CAHSS Social Justice Colloquium

26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium Theme: Social Justice in the Real World: From Theory to Practice

Our theme for the 26th Social Justice Colloquium is “Social Justice in the Real World: From Theory to Practice.” We have a week of exciting events, exhibits, and presentations designed to engage in thoughtful discussions.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, March 9, 2023: In conversation with Josina Makau: Community-Building, Kinship, and Social Justice in the Real World | 5-6 pm, Building 70 |
Thursday, March 9, 2023: VPA Visiting Artist Series: Jessica Wimbley: Biomythography as a Visual Arts Practice | 6-8 pm, Building 70 |
Tuesday, March 14, 2023: Art As Resistance with Elizabeth Blancas | 12:30-1:30 pm, Otter Student Union, Room 210 |
Thursday, March 16, 2023: CSUMB Alumni Panel: featuring Alma Cervantes, Alie Jones, Nat Rojanasathira, Samatha Saldana, and Stevie Rae Stephens | Moderator: Nadia Pulu | Alumni & Visitors Center, Building 97, 6-7pm | Registration for Zoom link, event will be hybrid with in-person attendance encouraged (link disabled)
Thursday, March 16, 2023: 26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium Keynote Lecture: Dr. Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran | Alumni & Visitors Center, Building 97, 7-9 pm | Registration for Zoom link, event will be hybrid with in-person attendance encouraged: Link Disabled

All events are Free & Open to the Public! See all event details below.

Josina Makau

Jessica Wimbley

Elizabeth Blancas

Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran

In conversation with Josina Makau: Community-Building, Kinship, and Social Justice in the Real World

Join us for an engaging and interactive experience in conjunction with art exhibition, Spirituality, Kinship, and the Human Condition: Work’s by Carole A. Pavlo.
- Date: Thursday, March 9, 2023
- Time: 5-9pm
- Location: VPA building 70 | Program and Exhibitions Space
Free & Open to the Public! | Refreshments will be served.

Event title: In conversation with Josina Makau: Community-Building, Kinship, and Social Justice in the Real World

Lecture description:
In this period that can aptly be described as a time of crisis on multiple fronts—environmental, geo-political, and a global pandemic—it is evident that the fallout continues to disproportionately affect the most marginalized and vulnerable populations. In a time of great inequality, unrest, and division, we need to ask, what are the resources, knowledge, and skills needed to improve the quality of our communities and to forge bonds of kinship across our differences in the service of social justice in the real world? Esteemed CSUMB Founding Faculty member Dr. Josina Makau will share her insights, developed over decades of study on dialogue, cooperative argumentation, deliberation, decision making, and ethical and effective communication, in response to these pressing questions. At heart of this presentation and discussion will be key social justice concerns: How to give voice, how to be seen, how to be heard, and how to be understood.

About Dr. Josina Makau:

Josina M. Makau received an MA in Philosophy from UCLA, and an MA and PhD in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley. Following fifteen years on the faculty at Ohio State University, she was selected to help found CSUMB. During her tenure at the university, Dr. Makau served as the dean of arts and humanities, director of the Human Communication Division, and coordinator of the university’s Practical and Professional Ethics Program. Her local and regional community service have included participation in media literacy projects, partnerships in bioethics, peace work, moral education efforts, and service as Vice President of the PG Pops Orchestra Board of Directors. Nationally, Dr. Makau's record includes extensive service on editorial boards and academic review initiatives. She has served in a number of leadership roles within the Academy as well, including as Chair of the National Communication Ethics Commission and editor of Ethica, among others.
Affiliated Event on view through March 10, 2023: Spirituality, Kinship, and the Human Condition: Work’s by Carole A. Pavlo

Exhibition Hours: 1-5pm, Monday through Friday
Additional hours by appointment at jmakau@csumb.edu
Student tours available upon request: jmakau@csumb.edu

The Visual & Public Art Dept. is located:

3125 Inter-Garrison Rd, Seaside, CA 93955
(between 5th & 6th avenues | across from Otter Student Union.)
California State University, Monterey Bay
Exhibit entry is Free & Open to the Public!
VPA Visiting Artist Series, Jessica Wimbley: Biomythography as a Visual Arts Practice
- Date: Thursday, March 9, 2023
- Time: 6-8pm
- Location: VPA building 70 | Program and Exhibitions Space
Free & Open to the Public! | Refreshments will be served.

