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Gowest Newsletter Fall 2020

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Gowest Newsletter Fall 2020 September 2020 Volume 1, Issue 2 Welcome back WESTies!! INSIDE THIS ISSUE Dr. Stepany Rose 2-4 Words from our Faculty We have missed you, but hope each of you had a 5 EDI Corner & Matrix Center restful summer. While things will not be traditional as we continue to navigate a global pandemic, we 6 Interviews: Dean Vidler & are still tremendously excited for what is in store Jane Muller this academic year. 6 Queer Lives Matter I hope you have had the opportunity to meet our new faculty members—Dr. ‘Ilaheva Tua’one and 7 Disclosure & Advocacy Dr. Julie Torres. Both Dr. Tua’one and Dr. Torres 8 Scholarships & Local Creators bring refreshing and critical value to our program with their much-needed areas of expertise and 8 WEST Certificates fresh approaches to Women’s and Ethnic Studies. From practical activism to addressing contemporary social justice concerns to intersectional applied theoretical analyses, their presence marks a growing vision NEWSLETTER EDITORS for WEST. Read more about them in this issue, sign up for their courses, and welcome them into our campus and community. DR. TRE WENTLING While we are all adjusting to new routines and understandings of what is “normal,” IRINA AMOUZOU (‘22) please know that we are mindful of still providing the most robust academic opportunities for you. Several new models for course offerings are available— HyFlex, remote synchronous, remote asynchronous, and traditional online. The variety of modalities have been developed to protect the health and well-being of students, faculty and staff. While this may not seem ideal, know that we are all adjusting. The more clearly you communicate your needs to us, the better we can assist you in being successful. Please visit office hours and reach out sooner rather than later to address any concerns. We want to make sure that even in the absence of physically gathering in person, XANDER BEEM (‘21) we want our community to thrive. Tune into online social events, MATRIX Center-sponsored lectures, and share your stories throughout the year with the newsletter. We are grateful for each of you and look forward to aiding in your success! Take Two: New WEST Faculty By: Dr. Tre Wentling We are incredibly grateful and excited Native American and Indigenous Studies Dr. Tua’one’s experience teaching to announce more growth for the explores the concept of Indigenous “Feminist Theories” is instantly expand- Women’s and Ethnic Studies Program knowledge worldwide, with special ing WEST’s core course offerings. Be at UCCS. Our newest faculty to join the emphasis on Indian Nations within on the look-out next spring semester tenure track is Dr. ‘Ilaheva Tua’one. Her the United States, First Nations in for WAP. Yes, yes, you read that right: training in English Literature with a focus Canada, and Pacific Islanders—in addi- Women and Protests! In the meantime, on Transpacific Literature, which spans tion to attention on American Indian and if you are not already enrolled in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- subject matters. WEST students just one of the two Introduction to Social ries of British and American literature, might experience Dr. Tua’one’s quick Justice (WEST 1010) courses she is teach- and her reading with a queer ethnic wit and storytelling in her signature ing this fall, please send Dr. Tua’one an studies lens fills a WEST gap. course, “South Sea Tales: Global and email to invite her to a socially distanced Transnational Literature.” We already meeting and share your own tales of Dr. Tua’one is poised to coordinate know that students are going to love being a WEST fan and follower. WEST’s Native American and Indigenous her courses. Studies Undergraduate Certificate. University of Colorado Colorado Springs 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway Colorado Springs, CO 80918 Dr. Abby Ferber The increased visibility of Black Lives Matter of every race, the extent of inequality has since the murders of Breonna Taylor, George deepened, and made extreme U.S. structural Floyd and so many others is also shining a racism and inequality more visible. This is a light on the exploitation, abuse and mur- moment we must seize. ders of African-Americans throughout our history. It has been deplorable that this has This has been an incredibly emotional year been erased or whitewashed for so long, and I am redirecting my energies into the and outrageous how many students don’t urgent work needed. I am revising my WEST/ know this history when they enter college, SOC Privilege and Power course to focus and many still don’t by the time they leave. centrally on the intersections of privilege, with a strong emphasis on structural racism In WEST we take accountability and try to and the powerful role of the BLM social make up for some of this lost ground. We movement which is taking action and provid- have the capacity to reach so many more ing some hope for real social change. I have students and depend upon WEST students been furiously working with my co-authors to spread the word. Along with COVID-19’s to revise our textbook, The Matrix of Race: Dr. Abby Ferber inequitable devastation of many Black, brown Social Construction, Intersectionality and and low-income white communities, as well Inequality (Sage, 2018), and working on two as its disproportionate impact on women new books about white privilege. Dr. Stephen Suh The anti-racist philosophy at the heart of of race, racism, and racial justice in their Black Lives Matter is also central to my per- own writing. NBA and WNBA players have sonal and scholarly identities. As a person become increasingly vocal about supporting of color, BLM forces me to reckon with and BLM and speaking out against racial injustice work to counter the interwoven legacies of in recent years. We unpack the significance white supremacy and settler colonialism in of these trends in relation to the NBA’s own the U.S., systems that have and continue to legacy of racism as well as ongoing racial violently subjugate Black Indigenous People justice activism elsewhere in sports. You of Color (BIPOC). As a scholar, BLM motivates can listen to a sneak peak of the essay in me to produce research that explicitly and our recent conversation with artist Abigail critically engages with the topic of race and Smithson on her “Dear Adam Silver” podcast. its association with structures of power and discursive meaning-making. But remember, BLM as both a statement and a movement is just the beginning. It is up to Case in point, Alex Manning (Hamilton us to take the slogan and add to it in ways College), Kyle Green (SUNY Brockport), and that furthers its imaginative and material I are co-authoring an essay about how NBA possibilities. Dr. Stephen Suh players directly engage with conceptions Dr. Julie Torres I am excited to finally be in Colorado Springs the need to confront the anti-Black racism and to be a part of UCCS and WEST! I look implicit in the project of Latinidad, which forward to meeting many of you in the effectively erases Blackness from Latinx coming months and hope you will join me identity. in a new course titled, “‘¡Si Se Puede!’: Latinx Social Movements.” This online course will As a Puerto Rican woman and scholar explore the role of collective action, such whose research focuses on the everyday as the immigrant rights and youth move- experiences and activism of Latinxs in the ments of the 21st century, as agents for social United States, I am committed to critically change. examining how white supremacy operates in my own community and the diaspora Teaching this course during the current his- which I study. But this moment also signals torical moment is both deeply painful and the existence of potentiality – the idea that invigorating. The recent uprisings follow- change is possible, if only though an intimate ing the murders of Breonna Taylor, George reckoning with the systems of privilege and Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Elijah oppression that continue to value some lives McClain, De’Von Bailey and countless others, over others. And that, to me, is what social has laid bare once again, not only the per- movements are all about. Dr. Julie Torres vasiveness of anti-Black violence, but also 2 Dr. ‘Ilaheva Tua’one Hello WEST! Decoloniality seeks to actively challenge views handed down through generations I am so honored and blessed to be the that claims only certain people matter, newest hire in this incredible depart- only certain voices should be heard, ment as the Assistant Professor of Native and only certain knowledge is true. American and Indigenous Studies. Decolonizing takes many forms, including I hail from the far-west Kingdom of Tonga the Black Lives Matter movement, which in the Pacific Islands, and recently from seeks to dismantle the systemic, colonial the near-west at the University of Utah. mindset that created the imbalanced, unjust, illogical valuation of whose human In the fall, I will be teaching Introduction lives count and whose do not. to Social Justice Studies with a heavy focus on indigeneity and decoloniality. Black Lives Matter is decolonization in My research decolonizes the archive, and I action, theory turned praxis—an exciting cannot wait to dive deep into the archives time to be alive, to watch the dismantling in Colorado to find muted indigenous of a capitalist-colonial past that has kept Dr. ‘Ilaheva Tua’one voices from the many nations, including all of us in chains. Ute, who lived in the shadow of the Sun I’m excited to be here and meet you soon! Mountain, Tavakieb, now known as Pike’s Peak.
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