November 2025 Newsletter

^{Katynka Martinez, LTNS Chair, enjoying matcha with students.}

^{Wesley Ueunten and Chrissy Lau enjoying a cup of matcha at the CoES Cafe event.}

Here are the current Travel Policies and Procedures for faculty. 
If you are interested in traveling, please review these documents for information on procedures and needed applications and documents to be completed.

The College of Ethnic Studies currently has the following vacancies:

• 2 positions: Academic Senators (T/TT faculty)
• 2 positions: Baccalaureate Requirements Certification Committee
• 1 position: Online Education Committee

If you are interested in any of these vacancies, please contact Ricardo S., Assistant to the Dean, at ricksarm@sfsu.edu 

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Tiffany Caesar participated and presented at the  Voices of Digital Technologies and Historical Storytelling Workshop at Grambling State University.

Mark Davis is committee chair of the College of Ethnic Studies inaugural All-College Creative and Performing Arts Committee.

Crystal Edwards and Abul Pitre book, New Perspectives in Africana Studies, "Twenty essays exploring the evolving landscape of Africana Studies in the twenty-first century." is available for preorder. 

Dorothy Tsuruta has accepted the nomination to serve on the standing committee for the Modern Language Association.

Departmental and Faculty Updates

"Lios enchim ania vu. I am proud to announce, through the support of many people, especially you in COES, that I have completed my PhD journey!"

Eddie Madril completed his Ph.D. in Performance Studies  at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). His doctoral thesis is titled, Beyond Survivance: Embodying the Dance, and  explores the ways American Indian dance has served in the past to preserve, construct and sustain our communities against the prospect of annihilation during the long history of colonization. 

Congratulations to Robert Collins, for organizing and hosting the CSU Advancing and Expanding Ethnic Studies Symposium on October 29th, 2025. The symposium showcased advancements by award recipients in Ethnic Studies pedagogy and research and intersections with Women's Studies, Sexuality Studies and Trans Studies. 

Emeritus faculty and former chair Betty Parent has been recognized in Stanford's 2025 Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame, which honors alumni with distinguished service to their communities and society at large. 

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Russell Jeung and MA student Ash Guay  were quoted in AL news regarding Trump's censoring of Smithsonian Museum content and regarding the Sunset district recall.

Chrissy Lau  pictured with students enjoying the 2nd Annual Arts, Belonging, and Culture (ABC) Night Market on November 6th.  She also participated and presented at the  Voices of Digital Technologies and Historical Storytelling Workshop at Grambling State University.

The Asian American Studies Department hosted a Welcome Reception for Cassie Miura, San Francisco State University’s inaugural Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Distinguished Chair in Nikkei Studies on October 8, 2025.

Yuki Okayashi is recipient of the Comfort Women Research and Scholarship fund and also presented at Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association meetings in San Francisco.

Francis Wong has been recognized in Stanford's 2025 Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame, which honors alumni with distinguished service to their communities and society at large.

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Co-sponsored by the Latinx Queer Club, the Queer and Trans Resource Center, and the Latina/Latino Studies department celebrated Día de los Muertos by creating an amaranth skull for your altar! 

SF State alumni Tere Almaguer and Nancy Pili facilitated a discussion about how we are connected to amaranth and about the role of ofrendas during Day of the Dead. They also lead a workshop during which participants personalized an amaranth skulls. The event is based on workshops they've held with PODER.

Bárbara Abadía-Rexach presented at the California State University Advancing and Expanding Ethnic Studies Symposium  and at the PRSA Biennial Symposium.   She also has been invited to several presentations at the University of Puerto Rico this fall. 

Jeff Duncan-Andrade was listed as "Power 50," an influential Black and Latino male educators that have made a lasting impact in education. He  also received grants from Google Foundation and Stuart Foundation for "Towards a Model of Community Responsiveness and Wellness," which  studies the impact of transforming a public school's focus on youth wellness.

Leticia Hernández presented the workshop “Teaching for Belonging: How can an Ethnic Studies framework equip educators to center student voice and community building across subjects?”  at the (SF-CESS) Fall Forum. She launched the Sala de Deseos website: Sala de Deseos (Wishing Room), an interdisciplinary, interactive installation centering Central American Diasporic narratives.  She worked with Ethnic Studies Graduate Student Kathryn Constantino to create the Sala de Deseos website and The Wandering Song Anthology Literature Guide.  On an episode of “Bay Curious,”, Leticia Hernández discussed the history of La Llorona, a ghost story from Latin American and Mexican folklore. See full story here. 

