From an overview of immigrant due process rights to the history of the “black friend,” the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ 2018-19 lecture series continues this spring with a focus on “Interdisciplinary Conversations on Community, Identity and Belonging.”
Open to the campus community, all lectures take place in Pollak Library Room 360. For more information, visit the HSS website.
Tuesday, Jan. 29, 11:30 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
- “Growing Up Maya: Children’s Crucial Contributions to Their Community”
Lucia Alcalá, assistant professor of psychology, explores why Maya children show higher levels of prosocial development — helping on their own initiative — compared to middle-class, non-indigenous children. - “Chilled to the Bone: Removal, Due Process Rights and Immigration Enforcement”
Robert Castro, professor of criminal justice, provides an overview of the immigrant removal process with emphasis on the due process rights that immigrants can and cannot invoke in that process. - “The Relation Between Naming System and Group Identity: An Investigation of the Naming Systems of Burmese and Chin in Myanmar”
Kenneth Van Bik, assistant professor of English, comparative literature and linguistics, explores how the naming of children and group identity are connected in two ethnic groups in Myanmar: the Burmese and Chin.
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 11:30 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
- “Creating a Holocaust Landscape in Wartime France”
Gayle K. Brunelle, professor of history, revives memory and culpability of an Oct. 3, 1941, bombing of six synagogues and one Jewish prayer house in Paris. - “The ‘Black Friend’: A History”
Tyler D. Parry, associate professor of African American studies, examines the uncomfortable history of the “black friend” excuse in American history — the idea that if one is accused of racist actions they immediately state they have “black friends” to deflect negative attention.
Monday, March 18, noon-12:50 p.m.
- “Los Angeles: A Proustian Fiction in a Noir City”
Fanny Daubigny, associate professor of modern languages and literatures, shares insights from her community reading project focusing on Marcel Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past.” - “Building Interfaith Spaces on Campus”
Jessica Spence Moss, lecturer in sociology, examines how the university has an opportunity and responsibility to be a space that not only welcomes diverse racial, ethnic, class and gender identities, but also religious identities.
Tuesday, April 16, 11:30 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
- “Get on the Bus: How Public Transportation Made Communities, 1941-78”
Volker Janssen, professor of history, explores how activists of the civil rights movement challenged segregation and discrimination on various modes of public transportation. - “Can a White Teacher Teach African American Verbal Tradition in English Language Arts Classes?”
Bonnie J. Williams-Farrier, assistant professor of English, comparative literature and linguistics, addresses misconceptions that African language systems are genetically based.
Monday, May 6, noon-12:50 p.m.
- “The Importance of Sensing Race in (Sub)urban America — and by Association, at CSUF”
Ana Nez and Mario Alberto Obando Jr., lecturers in Chicana and Chicano studies, examine how students of color navigate presumed colorless and classless spaces of higher learning and considers how the demographic changes over the past five decades necessitate more inclusive narratives and pedagogies that empower such students.