Lecture title: Biomythography as a Visual Arts Practice

Lecture description: Wimbley will discuss the evolution of conceptual and aesthetic approaches within her visual arts, curatorial, administrative, and public art practice. Wimbly will introduce Biomythography* as a framework that centers interpersonal and social justice throughout her professional practice.

*Biomythography is a literary term: A blend of biography + mythography, coined by feminist Audre Lorde, it is a style of composition that weaves myth, history, and biography in epic narrative.

About artist: Jessica Wimbley is an artist/curator based in Sacramento, California. Wimbley utilizes the literary term biomythography, defined by poet Audre Lorde as a combination of “biography, myth, and history”, as an interdisciplinary visual arts practice and framework for curatorial inquiry. Her art practice incorporates the building of visual archives via a variety of photographic/material culture. With these images, she creates interruptions and juxtapositions within histories of identity, digital photography, video, performance, and collage. Her works are included in academic, museum, and public art collections including CA Public Digital Art Collection, Crocker Museum of Art, and LACMA.

Her recent public art projects include Fieldworks: Califia, 2021, part of the CA Public Digital Art Collection, the “Social Justice Billboard Project” in collaboration with the Northeast Sculpture and Gallery Factory in Minneapolis, MN, Masking Series,2021 featuring video and still photography created in partnership with the State of California and The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, to speak directly to Californians who have been hardest hit by COVID-19.

Wimbley received her BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, M.F.A in Visual Arts from the University of California, Davis, and her MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University. Wimbley is currently Artist in Residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA.
Artist's Website: https://www.jessicawimbley.com/

The Visual & Public Art Dept. is located:
3125 Inter-Garrison Rd, Seaside, CA 93955
(between 5th & 6th avenues | across from Otter Student Union.)
California State University, Monterey Bay
Exhibit entry is Free & Open to the Public!
Art As Resistance with Elizabeth Blancas
- Date: Tuesday, March 14th, 2023
- Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm
- Location: Otter Student Union (OSU), rm. 210
Free & Open to the Public!

This event is in partnership with the OSC, Associated Students & Otter Cultural Center.

Event description: Join us as Elizabeth Blancas, a first gen queer Xicana artist based in the Bay Area, showcases her art and speaks about the power of art as resistance. Exploring themes around culture, identity, womanhood, and sexuality, her work serves as a platform to empower LGBTQIA+ folks and communities of color.

About artist: Elizabeth Blancas is a first generation queer Xicana artist based in the Bay Area. She utilizes art as a tool for resistance as well as a celebration of her community. Blancas specializes in muralism and screen printing; exploring themes around culture, identity, womanhood and sexuality. Her work serves as a platform to empower LGBTQIA+ folks and communities of color. Blancas holds a B.A. from UCLA in Chicanx Studies and Art History. @Ishoudbepainting

The Otter Student Union is located @:
3118 Inter-Garrison Rd, Seaside, CA 93955
(@ 5th Ave. | across from the Visual & Public Art Dept.)
California State University, Monterey Bay
CSUMB Alumni Panel
featuring CAHSS Alumni, Alma Cervantes, Alie Jones, Nat Rojanasathira, Samatha Saldana, and Stevie Rae Stephens | Event moderated by Nadia Pulu.
- Date: Thursday, March 16, 2023
- Time: 6-7 p.m. (followed by SJC Keynote Speaker)
- Location: Alumni & Visitors Center, CSUMB Building 97
Free & Open to the Public! | Registration Zoom link (event will be hybrid with in-person attendance encouraged) RSVP Link & Self-Attestation

Alumni Participants:

Alma Cervantes (World Languages and Culture):  With more than 10 years of work on grassroots organizing, Alma Cervantes has advocated for just and culturally rooted education practices. She has led the Education Equity Justice Action Team for Building Healthy Communities-Monterey County, among other transformative projects.

Alie Jones (Cinematic Arts and Technology):  Committed to the idea that art can transform our consciousness and inspire anti-racist practices, Alie Jones became the co-founder and director of Black Freighter Press and also the founder of Bodacious Bombshells, a wellness collective in Oakland.

Nat Rojanasathira (Global Studies):  The Assistant City Manager of Monterey has a long experience working on key projects that enhance the public life of local municipalities. From transportation to human services, parks, libraries, community development efforts, etc. Nat Rojanasathira has the vision to promote justice and well-being in Monterey County.

