ASU presents its biannual Diversity Scholars Series, Feb. 28-29, to highlight current research on hate speech.

Special guest Chon Noriega, a professor from the University of California-Los Angeles, will give the keynote address, "To Combat Hate Speech with More Speech: New Approaches to Studying Broadcast Media and Online Social Networks." Download Full Image

The spring series also will include a reception and two workshops that will revolve around Noriega’s current research.

Noriega is a professor in UCLA's Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, and he is director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. He has published 10 books on Latino art, media and performance. He is editor of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies and A Ver: Revisioning Art History – a book series dedicated to the contributions of U.S. Latino artists.

Click here for additional information on Noriega’s research.

The Diversity Scholars Series is a biannual event that provides the opportunity for discourse with nationally and internationally recognized scholars and leaders in higher education. The series especially is interested in bringing visibility and understanding to current intergroup, multicultural, diversity and social justice research, policy making and teaching practices in higher education.

The keynote address and a reception with light hors d'oeuvres are scheduled to take place from 5  to 7 p.m., Feb. 28, in room 128 of the Cronkite building, on the Downtown Phoenix campus.

The workshops include:

Session I – “Studying Mass Media through Engaged Scholarship” – 9 to 11 a.m., Feb. 29, Cronkite Executive Board Room 444, Downtown Phoenix campus. Light breakfast will be provided.

Session 2 – “Making a Difference on Campus” – 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Feb. 29, UCENT 822A, Downtown Phoenix campus. Light refreshments will be provided.

Contact institutionalinclusion@asu.edu for additional information regarding this upcoming series.

The White House kicked off the first of a dozen Hispanic Community Action Summits sponsored by the Obama Administration at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, Jan. 28.

Dozens of senior White House administration officials and policy experts met with approximately 300 people, mostly comprised of university administrators and educators, state and local officials, community stakeholders, students and small business owners to address issues relevant to the Hispanic community. The summit took place at the A.E. England Building, 424 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. Download Full Image

The day-long event began with opening remarks by Jonathan Koppell, director of ASU’s School of Public Affairs and the dean of the College of Public Programs, who hosted the summit.

It’s difficult for the federal government to understand specific community issues when they’re 2,000 miles away,” Koppell said. “Saturday’s summit provided an opportunity for White House administrators and Cabinet Officials to hear from local voices and have personal contact with them.  And it gives Arizonans a chance to have a direct voice in the policymaking process.”

Other participants included U.S. Department of Agriculture Administrator Edward Avalos, Paul Berumen of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

The summit sessions covered a wide range of topics such as immigration, the economy, jobs, mortgage fraud, health care, childhood obesity and education in the Hispanic Community.

The administration will hold Hispanic community action summits in Tampa, Fla.; Elyria, Ohio and San Antonio, Texas in the coming weeks. Each meeting will begin  with a morning session followed by open space workgroups where participants collaboratively set the agenda and identify next steps for community action.

Access ASU is organizing its second annual AVID youth conference, titled “Be the Change” that will empower Arizona high school sophomores to take charge of their education and invest in their future and community. The one-day conference will be held on Feb. 3, in Tempe, Ariz., and will provide a variety of resources, including interactive workshops, motivational speakers and a walking tour of the Tempe campus led by current ASU students.

Through an open application process, 18 schools in Maricopa County have been invited to bring their students. The goal of the conference is to foster positive attitudes toward school and higher education, 350 high school students are signed up to make the first step to life-long civic engagement. Planned activities for participants will include; a hands-on workshop, allowing students to develop solutions to local and global issues facing their generation, exploration of Changemaker Central, the campus hub for ASU students to develop ideas to advance student driven social change and opportunities for summer programs and early concurrent enrollment at ASU.  The conference will also provide an optional professional development workshop for AVID coordinators and educators. Download Full Image

Access ASU is a catalyst for change, transforming Arizona's college-going culture by empowering students to invest in their future and attain a university degree. Access ASU encourages academic readiness, increases college exposure, builds student self-confidence, provides adult role models, fosters parent support and promotes financial aid literacy.

