Social Justice Institute 2021 Events
Indigenous Influence and Representation in Popular Culture and Media: A Native American Heritage Month Event
November 30, 2021 6:00 PM
A panel discussion featuring Native American activists and creatives talking about Indigenous influence and representation in popular culture and media and in their respective fields. The event was free and open to the public and took place on Zoom.
Recording of "Indigenous Influence and Representation in Popular Culture and Media"
2021 AAPI Heritage Month Conference
May 13, 2021
A single-day conference celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. All events were held virtually on Zoom and it was co-sponsored by the Levan Center for the Humanities, the Office of Student Life, and the Equal Opportunity & Diversity Advisory Committee of Bakersfield College.
2021 AAPI Heritage Month Conference Playlist on the BC Social Justice Institute YouTube channel
4:00 - 5:00 PM - Conference Welcome: Sandy Woo-Cater, Anti-Trafficking Expert and AAPI Faculty & Staff Spotlight: Joseph Tipay, Professor of Art
A discussion with Joseph Tipay (Filipino/Chicano-no order), an artist born in Fresno, California who currently teaches in the Bakersfield College Art Department. He received an M.F.A. from Academy of Arts University, San Francisco in Fine Arts-Printmaking. His prints deal with the struggles of his family and the beauty that comes with adversity. They are also a reflection of the economic, cultural, political, and social climate. Joseph currently works on large-scale woodcuts that investigate the effects of incarceration. He is an award-winning artist, and his work as been exhibited internationally.
5:30 - 6:30 PM - The Delano Manongs and a Post-Viewing Discussion
Filmmaker Marissa Aroy, director of the documentary, Delano Manongs: The Forgotten Heroes of the UFW, will join Alex Edillor and Roger Gadiano from the Filipino American National Historical Society and Alex Fabros, retired professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, to discuss the film and the Filipino/a American experience.
To watch the documentary any time before this event, you will need to follow the link below and create a Vimeo account. Select the Rental option and enter the promotional code "21BC" to stream the documentary for free.
2021 AAPI Heritage Month Conference: The Delano Manongs and a Post-Viewing Discussion (video)
7:00 - 8:00 PM - Readings and Conversation with Portia Choi
Portia Choi is a Bakersfield-based poet who immigrated to the United States at the age of 8 from Korea. She lived through the Korean War, and she and her family experienced homelessness and other hardships during and after the conflict. Much of her poetry is autobiographical, and her 2013 book of poems, Sungsook: Korean War Poems, speaks to her early childhood and surviving the war.
2021 AAPI Heritage Month Conference: Readings and Conversation with Portia Choi (video)
Energizing Humanities in California's San Joaquin Valley:
A Culminating Conference
April 22, 2021
A single-day conference on Thursday, April 22, 2021, commemorating this multi-year grant project. This conference is dedicated to the memory of Gerald Haslam, a Bakersfield College alumnus, author, and educator who made the great effort to come back to Bakersfield and serve as the inaugural speaker for this project in the fall of 2017.
3:00-4:30 PM - Place Based Pedagogy and Our Experiences in the "Energizing Humanities in California's San Joaquin Valley" Grant Project
Project directors Oliver Rosales, Josh Ottum, and Andrew Bond will join members of
the current and previous faculty cohorts to talk about their experiences during the
run of the programming and how it has influenced their work in the classroom.
(Watch the recording of the Placed Based Pedagogy panel discussion)
4:30-6:00 PM - Narrating the Southern San Joaquin Valley: Journalism and the Past and Future of Storytelling in the Region
In a region that is often overlooked in widely circulating narrative representation outside of a handful of literary texts and, what some would likely consider niche, historical monographs, local and regional journalists have been writing the Central Valley for decades, covering diverse topics that are relevant to the everyday lives of local residents and defining the region's place in the larger stories of California and the US.
Panelists:
- Mark Arax, Journalist and Author of The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California and other regionally important books
- Olivia Garcia, Professor of History at BC, Reporter and Columnist for The Bakersfield Californian, and former Editor-In-Chief of Bakersfield Life Magazine
- Jose Gaspar, Reporter and Columnist for The Bakersfield Californian and Anchor at Telemundo Valle Central
- Lois Henry, Reporter and Columnist at The Bakersfield Californian, and CEO, SJV Water
- Joe Moore, President and General Manager of KVPR—Valley Public Radio
- Reyna Olaguez, Executive Director at Kern Sol News
- Moderated by Erin Auerbach, Professor of Journalism at Bakersfield College, and Haley Duval, Editor-In-Chief of The Renegade Rip
Recording of the Narrating the Southern San Joaquin Valley panel discussion
6:30-8:00 PM - An Evening with Mark Arax: Central Valley Journalist, Author, and Storyteller
Join us for our keynote speaking event featuring Mark Arax with an introduction and Q&A moderation by Dr. Joshua Ottum. Mark Arax is an author and journalist whose writings on California and the West have received numerous awards for literary nonfiction. He is a former staffer at the Los Angeles Times and The California Sunday Magazine, and his books include a memoir of his father's murder, a collection of essays about the West, and the best-selling The King of California. Much of Arax's work focuses on the Central Valley, and his most recent book, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, uses family memoir, history, and extensive reportage on the land to tell the epic story of California's invention and reinventions through the bending of water.
The 3rd Annual Jess Nieto Memorial Conference
Monday, March 22-26, 2021
3rd Annual Jess Nieto Memorial Conference YouTube playlist
Or, you can access the individual segments of the day's program below:
Monday, March 22, 2021
- Conference Welcome by President Sonya Christian, Bakersfield College
- Welcome Performance by Mariachi Teachers for the Bakersfield City School District Migrant Education Program Region 21 (video)
- Remarks from Octavio Barajas, Professor of Ethnic Studies, College of the Sequoias
(Professor Barajas' remarks on his friendship with, and the legacy of, Jess Nieto (video) - Highlights from Gonzalo Santos' presentation on Dr. Nieto during the first Nieto Conference in 2018
- Introduction to Padrinos de Bakersfield College by Abel Guzman, Executive Director of Rural Initiatives, Bakersfield College (video)
- Information about the Normal Levan Hispanic and Native American Culture Award featuring Dr. Reggie Williams and a Performance by Mino, 2019 Norman Levan Hispanic and Native American Culture Award Recipient (video)
- Overview of Tuesday Events and Closing Remarks by Omar Gonzalez, Professor of History, Bakersfield College (video)
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
(View the complete March 23rd program in a YouTube playlist)
Or, you can access the individual segments of the day's program below:
Day 2 Welcome by Mariachi Teachers for the Bakersfield City School District Migrant
Education Program Region 21
(Watch the Day 2 welcome performance)
2:00-3:00 PM - Panel: "Unraveling Latina Stereotypes: Latinas Unidas in Conversation"
3:00-4:00 PM - Panel: "Public Health, Rural Latina/o/x Populations, and the Regional Covid-19 Response"
Panelists: Emmanuel Alcala, Assistant Director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute; Jennifer Martinez-Medina, PhD Candidate and Cal Ag Roots Storyteller; Reyna Olaguez, Executive Director of South Kern Sol News; Diana Tellefson Torres, Executive Director of the UFW Foundation; Moderated by Dr. Charles Daramola, Professor of Public Health, Bakersfield College and Isis Forney, RN, Public Health
Public Health, Rural Latina/o/x Populations, and the Regional Covid-19 Response (video)
4:00-5:30 PM - Panel: "Celebrating the Legacy of Cesar Chavez, the Farmworker Movement, and the Ongoing Work of the UFW and Cesar Chavez Foundation"
Panelists: Roberto "El Capitan" Bustos, UFW member and Captain on March from Delano to Sacramento; Paul Chavez, President of the Cesar Chavez Foundation; Aurturo Rodriguez, President Emeritus of the UFW; Teresa Romero, President of the UFW; Moderated by Olivia Garcia, Professor of History at Bakersfield College, and Eric Cardona
5:30-7:00 PM - National Endowment for the Humanities "Energizing Humanities in California's San Joaquin Valley" Event
Overview of Wednesday Events and Closing Remarks by Omar Gonzalez, Professor of History, Bakersfield College
Professor Gonzalez's Nieto Conference Day 2 closing remarks (video)
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
3rd Annual Jess Nieto March 24th YouTube playlist
Or, you can access the individual segments of the day's program below:
2:00-3:00 PM - Panel: "Achieving the Dream: Equity and Higher Education from Students' Perspectives" (L.U.P.E. panel)
Panelists: Elizabeth Arevalo, Rafael De La Mora, Elizabeth Garcia, Jasmine Herrera, and Erick Jared Plata with Edith Mata moderating
(Achieving the Dream: Equity and Higher Education from Students' Perspectives (video)
3:00-4:30 PM - Panel: "(En)Acting Change: Activist and AgitProp Theatre from the Chicano and Farmworkers Movements to Now"
Panelists: Dr. Thomas A. Carrasco, Professor of Ethnic Studies at Santa Barbara City College and Co-Founder of Chicano Secret Service; Dr. Jorge Huerta, Professor Emeritus of Theatre at UC San Diego; Richard Montoya, Co-Founder of Culture Clash; Dr. Elias Serna, Co-Founder of Chicano Secret Service; Moderated by Dr. Abraham Castillo, Transfer Advisor at Bakersfield College, and Edith Mata, student and President of L.U.P.E.
4:30-6:00 PM - Panel: "Teaching Chican@/Latinx: An Intercollegiate, Interdisciplinary Panel on Higher Education, Pedagogy, and the Importance of Ethnic Studies"
Panelists: Professor Octavio Barajas, Ethnic Studies, College of the Sequoias; Dr. Lisette Lasater, English, Palomar College; Professor Javier Llamas, History, Bakersfield College; Dr. Elias Serna, President, Association Mexican American Educators-Santa Monica/West LA; Moderated by Professor Nicole Carrasco, Sociology, Bakersfield College and Isai Aguilar, De Anza College student
"Teaching Chican@/Latinx…" (video)
Thursday, March 25, 2021
3rd Annual Jess Nieto Conference March 25th YouTube playlist
Or, you can access the individual segments of the day's program below:
3:00-4:30 PM - Dolores Huerta: A Revolution in the Fields/Revolución en Los Campos Conversation and Virtual Exhibit Opening
Dolores Huerta and Dr. Taína Caragol, Curator of Latino Art & History at the Smithsonian Institution, will discuss Huerta's life of activism and the Smithsonian Exhibition, Dolores Huerta: A Revolution in the Fields/Revolución en Los Campos, which is currently visiting the Bakersfield College Jones Art Gallery. The exhibit will be available for online virtual tours. This event is co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the Norman Levan Center for the Humanities at Bakersfield College, and the Wylie and May Louise Jones Art Gallery at Bakersfield College.
A Conversation with Delores Huerta (video)
Dolores Huerta: A Revolution in the Fields/Revolución en Los Campos Online Exhibit
4:30-4:40 PM - Conference Closing from Organizer and Ethnic Studies Professor Octavio Barajas
Watch 3rd Annual Jess Nieto Conference: Professor Barajas' closing message)
Helena Maria Viramontes, "The Environs of Poverty: Cages, Prisons, and Detention Centers"
Thursday, March 25, 2021 5:30-7:00 PM
A National Endowment for the Humanities "Energizing Humanities in California's San Joaquin Valley" Event
Book Talk with LeRoy Chatfield
March 23, 2021
Recording of the Chatfield Book Talk
We had an evening with LeRoy Chatfield, a former organizer who worked with Cesar Chavez to get union recognition for California farmworkers, created a Saturday school educational enrichment program for farmworker children in Bakersfield, managed the Northern California general election campaign for Jerry Brown, and built the largest volunteer charitable organization in Sacramento. He will talk about his experiences as presented in his book, To Serve the People: My Life Organizing with Cesar Chavez and the Poor (University of New Mexico Press 2019).
The long pilgrimage of LeRoy Chatfield weaves its way through multiple collective projects designed to better the condition of the marginalized and forgotten. From the cloisters of the Christian Brothers and the halls of secondary education to the fields of Central California and the streets of Sacramento, Chatfield's story reveals a fierce commitment to those who were denied the promises of the American dream. In this collection of what the author calls Easy Essays, Chatfield recounts his childhood, explains the social issues that have played a significant role in his life and work, and uncovers the lack of justice he saw all too frequently. His journey, alongside Cesar and Helen Chavez, Marshall Ganz, Bonnie Chatfield, Philip Vera Cruz, and countless others, displays an unwavering focus on organizing communities and expanding their agency. Follow and explore a life dedicated to equality of opportunity for all. May it inspire and guide you in your own quest for a fairer and more just society.
Dr. Eladio Bobadilla, 'We're Still Here': Work, Hope, Dignity, and Education of the Fields
Friday, March 26, 2021 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
National Endowment for the Humanities "Energizing Humanities in California's San Joaquin Valley" Event
Dr. Eladio Bobadilla 'We're Still Here': Work, Hope, Dignity, and Education of the Fields (video)
Presentation by Dr. Eladio Bobadilla sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities
Dr. Eladio Bobadilla is an assistant professor of history at the University of Kentucky. Bobadilla was born in Zacatecas, Mexico in 1986 to a poor family headed by Benjamin Bobadilla, a farm worker and musician and Lucina Mariscal, a homemaker. In 1997, Bobadilla, along with the remainder of his family, migrated to the United States to live in Delano, California, where his father had worked for several years in the grape fields. Though Bobadilla dreamed of going to college, his undocumented immigrant status prevented him from doing so immediately after graduating high school. About a year after graduating from Delano High School, however, he received permanent resident status and immediately enlisted in the United States Navy.
Bobadilla was then stationed at the Personnel Support Detachment Afloat West in San Diego, CA, where he was promoted to Petty Officer Third Class. In 2008, he was deployed to Camp Virginia, a forward operating base in the Kuwaiti desert in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). He was honorably discharged in November of 2009 with high evaluations and a number of military distinctions, including the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, a Flag Letter of Commendation, the Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal, the Navy Rifle Sharpshooter Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.
Bobadilla, together with his wife Timaree, then enrolled at Weber State University in 2010. The couple completed their bachelor's degrees in three years, graduating in 2012. Bobadilla graduated magna cum laude and with departmental honors. At Weber State, he was a member of Phi Alpha Theta (the National History Honor Society), the Pinnacle Honor Society, and the Golden Key International Honor Society. In his last year of college, he was recognized as the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences' Outstanding Graduate and was awarded the university's highest academic honor for students when he was named Crystal Crest Scholar of the Year.
Bobadilla enrolled at Duke University in 2013, where he was awarded the Dean's Graduate Fellowship. While at Duke, he also received several other prestigious fellowships and grants, including the Gilder Lehrman Scholarly Fellowship, the Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources, the Ottis Green Fellowship, a Bass Instructional Fellowship, the John Higham Research Fellowship, and the George Pozzetta Dissertation Award.
Outside of his professional life, Bobadilla loves motorcycling and following sports. He is a devoted Blue Devils fan and a supporter of the US Men's National Team and of Real Salt Lake. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife, a preschool teacher.
Disclaimer: Comments, views and opinions expressed during these events are those of the speakers or entities and do not necessarily represent Bakersfield College. To learn more about Bakersfield College and our institutional mission, vision, and core values, visit the About Bakersfield College page.
