With a $1.5 million grant to UCI from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the UC Humanities Research Institute will explore new methods to understand rapidly evolving contemporary social and technological developments that defy traditional research approaches in the humanities. The Inquiry & Its Infrastructures: Horizons of the Humanities initiative will analyze four major themes: the interface between technology and human expression; the complex racial, cultural, religious and political differences created by a tightly connected world; the role of the university in addressing these socio-technological changes in a multidisciplinary way; and the type of infrastructure required to conduct the innovative, experimental research necessary to tackle these challenges. To do this, University of California humanities faculty and graduate students will join forces with media and technology professionals, prominent national and international scholars, and other key stakeholders. These efforts will include humanities studios, research residencies, nontraditional postdoctoral fellowships, and a variety of public engagements and partnerships. “We are thrilled to be supported by the Mellon Foundation on this ambitious program,” said institute director David Theo Goldberg, a UCI professor of comparative literature and anthropology. Based at UCI, the UC Humanities Research Institute supports collaborative research and teaching across the UC system and within the larger communities these campuses inhabit.