AMERICAN COMMUNITIES PROGRAM
Spring 2025
The American Communities Program at California State University, Los Angeles promotes humanities-based inquiry into the formation of individual and communal identities in American society. All events are free and open to the public.
Faculty are welcome to bring their students to any and all events. If you plan to do so, please contact Dr. Maria Karafilis, Director of the ACP, at [email protected] to ensure adequate seating.
RE/CONSTRUCTIONS
ACP Reading Group (NOTE ROOM CHANGE!)
Marx’s Capital, Vol. I
February 19, 2025/6pm
Library Community Room/Library North B131
Join us for the first of several meetings of our reading group on the new translation of Marx’s Capital, Vol. I (Princeton UP). A limited number of copies of the book are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact Dr. Maria Karafilis if you will attend the reading group and would like a copy ([email protected]).
Collective Reconstructions: Argentinean Cinema as Mediation of Genocide
A Talk with Dr. Jennifer Alpert
March 5, 2025/6pm
Library Community Room/Library North B131
Join us as Dr. Alpert, fellow in the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University, discusses her latest research.
Central American Forms and US Imperial Print Culture in the Nineteenth Century
A Discussion with Dr. Gabriela Valenzuela
March 17, 2025/6pm
Library Community Room/Library North B131
Join us as Cal State LA Alum Dr. Valenzuela, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southern California, discusses print circulation in the Americas and Re/Constructing Archives.
ACP Reading Group (NOTE ROOM CHANGE)
Marx’s Capital, Vol. I
March 19, 2025/6pm
Library Community Room/Library North B131
Join us for the second meeting of our reading group on the new translation of Marx’s Capital, Vol. I (Princeton UP). A limited number of copies of the book are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact Dr. Maria Karafilis if you will attend the reading group and would like a copy ([email protected]).
Holocaust and Human Rights Studies: Reconnecting with Hannah Arendt
April 15, 2025/6pm
Library Community Room/Library North B131
Join us for an evening with Dr. Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, University of London.
ACP Faculty Fellows Symposium
April 21, 2025/6pm
Library Community Room/Library North B131
Join us as the 2024-25 ACP Faculty Fellows discuss their current research on our theme of Re/Constructions: Dr. Kamran Afary (Communication Studies); Dr. David Green (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies); and Dr. Ángela Vergara (History).
Stay Tuned—Additional Events to be Announced!
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Fall 2024
RE/CONSTRUCTIONS
Tuesday, September 10
ACP Faculty Fellows Symposium
1:45 PM ● Library Community Room, LIB N-131
Join us as our faculty fellows discuss humanities-based inquiry and innovative ways to explore our theme of Re/Constructions.
Tuesday, September 10
Presidential Debate Watch Party
6 PM ● Library Community Room, LIB N-131
Join us for this non-partisan event as we watch the presidential debate together. Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, September 26
Stand Against Book Bans…Together
4 PM ● Library Community Room, LIB N-131
Join us for a hands-on workshop on how to stand up to book bans with Sarah Minslow, professor of English; Danielle Davis, Children’s Book Author and Child Advocate; and Arwa Hammad, ASI Vice President for External Affairs and Advancement. Voter registration will be available.
Tuesday, October 15
Get Out the Vote Video Contest
Submit a video to encourage voting and voter registration! Details and submission information below.
COMPETITION OVERVIEW
REQUIREMENTS
Short video must be between 15 seconds to 2 minutes
• Eligibility: Open to Cal State LA Students
• Must include a call to action or a pledge to participate
o Your short can be serious, funny, poignant, sad, weird, irreverent, scholarly, or hopeful,
but must include a call to action. Ask your viewer to make a pledge to participate.
o For example: Remember to Vote, Register to Vote, Get Involved, Stay informed.
• No false or misleading information.
• All winning videos will receive attributed media distribution
• Please note that award money may impact financial aid packages
TIMELINE Submissions due by: October 15th at 11:59 PM
AWARDS & PRIZES
The top five winners will receive cash prizes.
First Place Jury Award Prize $1,200
Golden Eagle Award Prize $750
Your Vote, Your Voice Prize $500
Flashback: Civics 101 Prize $500
POV: My Democracy Prize $500
Friday, November 1
Seminar on Teaching Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance
10:30am-3:30pm
This seminar partners with the Museum of Tolerance to offer Cal State LA students and faculty the
opportunity to work with Museum staff, have a private tour of the museum, hear from a Holocaust survivor, and attend workshops on teaching tolerance and the use of primary documents in their teaching. Lunch will be provided. Contact Dr. Maria Karafilis ([email protected]) for more information.
Spring 2024
The American Communities Program at California State University, Los Angeles promotes humanities-based inquiry into the formation of individual and communal identities in American society.
Faculty are welcome to bring their classes to any and all events. If you would like to do so, please contact Dr. Maria Karafilis, ACP Director, at [email protected] to ensure adequate seating.
TIME AND TEMPORALITY
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7
THE GREEN REVOLUTION, AMERICAN TECHNOCRACY, AND THE JAPANESE FERTILIZER TRADE IN THE COLD WAR PERIOD
1:40 PM ● Rosser Hall 132
Join us for a talk by Dr. Hiromi Mizuno (Department of History, University of Minnesota). Co-sponsored with the Urban Ecology Center.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7
FILM SCREENING: HANNAH ARENDT
6 PM ● U-SU Theater
Join us as we watch and discuss Hannah Arendt (2012, dir: Margarethe von Trotta), a film that explores the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt and centers on Arendt’s response to and coverage of the 1961 trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker magazine.
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
ACP READING GROUP
CHRISTINA SHARPE’S ORDINARY NOTES
3:15PM ● Engineering and Technology, Wing A 631
Join us as we read and discuss Sharpe’s award-winning book. We have a limited number of copies of the book available free to reading group participants, on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact Dr. Maria Karafilis for a copy of the book at [email protected].
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13
FUNK THE CLOCK
6 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
Join us for a conversation with Dr. Rahsaan Mahadeo (Sociology, Providence College) as he discusses his work on the construction of alternative temporalities that reveal how time is racialized, how race is temporalized, and how racism takes time. Mahadeo explores why conventional sociological theories of time are both empirically and theoretically unsustainable and, more importantly, why they need to be funked up/with.
THURSDAY, APRIL 18
PHOTOGRAPHY AND TIME
6 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
Join us for a dialogue on Photography and Time and the unfolding of meaning through text, image, and curating practice. Scheduled to appear: Danny Jauregui (Photographer and Chair, Department of Art, Whittier College) and Britt Salvesen (Curator and Chair of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and the Prints and Drawings Department, LACMA).
TUESDAY, APRIL 23
ACP FACULTY FELLOWS: THEORIZATIONS OF TIME AND TEMPORALITY
1:45 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
Join us as the 2023-24 ACP fellows share their current research on the ACP theme of time and temporality. Presenters: Professor Tanya Kane-Parry (Theater Arts), Dr. Bryan Thornton (Charter College of Education), Dr. Gabriela Valenzuela (Chicana[o] and Latina[o] Studies).
“Like” the American Communities Program on Facebook to stay up to date on our events, get notified of pop-ups and additions to the calendar, and get engaged!
Fall 2023
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
INDIGENOUS TRIBES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: NATIVE PLANTS, PLACE, AND CULTURE
1:30 PM ● Golden Eagle Ballroom
Join us for a talk by Aaron Saubel, Board Member of the Malki Museum (Banning, CA), on ethnobotany and the endurance of traditional indigenous knowledges of native plants in our region.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
& WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
ACP READING GROUP: MAGGIE NELSON’S THE ARGONAUTS
3 PM ● Engineering and Technology Building, A631
Join us as we read and discuss Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts. Nelson is the author of several acclaimed works of poetry and prose, including the forthcoming collection Like Love: Essays and Conversations (2024), the national bestseller On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (2021), and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts (2015). Nelson also received a 2016 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. The reading group is in preparation for Nelson’s on-campus talk on October 5 (see description below for more information). We will have a limited number of copies of the book available free to reading group participants, on a first-come, first served basis. Contact Dr. Juan Lamata for a copy of the book at [email protected].
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
ACP FACULTY FELLOWS: THEORIZATIONS OF TIME AND TEMPORALITY
1:45 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
Join us as the 2023-24 ACP fellows analyze how the humanities can help us explore our current ACP theme of time and temporality. Presenters: Prof. Tanya Kane-Parry (Theater Arts), Dr. Bryan Thornton (Charter College of Education), Dr. Gabriela Valenzuela (Chicana[o] and Latina[o] Studies).
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5
MAGGIE NELSON: WRITING ACROSS DIVIDES
6 PM ● Music Hall, Theater Arts Building 116
Join us for a talk by award-winning poetry and prose writer Maggie Nelson, whose work reaches across and interrogates genres, disciplines, audiences, and more. (See above for information on the ACP reading group on Nelson’s work).
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7
ACP READING GROUP
HANNAH ARENDT’S EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM: A REPORT ON THE BANALITY OF EVIL
6 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem remains one of the most controversial and philosophically insightful treatments of the Holocaust and its aftermath. In it, Arendt develops the categories “crimes against humanity” and “banality of evil,” both of which have had a lasting effect on our political discourse and collective imagination. She raises important challenges to scholarship and practice in multiple fields, including philosophy, political science, journalism, English, genocide studies, and more. Join the ACP Interdisciplinary Working Group as we take up these challenges in the first of a series of events focusing on Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem in its 60th anniversary year. We will have a limited number of copies of the book available free to reading group participants, on a first-come, first served basis. Contact Dr. Sarah Minslow for a copy of the book at [email protected].
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13
TIME AND NARRATIVE
6 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
Join us for a dialogue on Time and Narrative and the intersection of storytelling/futurisms/ climate change/speculative literature. Scheduled to appear: Dr. Ayana Jamieson (Ethnic Studies, Cal Poly Pomona) and Dr. Jasmine Wade (Ethnic Studies, Sacramento State University).
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28
"WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT": ARENDT ON SOLIDARITY AND EICHMANN'S PRINCIPLE
A TALK BY DR. DAVID KIM
6 PM ● Library Community Room, Library North B131
REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-talk-by-dr-david-kim-60th-anniversary-of-eichmann-in-jerusalem-tickets-764112409787?aff=oddtdtcreator
Acclaimed scholar Dr. David Kim (Vice Provost, International Institute and Professor, European Languages and Transcultural Studies, UCLA), examines how, for Hannah Arendt, the aftermath of the Holocaust brought renewed urgency to the murky concept of solidarity. She was dismayed to discover that more and more appeals to unity equated perpetrators and victims or hung onto Christian notions of original sin as new political futures were imagined. The aim of this lecture is to examine Arendt's catchphrase "We are all in the same boat" and its implications for Holocaust Studies as well as contemporary global political movements.
To view past American Communities Program events, click here.