But something happened along the way. The history courses sparked Acevedo’s interest in a manner that his other GE courses did not. The material ran so much deeper than the rote memorization of names and dates that he associated with history.

“My professors at CSUSM also made me feel smart, giving me invaluable feedback on my work and my progress as a student,” Acevedo said.

That was more than two decades ago. Intending to major in communication, Acevedo switched to history, graduated with a history degree in 2004 and ultimately became a professor himself – with an ambition to emulate in his teaching the way he was taught at CSUSM.

It seems to be working. Now an associate professor and coordinator of history, political science and American studies at Hudson County Community College (HCCC) in Jersey City, N.J., Acevedo last month received the Distinguished Faculty Award from the New Jersey Council of County Colleges – an honor that covers all faculty across the state’s 18 community colleges. He was recognized for his “profound influence on students academically and professionally inside and outside the classroom.”

Acevedo co-founded the Hudson Oral History Project, through which he guides student interns in interviewing residents, community leaders and business owners to document the history and rapid changes of Jersey City’s Journal Square area. He also helped establish the HCCC Department of Cultural Affairs, which provides free arts and enrichment programming for students and the people of Hudson County.

“When I was notified I got the award, it felt quite rewarding,” he said. “Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the impact you have on students, especially when doing the work of preparing lessons or confronting challenges like the influence of AI on education. So to receive an award like this was definitely a reminder that the daily commitment to help students grow as learners and thinkers is so worthwhile.”

A Fallbrook native, Acevedo chose CSUSM because of the proximity to home and the intimate learning environment compared to other California State University schools that he considered. Once he switched his major to history, he came under the tutelage of multiple faculty mentors, most notably Alyssa Sepinwall.

Sepinwall invited Acevedo to be part of CSUSM’s Faculty Mentoring Program, which since 1991 has paired first-generation students like Acevedo in a one-on-one mentoring relationship with a faculty member to increase retention rates. At Sepinwall’s suggestion, he attended an academic history conference in Newport Beach that he calls a turning point because it exposed him to what history professors do outside the classroom.

“Dr. Sepinwall also brought in guest speakers and made sure her students got engaged with history beyond just completing our assignments,” Acevedo said. “And she gave me invaluable guidance when I applied to grad school, spelling out in no uncertain terms the challenges of the academic job market, but also pushing me to pursue my dreams. Along the way, she has been my go-to person for all things history.”

Sepinwall’s influence was such that, during his senior year, Acevedo nominated her for the President’s Award for Innovation in Teaching, which she won in 2004. Her admiration for her former student is equally strong.

“I am so impressed by all of Tony's successes since he graduated from CSUSM,” Sepinwall said. “He took everything he was taught here and built on it in his own way to become a superstar teacher. I learn so many things from him when we talk about teaching – and watching him become a state and national leader in history pedagogy, for community colleges and others, makes me tremendously proud as his former Faculty Mentoring Program mentor.”

After graduating from CSUSM, Acevedo earned a master’s degree in history from San Diego State and worked there as a graduate teaching associate. He also taught a history course at CSUSM for a former professor, Darel Engen (another major influence), when Engen was on paternity leave. Hired by HCCC in 2013, he lives in New York City, where he’s in the dissertation phase of achieving a Ph.D. in world history from St. John’s University.

Acevedo particularly values the experience of teaching at a community college.

“Most of my students are first-generation students, and getting to be part of their journey feels special, because for many of them, as for myself, receiving a college degree can be transformational,” he said. “I also can relate to the ways my students have to balance lots of real-life responsibilities, such as heavy work schedules, with their pursuit of a college education, and I am continually impressed by their grit and perseverance.

“Most of my students are also non-history majors taking history courses to fulfill a requirement, so I especially love reading student evaluations that start with ‘I didn’t like history before’ or ‘History was never my favorite subject’ before they explain how much they enjoyed the class.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Patty joined CSUSM back in 1990, becoming just the second faculty member of the university’s new History Department. She had earlier earned two BAs (one from Georgetown and the other from Oxford) and a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University. As an assistant professor, she immediately began shaping the History Department by adding new courses. She subsequently became chair of the department for more than a decade, mentoring faculty and staff and encouraging their professional growth. Her own scholarship ranged from research into the key role of Sean MacBain in the founding of Amnesty International to publications examining the experience of Irish women working as servants in eighteenth-century England. 

In 2020, Patty retired and became professor emerita. She taught part-time on campus in the Faculty Early Retirement Program until last year.

Patty was a dedicated teacher. She taught at all levels of the curriculum, in multiple modalities and at all hours, offering high-quality courses that inspired countless students. Patty successfully brought her broadly conceived, international perspective of history into the classroom and was consistently one of the highest-rated instructors in the college. Her recognition as the General Thomas S. Jones Distance Learning Instructor of the Year by the U.S. Marine Corps is one of many testaments to her impact as an educator.

Patty was always a tireless advocate for students and was instrumental in making CSUSM a student-centered campus. She secured an AAC&U grant for “Shared Futures: General Education for a Global Century,” and helped launch what is now the Global Studies Department. As program director of global studies, she developed a strategic plan to grow enrollments and hire new and diverse faculty. Patty later received a dual appointment in global studies and in history.

Patty was no less active in the college and the university as a whole. She served as CHABSS associate dean for budget and operations for three years. Her commitment to university service was reflected in her many leadership roles, including two terms as chair of the Academic Senate, multiple terms on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, and several leadership positions within the CFA, including CSUSM chapter president. Patty played a central role in the university's WASC reaccreditation as co-chair of the 1997–2000 Self-Study Steering Committee, even before she became a full professor. Patty received the 2009 President’s Award for Service in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to CSUSM.

Outside of CSUSM, Patty was often to be found at the beach walking Gus, her beloved and enormous Labrador, or visiting friends in the company of Emile, her equally boisterous but much smaller Coton de Tulear. A voracious reader of both fiction and nonfiction, a connoisseur of fine food and wine, a rose gardener, a transatlantic traveler and a passionate champion of intellectual freedom, Patty loved life and learning in equal measure.

Patty’s legacy at CSUSM — through her service, research and teaching — is profound and enduring. She was a source of new ideas, an enemy of complacency, and a catalyst for constant improvement and development. Moreover, Patty often quietly supported her staff, faculty and administrative colleagues in ways that did not bring attention to herself, but were deeply meaningful to those who received these kindnesses.  She helped build our campus, and her influence will continue to be felt by the many students, staff, and faculty whose lives she touched.

It was for a semester-long program in Washington, D.C., where students could earn up to 20 semester credits while learning from government leaders and policy experts from across the nation. One of the biggest selling points? All expenses would be covered by the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

“I almost didn’t believe it,” Manassero said.

But Manassero started researching the institute and its Panetta Congressional Internship program, which has benefited California State University students for more than two decades.

“It’s just a very supportive program,” said Manassero, who is on track to graduate from CSUSM with a bachelor’s in history this May. “The Panetta Institute is very generous, and I'm very grateful for that. One of the reasons that someone like me could go out there – and pretty much most of us who were in the program could – is because the expenses are all covered. They want to provide this experience and get people interested in public policy, and that means involving people who normally wouldn't be able to get involved. I'm just very grateful for them.”

The Panetta Institute annually selects one student from each CSU campus as well as Dominican University of California, Saint Mary’s College and Santa Clara University to participate in the program.

Manassero was selected as CSUSM’s representative after a process that included a panel interview with the Career Center, a meeting with President Ellen Neufeldt and a final interview with the Panetta Institute.

The program matches interns with a member of the California congressional delegation based on their interests. Manassero worked in the office of Congressman Kevin Mullin, who represents the state’s 15^th district, which covers an area south of San Francisco.

Manassero joined other program participants in Monterey last August for a rigorous two-week orientation at the Panetta Institute, which was founded in 1997 by former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and his wife, Sylvia. Then it was off to Washington for a 2½-month assignment on Capitol Hill.

“It was really transformative to talk to constituents on the phone and be that first line of support for them,” said Manassero, who plans to attend law school. “Every intern's experience is different, but for me, I really felt like I was making a difference by talking to people and making sure their concerns were heard. It was very exciting.”

The experience was life-changing, and Manassero hopes other CSUSM students consider applying for 2026. The program is open to upper-division students of all majors. Students can apply through the Career Center website by submitting a two-page essay, a resume, academic transcripts and a copy of a recently graded paper. The Career Center will host virtual information sessions about the program at noon on Feb. 17 and 26. Complete details on the sessions and applying for the internship are available on the Career Center’s Panetta Congressional Internship website.

Manassero emphasized that students shouldn’t be hesitant about applying.

“We had people who were child development majors in D.C. with us, we had finance majors, we had accounting majors, global business majors. We had all these different majors, so anyone who’s interested should apply,” Manassero said. “And no matter what degree you have, there is probably a place in government for you. If you have a child development major, maybe you'll work in the Department of Education or Health and Human Services one day. You never know, so why not apply?

“Meeting the Panettas, my time in Monterey Bay, my time in D.C., all of it was just such a wonderful experience. And I'm very grateful to the Career Center, to President Neufeldt and to the Panetta Institute.”

Learn more about the Panetta Congressional Internship by visiting the Career Center’s  website.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Long before he was an assistant professor of history at Cal State San Marcos, Amador was a doctoral student at New York’s Stony Brook University who was doing field work for his dissertation in Mexico. Hoping to comb through the historical archive of the people of Temacapulin, a small town northeast of Guadalajara, he was surprised to learn that they didn’t have one. What they had was thousands of documents piled haphazardly into boxes, all too vulnerable to environmental damage in the event of, say, a flood.

Helping to organize the town’s historical record wasn’t part of Amador’s dissertation, but his conscience wouldn’t allow him to return to New York with the papers in such disarray. So he gave himself a crash course in archival studies – which traditionally is more the domain of librarians – and, with the aid of some volunteers from the community, he led an effort in 2022 to whip the archive into shape.

During the three months that Amador was in Temacapulin, word of his project spread to neighboring towns. It just so happened that the Indigenous community of San Juan de la Laguna (La Laguna for short) was in the midst of an effort to organize its own historical documents. The people behind it invited Amador to town, and he discovered that this project involved almost twice as many documents (nearly 20,000), stretching back more than a century earlier, to the late 1600s.

“When I saw that this project was a different beast compared to the first one,” Amador said, “I knew we needed more resources and more help.”

After a hiatus of a few years – during which he finished his dissertation, earned his Ph.D. from Stony Brook and was hired by CSUSM – Amador finally found himself in position to revisit the La Laguna archive. Last spring, he received a $15,000 grant from the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library, the largest library in the world and the home of such storied pieces as the original Magna Carta.

Over the summer, Amador spent two weeks in La Laguna, and the funding not only paid for his trip, but allowed him to purchase laptops and hire and train five members of the community as full-time workers on the 10-week project.

“I never imagined I’d end up in this field, but it truly offers incredible opportunities,” he said. “I get to meet new people and develop skills in an area where, surprisingly, historians often know nothing about – archives. You’d think that’s odd, like chemists not learning about the equipment in their own labs. Now that I’m doing this work, I realize just how striking that gap is between what historians do and the archival side of their profession.”

Amador streamlined and accelerated a process that had progressed in fits and starts since his initial visit to La Laguna three years earlier. In helping gather the materials, he found that many of them were stored in unfavorable conditions, such as sacks, cardboard boxes and bound together with string. Many also were marked with water stains.

As the group surveyed and created an inventory of the documents, they encountered samples both mundane (countless tax receipts) and captivating. One example was a paper record of a legal battle in the early 20^th century between a town resident and an immigrant from Lebanon.

“How did a man from Lebanon end up in this little town?” Amador said. “That whole story sounds fascinating. Discovering history through these documents is, in a way, truly thrilling.”

Beyond just the work itself, the biggest challenge that Amador faced was gaining the trust of an Indigenous community that traditionally has had a fraught relationship with the local government and the outside world at large.

“With me coming from the United States, people wondered, ‘What are his priorities? Why is he here helping us? What’s in it for him?’ ” he said. “It really came down to open communication – reassuring them that I’m doing this because I love the work and involving them in the process as much as possible.”

As the grant-funded initiative wraps up this fall, Amador is considering a return to La Laguna in January to review the finished product in person. And as the domino effect continues, the second project might lead to a third one.

Another nearby Indigenous community heard about the work Amador led in La Laguna and requested his support for its archival project, which features more digitized material instead of old, yellowing papers. For that one, which remains in the preliminary stages, he is coordinating with classically trained archivists, namely Sean Visintainer and Jennifer Ho of the CSUSM University Library. He’s also talking with Visintainer and Ho about the possibility of introducing and teaching a history course in archival studies.

“I really did stumble into this type of work. I still am even hesitant to call myself an archivist,” Amador said. “I'm learning so much, and there's still so much for me to learn. But it does seem like this is where my career is headed – bringing archival studies and history together in some way.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The CSUSM fellows are: 

• Hugo Peralta-Ramírez, studying history and sponsored by history professor Alan Malfavon.  
• Karissa Tran, studying psychology and sponsored by kinesiology professor Richard Armenta.  

Seven CSUSM alumni were selected in the previous 2024-25 cohort. 

CDIP aims to increase the number of faculty with the qualifications and skills needed to teach the diverse students of California State University. The largest program of its kind in the United States, CDIP has supported more than 2,500 fellows pursuing doctoral degrees since 1987. CDIP also prepares promising doctoral students for CSU faculty positions by providing financial support, mentorship from CSU faculty and professional development with grant resources.  

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs
ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

It’s only natural, then, that her first book is about one particular way that those two topics have intersected in American life. 

Jan. 17 was the publication date of Krivulskaya’s debut book, titled “Disgraced: How Sex Scandals Transformed American Protestantism.” The book is described by its publisher, Oxford University Press, as a “sweeping religious and cultural history of Protestant sex scandals in 19th- and 20th-century America” as Krivulskaya “investigates the cultural consequences of scandal, what demands the public made of religion in response to revelations of pastoral misdeeds and how Protestantism itself changed in the process.”

Krivulskaya, who has worked at CSUSM since 2019, says she’s thrilled that the book is out in the world.

“The project is the culmination of years of research, draft workshops in communities of deep thinkers, and revisions,” she said. “I hope that the topic will attract a broad readership, and I hope that they learn from the many fascinating stories I tell in the book.”

“Disgraced” originated as Krivulskaya’s dissertation during her time as a Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame from 2015 to 2019. In the course of her research for the project, she combed newspaper archives from the first half of the 1800s, which witnessed the emergence of human interest journalism. She then traced how the U.S. press covered the stories of ministerial downfalls through the late 1900s. 

“It turns out that sex scandals have not been mere aberrations in the history of American religion. In fact, they have plagued churches since the birth of the modern press in the 1830s,” Krivulskaya said. “Initially, newspapers were hesitant to report on stories of ministers’ sexual transgressions because they wanted to protect the sanctity of Protestantism, which was the faith of the majority. But ministers kept getting caught up in scandals. 

“By the end of the century, the press was on a crusade to expose all manner of hypocrisy among the nation’s leaders. Churches and religious institutions, in turn, strategized about addressing the crisis in their midst – to varying degrees of success. Scandals continued to propel newspaper sales and excite public sentiment, ultimately compelling Protestant institutions to attempt to handle matters internally to protect their reputations. 

“By the late 20th century, a culture of secrecy and the rise of charismatic religious celebrities enabled tremendous abuses of power, as the scandals of multiple televangelists demonstrate. And, at the same time, scandal ceased to shock the public, thereby losing some of its generative potency.”

Krivulskaya says her goal is for readers to come away from the book with a deep understanding of the major developments in journalism, religion and sexuality since the 19th century. She also wants readers to feel inspired to hold religious institutions accountable in the wake of scandals. 

“Finally, I hope readers have fun,” she said. “The stories I tell in this book are fascinating, and the characters are colorful and compelling. I hope my narrative does them justice, and I hope my readers get to know these historical figures in all their messiness and complexity.”

“Disgraced” is available for purchase on Amazon. It also can be bought at Oxford University Press for 30% off using the discount code AUFLY30.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

This is a theme that surfaces throughout history professor Citlali Sosa-Riddell’s life — from diving into historical aspects of Marvel movies to filling her reading list with mystery novels that take place in the past.  

It is Sosa-Riddell’s passion for history that brought her to Cal State San Marcos this fall.  

Choosing a career pathway can be intimidating for any young adult trying to map out their life. There is such a wide variety of fields and factors to consider. When it came time for Sosa-Riddell to make her big decision, she had one condition: 

“I just couldn’t imagine being in a small office where there’s not a lot of people to talk to or an outlet for my individuality,” Sosa-Riddell said. “I knew I needed to follow my interests, and it led to me following in my mom’s footsteps.”  

Sosa-Riddell’s mother was a professor at UC Davis. Growing up in academia, Sosa-Riddell saw firsthand the dynamic nature of teaching. The idea of engaging with students in the classroom and leading large-scale creative projects felt like a thrill to her.  

After years of hard work, Sosa-Riddell earned her Ph.D. in American history from UCLA and is now an experienced Latinx and Latin American history professor. She is living out her teaching aspirations and continues to find new ways to think outside the box when approaching historical analysis. 

Her current passion project is co-hosting a podcast with longtime friend Jorge Leal, an assistant professor of history at UC Riverside. “The Discursive Power of Rock en Español and the Desire for Democracy” is a podcast that traces past social movements in Latin America. Sosa-Riddell’s key focus is examining the role that Spanish rock music has played in challenging dictatorships and advocating for the rights of immigrants. 

Sosa-Riddell recently got to interview one of her student’s aunts. Her interviewee lived in a country under a dictatorship. Once the dictatorship was lifted, she reminisced on how people were terrified but also filled with excitement as some handed out their mixtapes and flyers for band performances to celebrate the end of tyranny. 

“I think her story really struck me because she connected music to that joy of freedom,” Sosa-Riddell said. “Usually when we think about dictatorships, we only think about the mundane horribleness and the trauma. I found her connection to be really interesting, and I think that’s why I wanted to find a way to do something that would be more joyful for listeners to think about: How do people fight back? I like that about music.” 

Sosa-Riddell was in college when Spanish rock music heavily came onto the scene. It was not exactly love at first listen.  

“I was amazed by this new sound, but I was also partially on the team of dismissing it as lame,” she said. “Everybody else was really into it and talking about it. I remember my friend pointing out how it feels like the kids born in the United States are starting to view immigrants and Mexican Americans in a new way — as cool. It felt like an interesting shift with Americans looking to Latin America for music instead of vice versa.”   

Nowadays, Sosa-Riddell finds herself listening to a variety of musical genres. She loves anything she can sing along to, whether that be reggaeton, her favorite Latin alternative group Café Tacvba or upbeat pop musicians such as Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.  

With a mix of modern and traditional, Sosa-Riddell’s podcast covers it all. And she is not just talking about music. Sosa-Riddell is digging even deeper and exploring the iconic venues of band performances, clothing styles and the gender roles and expectations surrounding fans of the Spanish rock genre. By fusing her interests of Spanish music and Latin American history, she is hoping to generate a unique and educational dialogue for her audience.  

Sosa-Riddell and Leal released the first season of their podcast last summer. It is continuing to take off, having received over 2,000 downloads.  

These co-host historians are showing no signs of slowing down. They are working on Season 2 and expect it to be complete this spring.  

The podcast is available on Apple Music and Spotify.   

“I am not a musicologist or anything,” Sosa-Riddell said. “But I have learned so much about music through recording and researching for this podcast, and I am very excited for our next season.”   

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Krivulskaya was one of 16 interdisciplinary scholars selected to be part of the PRRI's sixth cohort of fellows and the third cohort under its “Religion and Renewing Democracy Initiative.” She will continue her work alongside PRRI researchers and staff to generate public scholarship focused on contemporary issues at the intersection of religion, culture and politics. 

“High-quality public scholarship is critical today, as questions of what it means to live in a multi-racial, multi-faith and pluralistic democracy populate the news and dominate politics,” Melissa Deckman, chief executive officer of PRRI, said in a statement. “I look forward to the innovation, collaboration and insight this year’s cohort of PRRI Public Fellows will bring to both our organization and the public square.” 

Through the initiative, the public fellows are organized into groups based on their work in PRRI’s four major research areas: religious, racial and ethnic pluralism; racial justice and white supremacy; immigration and migration studies; and LGBTQ rights.  

Due to her outstanding work in the field, Krivulskaya is part of the LGBTQ rights group. She specializes in modern U.S. history and studies the relationship between sexuality and religion. She is the author of many articles published by prestigious journals, the recipient of 2019-2020 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, the author of the book “Disgraced: How Sex Scandals Transformed American Protestantism” and a 2023-2025 cohort member of the Young Scholars of American Religion Program at the Center for the Study of American Religion and Culture.  

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist
ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

To understand the reasoning behind this report, Cortes conducted empirical research examining important aspects of Latino wellness such as food and culture, sense of belonging and mental health treatment.  

“I wanted to further explore what made the Cougar Pantry such a great resource on campus,”  Cortes said. “And I wanted my research to be relevant to myself and my community.” 

His hard work paid off when he was announced as one of six winners of the 2022-23 CSUSM Library Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity award, which comes with a $600 cash prize for each recipient. 

“It is inspiring to see the work that our students are doing here at CSUSM,” said Rosa Rodriguez, CSUSM’s award chair and outreach librarian. "I am proud of our awardees and all those who submitted their amazing research and creative works.”  

Cortes was encouraged to apply by sociology professor Jill Weigt as this was an excellent opportunity to showcase his research and expand his professional experience.  

The library helped with his research process by providing access to the databases and resources on how to correctly write citations, literature reviews, abstracts and narrow down research questions. And there was one other advantage. 

“Everything was free,” he said.  

Cortes’ paper details that understanding the mechanisms beneath the reasons why Latinos reported mental health benefits from using the pantry can provide the university with information that can help it better support students. 

Other winners 

Creative works category 

Submission: Photographic Reflections on Landscape, Post-Colonial Society and Colonial Artifacts 

Student: Ken Waddy 

Program: Art, Media, and Design 

Adviser: Nancy diBenedetto 

Summary: This photobook highlights landscape, focusing on Rancho Guajome Adobe, the location of a settler colonial project that was built on the servitude of the Payómkawichum people (native to California). The photos reflect the different factors of settler colonialism, most notably how all of the subjects are a product of the process erasing and replacing.  

Submission: “Triggers” 

Student: Kelly Ibarra Perez 

Program: Art, Media, and Design 

Adviser: Siobhan Arnold 

Summary: “Triggers” (Transeúnte) is a short film that conveys how living somewhere between two places feels, physically and mentally. As an immigrant and a first-generation Mexican daughter, Perez portrays the relationship with her family and roots, and the distance between herself and her memory of home. 

Empirical research category 

Submission: Altruism and Mindfulness in Prosocial Helping Behavior 

Student: Alyssa Hudkins 

Program: Psychology 

Adviser: Virginia Tasulis 

Summary: This study’s results reveal how participants with higher mindfulness rates did not show significantly higher altruistic tendencies, and participants who rated themselves higher in altruism were not statistically more likely to help others in a high-risk situation.  

Submission: ‘Don't Jew Me’: How Antisemitism is Expressed, Experienced, and Ultimately Challenged 

Student: Eric Wilsker 

Program: Sociology 

Adviser: Mary Roche 

Summary: Through interviews, an in-depth literature review and a content analysis of items from contemporary American culture, this paper examines how Jewish people experience antisemitism, how antisemitism is expressed through various social mechanisms and a means by which antisemitism may be challenged.  

Interpretive analysis category 

Submission: Engendering Binaries: The Transhistorical Experiences of Catalina de Erauso 

Student: Hugo Daniel Peralta-Ramirez 

Program: History 

Adviser: Miriam Riggs 

Summary: This paper examines the crossdressing Basque Monja Alferéz Catalina de Erauso to demonstrate how gender performance iconography and symbolism are rooted in the way people experience and interact with Erauso and their performance within the archetypal standards of their contexts.  

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Once he read a newspaper article about it being a reality, he went to the closest public library to get a paper application to transfer to Cal State San Marcos. 

“We read newspapers and there was no social media or anything like that,” Scheller said. “It was all word of mouth. I remember professors at Palomar mentioning that they were interested in teaching there so I decided to apply.” 

At the time, CSUSM was in a rented office space with a dozen faculty members and nine majors. It wasn’t until fall 1992 that the permanent campus opened with the completion of the Administrative Building, Academic Hall and Science Hall I.

Scheller was one of the first people to apply to CSUSM, and he was also one of the first seven history majors who graduated in 1992. The university underwent a tremendous transformation over the ensuing three decades, growing from 448 students when Scheller attended as an undergraduate to 16,000 today. And nearly 30 years later, he decided to return to his alma mater to pursue his master’s in history.

Numerous professors made an impact on Scheller, including history professor emerita Patty Seleski.

“When I think back on CSUSM’s inaugural year, students like Ricardo come to mind,” Seleski said. “He was committed to CSUSM from the very first day. When I was in class with Ricardo and his fellow students, the suburban business park where we held classes transformed itself into a ‘real’ university despite lacking almost all the trappings traditionally associated with going to college. His intellectual curiosity did more than anything else to create CSUSM as a campus community and to define the spirit of San Marcos.” 

Scheller worked for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after graduating in 1992, and he retired in 2017. Scheller started to become bored while in retirement, and he wanted to reignite his passion for history.

While pursuing his master’s, Scheller worked as a teaching assistant with history professor Kimber Quinney, and he’s considering pursuing his teaching credential. 

“From day one in the history master’s student program, Ricardo sought to get ahead of the curve,”  Quinney said. “He was committed to meeting deadlines and learning about next steps in order to advance to candidacy. He was determined to stay on track and to complete the job — an important quality for any successful graduate student. But the difference is that Ricardo was equally eager to get ahead of current thinking about a given historical topic. So, he was ahead of the curve in learning how to learn.”

Scheller found that the most rewarding part of his master’s program was watching his peers grow. 

“We all came together to help get our thesis done,” Scheller said. “I remember watching students who were not particularly good at public speaking learn how to become comfortable by the end of the two years.

“I have always been fascinated with the past. And as a child, even as a young adult, I became really interested in why things happened in history. Because things that have happened 200 years ago still have the drive and motivate people today. If I can touch one person through what I tell them in college or class and they become interested in something like history and want to pursue it, then it is all worth it.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Sepinwall was announced Tuesday as one of five winners of the Wang Family Excellence Award. Each year, the CSU recognizes four faculty and one staff member for their “unwavering commitment to student achievement and advancing the CSU mission through excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.”

Sepinwall received the Wang Family Excellence Award for Outstanding Faculty Teaching. She was honored publicly Tuesday afternoon during the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach.

The other awards are for outstanding faculty service, outstanding faculty scholarship, outstanding faculty innovator for student success and outstanding staff performance.

Sepinwall becomes the fifth CSUSM faculty member to win a Wang award since it was introduced in 1998. The previous four were education professor Laurie Stowell (2005); arts, media and design professor Kristine Diekman (2016); psychology professor Keith Trujillo (2017); and music professor Merryl Goldberg (2018).

“I’m incredibly grateful for this recognition of my teaching from the CSU,” Sepinwall said. “I love to bring history alive for students and build critical thinking skills that help them be successful, no matter their career. When students understand history as lived experience rather than as a dry subject based on names and dates, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”

Sepinwall has been teaching at CSUSM since 1999. During her time at the university, she has won its top teaching awards – the President’s Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2004 and the Brakebill Distinguished Professor Award for overall excellence in 2014.

She is well known across campus for her creative and innovative approaches to teaching. She has held cookoffs to explore changes in eating habits for her course Women and Jewish History and gamified the French Revolution for the class Revolutionary Europe. She incorporates firsthand historical accounts like diaries, plans surprise “field trips” to campus locations such as the White Rose Memorial (which commemorates German students killed for resisting Adolf Hitler) and invites diverse guest speakers like Holocaust survivors and recent refugees. Her research on topics including the history of gender discrimination in France and early Haitian intellectuals became the foundation for a host of new courses.

“I strive to get to know my students and help them toward ‘aha’ moments, when they realize how history connects to their lives,” Sepinwall said. “I love bringing them information from the cutting edge of my field, where I publish on topics from the history of racism to historical video games. My classes challenge conventional expectations about history, recovering stories that have been pushed to the margins and allowing students to see themselves in historical narratives.”

Sepinwall extends her passion for history and teaching beyond the classroom, as she has organized more than 30 special lecture, performance and film events for students and the community; given more than 30 guest lectures and panel presentations for campus colleagues; and done more than 50 community talks, including a live interview with famed Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Sometimes interactions with students end up informing her research. After students expressed interest in the subject of depictions of history in video games, Sepinwall became one of the first historians to write about it, and that work eventually became the basis for her 2021 book “Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games.”

As part of the award, Sepinwall will receive a $20,000 prize that is provided through a gift from CSU Trustee Emeritus Stanley T. Wang and administered through the CSU Foundation.

Sepinwall holds bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from Stanford University.

When Balsis entered CSUSM’s history master’s program in the fall of 2020, the virtual format made it challenging for her to find her way, but Sepinwall aided the transition by using Zoom breakout rooms to facilitate deeper discussion and incorporating guest speakers to enhance the curriculum.

When it came time for Balsis to choose a thesis topic, she not only was inspired by Sepinwall’s course on Haitian history, but she received hands-on direction from Sepinwall in developing her initial sparks of ideas into thoroughly researched arguments.

And when Balsis was invited to participate in a California State University student research competition last spring, Sepinwall helped her confront her fear of public speaking. The professor devoted hours of her personal time to assist Balsis in revising her submission and met with Balsis to rehearse and fine-tune her presentation.

“I placed first in my session and was named a finalist for the CSU statewide competition, and it was the greatest feeling of joy in accomplishing something that I had previously thought to be impossible,” Balsis said. “Since that moment, I have participated in several other oral presentations, including serving as a panelist for a graduate history symposium at Fresno State.

“These examples only scratch the surface of the extent to which Dr. Sepinwall has facilitated the academic growth of CSUSM students and beyond.”

Sepinwall has been supporting the educational and personal growth of her students since arriving at CSUSM in 1999, and along the way she has won the university’s top teaching awards – the President’s Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2004 and the Brakebill Distinguished Professor Award for overall excellence in 2014.

Now Sepinwall has won a prize at a higher level. On Tuesday, she was honored with the CSU Wang Family Excellence Award, which annually recognizes four CSU faculty members and one staff member who have distinguished themselves through exemplary contributions and achievements. Sepinwall received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach, becoming the fifth CSUSM faculty member to win a Wang award since it was instituted in 1998. 

“I love getting to know my students and helping them toward ‘aha’ moments, when they realize how history connects to their lives,” Sepinwall said. “I love bringing them information from the cutting edge of my field, where I publish on topics from the history of racism to historical video games. My classes challenge conventional expectations about history, recovering stories that have been pushed to the margins and allowing students to see themselves in historical narratives.”

Sepinwall is well known across campus for her creative and innovative approaches to teaching. She has held  cookoffs to explore changes in eating habits for her course Women and Jewish History and gamified the French Revolution for the class Revolutionary Europe. She incorporates firsthand historical accounts like diaries, plans surprise “field trips” to campus locations such as the White Rose Memorial (which commemorates German students killed for resisting Adolf Hitler) and invites diverse guest speakers like Holocaust survivors and recent refugees. Her research on topics including the history of gender discrimination in France and early Haitian intellectuals became the foundation for a host of new courses.

Sepinwall extends her passion for history and teaching beyond the classroom, too, as she has organized more than 30 special lecture, performance and film events for students and the community; given more than 30 guest lectures and panel presentations for campus colleagues; and done more than 50 community talks, including a live interview with famed Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Sometimes interactions with students end up informing her research. After students expressed interest in the subject of depictions of history in video games, Sepinwall became one of the first historians to write about it, and that work eventually became the basis for her 2021 book “Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games.”

When COVID-19 disrupted her tried-and-true approach to teaching in 2020, Sepinwall experimented and refined. One of her pandemic assignments was called “Teach Your Family” and involved students teaching family members or friends about course content. As an example, a Black Marine veteran taught his wife and children about the neglected history of Haiti and its importance for African-Americans.

“I realized that rather than add tech bells and whistles, doubling down on building connections with students would be even more important in a virtual environment than in a classroom,” Sepinwall said. “I learned also that the more students felt connected to each other and to me, the more they would interact online and succeed in the course.”

Sepinwall’s classes are back in person this fall, but regardless of the forum, she remains as committed as ever to keep illuminating the past and present for her students.

“I love to bring history alive for students and build critical thinking skills that help them be successful, no matter their career,” she said. “When students understand history as lived experience rather than as a dry subject based on names and dates, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Krivulskaya was one of 16 interdisciplinary scholars chosen as part of the PRRI’s fifth cohort of fellows and the second cohort under the organization’s Religion and Renewing Democracy Initiative. She will work alongside PRRI researchers and staff to generate public scholarship focused on contemporary issues at the intersection of religion, culture and politics.

Through the Religion and Renewing Democracy Initiative, the fellows will be organized into peer groups of four whose work will be aligned with PRRI’s major research areas: religious, racial and ethnic pluralism; racial justice and white supremacy; immigration and migration studies; and LGBTQ rights. Krivulskaya is in the category of LGBTQ rights. Her research specializes in modern U.S. history and studies the relationship between sexuality and religion.

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist
bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The risk paid off.

Peterson eventually entered her paper on the representation of American Indians in Hollywood into the Cal State San Marcos Library Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity and came away as one of six winners, each of whom earned a $600 cash prize.

“Native Americans were actually some of the first people on film,” Peterson said. “And it's kind of a long and complicated history.”

Peterson, a junior who attended high school at nearby Mission Vista in Oceanside, began her research studying a documentary called “Reel Injun,” which walks viewers through a decade-by-decade history of American Indians in Hollywood in the 20^th century.

What Peterson’s research taught her was that American Indians were often inaccurately represented on film.

Her paper showed that it wasn’t until the revival of the Western in the 1990s that a more accurate representation of American Indians, due to creating their own films, was occurring.

The end result was an award she didn’t envision winning.

“I was really surprised and really excited,” Peterson said about her reaction to winning the award. “It felt good knowing that what I was writing about was being recognized, and that not only was it good enough to get me a good grade, but it was good enough writing to be recognized by the school.”

Submissions for the library award ranged from written research papers to creative works such as art, music, lyrics, poetry and dance.

Peterson didn’t have to look far for examples of authentic representation of American Indians. The library is currently displaying a collection of paintings by Eric Tippeconnic, an enrolled member of the Comanche nation and assistant professor in American Indian Studies. Joely Proudfit, department chair of American Indian Studies,  is the founder and executive director of California’s American Indian & Indigenous Film Festival presented by CSUSM’s California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center.

“That’s actually something that I cover in my paper,” said Peterson, who said history professor Robert Miller was a major influence in her research. “California's American Indian and Indigenous Film Festival is a group of Native filmmakers that’s supported in part by Cal State San Marcos. And so it was really cool to find that tie in.”

As for Peterson’s future, she may combine her writing background with her history major and love for film to write and critique more about media and movies.

For now, it’s a hobby. Her senior year will determine which direction she’ll go next.

But wherever her career takes her, it will be greatly influenced by history.

“Learning about the place that you're from is really important,” Peterson said. “Not just for historians but for everybody. Taking a class relating to California history was really enlightening for me. And it's a subject that I was passively interested in. But this made me a lot more cognizant of when I watched movies, how people were represented and how that affects the way that we see other people in film.”

Library Award Winners

• Daniel Crescencio Castro, “American-Anime: How Japanese Anime Influenced American Cartoons”
• Kennedy Caudle and Courtney Johnson, “Examining the Impact of Human Presence on Native Insect Pollinators in Coastal Sage Scrub Habitat in North County San Diego”
• Emily Culbertson, “Modernized or Industrialized”
• Ariana Null, “The Hermits”
• Katelyn Peterson, “Native Americans in Hollywood”
• Ruben Sanchez, “Before Christ, There Was Augustus: Comparing the Imperial Cult in Hispania and Gaul”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“History has always made me the happiest,” said Teater, who’s partial to the modern civil rights era herself.  

Teater earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State San Marcos in 2018 and is now in her second year of the university’s master’s program, with plans to graduate in December. When an opportunity arose to do a paid internship through CSUSM’s library focused on oral history projects, she leaped at it.  

Teater is one of four history graduate students working for the library this semester as oral history interns. The pilot program is intended to give the students a real-world taste of a vital public history activity of documenting the experiences and stories of the local community.  

“While the learning component is an awesome part of this internship, we are doing actual work, and it will be encapsulated in the archives at CSUSM long after we all graduate,” Teater said. “Being paid makes my work feel valuable, and it gives me some footing for the future. I hope this is a trend that continues, especially at CSUSM.” 

Teater and the other interns can be paid for their work thanks to the generosity of a Rancho Santa Fe woman with a deep and abiding love of history and libraries. Before she died last year, Ellie Johns set up a gift fund to support internships exposing students to the field of library science and archives.  

The internships are funded by an agreement between CSUSM, the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation and the Library Guild of Rancho Santa Fe, Johns’ longtime former organization. 

“Ellie was very passionate about the field of library science, and she wanted her legacy to reflect that,” said Jennifer Fabbi, dean of the library. “From the time I was first introduced to Ellie’s work in 2015, she was very clear about her desire to impact the futures of those interested in library work.” 

Eleanor Rix Johns was born in California in 1924. Attending UC Berkeley as an English major, she met her future husband, Cecil “Seese” Johns, in 1943 and accompanied him as an officer’s wife in his assignments in Asia and Europe. She joined the occupation forces in Japan and served as a writer for Stars and Stripes.  

After her husband retired from the military, the couple settled in Rancho Santa Fe. A lifelong lover of books, Johns became a member of the city’s library guild and served on the board as president and membership chair, personally recruiting more than 200 new members. As an early organizer of the Book Cellar, the guild’s used bookstore, she sought to create an ongoing income stream to support the guild. The result is a store staffed by volunteers that operates to this day and grows annually.  

Following her time serving on the guild board, Johns moved on to become a librarian at the Rancho Santa Fe branch of the San Diego County library and worked for many more years, finally deciding to retire in her late 80s.  

“Ellie was committed to education, the power of literacy and lifelong learning,” said Chris Sichel, president and CEO of the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation, which administers the endowment funding the initiative. “At RSF Foundation, we work with donors to establish ways they can support the causes closest to their hearts, even after they are gone, and this scholarship fund is one such example of the power of legacy giving. 

“Ellie knew the value of being a lifelong learner, and her legacy will be carried out by people who visit the CSUSM library and find answers to their questions or are inspired to delve deeper and learn even more about how we better the future.” 

Teater is now one of those people carrying out Johns’ legacy. She and the other library interns are working on an oral history project focused on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) who have created change in North County. Under the guidance of Sean Visintainer (head of Special Collections) and Jennifer Ho (Special Collections archivist), the interns are learning the ins and outs of the craft, and after spring break they will begin interviewing sources for the oral history.   

Teater is also an intern for the Lambda Archives of San Diego, and she’s working with that organization on her master’s thesis about queer people of color during the rise and height of the AIDS crisis in San Diego. She plans to pursue a career in archives or library science and might enroll in a Master of Library and Information Science program as soon as the fall semester.  

Johns, no doubt, would have been proud.  

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Like very few Americans, however, Sepinwall brought to the international incident a vast reservoir of knowledge about Haiti, its history and its people. The Cal State San Marcos history professor is a Haitian expert who has written two books on the Caribbean island nation: “Haitian History: New Perspectives” and “Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games,” the latter of which was published just two months ago.

Since the assassination, Sepinwall has been interviewed by several media outlets, including by The Guardian newspaper and RTVI, or Russian diaspora TV (scroll to the 1:11 mark for Sepinwall’s appearance). We spoke with her on Thursday afternoon, when developments in Haiti were still in a high degree of flux.

Question: What was your reaction to learning of the assassination? 

Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall: Jovenel Moïse was extremely unpopular and there were many protests in the last year calling his rule illegal, pushing for him to resign and demanding that the U.S. and United Nations withdraw their support for him. So it wasn't like I woke up and said, “Oh, look, this popular, wonderful person was killed.” I just said, “Wow, someone decided to do it.” Then it was just a matter of figuring out who. My first instinct was that this must be a Haitian patriot who was frustrated that all efforts to dislodge him had failed and that people were dying as a result of his misrule, and then decided to take the matter into their own hands. However, as the day went on last Thursday, the situation started to seem more complicated and maybe much sadder – it looked like the result was not going to be things improving and Haitians getting the real autonomy and democracy that they've been pushing for, because instead this was a power play by elites.

Q: What is the prevailing theory on who might be responsible for the killing and what their motivation was? 

AGS: In some ways, this is like Clue, where the deceased had so many enemies that it's hard to know which of them did it. Again, it seems that this was not someone from the grassroots. Whoever it was seems to have hired Spanish-speaking mercenaries who claimed they were Drug Enforcement Administration agents and who got into Moïse’s house without much trouble, with his equivalent of the Secret Service really doing nothing to protect him. There doesn’t seem to have been any kind of firefight to enter; they reportedly knew the layout of his house and had some cooperation from the inside.

There have been three main candidates. One is various members of the Haitian oligarchy, who often have tried to control the situation in the country and have financed coups d'état against leaders they don't like. Many had been allied with Moïse, but recently he had a falling out with some key members of the elite. A variation of this theory is that this was an internal struggle within Moïse’s party – he had fired his prime minister, Claude Joseph, only two days before he was murdered and announced a replacement (Ariel Henry). So there has been speculation that Joseph’s allies arranged the hit so he would not be eclipsed from power.

Another possibility that people were pointing to was the U.S. After all, the assassins said they were DEA. And, unfortunately, the U.S. has had a very long history of intervening and sometimes sending the Marines to Haiti. This would not be the first time that someone in the U.S. government, CIA or Department of State decided that a Haitian president had outlived their usefulness to us in terms of our policy objectives and tried to remove him. That possibility has not seemed the strongest to me because Moïse was wildly unpopular and was depending on the U.S. and UN to shore him up against his people. Haitians were protesting against him for the last few years and especially after Feb. 7, when his term was deemed to be over but he remained in power. It would be like if we did not end up having a presidential transition on Jan. 20. I think there are many other ways that the U.S. could have withdrawn support for Moïse, much simpler than staging a very dramatic assassination.

The third possibility that has been floated is that this was ordered by Colombian or Venezuelan narco-traffickers, who had had a falling out with Moïse and hired other Spanish-speaking mercenaries. This theory suggested that they wanted to be free and clear to keep using Haiti as a point for transferring drugs and money laundering. This idea was floated by many in Moïse’s party, which is called the PHTK. But as days have gone on, it has seemed increasingly unlikely, especially as Moïse’s party has remained in power, and Claude Joseph’s faction has used the supposed chaos to declare martial law and shore up its support. As my Haitian colleagues have pointed out, the fact that these assassins were speaking Spanish would help make it seem that this was a foreign attack. And under the Haitian constitution, that would give the president or whoever is leading the government the right to declare martial law. So that is lending credence to the idea that dissenting factions in Moïse’s party planned the assassination to give Joseph’s faction (or the PHTK in general) the upper hand in a situation in which they worried that they were finally going to lose power.

Q: In terms of Moïse’s rule over the last few years, was it already bad and then his decision to stay in power after the election was the last straw for people? 

AGS: First of all, many Haitians didn't want to elect him in the first place. The international community has been meddling in Haitian elections since the 2010 earthquake, and even before, by excluding candidates that they did not want to win. In many ways, the PHTK was handpicked by American diplomats, including not just Moïse but the president before him, whose name was Michel Martelly. Martelly is a popular Haitian music star who uses a lot of sexual innuendo – not the first person you’d imagine would become president of the country. But in this period of transition after the earthquake, he was allied with powerful forces and said he would be friendly to foreign business interests. His associates also included former supporters of the Duvalier dictatorship, which was very worrisome. Under Martelly, the PHTK seems to have begun stealing large amounts of money that were given to Haiti. For instance, Venezuela sold fuel to Haiti at a discount. The government was supposed to be able to sell it to citizens, and the difference between what they paid and what they were selling it for was supposed to be used to finance schools and roads. The government sent out glossy brochures showing things they were supposedly building, but they were never constructed. So PHTK officials seem to have been keeping the money and pocketing it. That became increasingly clear under Moïse’s rule after he succeeded Martelly, and there have been protests where people kept saying, “Where did the money go? Where are the stadiums and where are the schools?” That has been going on especially since 2018, and people were just waiting for his term to end so they could get someone different in office. When he didn't leave in February, the situation got so much worse, and the government began shooting at peaceful protesters. Who was keeping the PHTK in power? Essentially the U.S. and the UN, because otherwise they would have been toppled by a revolution, with all of these people in the streets.

Q: Did you consider Moïse to be a dictator? 

AGS: After Feb. 7, yes, many Haitians called him a dictator. The other thing I didn't mention is he was trying to get rid of the constitution. He was planning a referendum in which the constitution would be overturned and there would be a new constitution that removed any possibility of criminally prosecuting officials for wrongdoing in office. This is the kind of thing that many Haitians were appalled by, and made them say we need to get him out. There also was debate in the U.S. government over Moïse. Whereas the Biden administration continued the Trump administration’s support for Moïse after taking office on Jan. 20, the House Foreign Affairs Committee had been holding hearings and pushing the Biden Administration to stop supporting Moïse. They stressed his harmful effects on Haitians and the need for them to be able to choose their next government without our meddling. This possibly led people in the PHTK to feel threatened and then to sacrifice Moïse so that they could continue to rule. But if they get their wish, and foreign troops come whose task will be essentially to suppress the population in the name of keeping “order,” that's going to be very troubling. 

Q: Do you feel like the U.S. and international community could have done more to prevent the assassination from happening? 

AGS: Absolutely. Haitians have been crying out for us to stop supporting Moïse. If you look at the signs that people had in the streets in February, they asked us and the UN to stop supporting a president who had become a dictator and was trying to cancel their constitution. That, again, supports the idea that this is manufactured chaos to keep the PHTK in power, as opposed to drug traffickers being responsible, which is the narrative that was getting pushed at first. 

Q: Earlier, you mentioned the U.S. policy objectives in Haiti. How would you describe those?  

AGS: We like to talk about wanting to spread democracy, but unfortunately our record in Haiti has not supported that. I’d say our real policy objectives are two things. One is the promotion of U.S. business interests. While the rest of us are not always paying attention, we are often interfering with what Haitians want, like a minimum wage (which is especially needed for Haitians working in sweatshops owned by foreign companies). When Haitian leaders have tried to do that, American companies have complained that it will increase the cost of doing business in Haiti. And the State Department has then pressured to have those laws withdrawn or they've had presidents removed, by which I mean not assassinated, but the U.S. Embassy sends a limo and says “your time is up” to Haitian leaders. The amount the minimum wage was going to be raised by is embarrassing by our standards (for instance, we fought against raising the minimum wage to $0.61 an hour a few years ago). But American businesses did not want to pay even a little more, because to them the advantage of this country nearby is that labor is cheap, and it's so much less expensive to ship products from Haitian sweatshops to the U.S. than from China.  

The second U.S. policy objective, I'm sad to say, is often keeping things stable there so people don't try to come here. There has been particularly strong anti-immigrant sentiment about Haiti, even more so than, say, from Cuba. Many have said it's because of a kind of demonization of Black Haitian immigrants. In reality, Haitian Americans are wonderful, integral, brilliant parts of our country. Look just at the COVID epidemic; so many Haitians have been on the front lines as nurses, nursing home aids, doctors or scientists. But there are people who think, “Too many Haitians are coming.” We saw this in 2016 in San Diego, where you had Haitians arriving here after their post-earthquake refuge in Brazil turned hostile (they were invited to work constructing buildings for the 2016 Olympics, but once the construction was finished and there was a recession in Brazil, they were scapegoated and often violently chased from the country). There was a wealth of organizations here in San Diego willing to welcome Haitian refugees and help them resettle. But there were also voices who said, “No, there are too many of them coming.” 

Q: Would you say that Haiti is still suffering today from the effects of the 2010 earthquake? 

AGS: Yes, definitely. And not just the earthquake itself but the way the international community, which claimed it was going to help Haiti, actually made things worse (in the “manmade disaster” that followed the earthquake). One of the people I write about is a Haitian filmmaker named Raoul Peck, who was Oscar-nominated for his film on James Baldwin. He also made an earlier film called “Fatal Assistance” about the international response to the earthquake and how it made things worse. For instance, land was confiscated from Haitians, supposedly to “give them jobs.” But this meant that farmers were kicked off their land and being able to feed themselves, to give the land to South Korean garment manufacturers, which then didn't pay them livable wages. There are lots of stories like that, with money that was supposedly raised and not actually used to help Haitians. In general, the international community directed the reconstruction of Haiti more than the Haitian government did – and they did not listen to Haitians about what they needed. They often imposed policies that benefited foreigners and made things worse for Haitians.  

Q: Why do you think stable democracy has been so elusive for Haiti for so long?  

AGS: Foreign interventions are one big reason. Whenever there has been a ruler who wants to do things that foreigners don't like, there has been a risk that foreigners will invade and effect regime change. Many people don’t know that the U.S. occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. The U.S. problem with Haiti really goes back much longer, 200 years ago, when Haitians were the first people in the New World to free themselves from slavery and they had a revolution. There were definitely Americans who thought that was good; they saw the Haitian Revolution as being like the American Revolution and thought it was good for Haitians that they managed to free themselves from the French and to rule themselves. But keep in mind, when Haiti became independent in 1804, we had Thomas Jefferson, who was a slaveholder, as president. And Jefferson and other whites did not look at the Haitian Revolution favorably; they essentially said, “Look at those horrible savages who just killed their masters. We better punish them and keep them isolated or enslaved people here will have the same idea.” We've had this long history of demonizing and trying to isolate Haitians, and then seeking to invade them when they try to enact policies that we don't like. One example is the Duvalier dictatorship, which was so destructive in Haiti. The U.S. meddled in the election by which Duvalier first came to power because they did not like his opponent. And then, despite all the evil things that he did, we helped keep him in power for one big reason – he wasn't a Communist. There was this worry that Haiti might “fall” just like Cuba if we didn’t keep him in power. So yes, we've had a long history of meddling. That's something that people often fail to see when they say, “Oh, look at that country, it's so troubled! Why can’t they fix themselves?” I'm not saying Haitians would be without problems if they were left alone. But many problems happen because Haitians are not in fact permitted by the international community to make decisions for themselves. 

Q: What do you see as the path forward for Haiti in the wake of this tragedy? 

AGS: I would like to see the international community give support, and I'll stress the word support, to Haitian civil society and to the opposition parties to have a transition from this government, which so many Haitians see as illegitimate. What I don't want to see is people saying, “We need to go in there and send troops,” which is what Claude Joseph has been trying to do. Increasingly, his effort to get foreign troops to arrive to create “order” has seemed to be an attempt to make sure the PHTK retains power. And that would destroy real democracy and dash the hopes of Haitians. 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

One such seemingly untouchable subject has been the Haitian Revolution, which ended in 1804 with the successful uprising against French colonial rule by self-liberated slaves in Saint-Domingue. It was the first successful revolution by enslaved people in modern history.

A decade ago, Cal State San Marcos history professor Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall began studying the entertainment industry’s omission of what she considers a turning point in world history.

Fast forward to 2021, and Sepinwall’s extensive and thought-provoking work on the subject has recently been published as a book titled “Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games.”

“It was one of the most important events in world history, but most people don't know about it,” Sepinwall said. “So the question becomes why that is. Why are there movies about so many different revolutions and so many historical events, but why has there not been a major movie on the Haitian Revolution? That was one question that I started with.”

“Slave Revolt on Screen” is Sepinwall’s third published book, following “Haitian History: New Perspectives” (published in 2012) and “The Abbé Grégoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism” (2005). The latter title, which was just released in paperback for the first time this month, focuses on a Catholic priest who was involved in the French Revolution. He also argued for the abolition of slavery and criticized prejudices against Jews and others.

Sepinwall’s new book touches on the fact that although Haitian Revolution stories are missing in Hollywood, they have been shared in other cinematic forms around the world. Filmmakers in Haiti, France and even smaller budget films in the U.S. have told this momentous story. The book analyzes completed films as well as planned projects that were never made.

“I discovered that there were many more films that I knew about, including films by Haitian filmmakers who have very interesting perspectives on their own history. But it's harder for them to get the word out,” Sepinwall said. “One of the big issues that I look at in the book is who gets to tell history on screen? Who gets to decide and from what parts of the world? Americans and French people are able to make films that the rest of the world sees, but Haitian filmmakers shouldn't have a harder time making films and having people see their versions of their own history.”

The book also is one of the first on video games written by a historian, something that has earned Sepinwall praise. She explains that “historical video games are a multibillion-dollar industry, and players spend countless hours playing them. Then students come to my classes with ideas about history that they’ve gotten from games. But historians in the U.S. have largely not been evaluating these games; we’ve assumed that they’re simplistic and not worth our time. I think it’s important that we take seriously how history is depicted in video games to help guide the public toward better games or warn them away from awful ones.”

Professor Tyler Stovall of Fordham University, a leading historian and former president of the American Historical Association, called Sepinwall’s book a “pathbreaking study” for this reason, noting how innovative it is for her to be paying “attention to video games, in many ways the greatest entertainment form of the 21st century.” Sepinwall also was featured in a podcast from the “American Historical Review,” the leading scholarly publication for historians in the U.S., explaining the importance of studying historical video games.

Sepinwall’s CSUSM students have been keenly interested in her research. In 2013, one of her students surprised her with news that there was a new video game that aimed to portray slavery in Haiti before the Revolution. “Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag” was released that year with a single-player downloadable content addition called “Freedom Cry.”

“After I started to look at this game, I discovered that there were other games on slavery and slave revolt that scholars had not written about,” said Sepinwall, who was impressed by the overall accuracy of “Freedom Cry’s” storyline. “At that time, I thought I was just writing an article because I didn't think there were that many films, and I only knew about this one game. But as I was researching, students told me about other video games. I later discovered games made by a pioneering French Caribbean developer named Muriel Tramis. I realized that the Haitian Revolution in video games has become a ‘thing.’ So a big question of the book is, why is it that Hollywood hasn't made a major film about the Haitian Revolution? And how is it that video game companies have been willing to find games on slave revolt in Haiti when film producers haven't?”

For the book, she was able to interview “Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry’s” writer Jill Murray, as well as Tramis and makers of other films and games

Those interactions helped give her insight into the creative effort that goes into producing games and films. It also gave further credence to the path she was on and why it’s of critical importance to learn from true stories of the past.

“As a human and a historian, it's important to me that we learn about all of the things that happened in the past and not only the good things,” Sepinwall said. “I teach about the Holocaust to students, and I also want to teach about slavery and other things that are difficult to learn about. It makes students be aware of still other parts of history that we don't talk about. So it's part of this larger issue, which is what happened in history versus which parts do we talk about?

“Learning about all of the past gives us more compassion and empathy for other people, which is really important. There are some people who think that learning about the sad parts of history is wrong, because it makes people feel bad about themselves. And I look at Germany. How terrible would it be if people did not study the Holocaust because they said it would make German people feel bad? Or if they tried to pretend that it wasn't as horrifying as it was? It is important to study history, warts and all – the good, the bad and the ugly. I love having students who embrace learning about all aspects of the past, and who are eager to analyze films and games with me.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

For years, the Cal State San Marcos history professor served as the campus coordinator of the American Democracy Project, a national initiative focused on public higher education’s role in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens for our country.  

Quinney was the first faculty adviser of CSUSM’s Civic Learning Initiative, which was launched in 2015 and included such programs as the Speaking of Democracy series and Democracy in Action, in which students and faculty partner on projects with local city governments. 

Earlier this month, she was one of three panelists for an Arts & Lectures event titled “Disinformation and Democracy” about the intersection of social media and elections around the world.  

One of the foremost reasons why Quinney thinks so much about democracy is that she has a strong historical foundation in its antithesis. Her scholarly research has focused on Italian Fascism, with her doctoral thesis examining the lackluster U.S. and British efforts to purge fascists from high-ranking positions in postwar Italy. 

In this edition of Ask the Expert, Quinney talks about the historical underpinnings of fascism and what warnings can be gleaned about the strength of American democracy. 

Question: Let’s start with something really basic. What exactly is fascism? Where does the word and concept come from? 

Kimber Quinney: The word fascism comes from the Italian word “fascisti,” which describes a bundle of twigs that was a symbol of the Roman empire. The seeds of Italian Fascism were laid during World War I, and shortly after, in 1922, Benito Mussolini marched into Rome to claim power in Italy on behalf of the Italian Fascist Party. Mussolini and a government minister named Giovanni Gentile developed a “philosophy of fascism” that laid the groundwork for the ideology that would reign in Italy for the next 21 years.  

The major tenets of fascism have been long debated by historians, political scientists and philosophers. And I cannot pretend to know exactly what defines fascism because it is contextual. German Nazism, for example, looked very different from Italian Fascism, yet we use the word “fascism” to describe both regimes. The way I would explain it is that we need to distinguish the original version of Italian Fascism (with a capital “F”) from more generic or broader tendencies that existed — and still exists — in various nations around the world.  

We can see essential characteristics of a political phenomenon called “fascism” in the same way that we might identify similar elements in “socialism” or “liberalism.” Some of these characteristics are generally agreed upon; others are disputed. For example, most scholars agree that fascism emerges after a major political, social or economic upheaval, such as World War I or the Great Depression. Because of the dire circumstances in which fascism arises, the political ideology is often accompanied by a sense of cultural pessimism. This pessimism inspires a claim to renew or remake the nation, with an extraordinary emphasis on ultra-patriotic or nationalist aims. While the fascist ideology looks forward to a renewal or restoration of the nation, it also looks to the golden years of a past era. Tradition is a prominent theme. Veneration of an authoritarian leader who is seen as a savior who can rescue the country from its decline is another characteristic. But fascism cannot exist without a tide of popular — or populist — support that usually begins with the lower middle classes. Concerted campaigns of propaganda and disinformation, full of bold imagery and symbols, are necessary tools to carry out fascist agendas. Manipulation of the media is important. Finally, fascist movements use intimidation and violence to achieve political ends. They intentionally creating a climate of unrest in which only the fascists seem capable of securing the nation from “unpatriotic” or “radical” forces.  

Q: Why are you so interested in the rise and fall of fascism in Italy? 

KQ: I have a personal interest; I am Italian American. My grandmother’s parents emigrated from Italy at the turn of the 20th century. I traveled on many occasions to Italy as a teenager to visit my Italian relatives in Savona (outside of Genoa). I have a personal affinity for Italy, Italian places, people and culture — and Italian food! 

When I decided to pursue my Ph.D., I knew that I wanted to study the history of American foreign relations. I wanted to explore the ways in which the United States relates to the rest of the world. My particular interest was the history of the American mission to “democratize” globally, and the effects that that global mission has on other nations — but also on democracy at home in America.  

And Italy is a perfect historical case study. The United States intervened in July 1943 to fight fascism in Italy and to replace Mussolini’s regime with a democratic regime. But then the United States found itself waging another war, this time against Italian communism. The impact of all of this on Italian democracy, and on American democracy, is where I have focused my research. 

Q: You’ve written about how refugees from Mussolini’s Italy issued warnings to Americans about the vulnerability of our democracy. What was the nature of their warnings? 

KQ: When I started to examine the ways in which U.S. policy toward Italy was tied to domestic politics, I realized how important the Italian-American population was to President Franklin Roosevelt’s calculations during World War II and, later, to President Harry Truman’s Cold War strategy.  

I started to learn more about the direct impact of U.S. foreign policy on shaping American national identity. What I mean by that is that I started to examine the ways in which Italian Americans — whether they were recent immigrants to the United States or were born in the United States — had a vested interest in U.S. policy toward Italy. They attempted to shape that policy, either by serving in government or teaching about Italy or preaching about Italy or forming community and neighborhood groups. Their relatives were still living in Italy, of course, and they watched to see how U.S. policies would affect the Italian people — their families. 

The refugee scholars who came to the United States were very outspoken about the dangers of fascism and anti-Semitism. They identified how vulnerable Italy had been and then pointed out how any nation — even the United States— could also be threatened. 

Two refugees — Max Ascoli and Gaetano Salvemini —stand out. They wrote for newspapers, they gave lectures, they traveled the country to warn about fascism, and they established an Italian-American organization called the Mazzini Society, the mission of which was to educate Italians in America about fascism, and about democracy.  

They warned that fascism was not imposed in Italy by a coup or a revolution. Instead, it creeped into the Italian system legally. When Mussolini issued orders to censor the press or to decree what could or could not be taught in the school system or to declare who was able to travel where in the nation, he did so legally. He used the Italian democratic system to dismantle liberal democracy — step by step.  

Q: There’s been a lot of talk in America over the past few years about the potential threat of authoritarianism and the fragility of our democracy. As a historian, are you seeing that, and in what ways? 

KQ: Equating Italian Fascism with any other version of authoritarianism is dangerous and can be misleading. But I think it’s really important to study the conditions that gave rise to fascism in Italy and to understand how that happened because those conditions keep recurring. And there’s no question that we’re living in an international system that is giving rise to authoritarian regimes around the world, from Belarus to Brazil.  

Indeed, one vital observation that Max Ascoli made again and again to Americans in the late 1920s and 1930s was that fascism did not exist in an international vacuum. Systemic political, economic and social conditions gave rise to the phenomenon. Ascoli reminded Americans that fascism was born amid conditions of deep unrest and insecurity. Mussolini worked to deepen that unrest, to exacerbate that insecurity to such an extent that Italians “accepted” what Ascoli called the “fascist peace.” That was a fascist strategy: to wear Italian citizens down, exhausted from the chaos, such that they could no longer bear the cost of politics. In Ascoli’s words, they “could no longer pay the price of democratic political life.” 

So, I would simply say that when leaders strive to divide the nation, rather than unite it, we need to be vigilant. That is a fascist tactic, and we need to pay attention.  

Q: What do you see as the best ways to safeguard our democracy, in both the short and long term? 

KQ: The most important lesson that the Italian refugees brought to the United States was to remind Americans that the best protection against fascism is to safeguard democracy. When all is said and done, what Americans could and should do (according to Ascoli) was to learn about democracy, participate in democracy, do democracy. The nonchalant assumption that democracy was here to stay forever without citizen participation was dangerous, in their view. Democracy demands effort.  

Ascoli described himself as a “liberal.” That label meant something different in the mid-20th century than it does today. He was a “middle of the road” kind of guy — he was anti-fascist, but he did not identify as a socialist, and he was ardently anti-communist. I think if Ascoli were here, he would argue that deliberative democracy, the process that brings us consensus – even if we disagree on this or that – is powerful in a healthy democracy. And in our politically polarized moment, we lose sight of the value of this process. 

Q: What is the importance of education, and particularly college education, in the effort to protect democracy? 

KQ: In my view, education is indeed a guardian of democracy. And I do mean K-12, but of course I especially value the role of higher education. The college campus provides us a context in which to debate ideas and differences of opinion — and to see that as a goal of learning. It is an education in democracy because our goal is to learn from, and share opinions with, each other.  

Q: How big of a threat to democracy is disinformation and social media manipulation? What can be done to combat that? 

KQ: Disinformation is a form of manipulation, and usually employed for political ends. Historically, it has been used by democracies as well as by dictatorships. The United States, for instance, has used disinformation as a covert tactic to destabilize opposing regimes.  

But when disinformation is used by a government to divide and destabilize the nation itself, that poses a direct threat to democracy. The aim is to cause chaos and uncertainty. Conspiracy theories are a prime example.  

Authoritarian governments have always liked conspiracy theories. In the 1920s and 1930s, for instance, Mussolini’s fascists came to power and stayed there in large part by claiming that communists or Jews were conspiring to undermine the stability of the country and to spread fear of this fabricated threat. 

Racial laws were not introduced in Italy until 1938, but anti-Semitism was present at the birth of Italian Fascism. In fact, Giovanni Preziosi, who participated in Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922, was the first to translate “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in Italian in 1921. This fabricated document fueled conspiracy theories about Jewish people all over the world — including, of course, in Fascist Italy. 

Q: In a recent article that quoted you, you mentioned the phrase “historical thinking.” What is that and why is it important? 

KQ: Historians want evidence. Every claim we make when we interpret the past must be informed by documents, by sources, by evidence that is cross-checked against other pieces of evidence. We are trained to check the authenticity of sources; we ask who wrote that document, when, and we do our best to interpret why. We also corroborate the sources — we cannot simply rely on a single document to tell the story.  

We call this kind of critical thinking “historical thinking.” Another important aspect of historical thinking is that we do our best to acknowledge our own biases, first, but also try to set those biases aside so that the documents — the historical voices of the past — are prioritized.  

One of the dangers in our current moment — especially in the jungle of social media — is “confirmation bias.” We want our prejudices or beliefs to be confirmed. Historians are very wary of this skewed pursuit of information. Indeed, we approach information with a healthy skepticism. Because historians seek to check not merely the content but also the source of information, historical thinking can serve as a guard against disinformation and can be used to debunk conspiracy theories. 

Historians seek to avoid what is known as “motivated reasoning” — that’s the phenomenon wherein we have an emotional attachment to a particular outcome or conclusion and so we seek evidence to support that outcome.  

Q: What else are you thinking about with the election just days away? 

KQ: Civic learning is not just about memorizing the preamble of the Declaration of Independence or learning more about the electoral college. Democracy is about participating, becoming informed, and making your own decisions. One of the core lessons of history is that people make choices and choices make history. I am borrowing this phrase from an educational program called “Facing History and Ourselves,” and I think it works really well to remind us of human agency in history.  

History empowers. Every single one of us, no matter our social status or our race or our gender, makes history. Each of us has an opportunity — individually and collectively — to participate in democracy.  

I am not for one moment suggesting that it’s an equal playing field, or that we do so without individual and collective struggle. To the contrary, the democratic value of history is that it provides evidence to reveal that historical wrongs can only be righted by doing something about it. History teaches us that democracy needs cultivating, through civil disobedience and resistance, but also through casting a ballot. 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) announced that Julia Lewandoski, a Cal State San Marcos assistant professor of history, is the recipient of the SHEAR Dissertation Prize, which is awarded to an exceptional unpublished dissertation pertaining to the history of North America from 1776-1861.

Lewandoski was honored for “Small Victories: Indigenous Proprietors Across Empires in North America, 1763-1891.”

Established in 1977, SHEAR is “an association of scholars dedicated to exploring the events and the meaning of United States history between 1776 and 1861.”

Physics department honored

The physics department is among the recipients of INSIGHT Into Diversity’s 2020 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award, which recognizes unique and innovative efforts for improving access to science, technology, engineering, and math for underrepresented students.

Among the areas highlighted by INSIGHT Into Diversity was the department’s ranking for being sixth in the nation among undergraduate-only programs in awarding physics degrees to students from underrepresented groups.

Professor’s art collective on Lumen longlist

Allochronic Cycles, by the art collective Cesar & Lois with contributions from CSUSM arts, media and design students, is on the longlist for the 2020 Lumen Prize for Artificial Intelligence. CSUSM students engaged in independent studies with professor Lucy HG Solomon, who began Cesar & Lois with Brazilian collaborator Cesar Baio, contributed to the project’s research last spring.

The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 9 with winners announced on Oct. 22.

$1 million grant for chemistry professors

Robert Iafe, an associate professor of chemistry, and Paul Jasien, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, have received a grant of almost $1 million from the National Science Foundation that will support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students in chemistry and biochemistry.

Rankings

• CSUSM is 22^nd on Money’s list of “Most Transformative Colleges” and 202^nd out of more than 700 schools on Money’s list of “Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value.”
• The university ranks 27^th in the Great Value Colleges list of the “Top 30 U.S. Colleges That Are Excelling in Community Outreach.”
• CSUSM is ranked 97^th in the country and seventh in California by LendEDU for having one of the lowest student loan debt figures for the Class of 2019.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

But ever since the epidemic became a pandemic early this spring and began to hijack almost all aspects of daily life around the world, scholars of every stripe have found applications to their chosen area of study, and Al-Marashi is no exception. He has written at least a half-dozen research papers or op-eds related to the pandemic, with titles as wide-ranging as “The Geopolitics of the Coronavirus Outbreak,” “COVID-19 and the Middle East’s ‘Cold War,’ ” and “Pandemics Incubate Other Viruses Like Racism.” 

In terms of COVID-19, one of Al-Marashi’s primary goals is to try to place the disease and its myriad effects into the proper historical framing, which he does by way of an arcane field called clio-epidemiology. 

Question: What is clio-epidemiology, and why does it interest you? 

Ibrahim Al-Marashi: We academics love to use obscure terms for simple phenomena, but clio-epidemiology can be most succinctly defined as the history of disease. This field provides context to better understand our present during the coronavirus outbreak. 

Q: Have you taught the concept in your classes before? How that will change or broaden because of COVID-19? 

IA: Before COVID-19, it was difficult to get students interested in clio-epidemiology. For example, after giving a lecture on how smallpox eradicated Native American populations or how it was eliminated during the Cold War due to the cooperation of the U.S. and USSR, I would not see any hands raised. I would then remind them, “You might not be interested in viruses, but viruses are interested in you!” 

Q: Have students shown more interest in the subject since COVID, or do you think they will this fall? 

IA: Absolutely. Since the pandemic, the interest in clio-epidemiology has surged.  

Q: In one of your papers, you write about lessons from three historic pandemics – Black Death, Spanish flu and smallpox – that can be applied to this one. Let’s start with the Black Death of the 14th century. What are the lessons from that? 

IA: The Black Death, the Spanish flu and smallpox are just a few examples that provide valuable historical understanding of how states and societies responded to pandemics, furthering our understanding of the COVID cultures that are emerging in 2020. It is often said that COVID-19 will lead to the end of globalization. Globalization is not a process that simply begins and ends. Saying that globalization will end is like saying that the weather will end. The Black Death of the mid-1300s spread rapidly due to a globalization linked to a pax-Mongolica. The Mongols ushered in an integrated trading network. It allowed someone like Marco Polo to travel from Venice to the Mongol capital unmolested. It also allowed the bacterium that caused the Black Death to do the same.  

Q: What are the lessons from Spanish flu? 

The need for transparency is paramount, reflected in the name of the 1918-1919 “Spanish flu” pandemic, which was avian in origin, infected half a billion people worldwide, and killed 50 million of them, much more than the war that preceded it. The reason for its name is not because it originated in Spain, but as the nation was not a party to World War I, it did not have a wartime censorship regime in place, whereas other nations censored the news of the pandemic. The World War is a partial reason why the flu spread around the world, with mass movement of soldiers and wartime material causing global spread that would not have occurred in peace time. Whether it is the Chinese or American government, both need to allow scientists to communicate freely with the public, without politicization impeding this communication.  

Q: What are the lessons from smallpox? 

IA: That diseases can be eradicated when the nations of the world cooperate. From 1966 to 1977, a global vaccination campaign under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) eradicated smallpox from the planet in one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. The lesson for the U.S. today is that it needs to cooperate, not confront China, and continue to fund the WHO. The Trump administration has neglected to do both. 

Q: You’re an expert in Middle East history. How has the pandemic affected that region, both in terms of public health and culture/society? 

IA: Iran was the where the epidemic broke out in the region. Sanctions imposed by the Trump administration that targeted humanitarian trade with Iran have hurt the Islamic Republic’s ability to deal with the outbreak.  

The Iraqi government has found itself dealing with its greatest governance challenge since the ISIS invasion of 2014. The coronavirus has hit Iraq’s economy and placed additional stress on an already strained medical infrastructure. Iraq’s public health sector has been undermined by the sanctions that began after 1991, and the effects of depleted uranium from the wars in 1991 and 2003. The collapse of the state in 2003 exacerbated the decline of the health sector, already eviscerated by the United Nations-imposed sanctions. Afterward, Iraq suffered a flight of its educated professional middle class for years, especially doctors, fleeing to Europe or the U.S. The brain drain had dire ramifications as the Iraqi Red Crescent estimated that about 50 percent of Iraq’s doctors and 70 percent of medical specialists left in the exodus. Hospitals and clinics had been degraded by war, insurgency and violence.  

The pandemic hit Lebanon while it was dealing with an economic crisis that emerged when it defaulted on international loans. Syria and Yemen are in a state of civil war and will suffer the challenges posed by COVID. All three suffer poverty, which the virus thrives in. Middle Eastern conflicts, particularly between Iran and Saudi Arabia, have also hindered collective biosecurity.  

Q: How you do think history will judge the public response to this pandemic, both worldwide and in the U.S.? 

IA: Poorly. The new coronavirus is a problem that is global in nature, which requires political solutions and transparency, based on international cooperation on the multinational, national and local level. This cooperation did not occur.  

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

On Thursday, July 16, history professor Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall will be part of a watch party, Twitter conversation and public Zoom discussion about the 2016 award-winning documentary film “I Am Not Your Negro,” based on an unfinished book by famed writer James Baldwin. 

On Wednesday, July 22, sociology professor Dreama Moon will be one of the panelists on a webinar presented by INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine that will bring Black and white women together to share experiences, perspectives and solutions to common and often challenging interactions.  

The Baldwin event is sponsored by the Forum for Scholars and Publics (FSP) at Duke University, which has hosted more than 300 conversations, performances, workshops and panel discussions, and welcomed over 500 invited guest speakers from around the world since its founding in 2013. Its #docuhistory series began this summer as an initiative by Joe Schmidt, the social studies curriculum specialist for the New York City Department of Education, who has gathered groups of scholars to help lead discussions for K-12 teachers on particular historical documentaries.  

At 1 p.m. Pacific time, the FSP will stream the documentary on Netflix (there are other ways to watch listed on the website). During the stream, viewers are invited to browse and join the discussion on Twitter by searching the #docuhistory hashtag or checking the Twitter feeds of Sepinwall and Schmidt, the discussion moderators. After the screening, at 3 p.m., Sepinwall will be one of the guests for a moderated Zoom conversation about the film.  

The event is free, but registration is required. If you can’t watch it live, a video of the panel discussion will be posted afterward.  

“I Am Not Your Negro,” by Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck, envisions the book Baldwin never finished, “Remember This House.” The result, according to the FSP website, is a “radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and a flood of rich archival material.” The documentary “is a journey into Black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.” 

The INSIGHT Into Diversity event takes place on July 22 from 10 a.m. to noon. The webinar is titled “Women of Color Need Courageous Allies in the Academy: An Open Dialogue with White and Black Women,” and it will be moderated by Holly Mendelson, co-publisher of the magazine. The description reads, in part, “At a time when many people are overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent racial unrest throughout our country, the willingness and knowledge of how to effectively engage with one another is essential.” 

Registration for the Zoom event is closed, but members of the public can watch of the livestream on Facebook by “liking” and following INSIGHT Into Diversity on its Facebook page. The webinar will also be recorded and posted to the publication’s website in the future. 

Viewers are encouraged to send questions for the panelists beforehand to lpearlstein@insightintodiversity.com. 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

To hear Cal State San Marcos history professor Jill Watts tell it, however, West would not have been out of step with the protests of racial inequality that have been occurring across the nation, and the world, since the police killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day. 

“You look at the time we’re living in right now, where so many people are trying to establish their credentials as anti-racists,” Watts said. “I don’t know that I’d characterize Mae as an anti-racist because that’s a modern concept. But in her time, she really tried to break down barriers for African-American people and tried to pursue a course that would be against racism and discrimination.” 

Last month, Watts released her fourth book, a deep dive into the previously little-known coterie of African-American advisers to President Franklin Roosevelt known as the “Black Cabinet.” But her second book, published in 2003, was about West, which might seem like a strange subject for someone like Watts, who has developed a reputation for her comprehensive explorations of African-American history. 

Watts, though, went beyond the traditional focus on West as a bawdy performer who specialized in double entendres to delve into her myriad connections to and support of the Black community. Almost 15 years after the publication of the book, “Mae West: An Icon in Black and White,” Watts was asked to consult on the production of a documentary that draws heavily on the book.  

Now, West is ready for her next close-up. Tuesday, June 16 marks the premiere of “Mae West: Dirty Blonde,” part of the American Masters series on PBS and the first major documentary film to explore West’s life and career. Executive produced by Bette Midler, the film features interviews with actress Candice Bergen, drag queen Lady Bunny, comedian Margaret Cho, actress Natasha Lyonne, music legend Ringo Starr, burlesque performer Dita Von Teese and, of course, Watts – who, in addition to being a consultant to co-directors Sally Rosenthal and Julia Marchesi, sat for a four-hour interview in Los Angeles in 2018 (“I missed meeting Ringo by just a few minutes,” Watts said with a laugh. “But I got to sit in his seat.”) 

“Mae West: Dirty Blonde” airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on KPBS and also can be watched at pbs.org/maewest. 

Watts hasn’t seen the documentary, but she believes that it presents a fuller portrait of the Hollywood icon whose career spanned eight decades and who achieved acclaim in almost every entertainment medium, from acting to dancing to playwrighting to comedy to music recording. 

“When we talk about Mae West, we talk about sex. That’s just a given,” Watts said. “And we also talk about censorship. She’s one of the people who fought film censorship early on with her provocative performances.  

“What completely surprised me in researching and writing the book was how immersed in the Black community she was. She’s seen as this icon of white female sexuality, but the way she empowered herself was by appropriating Black culture, such as adopting blues music and Black dance traditions. A lot of white artists were stealing from Black performers at the time. But the difference between her and them is that she consistently credited African-American performance as the roots of her performance.” 

In her research for the book, Watts uncovered no evidence to support (or rebut) the persistent rumor that West herself was Black. West grew up in a white, working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn and was initially exposed to the Black community through her father, a boxer who frequently crossed racial lines to fight against Black competitors. 

West would speak out about racial issues, but mostly she let her actions do the talking. She supported federal anti-lynching legislation. She supported the local chapter of the NAACP. She insisted on having Duke Ellington play in one of her movies, and she would invite fellow jazz legend Louis Armstrong to her dressing room for lunch, ignoring the protestations of studio heads. Throughout her career, she tried to open doors for Black performers who wouldn’t otherwise have opportunities.  

“And she really borrows heavily from the African-American tradition of layering messages and meanings,” Watts said. “So on the surface, you hear her saying one thing and it sounds funny, but underneath there’s a critique of society. 

“Mae was talking about a lot of what we are talking about today in terms of race and in terms of wealth disparity. She just wouldn’t put it the same way.” 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Watts knew that many U.S. history textbooks, in the all-important pages about the hugely consequential Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidency, make passing references to what the black press of the day coined the “Black Cabinet,” an unofficial group of African-American advisers to FDR as he navigated the politics of the Great Depression and the New Deal in the 1930s.  

Watts was working on a different project as the follow-up to her acclaimed biography of Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Academy Award, but she wasn’t particularly inspired by it. This was in January 2009, and inspiration was in the air as the nation prepared to inaugurate Barack Obama as its first black president. Watts interpreted it as fate whispering in her ear. 

“I thought, ‘Why don’t I write something about the Black Cabinet? Nobody really has done anything on them,’ ” recalled Watts, who has taught at Cal State San Marcos since the early 1990s, soon after the university’s founding. “It seemed like the natural beginning of that story where you have the arrival of the first black president in the White House.” 

Watts never imagined that it would take more than a decade, but her fourth book has finally arrived. “The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt” was published on May 12 by Grove Atlantic. 

Nor could Watts have imagined that, after such a long and laborious process from idea to fruition, her book would be released in the middle of a pandemic as COVID-19 continues to spread across the world. She had a book tour scheduled for this summer that her publisher was forced to cancel.  

“A friend called me and said, ‘Aren’t you so disappointed?’ And I am,” Watts said. “I just feel so good about finally getting the book out, and I think it’s timely. All the issues that the Black Cabinet dealt with are universal issues that the epidemic has brought to the surface: health care, housing, jobs, all those things that the epidemic has exposed as still needed in our society. 

“So I feel like the book is still relevant, but I also feel like worrying about the release is so small compared to what’s going on in the bigger world. People are dying. How do we rescue them? Students are struggling. How do we make sure they can get their education and feel safe? Those are the big issues. Hopefully, the book will have a lasting impact.” 

The Black Cabinet certainly did. They were a large group of African-American leaders whose work was highly influential even though it was mostly done in the shadows, outside of the public sphere. They were official appointees of the federal government, but they weren’t organized into a cabinet by Roosevelt, nor did he take their counsel very often. Rather, the members had to organize themselves, and they made their voices heard mainly through white administration officials or especially Eleanor Roosevelt. And they were instrumental in bringing about the migration of African-Americans from the Republican to the Democratic Party in the 1930s.  

“Unlike what you might read in history textbooks, they weren’t window dressing and they weren’t puppets,” Watts said of the Black Cabinet. “Bringing the black community into the Democratic Party had an ideological basis. Even though FDR was falling short in serving African-Americans, the ideology of the New Deal and the shift of government toward caring about each individual citizen’s welfare was more consistent with the black community’s needs.” 

In chronicling the story of the Black Cabinet, Watts focused on the five most important members, four of them men: Robert Vann, a crusading journalist and attorney who was appointed to the Justice Department; Robert Weaver, who earned a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and later headed the office in the Department of the Interior that dealt with African-American issues; Alfred Edgar Smith, a journalist and educator who ran for FDR a New Deal program dedicated to remedying black unemployment; and William Hastie, a Harvard-trained lawyer who mentored pioneering Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and pushed in vain for the integration of military troops during World War II.

Then there was the unofficial leader, Mary McLeod Bethune, who didn’t enter the administration until just before Roosevelt’s re-election in 1936, when she became the first African-American woman to direct a federal program. A friend of Eleanor Roosevelt’s since the ’20s, Bethune had the First Lady’s ear, and thus the president’s as well. Watts describes her as the crucial force in transforming the Black Cabinet from a loose collection of smart and like-minded individuals into a cohesive team rowing in the same direction.

“When she arrives, she holds a meeting in her home,” Watts recounted. “In the pivotal moment in the summer of ’36, she brings them all together and says, ‘We have to work together as one solid group, and we will share information and decide on our goals and support each other in our goals.’ She was the one who brought them together to work as a united front. And she was such a force of personality.

“There were a lot of others. That was the problem in writing the book. There were so many members who were part of it, but you couldn’t do everybody. It’s a pretty amazing group of people, one right after the other.”

Watts considers the foremost achievements of the Black Cabinet to be establishing a presence of African-Americans in the federal government, particularly the executive branch; implementing the first anti-discrimination clauses in federal contracts, which served as the bedrock of the monumental civil rights legislation of three decades later; and delivering desperately needed relief to the black community during the Great Depression.

Where did the Black Cabinet fail or fall short? They couldn’t convince FDR or Congress to take up anti-lynching legislation (unbelievably, it still hasn’t passed to this day), and they didn’t make the lasting stamp they sought in terms of integration. Watts regards them as an underappreciated bridge linking early 20th century black leaders like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois with the 1960s civil rights movement orchestrated by Martin Luther King Jr.

Deciding how to organize the book wasn’t Watts’ only challenge. There was also the struggle to find contemporary documentation. As she points out, African-American life tends to go unrecorded anyway, and on top of that she faced the obstacle that the Black Cabinet met covertly, outside of official channels.

Watts benefited during her lengthy research process from advances in technology, as more and more government documents and black newspapers from the era were archived online. She also tracked down correspondence from the major players in the Black Cabinet, as well as interviews they conducted later in life.

“With this group, it’s like a needle in a haystack,” she said. “You go document by document – reading, reading, reading – and then finally, there’s one sentence and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s them!’ ”

Writing about the Black Cabinet carried meaning for Watts beyond her work as a historian. She grew up in a predominantly African-American community in southeast San Diego and attended a black church. The pastor in that church, George Walker Smith, was also a community leader, and Watts’ father, Thomas, worked on Smith’s campaign in the early 1960s when he became the first African-American elected to a city office. Thomas Watts taught at an African-American school, Kennedy Elementary, for years.

