Humanities and Communication
Faculty Achievements & Excellence
HCOM faculty are active voices in a wide range of scholarly, creative, and professional communities. 📚✨ Check out some recent highlights of their impactful work below!
Alumni Partner with Professor David Reichard in Legal Aid Internship Course
This semester, HCOM professor David Reichard is partnering in HCOM 498 with five legal aid organizations where students are working to help close the justice gap through internships. There are CSUMB alum on staff at all five sites, including HCOM grads Vanessa Ambriz (L) from California Rural Legal Assistance and Adriana Melogoza (R) from Watsonville Law Center along with Social and Behavior Sciences alum Elizabet Gonzalez (M) from UFW Foundation. Not pictured are HCOM alums Joseph Belmont from Monterey College of Law Legal Clinics and Jerennina Piquing from Legal Services for Seniors.
Want to know more about Pre-Law at CSUMB? Visit our Pre-Law Advising page at csumb.edu/prelaw. Want to support students? Consider a donation to a new Legal Studies Scholarship fund!
Dr. John Berteaux has been appointed Executive Editor of the journal Comparative Civilizations Review.
He has the following new publications: Spring 2020 from Academic Questions A Publication of the National Association of Scholars: Humanistic Inquiry: Reconciling Knowledge Reality and Imagination
Spring 2020 from the journal Comparative Civilizations Review: Applying Wisdom When Civilization Is At A Crossroads.
Dr. Patrick Belanger Publishes Book
Rhetoric and Settler Inertia: Strategies of Canadian Decolonization explores how communication might accelerate decolonial actions in Canada.
Tracing a middle path between essential Indigenous-focused calls for resurgence, and idealistic appeals to settler conscience, Patrick Belanger identifies communication forms that can generate settler support for decolonization.
Accenting the importance of both Indigenous and settler audiences, this book suggests the promise of decolonial rhetoric framed in the language of mutual benefit.
The book was published in 2019.
Professor Debian Marty on Slavery, Ancestry and Racial Reconciliation
HCOM professor Dr. Debian Marty's essay, "Born Both Innocent and Accountable: A Moral Reckoning" will appear in the forthcoming anthology Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation to be published by Rutgers University Press in the spring. The book is a product of the Coming to the Table Writers Group, a national organization that brings together descendants of enslavers and the enslaved for racial reconciliation. Professor Marty's chapter examines the moral choices made by her Quaker ancestors, one of whom was an enslaver and one who was anti-slavery, and the subsequent moral legacies that white people still are reckoning with today.
Professor Patrick Belanger Forthcoming Book
HCOM Professor Patrick Belanger's new co-authored book, Community-Focused Counter-Radicalization and Counter-Terrorism Projects: Experiences and Lessons Learned. will be published by Lexington Books in November, 2018. In the book, Professor Belanger, along with his co-authors Kawser Ahmed and Susan Szmania, focus on the perceptions and experiences of twenty-nine community-based counter-radicalization project leaders in eight western countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Scotland, and France. By highlighting the importance of listening to community members, the book offers a rare chance to directly hear community members’ ideas, frustrations, and hopes.
Professor Jennifer Fletcher Publishes New Book
In Teaching Literature Rhetorically: Transferable Literacy Skills for 21st Century Student, HCOM Professor Jennifer Fletcher explores rhetorical approaches to novels, short stories, poetry, and drama that empower all students to read and write across the diverse contexts of today and tomorrow. In this resource for secondary school English teachers, Dr. Fletcher shows how teaching literature rhetorically prepares students to be adaptive thinkers and communicators who can transfer their learning to new tasks and settings. The book is available from Stenhouse Publishers.
Stephanie Spoto Explores Educational Rights, International Students and Pedagogy in Edited Collection
Lecturer Stephanie Spoto has co-edited a collection of essays entitled International Education, Educational Rights and Pedagogy along with Dr. Maja Milatovic (Australian National University) and Dr. Lena Wanggren (University of Edinburgh). The collection is a special issue of International Education: Comparative Perspectives. As Spoto and her co-editors note, "The increased commodification and marketization of higher education complicate the present challenges in ensuring culturally sensitive and competent pedagogies and enabling international students’ educational rights and equal access to opportunities and knowledge. Linking the multifaceted concept of educational rights to international student education and pedagogy, we explore issues related to cultural diversity, safety, vulnerability, welfare, peaceful co-existence in a changing global environment."
