Communications Studies Professor Matthew Spangler was recently interviewed by BBC World Impact News for World Refugee Day. Professor Spangler discusses the global refugee crisis, and his production of the play The Kite Runner.
Category Archives: Event
SJSU College of Social Sciences Dean’s Symposium
The campus community is invited to the SJSU College of Social Sciences Dean’s Symposium on Wednesday November 8, 2017, 11:30am–1:30pm, in MLK 225. Social Science scholarship explores complex, often interrelated, social, economic, environmental, and political processes—both contemporary and historical. It also researches ways to improve quality of life and make society more just, vibrant, and sustainable. Presentations in this symposium represent the wide range of inquiries that social scientists pursue: removal of land use conflicts to promote solar power generation; innovations in commercial fisheries for better economic outcomes; Silicon Valley technology companies’ embrace of the idea of Universal Basic Income; and the quiet, heroic efforts of African American slaves to be fathers and caretakers.
- When: November 8, 2017, 11:30am–1:30pm
- Where: MLK 225
- RSVP by November 1, 2017
- Questions? Contact Shishir Mathur
- This event is open to the campus community.
Abstracts
- Ana Pitchon
Adaptation to Uncertainty in West Coast Fisheries
Current trends suggest that innovation in some commercial fisheries is critical to continued survival in today’s climate of heightened restrictions and increased regulatory pressure. Through an analysis of regulatory events as disturbances to the stability of fisheries, this talk explains how adaptation to uncertainty through diversification is an innovative strategy occurring in several West Coast fisheries. It also reviews individual adaptation strategies, describes how fisheries and market diversification leads to improved economic outcomes, notes barriers to diversification, and presents some models of success.
- Dustin Mulvaney
Utility-scale Solar Energy Development and Land Use Conflicts Across the American West
Land use change from utility-scale solar energy development is an emerging source of social conflict across the American West. These new land uses reconfigure the distribution of environmental risks from electricity generation. This talk explains the root causes of land use conflict over utility-scale solar development across this region over the past decade and documents how lessons learned and a multi-agency collaborative spatial planning effort to minimize contestation over solar energy development has subsequently lessened land use conflict.
- Libra Hilde
“Our Father”: Slavery and Fatherhood in the American South
This talk explores what it meant to be an enslaved man and a father and how former slaves evaluated these men (including their white fathers) and envisioned paternal duty. Despite a system that undermined their authority and divided families, a significant number of enslaved men sought to serve as caretakers and managed to exert influence in their children’s lives. By telling the story of the often quietly heroic efforts that enslaved men undertook to be fathers and by focusing on the function rather than structure of the household, this talk offers a counterpoint to the dominant narratives about the pathology of the African American family.
- Lawrence Quill
Working the Problem of Poverty: Universal Basic Income and Silicon Valley
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) is an idea of the moment. It is regarded as a remedy to the inefficiencies of basic welfare provision and a means to release each person’s inner entrepreneur. This talk analyzes why technology companies have embraced this idea. Part of the reason is ideological. There remains a strong libertarian streak in Valley culture. Another reason is technocratic. As engineers moved from the suburbs to urban centers in the 1990s, social problems became a reality that required a remedy. Finally, UBI is progressive by offering consolation and empowerment to those displaced by an increasingly automated world.
Female Foot Soldiers and De Facto Feminists: The Unseen Skeletons of Social Movements
SJSU Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Carol Mukhopadhyay Feminist Lecture Series presents a reading and discussion with writer Judy Juanita: “Female Foot Soldiers and De Facto Feminists: The Unseen Skeletons of Social Movements.”
Born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, a 16-year-old Judie Hart (now Juanita) enrolled at Oakland City College, where she first met fellow students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. As a junior at San Francisco State, she joined the Black Student Union and met up with Huey and Bobby again. She joined and began working full-time for the Black Panther Party (BPP). When Eldridge Cleaver was jailed after the 1968 shootout in West Oakland, Huey appointed her editor-in-chief of the BPP Intercommunal News Service. She worked on the newspaper and the BPP Breakfast for Children program while finishing her BA in psychology at SF State. As a student activist at SFSU, she edited the newspaper Black Fire during the 4-1/2 month student strike in 1969. That strike, the longest in the history of higher education in the country, resulted in the nation’s first black studies department. Juanita became its youngest faculty member, teaching Black Journalism and Black Psychology.
- When: October 26, 2017 at 1:30 p.m.
- Where: MLK Library, Room 255
A Conversation About Young Adult Voter Behavior
In the 2016 general election, an incredible number of young adult voters turned out at the polls; it was, after all, a high-stakes election that was emotionally-charged for many.
However, despite this bump in turnout, young adult (ages 18-35) voter turnout remains critically low (43% in Silicon Valley) in comparison to other/older age groups (59-74%).
Why aren’t young people voting? What does this new generation of voters need in order to want to engage in elections?
Please join us on Monday, September 18th as we focus in on these topics in an interactive conversation about where the problems lay and what we need to do in order to overcome them.
- Date: Monday, September 18, 2017
- Time: 3:00 – 5:00 pm
- Place: San Jose State University Library, Room 225
Featured speakers include:
- Mindy Romero, Director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the Center for Regional Change at U.C. Davis
- Matt Mahan, CEO and Co-Founder, Brigade
- Dr. Mary Currin-Percival, SJSU Assistant Professor of Political Science
Presented by the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, in partnership with San Jose State University.
The Constitution LIVE
In Honer of Constitution Day, the College of Social Sciences
and the Political Science Department present The Constitution LIVE. SJSU students, faculty, and administrators will be reading the U.S. Constitution aloud continuously throughout the day. Free pocket constitutions will be handed out to the first 300 people. An expert will be on hand to answer all questions about the U.S. Constitution.
When: Monday, September 18, 2017
Where: Smith Carlos Lawn (Outside of Clark Hall)
Contact: james.brent@sjsu.edu