EXPLORE FALL 2023 | VOLUME 5 | NUMBER 1
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Tell Us How
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EXPLORE FALL 2023 | VOLUME 5 | NUMBER 1 | ISSUE 8
Contents 2 Undergrads Recognized for Outstanding Research Skills 6 Student Leads Launch of Menstrual Equity Pilot Program in Geisel Library 8 Tell Us How UC It: A Living Archive for Student Activism at UC San Diego 16 Here to Help: Gen Thipatima ’18 and Karen Heskett 18 Generating and Reclaiming Our Wisdoms (GROW) 20 Power to the Poet On the Cover Photo of students demonstrating on Library Walk in 2016 taken by Cory Wong. The image was originally published in The UCSD Guardian article “The Art of Protest” by Matthew Zamudio. Left: Creative works produced by students in 2016 and 2017 for the Library’s Tell Us How UC It project (Pages 8-15).
EDITORIAL
PHOTOGRAPHY
Nikki Kolupailo Editor
Camille Cannon, Cristela Garcia-Spitz,
April Tellez Green Deputy Editor and Writer
April Tellez Green, Karen Heskett, Erik Jepsen and Kirk Wang
CONTRIBUTORS
DESIGN
Camille Cannon, Dephny Duan,
Leah Roschke StudioGrafik
Cristela Garcia-Spitz, Karen Heskett, Tamara Rhodes and
PRINTER
Elizabeth Salaam
Neyenesch Printers
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© 2023 UC SAN DIEGO LIBRARY
Over the summer, as preparations began for this issue of Explore, we determined that the central theme would revolve around showcasing narratives centered on student research and activism. Now, with fall quarter well underway, we have witnessed numerous instances of students demonstrating their right to free speech across campus. Chancellor Khosla recently emphasized in a message to the Triton community that “Freedom of speech is not only protected by the U.S. Constitution but also revered and celebrated on our campus as a cornerstone of academic freedom.” UC San Diego has a rich history of student activism, spanning seven decades and encompassing a diverse range of causes. From civil rights to environmental advocacy, these movements have left a lasting impact on the university’s identity. Libraries believe deeply in intellectual freedom, the freedom to read, and freedom of expression. Preserving and telling the history of student activism is part of this work, so I am glad we can bring these stories forward in this issue of Explore. Throughout Pages 8-15, you will learn more about Tell Us How UC It, a
grassroots effort initiated by a group of UC San Diego Library employees who shared a collective desire to provide an alternative platform for raising awareness, fostering dialogue, and preserving and documenting events and student sentiments related to activism on our campus. Serving as a foundation of inspiration, other student-centered initiatives have been conceived as a result of the Tell Us How UC It project. Pages 18-19 highlight one such example — Generating and Reclaiming Our Wisdom (GROW): A Collection of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community Stories at UC San Diego. Authored by alumna and current graduate student Dephny Duan ’23, the article takes a closer look at this collaboration between undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and librarians who share a collective sense of urgency and passion to preserve the legacy of AAPI activism at UC San Diego. Other stories in this issue include an overview of the winners of the 2023 Undergraduate Library Research Prize (Pages 2-5), the Library’s partnership with a student who is dedicated to addressing inequities in access to menstrual products on campus (Pages 6-7), and profiles of two Library employees whose work
Located directly in front of Geisel Library’s main entrance, the Silent Tree is a common gathering place for students who wish to demonstrate their right to free speech.
closely supports student research, advocacy and engagement in unique ways (Pages 16-17). The issue concludes with a spotlight on Jason Magabo Perez ’03, MA ’13, PhD ’16, originally published in UC San Diego Magazine. Including Perez’s story feels particularly apt given his involvement in political activism across campus during his undergraduate years. Even more fitting, Perez is San Diego’s current poet laureate and the featured speaker at our upcoming Signature Event Series in February 2024. In addition to joining me in conversation about his life and work, Perez will read excerpts from his books of poetry. I invite you to join us for what I know will be an engaging and enlightening evening. Sincerely,
Erik T. Mitchell Audrey Geisel University Librarian
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UNDERGRADS RECOGNIZED
Anne Parnell
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Sky Li
FOR
OUTSTANDING RESEARCH SKILLS This June, two students were awarded the 2023 Undergraduate Library Research Prize (ULRP), an annual program that enriches the undergraduate student experience at UC San Diego by promoting innovative and collaborative research. Now in its 17th year, this award recognizes the outstanding scholarly work of undergraduate students who demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving and strategic use of Library resources, services and expertise in support of the university’s mission. The prize is co-sponsored by the Library, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and UC San Diego Alumni. The 2023 ULRP recipients are Anne Parnell, a history, political scienceinternational relations major at Earl Warren College and Sky Li, a neurobiology and computer science specialized in bioinformatics major at Revelle College. Both honorees were recognized at an awards ceremony hosted at Geisel Library on June 1, 2023, and received a cash award of $1,000. Among other speakers at the event, UC San Diego’s Dean of Undergraduate Research Advancement and Director of the Undergraduate Research Hub, David Artis, praised the winners for their hard work and unwavering commitment to the research process. “Someday, a student will win this prize, and at least one of the sources that student cites will have been authored by one of you,” said Artis. “I feel very confident making this statement because the Library already holds materials authored by alumni. You are part of a tradition now and have shown the initiative to succeed as scholars. Congratulations!” To be considered for the prize, students must be nominated by a faculty member and participate in UC San Diego’s annual Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Undergraduate Research Hub, or other university
The ULRP highlights the incredible, high-level research that undergraduates at UC San Diego engage in. It is inspiring to see how students use Library resources and services to new and creative ends...
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programs that foster and recognize student research and scholarship. “The ULRP highlights the incredible, high-level research that undergraduates at UC San Diego engage in,” said Dani Cook, Associate University Librarian, Learning and User Experience. “It is inspiring to see how students use Library resources and services to new and creative ends. One of the rewards of library work is to support students in pursuing their interests and building their research skills, and we are delighted to recognize their work with the campus community. Congratulations to Anne and Sky on their achievements. I can’t wait to see what they do next.”
Anne Parnell won for her research project, “Seeking Justice: Limited Tribal Jurisdiction in Cases of Sexual Violence.” Parnell conducted her research under the mentorship of Mary C. Klann, PhD, Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of History at UC San Diego. She presented at the Undergraduate Research Conference on the difficulties of seeking justice for sexual and domestic violence in the scope of limited tribal jurisdiction. Her primary goal in conducting this research was to better understand the impacts of the Indian Civil Rights Act on the judicial autonomy of Tribal governments in the United States. “Winning this award is an honor and truly humbling. I take great pride in
my research and am grateful to the Library for offering me the opportunity to dive deeper into my chosen subject matter and complete this project,” said Parnell. “I want to extend my gratitude to the Library and its librarians, specifically, for being there when I needed them most.” Sky Li won for his research project, “Diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Using a Robust 14 Species Signature.” Sky conducted his research under the mentorship of Weg M. Ongkeko, MD, PhD, Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Li’s research involved utilizing modern, machine-learning-powered bioinformatic tools to harvest the power
...One of the rewards of library work is to support students in pursuing their interests and building their research skills, and we are delighted to recognize their work with the campus community. DANI COOK, ASSOCIATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN, LEARNING AND USER EXPERIENCE
Pictured from left to right: Audrey Geisel University Librarian Erik Mitchell, ULRP winners Anne Parnell and Sky Li, and Dean of Undergraduate Research Advancement and Director of the Undergraduate Research Hub David Artis.
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of genomic and clinical datasets to investigate cancers, COVID-19 and other diseases. His project was presented at the 2023 Triton Research and Experiential Learning Scholars (TRELS) event where he was honored with the TRELS scholarship. “The Library proved to be instrumental in my research for this project,” Li shared. “Without the guidance of librarians and other Library staff, I am confident my research would not have yielded such compelling outcomes. The content gathered and spaces used throughout my studies allowed me to grow my knowledge exponentially.” For more information about the Undergraduate Library Research Prize, visit lib.ucsd.edu/ulrp.
SCHOLARLY POSTERS CELEBRATED BY LIBRARIANS AT SUMMER RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM In January 2023, more than 90 medical and pharmacy students presented posters detailing the results of their projects at UC San Diego’s Summer Research Symposium. A team of health sciences librarians reviewed all the posters in order to award the Library’s Best Use of Literature in a Poster distinction. This accolade recognizes researchers who best cited the sources used in their research. The librarians evaluated the variety of resources used, the use of citations throughout the poster, the currency of the sources and the completeness and consistency of sources cited. First and second-place awards were given to both medical and pharmacy students, along with a monetary prize. The award-winning posters were displayed in WongAvery Library for several months following the symposium. The next session, the 2024 Summer Research Symposium, will be held on January 18, 2024 in the Price Center Ballroom.
2023 Medical Student Recipients First place: Ariadne Nichol for “Rapid Review of COVID-19 Vaccination Access and Acceptance for Global Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Undocumented Migrant Populations.”
Above: Ariadne Nichol (left) and Rhiannon Buchholz (right) hold their poster award certificates for the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Below: Louis Odeesho (left) and Xiaoying Huang (right) hold their poster award certificates for the UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Second place: Rhiannon Buchholz for “Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCT-A) of Conjunctiva in Health and Disease.” 2023 Pharmacy Student Recipients First place: Louis Odeesho for “Screening Antarctic, Brazilian and Ghanaian Natural Products Against Trypanosoma Brucei.” Second place: Xiaoying Huang for “Initial In-Vivo Study of Antidotes, RS194B and 2-Pralidoxime, in Target Tissues.”
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STUDENT LEADS LAUNCH OF MENSTRUAL EQUITY PILOT PROGRAM IN GEISEL LIBRARY Third-year Thurgood Marshall College student Liane Barkhordar is on a mission to help solve period poverty right here on UC San Diego’s campus. Her action was spurred by an assignment in her Dimensions of Culture course, which is grounded in Marshall College’s commitment to social justice. The project tasked students with writing a research paper about an issue on campus and proposing a solution. Barkhordar’s topic: period poverty. During her research, Barkhordar discovered California Assembly Bill No. 367 (AB367), which was signed into law in 2021. An existing law required public secondary schools to stock half of their restrooms with period products and prohibited schools from charging for them. With the passing of AB367, known as the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, schools are now required to stock free menstrual products at all times in women’s restrooms, all-gender restrooms and at least one men’s restroom. While the bill requires the California State University system and community college districts to follow this law, the Regents of the University of California and private post-secondary institutions are only encouraged to do so. This struck a nerve with Barkhordar, prompting her to investigate if other UC campuses had taken action in response to AB367. That’s when she discovered UCLA’s student-led period pilot initiative. Through her research, Barkhordar learned more about their process and how UCLA’s student leaders worked with campus administration to enact change. Inspired by her UC peers, Barkhordar took the first steps to start her own initiative at UC San Diego and decided to run for Associated Students (AS) Campuswide Senator. She centered the period pilot initiative in her campaign and went on to be elected. From there, she worked with
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Above: Friends and Associated Students colleagues join Liane Barkhordar on March 15, 2023 at the menstrual equity pilot program ribbon-cutting ceremony near Geisel Library’s new gender-neutral restroom in the Service Hub. Left: Associated Students Campuswide Senator Liane Barkhordar next to a newly installed period pilot project basket in Geisel Library.
AS colleagues, fellow students and campus administration to move the project forward. Barkhordar began her work with a campuswide education campaign on period poverty and simultaneously launched a student survey about period product accessibility on campus. In total, 1,463 students responded, which informed Barkhordar’s approach to working with campus administration to develop and launch a pilot program. And that’s where the Library comes in. “I chose Geisel Library as the location to launch the period pilot because it’s a central hub for campus, and it’s a place where all students go,” said Barkhordar. “It’s right next to Price Center, somewhat close to the trolley, and overall, there’s a lot of foot traffic in the building.”
Barkhordar pitched Library leadership on her idea to stock Geisel with free menstrual products and was given the green light to work on an implementation plan with the Library’s Facilities Services team. Associated Students provided start-up funding, and the Library handled installation, product delivery and stocking in cooperation with Campus Facilities Management. On March 15, 2023, Barkhordar’s vision came to life when she launched the menstrual equity pilot program at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Geisel’s new gender-neutral restroom in the Service Hub. This program makes Geisel Library one of the first spaces on campus to offer free menstrual products. Now, each public restroom on Geisel’s 1st and 2nd Floors has baskets with free menstrual pads. Visitors can give feedback on the program by scanning the QR code at each location. Barkhordar notes that “ultimately, implementing this project in Geisel has shed necessary light on the needs of students. This feedback is critical and directs the next phase of the project. As the school year progresses, I plan to work alongside my peers, campus administrators and faculty to install period product dispensers in more campus restrooms and provide free period products for all.”
Barkhordar began her work with a campuswide education campaign on period poverty and simultaneously launched a student survey about period product accessibility on campus.
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Tell Us How
UC It A LIVING ARCHIVE FOR STUDENT ACTIVISM AT UC SAN DIEGO
Social movements have always been a powerful force in shaping the culture and direction of universities. At UC San Diego, a project known as Tell Us How UC It: A Living Archive for Student Activism is not only preserving the rich history of advocacy but also providing a living testament to the passion and dedication of the students who have fought and continue to fight for change. This project ensures that the voices of the past continue to echo into the future.
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The Genesis UC San Diego’s history of student activism spans seven decades and encompasses a diverse range of causes. From civil rights to environmental advocacy, these movements have left an indelible mark on the university’s identity. However, without proper documentation and preservation, these pivotal moments could be lost with time.
Tell Us How UC It started as a grassroots effort born from a collective desire to offer an alternative way to highlight awareness, provide a space for dialogue, and preserve and document the events related to student activism at UC San Diego. Spearheaded by a diverse group of women who work at the Library, the project was initiated in response to anonymous racist chalkings during the 2016 presidential election and concerns voiced by students at a race relations town hall co-hosted by the Black Graduate Student Association
Tell Us How UC It exhibit in Geisel Library, February 2017.
and the Graduate Student Association. Students are impacted by their campus environment in different and unique ways based on various and intersectional aspects of their identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender, culture, religion or upbringing. Acknowledging this demonstrated need for conversations about students’ experiences at UC San Diego, the main project team — Tamara Rhodes, Gayatri Singh, Rachel Myers and Cristela Garcia-Spitz — along with
support from other colleagues, started brainstorming ways in which the Library could support the campus community in building the necessary framework for this dialog. “My intention was to offer an approach for libraries to evolve the way they think about one of their core missions, sharing and guiding access to information and facilitating learning,” said Tamara Rhodes, initiator of Tell Us How UC It and the Library’s Lead for Inclusive Design.
Cultivating Student Perspectives and Exhibit Feedback As the project began to unfold in late 2016, the team sought to gather student reflections on UC San Diego’s campus climate at that moment in time. Their efforts included calls for submissions through campus flyers as well as engaging in direct outreach with faculty members, student community centers and the Residential Life offices at each
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college. The majority of submissions were received through two courses, Visual Arts (VIS) 105A: Drawing: Representing the Subject, and Culture, Art and Technology (CAT) 1: Migration Narratives in the Sixth College writing program. To show their support of the project, professors Katie Herzog and Amanda Solomon integrated student participation in the submission process into their final course assignments. Tell Us How UC It: A Living Archive debuted on February 1, 2017, with a physical exhibit in Geisel Library and a panel discussion on student activism. The exhibit included a history of student activism timeline, a selection of creative work from students expressing their experience of the campus climate and an area for visitor feedback. The accompanying panel discussion featured former UC San Diego student activists who were campus employees at the time of the panel, including Fnann Keflezighi (Thurgood Marshall College), Angela Kong (Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS)), Jorge Mariscal (Department of Literature) and Agustín Orozco (OASIS). Preserving Voices The heart of the Tell Us How UC It project lies in its meticulous efforts to collect and digitally archive studentsubmitted materials related to campus activism. The online archive offers the opportunity to view photographs from
the initial 2017 exhibit, along with a diverse array of student creations that vividly depict their unique experiences and reflections of UC San Diego. This compilation encompasses musical scores, poems, artworks, photographs, personal narratives and more. Selected pieces from this collection are showcased on Pages 11-15. Additionally, the project team conducted extensive research and collaborated with faculty members to construct a comprehensive historical timeline. Spanning from the 1960s to the present, this timeline spotlights a curated selection of events linked to activism on or involving the campus. It places a central emphasis on occurrences affecting students from historically marginalized communities, incorporating not only instances of contention but also moments of progress. “This project was a culture change for our Library in that we were seeking out student voices and engaging with social movements on our campus,” said Cristela Garcia-Spitz, a founding member of the project and the Library’s Digital Initiatives Librarian. “It’s resulted in new partnerships and opportunities to collaborate with students, faculty and campus groups.” Looking Ahead Seven years later, Tell Us How UC It continues to promote awareness, provide a space for dialogue, and
document and preserve events related to student activism at UC San Diego. It has widened its reach and impact through collaboration with Project STAND, a national archival consortium between colleges and universities that creates space for highlighting analog and digital collections emphasizing student activism in historically marginalized communities. Tell Us How UC It has also served as a foundation of inspiration, leading to new local partnerships and studentcentered initiatives on campus. Two notable examples include the conception of Generating and Reclaiming Our Wisdom (GROW): A Collection of Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Stories at UC San Diego (read more about GROW on Pages 18-19), and a collaboration with OASIS for a future project focused on documenting and celebrating Black excellence at UC San Diego. While Tell Us How UC It is accessible to a global audience online, its primary focus remains on serving the local UC San Diego community by preserving important moments in history through the eyes of its students. By connecting the voices of our current students with the history of UC San Diego, this living archive embodies a dynamic, ever-evolving narrative of the student experience during pivotal moments when, in the face of challenges, students come together to lead change.
The online archive offers the opportunity to view photographs from the initial 2017 exhibit, along with a diverse array of student creations that vividly depict their unique experiences and reflections of UC San Diego.
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VOICES ARCHIVES FROM THE
The following are creative works submitted by students as part of the Tell Us How UC It project in 2016. These materials offer an in-the-moment expression of community sentiments and personal experiences and perspectives of the campus climate. The accompanying descriptions and biographies were written by the students and have been taken directly from the living archive.
ELECTION NIGHT \ ANAIS PICHARDO Pen drawing, 11 x 8.5 inches
This work depicts the protests that erupted the night of the election shortly after it became evident that Donald Trump would be our next president. Anais Pichardo is a freshman attending Sixth College. She grew up in New York and lived in Pennsylvania until she moved to San Diego to attend UCSD.
CONSUMPTION \ ANONYMOUS Drawing and essay
Asian students in America are taught that all Asians, no matter their circumstances, are expected to be smart. For those who rise to the top of their grade, this belief is a source of pride. For those who are mediocre, this belief is a burden that criticizes them. For all of us, the belief in the model minority creates a constant fear of slipping grades and letting grades rule our lives. An American-born Vietnamese student from San Jose.
REACH \ ALLIE PAI
Digital art, 656 x 685 pixels The hands represent the community of UCSD and the impressions I have of UCSD… There are hands reaching out in a friendly, welcoming way; there are closed fists; there are hands pointing at me to exert pressure or to accuse. The hands are full of color, showing the diversity of the people I have encountered. Their colors blend together. I am a freshman at UCSD. I am a fourth generation Korean-American girl. I have anxiety and get no sleep. Haha... I’m so tired.
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LIFE AT UCSD \ ANONYMOUS Drawing
Reading from Angela Kong’s “Re-Examining Diversity Policy at UCSD” This represents how I feel at UCSD. Some of these words are also aspects I have observed about the school and its student body.
FRIENDS AT UCSD \ MELISSA CASTRO Ink painting, 22 x 28 inches
This piece is more of a positive take on the climate at UCSD. I have made so many friends while attending this school, even though as a transfer student, I have spent less time here. The art department is a very tight-knit community and I feel very close to my peers. Though there are many possible institutional critiques I could have focused on for this project, I chose to do something more positive in nature. My name is Melissa Castro, and I am a senior studio art major at UCSD. I transferred here from a San Diego community college. I was born and raised in San Diego and have made art all my life. One day, I plan on becoming an art teacher.
ONE AND THE SAME \ BRIANNA ALDERMAN Painting, 5 x 7 inches
This piece was inspired by the messages of peace and love that were written across campus in response to the words of hate that were written down Library Walk and in front of the Raza Resource Center. This piece exhibits individuals from different ethnic backgrounds coming together to form one group.
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SHH \ ISABEL RICKER
Photograph and essay
This entry reflects my changed view of the campus climate after completing my CAT course revolving around migration and cultural tension in the U.S. I am a freshman here at UCSD, new to the campus. I am currently a speculative design major at Sixth College.
UNITED \ WENJIA SHEN Drawing
I see different people unite together on campus. They are in different positions, but they have the same goal. They all want freedom and justice. I think UCSD has achieved this goal, or it is achieving it. First-year UCSD international student from China.
BENEATH THE SURFACE \ ANONYMOUS Drawing
The drawing tries to portray how the people of UCSD possess a multitude of qualities and differences that one generally can not see on the surface. Having only been at UCSD for nine weeks, I have come to realize that a lot of people here, including me, don’t really take the time to get to know people on a deeper level. This has led us to make assumptions about others that may not necessarily be true, which may have led to even further misunderstandings. And such an idea is what I wanted to portray with my drawing. I am a first-year international student from Taiwan. Although I went to an American education-based school, I didn’t really interact with a group of people as diverse as that of the UCSD community. This has led me to reflect on how I should interact with people who are different from me.
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UNTITLED MURAL \ THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE STUDENTS Paint on canvas, 78 x 72 inches
Countless Marshall College students contributed to the creation of this mural in the spring of 2010 as part of a Visual Arts Department installation. The project was spearheaded by Demetra Matin (Marshall College intern) and Justin Glover (student activities coordinator). In 2017, the mural was included in the Tell Us How UC It exhibit in Geisel Library.
HOW I SEE UCSD \ TIFFANY HUYNH Sheet music and essay
Although I have only been at UCSD for a few months, I have felt so many different feelings: happiness, love, stress, confusion. I have seen people come together as a single body, but I have also seen them divided. Being at UCSD as a first-year has opened my eyes to a larger, more “real” world. Driven by my passion for music, this piece reflects the multitude of emotions that I have felt and will continue to feel during my time here for the next few years. I am a Chinese American first-year at UCSD, majoring in physiology and neuroscience. While I love science, I also have a passion for music. In my free time, I enjoy playing the piano and violin.
MIXED MESSAGES \ KAITLYN RITCHEY Photographic collage and essay
Artwork is a collage of photographic recreations of chalk messages left around campus. The writing discusses my impression of the campus climate. Freshman at UCSD participating in CAT: Migration Narratives.
EXPLORE THE LIVING ARCHIVE knit.ucsd.edu/tellushowucit
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DIVERSITY \ ANONYMOUS
8-page digital comic, 8.5 x 11 inches
TUCKED AWAY \ EMILY SINGER
Graphite, sumi ink, colored pencil and marker on paper, 14 x 17 inches
Tucked Away is a series of three mixed-media drawings of locations on the UCSD campus that are hidden gems. None of these locations are in plain sight; they have to be found. Many students feel that the school environment at UCSD can be very stressful. Luckily, there are many tucked-away places that students can go to get a breath of fresh air and relax between classes or study sessions. In these drawings, man-made structures are present but the viewer still gets the sense that they are surrounded and sheltered by plants or trees. Emily Singer is a third-year at UCSD majoring in visual arts studio and minoring in Chinese studies originally from Santa Monica, California. Her work is inspired by Japanese comics and animations, folktales and mythology, as well as the art scene of the Los Angeles area.
By connecting the voices of our current students with the history of UC San Diego, this living archive embodies a dyamic, ever-evolving narrative of the student experience during pivotal moments when, in the face of challenges, students come together to lead change. FA L L 2023
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HERE TO HELP
As a trusted leader in the democratization of knowledge, the Library makes information accessible in order to inspire innovation, foster critical inquiry and advocate for social justice. Meet Karen Heskett and Gen Thipatima, two Library employees whose work closely supports student research, advocacy and engagement in unique ways.
Gen Thipatima ’18 (she/they) Engagement and Assessment Supervisor Tell us about how your work supports student advocacy and activism. My work is driven by user feedback. Each academic year, my team conducts over a dozen assessments about Library spaces and services. We engage with the Library Student Advisory Council (LSAC), which provides feedback and insights from a student perspective. For example, users have long been asking for more meditation or quiet spaces in the Library. Last year’s LSAC cohort provided great ideas of what a Library meditation room could look like. We have since incorporated their feedback and have organized additional user assessments as we plan for this forthcoming space. Tell us about some of the programs you manage at the Library. My team manages the quarterly therapy dog visits in collaboration with the nonprofit
organization Love on a Leash. Pet therapy at the Library was constantly requested via our student feedback forms, and it has been growing in popularity on campus. The series is one of our most successful offerings. We welcome more than 180 students per 90-minute dog therapy session. Fortunately, we were able to expand this activity at the start of the academic year and now offer more sessions for both students and Library staff. I also introduced the weekly publication of online de-stress materials for students. Created during the height of the pandemic, I worked with our student employees to develop selfcare and wellness content. This was a timely solution to our inability to host in-person activities. Our team’s student employees designed coloring pages, Sudoku puzzles, word puzzles and
inspirational quote graphics. I was delighted to see content from the publication was featured in the San Diego Public Library’s Summer Reading Room activity book in August 2020. We have also moved some of the archived content to the new De-Stress LibGuide, which connects users to wellness resources in the Library and across campus. What are you most proud to have accomplished within your work at the Library? I am so proud of creating the Virtual Library Tour in Winter Quarter 2020. During the production stages, I learned how to use a 360-degree camera and how to leverage a tour creation platform. While putting together the captions, I became much more familiar with the Library website, services and spaces. The tour was shared with individuals who could not visit Geisel Library in person during the pandemic and is now used for virtual orientations. Is there anything else you would like to share about the work you do? I hope to create the expectation that the Library is more than just a place to cram for exams. I want users to know that Library staff cares deeply about their success. We sincerely listen to student feedback on what we can improve, change or add to our offerings to support them. I am genuinely grateful to have the guidance and support to try new things and implement activities and services that make a difference for our users. Contact Gen: gthipati@ucsd.edu
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Karen Heskett (she/her) Subject Specialist Librarian for Medicine and Systematic Review Service Coordinator Tell us about your role and what excites you most about your work. As a subject specialist librarian, I offer instruction in various areas, which serves as my creative outlet and allows me to connect with students. I specialize in providing reference support in the areas of medicine and public health, but I also assist with general reference. I support our researchers in several other ways, including helping with citation management, navigating National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy compliance and assisting with systematic reviews. How does your work support student research? I work with multiple academic programs that offer historically underrepresented students a chance to gain enhanced research skills in an effort to increase equity. During each session, I provide individualized assistance to students who need guidance on their research. How do you collaborate with other campus departments to provide research support? I am proud to
partner with Georgia Sadler, Professor Emeritus at UC San Diego School of Medicine in the Department of Surgery and past Associate Director for Community Outreach at Moores Cancer Center. For many years, she has run NIH grant-funded summer programs for underrepresented students in research. Together, we host a series of four workshops that provide students with in-depth instruction on best practices for conducting research. We share tools students can use to stay current on their research topics and cover subjects such as how to get and stay organized, including how to use Zotero (a free online tool that helps collect, organize, annotate, cite and share research). The final workshop in the series focuses on creating scholarly posters. We help students revise abstracts and create posters that are exhibited at a professional cancer education conference. What are you most proud to have accomplished within your work at the Library? I am the team coordinator for our Systematic Review Service, a
comprehensive literature review that gathers all available evidence matching pre-specified criteria to answer a specific research question. Collectively, our team has impacted several academic programs, but most importantly, we have made remarkable strides in helping with patient care research. You were nominated for the American Library Association’s annual I Love My Librarian Award in recognition for teaching scholarly poster workshops. What do you find most fulfilling about this work? The creativity and ingenuity of the students. When the students start creating posters to showcase their research, I get to witness first-hand how they apply what we covered throughout the course of the workshop. We start with the basics on how to create the poster (in PowerPoint or Google Slides), then they get to add their own personality and flare to it. Seeing how they evolve their work and turn it into a creative representation of themselves and their project is impressive. Contact Karen: kheskett@ucsd.edu
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GENERATING AND RECLAIMING OUR WISDOMS [GROW] A Collection of Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Stories at UC San Diego BY DEPHNY DUAN (SHE/THEY) BACHELOR OF ARTS ’23 MASTER OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ’24 MINOR IN AAPI STUDIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND MIGRATION STUDIES Right: Hand-drawn portrait of Dephny Duan by Angela Trazo, taken from her session notes at the 2023 Association for Asian American Studies conference.