Jamillah Anderson, Jamillah.anderson@asu.edu
(480) 965-6753
Educational Outreach and Student Services

In major cities across the United States, from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York and Washington, D.C., historical Chinatowns are fading as middle class immigrants seek affordable housing, better schools, high-tech jobs and other aspects of "the American Dream" offered in suburban areas.

“The traditional Chinatown is changing, and in most cities it is no longer the residential, political and cultural center of Asian-American life that it once was,” said Wei Li, a professor in Arizona State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in an Associated Press story that appeared in the Washington Post and on NPR's news site in the days leading up to the celebration of the Lunar New Year, Jan. 23.

Li, who is professor of Asian Pacific American studies in the School of Social Transformation and professor of geography in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, also chairs the U.S. Census Bureau's advisory committee on the Asian population. Her groundbreaking work on "ethnoburbs" is illuminating understanding of new forms of ethnic-majority communities in U.S. suburbs.

In addition to appearing in the Washington Post, the story was picked up on NPR.org, by the San Francisco Chronicle, and Chinese language sites Worldjournal.com and Chineseworld.com.

American Public Media also featured Professor Li in a January 23 "Marketplace Morning Report" segment titled "U.S. Chinatowns lose residents to suburbs" (listen to the podcast or read the transcript). 

Seong-Hoon Kim, a doctoral candidate in English literature at Arizona State University, has received a fellowship from the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The fellowship supports “significant studies” on indigenous American subjects, and is awarded based on the research project's potential contribution to Native American studies overall.

Originally from South Korea, Kim’s focus was first on British and American modernism and postcolonial theory. However, everything changed after he took classes with Department of English faculty members Elizabeth Horan and Simon J. Ortiz.   Download Full Image

It was while enrolled in Ortiz’s class on “Indigenous Poetry” that Kim encountered the culture and writing of the Native American community and found the topic that would be the basis for his Sequoyah Fellowship: Simon Ortiz himself. Ortiz, a Regents’ Professor in English and American Indian Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU, is considered a key figure in the so-called Native American Renaissance, a literary movement which began during the mid-twentieth century.

Kim’s work will focus on the political contexts of Ortiz’s early writings, specifically the Red Power Movement of the 1960s and 70s and his role in the National Indian Youth Council, Inc. (NIYC), a radical and militant activist organization. This will be the first study to encompass the “seminal, political, and philosophical background to Ortiz’s work,” and will take into account the impact of his life experiences – especially those concerned within civil rights groups – on his writings.

Not surprisingly, Kim approaches his study from an international perspective, saying: “Native tribal women writers . . . have recently indicated that Native Americans’ concern for tribal sovereignty is beyond a provincial one, being relevant to global postcolonial concern.” This is especially poignant since Kim is from South Korea, a country which has been frequently colonized by countries such as Japan, Russia, China and even the United States. 

As many Asian countries are still experiencing what Kim calls “the aftermath of colonialism,” the interest in post-colonial studies in the region is growing. Kim plans to teach indigenous American literature within Korea and possibly other universities in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan. He believes that developing post-colonial literature programs at these universities, “should certainly involve study of Native American writers who began questioning and protesting U.S. policies, at home and abroad, towards indigenous peoples.” 

The Sequoyah National Research Center houses the largest collection of Native American expression – including writings and artwork – in the world. Kim’s fellowship is for the 2012-2013 academic year, and he will start his research at the center this March. 

Written by Deanna Stover

Media Contact:
Kristen LaRue, Kristen.LaRue@asu.edu
480-965-7611
Department of English
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Schoolchildren from across the valley have won awards in ASU’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. poster and essay contest.

Those in grades K-12 were asked to submit essays, posters and bookmarks depicting this year’s theme of “Reflect and Act.” The 24 winners have already received savings bonds, and are set to receive prize ribbons at the celebration breakfast on Jan. 23 from 7 – 9 a.m. on the West campus. Download Full Image

Also at the breakfast, Bob Ramsey and Jenny Norton, community activists, will receive the MLK Servant-Leadership award. Graduate student Timothy Huffman will be presented the MLK Student-Servant Leadership award for his work with homeless youth.

The children’s contest categories are primary, grades K-2; intermediate, grades 3-5; middle, grades 6-8; and secondary, grades 9-12. Winning essays and posters may be viewed online soon at http://www.asu.edu/mlk.

The winners are:

Primary Essay
First place: Micah Vasey, first grade, Bios Christian Academy
Second place: E’lon Still, second grade, Bios Christian Academy
Third place: Ashlynn Kooima, second grade, Bios Christian Academy

Intermediate Essay
First place: Faith Pikula, third grade, Bios Christian Academy
Second Place: Miriah Montoya, third grade, Franklin Northeast School
Third place: Anna Scholink, third grade, Bios Christian Academy

Middle Essay
First place: Estevan LaTurco, seventh grade, Dodge Middle School    
Second place: Dylan Pavon, seventh grade, Dodge Middle School
Third place: Jenah Park, sixth grade, Franklin Northeast School

Secondary Essay
First place: Rachel Slepian, tenth grade, Chaparral High School
Second place: Chloe Martin, twelfth grade, Bios Christian Academy
Third place: Courtney Moore, tenth grade, Chaparral High School

Primary Poster
First place: Arella Payne, second grade, Franklin Northeast School
Second place: Alicya Whetten, second grade, Franklin Northeast School
Third place: Justin Lee, second grade, Franklin Northeast School

Intermediate Poster
First place: Ryann Thomas, fourth grade, Sequoya Elementary School
Second place: Sonia Quirino, fifth grade, Heatherbrae Elementary
Third place: Kylie Grant, fifth grade, Franklin Northeast School

Middle Poster
First place: Celestina Christianson, eighth grade, Mountainside Middle School
Second place: Sarah Himmelberg, seventh grade, Ingleside Middle School
Third place: Madison Raylor, eighth grade, Cocopah Middle School

Secondary poster
First place: Kendra Knittel, eleventh grade, University High School
Second place: Jessi Field-Sierra, tenth grade, University High School’
Third place: Cypress Hansen, eleventh grade, University High School

For more information or to view a complete list of MLK celebratory events, please visit http://asu.edu/mlk/.

A tradition at Arizona State University’s West campus that dates back to 1991 will continue at 11 a.m., Jan. 18, as Charles St. Clair reenacts Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speech. The public is invited to attend this free event on the campus at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road in Phoenix. Visitor parking on campus costs $2 per hour.

St. Clair, a faculty member in ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, will deliver the “I Have a Dream” speech as part of the West campus’s annual March on West event. More than 800 local middle school students will gather at the campus’s Paley Gates to reenact the 1963 March on Washington, which provided the setting for King’s speech. Download Full Image

“It’s an honor to share this unforgettable speech with a group of young people,” St. Clair said. “You never know who will be inspired to do great things by hearing Dr. King’s powerful message of harmony among all people.”

Sixth- through eighth-graders from local elementary and middle schools will arrive on the West campus in the morning and participate in educational sessions focusing on the civil rights movement during the 1960s. They then will meet at the Paley Gates to reenact a civil rights march, ending at the Fletcher Library lawn in the center of campus, where St. Clair will deliver the “I Have a Dream” speech.

St. Clair, an Emmy Award-winning actor and director, has served as an ASU faculty member since 1990. He is the 2011 recipient of the Promoting Inclusiveness Award from the city of Glendale, Ariz. Active in the entertainment industry locally and nationally as a director and lighting designer for stage productions including “Race,” “A House with No Walls,” “August in April,” “The Colored Museum,” and “Topdog/Underdog,” St. Clair also has appeared in numerous films and television commercials. At the West campus, he teaches classes in acting, directing and technical production for the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies in ASU’s New College.

For more information about the March on West event, call (602) 543-5300. Information about MLK events and activities on all ASU campuses may be found at http://asu.edu/mlk/.

In what could be considered a premonition, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared that if physical death is the price he must pay for the freedom of his brothers and sisters, it is one he would gladly accept.

To pay tribute to this devotion to equality and justice, Arizona State University will hold a series of special events in January at all four campuses. The weeklong events mark the 27th year that the university has participated in the celebration of King. Download Full Image

“Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has always been important to ASU,” said Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, MLK committee chair. “While the ASU MLK committee does a series of activities in January to honor Dr. King, we as a university honor his legacy all year round with our commitment to creating community, sustainability and technologies to make the world a better place.”

