Making waves at “Making Waves” were (l-r): Ronald Sadoff, Siu-Lan Tan, Elizabeth Margulis and Stefan Koelsch.
Answer this question, “What’s the best movie you ever saw?” and chances are your answer will be accurate for a slightly different question: “What’s the best movie you ever heard?”
Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan, a leading figure in the psychology of film music and the editor of The Psychology of Music in Multimedia, has been involved in two recent projects exploring the critical role of musical scores (some say the “heartbeat,” others the “symphonic music of our day”) to the emotional impact of a film.
The most recent project is a film titled SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. Siu-Lan’s was one of some 60 live interviews compiled for the film, including conversations with the top living film composers in United States and the United Kingdom (Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Randy Newman, Howard Shaw, Trent Reznor, Alexandre Desplat, among others), film directors like James Cameron, producers like Quincy Jones, and several film scholars.
Siu-Lan will appear in SCORE several times. In the meantime you can view a short trailer for the film.
A related project that occurred in late March was the panel discussion “Making Waves: Why Movies Move Us.” The conversation was sponsored by the New York University (NYU) Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and in addition to Siu-Lan it featured Ronald Sadoff, chair of the NYU department of music and performing arts professions and director of film scoring at NYU Steinhardt; neuroscientist Stefan Koelsch, professor of biological psychology and music psychology at Freie University Berlin; and Professor Elizabeth Margulis, director of music cognition lab at the University Arkansas.
At the event Siu-Lan used movie clips from films including Indiana Jones, Gravity, and The Shining to explore why music is an essential component of how emotion is conveyed in film. The panel occurred at NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre.
Danny Kim prepared four short videos that were shown at the presentation. “One surprising highlight was when we played Danny’s last video,” said Siu-Lan, “an eight-minute collage of scenes and music from films. It was meant to play in the background as people left the theater, and we invited them to do so. But to our astonishment, the whole audience stayed and watched with rapt attention and applauded at the end!” That’s the surprising power of music.
Nor was it the only surprise of the evening. Alumnus Matthew Jong ’15 (currently a graduate student pursuing a degree in music business at NYU) showed up for the panel discussion. “I was delighted that Matt could come,” said Siu-Lan. “We were unable to connect in person, but he emailed me later to let me know he was there, and he wrote, ’Please tell ‘K’ I miss it for me!’”
Kalamazoo College today named Alyce Brady, Ph.D., the Rosemary K. Brown Professor in Mathematics and Computer Science. Alyce has taught in those departments at Kalamazoo College for 22 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She teaches a variety of courses in computer science from introductory classes to advanced courses on programming languages, data structure, dynamic Internet apps and software development in a global context. Her research interests include the application of computer science to social justice (Alyce served as the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Faculty Fellow from 2013-2015), the development of more effective computer science education exercises and opportunities for students, software design, academic computing applications and human-computer interfaces. In 2007 she co-authored a seminal article in computer science education, “A 2007 model curriculum for a liberal arts degree in computer science,” and in 2010 she co-wrote the article “Case studies of liberal arts computer science programs.”
The professorship was established with an endowed gift by Rosemary Kopel Brown and John Wilford Brown in 2001 as part of the College’s campaign, Enlightened Leadership in the 21st Century. The endowment was strengthened by another gift from the Browns during the recently completed Campaign for Kalamazoo College. Endowed professorships help ensure the presence of great faculty at K, and the faculty-student relationship is the cornerstone of the excellence of the K learning experience. The Rosemary K. Brown professorship funds “the position of an established teacher/scholar with demonstrated achievement and the promise of continued exceptional performance.” Rosemary and John have a deep and enduring connection with Kalamazoo College and Kalamazoo. Both served as trustees of the College. Rosemary is a lifelong mathematics educator who worked in several Kalamazoo Schools. John is the retired president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Stryker Corporation in Kalamazoo.
Endowed professorships do great and indispensable things for K. They confer a prestige that helps attract and retain the best faculty. The gifts that are their financial foundation free operational funds that an institution can use for other educational opportunities. And they provide the wherewithal for a great teacher to extend the power of his or her pedagogy and scholarly work. Case in point is the former Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, John Fink, who retired in 2015. John used the endowed fund in many ways, to the benefit of students in the United States and abroad. He attended critical workshops and served in the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America; he attended and accompanied students to meetings that allowed students to experience the culture of professional mathematics, he helped develop a middle school math outreach program in Kalamazoo and, with student involvement, sowed the seeds for a similar program in Ecuador. All these efforts, and more, were made possible the endowed professorship. Of K’s work in Ecuador John said, “It’s remarkable! The fewest crumbs of possibility inspire a feast of dreams.” The Rosemary K. Brown professorship allows great teachers to conceive and implement such possibilities and dreams.
Like John, Alyce is committed to projects that foster computer science and social justice together. As the ACSJL faculty fellow she helped launch and maintain a collaborative, social justice project to computerize academic
records for two partner higher educational institutions in Sierra Leone. And she found ways to involve her students in that project. See photo, picturing (l-r): front row–Justin Leatherwood ’13; Jonas Redwood-Sawyerr, vice chancellor and principal, University of Sierra Leone; Alyce Brady;Abu Sesay, vice chancellor and principal Njala University; Ashton Galloway ’13; back row–Chris Clerville ’13; Tendai Mudyiwa ’14; Kayan Hales ’’14; Chirs Cain ’13; and Keaton Adams ’14.
The appointment, announced today, becomes effective September. The College congratulates Alyce Brady, its second Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, and the College is honored to have Rosemary’s name associated with Kalamazoo College in perpetuity.
Associate Professor of Anthropology Adriana Garriga-López is a member of a group of experts that co-authored an essay and call to action titled “Public Statement on Zika Virus in Puerto Rico.” The essay appeared in Savage Minds (15 March 2016) with the Spanish language version forthcoming in a few days. The authors are members of the Society for Medical Anthropology’s Zika Interest Group. Among other courses at K, Garriga-López teaches “Medicine and Society.” She is an expert on the intersection of politics, societies, social justice, disease and epidemics and completed her doctoral work on the confluence of these forces in the HIV epidemic in Puerto Rico.
The essay on the Zika virus notes the influence of water and waste management, church proscriptions, the corporate use and development of experimental insecticides, and U.S. Congressional policy on the advent and future course of the epidemic in Puerto Rico. Zika is a public health emergency, and the essay calls for Zika prevention actions to benefit the people of Puerto Rico. Those actions include: “provide and install window screens in homes and businesses, assist in water systems management, and distribute vector surveillance and control strategies In particular, public health authorities can assist with disposing of any waste that might collect water in order to minimize mosquito populations.
“The CDC has a Dengue station headquarters in San Juan, PR and should use that station as a base to conduct Zika prevention and mosquito mitigation campaigns. All prevention and research activities on the island should follow the principles of open access and collaboration appropriate for a public health emergency. Furthermore, given the strongly suspected association between Zika, microcephaly, and Guillain-Barré syndrome, the CDC should be on high alert for these cases in Puerto Rico and prepared to deal with these diseases as they arise.
“Finally, care and support must be provided to pregnant women and their families who have or will experience Zika infection. Puerto Rico birth outcomes have been worsening since the advent of the economic crisis. The infant mortality rate climbed to 9.5 per 1000 live births for 2012. This burden is exacerbated by the large number of health professionals that have recently emigrated from the island.
“It is imperative that the Medicaid cap be removed for the island and resources mobilized immediately to fight this public health emergency, particularly in terms of prenatal and reproductive health care. Prevention of transmission, expanded medical care, reproductive rights, and long term sustainability of the water infrastructure should be the priorities, beyond the tourist and hotel areas. We call for assistance to local initiatives and support for already existing community structures, and affirm Puerto Rico’s right to defend the health of its population.”
Jeanne Gang designed Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL). The journal The Architectural Review has awarded her its Architect of the Year award, citing both excellence in design and working sustainably and democratically with local communities. The article reads, in part, “The Architect of the Year award celebrates Studio Gang’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, Michigan, which took a novel tri-axial form. The first building purposed for social justice, Gang’s democratic and participatory design process involved the organization, students and public who now work from the Center.”
The ACSJL works to develop emerging leaders and sustain existing leaders in the fields of human rights and social justice. As a learning environment and meeting space, it brings together students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public for conversation and activities aimed at creating a more just world.
Assistant Professor of Political Science Justin Berry (and members of his “Voting, Campaigns and Elections” class) knew that the 2016 William Weber Lecture in Government and Society was too big an opportunity not to share widely. The late January event featured Martin Gilens, author and professor of politics at Princeton University, speaking on the subject “Economic Inequality and Political Power in America.” Dr. Berry reached out to the one high school student who attends his class and he, in turn, gathered many of his high school classmates to attend the lecture. After the event, he wrote to Dr. Berry: “I have to say, I really do appreciate your willingness to let a mob of high school kids participate in the event. We spent the next day in class having a heated discussion regarding the topics that were covered within Dr. Gilens’ speech. I believe that I speak for all that attended when I say that it was a very informative and memorable event. Our government teacher was disappointed that he couldn’t attend, but he had prior obligations. I do know that for next year he will try to bring back some of his students to have them sit in on the lecture, making it an annual event.” Well done, Dr. Berry! The photo shows Professor Gilens (third from right) with some of the high school attendees. The William Weber Lecture in Government and Society was founded by Bill Weber, a 1939 graduate of K, and it is administered by the Department of Political Science. Past lecturers have included David Broder, E.J. Dionne, Frances Fox Piven, Van Jones and Joan Mandelle, among others.
On a musical instrument, contrary motion refers to a melodic motion in which one series of notes rises in pitch while opposing notes descend. In his debut novel, Contrary Motion, English professor Andy Mozina moves his 38-year-old character, Matthew Grzbc, in opposite directions in most every aspect of his life.
As a harpist living in Chicago, Matthew hopes to land a chair position in a symphony orchestra—but his every day has him playing on demand to dying patients at a hospice and to the sounds of chewing at hotel brunches.
As a just-divorced man, he dates a woman with whom he suffers erectile dysfunction—even while he can’t stop lusting for his ex-wife who is about to become engaged to another man. He’s a devoted and attentive father to his six-year-old daughter—but the girl teeters on the verge of a breakdown after witnessing her father “in flagrante delicto” with her mother while Mom’s boyfriend is out of the house. Adding drama, Matthew’s father suffers a fatal heart attack while listening to a relaxing meditation CD—leaving his son questioning his sanity as well as his mortality.
When a longed-for audition for a harpist in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra opens career possibilities for Matthew (if only his harp would stop buzzing and twanging), he is pulled once again in opposing directions. To audition or not to audition? And, should he be offered the chair, to move or not to move away from his girlfriend, his ex-wife, his daughter, his life in Chicago?
Matthew’s saving grace, the glue to keep his life from splitting down the middle with all that contrary motion, is his sense of humor. It’s hard not to root for the guy between chuckles. He is as perfectly imperfect as are we all on those days when we take an honest look in the mirror. He is riddled with anxiety when most of his fears are never realized. By end of novel, all that anxiety becomes a tad exhausting—-get it right, Matt! Do it, dude!—-and then he does that, too, hitting the perfect note, humanly well.
Andy Mozina has taught English at Kalamazoo College since 1999. He is the author of the short story collections, The Women Were Leaving the Men, which won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and Quality Snacks, a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Prize. His fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, and he has received special citations in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, and New Stories from the Midwest. Mozina is also the author of a book of literary criticism called, Joseph Conrad and the Art of Sacrifice.
Kalamazoo, Mich. (January 12, 2016) – The Board of Trustees of Kalamazoo College has chosen Jorge G. Gonzalez, Ph.D., to become the institution’s 18th president. Gonzalez is currently vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Occidental College (Los Angeles, Calif.). He succeeds President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Ph.D., who announced her retirement in April 2015. Her last day at K will be June 30. Gonzalez will begin his new duties as K’s president on July 1.
“I feel my life has been a preparation for this incredible opportunity to advance the liberal arts and the K-Plan,” he said. “Kalamazoo College’s mission is a perfect match with my deeply held belief in the learning values and the life values of experiential education and international education.”
Gonzalez said immersion in the liberal arts is the most powerful and life-enriching form of undergraduate education when students have opportunities to apply their academic work in a variety of extra-curricular experiences. As a professor and as an administrator—both at Trinity University, where he worked from 1989 to 2010, and at Occidental College—he has created innovative programs combining liberal arts academics and experiential applications that cross borders and cultures.
“The board’s vote was unanimous, and our excitement boundless,” said Board of Trustees Chair Charlotte Hall ’66, who led the presidential search committee. “Dr. Gonzalez is a passionate champion of the liberal arts and has an abiding commitment to the values embodied in the K-Plan: academic excellence, experiential learning, intercultural understanding and community engagement. Through all of his work, he has sought to make that powerful combination better and more accessible to diverse groups of students.”
Gonzalez won Trinity University’s most prestigious teaching award. He is widely published and a frequent contributor at professional and academic conferences. His research interests include international economics, political economy and development. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association (2014), and he was selected by the American Council on Education for its prestigious ACE Fellowship (2007-2008). He spent that academic year at Pomona College and visited and spent time with the leaders of about 30 other colleges and universities across the country.
Gonzalez grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (major in economics) from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). During his junior year he studied abroad at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an experience, he said, “that changed my life!” He earned his M.A. (economics, 1986) and Ph.D. (economics, 1989) from Michigan State University.
Gonzalez is married to Suzie (Martin) Gonzalez, a Kalamazoo College graduate of the class of 1983. They have two children, a daughter (Kristina) who recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in international relations and is now working in commercial real estate in Los Angeles, and a son (Carlos) who is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in computer science.
The appointment of Gonzalez is the culmination of a seven-month-long national search process. Along with Hall, the search committee included trustees Jim Clayton ’78, Gwen (Van Domelen) Fountain ’68, Si Johnson ’78, Alexander Lipsey ’72, Jody Olsen, and Jon Stryker ’82; Alexandra Altman ’97, president of the Alumni Association Executive Board (and a member of the board of trustees); faculty members Arthur Cole, associate professor of physics, Kyla Day Fletcher, assistant professor of psychology, and Jan Tobochnik, the Dow Distinguished Professor of Natural Sciences; Victor Garcia ’97, grounds coordinator for facilities management; Tanush Jagdish, member of the sophomore class; Stacy Nowicki, library director; and Sally Arent, assistant to the vice president and dean of students and secretary to the search committee. The search committee was assisted by the well-known higher education search firm, Storbeck/Pimentel.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu) was founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833 and is one of the oldest colleges in the United States. Located midway between Chicago and Detroit, K is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.
The board of trustees of Kalamazoo College has chosen Jorge G. Gonzalez, Ph.D., to become the institution’s 18th president. Gonzalez is currently vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Occidental College (Los Angeles, Calif.). He succeeds President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, who announced her retirement in April 2015. Her last day at K will be June 30, 2016. Dr. Gonzalez will begin his new duties as K’s president on July 1.
“I feel my life has been a preparation for this incredible opportunity to advance the liberal arts and the K-Plan,” he said. “Kalamazoo College’s mission is a perfect match with my deeply held belief in the learning values and the life values of experiential education and international education.”
Jorge G. Gonzalez
Gonzalez said immersion in the liberal arts is the most powerful and life-enriching form of undergraduate education when students have opportunities to apply their academic work in a variety of extra-curricular experiences. As a professor and an administrator Gonzalez has created innovative combinations of liberal arts academics and experiential applications, programs that cross borders and cultures. At Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas, 1989-2010), where he worked as a professor of economics and special assistant to the president, he organized and helped develop: summer travel-study programs related to economics coursework in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg; summer student internships in Madrid, Spain; a travel-study program in Vietnam; a partnership between the Tec de Monterrey (Mexico) and Trinity University; and a “Languages Across the Curriculum” program in which courses are taught in the language most germane to the course content.
At Occidental College (2010-2016) he has continued to help create and support experiential learning programs that allow students to engage in the world in ways that draw upon their liberal arts education. Several of these programs involve students in the issues and environs of greater Los Angeles and in discussions and applications of social justice.
A gifted professor, Gonzalez won Trinity University’s most prestigious teaching award (2003), the Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship. He is widely published and a frequent contributor at professional and academic conferences. His research interests include international economics, political economy and development. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association (2014), and he was selected by the American Council on Education for its prestigious ACE Fellowship (2007-2008). He spent that academic year at Pomona College and visited and spent time with the leaders of about 30 other colleges and universities across the country.
Gonzalez grew up in Monterrey, Mexico and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (major in economics, 1984) from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). During his junior year he studied abroad at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, an experience, he said, “that changed my life!” He made the Dean’s List at Wisconsin, and he graduated first in ITESM’s economics class. Gonzalez earned his M.A. (economics, 1986) and Ph.D. (economics, 1989) from Michigan State University, where he achieved the institution’s “Highest Scholarship Award,” given to the graduating M.A. student in economics with the highest grade point average. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled “Essays in the Theory of International Factor Mobility.”
“The board’s vote was unanimous and our excitement boundless,” said Board Chair Charlotte Hall ’66, who led the presidential search committee. “Dr. Gonzalez is a passionate champion of the liberal arts and has an abiding commitment to the values embodied in the K-Plan: academic excellence, experiential learning, intercultural understanding and community engagement. Through all of his work, he has sought to make that powerful combination better and more accessible to diverse groups of students.
“Thank you to the members of the presidential search committee for their diligence and wisdom during this important task,” Hall added. “They have served Kalamazoo College well, and K will reap the benefits of their hard work.”
Along with Hall, the search committee included trustees Jim Clayton ’78, Gwen (Van Domelen) Fountain ’68, Si Johnson ’78, Alexander Lipsey ’72, Jody Olsen and Jon Stryker ’82; Alexandra Altman ’97, president of the Alumni Association Executive Board (and a member of the board of trustees); faculty members Arthur Cole, associate professor of physics, Kyla Day Fletcher, assistant professor of psychology, and Jan Tobochnik, the Dow Distinguished Professor of Natural Sciences; Victor Garcia ’97, grounds coordinator for facilities management; Tanush Jagdish ’18, member of the sophomore class; Stacy Nowicki, library director; and Sally Arent, assistant to the vice president and dean of students and secretary to the search committee. The search committee was assisted by the well-known higher education search firm, Storbeck/Pimentel.
Gonzalez is married to Suzie (Martin) Gonzalez, a Kalamazoo College graduate of the class of 1983. They have two children, a daughter (Kristina) and a son (Carlos). Kristina recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in international relations and is currently working in commercial real estate in Los Angeles. Carlos is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in computer science. Articles on Dr. Gonzalez and his family will appear in upcoming issues of BeLight Magazine (February) and LuxEsto (April).
Max Cherem, philosophy, has contributed a thoughtful reflection to a “Philosophers On” segment focused on the Syrian refugees. Since 2011, more than 10 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes, and more 4 million have fled their homeland, seeking refuge from the violence and chaos of the civil war wracking their country. The war has reportedly left between 140,000 and 340,000 dead, including (by some estimates) up to 12,000 children. The situation has been described as “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.” Recently, the United States agreed to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter in 2016, but even that modest accommodation was met with political backlash. Two dozen Republican governors announced that their states would no longer accept Syrian refugees. Recent terrorist attacks, no matter how tenuous (or nonexistent) their ties to Syrian refugees, have inflamed political rhetoric, with some politicians suggesting a religious test for refugees.
Max was one of eight philosophers invited to “explore the ways in which philosophers and theorists can add, with their characteristically insightful and careful modes of thinking, to the public conversation” about the Syrian refugees. His piece, titled “Understanding the Structural Issues,” references the Refugee Convention’s definition of a refugee and its signatories’ obligations to provide refugees (as specifically defined) protection from return and new membership (in a state). Those guarantees, Max writes, are gutted by refugee camps (which are nowhere found in the Convention), where the gap between non-return (albeit tenuous) and new membership can stretch to 17 years, and by unilateral extra-territorial migration controls. “Apparently,” writes Max, “political leaders calculate that they can subscribe to the convention in name, defect in practice, and that their publics won’t notice or care. So far, the sloppiness and level of our public discourse hasn’t proven them wrong.” What’s needed, he adds, is a clearer understanding of our responsibilities under the Convention and subsequent informed activism for structural reforms as needed. Both possibilities are obscured by “table-pounding” rhetoric that promulgates a false-dichotomy between compassion and security.
Max is the Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor of Philosophy and one of four persons in the country honored with the prestigious Humanities Writ Large Visiting Faculty Fellowship for the 2015-16 academic year. The Fellowship has him in research residence at Duke University and working in the Kenan Institute for Ethics.
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) at Kalamazoo College has named four Southwest Michigan social justice activists to its inaugural ACSJL Regional Fellowship Program. The four Regional Fellows – Lolita Moss, Fernando Ospina, Jacob Pinney-Johnson, and Janai Travis – will serve in their fellowships through June 2016. They will receive funding, training, and mentoring through the ACSJL.
According to ACSJL Executive Director Mia Henry, the Regional Fellowship Program aims to build the leadership capacity of emerging and veteran social justice leaders that work and reside within the nine-county Southwest Michigan region.
“The fellowships are designed to support participants in clarifying their core values, increase their effectiveness and bring a stronger social justice focus to their work,” said Henry. “We hope the program also helps to strengthen the existing network of social justice leaders in the region.”
The new ACSJL Fellows were selected via a competitive application process. All work with nonprofit organizations on projects addressing issues such as black infant mortality, media literacy in marginalized communities, use of performance art to effect social change, and leadership development and community organizing among young people.
“I was ecstatic when I found out my project had been selected for the Regional Fellowship,” said Lolita Moss. “I have been searching for a way to lend my interest and expertise to the current fight for social justice. I’m very grateful and feel very fortunate that we have the Arcus Center right here in Kalamazoo.”
Fellows will be expected to implement or further develop a project in their local organization and community. They will also attend leadership retreats with other fellows and leadership training and coaching sessions with the ACSJL or a partner organization. They may also engage with Kalamazoo College students in a class, with a student organization, and through the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development.
Brief bios and project descriptions for each ACSJL Regional Fellow follow. Applications for the 2016-2017 Regional Fellowship will be available in May 2016. For more details, contact: Mia Henry, mhenry@kzoo.edu or 269-337-7398.
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. The ACSJL’s mission is to develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice, which in turn, supports Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world.
Lolita Moss, 2015-16 ACSJL Regional Fellow
Lolita Moss was born and raised in Kalamazoo, and received her B.A. degree from University of Michigan. Her professional background includes youth development work and developmental psychology research. She is a fierce advocate for media literacy and inclusive media representations.
Lolita’s project features the development of a curriculum that teaches critical media literacy to youth ages 12-18. The curriculum will be based on critical race and culture theory, which centers and affirms marginalized identities, specifically: people of color, women, trans, queer, disabled, and low-income communities. After the curriculum is developed, she will seek community partners for whom she can deliver the curriculum during summer 2016. Participants will gain an understanding of the media’s ability to impact one’s thoughts and behaviors. The primary goal of this project is to educate and empower youth from marginalized communities.
Fernando Ospina, 2015-16 ACSJL Regional Fellow
Fernando Ospina is an anti-racism organizer and trainer with Eliminating Racism and Claiming/Celebrating Equality (ERACCE). His professional training is in Conflict Resolution and Counseling Psychology. Fernando’s previous work has focused on violence prevention with court-mandated youth and adults as well as in research on courageous altruism.
Fernando’s project will focus on assisting the Kalamazoo Infant Mortality Community Action Initiative with designing and implementing strategies and activities to ensure the reduction of black infant mortality in Kalamazoo. In Kalamazoo, black infants are 4.5 times more likely to die than white infants. This fact is a direct consequence of systemic racism. In order to reduce this disparity, it is vital that those affected, and throughout the healthcare system in Kalamazoo, are knowledgeable of at least two things: 1) how racism contributes to disparities and 2) how to engage in systemic interventions to reduce disparities. Fernando’s organizing goals will be to help the initiative: 1) maintain focus on and increase awareness of how racism contributes to disparities; 2) approach the problem with a systemic lens and implement systemic responses; and 3) organize community and institutional support to address racial disparities like infant mortality through systemic, race conscious interventions.
Jacob Pinney-Johnson, 2015-16 ACSJL Regional Fellow
Jacob Pinney-Johnson is a fourth generation Kalamazoo resident with a lineage of family members who have contributed to the uplifting of African Americans in Southwest Michigan. He is a recipient of the Kalamazoo Promise and holds a B.A. degree in social work with a minor in Holistic Health from Western Michigan University. With a focus on racial equity, social justice, health and wellness, and youth development, Jacob has experience organizing within institutions and on a grass-roots level. Jacob currently sits on the Board of Directors for Educating for Freedom in Schools and the Kalamazoo Farmers Market Advisory Board. He is also a member of the ERACCE Regional Organizing Team. Along with serving as the Assistant to the Director at SHARE (Society for History and Racial Equity), Jacob also works part-time as a coordinator for the Kalamazoo Farmers Market.
Jacob’s project, the Institute for New Leadership (INL or project X), is a leadership development and community organizing program for the rising generation in Kalamazoo. The program will work with a multicultural group of 10-15 young people, and will focus on building awareness about systems of oppression as well as organizing for justice and social change. The program will be based around studying resistance, social change, and re-imagining communities, and will culminate in a community-based event, a People’s Movement Assembly. INL is based on a vision of leadership that is inclusive and non-oppressive of any gender, ethnicity, class, education level, or identity.
Janai Travis, 2015-16 ACSJL Regional Fellow
Janai Travis has been engaged in the performing arts since the young age of eight years old and decided early on to make a career out of her passion. Thanks to the Kalamazoo Promise, Janai was the first generation to graduate from college earning a B.A. degree in theater performance from Western Michigan University. She finds her purpose rooted in serving youth in the community through arts, culture, and artistry. For the past five years, Janai has been instrumental in the Freedom Schools movement. She currently holds the position of coordinating program director with Educating for Freedom in Schools. Janai is also one of the co-founders of the Black Arts and Cultural Center’s Face Off Theater Company.
Janai’s project, Activism and Artistry for Youth Initiative, explores the impact artistry can have in society as it relates to activism and demonstration. Youth will have the opportunity to express themselves while learning the artistic and rigorous technique of movement work. This Initiative is designed to merge service learning and authentic performance art in a way that is transformative. The objective is to create a piece that youth of color can use as a tool to combat injustices in our society. This project has the potential to set a new style of demonstration that will provoke substantial change.
