Ethnic Studies Now! at UCLA and Beyond

Participants will discuss the challenges ethnic studies departments face, the movement for diversity in the general education curriculum at UCLA, and local and national actions to support ethnic studies. Panelists will include, from UCLA, Professor Grace Hong, women’s studies and Asian American studies; Professor Cheryl Harris, law and critical race studies; Naazneen Diwan, organizer for Todos Somos Arizona and a graduate student in women’s studies; Heather Torres, president of the American Indian Students Association; and students in the “Student-Initiated Retention and Outreach Issues” course. Joining them will be Professor Glenn Omatsu, a lecturer in Asian American and labor and workplace studies at California State University, Northridge; and Hector Fared, organizer for the Coalition for Saving Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. The symposium will conclude with a screening at 6:30 p.m. of Mountains That Take Wing: Angela Davis and Yuri Kochiyama – A Conversation on Life, Struggles, and Liberation, a documentary film by C.A. Griffith and H.L.T. Quan of QUAD Productions. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session.