The MLK Day of Service to honor King’s legacy will take place on Jan. 16 on all campuses. This event is free and open to the public. For more information or to register, visit http://volunteer.asu.edu.


On Jan. 18, the annual March on West will take place at the Paley Gates at ASU’s West campus beginning at 11 a.m. In keeping with tradition, local middle school students will visit the campus for the traditional “I Have a Dream” speech and historical March on Washington reenactment. This event is free and open to the public.


The student rally will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Jan. 19, on Hayden Lawn, at ASU’s Tempe campus. MLK Student-Servant Leadership Award winner Timothy Huffman will present on his inspiring work with homeless youth in the community. The rally will also feature presentations and cultural performances from other ASU students. This event is free and open to the public.

The MLK Breakfast Celebration, from 7 to 9 a.m., Jan. 23, in La Sala Ballroom, at the West campus, will honor MLK Servant-Leadership Award winners Bob Ramsey and Jenny Norton of the Ramsey Justice Foundation and student award winner Timothy Huffman. Invitation only.

For more information, please visit http://asu.edu/mlk/.

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) recently gave its Silver Award to the SWE student section at Arizona State University. The award recognizes it as one of the top-achieving sections nationwide.

The ASU group has been steadily expanding its community outreach and other efforts to promote engineering education to girls, encourage young women to enter the engineering professions and provide its members opportunities to network with professional engineers. Download Full Image

About 50 active members have been volunteering their time in the past year to organize and coordinate education outreach events such as GEAR Day and WOW! That’s Engineering.

At GEAR Day (Girl Scouts for Engineering Awareness and Retention Day), which drew about 130 girls, ASU SWE members guided Girl Scouts in using kits to build small catapults, circuit boards and models of solar cars.

About 200 middle school girls participated in the day-long WOW! event, tackling projects that combined lessons on engineering and sustainability.

ASU’s SWE student section was one of only three university sections in the United States to earn a grant to support its WOW! event.

ASU SWE president Nafisah Ahmad, a mechanical engineering major, says the chapter is not only reaching more young girls with the message about career opportunities in engineering, science and math, but is also increasing opportunities for its members to network with industry and business representatives. “We are preparing our members for life after college,” Ahmad says.

The section’s meetings typically feature talks by professionals in various branches of engineering offering career advice. Once each semester, the group also puts on Dinner With The Professors, which has drawn from 50 to 120 students to meet engineering schools’ deans and faculty members from the various engineering programs.

Section leaders say the event has led to some students getting opportunities to collaborate with faculty on research projects.
 
In recent years the group has been recognized by SWE as the top mid-sized student section in the country. This year’s Silver Award is a step up over a year ago, when the student section garnered an Honorable Mention for its achievements, says industrial engineering associate professor Mary Anderson-Rowland, who has been the faculty adviser to ASU’s SWE chapter since 1975.

“It’s a very big accomplishment for us,” says Joy Marsalla Edwards, past ASU SWE president and graduate student in civil, environmental and sustainable engineering, who was the engineering schools’ outstanding graduate in the spring of 2011.

Receiving the award was made more special, Edwards adds, because it was presented to ASU section members at the organization’s annual national conference in Chicago before many of the more than 5,000 women in attendance.

In yet another addition to its activities, the chapter recently began a planned series of Last Lecture events featuring engineering students sharing their experiences at ASU and offering fellow students advice on how to accomplish their goals.

The first Last Lecture event on Nov. 29 featured Susanna Young, mechanical engineering graduate student, and Ren Ishii, senior mechanical engineering major, giving instructive and entertaining talks about the insights they’ve gained during their college careers.

Another of the section’s Last Lecture presentations is being planned for spring semester. Non-SWE members, including the general public, can attend.

To learn more about the SWE student section at ASU, visit the group’s website. 

By Natalie Pierce and Joe Kullman

Human rights activists, interested citizens, and students from high school through graduate school will gather Dec. 9-11 at Arizona State University’s West campus for the 10th annual Light of Hope Institute Human Rights Conference.

