Carolyn de la Peña, a professor of American studies who directs the UC Davis Humanities Institute and co-edits the UC magazine Boom: A Journal of California, has been appointed interim vice provost of Undergraduate Education.

De la Peña officially assumes her new post Jan. 1. Her appointment is for one year, or until the appointment of a permanent replacement. Pat Turner, who has served in the post for the last 13 years, is switching UC campuses at the end of the year, moving to UCLA to serve as its dean and vice provost of Undergraduate Education.

UC Davis Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter, who appointed de la Peña, plans to launch a national search for a permanent replacement in 2013.

Under the rain of confetti and to the roll of drums, University of California, Davis, officials celebrated the start of a project to clear a site for a $15 million new music recital hall and classroom building. The milestone was made possible by philanthropic support from local arts patrons.

When the facility is completed, it is expected to become one of the region's most active concert venues, offering more than 100 performances annually by such groups as the UC Davis Chorus, University Chamber Singers, Empyrean Ensemble, UC Davis Jazz Band and UC Davis Baroque Ensemble. It also will provide much-needed classroom space for the university.

"This is a tremendously exciting day and the culmination of years of work and planning," said Jessie Ann Owens, Dean of the UC Davis Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies and a musicologist.

"This project is the realization of a long-held campus dream -- the beginning of a building that will benefit generations of music students and scholars and bring further distinction to UC Davis and our community."

UC Davis recently launched a new grants program aimed at spurring multidisciplinary collaborations in the humanities, arts and humanistic social sciences.

The Office of Research will coordinate the Interdisciplinary Frontiers in the Humanities and Arts program, which will provide UC Davis faculty with seed money - grants ranging from $100,000 to $1 million over three years - to further strengthen their ability to compete for major foundation, federal and philanthropic grants and to explore private partnerships. Successful proposals will be those that demonstrate the greatest potential for excellence in research and creative production, as well as societal impact.

Harris Lewin, UC Davis' vice chancellor for research, said, "The goal of our new Interdisciplinary Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities program is to identify and support innovative projects across the campus that that will impact the intellectual, artistic and social growth of the campus, the region and the world at large."

With over 450 majors, Design is the one of the largest academic units in the Division of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies. It has been a focused area of study at UC Davis for more than 40 years. And effective this year, it has made the change from program to department.

Once housed as a department in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Science, Design moved to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Division of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies in 2005 to align more closely with related academic disciplines. As part of the move, Design changed status from department to program.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs now stands as one of the most important of all Hollywood films, and its influence on movies - by Orson Welles, Michael Powell, and many others - extends to the present day. Based on extensive research in materials from the period of the film's production and distribution, professor of American studies and cinema and technocultural studies Eric Smoodin's study presents a careful history of the events that led up to Snow White, the trajectory of Disney's career that made this extraordinary project a logical next step, the reception of the film in the US and around the world, and its impact on so many aspects of contemporary culture.

This special edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series.