Central American Studies gains popularity on California campuses HEAD TOPICS

Central American Studies gains popularity on California campuses

10/21/2022 6:59:00 PM

New classes and departments have Central American scholars hopeful about their future on California campuses

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CalMatters

Central American Studies scholars say for a long time the community was ignored within academia – or worse, stereotyped. Now, they are hoping to expand their field by capitalizing on the current ethnic studies momentum. New classes and departments have Central American scholars hopeful about their future on California campuses Since 1980, the Central American-born population in the United States has grown ten-fold, with a 24% increase since 2010, according to the Migration Policy Institute.About 81% of immigrants from Central America came when they were of working age, with a median age of 40 years old, the Migration Policy Institute reported. “It’s really complex to be part of a history that’s literally in the making.”“It’s really complex to be part of a history that’s literally in the making,” Ramirez said. “I get very emotional thinking about it because, for a long time, I felt like I was crazy. Like my ideas weren’t valid because I didn’t have like-minded people around me.” Read more:
CalMatters » A New Leader at New York Theater Ballet and a Call for New Audiences Ex-North Central theater director denies sexual abuse of students in new federal court filing California captain indicted on new charge in dive boat fire that killed 34 people This New Napa Restaurant Will Feature a Rotating Tasting Menu Celebrating California Wine Country

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CNN News, delivered. Select from our newsletters below and enter your email to subscribe. Read more >> A New Leader at New York Theater Ballet and a Call for New Audiences“Classical concert dance definitely has a race problem,” says Steven Melendez, “but it also has a class problem.” Melendez, the new head of New York Theater Ballet, wants to bring new audiences to dance. Ex-North Central theater director denies sexual abuse of students in new federal court filingThis week’s court filing by Nathan Shewell’s attorneys marks the first time Shewell has publicly addressed any of the allegations against him. KaraKenney6 has the latest. California captain indicted on new charge in dive boat fire that killed 34 peopleNew charges were announced on Tuesday against the California captain of a dive boat that went up in flames in September 2019, leaving 34 people dead. If that article is accurate that Capt deserves to be Locked up for his remaining years 'The captain goes down with the ship' is a maritime tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both their ship and everyone embarked on it, and in an emergency will either save those on board or die trying. He failed. They left those innocent people to die. This New Napa Restaurant Will Feature a Rotating Tasting Menu Celebrating California Wine CountryAuro’s five courses will spotlight hyperlocal Northern California cuisine with curated wine pairings. NYC’s Grand Central Just Got a Decadent New Caviar ShopThe perfect place to grab an indulgence before you catch your train to a weekend getaway. To go with a tall boy back to Mamaroneck? New mega reservoir is final planning phase for CaliforniaCalifornia is getting closer to creating a massive new reservoir within a huge natural Colusa County valley that's shaped like an elongated oval bowl. Nobody’s talking about how the water for that reservoir is going to be pumped all the way across the valley from the Sacramento River, and then pumped back again. It’s a boondoggle for an ineffective lawmaker, and that money could be spent on much more efficient things. They’ll be lawsuit after lawsuit from environmental wackos and others, if this thing is built before 2040 I’d be surprised The process started with JERRY BROWN! And won’t be finished until 2031. Do you see the problem. Success! Thank you for subscribing.Updated 12:02 p.INDIANAPOLIS — In a new court filing, a former North Central High School theater director denies he verbally, physically and sexually abused students.A new report will offer a firsthand account from eyewitnesses on the deadly California dive boat fire; William La Jeunesse reports on the investigation. Please enter a valid email address Processing… Since 1980, the Central American-born population in the United States has grown ten-fold, with a 24% increase since 2010, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Regional civil wars in the 1980s threatened residents with displacement and economic instability, causing a wave of migration. ET Steven Melendez is a stickler for dramatic detail. Hurricanes and earthquakes in the late ’80s and early 1990s further spurred people to leave the region. Through his attorneys, Nathan Shewell filed a 24-page response this week to a federal lawsuit filed in May 2022 by four former North Central High School students in which he denied abusing and harassing female students. About 81% of immigrants from Central America came when they were of working age, with a median age of 40 years old, the Migration Policy Institute reported. “When you put your hand out to raise her chin, what is that?” he asked Nathan Rommel, a recent recruit. “As Central Americans and the children of those immigrants are getting to the age and (given) the chance to attend college, we’re just seeing more and more of that population in our classes,” Abrego said.  Boylan is also accused of failing to have a night watch and failing to conduct necessary fire drills. Iris Ramirez, a student at UCLA pursuing a Ph. “OK, I want to see that,” Melendez said. “Defendant further denies that he discriminated against female students in any way,” read Shewell’s court filing.D. in Chicana/o and Central American Studies, was first drawn to the university because of UCLA’s cluster of Central American scholars that didn’t yet exist on other campuses. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village lay a worn paperback copy of “An Actor Prepares,” Stanislavski’s 1936 exploration of the actor’s craft. “It’s really complex to be part of a history that’s literally in the making. The WRTV Investigation prompted protests from students and parents who urged the district to better address allegations of sexual misconduct.” Iris Ramirez, UCLA doctoral Student in Chicana/o and Central American Studies Ramirez, who hopes to become a Central American Studies professor, said it’s important to carve out spaces within higher education where Central American scholars can come together and critically think about the diaspora. “I have to train the dancers to learn this way of working,” he said. The crew members escaped, while 33 passengers and another crew member who were below deck died from smoke inhalation. “It’s really complex to be part of a history that’s literally in the making,” Ramirez said. “I get very emotional thinking about it because, for a long time, I felt like I was crazy. The company’s first New York performances under his direction , at Florence Gould Hall on Friday and Saturday, could have been programmed by Byer. According to the lawsuit filed in May 2022, Shewell groomed female students using “unwelcome physical touching, verbal abuse, and inappropriate sexual situations” including making comments about their bodies. Like my ideas weren’t valid because I didn’t have like-minded people around me.” Ramirez said she hoped the discipline would expand, noting that she has only been able to take two Central American Studies classes so far during her five years at UCLA. But in another sense, Melendez is subtly shifting the company’s emphasis. “I think a lot of us hope that we can have our own space once the institution understands that we can’t homogenize Latinos,” Ramirez said. She graduated from North Central High School in 2020 and did theatre under the direction of Nathan Shewell. “We should get our own autonomy and not always have to ask the question of why we are important within the context of Chicano Studies. Since its founding, the company’s repertory has consisted mostly of 20th-century chamber ballets of the kind considered too small, and perhaps too old-fashioned, for big ballet troupes, like de Mille’s “Carousel” and Limón’s “Mazurkas.” The development of ethnic studies fields takes a lot of work and organizing from students and faculty alike, Abrego said. She pointed out that the Chicano Studies department at UCLA was only established after decades of activism including a 14-day hunger strike by eight students and one faculty member in 1993.) Melendez, 36, plans to keep many of them, he said, though what motivates him is different: “Diana liked these works because of their value to the history of dance.’" In Shewell’s response filed this week, he denied Schilling’s claims. “Now that I’m chair of the department, I see how tough and complicated it is. There’s just so many layers of bureaucracy,” she said.” Image Melendez rehearsing with, from left, Sarah Stafford, Hannah Davis and Kieran McBride at Theater Ballet’s East Village studio. “Sometimes folks think, ‘Well why can’t we have Central American Studies everywhere?’ ” Duarte said. It was in the closet where Jane Doe 1 alleged Shewell touched her “just under her breasts” and massaged Jane Doe 3’s shoulders, the federal lawsuit alleged. “Because it takes a certain type of leadership to make that happen.. And not only leadership in terms of faculty members, but also deans and college presidents. They have to see the importance of creating these programs. Braylen Dion for The New York Times This phrase, “new to dance,” figures prominently in Melendez’s conversation. PREVIOUS State revokes teaching license for former North Central teacher amid misconduct allegations Shewell, who no longer has a license to teach in Indiana, asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit again him.” UC Berkeley senior Osirus Polachart arrived on campus as a transfer student in 2020, and helped revive the Central Americans for Empowerment organization on campus. He and other students noticed a lack of Central American Studies courses at Berkeley, so they developed their own, centered on the history of colonialism and its impact on Central American populations. In his view, “Dance is dying,” he said, in large part because it fails to make a case for itself with audiences who didn’t grow up going to the theater, much less to the ballet — people of diverse means and cultural backgrounds, who have for too long been ignored by the purveyors of high culture. Registered through the Chicanx Student Development Program, the course is taught by current students, drawing on research by Abrego and other UCLA scholars. WRTV Investigates did some checking and found not only did Shewell resign from Silver Creek in Sellersburg in 2012, he also resigned from LaPlata High School in Maryland in 2007 after working there for a year and a half. The class has had full enrollment every quarter it’s taught, and the waitlist often fills up, Polachart said.” Melendez is well placed to consider such questions. Osirus Polachart on UC Berkeley’s Campus on Oct. 13, 2022. Dance was not part of his world until he met Byer at an outreach event at the shelter, when he was 7. MSD of Washington Township filed its own response to the federal lawsuit on July 28 in which the district denied knowing about Shewell’s alleged pattern of abuse. Katie Rodriguez for CalMatters “The reason why we did this class in the first place is to show the university that we have people who are interested in taking these classes,” Polachart said. “We want to create an initiative for UC Berkeley to implement Central American Studies. She decided to put him in dance classes as a form of child care.” Despite outreach to University leadership, Polachart said the student group’s effort to organize for Central American Studies have not been as successful as they hoped. In fact, a 2014 email provided by the ex-students’ attorneys show a parent reported concerns to performing arts chair Rick Granlund about Shewell’s “impossible problem” technique. In response, Dan Mogulof, an assistant vice chancellor at UC Berkeley, said in a statement to CalMatters that “the Central Americans for Empowerment student organization made clear to the relevant academic department its interest in a program name change, and more courses that focus on Central Americans The department has been working to expand its course offerings and expertise in Central American studies.” Melendez trained at New York Theater Ballet’s affiliated dance academy, the School of NYTB, on scholarship, as part of its LIFT Community Service Program, founded by Byer in 1989 .” Mogulof added that the university is “working to offer more courses and research opportunities focused on the Central American experience. ” The students opened the Berkeley course to non-students as a way to break down barriers to higher education, said Polachart, who also hopes to teach Central American Studies in the future. No one but Byer, who is still the director of the school, knows who is or isn’t on a scholarship. “In front of the entire cast, he made comments about her boobs being too big for the costume,” Wineland said. “Academia is just used as a gatekeeper to keep regular people from knowing about things,” Polachart said. “People are longing to know about their history because it’s a long history of exploitation, of colonialism. And if we don’t know anything about our history, how can we change it?” East Los Angeles Community College’s Central American Studies program is also rooted in community engagement. Texas-based attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel and Carmel attorney Jeff Gibson of law firm Wagner Reese represent Schilling and the three Jane Does. Central American Studies courses were first taught in 2015 through a dual enrollment program at the Central American Resource Center , a local immigrant rights organization. Enrollment was open to community members as an attempt to increase college access and further develop the program before officially establishing it on campus. “When we’re talking about college access, this is college access – being out in the community, bringing college courses to our students so that we’re preparing them to either go into a four-year or continue their educational path,” said Duarte, who taught those early classes. I think that's just so powerful and also painful and hard for our clients to know and see, because there was all this time where what they went through could have been prevented. As scholars continue developing coursework within this field of study, Alma notes the importance of Central American representation within leadership roles. Faculty with strong connections to Central American countries can share their own life stories and experiences that are immensely valuable in providing an accurate understanding of the Central American experience in the United States, Alma said. “We want to inspire our students, and what greater inspiration than seeing themselves in front of a classroom and knowing that– if they want to be there– they can too,” Alma said. Gibson and Tuegel said more people came forward to them after WRTV’s 2021 investigation into Nathan Shewell. “They are like us and we are like them, and we share similar struggles. We know it’s not easy being Central American in the United States.” Luna is a fellow with the , a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California.” “We are very appreciative of you telling the initial story and investigative work you did,” Tuegel said. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation. 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