The Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at the University of California, Santa Barbara, promotes discussion of how ethical teachings and values relate to civic life -- at the local, national, and global levels. We are committed to the fundamental belief that public dialogue and an informed and engaged citizenry are vital to democratic society. Non-partisan and non-sectarian, the Center seeks to strengthen and extend the principles on which such diverse, modern society rests, namely, tolerance and respect for the views of others, the practice of civility, and efforts to achieve the common good.

Welcome to the Walter H. Capps Center

Greetings from the Walter H. Capps Center! We are eager to welcome community members, students, and faculty back to campus for the Spring Quarter of 2026.

These continue to be difficult times in so many respects, and our mandate at the Center has never felt so urgent. In order to meet this challenge, we are setting our bearings with reference to one of Walter H. Capps’ core insights: democracies are sustained through conversation. Capps practiced what he preached, whether in the classroom, in his scholarly engagement, or in his political life, reaching out to people, listening across differences. That half of conversation—listening—is an increasingly lost art. At the Center we seek to cultivate this foundational skill, a deceptively difficult task that is much easier to announce than to practice, especially if the conversations we seek to foster extend beyond our own echo chambers. For starters, conversations of the generative sort Capps celebrated require willing partners and open ears. But we are all so busy, overwhelmed, and distracted. How do we refocus? From our side, we are seeking to create settings and develop relationships that will help us to cut through emotional and informational clutter. We invite you to join us in this effort. Consider attending our events this quarter (see below), and reach out if you have ideas for engaging with us in the future.

In addition to our programming, internships, and fellowships, we continue to pursue a number of initiatives that combine our outreach mandate with our intellectual mission. Here we would like to share exciting news with you about two of these. First, we are collaborating with Professor Joseph Blankholm, a Capps Center Advisory Board member, and his team to support implementation of their John Templeton Foundation project on “Metaphysical Spirituality and the Future of Religion.” Our modest role in the project is to facilitate programming on the topic, with plans to host one event per quarter over the next three years, including this Spring Quarter with a featured talk on Astrology and Metaphysics by Omri Elisha. Second, our long-term work on repatriation at UCSB and beyond has received a major boost by way of five-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. A continuation of our project entitled “Repatriation Futures,” this grant will enable sustained work with several teams of repatriation practitioners and policy experts from as close as Santa Ynez and as far as Nagaland. We will travel as a team to various communities, listening to, learning from, and supporting repatriation practitioners seeking to bring home their ancestors and sacred objects. As the project unfolds it will include a range of opportunities for community engagement and public participation. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting project.

More immediately, we invite you to join us for our quarterly events, including:

We have added videos to our YouTube channel, including from last quarter’s events. You can find other videos of past events on UCTV and UCTV’s YouTube Playlist.

For more, visit our website or follow us on social media.

Please stay in touch and we hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Greg Johnson

Director, Walter H. Capps Center

Image
greg johnson

 

spring 2026 flier