May 2025 Newsletter

Ambassador sign up here. 

Friday, May 23 from 1:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Responsibilities include welcoming graduates and their guests along with helping guide our graduates during the opening procession and diploma procession. Ambassadors will be asked to arrive by 1:30 p.m. and will be supplied with a yellow windbreaker to wear. Ambassadors will be invited to the Thank You Party on the Fifth Floor Patio on Wednesday, June 4th from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. 

Faculty marshal sign up here. 

Friday, May 23 from 1:30 – 9:30 p.m.

 Your support ensures a smooth, memorable celebration for over 30,000 graduates, their families, and friends. Key responsibilities include welcoming graduates and helping maintain flow of the graduate and diploma procession. Assignments will range from 1:30 to 9:30 p.m. Faculty who help out on May 23rd will be invited to attend the Thank You Party on the ADM Patio (5th floor). The event is on Wednesday, June 4th from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm.

For any interested tenure-track and tenured faculty in Women & Gender Studies, Sociology and Sexuality Studies, and departments in the College of Ethnic Studies:

Applications are now open for a 5-week asynchronous Faculty Learning Community (Summer 2025) with a compensation range of $750-1000 for each faculty (depending on total number of participants). 

Application deadline: May 16, 2025

Flyer attached with QR code to application for posting on your bulletin boards OR apply directly using this link. 

For any questions, please email: qtes.flc@gmail.com

🎨✨ The College of Ethnic Studies presents Crafting Hour!

Take a break, get creative, and make something uniquely yours!
Decorate a grad cap, design a stole, try punch embroidery, or explore fun DIY crafts — no experience needed and all supplies are on us! 💛🧵

📍 EP 116
🗓️ Tuesday, May 6 from 12PM - 2PM
🌈 Open to all students — grads, non-grads, everyone’s welcome!

Monday May 5 from 3:30PM - 5PM 

Location: McKenna Theatre @ SF State

Event description: Self-proclaimed "Food Bank Influencer" Kristina Wong offers her rendition of the American Musical like nobody ever asked for by celebrating our emergency food system. Having experienced food distribution (or lack thereof) from New York to the Navajo Nation, she shares irreverent commentary while illuminating American food insecurity and the subsequent national pastime that is collecting and giving away free food. But, how will she pull this off with humor? It's a SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, that is!).

Free supplemental groceries items available after the show! Appropriate for audiences 13 and over.

Presented by AA CARES at San Francisco State University. Please email quyen@sfsu.edu for any questions.

Wednesday May 7 from 4PM - 6PM 

Location: J. Paul Leonard Library Room 286

Languages: Spanish & English

Contact: ectejada@sfsu.edu

Event description: The College of Ethnic Studies, Latina/o Studies Department, in collaboration with the J. Paul Leonard Library, present: A Book Talk introducing AFRO-Feminista: Raza y Mujer en Puerto Rico by Dr. Bárbara I. Abadía-Rexach, Associate Professor, LTNS Department.

This book chronicles the lived experiences of visibly black women in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican scholars Dr. Talía Guzman-Gonzalez and Dr. Eileene Tejada will join Dr. Abadía-Rexach to discuss the themes and issues in this important book.

All College Retreat:  Save The Date June 3-4, 2025

Funded through AAPI cares, the college is hosting a retreat for faculty on  teaching, pedagogy and  cross-racial solidarity.   The retreat is  scheduled from June 3rd to June 4th 2025. In Westerbeke - Sonoma.

We are extending this invitation for all faculty in the college.  Please RSVP here.

Graduate Honorees:

• MA in Asian American Studies: Nori Henk 
• MA in Asian American Studies: Noah Kawaguchi

Graduate Hood Recipient

• Masters in Ethnic Studies - Luseane Anga ‘Ae Fonu Tutoe

Faculty Updates

Tiffany Caesar was featured on KQED Forum, in conversation with Black Journalist Michael Harriot and Adam Harris about How to Talk about Black History When Diversity is Under Attack, regarding the current administration’s attack on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and how celebrating Black history is being questioned. Listen to the conversation on KQED.

In the SF Bayview, National Black Newspaper, Tiffany Caesar honors the life of Dr. Nathan Hare, the first Black Studies Department Director at SFSU, who “embodied Black liberation, Black love and Black excellence”. Read the full article here.

Mark Davis was highlighted in KQED for the event  “Somebody ‘Blew Up’ San Francisco State College: THAT WAS NOW, THIS IS THEN How the Black Student Union & Black Arts Movements Changed Education Forever”  ARTICLE.

Upcoming Programs

On  May 1^st,  Africana Studies Professor Mark Davis. will be presenting a program based on the culmination of his sabbatical research which is ongoing and has been an exploration of the organizing and community building work of the Black Student Union (originally the Negro Student Association) and the Black Arts Movement in the years before the Strike (1964-1969). The event is being co-produced with the School of Music, with support from the College of Ethnic Studies, Africana Studies Department, the SFSU CFA Chapter.

The event is at 7pm on May 1st at McKenna Theatre. 

Faculty Updates

Robert Keith Collins published two chapters in “The Future is Indigenous: Stories from the new Native North America Hall at the Field Museum” by BAR publications. This open educational resource book will serve as the catalogue for the current Field Museum exhibit, “Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories.”  Chapter 2, “Local Knowledge in Museum Exhibits: The Relevance of Native American to Black History” investigates how are we to explain the exchanges and impacts Native Americans of the region had on Africans and Europeans during contact.  Chapter 19, “Native Knowledge and Changing Museum Paradigms” explores the relationship between Native knowledge and museum exhibits.  In addition,  Collins has served on the advisory board for the deinstallation, redesign, and reinstallation of the Native North American Hall at the Field Museum since 2018.

Upcoming Programs

Thursday, May 22, 2025  American Indian Studies Graduation 4:00-6:00pm,  EP 116

Student Kouncil of Intertribal Nation & the Dept of American Indian Studies - AIS-SKINS Gathering:  Join us for lunch, board games, bingo and door prizes - friends and family are welcome on Wednesday May 28th, 2025 12pm-2:00pm. Richard Oakes Memorial Center, Cesar Chavez Student Center, SF State. RSVP

AAS student and faculty at the Association of Asian American Studies meetings

Faculty Updates

Faculty in Asian American Studies presented at the Association of Asian American Studies conference. These are some of the presentations:

Arlene Daus-Magbual, Decolonizing Higher Education: Culturally Responsive AANHPI Student Support Initiatives

Kira Donnell, Search and Rescue: Analyzing the Language and Rhetoric of Intercountry and Interspecies Adoption.

Loan Le, Healing through Collaborative Poetry: Expanding Approaches to Asian American Mental Health Support

Mai Nhung Le, Beyond the Ivory Tower: What does it mean to “serve the people”? Roundtable

Yuki Obayashi, Monstrous Mothers’ Protests Against U.S. Nuclear Violence in Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner’s Poetry Performance

Valerie Soe, Weaving New Narratives: Re-orientating Creative Praxis in Asian American Studies

Wesley Ueunten, Fences: Exposing Imperialism and Militarism in Okinawa through Song 

Upcoming Programs

Professor Russell Jeung and MA graduate students in AAS865 are involved in a showcase opening of the Chinese Historical Society Association (CHSA) exhibit, "Challenging a White-Washed History of America: Chinese Laundries in the U.S.  It will open on Sat, 5/10 at 1 pm at CHSA, 965 Clay Street. AAS MA students curated the showcase which includes postcards and artifacts from Chinese laundries, key themes about laundries, interactive activities, and oral history videos of laundry workers. In addition, original art by students from the Academy of Art will be displayed. AAS MA students will be presenting on Saturday 5/10 at 2pm.

Faculty Updates

Carolina Prado is a co-leader of a bay area collective called QtpocBirders whose work is aimed at increasing welcoming spaces for queer and trans people of color in birdwatching spaces. QtpocBirders hosts monthly birding walks across the bay area to build community and learn about birds together.

SFSU’s Queer & Trans Resource Center hosted an event fostering an inclusive space for queer students, Center Trans Voices, where LTNS assistant Professor Michelle Gomez Parra, Associate LTNS Professor Melissa Guzman Garcia  and assistant professor in LTNS Carolina Prado were guest speakers. Topics included on the importance of gender-affirming care and how to counter misinformation regarding gender-affirming care, the history of radical trans resistances, and understanding the difference between gender and sex, and the settler-colonialism and denial of humanity. ARTICLE.

