California Humanities Community Stories Grant
About this Project
On May 23rd, 2017, the Bakersfield College Social Justice Institute hosted a one-day symposium event for about 30 area educators, writers, and artists at the Levan Center for the Humanities. Faculty from both Bakersfield College, CSU Bakersfield, and the Kern High School District participated. Entitled “Archiving the Past and Future of California's Central Valley: Humanities Collaboration in the Southern San Joaquin Valley,” the event was a culminating part of a California Humanities “Community Stories” grant in hold with Bakersfield College. The program included two panels and a keynote address. The morning panel focused on local archives and cultural preservation efforts at CSU Bakersfield, Bakersfield High School, and the Kern County Museum. The afternoon panel featured recent state and federal recipients of grants focused on the cultural diversity of the San Joaquin Valley. Kristine Diekman, Professor of Media at CSU San Marcos, delivered a keynote address. Her talk, based on her project “Run Dry,” focused on Tulare's recent water crisis and how ordinary residents in rural Tulare County experienced lack of access to clean water. Here's a quote about her project from the Los Angeles Times: “The project is designed to record the stories of people living in California's Central Valley without water or clean water, and contextualize these stories within the themes of human migration, equity and poverty, and California water policy.”
The event was recorded by Bakersfield College's media services and will be transcribed and made available through Bakersfield College's Social Justice Institute website. College faculty and area educators, as well as potential grant writers, will be interested in reviewing the panel discussions and keynote addresses to discover more about funded projects focusing on the San Joaquin Valley.
Central Valley Archive Project
Bakersfield College has partnered with CSU Bakersfield's Public History Institute on a project to preserve cultural and historical memories of the Central Valley via digitization and oral history. For more information about this collaborative archive project, visit the CSU Bakersfield Walter Stiern Library's Historical Research Center website.
Community Stories Grant Events
Archiving the Past and Future of California's Central Valley
- May 23rd, 2017
- Norman Levan Center for the Humanities
The Levan Center hosted a one-day symposium event for about 30 area educators, writers, and artists. Faculty from both Bakersfield College, CSU Bakersfield, and the Kern High School District were also in attendance. Entitled “Archiving the Past and Future of California's Central Valley: Humanities Collaboration in the Southern San Joaquin Valley,” the event was a culminating part of a California Humanities “Community Stories” grant in hold with Bakersfield College. The program included two panels and a keynote address. The morning panel focused on local archives and cultural preservation efforts at CSU Bakersfield, Bakersfield High School, and the Kern County Museum. The afternoon panel featured recent state and federal recipients of grants focused on the cultural diversity of the San Joaquin Valley.
Kristine Diekman, Professor of Media at CSU San Marcos, delivered a keynote address. Her talk, based on her project “Run Dry,” focused on Tulare's recent water crisis and how ordinary residents in rural Tulare County experienced lack of access to clean water. Here's a quote about her project from the Los Angeles Times: “The project is designed to record the stories of people living in California's Central Valley without water or clean water, and contextualize these stories within the themes of human migration, equity and poverty, and California water policy.”
For more information about this event, read the media coverage in Bakersfield College President Sonya Christian's blog.
Video
Photo Gallery
A link to the photo gallery below is available to view via Smugmug.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