Samatha Saldana (Visual and Public Art):  Samantha Saldana is a lens-based interdisciplinary artist whose scholarship explores community social justice issues, identity, family relationships, and intersectionality. Saldana is a graduate of the Visual and Public Art Dept. at CSUMB and is currently an MFA candidate in the Photography Program at San Jose State University. Saldana's work engages accessibility to arts education, advocacy, and mentorship opportunities. A recent body of work explores narrative relationships within marginalized communities and the social and cultural expectations of Latinx millennials.

Stevie Rae Stephens (Music and Performing Arts): Stevie Rae is a songwriter and theater performer who has used her music to challenge the social constructs of gender. She has launched her career writing female empowerment music and has produced her own performance of an Obie-Award-winning play in the busy artistic scene of Nashville, Tennessee.

The Alumni & Visitors Center is located @:
5108 4th Ave, Marina, CA 93933
(@ Inter-Garrison & 4th Ave. & 4th Ave.)
California State University, Monterey Bay
26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium Keynote Lecture: Dr. Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran

Join us for a keynote presentation from Dr. Jennifer Tran who will be discussing her teaching, research, and community work and the endeavor of putting social justice values and ideas into action.
- Event Title: 26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium Keynote Lecture by Dr. Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran
- Date: Thursday, March 16, 2023
- Time: 7-9 p.m. (keynote preceded by Alumni Panel, 6-7pm)
- Location: Alumni & Visitors Center, CSUMB Building 97
Free & Open to the Public! | Registration Zoom link (event will be hybrid with in-person attendance encouraged) RSVP Link & Self-Attestation

Keynote Lecturer Bio:

Dr. Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University, East Bay, whose teaching and research draws from a wealth of experience in community organizing, asset- building, leadership development, and strategic planning. She is fluent in Vietnamese and Spanish, and has deep roots in the Vietnamese American community of her native Oakland. She is also the inaugural Executive Director of PIVOT, a nationwide organization founded in 2017 to engage and empower Vietnamese Americans for a just and diverse America. She formerly served as the Executive Director of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce. She also serves as a Board member on Oakland’s Parks and Recreation Foundation, Peralta Colleges Foundation, and has co-chaired Oakland’s New Leaders Council.

The Alumni & Visitors Center is located @:
5108 4th Ave, Marina, CA 93933
(@ Inter-Garrison & 4th Ave. & 4th Ave.)
California State University, Monterey Bay

26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium Acknowledgements

The 26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium was made possible in part through CSUMB Special Event Funding, the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and partnerships & collaborations with:

College of Business
Humanities and Communication
Music and Performing Arts
Psychology
Social, Behavioral Sciences and Global Studies
Visual and Public Art
World Languages and Cultures

26th Annual Social Justice Colloquium Committee:
Angelica Muro, Phuong Nguyen, Estella Porras, Ernest Stromberg, Daniel Summerhill, Angie Tran, and Maria Villasenor.

More About the Social Justice Colloquium

The Social Justice Colloquium was initiated in 1997 by Dr. Gerald Shenk (US Historian) and Dr. Angie Tran (Political Economist) from the CAHSS School of Social, Behavioral, and Global Studies. It has grown to be a collaborative effort across the college spanning a week or more of guest speakers in keynote, plenary, public, and classroom workshops across the college community. The goals:

To combine teaching and scholarship in support of specific curricular offerings.
To address topics and issues uniquely significant to the diverse students, faculty, staff and administration at CSUMB and to our constituent communities in the Monterey Bay region.
To erase the artificial academic line that has been drawn between what is scholarly and what is personal.
To offer CSUMB students faculty and staff the opportunity to engage in scholarly conversation with recognized scholars and experts from outside the campus.
To invite all members of the CSUMB constituent communities to explore critically current issues of social justice in their historical, local, and global contexts.

This annual event has been funded each year since 1997 by the campus’ special events funding pool, coupled with contributions of staff and faculty time, talent and funds from campus departments. A dedicated fund would stabilize the funding for the event, thus enabling the campus to enhance its ability to bring thought leaders on the social justice issues of our time into conversation with campus and community members and afford focused guest lectures and workshops in our classes across the curriculum. Recent expansion of the program to be across the college and in multi-disciplinary venues and expressions realizes the college’s mission and enriches our contribution to the campus and community.

This event is part of the CAHSS Arts & Lectures Series, a wide range of events that includes guest artists and notable speakers as well as our renowned faculty.

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences