Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to a new academic year in the College of Ethnic Studies! As we gather once again, some of us returning, others newly joining our community —we do so with a renewed sense of purpose, commitment, and hope.
After a national search, Eileene Tejada joins us as Associate Dean in the College of Ethnic Studies. She brings 36 years in higher education experiences with her to the college.
From Eileene: “It is a privilege to join a community so deeply rooted in justice, scholarship, creativity, and care. I look forward to learning from you and working alongside you. Please do not hesitate to reach out if there is anything I can do to support your work. I look forward to meeting you all.”
We have new faculty joining our college this Fall including:
Peace and Love El Henson, Visiting Professor in Africana Studies
Lucia Ippolito, Lecturer in Latina/o Studies
Cassie Miura, Assistant Professor in Asian American Studies
Shanice Robinson, Visiting Professor in Africana Studies
Our college was built on the unwavering belief that education rooted in justice, equity, and the lived experiences of our communities can change the world. We each carry that legacy forward—in our scholarship, in our classrooms, and in our daily actions, supporting our students and each other.
Our college continues to be the BEATING HEART of SF State. During our retreat this past summer, we came together to discuss lesson planning and innovative ways to interweave themes on cross-racial solidarity.
This academic year we will work with the Department Chairs to increase majors and minors in the College and to improve retention and graduation rates for our majors and minors.
Our goal is to increase communication throughout the college with hopes for more collaboration, connection, and care.
Welcome back to Fall!
Grace Yoo, Dean
Eileene Tejada, Associate Dean
Announcements
Eileene Tejada joins our college as Associate Dean and brings 36 years in higher education experience and leadership.
She has been a Professor in English at Napa Valley College where she served in a variety of leadership roles, including Department Chair, Academic Senate President, and Director of the Teaching & Learning Center. At SF State, she has been a lecturer and has served at CEETL.
Associate Dean Tejada is a scholar in the AfroLatinidad experience and in decolonizing epistemologies and pedagogies.
Please plan to visit and say "hi" to Associate Dean Tejada this Fall.
Student Lounge: EP 115
The College of Ethnic Studies Student lounge is now open for all students. It will be open M-F 8am-5pm.
It is a common-room space that has tables, a couch, a microwave, a refrigerator, and a printing station for students.
Please encourage your students to come by.
We are launching a pilot Podcast room, Studio 68 (EP110B), named after the 1968 student protests that launched the College of Ethnic Studies. The intention of Studio 68 is to create an audio-visual space for students and faculty to conduct recordings and videos for various projects.
We are working to create a College of Ethnic studies podcast and youtube channels that will increase visibility to our past, present and future. Our first project will be documenting alumni on their journey after their time in the College of Ethnic Studies.
We will be creating a calendar system to reserve the space.
Please contact Ricardo for any questions, Ricksarm@sfsu.edu
College-Wide Events
The All College Staff and Faculty Welcome Back will be held at the Administration building, 5th floor patio, on Friday, August 22nd, 2025 from 10am-12 noon.
We will give updates and announcements regarding our college, and lunch will follow. Please RSVP here.
All faculty are invited to attend College of Ethnic Studies teaching square on Friday September 5th from 1:00-3:00 pm in EP 116.
We will be training faculty on navigator.sfsu.edu and the early alert systems to support our students. We will also be learning about the Career center’s new resume program that could be used in classes.
Faculty who attend and participate will receive $100. Please RSVP here. Lunch will be provided.
This faculty development opportunity is supported by a Department of Education ARC grant.
Welcome Back College of Ethnic Studies Majors and Minors! We hope your Fall semester is off to a great start.
We’re excited to invite you to our Welcome Back Lunch for Majors and Minors on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025, from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM in EP 116.
Join us for a wonderful opportunity to learn about campus resources, upcoming events, and much more! Plus, lunch will be provided.
Please RSVP here highly encouraged.
On Wedneday October 8th, we will be inviting different graduate schools on campus to discuss their programs, the application process, and timeliness.
We will be highlighting several graduate including:
- SFSU MA Program in Asian American Studies
- SFSU MA Program in Ethnic Studies
- SFSU Teacher Credential and Social Work programs
Please encourage interested students to attend to join us on Wednesday, October 8th, 2025, 1-4pm, Library 286.
This semester, we will have our All College Staff and Faculty Mid Semester check in at Fort Point on October 10th.
We will have a picnic, weather allowing, and attending the exhibit Black Gold: Stories Untold at Fort Point National Historic Site.
The Halloween Faculty & Staff Party Potluck, feel free to come dressed up and celebrate the spooky system with our Faculty and Staff in EP 113, 1pm-3pm
Departmental Updates
The Africana Studies department has the following updates for Fall 2025:
Africana Studies welcomes Shanice Robinson and Peace and Love El Henson as the Robert Corrigan visiting professors for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Shanice Robinson, Ed.D. has an unwavering commitment to dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline and centering Black youth as visionaries of their futures. She has been teaching across three institutions—San Francisco State University, City College of San Francisco, and Diablo Valley College—as well as within juvenile halls and county jails through carceral education programs. Robinson received her B.A. in Africana Studies, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Ethnic Studies, an M.A. in Equity and Social Justice, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership—all from San Francisco State University. Her teaching philosophy is grounded in urban storytelling and culturally responsive praxis. Beyond the classroom, Dr. Robinson is the co-founder of The Soul of SF State, a grassroots collective dedicated to amplifying Black joy, healing, and resistance across the Bay Area.
Peace and Love El Henson, Ph.D. (she/they) is a Black feminist rapper, cultural studies scholar, and critical urban ethnographer. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, and her undergraduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, where she later held postdoctoral and visiting scholar positions. Her academic and creative work centers Black queer femmes, hip-hop feminisms, genocide, abolition, autonomy, libidinal economies, spatiality, and dark matter/energy. Amidst all fray, peace and love finds joy in mastering herself as an intergalactic thinker, writer, and creative in visual arts, music, poetry, and performance.
The American Indian Studies department has the following updates for Fall 2025:
In Summer 2025, Baligh Ben Taleb presented his research at the International Perspectives on Indigenous Transnational Experiences at Charles University in Prague, Czech.
Paul Steward will perform at a music festival in Bogota, Colombia this September in collaboration with Indigenous Colombian artist Carlos Elliot. He has also been invited to join the State of California Governor's Truth and Healing Council Report Team to write an article for inclusion in their report.
Joanne Barker completed a draft of an article, entitled “The Capital of the Dead,” for an edited volume with Duke University Press: Paula Chakravartty & Denise Ferreira da Silva, eds., An Anti-Colonial Feminist Critique of Capital: A Contribution to the Critique of the Global Political Economy (forthcoming).
The Asian American studies department has the following updates for Fall 2025:
Arlene Daus-Magbual is a Co-PI on a recently awarded 1.8 millon dollar grant from the CSU Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Student Achievement Program.
Russell Jeung has been named Hess Scholar in Residence at Brooklyn College.
Cassie Miura joins the department this Fall as an Assistant Professor in Asian American Studies and the inaugural Takahashi Distinguished Chair in Nikkei Studies. Miura is a specialist in Japanese American and Nikkei literature and Okinawan diasporic identity, She previously served as Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Washington Tacoma.
The Latino/a/x Studies department has the following updates for Fall 2025:
Barbara Abadía-Rexach published Chicanos, Hispanos, and Latinos in M. Moraña & M. Valerio (Eds). Mapping Diversity in Latin America. Race and Ethnicity from Colonial Times to the Present. Vanderbilt University Press (English version) & Herder Ed. (Spanish version). https://www.letraskaffres.com/post/alter-ego. She also presented at AFROfeminista: Raza y mujer en Puerto Rico. May 19, 2025. Puerto Rico and the Diaspora Symposium. UC Davis.
She was also featured on Tele Once / En la mañana- “¿Qué nos define como puertorriqueños?” (July 25, 2025) to discuss what defines being Puerto Rican. You can access the interview in this link: ¿Qué Nos Define Como Puertorriqueños?
Michelle Gomez Parra published "Ghetto Girls, Cholas, and Hot Cheeto Girls: Aesthetics and Heteronormativity." Special issue on Queer and Trans Sociology in Sociological Perspectives and she received ORSP Small Grants, San Francisco State University.
Leticia Hernández-Linares published her essay, “Counting with Stories: Luis J. Rodríguez’s Always Running as Testimonio and Praxis,” in the anthology about her long time mentor and publisher, The Life, Literature and Legacy of Luis J. Rodríguez: In the Long Run, edited by Josephine Metcalf and Ben Olguín (Edinburgh University Press; 2025). Leticia Hernández-Linares will speak and perform at GLIDE Hispanic Heritage event: “Immigration, Changing the Narrative” along with Yosimar Reyes, and moderated by Olga Talamante, on Thursday, September 18, 6 to 8 PM
The Race and Resistance Studies department has the following updates for Fall 2025:
Rama Kased recently received the 2025 SF State Academic Distinguished Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. The Distinguished Faculty and Staff Awards are designed to honor outstanding tenured faculty and lecturers who have taught at SF State.
Ponipate Rokolekuto is the principal investigator of a recently awarded 1.8 millon dollar grant from the CSU Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Student Achievement Program. He also was awarded the 2025 CEETL Exemplary Teaching Award.
Omar Zahzah has published a book by Seven Stories Press, Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital/Settler-Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle.
METRO has the following updates for Fall 2025:
The Metro program had an incredible summer helping with freshman orientation, where our team had the honor of welcoming this cohort of incoming students. This fall, we're excited to support around 850 students and introduce them to the rich academic community within the College of Ethnic Studies.
Teacher & Student Resources
Spring 2026 Faculty/Undergraduate Research Initiative: T/TT FURI Application
Faculty working with undergrads on their research is a HIGH IMPACT practice!
Applications are open for the Spring 2026 award period. Funding is from January 30, 2026, through May 31, 2026.
Award amount is up to $1,000.00 for one or two undergraduate student researchers only. No graduate students or graduated students.
Commitment from student: up to 50 hours spread over the semester, according to the schedule that best serves the faculty member. Students will be paid $20.00 per hour, and payment will be made through University Payroll.
For full-time Tenured and tenure-track faculty only.
Application must include:
- One page faculty CV emphasizing research and scholarship success
- One-page description of the research project
- What is the research project?
- How will the work of a student researcher advance faculty’s professional development goals?
- How will hours be assigned throughout the semester?
- What will students learn from working on this project?
Applications due: Friday, October 31, 2025
Applications can be submitted here.
10 internships will be funded for Spring 2026.
Students funded through this grant must present at the Spring 2026 Student Showcase scheduled in May 2026.
Please note that because of faculty errors in scheduling student work in the past, faculty members are responsible for tracking student’s work hours and ensuring they do not go over the allotment of 50 hours. Faculty who spend more than their allotment will be billed for the student work hours.
AY 2025-2026 Faculty Travel Award Funding
The College of Ethnic Studies will be awarding small grants for conference travel during the 2025-2026 academic year.
Faculty may apply for funding once per academic year.
The grants will cover travel expenses up to $1,200.00 for domestic travel trips and $1,500.00 for international travel trips for presentation of a paper at a professional, peer-reviewed conference. Expenses eligible include by not limited to airfare, lodging, registration, membership, per diem up to actuals, ground transportation, and other related expenses allowable by the CSU Travel Policy.
All faculty (tenured/tenure-track professors and lecturers) who are presenting at a peer-reviewed conference are eligible to apply. The grants are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until the funds are depleted.
Applications can be submitted here.
Application must include:
- 1-2 page CV
- Abstract of the paper/poster to be presented
- Letter of acceptance to peer-reviewed conference (must take place between August 20, 2025 and August 18, 2026)
- Budget proposal for usage of funds
- A day-by-day travel agenda/itinerary
For All Travelers
- The request to travel in Concur must be fully approved before making any financial commitments
- Airfare and car rentals must be booked through the Concur portal
- Travelers seeking reimbursement for flights purchased outside of Concur will be denied unless it is instructed by the college office.
- A day-by-day travel agenda/itinerary must be attached to the application and travel report
- Ground transportation tips are reimbursable up to 20%
- For travelers who would like to be reimbursed for personal mileage for driving a personal vehicle or for a car rental, the online Defensive Driver Training (DDT) must be completed prior to traveling
- For those traveling to a business location within 25 miles of the San Francisco State University campus or your home location (whichever is closer), per diem and lodging are not eligible for reimbursement
- Traveler must submit receipts and the travel report in Concur within 2 weeks after returning from the trip
- Per diem will be reimbursed on actuals up to the maximum allowable rate per day. Receipts must be submitted to be eligible for reimbursement.
- U.S. General Services Administration (48 states excluding Alaska and Hawaii)Links to an external site.
- Department of Defense (Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories and Possessions)Links to an external site.
- U.S. Department of State (International travel)Links to an external site.
Domestic Travel
- Funding is up to $1,200.00
- Domestic travel is travel within the 50 United States and U.S. Territories and Possessions
- Lodging costs are capped at $333.00/night plus the required taxes and fees
- Completed Faculty Travel Award application must be submitted to the Dean’s Office at least 5 weeks in advance of travel
- Travel request in Concur must be submitted at least 4 weeks prior to travel
International Travel
- Funding is up to $1,500.00
- International travel is travel that is not within the 50 United States and U.S. Territories and Possessions
- Maximum lodging rates for international travel vary by destination and are determined by the U.S. Department of StateLinks to an external site.
- Completed Faculty Travel Award application must be submitted to the Dean’s Office at least 8 weeks in advance of the travel
- Travel request in Concur must be submitted at least 6 weeks prior to travel
Dean’s Office Contacts
- Faculty Travel Award application questions: Ty Maniulit, tymaniulit@sfsu.edu
- Travel questions: Marlena Jung, mjung1@sfsu.edu and Jack Mao, jackym@sfsu.edu
Library Services for Faculty
Request Instruction
To request instruction, please email me, or submit our Instruction Request Form. We ask that you make your requests at least two weeks in advance, but feel free to make your request earlier.
I am available for in-person and synchronous instruction via Zoom. I can discuss asynchronous support as well, such as video tutorials, or research guides.
Scaffold research skill building through your course
Our Teaching Research Toolkit contains a variety of activities for each step of the research process, including crafting a research question, selecting search terms, finding sources, reading sources, and using sources. These activities are available for your to use and modify, and could serve as a compliment to libraryinstruction, and a way to build low-stakes practice of research skills into your class.
Library resources on Canvas
Our Library resources and research guides can now be integrated directly into Canvas course sites and modules. Please reach out with questions or refer to this handout.
Course Reserves
The library can place SFSU library or professor copies of textbooks on reserve as a no-cost option for students to access the course texts. You can set the loan duration of the material - 2, 4, 24, or 48 hours. Faculty may place physical and electronic materials on Course Reserves for their students using the Course Reserve Request Form. Please note that the form also allows you to request materials for purchase to be placed on reserve, however, books requested for purchase now will not be available at the start of the semester.
Individual Research Support
I am available for individual research consultations to students and faculty. Schedule an in-person or virtual appointment with me here. For immediate assistance chat with a librarian via the chat widget on the library website.
For more information, reach out to:
Talía Guzmán-González, PhD, MLIS
Research & Instruction Librarian
J. Paul Leonard Library
San Francisco State University
Email: tgg@sfsu.edu
Pronouns: she/her/ella
Hear my name: https://namedrop.io/taliaguzmangonzalez
CEETL is here to support you to get your semester started, especially this week, as you prepare to teach.
Few resources available right away that you can register for through the links given below:
All new Teaching Writing course | A culturally responsive pedagogy book circle | Excellence in Online pedagogies course | Book us for consultations
Coming up during the semester:
Mid-semester Small Group Instructional Feedback | semester-long GWAR Brown bag | semester-long writing meet-ups| Introduction to Mindful Pedagogy Institute | Ride to the Redwoods. Register for all of these programs here. Look out for our AI and JEDI programming too.
A few external resources of interest:
NCFDD is offering a 14-day writing challenge starting on September 8, sign up for NCFDD | CSU Chemistry professors offering a workshop on Sept 4 on JupyterQuizzes with AI | CSU professional development opportunities
Wishing you a great start to the semester!
Anoshua and the entire CEETL Team
Contact Information
Staff
- Ty Maniulit
- Assistant to the Associate Dean
- tymaniulit@sfsu.edu
- Ricardo Sarmiento
- Assistant to the Dean
- ricksarm@sfsu.edu
- Jack Mao
- Chief Fiscal Officer/Business Manager
- jackym@sfsu.edu
- Marlena Jung
- Fiscal Specialist
- mjung1@sfsu.edu
- Laura Chelliah
- HR/College Scheduler
- laurac@sfsu.edu
- John Cleary
- Operations/Facilities
- jcleary@sfsu.edu
Academic Office Coordinators
- Gautam Baksi
- Race & Resistance Studies Academic Coordinator
- gautam@sfsu.edu
- Madeline Flamer
- Africana Studies Academic Coordinator
- madeline@sfsu.edu
- Gabriela Segovia-McGahan
- American Indian Studies Academic Coordinator and Latina/Latino Studies Academic Coordinator
- gsegovia@sfsu.edu
- Becky Mou
- Asian American Studies Academic Coordinator
- aas@sfsu.edu
Important Dates
First Day of Instruction
Monday, August 25, 2025
Last day to Drop/Withdraw classes without a W grade
Monday, September 15, 2025
Withdrawal from Classes or University for serious and compelling reason
Tuesday, September 16, 2025 - Monday, November 17, 2025
Grading Option Deadline (This includes Cr/No CR or Letter Grade)
Friday, December 5, 2025
Withdrawal from Classes or University by exception for documented serious and compelling reasons
Tuesday, November 18 - Friday, December 12, 2025
Last Day of Instruction
Friday, December 12, 2025
For more information on add/drop dates, please visit the Registrar webpage on deadlines.