This year’s event, presented by the master of arts degree program in social justice and human rights (MASJHR) in ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and featuring the theme “Race, Education, and Justice,” honors Valley resident C.T. Wright, who has provided significant assistance to the MASJHR program. Download Full Image

“For decades Dr. Wright has had a profound impact on social justice and human rights issues around the globe,” said William Simmons, an associate professor in New College. “The conference dinner on Saturday night will serve as a tribute to his work. It will also raise funds for MASJHR student scholarships.”

Proceeds from the dinner will launch the Dr. C.T. Wright Social Circles of Justice Student Support fund. This scholarship fund will support MASJHR student initiatives including research assistantships and travel to Africa to conduct work related to Wright’s areas of interest.

“The MASJHR program is developing ambassadors from ASU who will make an impact all over the world in helping people who can’t help themselves,” Wright said. “I am honored and humbled by the establishment of a scholarship fund in my name. Having worked in the education field, I know how important scholarships are in helping students achieve their goals.”

Wright has been a visionary and tireless educational leader, most notably as President of Cheyney University. As President and CEO of the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help, he worked hand-in-hand with Reverend Leon Sullivan on numerous initiatives including the biennial African summits and working with major corporations around the world to improve corporate social responsibility. Wright has served in numerous significant capacities in Arizona including being the current past President of the Fountain Hills School Board, and a member of the Arizona Governor’s Council on African American Affairs. Along with his wife Mary, Wright founded and has served as Executive Director of the Light of Hope Institute which has undertaken important human rights work in Arizona, across the U.S., and around the globe.

A key element of the conference program will be “Social Circles for Justice,” the title of which is a nod to Wright’s hometown of Social Circle, Ga. These conversations on Dec. 10 and 11 will be facilitated discussions focusing on four specific topics: African refugees in Arizona, race and higher education, faith and human rights, and corporate social responsibility. Each discussion will culminate with a focus on identifying next steps to take, Simmons said.

MASJHR student Wanda Kolomyjec has played a key role in organizing the Social Circles. “Through this process I have learned how many wonderful organizations and individuals there are in the Valley doing important human rights work,” she said. “I hope participants will gain a greater understanding of each other’s points of view and perhaps also make connections with an organization whose work motivates them to join in and help out.”

“Today’s political discourse is often fragmented and polarized, preventing many people from getting involved in the democratic process or understanding crucial issues from different perspectives,” Kolomyjec said. “Very few news outlets reveal the range of viewpoints held by the public, and many views are rarely challenged by opposing opinions. People tend to cluster within familiar spaces, rarely challenged in their thinking or standpoint, reinforcing their opinions without deliberation. Our hope is that Social Circles of Justice can offer an alternative, creating a respectful space for exchange of experience and knowledge.”

The conference schedule on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 is:

• Social Circles: Race & Higher Education: 9 a.m. to noon, Dec. 10

• An Anti-Slavery Movement: 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., Dec. 10

• Social Circles: African Refugees in Arizona: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Dec. 10

• Scholarship Dinner for Dr. C.T. Wright Scholarships for Social Justice: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Dec. 10

• Social Circles: Faith & Human Rights: noon to 3 p.m., Dec. 11

• Social Circles: Corporate Social Responsibility: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Dec. 11

Conference proceedings kick off Dec. 9 with the third annual Youth Education Summit, organized by MASJHR students. Approximately 180 visiting high school students will hear from featured speaker Gerda Weissmann Klein, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The theme for this year’s summit is “Peace and Nonviolence.”

“The Youth Education Summit empowers high school students to educate themselves and engage in dialogue around contemporary social justice issues,” said Colby Jeffers, a MASJHR student who, with fellow student Lauren Chamberlain, took the lead in organizing the youth summit. They had assistance from several other students in the MASJHR program.

“Through dynamic, interactive workshops, students will have the opportunity to participate in rigorous, college-level discussion, meet campus and community leaders, and connect with like-minded teens from throughout the Valley,” Jeffers said. “Our goal is to inspire students to think beyond the boundaries of their immediate surroundings and to explore what it means to be leaders in creating positive social change in the broader communities of which they are a part.”

For more information about the conference and youth summit, visit http://www.lightofhopeinstitute.com/.