Bárbara I. Abadía-Rexach is launching her book in Puerto Rico entitled Afrofeminista: Raza y Mujer en Puerto Rico, which explores the intersectionality of race and gender in Puerto Rico from an Afrofeminist perspective, on the lived realities that black women encounter in Puerto Rico. 

Upcoming Programs

 

Leticia Hernández-Linares will also be reading poetry on Thursday, April 24 at City College of San Francisco (Mission Center, 6 PM) for an event with Robert Nickelsberg, a photojournalist who will present his book "Legacy of Lies: El Salvador 1981-1984."

Leticia Hernández-Linares is being honored as a 2025 San Francisco Library Laureate at the Spring Awakening: A Tribute to Libraries in Bloom Gala on Saturday, May 3, 2025, at the Main Library. Sponsored by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Leticia Hernández-Linares will be Master of Ceremonies of the historic Carnaval Parade on Sunday May 25th in the Mission. Carnaval is a parade and festival celebrating Latin American, Caribbean & AfroDiasporic Cultures that has been taking place for over 45 years. 

The College of Ethnic Studies, Latina/o Studies Department in collaboration with the J. Paul Leonard Library present

A Book Talk Introducing: AFRO-Feminista: Raza y Mujer en Puerto Rico

by Dr. Bárbara I. Abadía-Rexach, Associate Professor 

This book chronicles the lived experiences of visibly black women in Puerto Rico. 

Puerto Rican scholars Dr. Talía Guzman-Gonzalez and Dr. Eileene Tejada will join Dr. Abadía-Rexach to discuss the themes and issues in this important book. 

Join us for this salient conversation in the J.Paul Leonard Library, Room 286 on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 4-6 PM.

Faculty Updates

Advancing Ethnic Studies: Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies:  Falu Bakrania is part of a team — with Leila Malikyar(lecturer in RRS), Leslie Quintanilla (faculty in WGS), and Ikaika Glasberg (faculty in SOC/SXS) — that won a $96k Mellon Foundation Grant to Advance and Expand Ethnic Studies by strengthening student understanding of intersectionality between Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Trans Studies.

Omar Zahzah and Leora Kava are 2 of the 5 faculty at SFSU to have received a faculty/undergraduate research grant (FURG) to work with an undergraduate student on a project that brings together Ethnic Studies with Gender and Sexuality and Trans Studies.

New Publications on Palestine:  Omar Zahzah’s book, Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital/Settler-Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle, is being co-published by The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press and is available for pre-order!

 Zahzah also just published an article in Volume 9, Issue 1 of Critical Ethnic Studies, themed "Palestine After Analogy" co-edited by Nasser Abourahme and Iyko Day.  His article is titled, "Love is Older than 'Israel:' The Solidarity Poetics of aja monet and Mohammed El-Kurd."

Special issue of Okinawa Journal of Island Studies:  Ponipate Rokolekutu co-edited a special issue of the Okinawa Journal of Island Studies (OJIS) titled “Our Sharpest Tools: Unsettling Empire from Islands and Oceans.” and published: “Interrogating British Colonial Benevolence and the Annexation of Fijian Islands” (Nov 2024)

Mellon Foundation Grant: Leora Kava and Levalasi Loi On received a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, “Building Critical Pacific Islands & Oceania Studies at SFSU."

Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) received the Institute for Civic & Community Engagement (ICCE) Community Partnership Award for Campus Collaboration

Gopal Dayaneni also received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Community Engaged Learning from ICCE for their “exceptional contributions to institutionalizing service learning at SF State.” 
 

A picture of Professors Rama Ali Kased and Larry Salomon with Special Guest, Comedian, Actor and Director Mo Amer

Faculty Updates

It’s registration season! Metro staff and faculty supported more than 300 Metro students with getting classes ready for registration this week through two large events on campus last week. 

Metro turned up for the National Day of Action! Thank you to all that poured heart and love into fighting for higher education!

The Metro College Success Program awarded 11 scholarships to deserving Metro students to further their education. Through the support of generous individual donors, we are able to offer $1000 to each student for the fall 2025 semester. They will be honored at the End of Year Celebration.

Race and Resistance Studies Associate Professor and Metro founder Dr. Rama Ali Kased was awarded the 2025 SF State Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. Congratulations Dr. Kased!

Upcoming Programs

Metro second year students are getting ready to transition out of the program. We are so grateful for all their hard work and look forward to celebrating their success at our End of Year Celebration on May 14^th.