Kent Leatham New Poetry
Kent Leatham has three poems forthcoming this fall in the literary journal Angel City Review, three poems forthcoming in the journal Word/For Word, and one poem already released in the journal Softblow. These poems deal with intersecting themes of violence and tragedy (such as the mass shooting in Orlando in 2016), contemporary queer identity, environmental destruction, political unrest, and a continuing exploration of the author's own ambiguous ancestry.
HCOM Professor John Berteaux Presents Paper in China
HCOM Professor John Berteaux presented his paper, ”Contested Courses - Contested Concepts: A Defense of the Humanities,” at the 48th International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC) Conference this past summer. The conference was held at Soochow University located in Suzhou China. Soochow is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China.
HCOM Professor Kelly Medina-Lopez and Students Present Research at Conference
HCOM Professor Kelly Medina-López and HCOM majors Ilene Gomez and Sonia Olmos attended the 3rd Biennial Cultural Rhetorics Conference at Michigan State University where they presented their original research on a panel titled, "A Guatemalan, A Salvadoran, And A Chicanx Walk Into A Classroom: Textiles, Myths, and Cultural Rhetorics Mentorship." Their trip was sponsored by CSUMB's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center.
Lecturer Meghan O'Donnell Contributor to Women's History Collection
HCOM Lecturer Meghan O'Donnell was a contributing author in the recently published four volume series, Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection published by ABC-Clio. Her two articles focused on suffrage and abolition activists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anna Elizabeth Dickinson. As the publisher notes, "this four-volume set documents the complexity and richness of women's contributions to American history and culture, empowering all students by demonstrating a more populist approach to the past."
Phuong Nguyen Explores Vietnamese Refugee Identity in Becoming Refugee American
Phuong Nguyen, Associate Professor of History, published the book Becoming Refugee American (University of Illinois Press, 2017), which explores the complex identity formation of Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Focusing on Southern California’s Little Saigon, Nguyen examines how refugee nationalism emerged not as a rejection of American assimilation, but as a unique form of cultural and political expression. Through this lens, the book offers a powerful rethinking of the refugee experience, American identity, and the Cold War’s legacy.
Deb Busman to deliver Keynote Address & serve on Panel Discussion
Debra Busman will deliver a keynote address at The Gathering for Women: A Refuge for Unsheltered Women in Monterey County on March 5. Busman will also be part of a panel discussion, “Rebel Girls: Pushing Boundaries Across Landscapes, Cultures and Confines” at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Los Angeles in April. Her essay "You Gotta Be Ready for Some Serious Truth to be Spoken," is being published in February in Talking Back and Looking Forward: An Educational Revolution in Poetry and Prose, eds. Paul C. Gorski, Rosanna M. Salcedo, Julie Landsman. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Estella Porras produces Podcast in Spanish
Estella Porras has produced a podcast, "EL Reino de la Nutria" in Spanish, featuring interviews with Latinos/ Latinas and their contributions to the Central Coast region regarding arts, education, culture, science, and economy. You can find the podcast on Soundcloud.
Umi Vaughan contributes to the Routledge History of Latin America
Umi Vaughan's chapter, "The Genesis of Afro-Latin Music," will appear this spring in the The Routledge History of Latin America. He will also do an invited lecture/performance presentation at Stanford University as part of a Dance Studies Colloquium in May.
David Reichard Publishes in the Oral History Review
David A. Reichard's article, "Behind the Scenes at the Gayzette: The Gay Student Union and Queer World Making at UCLA in the 1970s" has just been published by Oral History Review, part of a special issue on LGBT oral history.
Debian Marty Publishes & Attends Book Launch
Debian Marty's article, "A Tribute to an Anti-Slavery Martyr: Rees Perkins Brown (1825-1856)https://leavenworthhistory.wordpress.com/2016/01/" was published in January by the Leavenworth County (KS) Historical Society. In addition, her chapter, “One More River to Cross: The Crosswhites’ Escape from Slavery," has been published in V. Tucker and K. S. Frost (Eds.), A Fluid Frontier: Freedom, Slavery and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016). She will be attending the book launch in Detroit timed to coincide with Black History Month.
Josina Makau to facilitate and present at Conferences in D.C. & San Diego
Emerita faculty Josina M. Makau is the co-facilitator and a panelist on the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Conference Program titled "'Human Nature and its Implications for Ethics and Education." The conference is scheduled February 18-21 in Washington D. C.
Josina M. Makauis also serving as facilitator and presenter on the Organization for Research on Women and Communication Gender Conference Program titled "New Questions" to be held in San Diego on February 27th.
Meghan O'Donnell to give a Lecture at the First Mayors House
Meghan O'Donnell will be giving a lecture on "Manifest Destiny, Westward Expansion, and Race in America" at a Learning Through Local History event at the First Mayors House in Salinas, on Feb. 11th, 2016. She will also facilitate a workshop for local 5th grade teachers on incorporating local history in their lessons.
Professor Cecilia O'Leary to present at Public Symposium
Recently retired, but still teaching for HCOM part-time, Professor Cecilia O'Leary has been invited to give a talk and participate in a Public Symposium Exploring Slavery, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. “Memories of a Massacre: Memphis, 1866” is a partnership between the University of Memphis in partnership and the National Parks Service and is the centerpiece of a semester-long series of events designed to bring public attention to one of the largest acts of racial violence to rattle the nation in the wake of emancipation.
Patrick Belanger publishes Article in Canadian Journal
Patrick Belanger's article, "Rhetoric and Collective Necessity: The Declaration of Independence" has been published in Rhetor: Journal of the Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric.
Cecilia O'Leary to be Guest Speaker on the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Professor O'Leary has also been invited to be a guest speaker on the National Museum of African American History and Culture at a two-week NEH Summer Institute for college and university teachers organized by the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The focus will be on "Visual Culture of the American Civil War and its Aftermath." Professor O'Leary is a Senior Advisor to the Director of the new museum which is scheduled to open on September 24, 2016.
Rina Benmayor contributes Field Collection of Sephardic Ballads to Digital Library
HCOM faculty emerita Rina Benmayor has been busy in retirement! Her field collection of Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) ballads (romances) gathered in Los Angeles and Seattle in 1972-73, will soon be available online through the Sephardic Studies Digital Library and Museum at the University of Washington. These medieval Spanish ballads, passed down in oral tradition for over 500 years in exile from Spain, were sung in the home and in community gatherings. They were brought to the United States by immigrants from Greece and Turkey throughout the first half of the XXth century and sung from memory. This folk tradition is now virtually extinct as a cultural practice among Sephardic Jews. Benmayor's singers reflect the last generation of singers to have grown up hearing these ballads.
Rina Benmayor et al. publish Memories, Subjectivities, and Representation
Rina Benmayor, María Eugenia Cardenal de la Nuez, and Pilar Domínguez, have just published (2016) the first volume in the Palgrave Studies in Oral History series devoted to oral history research in translation. Memory, Subjectivities, and Representation: Approaches to Oral History in Latin America, Portugal, and Spain, consists of 11 original essays written in or translated into English, aimed at bringing oral history research in Spanish and Portuguese to Anglophone audiences. The essays explore a variety of themes: Portuguese veterans of the African colonial war, trade union activists in Spain during the Franco regime, women militants in the anti-dictatorship struggles in the Southern Cone, gender identity and nationalism in the Basque Country, women migrants and labor, career struggles during the recession in Spain, tattoos as auto-bio-graphical inscriptions, anti-racist pedagogies in Brazil, memories of the 1968 student massacre of Tlatelolco, Mexico, and memory and performance vis the 1975 "Carnation Revolution" in Portugal. The CSUMB Library has copies available.
Rina Benmayor and Kristen LaFollette organize latest Oral History Project
The CSUMB Founding Faculty Oral History Project is proceeding, with 10 interviews completed to date. The interviews are being conducted by a group of founding faculty themselves, and will focus on faculty who were present in the first three years of the university's establishment. Rina Benmayor and Kristen LaFollette are the organizers.
Kent Leatham publishes Poetry
One of Kent Leatham's poems was just published in Poetry Quarterly in January, he has one forthcoming in Ploughshares, and three Scots-language poetry translations of Robert Henryson (1425-1500) forthcoming in InTranslation in March.
Kyle Livie Giving Two Conference Presentations This Spring
Kylie Livie will present his paper, "America 'at the Junction': Place, Modernity, and Memory in Paul Henning's "Ruralcoms," 1962-1971" at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Meeting in Seattle in March. He will also present his paper "Cultivating Community: Parades, Pageants, and Power in Rural California Towns, 1917-1937" and the Western Social Science Association in Reno, NV in April.
