Educating and empowering

February 16, 2016

Students find belonging and purpose in the Black African Coalition at ASU

“Just like being at home.”

That’s how Arizona State University senior Arianna Cannady described feeling when she discovered the Black African Coalition (BAC) at ASU.

Being a person of color at a predominantly white institution can be tough at times.

“It’s hard being in a classroom where you’re the only black girl,” said Cannady. “When you have a question, sometimes you don’t want to ask because you might seem dumb or uneducated, so you just keep quiet.”

Fortunately, the BAC provides a place where she does feel comfortable speaking up. Cannady — who is majoring in public policy and public service with a minor in criminology and criminal justice — is the event director for the BAC at ASU, which serves as an umbrella organization for all of the black and African students and student organizations at the university. Currently, there are 20 such groups.

“It’s like a family away from your family,” echoed business law major and fellow senior Brittney Willis, who serves as president of the BAC. No small task, considering it’s her job to oversee those 20 member organizations housed in the BAC, and also to act as the ASU liaison to the African and African-American community.

And with this being Black History Month, both Willis and Cannady have a lot on their plate. They see the monthlong event as an opportunity both to celebrate black history and to educate people of all colors.

ASU seniors Arianna Cannady (left) and Brittney Willis hope the Black African Coalition at ASU will serve to educate and empower its members and the general public. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Most recently the BAC hosted a ball at Old Main, and earlier this month one of the BAC’s member organizations, the NAACP, hosted a march on ASU’s Tempe campus to spread awareness of the group and its efforts.

Despite some unsavory reactions, overall Willis said the march was “really nice.”

“We had a lot of faculty and staff come out and support us, so that was a great experience,” she added.

Though Willis contends that it’s common for students of color to feel “unnoticed and disconnected” at a predominantly white institution, “being involved creates an environment that helps allow students to feel welcomed and appreciated,” something she believes ASU provides ample opportunity for.

“My favorite thing about ASU is the huge amount of opportunity to get involved, as well as to prepare for our futures,” she said. “There are endless amounts of clubs, organizations and majors at ASU, so everyone has the opportunity to be a part of something they truly care about.”

Within the BAC, Willis is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and both she and Cannady regularly attend biweekly meetings of Zaria, an African-American women’s group that meets to discuss topics such as relationships and personal experiences in an open forum.

Though the BAC leaves most of the event throwing to its member organizations, it does host an annual weeklong summer program for incoming freshmen, a welcome-back barbecue and pool party, and spring and fall Black Graduation Ceremonies.

And Cannady wants people to know that everyone is welcome at these events. As she poignantly stated, “Come to events to get educated, even if you’re not black. It’s just good to know different histories, because this is your history. This is American history.”

To learn more about the BAC and its member organizations, click here.

To see more events being hosted by the BAC, click here.

Follow BAC on Instagram at BAC_ASU.

Top photo depicts the ASU Mizzou Day of Solidarity, hosted by the ASU NAACP Chapter on Nov. 16, 2015. Influenced by racially motivated incidents that took place at the University of Missouri, students marched with signs featuring racial stereotypes. Photo courtesy of Arianna Cannady

Emma Greguska

Reporter, ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Alfredo Artiles named ASU dean of Graduate Education

February 12, 2016

Professor Alfredo Artiles has made a career of improving education and opening new avenues in learning for students across cultures as the associate dean of academic affairs and the Ryan C. Harris Professor of Special Education with Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.

On July 1, Artiles will apply his considerable skills in a new role, that of dean of ASU’s Graduate Education. He replaces Andrew Webber, who moves to an executive director position responsible for accreditation, academic program reviews and other special assignments in the Office of the Executive Vice President and University Provost. Dean of Graduate Education Alfredo Artiles New Graduate Education Dean Alfredo Artiles is an ASU Borderlands Initiative Professor and co-directs the Equity Alliance, a group that engages educational stakeholders, advances discussion about education equity, increases learning outcomes, and demonstrates the impact of culturally responsive educational practices in public education. Download Full Image

“As the No. 1 school of innovation in the U.S., ASU’s Graduate Education enables students to advance their education and engage in developing deeper knowledge,” said Mark Searle, executive vice president and university provost. “Professor Artiles’ collaborative and interdisciplinary scholarship and experience in graduate education, professional service and 23 years of leadership as a faculty member and administrator in the U.S. and in Latin America make him uniquely suited to this position to lead our graduate student initiatives and expand ASU’s global reach.”

Artiles has authored more than 115 journal articles, books or book chapters addressing educational inequities related to the intersections of disability with sociocultural differences and advance policies, personnel preparation programs, and inclusive educational systems in multicultural contexts at the local, state, national and international levels. He is also the co-author of “Inclusive Education: Examining Equity on Five Continents,” published by Harvard Education Press.

“I am invested in the development of student participation in the practices of established scholars and practitioners; that is: to think theoretically and understand through a critical prism the grand challenges of their fields,” said Artiles.

He will also seek to empower students to create alternative formulations of the questions and priorities that guide inquiries and practices in a field, proficiently use theories and methods in research and professional endeavors, and to strategically use communication resources to disseminate the insights of professional practices and research to multiple audiences.

An ASU Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor, Artiles co-directs the Equity Alliance and is an affiliated professor with the School of Social Transformation and School of Transborder Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He co-edits the book series “Disability, Culture, and Equity” published by Teachers College Press and the International Multilingual Research Journal, established to “promote equity, access and social justice in education.”

He was named a Graduate Education Outstanding Doctoral Mentor and received the Faculty Google Award for Diversity and Inclusion in 2014. He was also the recipient of the Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award in 2012 from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and made the Hispanic Business Journal’s 2011 list of “100 Influentials,” one of eight honored for their influence in academics.

Artiles is an AERA Fellow and a resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

He has been an adviser to the Civil Rights Projects at Harvard University and University of California-Los Angeles, the National Academy of Education, the Council for Exceptional Children, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, and numerous projects housed at universities in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. In 2011, Artiles was appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Artiles received his Licenciatura in educational and clinical psychology from Universidad Rafael Landívar, Guatemala, followed by his M.Ed. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Margaret Coulombe

Director, Executive Communications, Office of the University Provost

480-965-8045 Margaret.coulombe@asu.edu

Sun Devil Life

All the world's a stage

Tempe campus

February 5, 2016

New ASU faculty Marlon Bailey studies performance as a means of identity, cultural formation

When the June 2015 issue of Vanity Fair hit the stands last summer featuring Caitlyn Jenner wearing an ivory bodysuit on its cover, the magazine caused a maelstrom. Never before had so much public attention been given to transgender issues, and everybody had an opinion.

While many expressed shock and confusion, the idea of a natural-born male choosing to gender identify as female is nothing new to Arizona State University associate professor of women and gender studies Marlon Baileypictured above, photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now.

One of the newest faculty members in the School of Social Transformation, Bailey has done extensive research on gender and sexuality. Still, in a society that has an almost compulsory need to define its constituents, he understands the reaction to Jenner’s revelation.

“When we’re dealing with this world where everything is in these boxes, sometimes those who venture outside of the boxes, they’re not legible; we don’t know what to do with them,” he said.

Active in theater from a young age, Bailey went on to attend a performing arts high school in his native Detroit, and spent much of his collegiate career researching black theater, in particular. After receiving his master's in fine arts in acting from West Virginia University in 1994, he taught in theater departments at various universities, including Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the University of Michigan-Flint.

It was around that time that Bailey decided to take stock of his academic career, and discovered that he felt limited by his master's, which only allowed him to teach in certain departments.

“I always had an interest in research and knew I wanted to work on some aspect of black LGBT life,” he said.

So he decided to pursue his doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley on a whim. Upon applying, Bailey was pleasantly surprised to discover that among UC Berkeley’s faculty at the time was well-known black feminist Barbara Christian. He and Christian spoke often throughout his application process, and he was excited to begin working alongside her. Unfortunately, she passed away during his first semester at Berkeley.

Undeterred, Bailey forged ahead in pursuit of his academic goals.

“I wanted to look at the ways in which, for black LGBT communities, race, gender, sexuality and class intersect and shape their experiences. And I wanted to do it from an interdisciplinary framework, through performance, because that was my background,” he said.

Over time, he became interested in exploring how performance can be a means of communicating one’s experiences and identity.

“When I started studying performance theory, that’s when I got into gender performance in everyday life,” Bailey said, “and performance of sexual identities, and performances as part of a cultural formation, which is what my book ended up being about; a study of this particular black, LGBT cultural formation that relies heavily on performance as a core feature of the way in which it evolved, the way in which it practices, celebrates, affirms, critiques.”

His 2013 book, “Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit,” (pictured at left) received the Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize from the GL/Q Caucus at the Modern Language Association. It also led him to another of his research interests, performance in relation to HIV/AIDS prevention among black LGBT communities.

“A dimension of my ethnography looks at the impact of HIV on the ballroom community and how they respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Bailey said. “So I’m bringing performance to bear on a social problem that this community, I argue, deals with through performance.”

By that point, he was teaching at the University of Indiana and was called upon by the state of Indiana to conduct an HIV/STD/STI viral hepatitis needs assessment for men who have sex with men. The yearlong study ended up in a 300-plus page report, which he handed over to the Indiana State Department of Health to be used as a reference for improving HIV prevention and treatment services.

Out of that came the basis for his forthcoming second book, “Black Gay Sex and Subjectivity in the Age of AIDS.” Funded by a National Institutes of Health flow-through grant to the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Bailey’s pilot study for the book looks at what it means to be black and gay. Part of finding that out requires looking at how black gay men’s relationships with their parents impacts their sexual development, something Bailey laments is understudied.

“Part of what I would like this research to do at some point is to provide some way to create a knowledge base for some way of helping parents, particularly black parents, deal with their black children who are gay or lesbian or transgender or queer,” he said.

His research into the subject will continue at his new home, ASU, where he found himself after his colleague and close friend Rashad Shabazz encouraged him to apply. Shabazz himself recently joined the School of Social Transformation as an associate professor of justice studies.

“Throughout our years working together, we would say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we were at the same university?’ but we thought that would never happen. And now here it is, it happened,” Bailey said.

“I’m still trying to grapple with what has happened. First of all, I would have never imagined that I would be in Arizona. I would have never imagined that I would be in such a school that is so perfect for what I do, what I believe in, how I understand knowledge production … it’s interdisciplinarity on steroids.”

