Message from the Dean’s Office
Wilkinson College is fully committed to the long, hard, ongoing collective struggle to create an anti-racist campus culture at Chapman University. We stand in solidarity with the BlackLivesMatter movement and are fighting daily for necessary changes within the university to ensure that all students, faculty, and staff feel welcomed, supported, and valued. Wilkinson will introduce a new Africana Studies minor this fall, and recently hired Professor Angelica Allen (profiled below) as the program’s inaugural co-director. In addition, this fall Wilkinson College’s First-Year Focus program will focus on “Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race,” embedding discussions about diversity into our core curriculum. The “Engaging the World” initiative will also include extensive event programming – stay tuned for updates in future issues of We are Wilkinson. With the nation in the midst of an historic reckoning with racial injustice and systemic racism, it is the arts, humanities, and social sciences that help us understand how we got here and where we want to go.
If you would like to share a story for an upcoming newsletter,
please contact wilkinsoncollege@chapman.edu.
Pictured above: On June 6th, Wilkinson College students were among the campus-wide protest in solidarity with the BlackLivesMatter movement and against police brutality. After speeches from campus community leaders, students, faculty, and staff marched to the Orange Circle.
Dr. Angelica Allen Brings a Global Understanding to Africana Studies Minor
This fall Dr. Angelica Allen is joining Wilkinson College as an assistant professor of Africana Studies and co-director of the new Africana Studies minor. Allen is eager to help build an Africana Studies program that is “inclusive of all genders, sexuality and ability, so Blackness is not understood as a monolith,” she says. “The kind of program I’m envisioning will capture Blackness in all of its complexity and diversity.”
Letter from the Dean:
Taking Action
Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences stands in solidarity with the BlackLivesMatter movement.
On June 4th the dean issued a public statement which details the college's action plan towards building an anti-racist campus culture.
Turning Anguish to Purpose: The Path Forward
On June 9th nearly 700 people tuned in to a special conversation with Jimmie C. Gardner and "Prexy" (Rozell W.) Nesbitt, two remarkable and inspiring individuals whose commitment to combating racial injustice has never wavered. The event, sponsored by Wilkinson College and Fowler School of Law, generated so much discussion that an encore event was held a week later.
Awards Fund Innovative Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
Congratulations to the four faculty opportunity award recipients from Wilkinson College! These grants fund exciting projects that demonstrate the ongoing relevance of the arts, humanities, and social sciences to understanding and improving our world.
Click below to read more about each of the funded projects.
Faculty Books: Dr. Ian Barnard Doesn't Mind Pushing Buttons
English Professor Ian Barnard's new book describes how contemporary liberal culture unintentionally uses sex panics to reinforce transphobic and homophobic tropes. In their new book, Sex Panic Rhetorics, Queer Interventions, Barnard illuminates the ways that the public, media, and politicians produce, construct, and disseminate sex panics.
Click below to read the Voice of Wilkinson's conversation with Barnard on their new book.
Funding from Ellingson Family Elevates the Work of Black Artists
Wilkinson College’s Escalette Collection is delighted to announce a gift from the Ellingson Family to support its goal of building an inclusive permanent collection. For the past two years, annual gifts from the Ellingsons have allowed the Escalette to target core areas of the Collection. This year’s gift will be used to acquire work by Black artists from the southern California region.
Career Corner: Meet Alumna Dr. Alana Routé
Wilkinson College Career Advisor Erin Berthon sat down to talk with Dr. Alana Routé (’07), Clinic Operations Manager at Scripps Health, about her career journey. Understanding what drives modern society is why we study social sciences. Dr. Routé studied psychology, but pursuing sociology with criminal justice helped her gain the confidence and skills needed for her career today.
July Events
During the summer, we will be continuing our Engaging the World virtual film series as a prologue to Wilkinson College’s new annual interdisciplinary examination of one pressing societal issue concerning the college-age generation coming Fall 2020.
Our next film, AND THEN THEY CAME FOR US features George Takei and many others who were incarcerated seventy-eight years ago as a result of Executive Order 9066, and the profound violation of constitutional rights that resulted in the forced incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. Along with newly discovered photographs of Dorothea Lang, And Then They Came for Us brings history into the present, retelling this difficult story and following Japanese American activists as they speak out against the Muslim registry and travel ban.
On Friday, July 17th from 1 - 2 p.m., join us for a discussion about the film with Dr. Stephanie Takaragawa and students from the 2017 and 2018 First-Year Focus Course Yellow Peril to Yellow Power. Access to view the film through Kanopy is only available only to current students, faculty, and students. Others may have access through their local libraries.
The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education is excited to announce the premiere of their virtual awards ceremony for the 21st Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest, Memory Matters: Whose Story Will You Tell? is now available to stream online.
The awards ceremony, originally scheduled to be held on the Chapman campus on March 13, was canceled due to the pandemic. The online ceremony premiered last week on Friday, June 26 on Facebook Live.
The hour-long program included the announcement of this year’s finalists and second and first-place winners in the middle school and high school divisions in prose, poetry, art, and film. First-place students in prose and poetry read their works; first-place artworks shown and first-place films screened. The event included a special message from child survivor of the
Holocaust, Paula Lebovics.
The event was a celebration of schools, educators, and students from 28 States and six countries who, through their creativity, demonstrated that memory matters-- and that memory can be a foundation for creating a more just and compassionate world.
After its premiere on the Holocaust Art & Writing Contest Facebook page, the ceremony is available to watch on the Rodgers Center’s YouTube channel.
Creative & Cultural Industries Podcast
Catalyst: A Creative Industries Podcast
Season four (part two) of Catalyst features Chapman student interviewers from the Practice-Podcasting course (CCI 304), taught by podcast guru Ryan Haley. They explore subjects relating to Creative and Cultural Industries including, including food as art, television writing, fashion design, and much more. Click below to listen as new episodes will be added on Tuesdays.
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Wilkinson Alumni News
Check out what some of our awesome alumni are up to:
Rachel Chernick ('14, Sociology) just earned her Master of Social Science from UCLA where she studied how a culture of hyper-productivity in the American school system impacts youth suicide.
Cinnamon Clark ('09, Sociology) is currently working as a Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego, mom to an awesome 6-year-old son, community advocate for underrepresented neighborhoods in the San Ysidro area, and sits on the City of San Diego Equal Opportunity Commission.
Nicole Miyuki ('11, Graphic Design) is a Professor here at Chapman University teaching Intro to Typography, as well as a lettering and kids art teacher online at Let's Make Art.
We want to know what you've been doing with your degree!
Submit your news to wilkinsoncollege@chapman.edu.
Support Wilkinson College
Wilkinson College, home to nine departments, numerous centers and programs, and the heart and soul of Chapman University, invites you to support our vibrant intellectual community where our students thrive with a personalized education of distinction that leads to inquiring, ethical, and productive lives as global citizens.