HCOM Emerita Professor Frances Payne Adler's Exhibition Opening March 3rd
HCOM Emerita Professor Frances Payne Adler's exhibition, "Dare I Call You Cousin," opens March 3, 2016. Including photos, poems, and videos, it explore the struggle of Israelis and Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line and is a collaboration with two Israeli artists, photographer Michal Fattal and videographer Yossi Yacov. The opening is being funded, in part, by Portland's Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and is hosted by Havurah Shalom and co-sponsored by J Street Education Fund. Professor Adler will do a reading of her poetry on March 8, 2016.
Photo: Michal Fattal/Flash 90
Stephanie Spoto & Sriya Shrestha to host Series at Old Capitol Books
HCOM Lecturer Stephanie Spoto has organized a series of seminars on critical theory this Spring at Old Capitol Books in Monterey--all starting at 7:00 PM. Sriya Shrestha, also teaching in HCOM, will be facilitating two of these. The series includes Black Feminism on March 4th with Sriya Shrestha; Situationalism on March 11th with CSUMB alum Ben Wilson; Post-Colonial Theory on March 18th with Sriya Shrestha and Social Perceptions of Disability on March 35th with Ali Elfaki a student at Monterey Peninsula College. More on the series here.
Deb Busman reads novel, Like a Woman in Seattle
Debra Busman had a busy fall 2015 sabbatical. She kicked it off in summer with a reading at Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle, with other recent authors from Dzanc Books, the publisher of her novel, like a woman. In the fall, she was a Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, where Creative Writing Director Elmaz Abinader redesigned her MFA Fiction course around "Rebel Girl Narrators." Students studied Busman's novel along with works by June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Daisy Hernandez, Mari Naomi, and more. She also found time to do a reading and visit with Professor Maria Villasenor's First Year Seminar class. Other readings during the semester included a keynote address for Central Coast Writers Group, a reading at Lit Crawl 2015 in Portland, including a Literary Salon Dinner hosted by Emerita Professor and Founder of the Creative Writing and Social Action Program in HCOM, Frances Payne Adler. Her novel is continuing to garner strong reviews including in The Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Lambda Literary Review.
Dzanc Books authors Jen Grow, Patrick O'Neil, Shya Scanlon, and Deb Busman after their reading at Elliott Bay Books, Seattle.
HCOM Faculty attend the National Communication Association Conference in Las Vegas
HCOM faculty Josina Makau, Debian Marty, Patrick Belanger, and Mridula Mascarenhas attended the National Communication Association Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada, this year. Josina, Debian, and Mridula attended a workshop conducted by the newly formed Dialogue and Deliberation division, a group of Communication scholars who are committed to researching and teaching communication practices that can help individuals, groups, and organizations move beyond gridlocks that occur when we remain entrenched in debating those we disagree with. Dialogue is a communication practice that helps us understand others with opposing points of view, while deliberation is a communication practice that facilitates decision-making among people with competing perspectives on an issue. The workshop covered historical perspectives on the practice and study of deliberation, approaches to teaching dialogue and deliberation in college classrooms, and opportunities for conducting scholarship on dialogue and deliberation by partnering with various national agencies. Josina and Debian have written a well-known textbook on the topic, which was featured in the reading list distributed at the event.
Professors Mascarenhas, Makau, Marty and Belanger at the NCA conference in Las Vegas.Patrick also presented his scholarship at a panel entitled "Embracing Opportunities: Building and Strengthening Entrepreneurial Partnerships between Academia and Outside Organizations in the Realm of Peace and Conflict Communication." His position paper "Restorative Justice Partners, Inc. and Peacebuilding Theory" addressed the challenges and benefits of academic – NGO collaborations, and explored ways to strengthen partnerships between academia and peace-focused organizations.
Qun Wang delivers lectures at Shanghai International Studies University & Shanghai Second Polytechnic University
Dr. Qun Wang delivered a lecture entitled “Necessitating the Theoretical Research in Literary Criticism” at Shanghai International Studies University on November 23, 2015. The lecture was attended by upper division English majors, master’s students and doctoral students, as well as English professors. He also gave a talk on “(Re)presenting Contemporary American Culture in Literature and Film” to film and literary studies students at Shanghai Second Polytechnic University, one of CSUMB's prospective sister schools, on November 24, 2015.
Professor Wang lecturing at Shanghai International Studies University, November 2015.
