Each year, a committee of UCSB faculty, staff, students, and community partners selects a thought-provoking, interdisciplinary book by a living author that encourages a wide range of readers to engage with a contemporary social, political, cultural or scientific issue and can be incorporated into the UCSB curriculum. Each committee member suggests two titles for the longlist, which is narrowed down by vote to the shortlist. The UCSB Reads 2026 book is chosen by vote from the five shortlisted titles.
Christoffer Bovbjerg: Associate Director, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
Meghan Bush: Miller McCune Executive Director, Arts & Lectures
Allyson Dahl: UCSB Undergraduate Student
Christopher Dean: Faculty, Writing
Brian Donnelly: Faculty, English
Rimika Jaiswal: UCSB Graduate Student
Sara Kelly: UCSB Library
Kenneth Kosik: Faculty, MCDB
John Latto: Faculty, College of Creative Studies
Christine Le Forge: UCSB Library
Shirley Geok-lin Lim: Emeriti Faculty, English
Rebecca Metzger: UCSB Library
Emily Perez: UCSB Undergraduate Student
Heather Silva: UCSB Library
Johannes Steffens: UCSB Library
David Stein: Faculty, History
Emily Teter: Health & Wellness
Hangping Xu: Faculty, East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies