College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

The Festival of Languages, Cultures, and Ideas brings together all the members of the CSUMB community to celebrate our connections in a global world and emphasize the value of cultural diversity.

FLCI 2024 Speaker

Dr. Madoka Hammine "What about intersectionality? An Experience of Language Reclamation in the Ryukyus" in TAFL, Room 1180, on March 7, 4:30-6:30 pm.
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Abbreviated Abstract

The silencing of Indigenous languages has been part of assimilative efforts to suppress Indigenous cultures and deny Indigenous knowledge. Colonial and postcolonial language policies have resulted in many people feeling a loss of self-worth and pride. This talk focuses on analyzing current language reclamation and revitalization efforts in different islands in the Ryukyus, an archipelago to the south-west of Japan.

Bio

An Associate Professor for the Faculty of International Studies in Meio University, Japan, Dr. Hammine earned her Ph.D. at the University of Lapland in Finland, where she researched minoritized (endangered) language education in two contexts of Indigenous languages in Finland and in Japan. Dr. Hammine is also a member of Ryukyuan Heritage Language Society, works in the content management section for GCLR (Global Coalition for Language Rights) and serves as a member of the General Council for Endangered Language Project.

Full Abstract

The silencing of Indigenous languages has been part of assimilative efforts to suppress Indigenous cultures and deny Indigenous knowledge. Colonial and postcolonial language policies have resulted in many people feeling a loss of self-worth and pride. Reclaiming Indigenous languages is thus an important means towards combating colonial and postcolonial legacies, and is thus in principle a decolonising activity. 
The Ryukyu Islands are an archipelago to the south-west of Japan. The Ryukyuan language family consists of at least five distinct languages (Amamian, Uchinaaguchi/Okinawan, Miyakoan, Yaeyaman, Dunan/Yonaguni). Linguists have documented different varieties of Ryukyuan and none of these Ryukyuan languages have been officially standardized. Due to an assimilation program by Japanese government following annexation of Ryukyu Kingdom to Japan in the late 19th century in the name of ‘national unity’ as well as subsequent interiorization of Japanese identity by Ryukyuan people.
In epistemologies of the global North (which include Western and mainstream Japanese approaches), multilingualism, especially in minoritised languages, is frequently seen as a problem. This presentation seeks to turn this perception round, echoing the framework of Ruiz (1984) in moving from a problem-oriented view of multilingual practices towards viewing language reclamation as a right, and the ability to speak Indigenous languages as a resource that can benefit speakers and their communities. Currently there have been movements and efforts to standardize, revitalize, and reclaim these languages both in informal and formal regional educational contexts and new speakers of these languages are emerging. In this presentation, I focus on analyzing current language reclamation and revitalization efforts in different islands in the Ryukyus. I seek to answer questions: how can we encourage equitable relationships, Indigenous empowerment, intergenerational and gender justice? How can we put the Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous participants, and Indigenous researchers at the centre?

Ambassador Steven Pifer

Thursday, March 9th, 11:00-12:00 pm

Ana Luengo is an Associate Professor of Spanish at San Francisco State University. She received her doctorate at the University of Hamburg, Germany, with a thesis on the collective memory of the Spanish Civil War in the contemporary narrative, which she later published in book form as La encrucijada de la memoria with Edition Tranvia in 2004.  The book was re-edited in 2012. She has also co-edited four volumes, the latest being Perpetrators and Democratic Memory in Spain a monograph issue for  Hispanic Issues Online (2017). She has written numerous articles and book chapters about subjects such as representations of violence, historical memory, crime fiction, and LBTQ+ cultures in Spain and in Latin America.

This Spring she will publish her second book monograph, The Archeology of the Spanish Essentialism: Genealogies, Legacies, and Laws, with Editorial Comares in Spain.

Professor Luengo produces the podcast #RadioAnemocoria with Professor Daniel Ares, from San Diego State University, where they interview authors of essays on Iberian Studies. She also collaborates on the digital media Contexto y Acción (ctxt.es) and Fronterad.

She is also the author of a children's book, Lucas tiene superpoderes, in Edicions Bellaterra.

Faculty facilitator: David Vila Diéguez

Kadiri Vaquer Fernández is a Puerto Rican poet, translator and educator living in the Monterey Bay area. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from NYU, and a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from Vanderbilt University. She has published two collections of poetry, Andamiaje and Ritos de pasaje, and she translated the anthology Literary Works by 10 Dominican Women. She is currently working on a memoir in poetic prose. As an educator, Kadiri has taught Spanish, creative writing, Caribbean and Latin American literature, and courses on gender, feminism, and queer studies. Her poetry and research have been included in anthologies, literary magazines and academic journals in Puerto Rico, Spain, and the U.S. 

Marcos Pico Rentería, Ph.D. (Mexico, 1981). Assistant Professor of Spanish at Defense Language Institute. He is a professor, researcher, and author. His research focuses on Latin American literature, short stories, poetry, and literary essays of the second half of the 20th and 21st centuries. One of his interests includes the Mexican literary group Crack and the beginning of essays by Jorge Volpi. He was editor of Nueve Délficos. Essays on Lezama (2014) was published by Verbum (Madrid), where he cataloged several articles and translations about Cuban neo-baroque author José Lezama Lima. Recently his collection of short stories, Mosh Pit (2022), was published by Aduana Vieja (Valencia), and a US edition will appear under Sudaquia Editores (New York). Several of his short stories, interviews, articles, and poems have appeared in multiple literary and academic journals. He is the editor and founder of the multi-language literary journal Contrapuntos.

Christina Soto van der Plas is a practicing psychotherapist at Ohana, focusing on the Latino community. She has a Ph.D. in romance studies from Cornell University. She has published several articles and essays on Latin American literature in national and international journals. She writes non-fiction and essays for the magazine Tierra Adentro on a regular basis. Her nonfiction book, Curaçao: costa de cemento pueblo de prisión (2019), won the National Prize for Young Chronicle in Mexico. Her book A Poetics of Transliterature in Latin America is forthcoming. She recently edited The Marx through Lacan Vocabulary (Routledge, 2022).

Faculty facilitator: Dr. Carolyn González

Jason Agpaoa is an active member of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) – Monterey Bay Chapter, the Salinas Valley Ethnic Studies Conference, and the Coalition for Asian Justice. He is a Guest Experience Representative at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (Monterey, Ca); Special Events Supervisor at The Tech Interactive (San Jose, Ca); and advisor for the Filipino American Youth Club of the Filipino Community of Salinas Valley. He received his B.A. in Kinesiology at San Francisco State University and is enrolled at San Francisco State University in the M.A. in Asian American Studies. Jason’s long-term objectives are to implement an Ethnic Studies Museum Education program at the future site of the Salinas Chinatown Museum and Cultural Center.

Annamarie Dominno-Cailles is the Senior Advisor at the Student Disability and Accessibility Center (SDAC), an office within the Health and Wellness Services department at CSUMB. SDAC supports CSUMB students with disabilities through the promotion of empowerment, wellness, and full integration into campus life and the campus community. Anna's work is driven by the perspectives that disability identity is just one of the many overlapping, intersecting facets of diversity, and that accessibility is the guiding principle toward inclusion for all. Anna is a proud Monterey County local, whose family has deep roots working in Salinas Valley agriculture over four generations. 

Dr. Phương Nguyễn is Associate Professor of US History and Chair of the School of Humanities and Communication. He was born in Vietnam in 1975, but grew up on the Monterey Peninsula. His courses on Asian American History, California at the Crossroads, Histories of Democracy, and Multicultural History are informed by his passion for social justice, multiracial community-building across boundaries, and learning from the past. He is the author of Becoming Refugee American: The Politics of Rescue in Little Saigon (2017, University of Illinois Press). 

Larry Oda is the current National President of the Japanese American Citizens League and is Chairman-Emeritus of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation Board of Directors. He was born in a Justice Department Internment Camp in Crystal City Texas during World War II.  He was raised in Monterey, California and attended college in Fresno, California. He was hired to be the vehicle and equipment manager for the City of Salinas, California and his responsibilities grew to oversee the remaining four major maintenance activities; Facilities, Streets, Wastewater, and Parks, and to act as a City Administrative Hearing Officer. He retired from the City as the Public Works Maintenance Superintendent.
He currently serves as a Trustee of the Big Sur Land Trust and a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Foundation for Monterey County.

Dr. Eric Tao is a full Professor of Computer Science at CSUMB for over 20 years. He is the founding director of the Institute for Innovation and Economic Development at CSUMB. In 2021, he co-founded Coalition for Asian Justice in Monterey Bay. He is passionate about innovation, technology, and global economics and regularly speaks in international forums on these subjects. Dr. Tao obtained his bachelor's degree from Taiwan and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Angie Ngọc Trần was born and raised in Vietnam, from which she escaped by boat at seventeen, settling in southern California. After obtaining a doctorate in political economy at the University of Southern California, she joined the CSU Monterey Bay faculty for over 26 years and counting! She has researched and published on transnational labor migration and resistance in Vietnam and Malaysia. Her ongoing co-authored study with Dr. Lorenzo Covarrubias, entitled “H-2A Mexican Agricultural Guestworkers: Navigating opportunities and risks in California and improving quality of life in Mexico,” aims toward future comparative studies on global labor migration patterns, empowerment and resistance. Her 2022 book, Ethnic Dissent and Empowerment: Economic Migration between Vietnam and Malaysia, integrates ethnicity, class, gender, religion, cultural resources of five different ethnic groups in Vietnam. She co-founded Coalition for Asian Justice and is active in local and transnational movements for labor and social justice causes.

Faculty panel facilitator Dr. Shigeko Sekine

Tomoko Ogaki, Urasenke First Degree Instructor, Lecturer of Japanese, CSUMB 

Friday 1:30-3:30 pm, University Center Living Room

Hideko Russell, Urasenke First Degree Instructor, Associate Professor of Translation and Interpretation, MIIS

Anne Oda, Urasenke First Degree Instructor

Junko Matsuda

Arlene Ichien

Daniela Setka is a second degree black belt in Shorin-ryu karate and has been studying for about thirteen years under Senseis Jim and Kathy Ernest. The little dojo in Dixon, California is a branch dojo of Ryukyukan, a Shorin-ryu karate organization based in Okinawa, Japan. She has competed in tournaments throughout California and in Okinawa and now teaches at her dojo. She is also a marine science major and Japanese language and culture minor at CSU- Monterey Bay.