HCOM Faculty attend Oral History Association annual meeting
HCOM emerita Professor Rina Benmayor, Professor David A. Reichard and Lecturer Kristen La Follette recently attended the 2015 Oral History Association annual meeting in Tampa, Florida. Professors Benmayor and La Follette presentation, “Selfie” Oral History: Pushing the Boundaries of Tradition?" focused on a new oral history project documenting the founding faculty of CSUMB. Professor Reichard participated in a round table discussion, "Coming out on Campus and in the Community: Collecting LGBTQ+ Oral Histories," in which he shared his experience collecting oral histories about early LGBT campus organizing in California during the 1960s and 1970s, his current research project.
David Reichard et al. attend the Bay Area History Tuning workshop
Professors David A. Reichard (HCOM), Gerald Shenk and Rebecca Bales ( Social, Behavioral and Global Studies) attended a meeting and workshop on the Tuning Project from the American Historical Association held at CSU East Bay. The Bay Area History Tuning Workshop provided an amazing opportunity for these CSUMB historians to share ideas and learn from colleagues at other CSU and community college campuses in California about best practices in the teaching and learning of history.
Kyle Livie gives Talk at South by Southwest in Austin
This spring, HCOM faculty member Kyle Livie gave a talk at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin as part of a panel titled “Social Teaching for Social Learning." Dr. Livie’s talk, titled “How to Get the ‘Golden Get-Together’: Teaching Historical Thinking and Research Strategies Using Collaborative New Media," explored the ways that new media and digital collaborative tools can be used to teach research and writing in the humanities. Livie developed an activity that used digitized materials from his own research on rural communities in California to teach analytical strategies with collaborative tools like Google Apps. This talk has inspired a larger project to develop a centralized platform to aid public historians in compiling community histories, using new media tools to mobilize community involvement in local historical research and collective memory.
Kyle Livie at the South by Southwest Conference.Jennifer Fletcher presents for a Webinar in Michigan
Professor Jennifer Fletcher was a featured presenter for a webinar sponsored by Oakland Schools and the Oakland Writing project in Michigan. Her talk, "Revising Rhetorically: Re-Seeing Writing Through the Lens of Audience, Purpose and Context," draws on her current book, Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response.
Lecturer J.C. Ross Awarded First Prize at Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference
Congratulations to HCOM Lecturer J.C. Ross. An excerpt from her work in progress, entitled “Already We Are in Idaho,” was awarded First Prize in the novel category at the Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference.
Source: Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference
Meghan O'Donnell gives talk to Phi Alpha Theta Historical Honors alumni
Meghan O’Donnell, faculty since 2011, gave a talk over the summer at a gathering of Phi Alpha Theta Historical Honors alumni on her developing research on the history of terrorism (research which will hopefully translate into an upcoming course in Spring 2017). She also collaborated with fellow HCOM lecturer, Dr. Sriya Shrestha, to create a new version of GS 326 - US Foreign Policy & Empire, as a co-taught course this semester. Meghan also continues to serve as CSUMB’s Surf Club Advisor, and will assist CSUMB’s advanced surfers compete in the National Scholastic Surfing Association this year.
Gayle McCallum New Chair of Santa Cruz Shingu, Japan Sister Cities Committee
Gayle McCallum, faculty member in HCOM since 1999, is the new Chair of the Santa Cruz Shingu, Japan Sister Cities Committee. This long-standing program arranges exchanges between local teenagers and teenagers in Japan, featuring home stays with families and educational and recreational events in both Santa Cruz and its Japanese sister city, Shingu, in Wakayama prefecture. Gayle, whose daughters both went to Shingu as exchange students, now takes a group to Japan each spring, and coordinates the group that visits California. The friendship and cultural exchange continue to foster good will and transformation for young people both here and abroad. Read more about the sister cities program in Santa Cruz on the city's website.
Diana Garcia reads her Poetry at the National Portrait Gallery at the Library of Congress
Professor Diana Garcia has been invited to write ekphrastic poems in response to the One Life: Dolores Huerta exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery at the Library of Congress. The gallery chooses one American historical figure each year and highlights their lives in paintings, photos, and mementos. While she was in Washington, D.C. to preview the exhibit, Robert Casper, director of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress, invited Professor Garcia to record some of her poems for the Library of Congress's archive as part of the growing body of Hispanic literature. To cap it all off, in January, 2016, along with U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and Arlene Biala, a Bay Area poet, she will give a reading at the National Portrait Gallery.
Professor Diana Garcia at the Library of Congress, August 2015.Deb Busman invited to speak on novel, Like a Woman
Professor Debra Busman's novel, like a woman, continues to earn rave reviews. The Los Angeles Times called it "gritty but tender: charming in its immodesty and sinewy as a junkyard dog." She has been invited to be a visiting writer at Mills College this fall, and to present at the upcoming AWP Conference on "Rebel Girls: Pushing Boundaries Across Landscapes, Cultures and Confines."
David Reciahrd & Kristen LaFollette working with the People's Oral History Project of Monterey County
Professors David Reichard and Kristen La Follette are working with the People’s Oral History Project of Monterey County this semester in their respective classes. That project--created by three long time local activists--has already collected 60 oral histories. In Kristen’s class, HCOM 350S a service learning course--students will be collecting additional oral histories. In Dave’s class, HCOM 363 students will be starting from the oral histories already collected to conduct further research in local archives and libraries. The plan is to create an online exhibit showcasing highlights from the students' research.
John Berteaux teach summer course in Haiti
Professor John Berteaux spent six weeks this summer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at the Institute for Social Work and Sociology teaching "The Philosophy of Human Nature." He plans to return next year to teach "A Critical Theory of Society."
Jennifer Fletcher Invited to Speak On Her New Book: Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response
Jennifer Fletcher has been invited to speak about her new book, Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response, at two professional development events for K12 teachers this fall. The first is the Oakland (Michigan) Schools Literacy Webinar Series and the second is the U.C. Irvine Writing Project’s December Conference. Teaching Arguments has also been selected by The National Writing Project (NWP) as a key professional resources for its Investing in Innovation (i3) grant. In a live radio program broadcast on June 25, Tom Fox, NWP Associate Director, identifies Teaching Arguments as one of "four books that have played an important role in our program."
Patrick Belanger Invited to Present An International Scholarly Colloquium at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
Professor Patrick Belanger has been invited to present at an international scholarly colloquium to examine and evaluate Canada’s response to the domestic and international challenges posed by Islamic extremism. To be convened at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, the event is a collaboration of The Center for the Study of Canada at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, the Center for International Development at Ball State University, and Fulbright Canada. Building upon his work in the area of restorative justice, Belanger will address Canada’s recent characterization and application of deradicalization initiatives.
Professor Umi Vaughan Giving Talk at Clemson University in South Carolina
Professor Umi Vaughan's will be giving a talk this fall about the significance of the drum in Latin American cultures at Clemson University in South Carolina. And, he was recently awarded an Oakland Cultural Arts grant to create a concert video of Dimensions Dance Theater.
Rina Benmayor & HCOM Students Interview Members of Seaside, California's African American Community
Recently HCOM students in Oral History and Community Memory, under the direction of HCOM faculty member Rina Benmayor, completed interviews with members of Seaside, California's African American community.
Cecilia O'Leary, Director of the New Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
Recently retired faculty member Cecilia O’Leary is an advisor to the Director of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Scheduled to open in 2016, the museum is under construction on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on a five-acre tract adjacent to the Washington Monument. On behalf of the museum, she met with 21 Scholars, Directors and Senior Curators of museums in Europe over the summer of 2015. Some examples include, International Slavery Museum (Liverpool), Rijks Museum (Amsterdam) and the Musée du quai Branly (Paris). She also has been invited to give a talk at the Plenary Session of the American Society for Theatre Research Conference on what was involved in creating the exhibition "Taking the Stage" at the NMAAHC.
Debra Busman's Book, "like a woman" to be Published by Dzanc Books
HCOM faculty member Debra Busman's book, like a woman, will be published by Dzanc Books. Described as a "vivid coming-of-age story, revealing the lives of teenage girls on the streets of Los Angeles, trying to hold onto their sense of humanity against a backdrop of racism, poverty, sexism, and violence," Busman co-directs the Creative Writing and Social Action concentration in the HCOM major. Read more about the book at the publisher's site, and a write-up about the book in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Jennifer Fletcher's New Book "Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique and Response" Will Be Published Early February 2015
Congratulations to HCOM Professor Jennifer Fletcher. Her new book, Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique and Response will be published by Stenhouse Publishers in early February 2015. Several HCOM faculty members will participate in a CSU Symposium on University Teaching in March 2015. Their presentations include Patrick Belanger and Ajit Abraham on Motivation, Resilience and Concrete Student Experience and Jennifer Fletcher, Natasha Oehlman (UROC), and Olga Blomgren (HCOM and the University Writing Program) on Fostering Resilience, Persistence and Self-Reflection in Today’s Students. Read more at the conference's website.