Our Initiatives
Cal State LA Faculty Fellows Program
Each year, ACP awards up to three fellowships to applicants who engage in humanities-based inquiry pertinent to our selected research theme. Fellows receive 3 units of reassigned time and a small stipend for project-related expenses, and are expected to contribute to the year’s programming. We particularly invite proposals that meaningfully incorporate student research or that suggest potential for catalyzing campus-wide and community conversations. One of the three fellowships, the Bailey Fellowship, is for an original project that applies the year's research theme to African American communities and/or individuals and preferably involves archival materials. The Call for Proposals for the upcoming year’s competition typically is issued at the end of Winter Quarter.
ACP Theory Incubator
Our Theory Incubator series offers an opportunity for emergent and established scholars to connect, present work, and collaborate on cutting-edge inquiry in interdisciplinary cultural analysis. The 2013-14 Incubator, Emergent Precarities, welcomed eight scholars from around the United States and Canada to a February discussion of theories of precarity and risk. Our 2014-15 installment, Biopolitical Afterlives, is slated for October 31, 2014, and features an array of scholars from the fields of literary criticism, law and legal studies, gender studies, media studies, philosophy, and beyond. The Theory Incubator is co-sponsored and presented with the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities. For more information and updates on Biopolitical Afterlives, please visit us at www.facebook.com/AmericanCommunitiesProgram.
Quarterly Programming
Each quarter, we offer a calendar of programs designed to engage Cal State LA faculty, students, and community. Ranging from film screenings and panel discussions to field trips and reading groups, our calendar reflects the richness of our research themes and offers myriad ways to engage with ACP.
The Pop-Up University
Our Pop-Up series re-imagines the marketing phenomenon of the temporary pop-up retail outlet and transforms it into a vehicle for community engagement and mutual edification. Events in this series are held at off-campus locations in an effort to bridge the gaps between the University and the communities beyond. Since 2013, we have organized Pop-Up University events in collaboration with partners including The Last Bookstore (Downtown L.A.), local elementary schools, and Pop-Hop Books and Print (Highland Park), exploring the connections between art and politics, the poetry of Jose Kozer, aesthetics and children's literature, and the Los Angeles legacy of Christopher Isherwood.