Because of her childhood, Watts was deeply curious about black politics and culture, but it never occurred to her that she could pursue it as a career. As a senior science major at UC San Diego, she took a class on the transatlantic slave trade taught by Ed Reynolds, who’s now a professor emeritus at UCSD while also lecturing at CSUSM. After she finished the course, she switched her major to history, and Reynolds encouraged her to pursue graduate school. She completed a Ph.D. at UCLA in 1989 and was hired at CSUSM two years later, when the university was located in a small strip mall next to a Jerome’s furniture store.

“African-American history is American history, and we need more of it,” Watts said. “I do feel a commitment to the black community because I grew up in that community and learned so much from it. Being able to carry the stories forward so that people know them is important to me.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Know someone who deserves special recognition for their efforts? Email details to publicity@csusm.edu and we’ll include them in an upcoming edition of this ongoing series.

Damon Adamo, media services engineer, IITS

Students, faculty and staff have come to rely heavily on Zoom for real-time communications while studying and working remotely, and Adamo has been integral to making it a smooth process.

“Damon has worked tirelessly to get people trained on the various aspects of Zoom and has been a great contributor to the success of many campus virtual initiatives,” the nominator wrote.

Priscilla Arciniega, intake academic advisor, Office of Academic Advising

Arciniega took the lead in creating communication platforms and tracking platforms for students and advisers from a variety of campus units to meet virtually.

“She went outside her role in advising to really help out many other units on campus with a key process affecting thousands of students in a positive way to create and support a virtual community, while fulfilling the duties of her position,” the nominator wrote.

Bonnie Campbell, CARE manager, Dean of Students Office

In her role as CARE manager, Campbell has been coordinating prevention, intervention and support efforts to assist students during this challenging time.

“She is getting in touch with students who are overwhelmed and checked out, and generally helping to keep the university running in a student-centered way,” the nominator wrote.

Patty Diaz, SOAR coordinator, Dean of Students Office

Student Outreach and Referral (SOAR) is a centralized service for all members of the campus community seeking to assist students, and the nomination noted how Diaz’s work has been integral throughout the COVID-19 crisis

“The university would be a much bleaker place without her,” the nominator said.

Kim Quinney, assistant professor, history

The student nominator lauded Quinney for her efforts in transitioning to virtual instruction and providing the resources her students have needed to continue to thrive.

“She has made this period of transition a little less stressful,” the nominator wrote, “and I am truly appreciative of all her efforts.”

Perla Rivas, counselor, TRIO Student Support Services

Rivas developed “TRIO SSS happy hour,” a weekly event that gives students an opportunity to express concerns, ask questions and share helpful tips.

“A clear sign that the students have enjoyed it is by the fact that more and more are joining and asking when the next one will take place,” the nominator wrote. “It is clear that they look forward to seeing each other and taking an hour out of their uncertain lives to just relax and de-stress with one another.”

Peer Advisors, Office of Academic Advising

The team of eight student peer advisors has been working hard to continue serving their fellow students during this difficult time. The team created a virtual advising site, including a virtual front desk that allows students to quickly and easily connect to services.

“Every one of our peer advisors has been exceptional at operating our new virtual front desk,” the nominator wrote. “They know what it is to be students during a very confusing and anxious time. Their own experience with ‘the new normal’ helps them connect to their fellow students who are also trying to figure out both the here and now as well as the future.

“I can’t begin to tell you just how much impact they are having by putting students at ease, answering countless questions and making our students feel comfortable in this new virtual environment we find ourselves in.”

The team includes James Bertel, Varanee Chinnapong, Gladys Guzman Guizar, Berenice Hernandez, Susanne Nordstrom, Alissa-Nicole Penaranda, Lizbeth Urquiza Resendiz and Zohra Sahial.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

When Cal State San Marcos received the archival records of The Paul Ecke Ranch, Inc. in 2013, the University was unsure what the future would bring. The University Library’s strategic initiative to begin a special collections program made the Ecke Collection CSUSM’s inaugural special collection. The collection represented an opportunity to greatly influence the future by introducing an entire region to the indelible mark left by the Ecke family on North County and the world in general.

Nearly five years later, the Ecke Collection has done that and much more.

“There are smaller local history centers and organizations across the region that collect individually, but it’s not in a coordinated manner or at the scale possible through the efforts of a library at a university such as ours,” said Aditi Worcester, a Processing Archivist in the Library. “Acquiring the Ecke Collection was the first step. Since that time, faculty, staff and students have been hard at work in establishing systems, workflows and policies to build a program that can sustain the growth of a formal special collections unit within the University Library.”

Most locals are familiar with certain aspects of the Ecke family, particularly of its past as a locally owned family business that grew and sold poinsettias, and successfully marketed it as the holiday flower for Christmas all over the world. Most county residents are also aware of the philanthropic efforts of the Ecke family, which has donated millions to various local entities.

But thanks to the work being done at the University Library in collaboration with faculty and students in the history department, the story of the Ecke family from its origins in the region to its global effect on Christmas and agriculture continues to evolve at CSUSM.

“The story of the last five years has not been the growth of the collection, but rather the progress made in organizing and cataloging it, to make it accessible to researchers,” said history professor Dr. Jeff Charles, a specialist in the history of agriculture who acquired the collection for the campus. “A team of history grad students and I did preliminary sorting early on, but the recent work done by the University Library, again with some history students, has been tremendous. And as the collection has become accessible, it has begun to reveal the impact of the Eckes on the region, on the flower business, and on the way we celebrate Christmas.”

The focus of the Library’s efforts has been on making the collection accessible to a wide audience with the intent of broadening collective knowledge.

“At the most basic level, the collection may be viewed as telling the history of a local, family-owned poinsettia business,” Worcester said. “It tells the story of an immigrant family of entrepreneurs from Germany who moved to the U.S. in 1902. The records document the growth of the business as well as of the North County region from 1923 onward through World War II, the Great Depression and other historic milestones. The collection documents worker-employee relations during the Bracero program, when Mexican farm workers were allowed into the U.S. to address the shortage of manual labor after World War II. The scope of the collection is more dynamic than the history of a single family or business.”

A large part of making the collection readily accessible is making it more discoverable.

The library catalog, website, online exhibits on Omeka, which is a digital publishing platform, and a folder-level finding aid on ArchivesSpace are several ways for people to discover what’s new. Two-thirds of the print records have been processed and more than 500 three-dimensional artifacts have been digitized. In addition, a virtual contact-sheet has been created for thousands of 35mm slides.

“It is one thing to learn about the impact of World War II on daily life within the pages of a history textbook,” Worcester said. “It is quite another to hold ‘mileage rations’ from 1944 in your hand or browse through gasoline credits from 1942 deposited in the Bank of America for the family’s ration account. There is correspondence with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the order from the government to change the ‘crops’ grown during wartime as per government regulations. The Ecke Ranch had to include fruits and vegetables, in addition to poinsettias, to meet wartime regulations. The records include research related to floriculture, horticulture, cultivars and patents for different flowers. They cover tales of intrigue spanning international collaborations and disputes over royalties and patent protections. They offer insight to personal values, styles of leadership and one family’s continued role in the growth and development of the North County region.

“The scope of the collection can be as diverse and varied as the interests of the researcher. The university library is committed to the long-term preservation, description and accessibility of this collection and we’re excited to see what use researchers make of it.”

The collection has also served as a career launching board for the student assistants hired and trained to work exclusively on it. All of the Ecke Fellows receive financial support from the Ecke family. Three of the original fellows who worked on the project are now teaching at community colleges in the area. Another is an archivist for the Black Experience at Northwestern University in Illinois and another just received his Ph.D. from Penn.

One of the current fellows is Melissa Haire, a second-year history graduate student. Her work has been crucial in processing and describing the collection, and digitizing records for online exhibits, which can be found at https://archives.csusm.edu/ecke/.

“I received training in the fundamentals of archival processing and learned how to arrange and describe records intellectually and physically in order to make them discoverable,” Haire said. “For instance, when you search for something online, you type in appropriate keywords. The search engine indexes ‘stuff’ on the internet and then returns results relevant to the keywords. I’m doing something similar. We have 600 boxes of ‘stuff,’ and I help researchers identify records relevant to their interests by indexing three generations worth of records of a family and business that spans over 100 years. I also digitize photographs, 35mm slides and other printed material.”

Most universities do an admirable job of connecting to the local community, and CSUSM is no exception. In fact, in its nearly 30 years of existence, CSUSM has proven to be a shining example of how a university is essential to a region’s connection to the past.

“The University can and should be a repository of knowledge as well as an institution that conveys knowledge to students,” Charles said. “But even beyond that, I feel the university’s job is not just vocational. Of course we want to prepare students for the job market, but we also want to enrich their lives. Understanding how a local poinsettia grower has shaped their Christmas memories might not change what gifts students can afford, but it helps them appreciate the historical sources of holiday traditions and make these traditions more meaningful.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

You better apply for this.

Juan didn’t exactly jump at the opportunity. When Oscar asked how the application was going as the deadline loomed, Juan told him it was going fine – even though he hadn’t started it. Then he came clean and told Oscar he didn’t think he was going to apply.

Oscar wouldn’t take no for an answer, telling Juan that he would be rewarded for the effort.

And he was right.

Juan spent four weeks in Cape Town, South Africa, during the summer after being one of just 10 students nationally selected for the Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship, which is made possible through a partnership between the Council on International Educational Exchange and the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

“If he hadn’t pushed me, I wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity,” said Juan, a third-year history student at Cal State San Marcos. “He’s my role model. I can’t wait to have other students look at me like I look at my brother.”

While Oscar provided the initial push to apply, Juan said the staff of CSUSM’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) played a critical role in helping him complete the application in time.

Since 2002, CAMP has been helping CSUSM students from migrant and seasonal farm worker backgrounds succeed in college. CAMP staff assists with the pre-college transition process and offers first-year support services to help develop the skills students need to stay in school and graduate.

Unsure of how to go about obtaining the required letter of nomination from CSUSM President Karen Haynes, Juan reached out to CAMP.

“Juan’s desire to one day give back to his community and touch people’s lives became apparent since the moment I had the pleasure of meeting him in 2016,” said Kenia Monroy, a CAMP academic advisor. “His passion to further his education and contribute to society helped motivate him to apply for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I believe in Juan and his undeniable abilities to accomplish great things in life. His dedication to his academics, optimism and genuine heart will take him very far, and I am excited for what is to come.”

Juan left for South Africa on July 14 to participate in a fellowship designed to help students from minority-serving institutions enhance their leadership skills and cultural sensitivity.

Two of the most poignant parts of the trip were visits to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, where Winnie Mandela was incarcerated.

Seeing for the first time Nelson Mandela’s quote, “It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it,” has had a lasting impact on Juan.

“We all have a responsibility to create a better world, to give back to our community, to not forget where we come from,” Juan said. “If the elevator sends us up, we need to make sure to send it back down.”

As part of the program’s goal to have fellows present and share their study abroad experience, Juan created a video to share his story. He details what it was like growing up as the son of a farm worker, about the frustration of spending his weekends picking avocados with his father, how his father’s work ethic inspired him on his road to earning the fellowship and how he looks forward to repaying his father for the sacrifices he made for his children.

The fellowship was another step in Juan’s journey toward helping other K-12 students like him. While he originally planned to go straight into teaching after he graduates , he recently was accepted to CSUSM’s McNair Scholars Program, which helps students prepare for graduate school. Now, Juan is considering pursuing his doctorate and going into education administration so he can help influence educational policy.

“I want to give underrepresented kids an opportunity that’s not usual for them,” Juan said. “I want to make sure it becomes normal to give these students these opportunities and to see them in these spaces, to see them achieving college degrees. All of this is possible.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

In March, the Society for History in the Federal Government honored Kang with its Henry Adams Prize, stating the book “offers a comprehensive legal history of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on the US-Mexico border during the first half of the twentieth century.” In April, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society honored Kang with its Theodore Saloutos Book Award for presenting a major new scholarly interpretation related to the immigration history of the United States.

“I’m deeply honored to receive these awards,” Kang said. “Every year, scores of outstanding works are published, so as an author you don’t even think about winning any kind of recognition, which makes this all very humbling.”

The recognition is well deserved. "The INS on the Line" (Oxford University Press, 2017) traces how local INS agents made and remade the nation’s immigration laws over the course of the 20^th century, establishing itself not only as a law enforcement agency, but also as a legislative body. Among the examples is how the Border Patrol created the so-called 100-mile zone that today allows immigration officers to stop and search anyone within 100 miles of the border. It is that law that authorizes checkpoints near San Clemente, Temecula, and along the Interstate 8 corridor east of San Diego, and the practice has long been decried by critics saying it makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Border agents had long been stopping and searching vehicles without a warrant before officials began lobbying Congress in the 1940s to approve legislation providing explicit approval to do so.

“This legislation was passed so as to shore up the precarious legal status of the Border Patrol’s car searches,” Kang said.

These searches, Border Patrol officials admitted in 1944, were conducted indiscriminately and without proper authority.

On the flip side, INS agents in the Southwest often ignored immigration laws to facilitate trade and accommodate families with deep roots in cross-border regions.

“The book challenges our notion of the way that immigration law gets made and documents how low-level bureaucrats and officers played a pivotal role in creating policy,” Kang said. “The American public has this idea that immigration law is based solely on the expertise of our lawmakers in Congress and the courts, but, in fact, border agents often were making up these laws and policies in highly arbitrary ways and in response to on-the-ground conditions in the Southwest.”

Kang has been teaching at CSUSM since 2011. After securing her bachelor’s degree – magna cum laude, from Cornell University in European Literature and History – Kang earned her master’s degree in jurisprudence and social policy and her Ph.D. in United States history from UC Berkeley. In addition to an award-winning author, Kang serves as a visiting scholar at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego.

Her motivation for the book?

“The INS is an opaque agency,” she said. “It holds its histories and current operations close to the vest. While there are several excellent studies on the agency, much more work needs to be done for scholars and the American public to fully understand its impact on the law and society.”

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

A native San Diegan, Watts was 10 years old when she made the long journey with her mother from their Southeast San Diego home to a chicken ranch in San Marcos.

Watts’ father was an elementary school teacher who had taught a lesson that required students to reconstruct a chicken skeleton. He wanted to replicate the lesson for the Elementary Institute of Science, which grew out of the science club he started at Kennedy Elementary School in San Diego.

The only place to get whole-body chickens at the time was the Prohoroff Poultry Farm, destined to become the site of Cal State San Marcos.

“It was a trek in those days,” Watts said. “We came out here and drove up to where the McMahan House is now. There was a house there and this guy brought out these whole-body chickens in a box on ice and put them in the trunk. I remember it being so dusty and hot.”

Little did Watts know at the time that she would one day return to that site to help college students pursue their degrees.

Watts witnessed firsthand CSUSM’s transformation from occupying space in a strip mall to a 300-acre campus on land that previously was home to one of the world’s largest chicken ranches. She has been a history professor at CSUSM since the University’s early days and is currently the department’s coordinator of graduate students. She arrived in fall 1991 and taught her first CSUSM classes in January 1992.

As one of the first history faculty hired at CSUSM, Watts helped shape the department’s curriculum. She said the history department has had a global emphasis from the beginning while also committing to courses on gender and race.

“We’ve had a really rich curriculum in the department, and it’s because we’ve worked together on it,” she said.

Watts was recently honored with the 2017-18 Harry E. Brakebill Distinguished Professor Award, given annually to a CSUSM faculty member who embodies excellence in teaching, research and service.

Watts has authored three acclaimed books, two of which – “Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood” and “God, Harlem U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story” – have been optioned for film. She has a fourth book due out early next year about Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet,” a group of African American policy advisers to the president from 1933-45.

Watts said she doesn’t pick the topics for her books so much as they tend to pick her.

The Father Divine book came about after Watts was given the topic as part of a graduate seminar assignment. Her second book, “Mae West: An Icon in Black and White,” came about because she wanted to learn the answer to a question asked by a student about the Hollywood legend.

While working on the Mae West book, Watts was struggling to find information she needed about McDaniel, which led her to write her third book.

Though Watts enjoys researching and writing the books, teaching remains her priority.

“That’s always foremost in my life,” she said. “The great thing about our faculty is that for all of us, it’s students first.”

That’s something Watts said has remained constant throughout CSUSM’s nearly three decades, and it’s what she found so attractive about the job at a time when the University was not exactly a typical college campus.

When Watts was brought out to interview in 1991, she knew that the University was using temporary quarters while the campus was under construction. But when they drove her to those temporary quarters, her reaction was, “They’re in a strip mall?”

As part of her visit, Watts was taken to where the main campus would be built, and she realized it was the same place she had visited on a hot summer day as a 10 year old. The chicken ranch was long gone, but there still wasn’t much in its place.

“It was just dirt,” she said. “Just a dirt plot. There was nothing. They were starting to grade it. But they had this idea that it was going to be this huge, amazing university. They all could see it.”

At that moment, driving across the freeway from classrooms in a strip mall to an empty dirt plot, Watts wasn’t so sure.

But she could see that everyone affiliated with the University was invested in the students.

“They didn’t all agree on everything at the beginning at all,” Watts said. “But they all agreed on their commitment to the students, so it was really attractive to join their experiment.”

