‘Mountain Movers’ Marks 50th Anniversary of Asian American Studies
Urban Planning Professor Karen Umemoto was one of six editors on the team that put together “Mountain Movers: Student Activism and the Emergence of Asian American Studies,” a book about the legacy of student activism at UCLA, UC Berkeley and San Francisco State. “Mountain Movers” profiles students who mobilized peers and community members to further the study of Asian American communities on their campuses. The joint publication commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Asian American Studies programs that were established on all three campuses in 1969. Three of the nine activists profiled in the book are UCLA alumni. Preeti Sharma, who came to UCLA in 2006 to earn a master’s in Asian American studies, became involved in community organizations in the area, including Khmer Girls in Action and Chinatown Community for Equitable Development. After migrating to Los Angeles from the Philippines, Casimiro Tolentino became involved in the Asian American movement at UCLA while earning bachelor’s and law degrees in the 1960s and ’70s. He went on to serve as an attorney for the Asian Pacific Legal Center, among other roles. After joining the movement during the ’60s, Amy Uyematsu joined the staff of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, where she worked as a researcher, publications coordinator and instructor. The center, now directed by Umemoto, celebrated the 50th anniversary of Asian American Studies at UCLA with a book launch in May. “Mountain Movers” reflects the social transformation of ethnic study in higher education as a result of the efforts of student activist groups. — Zoe Day
A Public Affairs Outreach to Local Students
Fifty students from four local high schools spent a day with UCLA Luskin undergrads to hear how they can use a college education to improve their own communities. The May 23 visit was organized in conjunction with Gear Up 4 LA, a federally funded program to put underserved students on the road to college. The visiting 10th- and 11th-graders came from four schools: Bernstein High in Hollywood, STEM Academy of Hollywood, West Adams Preparatory High in Pico-Union and Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Koreatown. Students and staff from the Luskin School’s undergraduate program led the visitors on a campus tour and answered questions about UCLA and its new Public Affairs major. They also guided group discussions about what unites and divides the visitors’ communities. The alumni host for the day was Kevin Johnson MURP ’17 of Alta Planning + Design, which sponsored the visit.
View photos from the visit on Flickr.
A Whirlwind Trip to Japan
UCLA Luskin graduate students took an intensive study-abroad trip to Japan, where they immersed themselves in the country’s culture and learned about issues such as transportation, sustainability and ecotourism. Sponsored by the Terasaki Foundation, the annual spring break trip included presentations by government officials and travel to parts of Japan that showed off its stunning natural beauty, Public Policy student Michael Jung said. In Hakone, located in a national park known for its mountainous terrain and hot springs, Jung and a group of students interested in ecotourism learned about Japan’s efforts to retain ecological integrity. “I was given the opportunity to tackle issues on the low population of endangered species and the occurrence of natural disasters such as fires in order to promote ecotourism and achieve a sustainable community,” Jung said. The 45 students from Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning also gained insight into one of the most pressing matters facing Japan as a whole: With an aging population and declining birth rate, the tax base is shrinking, urban centers are in decline, and the nation’s state-of-the-art transportation systems are seeing decreased ridership. The students’ whirlwind trip through multiple cities across Japan allowed them to see the real-world effects of these issues. In seeking solutions to these problems, the students become equipped to take on similar issues back in Los Angeles.
View photos from the trip on Flickr.
Malson Awarded Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
Hilary Malson, a doctoral student in urban planning at UCLA Luskin, has been awarded a three-year Ford Foundation predoctoral fellowship to support her study of race, space and community development in American exurbs. In her current research, Malson draws from the wider fields of diaspora studies and black geographies to explore how scattered black and brown communities navigate the expanded regional geographies of everyday life. The Ford Foundation honor “is testament to Hilary’s rigor as a scholar and recognition of her insistence that such scholarship be forged in solidarity with communities facing displacement and erasure,” said Ananya Roy, director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin, where Malson is a graduate student researcher. Malson holds a B.A. in the growth and structure of cities from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and an MSc in urbanization and development from the London School of Economics, where she earned the dissertation prize for her research on insurgent planning and spatial politics in a majority-minority Virginia suburb. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine awards the Ford Foundation Fellowships to increase diversity among university faculties and encourage professors to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. Of the 71 national predoctoral fellowships announced this year, six were awarded to UCLA students.
Ong, González Examine Ethnoracial Inequality in City
Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Director Paul Ong and Assistant Director Silvia R. González have co-authored a book on urban ethnoracial inequalities. “Uneven Urbanscape: Spatial Structures and Ethnoracial Inequality,” newly published by Cambridge University Press, draws from a vast trove of research and data to evaluate the causes and consequences of urban inequality, specifically looking at housing, employment and education. Focusing on Los Angeles, Ong and González studied small geographic units that approximate neighborhoods to determine how location relates to access and isolation. Los Angeles, they found, is “a powerful case study for understanding spatialized racial and ethnic stratification.” The authors describe the different elements that make up the urban spatial structure — place, relative location and networks — as a means to evaluate how spatial structure produces and reproduces ethnoracial inequalities in cities. “The material world reflects and projects socioeconomic realties and is instrumental in creating the lived experience,” they wrote. “By touching a broad range of human activities, the urban landscape, or urbanscape, becomes complicit in the production of socioeconomic injustices along racial and ethnic lines.” Ong and González said Los Angeles as a case study provides critical insights into the nation’s racial and ethnic hierarchies. They call for engaged scholarship with research such as theirs and conclude, “The academy is a privileged institution that should embrace societal responsibilities to directly combat socioeconomic disparities.”
Undergrads Share Feedback at Forum
UCLA Luskin Dean Gary Segura responded to questions and concerns raised by Public Affairs pre-majors at this year’s Annual Undergraduate Forum held Wednesday, May 22. Chair Meredith Phillips and the Public Affairs staff were also on hand to answer questions. Prior to the event, the team conducted a survey to gather feedback from pre-major students about their experience. The undergraduates expressed appreciation for the interdisciplinary nature of the major, the close-knit environment and staff enthusiasm, and raised some concerns about curricular coordination, enrollment issues and reciprocal agreements on course requirements between UCLA Luskin and the College of Letters and Sciences. Segura addressed the issues raised in the undergraduate survey and fielded questions from students in attendance about upper-division courses and the experiential capstone projects that Public Affairs majors will complete in their senior year. The undergraduate major in Public Affairs was launched in fall 2018. As its first year comes to a close, the staff thanked students for their patience as they finalize the nuts and bolts of the program. The entire university has responded to the creation of the Public Affairs major, they noted, adding that UCLA Luskin staff are engaged in an ongoing dialogue with other programs, including the Honors College and Academic Advancement Program, as they smooth out the details of the major. Students collectively expressed appreciation for the undergraduate program’s responsiveness to their feedback. — Zoe Day
View a Flickr album of images from the Annual Undergraduate Forum.