Michael De Anda Muñiz co-authored and published  "Imperial Policing: Weaponized Data in Carceral Chicago" with the University of Minnesota Press.  Imperial Policing analyzes the connections between three police “wars”—on crime, terror, and immigrants—focusing on the weaponization of data and the coordination between local and national agencies to suppress communities of color and undermine social movements.

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Falu Bakrania and Leila Malikyar and their team presented their Mellon grant funded work on SFSU Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies at the CSU Advancing and Expanding Ethnic Studies Symposium on October 29th, 2025.  They discussed  Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies curriulum review, mini-grants, student assessments and the development of a faculty learning commuity.

"The Worker Campaign to Close Empty California State Prisons and Fund the California State University"
Professor César "che" Rodríguez presented at the "New Developments in Academic Worker Organizing" panel at "Rights and Wrongs: A Constitution Day Conference" held at SFSU on September 18. The topic discussed was about the CFA campaign to shut down five (5) California prisons due to a declining population of incarcerated persons and unused prison capacity, and use those savings to fund the CSU.

3rd Annual Talanoa Series 

Dr. Rokolekutu opened for the 3rd Annual Talanoa Series at De Anza College on October 27.

Dr. Ponipate Rokolekutu delivered the opening keynote for the 3rd Annual Talanoa Series at De Anza College. His talk, “The Truth About Stories: Talanoa as Resistance and Survival,” centers Indigenous storytelling as a form of survival, resistance, and reconnection across the Pacific. The series, held in partnership with Talanoa gatherings across the West Coast, continues to honor oceanic knowledge, storytelling, and collective resilience.

The event was hosted by De Anza College’s IMPACT AAPI Program.

Cedric Robinson, Racial Capitalism, and Racial Regimes 
Thanks to Dr. Rama Ali Kased, Professor che delivered a talk on the late Cedric Robinson, and the utility of Robinson's concepts, specifically: racial capitalism, the Black Radical Tradition, and racial regimes. This was part of the "Introduction to Racial Capitalism" popular education series that Dr. Kased organized with and through The People's Forum in New York.

It's Giving Hella Pasifika - Exhibitions at the Hub in Sunnydale 

Professor Leora Kava had the great privilege of working with Pasifika Bay Area artists and organizers Daniel Naha-Ve'evalu, Sophia Tupuola, Epi Aumavae, and Spencer Pulu (aka SPULU) to organize and facilitate the Hella Pasifika Exhibition at The Hub in Sunnydale. Everyone was HELLA excited to birth this project highlighting the great works 13 Pasifika Artists here in the Bay. The exhibition ran from September 20 to October 20, 2025. Some works will be permanently housed at The Hub in Sunnydale, and hopefully, other pieces  will have permanent installation in other venues in the Bay.

27th Fiji's Attorney General's Conference
Dr. Rokolekutu Invited to Speak at Fiji’s 27th Attorney-General’s Conference on December 5 – 6 in Sheraton Golf & Beach Resort, Denarau, Fiji.

The Department of Race and Resistance Studies congratulates Dr. Ponipate Rokolekutu, Assistant Professor of RRS and Principal Investigator of the Oceania Scholars Program and ASPIRE on his invitation to speak at the 27th Attorney-General’s Conference in Fiji, one of the nation’s most significant legal and policy forums.

This year’s conference, attended by more than 400 members of the judiciary, legal profession, and government, will focus on pressing issues shaping Fiji’s legal landscape. Dr. Rokolekutu will present in the featured session titled “Colonial Constructs and the Shaping of Native Land Law in Fiji.” His presentation will critically examine how colonial policies, including the establishment of the Native Land Commission and the codification of land ownership under British rule, continue to influence contemporary governance, law, and indigenous sovereignty.

Dr. Rokolekutu’s invitation recognizes his scholarly and community leadership in advancing Indigenous perspectives on land, law, and decolonization, and his continuing contribution to global conversations on social justice and Indigenous land rights.

Keynote Oceania Northwest's Village Gathering December 13th, 2025 Pacific Northwest

Dr. Rokolekutu to Keynote Oceania Northwest’s Village Gathering on December 13 at Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Ponipate Rokolekutu, Assistant Professor of Race and Resistance Studies and Principal Investigator of the Oceania Scholars Program and ASPIRE has been invited to keynote the annual Village Gathering hosted by Oceania Northwest. Based in Washington State, the organization uplifts Pasifika communities through unity, relational restoration, and Indigenous cycles of care. Dr. Rokolekutu’s address will speak to the power of storytelling, resistance, and survival in diasporic spaces and across Oceania, connecting his work at SFSU with broader community efforts to advance Indigenous sovereignty, healing, and intergenerational empowerment.

New Books by RRS Faculty: Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital Settler Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle

This groundbreaking book documents how digital platforms and technology companies based in the United States support the Israeli settler-colonial project, illuminating how these platforms have become new tools of anti-Palestinian suppression, despite having been initially instrumental in advancing the Palestinian struggle. Despite their alleged support of free speech and democratic values, tech titans like Meta, Google, and X have become conduits for the promotion of the Zionist colonial project. In Terms of Servitude, Professor Omar Zahzah demonstrates how these digital giants participate in anti-Palestinian oppression through censorship justified by so-called "terms of service" or "community standards." As Al technology and metadata are wielded as tools of suppression, anti-colonial counter-narratives across online platforms become increasingly urgent. Through careful analysis and documentation, Zahzah explores what resistance can and must mean in light of the consolidation of Big Tech with Israeli settler colonialism and genocide.

"Osi maau?: Are we ready? Are we arranged?" - Presentation on a panel for Tongan arts for the 2025 Tonga Research Association Conference at College of San Mateo.

In this talanoa, talk through a process of faʻu maau — or what I humbly propose to be a process of making poetry, or “making a right arrangement.” A “right arrangement” could come from piecing together what is around us and within us (images, sounds, words, movements, thoughts, emotions) in order to create the conditions in which our audiences — our people — can experience māfana. I place the phrase “faʻu maau” next to the everyday (and sometimes impatient) question “ʻosi maau?” to consider how the strategies and tactics for making art are always around us, waiting to be arranged for our needs and purposes.

16th Annual Talanoa Series is in collaboration with Critical SWANA (Middle East) Studies at CCSF 

Dr. Rama Ali Kased was featured at the 16th Annual Talanoa Series on October 28th at City College of San Francisco. 

Dr. Kased’s talk entitled, “Love, Resistance, and Solidarity: Frameworks for Collective Liberation,” positioned solidarity as a guiding compass for justice and liberation. It highlighted how movements are interconnected through the practices of love, resistance, and collective struggle. Drawing on decolonial and feminist frameworks, Rama discussed the ways in which collectiveness is needed to challenge oppressive power dynamics and conditions. Rather than seeing liberation as isolated or individual, she emphasized that true freedom is collective — grounded in radical love, sustained through resistance, and made possible through solidarity across struggles.

Student News

New Course! RRS 425: Critical Exposures: Race, Racism and Resistance in Photography

We are excited to announce a new course! In this course, we will explore the intertwined histories of photography and race from an Ethnic Studies perspective. From colonial archives to contemporary art, photographs have been a tool of domination and resistance. We'll examine how photography has been used to construct race, challenge racism, and represent racial identities. Through course materials, students will learn ways to use the camera as a tool of resistance. 

Taught by professor and photographer, Dr. Falu Bakrania.

Past Events

RRS Open House Fall 2025

On October 22, the Race & Resistance department hosted an open house for students and faculty members where they got a chance to meet peers and faculty to build a community within our department. You can see more photos here. 

Upcoming Programs

Framing Resistance: Photography and the Struggle for Social Justice.

Join us for a panel discussion with three Bay Area photographer/activists who have dedicated their work to documenting struggles for social justice.

Brooke Anderson, Nick DeRenzi, and Joyce Xi will discuss how they came to photograph activism and protest, the evolving challenges of this work, and the power of images to advance social change. They will also offer inspiration and insights for students interested in using their cameras as tools for justice.

The panel will be introduced by Mayuran Tiruchelvam (Cinema) and moderated by Falu Bakrania (Race and Resistance Studies).

The discussion will take place on Wednesday, December 3rd from 12:30 – 1:45 pm in the Fine Arts Building, Room 101 (Coppola Theater).

Updates

November was a busy month for Metro! We collaborated with the UAC and EOP to offer pre-registration parties and helped more than 400 first-year students with their spring schedules. We also ran course registration workshops in nine first-year critical thinking courses. We also did intentional outreach in first-year classes and in our student drop in space to students who might benefit from Metro’s approach. Through these efforts, we're building community and supporting students as they build their institutional capital!