And Watts is glad she did. She said the vision for the students has remained consistent throughout her 26 years at the University.

“The commitment has always been there and students have always come first,” she said. “That’s the spirit and soul of the campus.

“There’s something about the students now that reminds me so much of the students at the beginning. Maybe it’s the times we’re living in, but there’s just such genuine curiosity, such desire to leave here and serve communities, to go beyond self and think of others. Our students have always been amazing, and they’re not just amazing because they’re great students. They’re just the best people. To see them become their best selves when they’re with us, it’s just such an honor to be part of their lives.”

Learn more about CSUSM's history department or Master of Arts in history online.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

“The mentor program is a big reason why I am the first person in my family of 10 brothers and sisters to graduate from college,” said Fawad, who fled Afghanistan and lived in a United Nations-run refugee camp before settling in Carlsbad as a young boy.

Fawad, 25, graduated with a history degree from CSUSM this past spring. Today, he is studying for his master’s degree in the history of international relations, with a focus on the transnational history of terrorism, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He plans on becoming a university professor.

Fawad was one of 161 CSUSM students who took part in the Faculty Mentoring Program during the 2015-16 academic year, all of them first-generation college students and many of them veterans, disabled, or receiving financial aid. Despite such challenges, participants go on to earn a degree at rates far higher than the general student population.

That’s because the program is far more complex than engaging in a few casual conversations. Orientations are held over the first several weeks of the fall or spring semester. Workshops follow in the months ahead on everything from preparing resumes and cover letters to preparing for graduate school and careers. At luncheons, coffee klatches and ice cream socials, students discuss their backgrounds and insecurities, developing lasting bonds with mentors who learn firsthand about the challenges facing a new generation of CSUSM students.

“For first-generation students, many who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, college can be very alienating,” said Dr. Michelle Ramos Pellicia, Faculty Mentoring Program Faculty Fellow and a faculty member in the Department of Modern Language Studies. “You’re away from home for the first time in your life, and for some, it’s like being in a different country because you don’t really understand the culture.”

The program, established in 1991, last year paired 135 mentors with students based on interests, backgrounds and other factors. Ramos Pellicia and Program Coordinator Sonia Perez spend days reading through applications from new and waitlisted students, the biggest challenge being a lack of mentors to meet demand.

“A lot of these students are facing so many challenges in their life,” Perez said. “It’s critical that they have a close relationship with a professor who can serve as a mentor, who you can talk to and who you can count on. Not only are you finding someone who will always be there for you, you’re also establishing a lifelong friendship.”

That’s what happened to Fawad. He sought out Dr. Ibrahim Al-Marashi, a popular associate professor of Middle East history who is creating the next generation of scholars to understand the intricacies and nuances involved in that part of the world.

“I politely begged him if he could be my mentor, and he agreed,” Fawad said. “We’ve become very good friends. Whenever I had a problem or needed advice, I’d come to him. He helped me during the process of applying to graduate school. He was invaluable.”

Fawad’s experience was typical. And it underscores CSUSM’s commitment to ensuring student success.

“There is no class a student can take that tells you how to apply to graduate school or how to navigate a college education, and that is one reason that working with a mentor is so important,” Al-Marashi said. “But the program also allows you to develop a friendship that wouldn’t be possible through normal office hours.”

***

“There is great satisfaction in knowing that perhaps in some small way you could be making a difference in a young person’s life.”

-- Dr. Rajnandini Pillai

Melissa Estrada had dropped out of college once before.

“I’m a first-generation college student, and a lot of this was new to me,” she said. “I wasn’t familiar with the support services that were available and I never really became comfortable.”

That changed when she enrolled at CSUSM more than a decade later. And a big reason why was the Faculty Mentoring Program that paired her with Dr. Rajnandini Pillai, a professor of management who also serves as executive director and founding member of CSUSM’s Center for Leadership Innovation and Mentorship Building.

“My whole experience with Dr. Raj was amazing,” said Melissa, 33, who majored in Global Business Supply Chain Management and earned her degree last spring. “I could call her up or drop in her office just about any time. She was always there for me. And not only did we discuss my classes and my future goals, but also other daily struggles at work and home. Dr. Raj helped guide me through my journey here at Cal State San Marcos, and I am more than thankful for the experience.”

Pillai said the experience was just as rewarding for her.

“I found Melissa to be a very strong young woman who faced many challenges in her personal and professional life but was determined to overcome them and achieve her goal of graduating from the business school,” Pillai said. “I am in awe of her. I think we ended up inspiring one another.”

“Working with Melissa was wonderful,” she continued. “We’ve become good friends and I hope to remain a positive influence in her life.”

Melissa, who is employed as a coordinator with an Encinitas-based company that provides an array of services ranging from CPR training to environmental health and safety programs, said the Faculty Mentoring Program is typical of what she found at CSUSM.

“Cal State San Marcos is a great school, and the Faculty Mentoring Program is just one example of how they are looking out for you to succeed,” she said.

***

“What stands out to me about how I have evolved through our mentorship is the realization that I can take on new challenges and meet them.”

-- Madeline Rayón

Madeline Rayón signed up with the Faculty Mentoring Program almost as soon as she transferred from Palomar College in the fall of 2013. Her pairing with Dr. Sharon Hamill proved instrumental in Madeline earning a degree in psychology last spring. Now Madeline is in graduate school, where Hamill continues to serve as her faculty mentor.

“The Faculty Mentoring Program has given me the opportunity to gain more opportunities,” she said. “It allowed me to meet Dr. Hamill. It allowed me to discover my passion. It allowed me to apply to graduate school, and it allowed me to attend graduate school. I really can’t say enough about it.”

That’s quite a change from when she first came CSUSM. A first-generation college student who lacked confidence, Madeline said she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she arrived. Then she took an Introduction to Psychology course that piqued her interest. Before long, she changed her major and was introduced to Hamill, who became her mentor. Madeline interviewed hundreds of high school students while working with Hamill on an ongoing project focusing on high school students’ mental and physical health, including how their health is impacted by being caregivers in their family. Under Hamill’s guidance, Madeline also worked on an independent project investigating the feelings of guilt among first-generation college students.

Hamill called her experiences with Madeline “life changing.”

“Maddy has been a gem from the start,” she said. “Her intelligence, dedication and sense of humor have been inspirational to me. Her insights into the experiences of first-generation college students and her commitment to understanding the college experience of students from multiple ethnic backgrounds has fueled my own long-held interests in these topics.”

Hamill may find herself working with her protégé in the future. Madeline said her experiences at Cal State San Marcos have motivated her to become a professor of psychology.

Hamill said the Faculty Mentoring Program has been instrumental in changing so many lives for the better.

“It is an exceptional program, a program that provides access, it provides structure, it provides support, and it not only provides support for students, but also for members of the faculty,” she said.

Zaldívar, whose area of research is the High and Late Middle Ages, teaches a course entitled, Heresy, Witchcraft, and Church Reform in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. One of the key takeaways from the class: It’s easy to target the disenfranchised.

“This was a particular era in the Early Modern period that saw the introduction of a new judicial process, a new legal framework, that stressed a more inquisitorial system, which when combined with a new interest in magic led to a perfect storm targeting disenfranchised people, particularly women, who suffered significantly,” he said.

The height of the witch hunts was focused in northern Europe and spread across roughly 350 years beginning in 1420. During that time, an estimated 100,000 people were put on trial for being witches or practicing witchcraft, and roughly half were convicted, tortured and killed. It wasn’t until about 1770, as the scientific revolution continued, that more and more people in authority, led by the clergy, began to question the sanity of such accusations.

Almost all of the accused were women. And that was not by accident. It was the product of a misogynistic society that produced more than its share of unflattering caricatures.

“The cauldron represented cooking, which is what women were expected to do at that time,” Zaldívar said. “The broom symbolized not only the housekeeping chores of women, but it also has a clear sexual innuendo. And the look of a witch, with the warts and all, was symbolic of elderly women, who were especially vulnerable at the time.”

Heresy, Witchcraft, and Church Reform in Medieval and Early Modern Europe evolved from a class Zaldívar developed and taught as a graduate student at UCLA. But the CSUSM course curriculum delves more deeply into the reasons behind the rise of the witch trials.

The course, said Zaldívar, introduces students to an important episode in medieval and early modern history: the rise of heretical movements, including witchcraft, and its persecution by orthodox authorities. In addition, the class addresses orthodox (both Roman Catholic and Protestant) responses to the rise in heresy and, later, witchcraft, both through preaching and violence.

The belief in witches and witchcraft dominated much of northern Europe at the time.

Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare and Martin Luther are among those who advocated an aggressive response.

Zaldívar, who grew up in Miami, said he became interested in the Middle Ages through a medieval history class he took at Florida State University.

“It changed my career,” he said.

He would go on to earn his Ph.D. from UCLA, and he joined the History Department at CSUSM in the fall of 2014.

His area of specialty is in the history of the High and Late Middle Ages, and he is working on a book manuscript, tentatively titled, Language and Power in the Western Mediterranean: Vernacular Writing in the Crown of Aragon’s Royal Chancery. He also is interested in medieval literature, early modern Spain and the Spanish Empire (colonial Latin American history).

Nava grew up in Los Angeles, part of a large Mexican American family that valued public service and public education. Her father, Dr. Julian Nava, was the first Mexican-American elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education, and he later served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.

“I saw my dad break a lot of barriers,” said Nava. “And today, more than ever, we need to encourage young people to become leaders in their communities.”

Nava studied history at Cal State Northridge, where she graduated summa cum laude, and she earned a Ph.D. in Latin American History from UCLA. Nava does research on nationalism in Brazil, gender in Latin America and Chicano/Latino history. She encourages students through the Faculty Mentoring Program, and she was recently recognized with the CSUSM President’s Award for Service Leadership. She also is a founding member of the Board of Directors at the San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum in Escondido, which serves more than 8,000 visitors monthly.

Nava said she is especially proud to be teaching at CSUSM.

“Cal State San Marcos was my first choice for a job after completing my Ph.D.,” she said. “I wanted to be a part of building a new CSU campus. I am deeply committed to the mission of the CSU, having had an excellent educational experience at Cal State Northridge.”

She added: “We are providing a high-caliber higher education to the larger community, and Cal State San Marcos is serving a fundamental need in the North County region.”

The inaugural issue featured a cover story on the Italian architectural style of the up-and-coming campus, a column by Founding President Bill Stacy and an opinion piece that criticized the media’s use of sensational video editing techniques. Now these stories, and thousands more chronicling 25 years of student reporting, are available in the inaugural project of the University Library’s online archives.

The University Archives in the University Library is home to the official historical records of Cal State San Marcos. Judith Downie, Humanities and Archives librarian and Government Documents coordinator, championed the project with the support of Library Dean Jennifer Fabbi, as one of the most visible and long-standing records of campus history.

“Because it is created by students, for students—without the input of faculty or administration—it is the unfiltered and uncensored voice of students,” she said. “It’s interesting to see how the paper has evolved from editor to editor, and how issues of the day were covered by reporters.”

Archiving Student History

The online exhibit includes You Name It, the masthead the paper was published under in October 1993 when the editorial staff launched a contest to rename The Pioneer. The following month, the paper became known as The Pride. The current newspaper’s title, The Cougar Chronicle, was adopted in January 2012.

The novelties captured in print stand out, including an issue in 2004 that was completely handwritten and an article in 2001 that debunked the myth that CSUSM’s buildings were designed by a prison architect.

Campus history is also marked with articles that showcase the first freshmen class in the fall of 1995 and the construction of University Hall (referred to then as International Hall).

Although the full collection includes nearly every issue from 1990 to 2015, there are 15 missing issues that archive staff hope to still find. Anyone with information about the missing issues is encouraged to contact University Archives.

“This is really exciting,” said current Cougar Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Katlin Sweeney. “This project unites the various waves of the paper and allows us to see how it—and the University—has grown and changed. Many of the themes reported on then are still impacting us now so this will be an important tool for our reporters to use for research and data.”

Although funding, provided by the CSUSM 25^th Anniversary Committee and the University Library, only supported the archiving of the paper through May 2015, Downie is hoping to secure, through grants or donations, additional resources to allow for the ongoing archive of the Cougar Chronicle. She also envisions that the online site will feature special collections, such as on the history of CSUSM homecoming.

She added: “Preserving the student newspaper means preserving campus history and the history of the surrounding region.”

Visit http://library.csusm.edu/archives/csusm-student-newspapers/ to learn more and view the digital CSUSM student newspaper archives.

Jonathan Bechtol, a lecturer in the History Department at California State University San Marcos, will be discussing his extensive research into the park’s past during a free presentation entitled, “Balboa Park's 1915 Panama-California Exposition: A History.” It will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 in Room 240 of the Arts Building.

The Panama-California Exposition was aimed at celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal and garnering national and international attention for the city. With San Diego being the first American port-of-call for ships leaving the canal, San Diego's Chamber of Commerce and leading business figures recognized its strategic location and wanted to take advantage of it.

“In order to attract future settlers, the military and investors, the Chamber of Commerce decided an exposition would be the best route,” Bechtol wrote in Balboa Park: An Urban History. “What commenced was an all-out effort to market and develop San Diego as an urban center with the proper resources to handle the new maritime traffic coming in from the Panama Canal while maintaining its small town charm.”

Bechtol is somewhat of an accidental Balboa Park historian. A native of Colorado, Bechtol has been living in North Sam Diego County since his family resettled in Fallbrook when he was in the second grade. He attended CSUSM in the fall of 2000 after graduating from Fallbrook High School, earning both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in history. He was working on a project centered on San Diego architecture when he began focusing on the buildings at Balboa Park. That led to a master’s thesis on the history of Balboa Park and its uses over time.

The changes have been profound. In fact, Balboa Park hasn’t always known as Balboa Park. The greenbelt was renamed when city leaders rebranded the once-neglected space in advance of the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition.

“City Park, as it was known, was created in the late 1860s as a public space for the people of San Diego to use,” Bechtol wrote. “It was home to a dog pound, orphanage, ammunition dump, school and many other things prior to the turn of the twentieth century.”

When World War I broke out after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, Balboa Park was handed over to the Navy. Sailors learned to row boats in the lily ponds and many of the old exposition's buildings were used as barracks. Once the war was over, the city regained control of the park, and it wasn’t too long before it began preparations to host the 1935 California Pacific Exposition.

With World War II raging, the Navy in March of 1942 took possession of Balboa Park and renamed it Camp Kidd, after an admiral who was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The entire Park was off limits to civilians and the Navy forced all organizations in the Park to vacate. After the war San Diego faced the difficult task of restoring the damages caused by the Navy and returning to civilian use.

Civilian use was reinstated after the war, but what Bechtol calls a benign neglect lasted throughout the 1950s. In the early 1960s, concern over the dilapidation of the buildings was raised and there were attempts to save as many as possible from the wrecking ball. The problem then became who had the final say over the future of the park and where the money would come from. Private organizations coalesced over these issues, some wanting to preserve the park while others sought to return it to a natural setting.

“By the 1970s and 1980s, issues over preservation versus nature were compounded. New groups, including the gay community and the Centro Cultural de la Raza, sought to establish themselves alongside established organizations like the Museum of Art for example. They did so by forcing their way and establishing themselves either through festivals or cultural organizations, the outcome being a diversified and democratic park.”

Said Bechtol: “It’s a fascinating history, one that I hope to shed some some light on at the Dec. 2 discussion.”

According to GKIDS Films, The Rabbi’s Cat, set in the Jewish community of Algeria during the 1920s, tells the story of a rabbi and his talking cat—a sharp-tongued feline philosopher brimming with scathing humor and a less than pure love for the rabbi’s voluptuous teenage daughter. The filmmakers spare no group or individual as they skewer faith, tradition and authority in a provocative exploration of God, lust, death, phrenology, religious intolerance, interspecies love and the search for truth. Rich with colors, textures, flavors and music of Mediterranean Africa, the film embarks on a cross-continent adventure from the tiled terraces, fountains, quays and cafes of colonial Algiers to Maghrebi tent camps, dusty trading outposts, and deep blue Saharan nights in search of a lost Ethiopian city.

Organized by Geiger, the Departments of Modern Language Studies and Global Studies, and the Global Studies Club and French Club, this event is made possible with support of the Leichtag Foundation. The film will be presented in French with English subtitles.

What: Free film screening of The Rabbi’s Cat, the 2011 French animated film based on the best-selling graphic novel by Joann Sfar.

When: Thursday, September 24 at 6 p.m.

Where: Cal State University San Marcos, Academic Hall, Room 102 – 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Rd., San Marcos

Directions and Parking: Directions can be found at www.csusm.edu/guide. On-campus parking is available with rates from $3 to $9 depending upon length of stay.

“I try to make a difference in my students’ lives and help transform the way they view the world around them,” said Dr. Sepinwall, a Carmel Valley resident who serves as a Solana Beach school volunteer and is a member of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival committee. “This is a wonderful university and I am happy to contribute to its development.”

Students are among her biggest fans.

“Her scope of knowledge is tremendous, and her enthusiasm is unmatched,” said graduate student Frank Turner.

Former student Sarah Wolk, who is pursuing a doctorate in history at UC Riverside, noted that her “passion and enthusiasm for teaching shine through in everything she does…Professor Sepinwall applies herself wholeheartedly to her work, and her positive energy is contagious.”

Dr. Sepinwall’s interest in history began during her childhood in Pine Brook, New Jersey, when she often visited historic sites and museums in New York. Her parents, Dr. Harriet Lipman Sepinwall and Dr. Jerry Sepinwall, believed deeply in the importance of education and instilling values of social justice.

“I just grew up being very interested in the world around me,” she reflected.

But it was during her sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania that Dr. Sepinwall’s future was sealed.

“I took a seminar on the French Enlightenment and it was fascinating,” she said. “Back then I preferred reading Newsweek to books, which I thought were old and irrelevant. But I started reading Enlightenment texts and discovered that these dead people were talking about the same issues that my friends and I talked about at night in the dorm: Is there a God? What is the best kind of government? Were women and men really different?”

In the summer after her sophomore year at Penn, Dr. Sepinwall ended up working in France, and studied at Oxford University in the fall of her junior year. She earned her Ph.D. in 1998 from Stanford University and joined the CSUSM History Department in 1999.

Just five years later she earned the President’s Award for Innovation in Teaching.

Her areas of expertise also include Haiti and French-Jewish history. She remains an in-demand speaker, who has addressed conferences across the United States and Europe, and had her work translated many times into French.

Dr. Sepinwall’s first book (The Abbé Grégoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism) was a biography of the French priest and revolutionary Abbé Henri Grégoire, who argued that Jews should not be oppressed and that slaves should be freed.

Her second book, which covers the history of Haiti and was published in 2013, is one of the first of its kind.

“Haiti is a fascinating and important country whose history has been forgotten,” Dr. Sepinwall said. “When the earthquake happened in 2010 (which left more than 300,000 Haitians dead and an estimated 1.5 million homeless), there was a lot of news coverage. But I was struck by how little those on TV actually knew about this country. Haitians were the first people in the New World to free themselves from slavery, and they were punished at the time by slaveholding countries. The U.S. has also intervened in Haitian politics numerous times in the last century.”

Dr. Sepinwall’s course on Haitian history was among the first offered at any North American university. Her book, Haitian History: New Perspectives, is now used at several universities in the U.S., Canada and England.

“Dr. Alyssa Sepinwall exemplifies the highest values of Cal State San Marcos and embodies what it means to be a faculty member committed to sustained excellence in teaching and enhancing student learning,” wrote CSUSM President Karen S. Haynes in honoring her with the Brakebill Award.

That commitment was reflected last fall, when Dr. Sepinwall and her family created an endowed scholarship in memory of her late father. Dr. Jerry Sepinwall, an immigrant from Canada, would become a pioneer in the field of neuropsychopharmacology and a leading researcher in the use of benzodiazepines, a class of drugs often prescribed to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures.

Dr. Sepinwall said she is sometimes in awe of the changes that have occurred at CSUSM since she arrived here.

“It’s a tremendously more exciting place to be than when I first got here 17 years ago,” she said. “It used to be a smaller campus, a commuter campus. We would have distinguished lecturers come to speak and we would be lucky to get 10 people. That’s not the case anymore. We have so many thriving extracurricular activities and a fascinating group of students. They range from Marines who have been all over the world to first-generation college students to more mature students who didn’t have the chance to go to college when they were younger. I learn something new from them every semester.”

Al-Marashi – who earned his Ph.D. from Oxford University in England before teaching in Spain and Turkey – couldn’t be happier with his decision to come to CSUSM four years ago.

“I get to teach a lot of students who are the first in their family to go to college, and I get to teach a lot of people who are veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and have lived through history,” Al-Marashi said. “That makes my work pretty special.”

Al-Marashi is an expert on Middle East history who has been invited to addresses conferences worldwide. When it was revealed that an early research paper had been plagiarized by the British government, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair was forced to apologize.

An Iraqi-American from Baltimore, Maryland, Al-Marashi has been studying Middle East history since attending UC San Diego in the early 1990s.

He is thrilled to be at CSUSM during its 25^th anniversary.

“It’s hard to imagine that I would be helping the next generation of students learning about the Middle East at a university that opened 25 years ago at the same time and just a few miles from where I started my educational journey.”

The Year Was...

Although founded in 1989 when the governor signed Senate Bill 365 declaring the former SDSU satellite campus as a new state university, CSUSM marks its anniversary by its first day of classes, which were held in the fall of 1990.

A lot can happen in 25 years. The same year that CSUSM opened its doors, the first webpage was posted on the World Wide Web; West and East Germany were officially reunited as one nation; the Hubble Telescope was launched into orbit; and Activist Nelson Mandela was released from prison after spending 27 years as a political prisoner in South Africa.

Where It All Began

Cal State San Marcos was the first in a new era of public higher education. Prior to its establishment, there had been no new comprehensive universities built in the U.S. in two decades.

Founded on principles of academic excellence and access, CSUSM welcomed its first students (448 juniors and seniors) in 1990. While the permanent campus was being constructed on the former site of the 304-acre Prohoroff Poultry Farm in the foothills of San Marcos, students attended class at a temporary storefront location. In those early semesters, students and employees informally nicknamed the university Cal State Jerome’s in homage to its nearby neighbor and landmark business, Jerome’s Furniture.

Within two years, enrollment reached 1,700 students and the University moved to its permanent address on Twin Oaks Valley Road with the completion of Craven Hall, Academic Hall and Science Hall I. The center of campus was marked by the Founders Seal which commemorates the twelve founding faculty who laid the groundwork to shape CSUSM with a bold vision that focused on community engagement and experience-based learning. That campus landmark has become the site of one of CSUSM’s urban legends; rumor suggests that students who dare to walk on the seal will not graduate in four years.

Since its modest beginning, CSUSM remains focused on its vision to prepare tomorrow’s leaders, build great communities and solve critical issues. Today CSUSM is home to nearly 13,000 students and boasts approximately 33,000 proud alumni who are making an impact every day in the region and beyond.

Discover more about CSUSM’s history by visiting www.csusm.edu/25

Ready. Set. Prowl.

Anniversary festivities begin on January 27 with The Prowl, a two-day, campus-wide scavenger hunt that invites students, faculty and staff to explore many of the unique offerings and hot spots around campus.

The Prowl features 25 stops. At each location participants collect a game piece sticker and earn free CSUSM swag and giveaways (while supplies last). Once completed and delivered to the final stop at the new Alumni Association offices in Commons 203, participants are entered to win top prizes, which include an iPad Air, tickets to Disneyland, a bicycle or skateboard, Dr. Dre Beats headphones, a parking pass, gift cards and other sweet prizes.

Gamecards can be picked up at the University Student Union Information Desk, located on the fourth floor of the USU in the East Pavilion.

A bonus selfie competition invites players to snap a selfie at up to 10 designated campus locations for a chance to win one of several Starbucks gift cards.

For the official rules and a complete list of prizes, visit www.csusm.edu/25/events/prowl.

Celebrate with Us

Throughout its anniversary year, CSUSM will host signature events and programs to celebrate with students, faculty, staff, friends and the wider community. Mark your calendars.

January 27-28: The Prowl, Scavenger Hunt

February 5: Report to the Community
Every year President Haynes provides an overview of recent University successes while also sharing her vision for moving CSUSM forward in the coming year and beyond.

March 14: Super STEM Saturday
Explore interactive demonstrations and hands-on science activities at Super STEM Saturday, including rocket launches, build-a-robot stations, model displays, scientist chats and a obstacle course. The event is free and open to the public, drawing over 5,000 science enthusiasts each year to the university campus.

March 23: The Sports Center Groundbreaking Celebration

April 11: Discover CSUSM Day
An open house event for prospective students and the community, Discover CSUSM invites attendees to become acquainted with the campus and get an up-close glimpse into college life as a Cougar. Take a campus tour, attend an open class, meet professors, enjoy a matinee showing of the spring play, and cheer on the Cougars at an athletic game – all on Saturday, April 11.

June 20: Annual Gala
Join us for an evening of dinner, dancing and entertainment. Proceeds support innovative research, student programming and the professional development of faculty. Purchase your ticket at www.csusm.edu/gala.

For a complete calendar of events and to learn more, visit www.csusm.edu/25

Explore and Share

CSUSM is gathering memories and stories from faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the University and we’d love to hear from you. Each memory tells a unique story about Cal State San Marcos and together they provide a wonderful insight into our reasons to celebrate.

Submit photos and share your memories at www.csusm.edu/25/stories

“Our goal is to bring individuals who have influenced history and the way we think about the past to

campus to interact with our community and to act as mentors to CSUSM students,” said Professor of History Carmen Nava.

Alejandro Orfila, former secretary general to the Organization of American States and Argentine ambassador to the United States, Japan and the Soviet Union, was the inaugural CSUSM History Maker honoree.

“Ambassador Orfila has known and worked with countless politicians during his long career in diplomacy,” said Nava. “He worked closely with all of the U.S. presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush and also served as a consultant in the field of international finances and economic affairs, based in Washington, DC.”

Today, the 89-year-old ambassador operates the award-winning Orfila Vineyards in Escondido. His family has been in the winemaking business in Argentina for four generations—his grandfather’s winery, founded in 1905, still exists today.

During his semester-long residency at CSUSM, Ambassador Orflia shared his insights on his long career in foreign policy and hosted a reception for faculty. As part of the history department’s master’s program, which places a strong emphasis on training in digital history, the ambassador also worked with four graduate students to film his oral history.

“Ambassador Orfila’s oral history will be archived in the University’s library archives and select clips will be featured on an online History Maker website soon,” said Nava. “We are very grateful to the ambassador for sharing his important memories, helping us contribute to our educational mission and enrich our students’ learning experiences.”

Later this year President Haynes will present Orfila with an honorary doctorate in recognition of his notable contributions to society and the region.

“We are honored to be the recipient of this important collection,” said Associate Professor of History Jeff Charles, who says the collection, once processed and archived, will tell the story of the 90-year history of the Ecke family’s poinsettia business and its impact not only on the international floral industry but on the development of Coastal North County too.

A Family Legacy of Flowers

In the early 1900s Albert Ecke emigrated with his family to Southern California from Germany. He began cultivating poinsettias at the family’s farm in 1909 and then by the 1920s his son Paul began selling cut poinsettia stems at roadside stands in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. 

In 1923 Paul Ecke Sr. relocated the business to Encinitas where it literally bloomed, contributing to Encinitas and Carlsbad’s reputation as the “Flower Capital of the World.”

Paul Ecke Jr. took the business reins in 1963 and began heavily marketing the fragile flower as a symbol of the holidays, giving poinsettias to the sets of popular television programs such as “The Johnny Carson Show” and Bob Hope’s Christmas specials. 

“The Ecke Family Collection includes a whole range of marketing materials, including tapes from these TV shows that we will be digitizing,” said Charles. “From a historic perspective, the Ecke Family had a major impact on the way people think about the holidays – they really cemented the image of the poinsettia as a Christmas symbol.”

Paul Ecke III headed up the business in 1992 and will be best recognized as a pioneer in his founding of an offshore poinsettia cutting operation, Paul Ecke de Guatemala. The award-winning subsidiary, launched in 1997, represented a new era of off-shore production with 1.2 million square feet of greenhouses and packing facilities constructed to meet the demands of a growing customer base in geraniums and poinsettias. 

Serving the Region

The Ecke Family is one of the best-known philanthropically-minded families in the region. Over the decades they have made contributions worth millions to organizations in and around the region.

In North County the Eckes were forward-thinking leaders. In fact, Paul Ecke Jr. sat on the first CSUSM advisory council in the 1980s, helping to advocate and create the institution that later was founded as California State University San Marcos in 1989.

CSUSM to Digitally Archive Ecke Collection

With a charitable donation of more than $60,000 by the Ecke Family Foundation, history students and faculty will soon begin the work of reviewing the contents of about 800 boxes covering a century of family records and 90 years of business documents. Thousands of photographs, multi-media, publications and correspondence represent three generations of the Ecke family’s poinsettia business and the growth of the region’s flower industry.

“When I began the cleanup, I soon realized that I could not throw these items away but I also could not keep them, so this is a win/win/win for me, CSUSM and the community...and of course the historians,” said Paul Ecke III who worked with local author Diane Y. Welch in the culling, boxing and listing of tens of thousands of documents.

“Gathering the collection is a part of the history as it represents the final chapter in the Ecke Ranch story,” said Welch, Paul Ecke III’s biographer. “Its value for researchers cannot be measured. It is a priceless collection.”

Overseeing the organizing, cataloging, digital archiving and scholarship of the Ecke Collection will be Dr. Charles, with the assistance of five Ecke Fellows, CSUSM graduate students in the history department who will be selected through a competitive process. Fellows will receive a $4,000 fellowship each. Charles is developing a class around the project for fall 2014.

“The potential for scholarship is enormous and students are going to be an important part of this project,” said Charles. “They will be working with the materials, gaining important experience in processing digital archives while also learning about the development of the floral industry, the growth of coastal North County and how business shaped the celebration of the holidays.”

As part of the project, the students will also create a website and online catalog for the Ecke Family Collection as a digital exhibit for public use.

“The Ecke Family Collection will provide us with a deeper understanding of the North County region,” said Charles, “and it will help cement Cal State San Marcos as a center for regional history.”

“We are honored to be the recipient of this important collection,” said Associate Professor of History Jeff Charles, who says the collection, once processed and archived, will tell the story of the 90-year history of the Ecke family’s poinsettia business and its impact not only on the international floral industry but on the development of Coastal North County too.

A Family Legacy of Flowers

In the early 1900s Albert Ecke emigrated with his family to Southern California from Germany. He began cultivating poinsettias at the family’s farm in 1909 and then by the 1920s his son Paul began selling cut poinsettia stems at roadside stands in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. 

In 1923 Paul Ecke Sr. relocated the business to Encinitas where it literally bloomed, contributing to Encinitas and Carlsbad’s reputation as the “Flower Capital of the World.”

Paul Ecke Jr. took the business reins in 1963 and began heavily marketing the fragile flower as a symbol of the holidays, giving poinsettias to the sets of popular television programs such as “The Johnny Carson Show” and Bob Hope’s Christmas specials.

“The Ecke Family Collection includes a whole range of marketing materials, including tapes from these TV shows that we will be digitizing,” said Charles. “From a historic perspective, the Ecke Family had a major impact on the way people think about the holidays – they really cemented the image of the poinsettia as a Christmas symbol.”

Paul Ecke III headed up the business in 1992 and will be best recognized as a pioneer in his founding of an offshore poinsettia cutting operation, Paul Ecke de Guatemala. The award-winning subsidiary, launched in 1997, represented a new era of off-shore production with 1.2 million square feet of greenhouses and packing facilities constructed to meet the demands of a growing customer base in geraniums and poinsettias.

Ecke Family Philanthropy and Community Leadership

The Ecke Family is one of the best-known philanthropically minded families in the region. Over the decades they have made contributions worth millions to organizations in and around the region.

In North County the Eckes were forward-thinking leaders. In fact, Paul Ecke Jr. sat on the first CSUSM advisory council in the 1980s, helping to advocate and create the institution that later was founded as California State University San Marcos in 1989.

The Paul Ecke Family Collection and Digital History at Cal State San Marcos

With a charitable donation of more than $60,000 by the Ecke Family Foundation, history students and faculty will soon begin the work of reviewing the contents of about 800 boxes covering a century of family records and 90 years of business documents. Thousands of photographs, multi-media, publications and correspondence represent three generations of the Ecke family’s poinsettia business and the growth of the region’s flower industry.

“When I began the cleanup, I soon realized that I could not throw these items away but I also could not keep them, so this is a win/win/win for me, CSUSM and the community...and of course the historians,” said Paul Ecke III who worked with local author Diane Y. Welch in the culling, boxing and listing of tens of thousands of documents.

“Gathering the collection is a part of the history as it represents the final chapter in the Ecke Ranch story,” said Welch, Paul Ecke III’s biographer. “Its value for researchers cannot be measured. It is a priceless collection.”

Overseeing the organizing, cataloging, digital archiving and scholarship of the Ecke Collection will be Dr. Charles, with the assistance of five Ecke Fellows, CSUSM graduate students in the history department who will be selected through a competitive process. Fellows will receive a $4,000 fellowship each. Charles is developing a class around the project for fall 2014.

“The potential for scholarship is enormous and students are going to be an important part of this project,” said Charles. “They will be working with the materials, gaining important experience in processing digital archives while also learning about the development of the floral industry, the growth of coastal North County and how business shaped the celebration of the holidays.”

As part of the project, the students will also create a website and online catalog for the Ecke Family Collection as a digital exhibit for public use.

“The Ecke Family Collection will provide us with a deeper understanding of the North County region,” said Charles, “and it will help cement Cal State San Marcos as a center for regional history.”