Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Hard to believe, but it’s almost the month of May, when thoughts will turn to the end of Spring Quarter, graduation and…advising students for next year!

As you advise students in the coming weeks, please remind them of the importance of including diversity and equity in their studies. While the College and University work on the longer-term goal of enhancing DEI in the curriculum, as advisors you can point beginning students to intro-level classes in Ethnic Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies that lay a foundation for their future work across the College. All students can also take additional DEI courses in their majors and Core pathways, or as electives.

We’ll reach our goal of becoming an anti-racist campus through acts both large and small, and advising is an important part of the big picture.

Beatus qui prodest quibus potest!

Sincerely,

Daniel

Highlights

Amy Randall’s (History) edited collection, Genocide and Gender in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Survey (Bloomsbury Academic Press), was published as a second edition in January 2022. 

The 2nd edition features: an extended and enhanced introduction that makes use of recent scholarship on gender and violence; several new chapters (including one by Amy herself titled "Imperialism, Race Thinking, Gender, and Genocide"); historiographical and bibliographical updates; and an excerpt from the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

Focusing on genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Cambodia, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia as well as the Holocaust, Genocide and Gender investigates how historically and culturally specific ideas have contributed to genocidal sexual violence. Expert contributors also consider how these ideas, in conjunction with discourses of femininity and masculinity and gender roles and norms, have informed perpetrators' tools and strategies for ethnic cleansing and genocide, as well as victims' experiences of these processes.

Additionally, in February and March, Amy participated in two SCU panel discussions about the Russian war in Ukraine.

Rohit Chopra (Communication) was an invited participant in a closed-door conference organized by the Facebook Oversight Board and the Next Billion Network. The discussion involved members of the Oversight Board as well as activists and academics engaged in human rights and minority rights initiatives. The discussion centered on the implication of Facebook’s cross-check for civil society in markets in the global South and developing world.

Ryan Nazari '21 (English & Philosophy) has been admitted to Oxford University's MPhil Program in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, where he will study the Persian and late-Ottoman periods. This research will build on his work as a Canterbury Fellow during 2020-21, which he continued as a Fulbright English teacher and researcher in Armenia during 2021-22. Describing his research plans, Ryan explains, "I researched Armenian history because Armenians and Assyrians (and other ethnic minorities) were victims of a genocide during the late-Ottoman Empire era. My poet of focus, the Assyrian William Daniel, survived the genocide. Furthermore, there is a *beautiful* Assyrian village in Armenia where I've conducted interviews and will begin teaching English soon! Canterbury, in other words, inspired me to make the most out of my time in Armenia."

Tom Plante (Psychology) presented an invited talk entitled, Beyond civility: Moving from civility to hospitality, solidarity, and to kinship for the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, Civility-Promotion and Prosocial Behavior, Policy and Global Affairs Division, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Research Council annual meeting. Washington, DC, April 20-21, 2022. They discussed policies and procedures to increase civility and beyond in higher education, especially as it relates to sexual harassment prevention guidelines and practices.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar