Lisa Bellamore
Crescent Communications
lbellamore@gmail.com
Vanessa Waite
Crescent Communications
vfloreswaite@gmail.com
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