Arizona State University graduate students interested in addressing inequality through their coursework have the unique opportunity to help design the curriculum for new interdisciplinary labs focused on “Impacting Inequality.”

Interested students will help create the lab classes in a workshop with lab faculty on Sept. 29. The new Interdisciplinary Solutions for Social Impact labs will be offered during spring 2021.  Download Full Image

The Interdisciplinary Solutions for Social Impact labs model  

To encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and inspire cutting-edge learning opportunities for graduate students, the Graduate College launched the Graduate College Fellows Initiative in 2019. The two inaugural fellows — University Professor, Regents Professor and President's Professor Sally Kitch and W. P.  Carey Clinical Assistant Professor John Wisneski — collaborated to create the first comprehensive model for a new cross-campus experience: Interdisciplinary Solutions for Social Impact (ISSI).

Rooted in team-taught, project-based learning, ISSI will support interdisciplinary laboratories that bring together faculty and graduate students exploring complex social problems. The first labs will launch in the spring 2021 and focus on the theme “Impacting Inequality.”  A number of ASU faculty members are participating in the 2020–21 lab. 

“The most compelling aspect of being part of the inaugural lab experience is the opportunity of bringing like-minded faculty and graduate students from interdisciplinary fields who think about social justice on a regular basis in their research approaches and who want to collaborate to develop solutions based models,” said Rafael A. Martínez, assistant professor of Southwest borderlands. 

Participating lab faculty include:

• Felipe Castro, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
• David Garcia, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.
• Maria Rosario Jackson, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
• Brendan O’Connor, School of Transborder Studies.
• Dawn Gilpin, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
• Rafael Martínez Orozco, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts.

Graduate students can join faculty to build the ISSI labs 

The Interdisciplinary Solutions for Social Impact workshop will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 29. In the virtual workshop, students will be expected to actively engage in dialogue with lab faculty to help build student-centered curriculum.  

The first half of the workshop will be focused on the values of interdisciplinary approaches: why they’re needed and why they’re so hard to implement. The second half will include interactive activities designed to generate productive questions and approaches around which the team-taught spring 2021 labs will be based.

Martínez said he is looking forward to learning more about the students and their interests: “What are the issues they care about? And how can the faculty members collaborate with students to think about producing ideas and solutions to those pressing social issues?”

Space is limited so interested graduate students should register for the workshop as soon as possible to reserve their place.

After presenting Jason Derulo and Icona Pop this summer to thousands of people digitally, Live from ASU is back this fall with more live music on a screen near you with two virtual concerts. Presented by the ASU 365 Community Union, the concerts feature two fresh artists in Omar Apollo and D Smoke. Both artists pay tribute to their diverse cultures and will offer something lively and engaging in a live digital format for the ASU Community and the public.

Mexican American bilingual singer-songwriter Omar Apollo will perform live in the first fall concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8. The second concert features D Smoke, a former Inglewood High Spanish teacher turned breakout star of Netflix’s "Rhythm + Flow," at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12. Both artists produce bilingual music that highlights their own experiences growing up in multicultural environments. Omar Apollo will perform live in the fall virtual concert series Live from ASU presented by ASU 365 Community Union. Download Full Image

“The shows must go on — and they will with ‘Live from ASU,” said Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, ASU vice president for cultural affairs. “These virtual concerts are reflective of the diversity of our community and will bring the energy and excitement of a live show, plus the intimacy of a postshow Q&A with the artist.”

The Q&A will be hosted by an ASU student and members of the community can begin submitting questions now using the hashtag #ASULive for an opportunity to have their question answered.

The ASU concert series "Live from ASU" was conceived by ASU President Michael Crow as a way to engage with students and the ASU community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each performance will be an opportunity to reinforce ASU’s commitment to students and its culture of innovation, as well as provide an interactive shared experience with artists.

The ASU community and the public can tune in to watch each livestream at livefromasu.com. Concerts will be broadcast live in Mountain Standard Time and will not be available for replay or redistribution.

Omar Apollo
7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8

Apollo, a 22-year-old, first-generation Mexican American singer from Indiana, began writing and recording his own mix of jazz, R&B, funk, alternative, soul, and pop music. His parents moved to the U.S. to give their kids a better life and the opportunity to go to college; however, Apollo always knew this route wasn’t meant for him. He began playing guitar at 12 years old, but quit soon after because he got bored of only playing in church. At age 18, he began listening to new styles of music and fell in love with the guitar again. His biggest influences are Benny Sings, D'Angelo, Los Panchos, John Mayer, Elliott Smith, Cuco Sánchez, Paul Simon, Gary Numan and João Gilberto. In 2019, Apollo completed back-to-back sell-out headlining tours throughout North America.

D Smoke
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12

Hailing from Inglewood, California, Smoke personifies the city’s potent cultural duality: ​nurtured by the boulevards, and ​natured​ by a family’s legacy in gospel music. Smoke dove fingers-first into classical piano at the age of 6, honing his talents in church, and eventually lending vocals to Michael Jackson. Focusing on the creative arts helped him to circumvent the throes of violence present on his doorstep and propel himself into the classrooms of UCLA. During his matriculation, D Smoke was a beacon of light for his city, becoming a voice for the voiceless, using language, culture and music as tools to bridge institutionalized gaps and spread the gospel of a united Los Angeles culture. During the same years he spent in Westwood, D Smoke gained a unique and immersive industry experience by collaborating across genres with everyone from Usher, Babyface, Mary J Blige and Jahiem, to Missy Elliot, Timbaland and the Pussycat Dolls. His hard work garnered an ASCAP ​Song Of The Year ​award. After college, he taught Spanish at Inglewood High, applying his personal experiences as an alumnus and lifelong city resident to create a safe space for students to truly express themselves openly.

As of 2019, D Smoke gained global notoriety as champion and undisputed breakout star of Netflix’s ​"Rhythm + Flow."​ Smoke showcased himself as a raw lyricist, classically-trained musician and social activist with “something to say” — and nothing left to prove. The ​"Inglewood High" ​EP, released on Oct. 24, 2019, reveals the beauty and frustration of today’s Inglewood through the eyes of his former students, while capturing the essence of the city that raised him.

International religious leader, philosopher and award-winning author Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks spoke to more than 430 people from 13 countries in a virtual discussion on Sept. 10, centered around his latest book, "Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times."

The inaugural event for “Conversations on Religion, Ethics, and Science (CORES)” for the John Templeton Foundation was moderated by Pauline Davies, Professor of Practice at Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, with an additional discussion led by John Carlson, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict; Paul Carrese, director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership; Paul Davies, director of Beyond: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Sciences; and Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, director of the Center for Jewish Studies.  Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

"Morality" explores moral philosophy, public discourse and the elevation of self-interest over the common good. As communities around the world have experienced in the past six months of COVID-19, bringing people together for the common good proves to be more challenging than ever. 

This timely discussion revolved around the cultural and political forces that have divided Britain, America and the wider world, and Sacks’ sincere wish that people develop a "we" versus an "I" mentality.

“We are collectively responsible for the creation of a society that will benefit the common good — benefit those, who right now are least benefiting from it," Sacks said. "That was always a part of British and American society from the 17th century, maybe even earlier, until the 1950s. Somehow we became so affluent, the world around us seemed so relatively free of threats to our peace and security that we didn’t notice as this entire moral domain became fragmented.

"So that instead of thinking about what’s good for all of us, we focused on what’s good for me. I suggested that society can’t carry on like that. We do need to be held together in bonds of mutual responsibility because without it, we will indeed fragment.” 

“I really enjoyed listening to Rabbi Sacks’ webinar,” said Kaitlyn Skamas, a first-year student in the College of Integrative Arts and Sciences. “I thought the talk was going to solely be about Judaism, but to my surprise, he was very inclusive and encouraged the concept of ‘creating friendships through faith.’”

“The biggest takeaway for me was just how truly thirsty our communities are for a civil discussion among people who may disagree about many important things, yet are sincerely interested in healing the rifts in Western society,” said Professor Barry Ritchie from ASU's Department of Physics and the director of CORES. “This honest and yet respectful discussion was a model for the destination we need to seek for discussions within the university and within society.” 

You can watch the full conversation with Rabbi Sacks on YouTube. 

The CORES project is made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to the Arizona Center for Christian Studies, with a subcontract to Arizona State University.

Why do certain groups of people have a shorter life span? How can health disparities among poor and racialized minorities be reduced? Why are Latino communities disproportionately burdened by COVID-19? These are just a few of the questions Gilberto Lopez, a new assistant professor in Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies, strives to answer in his work.

Lopez takes a mixed-method approach in his research that combines his social science background and public health expertise to gain a more holistic understanding of various public health issues in minority communities. Gilberto Lopez, assistant professor in Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies. Download Full Image

When the COVID-19 pandemic first swept the United States, Lopez became increasingly interested in understanding the immediate and long-term effects the virus would have on the economic and psychosocial well-being of Latino populations in Arizona and California. Through his research he found that due to a number of factors Latinos are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19. 

In an effort to address one aspect of this issue, Lopez partnered with Creative Frontiers, an agency focused on creating behavior-change messaging, storytelling and health education, to develop the COVID Health Animation Project. The project features a series of animations on COVID-19 misinformation in different cultural contexts that are shared on social media through a number of health organizations and nonprofits.

Since the videos launched in April, the first three videos in the series have reached over 1.5 million people. Lopez is currently in the process of collecting data on the benefits and impacts of the animated videos.

Video courtesy of CHAP

His other work focuses on social determinants and disparities in cancer, mental health and the health inequities of rural immigrant populations.

Lopez said his motivation to do this work stems from his personal experiences growing up in rural California. As a son of Mexican immigrants who were farmworkers, he noticed a division in his community early on that led him to pursue higher education and better understand why different groups of people experience life in vastly different ways.

“My community was very divided into two groups — those who work the land and those who own the land,” Lopez said. “School allowed me to more systematically and theoretically understand these things. I started realizing that what we had always assumed was normal, like the high incidents of obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer, wasn’t actually normal and not everybody lives like that. As I learned the language and concepts, and how to ask questions through lenses of anthropology, philosophy, sociology and public health, I developed a tool kit on how to systematically ask these questions.”

For years, Lopez explored issues like these at universities around the country but said as a faculty member of color he was drawn to ASU because of the diversity among faculty and students.

“The School of Transborder Studies just feels like home. For a first-gen faculty of color, who you work with is very important. Working with people who have your same history, same background and who look like you and speak the same language, not even just literally, but the concepts, the ideas we have about what it is to be an academic, really just feels like a home.”

Lopez received a doctorate degree in social and behavioral sciences from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a master’s degree in medical anthropology from Southern Methodist University and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Chicano studies from California State University, Fresno.

Throughout his higher education experiences, Lopez said he found faculty who encouraged him. He hopes to do the same and serve as a mentor to first-generation students like himself.

“On my academic journey I was lucky enough to have mentors who took the time to understand and help. If it wasn't for them, I would not have gone to graduate school,” he said. “My door is always open. If there's anything I can do to help any student, first-gen or not, whether it's looking at graduate school programs, trying to decide on their major — anything I can do, I'm available.”

Addressing present concerns in social justice, sustainability and technology, the Department of English at Arizona State University has recruited five additional faculty to its programs in film and media studies and secondary education this fall.

The uplift to ASU English’s intellectual power will enable it to continue meeting student demand for a robust and relevant humanities education. New faculty arrive with top-notch teaching credentials and exciting research agendas in secondary classroom diversity, environmental media, technoscience, popular culture and gender studies. New faculty in ASU's Department of English are, from left to right: Gabriel Acevedo Velázquez, Lisa Han, Stacey Moran, Katherine Morrissey and Joshua Vasquez. Download Full Image

“The Department of English is delighted to welcome these new faculty to our ranks,” English Chair and Professor Krista Ratcliffe said. “Their teaching and research expertise will broaden our course offerings and enhance our contributions to disciplinary and community knowledge.”

One member of this cohort, Gabriel Acevedo Velázquez, is a specialist in teacher training. The department’s English education program is led by Professor Jessica Early, who also directs the Central Arizona Writing Project, an ASU-based site of the National Writing Project. Early praised Acevedo’s approach and skill set.

