Daniel Press with senior Child Studies students at the Child Studies Poster Session where students presented their senior capstone projects, March 9, 2022.

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

We have come a long way from where we started this quarter. Coming back after the winter holiday to a fully remote format was, in no way, ideal, especially after the stressful and difficult end that we had to fall quarter. While we did what we had to, there is no doubt that February felt much different than January, and I feel we finished out this quarter strong.

You all have my gratitude for the part you played in our return, and in showing the importance of a bustling, first-rate campus. It is so much more evident now that the quality of the physical space we inhabit – aesthetically and functionally – plays a crucial role in student learning and discovery. Being in a real, shared place with the resources that a campus like ours can provide unleashes a capacity for learning and collaborating that is much harder to tap into when we are absent.

Let’s not forget the recognition that we owe to students as well. Navigating the switch from in-person learning to remote and back is difficult to manage. Our students struggled with this during winter quarter. At the same time, they coped with significant challenges in many areas of their lives – not just their academics, so I respect and honor their journey this year.

Whether you are grading or preparing for next quarter, I wish you some rest before we launch into Spring!

Daniel

Highlights

Heather Clydesdale (Art & Art History) delivered "New Insights on Old Histories: How Art and Material Culture Illuminate Diverse Experiences," a presentation for the panel "In Defense of Art History" at the College Art Association's annual conference. The panel was organized by the Services to Historians of Visual Arts Committee (SHVAC).

Danielle Morgan's (English) book, Laughing to Keep from Dying: African American Satire in the Twenty-First Century, was chosen by The Atlantic as one of "Eight Books That Reevaluate American History." Hannah Giorgis of The Atlantic explains, "Surfacing certain parts of Black history is a fundamentally investigative pursuit. Taken together, these books present alternative readings of familiar-seeming subjects. They offer not just information, but also new ways of evaluating old truths." Giorgis praises Laughing to Keep from Dying's "sharp analysis of satire" and notes that its "appreciation for all types of performance—whether subtle, uncomfortable, or less 'respectable'—makes it a satisfying read for anyone with an interest in how entertainment responds to a shifting social landscape." In addition to Laughing to Keep from Dying, the list includes works by Zora Neale Hurston, Saidiya Hartman, and others.

Jimia Boutouba (Modern Languages and Literatures) hosted French filmmaker Amandine Gay and her producer Enrico Bartolucci for a 3-day visit which included class visits, a screening of her second documentary followed by a Q&A session and a panel discussion that explored the intersections of discrimination, art and blackness, highlighting Black female perspectives on community and belonging, activism, black diasporic cultural and political expressions. In cultivating a space that allows for interdisciplinary and critical intellectual exchange across national boundaries, this three-day event informed, engaged, and empowered students in ways that traditional classroom discussions might not afford them.

Amandine Gay is a French Queer filmmaker, activist and scholar, and a leading voice in Afro-feminist cinema. Her first documentary Speak up is a collaborative and collective act of resistance and self-representation, reimagining the talking head documentary to create a complex modern portrait of Afropean women as they examine issues of race, gender, and sexuality. Her second documentary, A Story of One's Own, is another groundbreaking film about transracial and transnational adoption, charting an intimate journey into the lives of 5 adoptees.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Arts and Humanities, SCU-Presents-Arts for Social Justice, The Office for Diversity and Inclusion, The Center for Multicultural Learning, the Departments of Communication, and Women's & Gender Studies.

Jimia recently presented a research paper at the North East Modern Language Association Annual Conference (NeMLA) entitled “Anti-Racist Activism and the Practice of Democratic Politics in Contemporary France”. This paper examines how, since the 1980s, minority youths, artists and activists have ushered in new forms of civic and political engagement in their fight against racism, police brutality and judicial discrimination. The rise in political and civic activism in the form of graffiti, music, concerts, theatre, and increasing associative action demonstrates what French philosopher Jacques Rancière defines as "democratic politics" (Rancière, 1999), a transformative process that allows minorities to reject the prevailing social distribution of roles and places and to become visible and audible as political subjects.

As parents and children read books repeatedly, children's "guessing ahead" increases, and this active participation positively correlates with what they can learn from the book reading.

A new language development study was published last week by Kirsten Read (Psychology) and co-authors Olivia Hauer-Richard '19 (Psychology) and Alena Rogojina (CSU Northridge). The peer-reviewed paper published in the journal First Language describes how 3-year-old children are able to learn new words from reading books at home with their parents over the course of a week, and how parents' and children's commentary, reading behaviors, and understanding of those new words change from day to day. As other work in the Read Lab explores, this paper also tests the relevance of structured rhyming language in children's books on both how parents and children read them, and what they learn from them. The at-home readings were completed in February 2020 just before major pandemic-related shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders occurred, and so these snapshots of young children's home literacy environments were especially precious and heartwarming during a time when research students were no longer able to interact directly with preschool-aged participants.

Maggie Levantovskaya (English) published an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times titled "Watching bombs fall on Kyiv, the place I used to call home." The essay reflects on the importance of place in shaping our memories and on the strangeness and pain of bearing witness to war remotely, from the position of an emigrant who hasn't returned to Ukraine since leaving in the 1990s.

Anna Sampaio (Ethnic Studies), along with students Celeste Muñoz '22 (Ethnic Studies and Political Science) and Renee Perry '22 (Ethnic Studies and Political Science), presented on "Intersectional Advocacy, Coalitional Campaigns, Bridge Building Activism, and Political Mobilization Among Women of Color," at the 75th meeting of the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, March 9-12. Drawing on their work examining Latina candidate emergence for national office in California and Texas in 2018 and 2020, the team shared preliminary profile data and interviews highlighting unique political obstacles faced by Latinas and the forms of collective and collaborative strategies they’ve employed through their campaigns.

Sampaio also recently published a chapter entitled "Presente!: Latinas Mobilizing for Political Change Across Candidates, Races, and Voters in 2020," in Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics, 5th Edition, Edited by Susan J. Carroll, Richard L. Fox and Kelly Dittmar. (Cambridge, 2022).

Sampaio's work on Race, Gender, and Politics was also featured in an interview published in the 19th News in an article on the record numbers of Latinas running for governor and statewide office in the 2022 election season.

Image: From left to right, Renee Perry, Celeste Muñoz, and Anna Sampaio.

Need easels, poster support boards, cocktail tables, or games? The Dean's Office has some loaners available. Please use this request form and we'll reach out to coordinate your pick up and returns.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar