CSRC Newsletter - December 2004

In the past month we have been repeatedly urged to see the country—if not the world—through the prism of red-and-blue eyeglasses. You have all seen the maps on television and in the papers that show a country divided into red states and blue states. The red states place a value on … values. The blue states vote the issues. Values trump issues. Or so we have been told, repeatedly—no, doggedly. The message lacks imagination, but it also lacks compassion. In stressing our differences, and doing so in a way that leaves no middle ground (your state is either blue or red), we end up with a peculiar vision of our nation as, in fact, two nations: blue and red. But is that the best description for the United States of America, let alone the last election? Will such a map take us where we need to go as a nation? Or will it lead us astray? We need to develop other ways of mapping our political landscape. We need maps that give a more insightful sense of just how divided we are within the electoral process and on certain issues. But we also need maps that reveal our common ground, that show the considerable shades of purple across this entire country. After all, if we limit our political imagination to red-versus-blue and winner-take-all, then everyone loses in the end. With that in mind, check out the maps on these sites at the University of Michigan and the e-magazine Wonkette. These alternative maps offer a good and thought provoking start.

 

 

A new report by the California Research Bureau displays the improvements and the continued disparities in the numbers and salaries of minority staff faculty, administrators, and employees between the years 1996 to 2002. On November 23, the Senate Select Committee on College and University Admissions and Outreach released Faculty, Managers, and Administrators in the University of California, 1996-2002. While the report shows that the number of women faculty has increased, the data demonstrate that the rate of increase for minority faculty is at best slow. The report also reveals that the University of California (UC) is the least diverse of the state's public institutions, as it measures lowest in its percentile of Latinos, African Americans, and women. The UC student body in 2002 was 11.4% Latino, 2.9% African American, and 52.6% female. In comparison, tenure track professors at various levels were 4.8% Latino, 2.4% African American, and 24.3% female. By researching and recommending changes in the faculty make-up of the UC system, the Committee intends to promote equal access, and a high-quality, rigorous education for all students.

 

This report confirms CSRC efforts to push for faculty diversity. In February 2003, the CSRC joined with the American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Center, and Ralph J. Bunch Center for African American Studies in proposing the Faculty Diversity Initiative. The initiative proposed the allocation of twenty-four faculty positions that would be used by the four centers to appoint ethnic studies specialists across a wide range of departments and professional schools. This would make UCLA the preeminent university in the nation in ethnic studies scholarship, community-based research, and public service. Click here for the full text of the initiative and related articles.

 

California Arts Organizations Meeting

 

On October 29, 2004, CSRC Director Chon A. Noriega hosted a meeting at UCLA involving the California Arts Council (CAC) and nearly thirty California arts organizations. The meeting addressed declining state funding for the arts and featured State Senator Jack Scott and Assembly member Marco Antonio Firebaugh. At the meeting, Americans for the Arts launched a California version of CapWiz, an organizing software and website that helps supporters of the arts carry out their advocacy work. The "Action Alert!" section of the website offers information and interactive options related to important arts legislation.

 

Every year the four ethnic studies centers at UCLA get together for a festive potluck. This year it is on Wednesday, December 8, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in Haines Hall on the first floor in the CSRC Conference Room.

 

The library is processing materials from the James Tartan Collection for eventual deposit in the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The collection includes approximately fifteen Latin/Mexican American themed public service announcements produced by Tartan as well as his two documentary films on key moments and figures in Chicano art: Los Four and Murals of Aztlán. The finding aid will be available in mid-December. The finding aid for materials from the documentary film Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image in American Cinema (2002) will also be available mid-December. 

 

The Robert Legorreta (Cyclona) Record Collection has added five new boxes of material related to Latina/o and Chicana/o stereotypes including the special edition "Mexican Barbie" and "Quinceañera Barbie." The updated finding aid for this collection will be available in January. Finding aids for these and other CSRC collections can be found on the CSRC Library website and the Online Archive of California website.

 

This month, the CSRC Press will release a new policy brief on preventing tuberculosis in Latino foreign-born adolescents. The report is authored by Donald E. Morisky, Professor and Chair of Community Health Services in the UCLA School of Public Health. The CSRC will also release its third annual research report on Latinos in prime time television.

 

In 2005, Aztlán will have been publishing for thirty-five years! To celebrate this accomplishment, we are going to publish a special thank you to our long-time subscribers. Our records only go back to 1996, so if you have been subscribing to Aztlán for a long time, or have a full set, please email us so we can officially thank you. We are also encouraging long-time subscribers to send for publication a short statement, a sentence or two, on why they subscribe to Aztlán.

 

Also in honor of Aztlán's thirty-fifth anniversary, we would like to be in touch with authors who published in the early issues of Aztlán. Please email us if you were one of them. If you have a little extra time and want to send us a paragraph on how publishing in Aztlán affected your career or thought, email us.  

If you are interested in buying our books, click here.

If you are interested in buying our DVDs, click here.

If you are interested in subscribing to our journal, email your postal address to press@chicano.ucla.edu.  

Information about all our publications is available at the CSRC Press website.

 

The CSRC offers a number of important fellowships and grants in Chicano studies to researchers (see below). For further information about any of these, please contact the CSRC Assistant Director Carlos M. Haro. Applications are available on-line at the IAC website.

 

The Institute of American Cultures (IAC) in conjunction with the CSRC offers fellowships to postdoctoral/visiting scholars to support research on Chicana/os. Applications are due by January 14.

 

The IAC and the CSRC offer predoctoral fellowships to current UCLA students to aid in the completion of a dissertation. UCLA doctoral students with a demonstrated interest in Chicano studies and who will have advanced to candidacy by the beginning of the fellowship year are eligible to apply. Applications are due by January 14.

 

The IAC and the CSRC announce the availability of small grants for support of research on Chicana/os. UCLA faculty, staff, graduate students, and IAC postdoctoral fellows/visiting scholars are eligible. The IAC particularly encourages proposals that will make a contribution to the CSRC. It also invites proposals on interethnic relations that will increase collaboration between the UCLA ethnic studies centers and/or between the centers and other campus units. All applicants are encouraged to discuss their proposal before submission with Carlos M. Haro. Applications are due by April 29.

 

UCLA faculty members are invited to apply for research grants from the CSRC Latino Research Program (LRP). The program places an emphasis on applied and policy-oriented research and receives support through the University of California Committee on Latino Research. To apply, just check the "Latino Policy Studies" box on the IAC form. To be considered for both IAC and LRP funding, check both boxes. Applications are due by April 29.

 

The CSRC website publishes a list of UCLA graduate students currently doing Chicana/o-related research. To be added to the CSRC Affiliated Graduate Students list, email the CSRC with your information.

 

The CSRC welcomes undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in Chicano Studies to work as interns and volunteers in various areas of the Center. The Center has openings in the following areas: web support, manuscript processing, interview transcription (must be bilingual), and research assistance. If interested, send an inquiry to Carlos M. Haro.

 

To learn more about us, visit our website or email us. To subscribe to this newsletter, e-mail CSRC Newsletter and include in the body of your message the line (and nothing but the line) SUBSCRIBE CHICANO [first name, last name] (don't enter the brackets, just your name). This automatically subscribes you to the electronic versions of the Latino Policy & Issues Brief and the CSRC Research Report.