Recent News
'Indigenous People Are Still Here.' Student-Led Campus Tour Highlights Native Connections
Apr 2, 2024
By Larry Peña / Photos by Joe Johnson
Like most public spaces in California, Cal Poly lies on land originally held by Indigenous people — in this case, the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (ytt) Northern Chumash tribe. That connection — along with other campus ties to Native culture and history — is being explored in a new interactive campus tour developed by students.
The tour, which was developed by students participating in both BEACoN Research Scholars and Summer Undergraduate Research Project programs, is designed to shed light on aspects of Native American history that intersect with locations, names and objects around campus.
“Historically, we've done a really bad job in California of recognizing that Indigenous people are still here,” said ethnic studies professor Lydia Heberling, who coadvised the project. "This is a small step that we can take toward re-centering California Native peoples in the present.”
The tour begins, appropriately, at the yakʔitʸutʸu housing community on campus, a residential complex for first- and second-year students named for and designed to model the locations of the original ytt village sites of San Luis Obispo County. The complex is also home to the Native American and Indigenous Cultural Center (NAICC).
Ethnic studies student Amy Contreras leads a
recent tour past the Native American and
Indigenous Cultural Center.
The tours include a discussion of the geography of the county’s original ytt settlements; an introduction to the student experience at NAICC; stops at Muir and Tenaya residence halls for lessons about key moments of Indigenous resistance to settlers; visiting a mural painted by an Aztec artist at the Baker Center that celebrates Indigenous knowledge ; and a discussion about cultural practices and land stewardship around a cluster of native white sage.
Visitors can experience the tour in one of three ways: a guided in-person tour with a member of the research team, a self-guided tour with a printed booklet, or a digitally guided tour using the team’s ArcGIS story map.
Ethnic studies student Amy Contreras and computer science and ethnic studies student Sophie Martyrossian initially began working on the tour in early 2023 along with ethnic studies professors Becca Lucas and Lydia Heberling, who brought the idea from the University of Washington, where a Native undergraduate student had developed a similar Indigenous walking tour.
As they developed the tour materials, the students conducted interviews with ytt tribal members, did their own archival research and learned human research standards critical to avoiding past mistakes in anthropological research. They also collaborated with members of the ytt tribe to ensure a respectful and accurate tour experience.
“One of the important goals in the research and development part of this project was to think through the stakes of how we approach conversations with tribal members, given the not-always-great history between researchers and Indigenous communities,” said Heberling. “We wanted the students to learn how to approach that aspect of this project in a relational way, in a respectful way, and in a way that centers the interests of the tribe, so that we’re not just taking their information without doing something with it that does some good for them.”
One thing that the tour notably does not include is any reference to sacred or cultural Indigenous sites that may or may not be on campus. That was an intentional omission, at the request of the ytt tribal members who worked with the group.
“Something really important I learned is the phrase ‘sacred is secret,’” said Contreras. "When it comes to doing research about Indigenous people, you have to really be okay with the information that they provide — that there might be things they don’t want to divulge. No matter where you step, no matter where you are, you always have to come with good intentions.”
Contreras gives a presentation on the on the first
stop of the tour at the yakʔitʸutʸu housing
community, while Heberling and Lucas
(first and second from right) watch.
As the tours become available to the general public, the students and professors that developed it hope it can lead to better cooperation and understanding in the future.
“Our deeper hope for this project is that it acts as a model of how to interact in a positive way with a tribe, whether it is here in San Luis Obispo or in any university setting,” said Lucas, who is a member of the ytt Northern Chumash tribe and helped facilitate connections with key tribal leaders. “There's a lot of interest on campus in working with the tribe, which is awesome, but to really ensure mutually beneficial conversations, and the ability of researchers to hear ‘no,’ and to stop and pivot if that happens, is really important in any working relationship, academic or otherwise.”
Many of the discussions on the tour touch on areas of history not often covered in history or social studies classes — for example, the story of the Ahwahnechee tribe who occupied the Yosemite Valley in the mid-1800s, holding out against attempts by the state of California to forcibly relocate them to reservations.
“Something that both of us hear consistently as we teach upper division ethnic studies courses is, ‘How have I never heard of any of this before?’” said Lucas. "If we can have those experiences with members of the community, I think that would be huge. It's not about trying to make anyone feel bad about the past — it’s about bringing everyone along so that collectively we can do better in the future.”
Header image above: Ethnic studies professor Becca Lucas, in the green Cal Poly sweatshirt, presents during a tour stop at the University Union. Contreras and Heberling stand near her.
Read the story in Cal Poly News
Alumna and Local Attorney Wins Distinguished ‘Rising Star Award’
Mar 28, 2024
By Nicole Troy
Local immigration attorney and alumna Nicole Mullikin (Modern Languages and Literatures, ’15) is the 2023 recipient of the Women Lawyers Association of San Luis Obispo County’s “Rising Star” award, honoring her work as a lawyer with fewer than seven years of experience.
Mullikin, who is bilingual in Spanish, opened her practice, the Law Office of Nicole G. Mullikin, in 2022 with a focus on family and humanitarian immigration cases, including, but not limited to, adjustment of status, consular processing, citizenship, military parole in place, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewal.
Melodie Rivas (left) and Nicole Mullikin (right)
at the San Luis Obispo Women Lawyer’s
Association’s award ceremony.
“I feel incredibly honored and humbled to be the recipient of this award and I am thrilled to be receiving it alongside my friend, San Luis Obispo College of Law professor and San Luis Obispo Legal Assistance Foundation Director of Family Law Services Melodie Rivas, who won the Outstanding Woman Lawyer Award,” Mullikin said. “This is the product of all of the people in my life who have helped me to rise — my husband, family, friends, mentors, professors, teachers, clients, and this wonderful community of attorneys. I hope to continue to make them proud in my work supporting immigrants.”
A San Luis Obispo native, Mullikin attended both Pacheco Elementary school, a dual-immersion program where students acquire literacy in both English and Spanish, and Cal Poly, majoring in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and minoring in Asian studies.
“One of the things that is so important about my Cal Poly education is that I am able to connect with my clients on a deeper level, because I can speak their language,” Mullikin said. “If someone’s talking to me about how they've been the victim of a crime or domestic violence, and they can tell me in their own language and I can understand without a third person in the room to interpret, it's a lot less stressful for them.”
Mullikin at her graduation from San Luis Obispo
College of Law.
The State Bar of California catalogs 736 active licensed attorneys in the county, 49 of which have identified Spanish as an additional language spoken. And one local organization, the San Luis Obispo Legal Assistance Foundation (SLOLAF), sees the need for additional multilingual attorneys in the area.
“Even though SLOLAF doesn’t work in the same areas of law that Nicole does, we do see the need for having bilingual attorneys and support staff, and we utilize ours regularly,” Donna Jones, the executive director of SLOLAF said. “In all of the cases SLOLAF closed last year, ten percent of them involved clients who self-identified as Limited English Proficiency.”
According to a survey by the State Bar of California in 2017, 18.3% of respondents said they used Spanish within their legal practice — something Mullikin says is crucial when communicating with clients, especially within immigration law. "In the professional world, my ability to speak and write Spanish fluently is absolutely essential. I wouldn't be able to do my job the way that I do without it,” she said.
Her ability to speak more than one language has not only helped her inside of the office, but also in her endeavors to connect with the local community.
“I've done talks with SLO County Undocusupport, which is an organization that supports the local undocumented immigrant community, and I have found it useful to volunteer at events like these because it helps to build bridges, and it makes people realize, 'Oh, it's not scary to talk to an attorney and there's even someone that speaks Spanish fluently’,” Mullikin said.
Since opening her office, she has continued to serve the community by volunteering at dozens of local events and giving more than 15 presentations on immigration law.
“I am so grateful to be able to give back to the community that I grew up in and I think that it's very important for everyone to have knowledge about immigration law, whether it helps them, their family or their friends,” Mullikin said. “There are a lot of things on TikTok and other sources that aren't entirely accurate about immigration law, so the more correct information that we can put out there to help combat misinformation, the better.”
Mullikin as a panel speaker at Cal Poly’s event
United by Excellence: Paving the Road to
Higher Education for Latinx Student.
On top of volunteering and presenting, she is also affiliated with several local organizations including the San Luis Obispo Bar Association, Latino Outreach Council, Women Lawyers Association of San Luis Obispo County and the advisory boards of both the San Luis Obispo College of Law and Cal Poly World Languages and Cultures Department. She has also taught courses at San Luis Obispo College of Law.
Mullikin’s expertise not only serves the local community, but she has also represented clients from more than 18 countries.
“One of the fun things about my job is that I get to learn about new countries and cultures just like I was doing at Cal Poly when I was learning about Chinese and Latin American cultures,” Mullikin said.
A self-proclaimed “lover of languages” from an early age, she knew that no matter what career she found herself in — language and culture would be at the center of it.
“I don't think I can overstate the impact that Pacheco Elementary School has had on my life. Without that foundation and bilingual education, I would never have become a Spanish major, and likely never an immigration attorney,” Mullikin said.
The Cal Poly World Languages and Cultures Department served as the next stepping stone on her language-focused career path and ended up bringing her back to her roots.
“When it came time to pick a major for college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted to help people and that language skills would pair well with any career,” Mullikin said. “And what makes the World Languages and Cultures Department stand out is that the motto of Learn by Doing is really taken to heart. I wasn't memorizing grammar lists like you may think would be normal for a traditional language course. Instead, we did activities like practicing conversations with classmates and volunteering in Spanish language classes at Pacheco.”
Mullikin and Kevin Gregg, presenting
together about immigration law
at an UndocuSupport community
event in Paso Robles.
After graduating from Cal Poly, Mullikin worked fulltime for Cal Poly’s Extended, Professional and Continuing Education (EPaCE) program before enrolling in the San Luis Obispo College of Law earning a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree and a Master of Legal Studies degree.
Her passion for immigration law sparked in 2019 when she began interning for Paso Robles immigration attorney Kevin C. Gregg. “Kevin took me under his wing and mentored me, and I knew that was my niche.”
With language playing such a pivotal role in her life, Mullikin is passionate about sharing that love and encouraging others to learn additional languages.
“In the Venn diagram of life, if you can speak the language of your neighbors, then your diagrams overlap and it's no longer ‘us’ and ‘them’,” Mullikin said. “Languages build bridges, and in this day and age we need as many bridges as we can get.”
If you or someone you know needs confidential immigration services, you can contact Nicole Mullikin at (805) 242-2030 or visit her website at nicolemullikinlaw.com.
Read the most recent CLA News stories
'These Women Were Lost to History.' Students Curate Museum Exhibit on SLO's Hidden Voices
Feb 13, 2024
By Gabby Ferreira // Photos by Joe Johnson
A new historical exhibit in San Luis Obispo delves into the lives of four women who were pillars of the local community — and it was co-curated by two Cal Poly students.
“Hidden Voices,” which is currently on display at the History Center of San Luis Obispo County, was the product of nearly two years of work by recent anthropology and geography graduate Zoë Levit and fourth-year history major Jess O’Leary.
Jess O'Leary, left, and Zoë Levit, right, stand in
front of the sign advertising their exhibit d
uring its opening in November. Courtesy photo
"It’s called Hidden Voices because these women were lost to history. Their stories — their contributions to San Luis Obispo — were forgotten,” Levit said.
The exhibit spotlights Nettie Sinsheimer, philanthropist and wife of prominent 19th century businessman A.Z. Sinsheimer; Stella Louis, co-founder of the Chinese Students Association of Cal Poly and daughter-in-law of well-known Chinese merchant Ah Louis; civil servant and “Black Rosie” Alice Martin; and Maxine Lewis, who founded an organization to help others called Grassroots II, which is still operating today.
“Working with Zoë and Jess was a pleasure,” said Thomas Kessler, the History Center’s executive director. “They brought a perspective to talking about history that is extremely valuable for our community.”
Nettie Sinsheimer's area of the exhibit features
posters about her life and achievements, as
well as objects that help illustrate her life such
as an antique nurse's uniform and a menorah.
The pair started the project by researching Nettie Sinsheimer and Stella Louis, some of whose belongings are stored in the History Center’s offsite warehouse. They found the information they needed easily enough, but locating objects to help tell these women’s stories involved a few days of combing through the warehouse for artifacts.
“It was such a daunting task and we had no idea where to start,” O’Leary said. “We were searching for objects we wanted to use in the exhibit, but we didn’t know what we were looking for and we didn’t know if we would find anything.”
Some of the items on display for visitors to see
include dolls and certificates that belonged
to Stella Louis
They decided to use a mix of items that belonged to the women — like a book awarded to Nettie Sinsheimer and Stella Louis’ dolls and wedding invitation — and other things that helped illustrate the different time periods and the women’s unique cultures, such as an antique nurse’s uniform and a box of vintage Chanukah candles resting against a menorah in Nettie’s portion of the exhibit.
“We have a bunch of really cool artifacts in the exhibit that were exciting for us to find,” O’Leary said. “We’d be digging through stuff and suddenly — ‘Oh my gosh, this is the journal of this woman I've been reading about.’ I think that was the most satisfying part of curating this.”
Alice Martin's area of the exhibit includes a
display case showing the plaques she was
awarded for volunteer service, her coin
purse and a small toy airplane.
Levit and O’Leary also worked with Cal Poly archivist Laura Sorvetti, who first told them about Alice Martin, to review Martin’s collection at the Cal Poly Special Archives. Martin, a “Black Rosie” who supported the war effort as an aircraft mechanic during World War II, worked for decades at the San Luis Obispo Housing Authority. Her items that Levit and O’Leary chose for their exhibit include photos, a small toy airplane and two plaques for her outstanding volunteer service and work with the Housing Authority.
Finding information on Maxine Lewis was a bit more challenging: at first, Levit and O’Leary only found a few newspaper clippings and a photo. They conducted extensive interviews with Peggy Fowler, the executive director of Grassroots II, and Lewis’ daughter to learn more about Lewis and her impactful life.
“A lot of this process was the research gathering stage. That took a long time because we just wanted to get as in-depth as we could,” O’Leary said.
A photograph of Maxine Lewis next to the
Grassroots II sign is displayed alongside
information about her work founding
and running the organization.
There was just one item they intentionally left out of the exhibit: a piece of Stella Louis’ petrified, 100-year-old wedding cake, unearthed in a box of her belongings.
When the exhibit opened in November, Levit and O’Leary were pleasantly surprised by some special guests: Maxine Lewis’ family.
“Jess and I had no idea that was going to happen,” Levit said, adding that the family asked when the exhibit would close to ensure a relative driving in from LA could make it in time. “It was so surreal to have her family there and just be able to speak to them and hear their stories about this woman who was so incredible. That was the coolest part for me.”
Working on an exhibit for that long meant that both Levit and O’Leary formed a unique connection with the women they researched, but Stella Louis held an especially personal resonance for Levit.
Stella Louis' wedding shoes are among her
items on display at the exhibit.
“I’m a Chinese American woman myself,” Levit said. “Stella introduced Chinese culture and tradition to the people of San Luis Obispo in the 1920s. She and her husband had a restaurant that was a hangout for Cal Poly students and introduced them to Chinese food and she hosted Chinese New Year at her house. She also founded the Chinese Students Association, which is one of the biggest identity-based organizations on campus.
“Introducing this personal culture to people has been something I’ve tried to do in my own life. I really liked the way she was very welcoming to all people who were interested in Chinese culture and broke down the walls of fear of another identity especially in a time when people weren’t as welcoming. I think she was very brave in that regard.”
In one corner of the exhibit, posters tell
visitors about Stella Louis' restaurant and
involvement with the Cal Poly community,
side-by-side with photographs and
stories from Alice Martin's life.
The process of researching and putting together an exhibit was a Learn by Doing experience for both students in different ways. For O’Leary, who plans to pursue law school, the process helped her develop communication and research skills. For Levit, the process helped her with her career direction.
“My master’s thesis is actually related to collections. I want to keep putting up exhibits,” Levit said. “I really like designing and figuring out a way to convey information to a broad audience about a niche subject.”
The exhibit doesn’t have a set end date, and both Levit and O’Leary hope the stories of these women stay with people who come to the exhibit when they leave.
“A lot of history, to people who don’t study history, feels boring because it’s wars and monarchs and broad-scale events — which do inform the way we live today, but they’re not the kind of stories that stick with you,” O’Leary said. “We wanted to lay out these really personal histories of these women that hopefully someone will think about and internalize — even if it’s just on the walk from the museum to the car.”
“I hope that the stories that we tell go back home with the audience and that the lives and legacies of these women are preserved, that they aren’t forgotten,” Levit said. “I don't want them to be forgotten again.”
Read the story in Cal Poly News
Six CLA Professors Awarded Inaugural HSI Mini Grants
Feb 7, 2024
At the inaugural Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Symposium last October, the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI) announced the HSI Mini-Grant Program to further the university's mission of becoming an HSI that thinks critically and holistically about serving the Latine/x community.
Out of 39 applications, OUDI selected 16 projects for funding including five CLA projects led by five CLA faculty members and one student ranging from English to communication studies to music to psychology and child development.
Learn more about the CLA-related projects below.
English Department
Project Lead: Associate Professor Jason Peters
Research and Innovation: This project aims to assess what, if any, anti-racist pedagogical approaches are present within Cal Poly's First-Year Composition Program and identify any potential inclusivity gaps. By gathering insights from both instructors and students, the research will inform possible pedagogical enhancements and improve culturally relevant curricula, benefiting historically marginalized communities within the program, including Latinx/e students. This effort supports the creation of an inclusive campus environment that recognizes and values the diverse cultural backgrounds of Cal Poly's students.
The project seeks to contribute to the broader academic discourse on anti-racist pedagogy and critical language awareness in composition programs. The data collected will be used for conference presentations and published work, promoting discussions about systemic inequalities in the classroom which not only empowers Latinx/e students to address issues affecting their community, but encourages them to stand for change as well. The research will employ three methods: surveys, focus groups/interviews, and classroom observations. For the purpose of this project, the researchers will be grounding their discussion surrounding anti-racist pedagogical approaches through the following definition: anti-racist pedagogy, a form of Disruptive Teaching, critically examines the role of education in disrupting white supremacy (University of Michigan, Inclusive Teaching: Practicing Anti-Racist Pedagogy).
Communication Studies Department
Project Leads: Communication studies student Lilianna Rivas and Assistant Professor Leslie Nelson
My senior project is a podcast with different guests each episode to explore identities and issues within the Latine community. Some topics would include the Latine trans experience, colorism, how loss of the Spanish language affects self identity, and Machismo culture. My project focuses on the question, “How do Latine individuals navigate and communicate their identities in society and within the Latine community?” The podcast brings diverse Latine voices to light as my podcast will focus on intersectionality. Latinx/e is not a monolith, the culture is rich and diverse and it causes conflict. To support a community includes addressing the issues in the community to ensure that all members are seen and supported. Issues regarding identities such as gender and sexuality are not addressed in Latine spaces like in the household. By making my podcast, I bring these issues to light and give people with intersectional identities a voice. The podcast will be a miniseries that I plan to premiere each episode in La CASA along with a discussion about the topics included in the podcast.
Music Department
Project Lead: Assistant Professor and Director of Bands Christopher Woodruff
Residency for Mariachi Voces Tapatías
The multi-day residency of local professional mariachi ensemble "Mariachi Voices Tapatías" will include presentations on history and style of the musical genre of western Mexico. The residency will also include masterclasses sharing the techniques of playing in the style for players of wind, brass and string instruments. The residency will culminate in a public performance by the group along with those students who have participated in the masterclasses and rehearsals.
The residency goes beyond providing entertainment service for campus events. It is intended to engage with current students of Hispanic heritage through this rich musical tradition, to illuminate in some depth for students who have had only superficial exposure to this cultural practice, and to develop skills for those campus students (not just music majors) who possess some skill on the relevant instruments.
Outreach for participation will be campus wide as well as to Hancock and to Cuesta. Depending on interest, Bldg. 45 (Music & Theater Building) may be insufficient to facilitate, in which case we would need to identify appropriate rental space (PAC Pavilion) for classes and performance.
Psychology & Child Development
Project Leads: Assistant Professor Susana Lopez and Associate Professor Jay Bettergarcia
The Psychology and Child Development Department is committed to supporting our Latine students via educational initiatives that center Latine students and foster a sense of belonging across campus. For the purposes of this HSI mini-grant, two Latine faculty will co-create Cal Poly’s first-ever Latine Psychology course with a group of Latine psychology students. In line with HSI-taskforce recommendations, this course provides opportunities for Latine students to engage in servingness through the co-creation of decolonial approaches to psychology education.
Decolonial approaches and Liberation Psychology explicitly name power imbalance and structures that perpetuate inequities. Liberation Psychology’s roots are in Latin America, and it aims to further understand oppression while working toward liberation of oppressed groups. This is in stark contrast with traditional psychological approaches that address the downstream mental health consequences for individuals rather than the structures causing harm.
The Latine student’s voices and experiences will be centered when developing the course, however, all students will benefit from Latine-focused courses as we expand our curriculum to reflect more closely the breadth and nuance of human experience and development. Additionally, the development of this course and future similar courses also increases future opportunities for hiring and retaining faculty with expertise in Latine psychology.
Psychology & Child Development
Project Lead: Associate Professor Jay Bettergarcia
While research about Latinx students’ experiences with belonging and servingness at HSI’s has increased, little is known about the specific needs and experiences of LGBTQ+ Latinx students. Latinx LGBTQ+ students’ sense of belonging and connectedness to community is often affected by the racism experienced in predominantly White queer and trans spaces, while also simultaneously navigating cultural gendered norms, heterosexism, and cissexism in predominantly Latinx spaces. Students living at these intersections are likely to have varied experiences navigating life on-campus and in the community, however, these experiences are not well documented or understood.
In my previous work with Latinx students, undocumented students, and LGBTQ+ students at Cal Poly, we focused on campus health and wellbeing (Mansager, Williams, & Bettergarcia, 2021) and barriers to accessing basic needs services (Mansager, Bettergarcia, Williams, 2022). To date we have not meaningfully examined the experiences of students at the intersections of these identities.
The proposed project provides mixed-method research experiences for bilingual Latinx LGBTQ+ students that centers community-based participatory research methods and a critical qualitative approach. The results of this work will inform the development of programs and services for students living at these intersections while simultaneously supporting queer and trans Latinx to develop as co-researchers.
See the full list of projects awarded.
Who Were the African Californios? Researchers Uncover California's Untold Black History
Feb 7, 2024
By Larry Peña
When most people think of early California history, they might remember Spanish conquistadors, Indigenous tribes, missions or white American prospectors — but probably nothing about Black people. An interdisciplinary group of Cal Poly researchers is working to change that perception by unearthing the largely untold history of settlers of African descent in early California.
“In a lot of cases, people of African descent have been erased from the historical narrative,” says history professor Cameron Jones, coauthor of the book "At the Heart of the Borderlands: Africans and Afro-Descendants on the Edges of Colonial Spanish America." Jones is leading the project with the help of computer science professor Foaad Khosmood. “It's deep within our history, but no one talks about it. We're trying to reverse that erasure in talking about the American West and California specifically, by helping people understand the importance of these groups.”
In their day-to-day work on the project, Jones and a group of student researchers analyze records from a database called the Early California Population Project, a digitized set of birth, death and baptism records from the first decades of Spanish colonial history in California.
By developing digital tools to analyze early Spanish colonial records, Jones and his colleagues are building resources that will help shine a light on the history of people of African descent among the Californios — a multicultural group of people who populated the region between Spanish colonization and the annexation by the United States.
For example, in the colonial settlement of San Luis Obispo, says Jones, five of the six Spanish soldiers garrisoned there were of African descent. About half of the residents of the early village of Los Angles were Black. The Pico family, whose members included prominent Californio landowners, colonial governors, state senators, and the former owner of the property that became Hearst Castle, had African heritage as well.
Foaad Khosmood (left) and Cameron Jones (right)
presenting their research at a conference on
digital humanities.
A major challenge of the project is that race wasn't explicitly stated in many Spanish colonial records in California. People of African descent were treated as second-class citizens or worse in many other Spanish colonies — but in remote Alta California, where the Spanish government needed colonists to build their empire, race was kept ambiguous by using euphemisms such as "gente de razón,” or rational people.
“The Spanish were more likely to employ people from West Africa and other parts of the continent, to become conquistadors and help explore the New World — and in return those people might be rewarded with land and property and the chance to just live their lives. It’s a very different experience than what many people are used to hearing,” says Jack Martin, a history graduate student who was drawn to this project after taking a course from Jones focused on Afro-Latin American history. “The story that most people associate with the history of Black people in the Americas is connected with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but that was not always the case.”
The quality of 18th-century colonial record-keeping presents another of the major challenges in the project — one that computer scientists are working to help address.
“We’re working with Spanish colonial records from the 1780s and ‘90s — mostly church parish records where names may have been spelled differently, or entries were recorded decades after the fact,” says Khosmood, who began working with Jones on the project after the two got to know each other through the Faculty Association. “The big challenge is to decide if two people with similar names might actually be the same person, or if two people with overlapping records might be related.”
Khosmood and his students are working to develop programs that can replicate the kinds of decisions and inferences a trained historian might make about incomplete records, and then use machine learning techniques to automate those processes to help fill the gaps in thousands of data points in the historical record.
“Working on this project has shifted what I want to do,” says Evan Witulski, a recent computer science graduate who helped develop those digital tools. “I really love sitting down with an interesting problem and building out a program to fix it. This project helps me get better at approaching tasks and problem solving.”
The project highlights one of Cal Poly’s biggest strengths: a polytechnic community where scholars of different disciplines can come together.
“We are uniquely situated in a place where we can bring liberal arts and computing together to do very interesting projects, and this has many benefits,” says Khosmood. “I'm personally interested in all these things that I'm not an expert on — history, philosophy, narratives. Being able to brainstorm with some of the brilliant faculty in the College of Liberal Arts is very exciting, and I just hope that we can do more of this.”
The next steps for the project will be to develop a publicly available online resource at AfricanCalifornios.org, where historians, researchers, or anyone interested in their family’s history can access records pertaining to Black Californios. The team is also planning to begin gathering stories to flesh out the data, and to work with teachers to develop interactive maps, guides and lesson plans that update the state’s ubiquitous fourth-grade California history courses.
“Part of social justice is to be able to correct the inaccuracies within historical narratives that erase African American communities here in the United States,” says Jones. “We're really hoping that this reshapes the way California history is taught.”
Top photo: An illustration of Juan Garrido, a Black Spanish soldier who accompanied Hernando Cortes on his expeditions in Mexico (left). A photo of Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California and one of the most promient Californios of African descent (right).
Read the story in Cal Poly News
Rose Float History Blooms on Campus Thanks to a Senior Project
Jan 18, 2024
By Robyn Kontra Tanner // Photos by Joe Johnson
On New Year’s Day, millions of viewers around the world watched Cal Poly universities’ award-winning float, “Shock n’ Roll: Powering the Musical Current,” motor down Colorado Boulevard at the 2024 Rose Parade. Now, Mustangs can soak up some storied flower power on campus — thanks to a senior project that recently livened up a study space in the Julian A. McPhee University Union.
When Kennedy Library closed for renovations in 2023, amplifying a need for more computer lounge space on campus, Rose Float Vice President Collin Marfia saw an opportunity to partner with Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) to reimagine UU 221, also known as the San Luis Lounge.
“It was a sterile white room where I used to get my COVID test done during my first and second year,” Marfia said of the space before its reinvention. “Nobody really wanted to work there, and it was always empty, so we really wanted to push for life in that room.”
Each of the float photos has an ornate frame
that serves as a trophy from the Rose Parade.
Marfia combined his Rose Float know-how with his majors in history, anthropology and geography in a two-part project. For the first part, Marfia started by imagining a “trophy room” where Mustangs could gaze upon decades of float designs and grasp the program’s Learn by Doing legacy.
The vision was grand: photos of every float Cal Poly has built since 1949, a timeline of major program milestones, artifacts from previous generations of float builders, and a primer on the origins of the program.
ASI’s lead graphic designer Rayna Farkas, who is majoring in graphic communication, brought the ideas to life by designing the space and creating renderings of the new décor. She also designed custom wallpaper featuring illustrations of unique flora and a program timeline woven with the ornately framed float photos. The frame itself serves as the universities’ trophy from each parade.
San Luis Lounge now has custom wallpaper designed
by Rayna Farkas featuring floral elements used
on Cal Poly floats.
“We have 74 gold trophy frames that we ran out of space to display in the UU hallway,” Marfia said, adding that photos from the past 20 years had been sitting in storage.
Today, the photos, milestones, and memorabilia snake around the room in a chronological showcase of innovation, with more room to hang trophies from floats yet to come.
In the timeline wallpaper, Marfia chose to highlight float designs that pushed the envelope, like 1982’s “Way Out Welcome,” which marked the university’s first use of fiber optics, and 2014’s “Bedtime Buccaneers,” which included the first use of animated decorations. Cal Poly remains the parade’s only student-built float, and Marfia credits the fearless creativity of students for blazing new trails in front of an international audience.
“A lot of these big milestones — like the first use of hydraulics, the first use of computer-controlled animation — those were firsts for the parade as well, not just Cal Poly,” he explained.
While San Luis Lounge pays tribute to the floats, the second part of Marfia’s project celebrates the students who built them.
The room also houses unique Rose Float memorabilia,
including coveralls donated by alumnus Bob Pettis,
who led the program in the 1960s.
Marfia, with design help and photo restoration assistance from Farkas, created a 120-page coffee table book, titled “The Faces Behind the Floats: 75 Years of Cal Poly Rose Float,” which celebrates the creative spirits and core friendships that sustained the program from its early days to the present.
In addition to hours spent poring over old photos, documents, gas receipts, phone bills and hand drawings in the University Archives, Marfia conducted interviews with alumni and the program’s historian, Thomas Mutch, to assemble a “kind of running oral history” of the program. The process helped him build skills in archival organization and capture the spirit of the program through its artifacts.
“I did a lot of archival research as well as writing to pull all this together,” Marfia said. “I'm very happy with how it turned out.”
Marfia’s early involvement in the Rose Float program centered around construction and hydraulics — helping him learn more technical and artistic skills than he expected to gain as a student in liberal arts majors. In 2023, he was one of four float operators who drove the float in the parade. He calls that experience one of the defining moments of his life.
“It’s the personification of Learn by Doing,” he said of the Cal Poly Rose Float experience. “There are not many other programs that give you that type of experience in student leadership and hands on learning.”
He hopes his work on both the San Luis Lounge and the coffee table book will inspire more people on and off campus to appreciate the legacy of Rose Float. As he begins his last year of Rose Float leadership, he says he will remember the friends even more than the flowers.
“That’s pretty special: putting all these people together from different walks of life and seeing what happens,” he said. “There are so many different personalities merging together into one beautiful piece of art.”
Read the story in Cal Poly News
From Sketch to Stage
Dec 20, 2023
By Nicole Troy
Last summer, fourth-year art and design student Julia Neils and fifth-year interdisciplinary studies student Natalie Rathle spent eight weeks researching, dyeing and sewing costumes for Festival Mozaic productions as part of their Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP+) project.
The project, “Costume Design, Construction, and Implementation for Festival Mozaic productions: Appalachian Spring and The Soldier’s Tale,” marks the first time either student had participated in a SURP+ research project.
“I didn't know that the College of Liberal Arts did any kind of research and I think that's why I looked twice at the email from Theatre and Dance Department Chair Brian Healy,” Rathle said. “This project opened my eyes to what research can look like in the College of Liberal Arts and how it's not just a STEM-dominated area.”
Faculty Mentorship
Natalie Rathle.
Prior to the project, only Rathle had experience in costume design having taken both the department’s beginner and intermediate costume design classes.
To support the students throughout the eight-week project, Theatre and Dance Department Costume Shop Manager Laina Babb and Department Chair Brian Healy acted as faculty mentors.
Babb designed the costumes on paper while the students worked under her guidance to research techniques and build the costumes that were worn on stage.
“Laina was in the costume shop pretty much the whole time that we were in it,” Neils said. “I don't know if I've ever asked a teacher that many questions before. She was so helpful and supportive.”
Babb has worked with Rathle in the costume shop since her first year at Cal Poly and found that teaching students with different experience levels was highly rewarding.
Julia Neils. Photo: Neve Lin
“Working with Julia and Natalie was a great experience, and I don’t know how I would have done it without them,” Babb said. “They both brought their own unique talents and insight to the projects that really made the productions the successes that they were. Seeing how far Natalie has come as a costumer has been a real joy. And while this was my first time working with Julia, seeing her artistic eye and ability to pick up new techniques so quickly was inspiring.”
The Process
The first project the pair worked on was for the ballet Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copeland. Appalachian Spring tells the story of a preacher and the wedding of a young couple in early America.
To create historically accurate costumes from the 1900s, Neils combed through online museum archives in both San Luis Obispo and Atascadero for photos of citizens wearing casual, everyday outfits while Rathle visited the San Luis Obispo Historical Museum and spoke to museum docents.
“I wanted to try to get some basic visualizations of the early 1900s country and what people were wearing out in the fields to work in San Luis Obispo,” Rathle said. “After I got some of that influence going, I was able to focus more research on building the actual body of the dress.”
For the dyeing of the costumes, the students worked to create a “living landscape” of the Central Coast by conveying its crashing waves and rolling hills.
Shibori dyeing process. Photo: Julia Neils
“We spent about a week looking for different dyeing techniques for each of those, and that's when I came across Shibori, which gives this pattern that can look like both waves and grass,” Neils said.
Shibori is a Japanese tie-dyeing technique that derives from the word “shiboru” meaning to wring, squeeze or press.
Using PCV pipe and a piece of string on a needle, Neils rolled the fabric onto the pipe and scrunched it together so the ink would dye in a “random and organic way.” The Shibori-dyed pieces were used to represent the rolling hills and wheat fields.
Ice dyeing process.
Photo: Natalie Rathle
To showcase the ocean, Rathle tested out ice-dying to create the crashing wave effects. Laying fabric on top of chicken wire, she placed a tarp below for the water to seep underneath. She then laid ice on top of the dresses and shook powder dye on top of it. When the ice melted, unique and distinct designs appeared.
For the second production, “A Soldier’s Tale,” the students researched how to recreate historical Russian clothing including specific types of shirts and body warmers.
Creating the historical Russian pieces gave the students the opportunity to use tools from the costume shop that they had never used, or even heard of, before.
Process photo from A Soldier's Tale.
“One of the tools I used for the first time allowed us to put caps onto the boning in the corsets, so there weren’t these pokey metal edges jabbing the actors in the ribs,” Rathle said.
The Show
Dancers performing in Rathle and Neils' dresses
for Appalachian Spring. Photo: Heather Gray.
Choreography: Ryan Lawrence. Set Design: Sommer
Roman. Lighting: Zachary Hubbard. Costume Design:
Laina Babb.
After weeks of hard work, Neils and Rathle got to see their creations live on stage for Festival Mozaics' 2023 Summer Music Festival.
“The biggest impression left on me from this project was the first time that we watched Appalachian Spring on stage. Seeing the dresses in the context that they were designed to be seen in and seeing the translation from working on them in the shop, stagnant, to being onstage and flowing was a great experience. I loved seeing that transformation,” Neils said.
Photo: Heather Gray
Rathle agreed with Neils’ sentiments: “That's one of the amazing things about being a costume designer, or even just making costumes, is that transition period from staring at it in the shop to seeing it on stage with the lights, music and the whole ensemble all together. It feels very much like a success.”
What’s Next?
Inspired from her time on the project, Neils enrolled in a costume design class to learn more about the art.
“This project introduced me to a whole other community at Cal Poly and I’ve become more involved in the Theatre and Dance Department as a whole,” Neils said. “Laina Babb, though she’s not the costume class teacher, was also a big influence into why I chose to take a costuming class.”
Both students agree that the project was a fulfilling experience and encourage students to get more involved with undergraduate research and creative activity programs.
“The experience was just so fun, and more student involvement would help grow the program so that we can get additional creative activity research opportunities for students,” Neils said.
"This program confirmed two things for me: research is possible everywhere and I love costuming,” Rathle said. “I encourage students to keep an eye out for the CLA SURP offerings for next summer. I have a feeling they will further challenge the norms in research and widen opportunities for creative engagement."
Read the most recent CLA News stories
Alumnus Honored for Dedication to Supporting Hispanic Success in Higher Education
Dec 6, 2023
Eyole Mbongo
On Dec. 4, Eyole M. Mbongo (Political Science, '07), senior legislative assistant to Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas's 20th congressional district, received the Outstanding Congressional Staffer Award from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) in recognition of his exceptional dedication to advancing equity in education.
“For the last eight years, Eyole Mbongo has been a vital partner in my work to bring more funding and support to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and the communities they call home," said Castro. “Over the course of his time with my office, he’s fought to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding back to San Antonio schools and HSIs — helping them chart a path forward through the darkest days of the pandemic and fighting to close gaps in college attendance and completion. There is no one more qualified or more deserving of this award — and I’m grateful to HACU for recognizing the profound impact of his work.”
Mbongo joined Castro’s staff as an intern in his district office while completing his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) — one of twelve HSIs serving the city. After graduation, he joined the office as a full-time staffer, working on constituent services and helping federal agencies serve the people of San Antonio. He currently serves as Castro’s senior legislative assistant in Washington, D.C., where he has been a critical advisor in the introduction of several bills and resolutions, including:
- The Hispanic Educational Resources and Empowerment Act (HERE Act), which would authorize a grant program to support partnerships between HSIs and school districts with high enrollment of Latino students to improve college readiness and degree attainment.
- The Advanced Coursework Equity Act, which would authorize a grant program to address equity gaps in enrollment and performance in advanced programs and courses.
- A resolution to designate the week beginning on September 11, 2023 as National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week.
Read the most recent CLA News stories
A Place to Innovate
Nov 16, 2023
By Larry Peña // Photos by Joe Johnston and Dylan Head
This spring, Cal Poly dedicated the newest hub for learning on campus: the William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation. The new interdisciplinary research center features state-of-the-art laboratory and teaching spaces that enhance research and learning experiences for students and faculty in the Bailey College of Science and Mathematics; the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences; and the College of Liberal Arts.
“This cutting-edge facility is an investment in the education and future successes of our students,” said William “Bill” Frost, a biochemistry alumnus whose generous gift made the building possible. “I look forward to this space being used to further enhance the Learn by Doing experiences that define Cal Poly for generations to come.”
The building is the new home for several important university research centers and facilities. The Center for Applications in Biotechnology and the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences have labs in the building. The Food Science and Nutrition Department has essential new spaces dedicated to culinary development, nutrition and food studies, sensory analysis and food safety in the building’s Boswell Agricultural Technology Center, and the Experience Industry Management Department has an Experience Innovation Lab to design unique user experiences. The Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies program has an impressive new facility in the Cashin Expressive Technology Studio.
And surrounding all these labs and research facilities are connected spaces for student collaboration; beautiful new offices for the interdisciplinary faculty associated with the labs; a stunning central atrium and event space where students can lounge and study; a rooftop garden that doubles as a learning lab; and a bright, appealing design overall that draws people together in the process of discovery.
Over the summer, Cal Poly Magazine got a chance to explore some of the center’s cutting-edge facilities and learn about what students will being doing there. Learn more about how faculty and students in the CLA are studying innovative storytelling techniques.
The Future of Storytelling
Student Alyse Murray tests out the studio’s virtual reality gear.
The theater is silent and dark. The sound- absorbent tiles that cover the walls like a sprawling cityscape are barely visible, but they’re doing their job — the room is quiet enough that you can almost hear your own heartbeat.
Suddenly a 20-foot projection screen flares to life with the trailer for a sci-fi blockbuster. Your ears track the motion of the laser blasts flashing past you and spaceships scream overhead as the Dolby Atmos sound system kicks into action, projecting bone-shaking surround sound.
It’s not a Hollywood screening room — it’s a cutting-edge studio dedicated to teaching liberal arts and engineering (LAES) students the latest techniques in immersive audio and visual storytelling, and it’s on the ground floor of the Frost Center.
The space is already slated for lots of student and faculty research over the next few quarters.
Music professor Julie Herndon and computer science
professor and LAES co-director Michael Haungs work
with the studio’s new sound mixing board.
Music professor Julie Herndon and computer science professor and LAES co-director Michael Haungs work with the studio’s new sound mixing board.
Music professor Julie Herndon is using a research grant to develop a new musical interface that allows a performer to generate unique notes and sounds by touching everyday objects around them. The Theatre Department is using the studio’s Wi-Fi-based motion capture system to add live monster special effects to its winter production of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. And a group of students are using the studio’s virtual- and augmented- reality equipment to create an immersive 3D virtual reality experience designed to transport elementary school students from the classroom to an undersea environment off the California coast.
The studio’s assets also include a projection room outfitted with a professional-quality digital projector; digital editing bays set up to handle traditional video editing or more complex virtual reality projects; and the upcoming installation of a customizable lighting grid that students will use to learn professional theater lighting.
But the most important thing the space provides to students is less tangible.
“These kind of production spaces are usually designed specifically for commercial use and are very hard to access unless you’re part of that whole system. You don’t just hand it over to people and let them play with it for months at a time and see what they can come up with,” says professor David Gillette, co-director of the LAES program. “But that’s exactly what we’re trying to create — an open space for students to experiment and try things. The tools are important, but tools are just tools. What they really need is the time and space and the freedom to experiment.”
Learn more from Cal Poly Magazine
Wanna Hear a Ghost Story? Here's Why We Love Them, According to Professors
Oct 27, 2023
As we get closer to Halloween (and bulk-buy candy at Costco and Target), many folks are also dusting off ghost stories to tell at parties, cracking open a Stephen King novel, or frantically Googling which streaming service has their favorite scary movie for a good seasonal watch.
But what draws us to these chilling tales? Cal Poly News spoke to three English professors who have studied horror in film or literature to learn more.
Doug Keesey is a professor of film and literature who has published a book on 21st century horror films. Professor Regulus Allen, who created a course on Gothic monsters, has extensively studied Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” as part of her specialty in British literature from 1660 through 1840. Professor Brenda Helmbrecht is researching the impact of ghost stories in the California missions and will teach a class next quarter on horror and film.
Their answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Why do you think people are fascinated by the creepy, spooky and macabre?
Professor Doug Keesey. Courtesy photo
Keesey: People love horror for different reasons. For some, it’s about taking risks and surviving shocks, a “dare to enter that haunted house” moment: see “Hell Fest.” For others, it’s less about outright terror and more about those pleasurable, spine-tingling moments that come from a slow-building creepiness: see the alien-abduction chiller “Communion,” starring Christopher Walken.
Allen: I feel like there's two main reasons. One is when people are bored and they kind of want something to jolt them into a pleasing state of anxiety.
But then, ironically and inversely, when people are anxious about something, they sometimes like a scary story to help them examine the fears at a distance and possibly manage them. I feel like both of those explanations come into play for Mary Shelley's particular story. “Frankenstein” originated as both a desire to relieve boredom and a way to allow Mary Shelley to work out her anxieties.
Helmbrecht: I’ve had multiple people tell me they like to watch scary movies to relax, which seems counterintuitive, right? But I think that’s because it’s a fully immersive escape from our daily lives, where we’re looking at things that scare us, but there’s not much at stake — whereas in the world around us, there are a lot of things that scare us and so much more at stake. In a weird way, there’s something kind of empowering in knowing that the anxiety and tension you’re feeling is temporary and you know it’ll be over when the movie is done.
Professor Regulus Allen speaks at a reading of
“Frankenstein” at Kennedy Library in 2018.
Courtesy Photo
Different horror movies explore different kinds of social and cultural anxieties — including around gender, race and sexuality. They can help you process things going on in your own life and make it more manageable in a sense — horror films are uniquely capable of portraying our experiences.
What do you think the things we fear in our stories say about the things we fear in society?
Keesey: I see horror as a way of exploring our fears, a place for confronting them and figuring out what, if anything, we should really be afraid of. I define a progressive horror film as one that leads us toward overcoming our fear of difference, enlarging our understanding of and sympathy for “othered” persons. By contrast, regressive horror solidifies old fears and refortifies the boundaries between us and “them,” confirming and even exacerbating phobic responses. Most horror fiction and film are actually some combination of progressive and regressive, since horror is all about blurred lines and ambivalent feelings.
Allen: There are a lot of anxieties of the early 19th century represented in “Frankenstein,” including the predominantly white readership’s fear of the racialized other, since some critics interpret the creature to represent people of African or Asian descent. But we also see climate anxiety: the story was written in 1816, which was called the year without a summer. A volcano in Indonesia, Mt. Tambora, had erupted in 1815 and caused all these climate disruptions throughout the world — the downturn in weather led to lots of crop failures, mass starvation and disease. Geneva, Switzerland, was filled with climate refugees that contemporary accounts likened to the walking dead. You can see how that would inspire something like the creature. This was also an age of troubling technological innovation and experiments with galvanism, which in the book is what animates the collected corpses that become the creature.
Professor Brenda Helmbrecht. Photo by Joe Johnston
There are also personal anxieties: Mary Shelley’s first child was born prematurely in February 1815 and died a month later. As she’s writing this novel, she’s dealing with having lost her child, and a lot of maternal anxiety comes out in the story. “Frankenstein” is very much about what responsibility a creator owes to its creation. It’s a story about parenting, and the source of the monstrosity is that the creature was never sufficiently cared for.
Helmbrecht: We live in a society right now where I think we’re encouraged to be afraid, and there are bad actors out there who are banking on us being afraid of things that are not actually scary. Horror films create a different kind of artificial fear, but one I think we can derive our own meaning from, as opposed to someone else telling us what we’re supposed to be afraid of.
There are great films that deal directly with xenophobia, like “His House,” and Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” addresses racial anxiety very well, and I would argue that a lot of horror films, like “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” deal directly with gender and gender representation. There are so many different focal points for fear in our lives, and so many different kinds of horror films. What’s horrific to one person isn’t necessarily horrific to another person, and I think everyone has a specific kind of horror they’re most interested in engaging with. For example, I avoid all slasher films because I’m not in it for the blood and guts. I’m in it for the suspense and for trying to think through my own fears and anxieties in different ways.
Do you have a favorite scary or scary-adjacent piece, and are there any you think everyone should check out?
Keesey: One of my favorite horror films is still the original “Candyman” from 1992. It has a high creep factor, some good jump scares, an iconic performance by Tony Todd, and a score by Philip Glass! It also makes excellent points about race and class, without getting too preachy. I would recommend people watch “Under the Shadow” for its spooky storyline, its strong but fallible female characters, and its unusual focus: religion in Persia. Not only does the film have some good scares, but it leaves you with a better understanding of what it's like to live in another part of the world.
Allen: My favorite spooky story is Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” as you can probably guess. And the reason I connect to it is that when I was a kid, my mom’s favorite movie was Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein.” I saw that movie before I saw the original “Frankenstein” movie from 1931 that it was spoofing. I was just primed to enjoy that story. And when I went to college, and read the original novel, I fell in love with it.
Helmbrecht: It changes constantly for me. I love “The Descent,” “The Witch,” “Midsommar” and “The Relic.” “The Descent” resonates for me because it’s about female friendships at its core. “The Relic” is about three generations of women and how they relate to each other. I think “The Witch” is a gorgeous film and it’s about this young woman who’s placed in a situation where she has no control over her fate and future and she goes to the dark side, which offers her a kind of freedom from social constraints. I still think back to the scene in “Midsommar” where the main character, played by Florence Pugh, is with that group of women after she realizes her partner has been dishonest with her and she’s screaming and emoting. I’ve never seen a scene like that in film, and I thought it was very powerful. But each of the women in these films is dealing with their own identities and anxieties in a way I think people can relate to, with a scary edge to it.
I recommend people watch “The Descent” because I think it's terrifying. It’s about cave exploration, so it hits a lot of marks for me in terms of a claustrophobic setting. It’s dark and you literally don’t know what’s around the next corner, so there’s a fair amount of jump scares that I think are handled really well. But beyond the scares, it’s a complex story about the relationship between friends — and we get to see strong women fight back against the darkness and the creatures who live there.