September 2026 Newsletter

On September 11, 2026, colleagues who helped envision, create, and sustain our Department of Education AANAPISI-funded programs came together to celebrate an extraordinary milestone: 10 years of supporting student success!

Over the past decade, our AANAPISI-funded initiatives—ARC, REACH, and ASPIRE—have strengthened the educational experiences of our students by creating opportunities for connection, belonging, academic support, leadership, and success.

This celebration was also an opportunity to honor the many faculty, staff, students, and campus partners whose vision, dedication, and care brought these programs to life and sustained them over the years. Their collective work reminds us of what is possible when we invest in our students, build community, and work together with a shared commitment to educational equity.

Ten years of programming. Ten years of community. Ten years of investing in our students and their success.

We are grateful to following faculty and staff who have been instrumental in sustaining this program:  Arlene Daus-Magbual, Raj Desai, Lorenzo Finau-Cruz, Celeste Francisco, Levalasi Loi-On, Laureen Chew, Rosario Macahilas,  and Grace Yoo

Photo Below: Faculty, staff, alumni and community members celebrate 10 years of AANAPISI initiatives

These are the new and returning chairs in the College of Ethnic Studies

Valerie Soe, MFA (AAS)

Abul Pitre, Ph.D. (AFRS)

Rob Collins , Ph.D.  (AIS)

Katynka Martinez, Ph.D. (LTNS)

Cesar Che Rodriguez, Ph.D.(RRS)

We are excited to welcome Edward "Ed" Tan to our team. 

Ed is a Space Management Coordinator with Academic Resources at SFSU where he supports space management, facilities coordination, campus relocations, and operational planning. He also serves as a Building Coordinator for Burk Hall and the Ethnic Studies & Psychology Building, working closely with faculty, staff, campus leadership, Facilities Services, and other university partners to address space, facilities, and operational needs.

Ed has been part of the SFSU community for more than 20 years, with experience spanning technology, data analysis, project management, and university operations. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Statistics from SFSU, with an emphasis in Business and Decision Science.

Ed enjoys bringing people, information, and resources together to solve practical problems and improve the campus environment. He values collaboration, thoughtful problem-solving, and developing practical solutions that support the work of faculty and staff and contribute to a positive experience for students.
 

We are happy to invite you all to the Ethnic Studies & Asian American Studies MA Program Open House, on Wednesday September 30th, 2026 from 1:30pm-3:00pm in EP 116 or via zoom.

 Participants will have an opportunity to learn more about the MA programs offered in the College of Ethnic Studies. We will also have a panel of current MA students for a Q&A session, and a session on how to apply to graduate school.

We are happy to announce that we will have our outreach event at Malcolm X Plaza, where we will be tabling promoting our College Majors and Programs. We will have prizes and music playing in the quad. Join us to learn more about our College, October 21st, 12-2pm.

Spring 2027 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 2027 award period. Funding is from January 30, 2027, through May 31, 2027.

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 30, 2026

Applications can be submitted here. 

10 internships will be funded for Spring 2027.

Students funded through this grant must present at the Spring 2027 Student Showcase scheduled in May 2027.

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.

The full details and application link can be found on the collegewide canvas page.

For application questions, please contact Ty Maniulit at tymaniulit@sfsu.edu.

Photo Below: FURI Students and Faculty who presented their research at the 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium. 

Through a generous donation, we have been able to continue with peer mentoring in lower division classrooms. In addition, we are able to provide support with teaching assistants in the classroom this Spring 2027. Please see these links to apply:

Faculty and Peer Mentor Application is here

Faculty and Graduate Teaching Assistant Application  is here.

The deadline to apply is October 30, 2026. 

Faculty will need to identify a student to work with.  Students must be an undergraduate majoring in Africana Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Latino/a Studies, Race & Resistance Studies or Race, Ethnicity and Health. Graduate students must be in Ethnic Studies or Asian American Studies.

Image Below: Undergraduate and Graduate student assistants, who work in the CoES with Staff 

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Africana Studies will be relaunching its Student Ambassador Program, which will focus on peer-to-peer recruitment and engagement, student mentoring, and community building. The program is designed to increase the department’s visibility across campus while strengthening students’ sense of belonging, persistence, and connection to the Africana Studies community.

Faculty Scholarship: New & Forthcoming Books

Abul Pitre has published The Nation of Islam: Foundations, History, Theology and Contemporary Influence ISBN 9798319723291, Publisher: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

Tiffany Caesar has published her book Archiving Africana Women Stories: African-Centered Education in South Africa and Detroit ISBN: 9781666944907 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic 

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Joanne Barker is in the Faculty Early Retirement Program and pondering new possibilities.

Baligh Ben Taleb's newest publication, “Unbroken Ground: The Dann Sisters’ Battle Against Settler Power in Nevada” (AIW 2026, University of Geneva, Switzerland)

Eddie Madril has been honored with the Bay Area’s newest Pow-Wow MC! Richmond Pow-Wow.

Amy Casselman-Hontalas is finishing their doctorate at Stanford in Sociology. 

John Dougherty expands on “Talk the Language of the Larger World: Fishing Wars, Natural Resources, and the Birth of the Sovereignty Movement in the Postwar Pacific Northwest.” Western Legal History 

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Valerie Soe’s new documentary, THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival at the Democracy Center at the Japanese American National Museum.

THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK also played at CAAMfest in San Francisco on May 10 to an audience of 350 people, and on May 24 it was the Closing Night film for the Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival. It also played this summer at the Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival, the San Antonio Film Festival, the Asian American International Film Festival in New York City, the San Francisco Public Library, and the New Parkway Theater in Oakland.  The film looks at the Auntie Sewing Squad, a collective of mostly BIPOC women sewists who saved the world at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Join us for a screening of ‘The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook’ at SFSU!

Come enjoy Asian American Studies Chair and Professor Valerie Soe’s new feature-length documentary film “The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook”. 

The film chronicles the Auntie Sewing Squad, a collective of women sewists of color who banded together during the COVID-19 pandemic and sewed face masks for people in need. The film includes interviews with College of Ethnic Studies Dean Grace Yoo and Asian American Studies Associate Professor Chrissy Lau, among many other “Aunties.”

A Q&A and reception with filmmaker Valerie Soe and Auntie Sewing Squad founder Kristina Wong follows the screening. Wong will also sign copies of her new book, “Auntie Kristina's Guide to Asian American Activism." 

The event is sponsored by the Asian American Studies Department, the School of Cinema Marcus Chair and AA CARES. 

DATE/TIME
Wednesday, Sept. 30
6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
 
LOCATION
SFSU Coppola Theatre 
Fine Arts Building, Room 101
1600 Holloway Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94132
 
ADMISSION
No admission fee. Registration suggested. Space is limited.  

RSVP here

Russell Jeung gave a Furfey Lecture at the Association of Sociology of Religion  this summer entitled "Distributing Moral Worth: Towards a Theory of Racialized Moral Imaginaries."   On September 20th at Waverly bookstore, he  will moderate a discussion with Dr. Nancy Liu on her new book, For the Next Generation: Mental Health in AAPI Youth. Professor Jeung recently published a chapter in Crossing Borders, Advancing Scholarship: Sociologists of Chinese Descent Traversing Diaspora, Ethnic, and Migration Studies and an article in the Ethnic Studies Review.

The second edition of “Cambodian American Experiences: Histories, Communities, Cultures and Identities” by  Jonathan H. X. Lee was recently published by Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.

Departmental and Faculty Updates

Michelle Gomez Parra wrapped up her second year as an Assistant Professor by curating an art exhibit and research presentation with her research team in May. The event was titled, Estar De Moda: Latina Immigrant Girl's and Women's Aesthetics, and was well attended. She also presented this research at the American Sociological Association, and will present more of her work at the National Women's Studies Association in November.

Above: Michelle Gomez Parra and her student research team at their art exhibit and research presentation at SFSU. 

Students enrolled in LTNS 225: Latina/o/x Visual Culture joined their instructor, Lucia Uribe, on a field trip to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at the end of Spring semester. The students wrote essays that brought together key concepts from LTNS 225 into conversation with the artwork on display. One student offered suggestions regarding potential changes to the art institutions display works: "I would modify the way the museum presents artworks, allowing for the inclusion of more Indigenous voices and perspectives rather than relying primarily on institutional explanations. Furthermore, I would distribute Latino and Indigenous artists throughout the museum so that their work is perceived as fully integrated into the realm of modern art, rather than being segregated into specific cultural sections." 

How We Came to Be: An Intellectual Genealogy of Chicano Scholars 

Teresa Carrillo contributed an essay in the book How We Came to Be: An Intellectual Genealogy of Chicano Scholars (University of Arizona Press, 2026). The book is edited by Teresa Córdova, Aída Hurtado, Francisco J. Hernández, and Avelardo Valdez. Foreword by Juan González.

This work chronicles the lives and legacies of Chicana and Chicano scholars whose formative experiences in the Chicano Movement shaped the development of Chicano studies and transformed higher education. Originating from the Reuniones de Colegas Chicanas—gatherings of veteran scholars reflecting on their shared histories—the volume features sixteen essays organized into five thematic sections that explore the intersections of activism, scholarship, and institutional change.

Together, these essays offer a powerful intellectual history and a testament to a generation’s enduring commitment to social justice. How We Came to Be is both a scholarly archive and a call to action, preserving the legacy of those who built Chicano studies and inspiring future generations to continue the work of transformation within and beyond the academy.

More info:  https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/how-we-came-to-be

Departmental and Faculty Updates 

A Peoples' Podcast Studio, is up and running!

Falu Bakrania created a new course: RRS 425 Critical Exposures: Race, Racism, and Resistance in Photography, which explores the intertwined histories of photography and race from an Ethnic Studies perspective. She also presented at the South Asian American Studies: Power and Privilege conference at UC Santa Barbara.

Jason Ferreira will be teaching new graduate seminar, History from Below and to the Left: Race and Resistance in Historical Perspective.

Cesar Che Rodriguez’ presentation, "Fund Classrooms, Not Cages," was presented at the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color.

Ponipate Rokolekutu is a key contributor in Fiji's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  He is also presenting a keynote speech  on Fiji Day in Seattle, Washington, on October 10, 2026. 

Omar Zahzah published "Michigan 8 Case is Part of a Broader pattern of repression", in the Electronic Intifada.   He also gave several book talks, "How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza." He also has a new book contract: A Question of Violence: Palestine in American Academia After October 7th.

Departmental and Faculty Updates

We are happy to announce that 856 incoming SF State first time freshmen SF State’s first-year students are in Metro. 

A warm farewell to Arianna Vargas, who will be joining Santa Clara University's Department of Sociology.

Danny Gabriner is currently in Institutional Research.

Chris Pascua is new to coordination.

Welcome ETHS 221 Faculty: Susana, Yuki, Janice Mark, Peace And Love, Irene, Agnes, Vita

Our Ethnic Studies Coordinator is Michael Villegas.

Our Outreach and Statistics Instuctor is Michelle Toney.

Our Coordinators, Curriculum and Faculty Development is Tina Bartolome.

Photo below of Metro Faculty and Staff

From CEETL's homepage: The Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CEETL) is the heart of the University’s commitment to a culture that values and rewards teaching. From our ABC's of equity-minded teaching and learning to our Pedagogies for Inclusive Excellence (PIE) institutes and certificates, our faculty development programming is dedicated to providing a caring environment for the campus community to engage in conversations and activities that promote social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in teaching and learning. 

CEETL offers a number of workshops and development programs for teachers on campus, please see link for opportunities and offerings this semester. 

See their calendar for more events.