Faculty highlights
San Francisco public art project unveiled
Professor Johanna Poethig, whose “Celebrate Ability” project was unveiled at the Hamilton Recreation Center in April of 2013, has been making public art in San Francisco and around the world since the 1980s.
The six mosaic medallions that make up the project play with words and images of California native species to highlight shared abilities. The goal was to come up with designs that would appeal to the broad range of community members who use the center.
The Hamilton Rec Center is just one of many sites in San Francisco where she has created public art. Others include the Civic Center post office, the I-Hotel, several buildings in the Tenderloin, the Juvenile Justice Center, Rochambeau Park and the South of Market area.
Vaughan lectures at San Francisco museum
CSU Monterey Bay professor Umi Vaughan will lecture at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco on Feb. 10 as part of the museum's authors in conversation series.
Dr. Vaughan will talk about contemporary dance music in Cuba, based on his most recent book, Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba. A question-and-answer session and salsa/timba dancing will follow. The program is set for 3 to 5 p.m.
Pollack honored for service-learning achievements
In recognition of his work to promote service learning and community-campus partnerships throughout the Monterey Bay and Salinas Valley, Seth Pollack has been named winner of the 2013 Richard E. Cone Award by California Campus Compact.
For more than 15 years, Dr. Pollack has been director of CSU Monterey Bay’s Service Learning Institute. He has helped the university become a national leader in service learning and civic engagement.
“Service learning and partnerships are part of the very fiber of our being as a campus, and that is due in large part to the continued leadership on the part of Dr. Pollack,” said CSUMB Provost Kathy Cruz-Uribe.
Lecturer’s work include in MexiCali Biennial
Juan Luna-Avin, a lecturer in Visual and Public Art, has a work included in the MexiCali Biennial, opening Jan. 19, at the Vincent Price Art Museum on the campus of East Los Angeles College.
"Cannibalism in the New World" is the theme of the exhibit. It features works by 33 artists from Mexico and California.
While the title might conjure visions of Donner Party performance art, co-curator Ed Gomez told the L.A. Weekly the word "cannibal" has larger cultural implications, especially for Mexican society.
"In colonial times during the conquest of Mexico, they believed that these heathens were worshipping pagan idols and practicing human sacrifice and forms of cannibalism," he says of how the Spanish viewed the natives. "That became the justification and rationalization of the complete eradication and genocide of these indigenous people."
The exhibit continues through April 13.
Lockwood honored for 'innovative instruction with technology'
The CSU and Sony Electronics, in partnership with Intel, presented the Sony Electronics Faculty Award for Innovative Instruction with Technology to Kate Lockwood.
Lockwood, assistant professor in Information Technology and Communication Design, is helping students develop more advanced skills by "flipping the classroom" – allowing students to familiarize themselves with subjects through technology, followed by practical skills application in class.
She is one of four early-career faculty members from throughout the CSU to earn the award, which acknowledges innovative use of technology in delivering quality and affordable education to students and encourages continued achievements in teaching.
She received a laptop computer, tablet, camera and accessories.
Vaughan presents at conference in Brazil
It’s been a busy year for CSUMB professor Umi Vaughan.
In April, his book, Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum, was published.
In October, the University of Michigan Press published his most recent work, Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba.
In November, Dr. Vaughan was invited by the Secretary of Culture in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, to participate in an event called the Encounter of Black Cultures, where he presented his work on the African Diaspora. He learned as much as he taught.
Mendoza, students land grant to teach about missions
A $177,000 grant has been awarded to CSUMB by the National Endowment for the Humanities for a program to train K-12 teachers from around the country about the history of California's missions.
Archaeology professor Ruben Mendoza and two students wrote the grant for NEH's "Landmarks of American History and Culture" program. The program supports one-week workshops at historic sites to address themes related to American history, government and the arts.
Pollack attends FAR Fellows Institute
Dr. Seth Pollack recently attended an event at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis for faculty athletics representatives. He was one of two dozen faculty members from 300 Division II schools selected to attend the annual event.
The Faculty Athletics Representatives Institute brings together a small group of FARs from Division II conferences for advanced training and professional development.
Dr. Pollack, a professor of Service Learning and Director of the Service Learning Institute at CSUMB, is in his sixth year as the FAR for CSUMB athletics.
Professor to join hospitality association board
John Avella has been elected to the Monterey County Hospitality Association’s board of directors.
Dr. Avella, assistant professor of hospitality management and hotel/resort management in CSU Monterey Bay's School of Business, will join the board in January. He’ll serve on the association’s education committee.
MPA lecturer honored by composers group
Dr. Lanier Sammons, a lecturer in the Music and Performing Arts Department, is the recipient of an ASCAP Plus Award in the concert music division.
The award is given by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and is based on the unique value of each composer’s catalog of original compositions as well as recent performances.
Filmmaker takes story of water to New York, Southern California audiences
Most Californians are familiar with how struggles over water have shaped the modern American West.
Enid Baxter Blader will help to educate New Yorkers about that history on Sept. 28, when her video, “The West,” will be projected onto the Manhattan Bridge anchorage and archway.
“The West” is an animation that presents a history of water engineering in California, a history that has determined the colonization and contemporary conditions of the western United States.
On Oct. 6, Blader’s Water, CA project will be featured in an exhibition at the Armory Center for Arts in Pasadena. “The West” will be projected and screened continuously in the museum's galleries.
Also on display will be the Water, CA website and two paintings created for the museum. One shows California without water engineering (prior to dams) and the second is California with contemporary water projects in place.
VPA professor participates in international art exhibition
Johanna Poethig, associate professor of painting in the Visual and Public Art Department and a nationally known muralist, was invited to participate in an international contemporary art exhibition in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The event, Artisterium 2012, included a series of public art events over 10 days in October. This year’s theme was “The Protest that Never Ends.”
Poethig gave a lecture/workshop on contemporary public art practices and community-based methodologies at the Tbilisi State Art Academy, and created a series of collaborative “tire totems” with students and passersby in a public market.
Professor named ‘Champion of the Arts’
The Arts Council for Monterey County will honor Dr. Renee Curry at its annual Champions of the Arts gala on Jan. 19.
Dr. Curry, a professor of English who teaches literary and film studies, will be honored in the professional category for her work as an arts advocate who was instrumental in bringing the CSU Summer Arts program to the Monterey Bay area.
Math professors win national award
A paper by Judith Canner and Jon Detka has won the Dex Whittinghill Award for best contributed paper from the Mathematical Association of America’s special interest group for statistics education. The award will be presented at a conference in San Diego in January.
Their paper is entitled, “Using R in an Undergraduate Statistics Course."
“Since the fall of 2000, Judith and Jon have been redesigning and co-teaching Applied Statistics, by using R, an open resource for statistics,” said math department chair Dr. Hongde Hu. “The class is well received by the students, and the university’s statistics minor has been steadily growing since Judith joined CSUMB.”
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