News : Faculty
What UCSB’s Mona Damluji ‘Wants You to Know’ About her new Children’s Book
By Sally Shapiro
When UC Santa Barbara professor Mona Damluji finished her first children’s book, “Together,” she imagined a parent sitting down with their child, opening the book, and reading her words aloud— filling the room with unity and action.
“It’s something that enters someone’s home or a classroom, and it becomes part of a family’s life,” Damluji said. “To me, there’s no greater honor.”
Damluji is an Emmy-nominated producer and teaches in UCBS’s Film and Media Studies department. She also co-convenes the Climate Justice Working Group, under the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. Damluji published her first children’s book in 2021, a poem that stresses the importance of collective action. The book merges Damluji’s interests in social justice, activism, and storytelling. Together puts forward the idea that when we speak alone, we aren’t heard, but collective action has the power to change the world.
In Spring 2025, Damluji will release her second children’s book, “I Want You To Know.” Written for her children on the anniversary of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the book addresses the generational impacts of war and displacement, offering a parent’s perspective on current conflicts in the Middle East. It opens a dialogue about how childhoods can be shaped by colonialism and how trauma is passed down through generations. Damluji says her book aims to introduce families to important, yet complex, conversations through beautiful illustrations and the power of poetry. She recently spoke about it in an interview.