“Gabe Acevedo’s critical and social justice frameworks will be a great addition to support ASU's mission of access and equity,” she said. “His expertise will also be useful in the training of Arizona's English language arts teachers to serve the needs of our ethnically and linguistically diverse student population.”

The other four scholars — Lisa Han, Stacey Moran, Katherine Morrissey and Joshua Vasquez — are all additions to the film and media studies program, which focuses on preparing students as critical scholars, consumers and practitioners of media culture. Associate Professor Julia Himberg, author of “The New Gay for Pay: The Sexual Politics of American Television Production,” directs the program, which is part of the Department of English.

“These hires will enable us to continue expanding the range of courses we offer to students, including in digital media, gender studies and the environmental humanities," Himberg said.

Meet the new members of the ASU English faculty.

Gabriel Acevedo Velázquez, assistant professor (English education)

Gabriel T. “Gabe” Acevedo Velázquez was born and raised in Puerto Rico; his identities as a Latino, bilingual and queer educator in Puerto Rico and the U.S. inform his work. Employing critical and social justice frameworks along with qualitative methodologies in his research, Acevedo Velázquez specializes in teacher education, second language acquisition, bilingualism, queer studies, pop culture, multimodal literacies and masculinity.

A former secondary and elementary teacher of English and theater, Acevedo Velázquez hopes to develop classroom tools to expand on conversations about class, gender, sexuality and more. He holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction from Penn State University and an MA in English education from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. This fall at ASU, Acevedo Velázquez is teaching an upper-division “Methods of Teaching” course as well as a graduate seminar on young adult literature.

Lisa Yin Han, assistant professor (film and media studies)

With previous experience as a political journalist and art critic informing her work, Lisa Yin Han’s current research interests include new media studies, environmental media and critical infrastructure studies. Her dissertation examined the mediation of seabed landscapes in relation to extraction and excavation, with particular attention to offshore drilling, deep-sea mining and nautical archaeology. She has also published work on fetal ultrasound, abortion media and internet freedom.

This fall at ASU, Han is teaching the course, “Media and the Environment,” which prompts students to think through the role of environmental media in addressing challenges “from sea-level rise to species extinction.” She earned both her PhD and MA in film and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Stacey Moran, assistant professor (film and media studies / writing, rhetorics and literacies)

With a primary appointment in the Herberger Institute’s School of Arts, Media and Engineering, Stacey Moran’s teaching duties will also include courses in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Department of English. Moran isn’t new to ASU but is instead newly minted as an assistant professor; she has previously taught in English’s film and media studies program as an affiliate lecturer.

Moran’s research lies at the intersection of feminist theory and technoscience, continental philosophy, design studies and critical pedagogy. She is associate director of the Center for Philosophical Technologies and the faculty co-director of Design and Society in the Netherlands, a summer abroad program on Dutch design. For fall 2020, Moran is teaching a rhetorical studies course in English as well as offerings in the arts, media and engineering school. She holds a PhD and MA in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.

Katherine Morrissey, assistant professor (film and media studies)

Katherine Morrissey comes to ASU from San Francisco State University, where she was an assistant professor in the School of Cinema. With specialties in romance studies and transmedia, Morrissey’s work focuses on representations of female desire across popular culture, on production networks and on the impacts of digitization on creative communities. She serves as review editor for the Transformative Works and Cultures journal and as co-vice president for the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.

This fall at ASU, Morrissey is teaching “Introduction to New Media” and “Film History” courses. She holds a PhD in English (media, cinema and digital studies) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MA in communication, culture and technology from Georgetown University.

Joshua Vasquez, lecturer (film and media studies)

Previously a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, Joshua Vasquez has taught a wide variety of courses in film and media studies, as well as in gender studies and film history. His own work has focused on confluences of melancholy and masculinity throughout a range of American film from the silent period into the first decades of the 21st century. He has published on representations of race in the British science fiction series “Doctor Who” and on literary genre usage in William S. Burrough’s novel “Naked Lunch.”

Vasquez’s current research centers on intersections of comedy and melancholy in film and performance. This semester at ASU, he is teaching several core courses in the film and media studies curriculum, including a special topic offering on science fiction cinema and a graduate section on race and gender in film. Vasquez holds a PhD in film studies from the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, Bloomington and an MA in cinema studies from New York University.

The Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University is convening with sports business executives to launch Pro Sports Assembly — a 501(c)(3) organization and first-of-its-kind, industrywide community that aims to achieve parity in opportunity, pay and leadership in the professional sports workforce by 2030.

Designed to keep leagues, teams and unions both knowledgeable and accountable for delivering an equitable and profitable future in professional sports organizations, The Assembly is a membership-led community that challenges its industry to advance diverse and inclusive leadership. It believes that by developing cultural and gender intelligence, as well as setting best practices of stewardship, mentorship and allyship, professional sports properties can drive innovation, bolster financial performance, capture new markets and increase brand loyalty. Download Full Image

“We are united in game plan, and diverse in council,” said Shareef Abdur-Rahim, president of NBA G League and founding advisory board member of The Assembly. “We organized our founding boards to represent the diversity that our industry-at-large needs to see. In order to truly advance collectively — we must use an equity lens in leadership.”

In its first year, The Assembly will formalize its member network and provide professional development, as well as hold virtual forums, workshops and discussions. In addition, it will commission research, share tools and develop analytics around key indicators in professional sports to distribute among the membership as a benchmark and playbook toward ensuring a more fairly functioning workplace.

“At the core of the Global Sport Institute’s mission is to make a positive impact on the world through the lens of sport,” said Kenneth Shropshire, CEO of the Global Sport Institute and board member of The Assembly. “Through research projects like our field studies, we’ve been able to examine the trends that precede the hiring data for important leadership positions in sport. In this work and in future initiatives, we are keenly aligned with Pro Sports Assembly and its purpose of working toward a more equitable future in sport.”

The Assembly believes membership will be key to its purpose of advancing diverse, productive and inclusive leadership.

“For every five athletes you see on the field of play, there are 95 people behind the scenes bringing that game to life,” said Laura Dixon, head of external relations for Spurs Sports and Entertainment and founding governing board member of The Assembly. “The people who work for professional sports teams, leagues and unions now have a place to connect and collaborate on the critical issues facing our industry. The power of pro sports is truly in its people.”

Below is a complete list of The Assembly’s Founding Board Members (in alphabetical order):

Advisory board members

Andy Loughnane, president, Austin FC

Cynt Marshall, CEO, Dallas Mavericks

Ese Ighedosa, president, House of Athlete

Hugh Weber, president, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment

Jessica Berman, deputy commissioner, National Lacrosse League

Kenneth Shropshire, CEO, Global Sport Institute, Arizona State University

Kyle Bunch, vice president/managing director, Global Sports Venture Studios

Len Perna, CEO, Turnkey Search

Michele Roberts, executive director, National Basketball Players Association

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, president, NBA G-League

Shelley Zalis, CEO, The Female Quotient

Theresa Tran, founder, The Offense

Tom Glick, president, Tepper Sports & Entertainment

Xavier Gutierrez, CEO, Arizona Coyotes

Governing board members

Alex Chang, chief marketing officer, San Francisco 49ers

Alison Roscoe, vice president, partnerships, Austin FC

Ann Seeney, vice president, human resources, St. Louis Cardinals

Antony Bonavita, executive vice president, venue operations, Cleveland Cavaliers

Brandon James, vice president of basketball administration/deputy general counsel, Spurs Sports and Entertainment

Brittanie Boyd, vice president, corporate partnerships, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment

Cassandra Carr, investor, Spurs Sports and Entertainment

Dan Gladstone, senior vice president, THINK450/National Basketball Players Association

Dionna Widder, chief revenue officer, Houston Dynamo/Houston Dash

Keisha Wyatt, director of marketing, Dallas Mavericks

Laura Dixon, head of external relations, Spurs Sports and Entertainment

Molly Wurdack-Folt, vice president, partnerships, Detroit Tigers/Detroit Red Wings

Oracio Galindo, head of employee experience, Los Angeles Rams

Raquel “Rocky” Egusquiza, executive director, Miami Marlins Foundation

Contact Lindsay Hansen at 480-205-6195 or lindsay@ldhconsulting.net for more information.