Recognized nationally and internationally, the Institute promotes collaborative work representing different fields and institutions both within and beyond the University of California. UCHRI addresses topics traditional to the humanities in disciplines such as literature, philosophy, classics, languages, and history, as well as the pressing human dimensions that arise in the social and natural sciences, technology, art, medicine, and the professions. Stressing interdisciplinary research, UCHRI bridges gaps between disciplines across the humanities and human sciences and seeks to overcome the intellectual and institutional barriers that can separate the humanities from other fields.

The Institute interacts with UC campus humanities centers and with individual faculty to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary humanities research and pedagogy throughout the UCs and within the larger communities they inhabit. Each year UCHRI hosts research groups in residence, initially soliciting proposals for group projects and subsequently seeking fellows whose work will contribute to and be enhanced by the Institute’s unique collaborative environment. UCHRI also awards the Andrew Vincent White and Florence Wales White Graduate Student Scholarship for dissertation research in the humanities or theoretical social sciences and medicine; and hosts the annual summer Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory. A wide range of conferences, seminars, workshops and other research projects throughout the UC system are also supported by UCHRI.