As a sexuality scholar, Bailey asserts that interdisciplinarity is imperative to the kind of work he does:

“Women and gender studies has been a home where sexuality studies has emerged as a major field and is really giving [women and gender studies] its interdisciplinary identity. Sexuality studies done in women and gender studies makes it necessarily interdisciplinary, and necessarily, in my view, more effective, and more informative, more transformative.”

With the semester already underway, Bailey’s enthusiasm has yet to wane.

“I’m very excited about this new transition in my life, and I look forward to exploring it more,” he said. “I also hope that more students and people will look at the School of Social Transformation. It’s very unique, and not just unique to ASU; it’s unique in the country.”

Emma Greguska

Reporter, ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Arizona PBS celebrates Black History Month on-air, online

January 29, 2016

Arizona PBS honors Black History Month with a collection of new commemorative programs and digital content highlighting the impact African-Americans have made on U.S. history, beginning Feb. 1.

As part of its yearlong commitment to diverse programming, Arizona PBS presents a monthlong lineup of programs in February emphasizing the struggles, victories and contributions African-Americans have made to modern culture, and the inspiring evolution of African-American society, through stirring documentaries and in-depth explorations of the lives and legacies of celebrated African-American leaders. Independent Lens' "Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution" is one of many documentaries and profiles featured on-air and online on Arizona PBS in honor of Black History Month 2016. Download Full Image

Highlights of this year’s programming include “Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” which tells the story behind a key component of the revolutionary culture within the civil rights movement, and “B.B. King: The Life of Riley,” which celebrates the enduring legacy of the late musician and the lasting effects his work has had on the music scene.

“This year’s Black History Month lineup features a rich collection of programs that emphasize the many ways African-Americans have helped shape modern American culture,” said Nancy Southgate, associate general manager of content at Arizona PBS. “We’re pleased to shine a spotlight on these individuals and organizations whose inspiring and enlightening stories created such a meaningful impact on society.”

The Black History Month programming lineup on Arizona PBS includes:

Independent Lens | A Ballerina’s Tale (new)
11:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8

Misty Copeland made history by becoming the first African-American principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, considered the pinnacle of ballet in the U.S. This documentary provides an intimate look at this groundbreaking artist as she shatters barriers and transcends her art.

American Masters | B.B. King: The Life of Riley (new)
8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12

Explore B.B. King’s challenging life and career through candid interviews with the “King of the Blues,” filmed shortly before his death, and fellow music stars, including Bono, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, John Mayer and Ringo Starr.

Independent Lens | The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights
11:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15

Whitney Young was one of the most powerful, controversial and largely forgotten leaders of the civil rights movement, who took the fight directly to the powerful white elite, gaining allies in business and government, including three presidents.

Independent Lens | Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (new)
8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16

Revisit the turbulent 1960s, when a revolutionary culture emerged with the Black Panther Party at its vanguard. Stanley Nelson tells the vibrant story of a pivotal movement that feels timely all over again.

In Performance at the White House | The Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles (new)
8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26

In an all-star tribute, the Smithsonian pays tribute to the life and career of beloved musician Ray Charles live from the White House.

American Masters | Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll (new)
9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26

Discover how Fats Domino’s brand of New Orleans rhythm and blues became rock and roll. As popular in the 1950s as Elvis Presley, Domino suffered degradations in the pre-civil-rights South and aided integration through his influential music.

The Lost Years of Zora Neale Hurston
11:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19

Explore the life, work and philosophies of Zora Neale Hurston, a celebrated figure of the Harlem Renaissance who is remembered for her 1937 masterwork, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” This special concentrates on her very productive, but often overlooked, final decade. Interviews with Hurston experts and colleagues, letters from Hurston, and archival photographs piece together this fascinating chapter in the life of an American literary icon.

On Arizona PBS World 8.3:

Eyes on the Prize: World Channel Special “Ain’t Scared of Your Jails”
8 a.m. Monday, Feb. 1 and 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2

This series tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement. Winner of numerous Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Award, and a Television Critics Association Award, it is the most critically acclaimed documentary on civil rights in America.

Independent Lens | American Denial
11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 1 and 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2

Follow the story of Swedish researcher Gunnar Myrdal whose landmark 1944 study, “An American Dilemma,” probed deep into the racial psyche of the U.S. The film weaves a narrative that exposes some of the potential underlying causes of racial biases still rooted in America’s systems and institutions today.

First Peoples | Africa
9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4 and 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 5

Examine research that suggests we humans are a patchwork species of hybrids. Around 200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. DNA from a 19th-century African-American slave is forcing geneticists to re-think the origins of our species. The theory is that our ancestors met, mated and hybridized with other human types in Africa — creating ever greater diversity within our species.

Ghosts of Amistad
8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5

This documentary explores the impact of the Amistad mutiny and the repatriation of Africans to their homes in Sierra Leone. Renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls the film “of great interest to any student of slavery and the slave trade.”

American Masters | August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
8 pm. Saturday, Feb. 6

In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Wilson’s birth, the 10th anniversary of his death and Black History Month, Arizona PBS offers unprecedented access to Wilson’s theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and new dramatic readings ofhis seminal 10-play cycle chronicling a century of African-American life.

AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8

Hear the enlightening story of Tchinda, a woman from a small Cape Verdean island off the west coast of Africa, whose life changed forever when she came out as transgender in her town’s local newspaper. Explore her struggles and triumphs as she navigates discrimination and finds acceptance.

The Black Kung Fu Experience
10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10

Meet kung fu’s black pioneers who helped bridge the gap between African-American and Asian cultures and gave birth to the rise of black kung fu artists. Discover how these pioneers broke down racial barriers and became respected masters in a subculture primarily dominated by Chinese and white men.

Independent Lens | The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights
4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18

In Their Own Words | Muhammad Ali
9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19

Watch the highlights of boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s life and career, from his boyhood in Louisville, Kentucky to his stunning upset of Sonny Liston, his exile from boxing for refusing induction into the U.S. Army to his epic, triumphant comeback.

Additional programming information and airtimes can be found on the Arizona PBS online schedule at www.azpbs.org/schedule.

The following is a sample of the more than 30 programs available for online streaming on the PBS Black Culture Connection in February:

• The African-Americans : Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights (Independent Lens)
• Spies of Mississippi (Independent Lens)
• The Trials of Muhammad Ali (Independent Lens)
• American Promise (POV)
• Underground Railroad: The William Still Story
• The March
• Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
• Daisy Bates, Black Power Mixtape, Soul Food Junkies (Independent Lens)
• Memories of the March
• Bill T. Jones: A Good Man (American Masters)
• Cab Calloway: Sketches (American Masters)
• Dreams of Obama (Frontline)
• Endgame: AIDS in Black America (Frontline)
• Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• Freedom Riders (American Experience)
• Interrupters (Frontline)
• Jimi Hendrix — Hear My Train A-Comin’ (American Masters)
• Jesse Owens (American Experience)
• “Roots” Special (Pioneers of Television “Miniseries”)
• Not in Our Town: Class Actions
• Slavery by Another Name
• Too Important to Fail (Tavis Smiley)
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll (American Masters)
• Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (American Masters)
• Black Male Achievement documentary special series: Teaching Fatherhood, The Jazz Ticket, The Algebra Ceiling (POV)

Other series offering programming to commemorate Black History Month include “PBS NewsHour,” “Tavis Smiley” and “Washington Week with Gwen Ifill.”

Arizona PBS also invites educators, parents and students to visit the PBS LearningMedia website, which offers a range of curriculum-targeted resources that support lessons on black history and spotlight the leaders, thinkers and innovators who helped shape our nation’s history. Searchable by standard and keyword, PBS LearningMedia helps teachers to promote inquiry in their classrooms and strengthen students’ personal connection to black history and culture through discussion questions, worksheets, videos and digitized primary sources.

For more information on PBS LearningMedia, including how to integrate these resources in your school, contact Kimberly Flack at kimberly.flack@asu.edu, 602-496-3764 or visit az.pbslearningmedia.org.

Arizona Impact

ASU March on West celebrates MLK Day

West campus

January 20, 2016

Students from across the Valley came together on Jan. 20 to participate in the March on West campus in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This was the 25th anniverary of the event, which started as protest in favor of recognizing MLK Day as a paid holiday in Arizona in 1987.

Sixth-grade student Paityn Vesely (right) and her friends help put the finishing touches on their poster for the March on West campus on the morning of Jan. 20.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Grade-school students from across the Valley participate in the March on West campus in Glendale.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Students marching with signs on ASU's West campus

Students show of the signs they made for the march.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

People gathered around a water feature on ASU West campus

Students wait for the start of ASU faculty member Charles St. Clair's performance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on West campus Jan. 20.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

ASU faculty member Charles St. Clair performs Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on West campus. Watch the full video below.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Grade-school student Lily Niemi holds up her sign titled "Equality" during the March on West campus Jan. 20.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

ASU professor Akua Duku Anokye presents Charles St. Clair with an award for his 25 years of involvement with the March on West campus.

Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

[video:https://vimeo.com/152498397?autoplay=0]

Arizona Impact

ASU's tie to MLK

Tempe campus West campus

January 14, 2016

Civil-rights leader made speech at ASU in 1964, month before historic Civil Rights Act; listen to it here

Monday marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a time to reflect on the struggles for equality and freedom in America. It's also a day to recall our various connections to the holiday's namesake.

For Arizona State University, the major tie to King is a speech he delivered on campus June 3, 1964 — less than one month before the landmark Civil Rights Act was signed.

Titled “Religious Witness for Human Dignity” (listen to the speech here), King delivered the address to an audience of 8,000 people at ASU’s Goodwin Stadium. In it King stumps for civil-rights legislation and reminds people that racism doesn't just exist in the South; it spreads everywhere.

That engagement is one of King's lesser-documented public appearances. And until a recording of the event was discovered in 2013 most people had no idea it ever happened. In 2014, ASU Archivist Rob Spindler told ASU Now, "This discovery is highly significant for Arizona and the nation. The major online Martin Luther King archives at the King Center and Stanford University don't mention this address, nor do they mention that King ever gave orations in Arizona.

The recording was among a box of reel-to-reel tapes donated to charity by late Phoenix businessman and civil-rights leader Lincoln Ragsdale, an ASU alum, and discovered by Phoenix resident Mary Scanlon while shopping at a Valley Goodwill store.

After the discovery, a committee of ASU archivists, historians and scholars worked to verify the recording’s authenticity. It's legit. And it's worth listening to for a perspective of history, and as a touchstone to one of America's most revered civil-rights leaders.

Lincoln Ragsdale at the podium in Goodwin Stadium on the ASU campus in 1964. Martin Luther King Jr. sits behind him, to the right. Photos courtesy of ASU Libraries Arizona Collection

What we know now is that King (pictured at the top of this story with Ralph Abernathy to the left and ASU President G. Homer Durham to the right), was invited to Arizona by the Maricopa County chapter of the NAACP to deliver his speech at ASU’s Goodwin Stadium. Durham introduced King and praised him for putting the Sermon on the Mount into practice.

Durham, who came to ASU from Utah, was a well-known member of the LDS Church.

It's a worthy note because King's invitation to ASU was endorsed by a spectrum of faiths. A newspaper advertisement in the Arizona Republic in June 1964 invites “All Faiths” to “Join Together in a Religious Witness for Human Dignity in True American Tradition.” In addition to the NAACP, sponsors of the event included St. Agnes Parish, Central Methodist Church, Temple Beth Israel, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, First Institutional Baptist Church and the Phoenix Council of Churches.

In an ASU Now story from January 2014, Keith MillerMiller is the author of two books about King, "Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Its Sources" and "Martin Luther King’s Biblical Epic: His Great Final Speech.", an ASU professor of English and national authority on King’s speeches, explained why King's ASU speech was so notable.

“King gave it less than a month before the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Johnson after its backers had defeated a long Senate filibuster,” Miller said. “Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a powerful politician, was opposed to and subsequently voted against the legislation. ASU President Durham showed courage by welcoming King to ASU, despite the popularity of Goldwater, who received the GOP presidential nomination later that summer.”

Miller said Durham’s welcoming of King was also bold for another reason. The LDS Church did not fully recognize racial equality until 1978.

“Durham was a racial liberal who went out on a limb. He also hired African-American professors at ASU,” Miller said.

Others have said this speech, and Durham's willingness to bring King to ASU, is proof and a reminder that Arizona does have a history of supporting King and his mission of ensuring equality for all races.

ASU's other notable tie to the holiday is its annual tribute to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That was the event that featured King's historic "I have a Dream" speech. Each year the West campus involves local sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students to reenact the march while ASU faculty member Charles St. Clair reenacts the speech. The event is free. Learn about MLK-related events on the ASU Events site.

Solutions

CompuGirls founder on new Center for Gender Equity in STEM

Tempe campus Washington, D.C.

January 8, 2016

ASU associate professor Kimberly Scott discusses her new White House-backed initiative

On Monday, Jan. 11, ASU will launch the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology, led by Dr. Kimberly Scott of the School of Social Transformation. The new center seeks to engage communities of scholars, organizations and policy makers to breakdown the systemic barriers that prevent girls and women of color from pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) options. Scott's work to enhance the opportunities for women and girls of color has earned her acclaim from the White House. She spoke to ASU Now about the launch of the new center.

Question: Tell us about this the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology.

Answer: It's a one-of-a-kind center in the nation that is exclusively focused on documenting, building capacity, building programs and advocacy specific to African American, Latina, Asian American and Native American women in their pursuits in science, technology, engineering and math.

There are three departments of the center. There is the knowledge-building arm that is dedicated to synthesizing as well as presenting research that is attainable and accessible to a large audience, so that we can really make sustained and scalable efforts through informed, empirical data. There is the capacity-building arm, which presents programs such as my nationally recognized Compugirls programs, which provides a series of multimedia courses to adolescent girls from digital storytelling to culturally responsive co-robotics. Then there is also the advocacy arm. It's within the advocacy arm that we attempt to culminate the work from the research arm and the capacity-building arm and to translate that information to decision makers such as policy makers, legislators and community grasstop and grassroot leaders.

Q: What need are you fulfilling with this center?

A: Well, there are several needs. First of all, the information that’s specific to the communities that I articulated, specifically African American, Latina, Asian American and Native American girls and women and their experiences in STEM. There hasn’t been a coordinated effort that synthesizes what’s happening to us in these disciplines. There hasn’t been a coordinated effort to try to do something that’s based on research. And so, on the practical level, one of the things the center is most interested in, is how can we take the information, the research, the theories, and translate that into practice and then also measure the impact of those practices in a way that we can make long-term changes.

Q: You speak very passionately about this. Does it resonate for you personally in some way?

A: It does, it does. Having taught in urban districts categorized as high needs and also having had the opportunity to work with education leaders as well as leaders in general. There is this commitment to trying to close the disparity among groups in particular. I’ve seen this in practice, I’ve seen this in the scholarly community, I’ve seen this in writing. So for me, not only as an African American woman but as a social justice activist, this is something that we all must take seriously if we are really interested in addressing inequity.

Q: Tell me a little bit about the National STEM Collaborative, and how this new center will work with it and fit into it.

A: The National STEM Collaborative is one of our signature programs within the advocacy arm of the center. It emerged from a meeting that I co-hosted with the White House Council on Women and Girls in July 2015. It was at that meeting that we had the opportunity of interacting with about 50 university college presidents and they ranged from HBCU, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to tribal colleges, to Hispanic-serving institutions and to land grant. We had the opportunity to ask these leaders what are some of the issues specific to women of color in STEM, how should we address those issues and what are some of the success stories.

At the conclusion of that meeting, having analyzed the information that we heard, I made the announcement based on what I had assessed in that we need a collaborative. We need to further those conversations so that it wasn’t simply a chat and chew, but it led to something that can be actionable and can be impactful. So it was at that White House meeting that I announced the collaborative and since then we’ve had several other meetings as well as the development of programs specific to furthering the initiatives for the collaborative.

Watch the full interview here:

Global Engagement

Making global progress through mutual exchange

Tempe campus Washington, D.C.

December 31, 2015

Exchange programs between ASU, Pakistan universities allow for academic, cultural advancement

Hands go up in a crowded ASU lecture hall when a social justice course instructor asks who has ever experienced prejudice. The instructor asks another question: Are any of you willing to share that experience?

The hands start going down. One girl, toward the front, keeps hers raised. The instructor gestures for her to speak, and the room gets quiet. The student tells how she no longer feels comfortable wearing her hijab on campus because of the negative comments and looks it elicits from people.

That was in 2007.

Nearly a decade later, American perceptions of Muslims have arguably become even more adverse due to factors like the rise of militant extremist groups, such as ISIS, who commit mass global terror attacks, allegedly in the name of Islam.

At the same time, the Muslim world’s perception of the Western world has become increasingly circumspect due various factors, such as American military presence in Middle Eastern countries where Islam is largely practiced.

“When I went [to Pakistan] in the 1990s, I couldn’t walk down the street without people saying, ‘You’re American? Come in for tea,’ ” Chad Haines said. “In 2009 when I went as a Fulbright Fellow it was a different story.”

Haines, assistant professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University, serves as the principal investigator for one of two academic exchange programs between ASU and universities in Pakistan.

The first, which began in the fall of 2014, is an exchange between ASU’s Department of EnglishThe School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and the Department of English are units of ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. and Kinnaird College for Women. The second, launched in the fall of 2015, is an exchange between ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the University of the Punjab, involving both journalism and development studies.

The programs, each lasting three years, are made possible by two separate $1 million grants from the U.S. State Department to ASU’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, which facilitates the programs. Their goal is to establish long-term, ongoing relationships and understanding between Pakistani academic institutions of higher learning and those in the United States.

That goal is achieved by the exchange of faculty members each semester, where they take seminars which teach them about U.S. teaching methods and pedagogy, have discussions about differences and similarities between cultures and even present research.

As Carolyn Forbes, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, puts it, “One of the ways you build peace is through these kinds of exchanges — creating dialogues across these cultural spaces.”

Forbes worked with each program’s team to develop the proposals for the grants. Invaluable to that process was Yasmin Saikia, an ASU professor of history who had been working with Haines and ASU English professor Neal Lester on how to implement humanities research in impactful ways.

A native of India, Saikia’s studies focus on the histories of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

History, she says, is simply the stories of people in places — places marked by borders on maps. And the boundaries that exist between those spaces — those countries or territories — she realized were more often than not determined by things like religion and politics. They also served to create divisions between people, even when the actual distance that separated them was very small.

Saikia points to the huge amount of conflict between neighboring countries India and Pakistan, which prompted her to wonder: “How did we get to the point where we live in a state of perpetual enmity?”

ASU-Kinnaird College
for Women exchange
participants in Lahore,
Pakistan, in fall 2014.

Photo courtesy of
Carolyn Forbes

“It’s troubling because you see that these things are made up; you realize the power of rhetoric and propaganda and bad governance,” she said. “… [The area that includes] India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is the most populated region in world, so governments wanted to control it. It’s an area where the world’s largest number of minorities are living side by side … a mosaic of world religions, and they have been living together for ages, and suddenly they have started not just being enemies, but violently disliking one another.

“It’s a very important question to ask: How did this happen and what purpose does it serve? And you see that it doesn’t serve the purpose of people.”

In response, Saikia made it her mission to “move outside of those given categories” and “start working on a different kind of history that brings people’s stories to the forefront. In doing that, you find that people are so similar.”

The exchange between ASU and Kinnaird College for Women focuses on English and American literature. Claudia Sadowski-Smith, ASU associate professor of English and principal investigator for the Kinnaird exchange, said connecting across cultural boundaries via literature is a no-brainer:

“Literature very often is engaged with thinking about identity, which might be identity in a national sense. … And literature personalizes stories of [political and global] developments that seem so systemic, so depersonalized. It humanizes a lot of these stories that we don’t always hear about, gives us perspective, counter-narratives and counter-discourses.

“In that regard, allowing us to have seminars where we talk to each other and exchange ideas is powerful.”

Nadia Anjum, head of postgraduate studies in the Department of English at Kinnaird College for Women, said that the faculty there who have been participating in the program report feeling enriched and more confident.

“Five have presented papers at international conferences, which surely is a great achievement,” Anjum said. “The research area each one took up has strengthened our program.

“And these exchange programs are mutually beneficial — academically and generally. It has given our female practitioners exposure to U.S. educational systems, research collaboration and fostering friendships. It [has given] American universities the opportunity to reach out to a larger audience and promote American studies and literature in our part of the world. Moreover, as felt and stated by the cohorts, [it gives Americans the opportunity for] ‘closer cultural ties and to see the real Pakistan (as opposed to the picture media portrays).’ ”

The exchange between ASU and University of the Punjab focuses on transdisciplinary approaches to communication and development studies.

“One of the ways you build peace is through these kinds of exchanges; creating dialogues across these cultural spaces.”
— Carolyn Forbes, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict

Haines echoes Sadowski-Smith’s and Anjum’s sentiment in regards to the mutual benefit of exchanging ideas.

“The exposure itself, as far as pedagogy, will be hugely beneficial rather than traditional top-down methods they tend to use [in Pakistan]. As well the nature of how we do research and interact as community of scholars,” he said.

“For us at ASU, I think it’s significant in multiple ways. Development studies in the U.S. tend to be defined by very American-centric views of the world. [Americans] see development very quantitatively; it’s all about the numbers. And I think we fail to really appreciate the way in which different cultures and religions inform those processes.”

According to Saikia, the effects are already apparent.

“It is remarkable to me that as an individual I can feel [the effects]. These are community issues, and one can do something about them. I appreciate that U.S. Embassy and State Department have given us this opportunity to create these linkages.”

Click here to view a video about the ASU-University of Punjab exchange.

Top photo: Kanza Javed chats with attendees at a meeting hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at the University Club in Tempe on Nov. 2. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Emma Greguska

Reporter, ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Global Engagement

Getting to the heart of the human condition

Tempe campus

December 16, 2015

Years of passionate inquiry earn ASU Regents' Professor membership in Mexican Academy of Sciences

Carlos Velez-Ibanez desires to know two things: 1) How are people able to excel when they shouldn’t be able to? and 2) How are people able to survive when they shouldn’t be able to?

They’re questions that carry a lot of weight and whose answers he asserts have “enormous implications” for understanding and appreciating humanity, with all its mysteries and nuances.

So for the better part of four decades, the Arizona State University Regents’ ProfessorCarlos Velez-Ibanez serves as a Regents' Professor in the School of Transborder Studies as well as the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, both academic units of ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Velez-Ibanez is also a Presidential Motorola Professor of Neighborhood Revitalization. has made it his mission to uncover those answers, conducting interdisciplinary anthropological research on subjects such as migration, economic stratification and political ecology in the U.S.-Mexico border region of what he calls “Southwest North America.”

Now, his years of passionate inquiry are being recognized by the Mexican Academy of Sciences, which has named him a corresponding member. A high distinction in itself, the recognition is all the more prestigious for Velez-Ibanez, a Tucson native and the first American anthropologist to receive it — and it came as quite the surprise.

“[My colleagues] had been asking me for material and I didn’t know what it was for until I got the notification. I thought they were putting a research project together or some kind of invitation to give a lecture,” he said.

As it turned out, the four colleagues who had been requesting scholarly material from him were using it to nominate him to the academy. They include: Mariangela Rodriguez, researcher and professor at the Centro de Estudios Superiores en Antropologia (CIESAS)The Center for Research and Studies in Social Anthropology; Rodolfo Stavenhagen, one of Mexico’s premier sociologists; Tonatiuh Guillen Lopez, director of Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF)The College of the Northern Border; and Jose Manuel Valenzeula Arce, academic provost for COLEF.

All four of Velez-Ibanez’s nominators are also prominent members of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, a civil organization comprising more than 1,800 distinguished Mexican scientists from various institutions in the country, as well as a number of foreign colleagues, including various Nobel Prize winners — “which ain’t bad company,” Velez-Ibanez notes with a smile.

professor speaking with student in his office

Carlos Velez-Ibanez speaks with a student, freshman business law major Aline Francisco Lewis, in his office at the School for Transborder Studies. Velez-Ibanez was recently named to the Mexican Academy of Sciences, making him the first American anthropologist to do so. Photos by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

The organization, which includes exact and natural sciences as well as the social sciences and humanities, is committed to disseminating the knowledge and values of science, fostering improvements in the quality of education and raising the profile of science in the various spheres of Mexican national life.

In her letter of nomination, Rodriguez described how Velez-Ibanez “has addressed issues that are … nothing more than the will to live, to succeed and to succeed in the midst of the most profound ecological, economic, political and cultural hardships. He has observed in a fine and profound way the cultural resources and financial strategies with which study subjects have faced the precariousness of their world … [and] has contributed in an outstanding manner to the formation of human resources for Mexicans both from [Mexico] and [the United States].”

She ended the letter, “The sole idea of his entrance to the Mexican Academy of Sciences appears to me to be an act of wisdom.”

The contributions referenced by Rodriguez include the publication of several books — four of which are based on original field research — including the forthcoming “Visiones de Acá y de Allá: Implicaciones de la Política Antimigrante en las Comunidades de Origen Mexicano en Estados Unidos y México” ("Visions of Here and There: Implications of the Anti-immigrant Policy in the Communities of Mexican Origin in the United States and Mexico"), on which she had “the enormous privilege of working with him.”

A longtime proponent of the importance of interdisciplinarity in the sciences, Velez-Ibanez is pleased to count himself among the small but growing handful of social-science experts in the academy.

“I think for too long we have thought that the cognitive processes engaged in [social sciences and hard sciences] are so entirely different that they’re not mutual. The fact of the matter is ... they’re both asking the same basic questions; they’re both asking the big ‘why’ questions,” he said.

“The problem has been that we have so over-professionalized both, and have acquired such unclear language for each. One, too many times posing as the only way in which to conduct research. The other one using language that at times is so obfuscating that it revels in its verbiage. And so, instead of moving toward clarity — which is what the scientific enterprise and the humanities enterprise is about — many times we obfuscate each other’s objectives and goals.

“Each provides us insights into the universal condition, and so shouldn’t be obfuscated by differences in language. Rather, we should try to bridge between those, because each provides invaluable knowledge to our human condition. It’s just that simple.”

professor showing student photo of his family

Carlos Velez-Ibanez shows business entrepreneurship sophomore Briana Juarez a photograph of his father from 1916 before placing it in the Day of the Dead altar at the School of Transborder Studies on Oct. 29.

Happily, Velez-Ibanez can point to the many departments and institutions at ASU, his own School of Transborder Studies among them, that strive to do just that.

In regards to this newest distinction, he is honored but says he doesn’t expect it to affect his work, and for good reason:

“All human beings have punctuating points … I regard this as a punctuating event for me. It’s very important for me personally … [but] it doesn’t change anything at all.

“All of these things, these kind of professional punctuating points are fine, well and good, but that’s not why you do it. That stuff comes as the aftermath of whether what you do is of any value or not. It’s not the other way around; you’re not doing it for that. If you’re doing it for that, the work will suffer from your own silly ego. You just want to make a little bit of a difference. And if you can make a little bit of a difference, whether it’s in your teaching, or it’s your research, or whether it’s in some kind of public effort having to do with what you know, that’s what makes it worthwhile.”

Emma Greguska

Reporter , ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Arizona Impact

Appreciating her parents' sacrifices

Downtown Phoenix campus

December 15, 2015

First-generation ASU grad Sara Santos reflects on how her family helped her succeed

Editor's note: This story is part of a series of student profiles that are part of our December 2015 commencement coverage.

It’s the eve of fall commencement and Sara Santos is quietly shedding tears.

It’s not an expression of joy or sorrow; she’s crying for the people who have made big sacrifices on her behalf so she could attend college.

“Graduation makes me emotional because my parents are from Guatemala and they came to the United States in their early 20s,” said Santos, a first-generation college student who will receive her degree from ASU’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Santos will also receive the Jose Ronstadt Outstanding Undergraduate award at ASU’s Hispanic Convocation, for her service to others in the Latino community.

“Neither one had a formal education, and both were forced to quit school when they were young to help out their families. Growing up, my dad had to work in the fields with his brothers and father, and I remember as a kid he only had two shirts and two pairs of pants for the whole week. I may not have had as much as other kids in the neighborhood, but I knew I was privileged because I was never hungry, always had a roof over my head and was somehow able to get a formal education. I never had to worry about the things my parents worried about. They always led me to believe I was going to have it better than them and made many sacrifices to ensure I did.”

These days Santos is not only expressing gratitude towards her parents — Marta and Marcony — but is reflecting back on the teachers, counselors and mentors who provided encouragement when she was a student in the Phoenix Union High School District, where she graduated third in her class. They’re the reason she wanted to attend college, and the combination of the Doran Community Scholars program and the Provost’s Scholarship enabled Santos to attend ASU the past four years.

Some might say Santos has already paid it forward. She was recently named the National Undergraduate Philanthropist of the Year by Kappa Delta Chi Sorority, which she serves as president, for her 1,000 hours of community service — from raising money for Relay for Life to helping build a playground in downtown Phoenix — while attending ASU. Santos also served as vice president of the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations.

“I teach Sunday School class with a gentleman who was my teacher when I was growing up. He pointed at me and said to the class, ‘Years ago she was seated right where you are, and now she’s teaching you,’ ” Santos said. “I feel like a role model to these kids, and I like the responsibility of being a role model for them. That was something I was always looking for, and now I can be that person for someone else.”

Santos also wants to be a go-to person for Hispanic patients and had the opportunity while completing her coursework at Banner Medical University Center in downtown Phoenix.

“One of the patients I was working with on my community health rotation had just been diagnosed with diabetes, and he didn’t really understand the need for insulin or why he needed to check his blood level,” Santos said. “I was able to explain everything in Spanish and developed a rapport with him. When I did follow-up visits and he fully understood the treatment and the actual benefits, we saw a vast improvement in him.”

Santos said she has to take her board-certified tests in order to become an official registered nurse and eventually plans on pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice. For now she wants to take in the twin celebrations with her parents and siblings in tow, and collect the Ronstadt award, which she says was a complete surprise.

“They were proud before, but this takes it to another level of proud,” Santos said.

Her tears have evaporated by the end of the interview, replaced with a smile.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Marshall Terrill

Reporter , ASU Now

480-727-5176 marshall.terrill@asu.edu

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