The Sea Within Us: Caring for the Deep
• THURSDAY MAY 21, 2026 3:00 PM TO 5:30 PM
Organized by Professors Elizabeth DeLoughrey and Rebeca Méndez, and co-presented by the Hammer Museum with the UCLA Department of Media Arts and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s award-winning and widely influential book, The Sea Around Us, an interdisciplinary group of Indigenous culture bearers, scientists, artists, and ocean storytellers will address the legacy of DDT+, industrial, and radioactive waste dumping off the southern California coast. As a visionary marine biologist, Carson represented the science of the ocean alongside an ethic of accountability to what she termed our “mother sea.” To Carson, the ocean was a teacher, agent, and ancestor carried in our briny veins.
This panel will engage a wide range of perspectives about the cultures of ocean knowledge including Indigenous stewardship, the history and science behind the contamination, its impact on ocean ecosystems and marine mammals, and how collectively we might chart a path toward healing and accountability through diverse practices of caring for the deep.
PRESENTERS
Lihini Aluwihare, Professor, UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Tina Orduno Calderon, Culture bearer of the Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme Indigenous People
Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Professor, UCLA Department of English and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Alissa C. Deming, Vice President of Conservation Medicine and Science, Pacific Marine Mammal Center
Rebeca Méndez, artist and professor, UCLA Department of Design Media Arts
Tina Treude, Professor, UCLA Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Rev. Adelia Sandoval, Spiritual leader of the Acjachemen Indigenous People
David Valentine, Distinguished Professor, UCSB Department of Earth Science
Rosanna Xia, investigative journalist at the Los Angeles Times
https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/sea-within-us-caring-deep
Image: The Sea Around Us, 2022, Still frame of a video artwork by Rebeca Mendez. © 2022
Out of Plain Sight
• THURSDAY MAY 21, 2026 7:30 PM
Post-screening conversation with UCLA English Professor Elizabeth DeLoughrey, UCLA Design Media Arts Professor Rebeca Méndez, and the film’s co-director, investigative journalist Rosanna Xia
Co-presented by the Hammer Museum with the UCLA Department of Media Arts and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
From the Los Angeles Times and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia, Out of Plain Sight is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California.
Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovers a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean—and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.
2024, Dir. Daniel Straub, Rosanna Xia, DCP, color, 94 min.
https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/out-plain-sight
ATTENDING THIS PROGRAM?
Ticketing: Admission is free. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis, limit one per visitor. Box office opens one hour before the event.
Member Benefit: Subject to availability, Hammer Members can choose their preferred seats and pick up tickets for one additional guest. Members receive priority ticketing until 15 minutes before the program. Learn more about membership.
Parking: Self-parking is available under the museum. Rates are $8 for the first three hours with museum validation, and $3 for each additional 20 minutes, with a $22 daily maximum. There is an $8 flat rate after 5 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends.
Press: If you are a member of the press and are interested in attending and covering the program, please email Santiago Pazos at spazos@hammer.ucla.edu for accommodations.