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One of the most transformative experiences I have had as an undergraduate and Library student employee has been participating in GROW over the past three years. Generating and Reclaiming Our Wisdoms: A Collection of AAPI Community Stories at UC San Diego is a collaboration between undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and librarians with a collective sense of urgency and passion in preserving the legacy of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) activism at UC San Diego. In summer 2020, the university’s AAPI Studies Program had just launched, and the Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern Desi American (APIMEDA) Programs and Services was preparing to celebrate its fifth anniversary. This was also around the time when I stumbled across archival material in the Library’s Special Collections & Archives about UC San Diego’s first Asian American Studies course in the 1980s, so there was much excitement around capturing untold stories of activism. The development of GROW — which connects decades-long efforts with present-day struggles and activism — was supported by Professor Simeon Man, Inaugural Director of the AAPI Studies Program; Windi Sasaki, Associate Director of APIMEDA Programs and Services; Cristela GarciaSpitz, Digital Initiatives Librarian at UC San Diego Library; and myself, one of the first students in the new AAPI Studies Program. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and online learning, the first group of students from various social science, humanities and STEM studies across undergraduate and graduate programs gathered over Zoom in winter 2021. Over the next few academic quarters, first virtually and then slowly in a hybrid mode, we found ourselves deeply immersed in collective learning. We shared reactions to archival documents, ranging from excitement and pride to heartbreak and anger.
We invited alumni and important figures from across the decades — such as student activist Jonathan Burgos ’98 and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Jim Lin, who taught the first Asian American Studies course — and listened to their stories of AAPI community activism during their time at UC San Diego and beyond. We conducted more than 10 oral histories to capture the voices and experiences of community members, such as Ethnic Studies Professor Wayne Yang and scholar-activist Joseph Allen RuantoRamirez ’08. Together, not only did we seek to foster a sense of connection to the past and bridge it with present and future movements, but we also found ourselves feeling deeply empowered and connected to the movements on a personal and collective level. For me, this community project is a unique learning opportunity that organically cultivated meaningful relationships and experiences that challenged the barriers of time and space at the university. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of pursuing community-led research to amplify voices, uplift efforts and empower others through the visibility and accessibility of knowledge. Moreover, it provided first-hand experience of the power that libraries can have by providing access to critical information and supporting community-led research. As my relationship with GROW and its collaborators deepened, I found myself being a part of the history of
student activism that I had been so inspired by as a first-year student in 2020 while also discovering a love for research, community archives and library science. I helped develop GROW’s website to share the stories we captured. I also organized events drawing audience interest from across the West Coast and spoke as a guest in a variety of classes — Introduction to Asian American Studies, Asian American College Students and Racial Justice, and Asian American Social Movements—and at local community events, such as the Japanese American Citizens League’s monthly dialogue series. More recently, in April 2023, I was supported by the Library to attend the Association for Asian American Studies Conference and present about GROW at the roundtable panel “Living Archives, Oral History, Storytelling: Documenting the Struggles for Asian American Studies.” The panel included students from similar initiatives at UC Irvine, Harvard University and the University of Iowa. Through it all, GROW allowed me to find my community and sense of belonging at UC San Diego. It continues to be a labor of love to engage in, document and uplift activism —by the community, for the community. I encourage you to explore GROW’s digital archive, view the interactive timeline and listen to the oral histories by visiting knit.ucsd.edu/grow.
GROW participants met in person for the first time in September 2021 at the Arts and Humanities Building, Ridge Walk Academic Complex. Photo by Cristela Garcia-Spitz. Previous page: Screenshot by Vanessa Na
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ALUMNI PROFILE
POWER TO THE POET San Diego’s Poet Laureate Reflects on a Lifetime of Community Activism BY ELIZABETH SALAAM
In his first act as poet laureate for the city of San Diego, Jason Magabo Perez ’03, MA ’13, PhD ’16, called out to the streetcorner flower sellers, cabbies, hotel bellhops, lettuce-pickers and others who make up the multicultural backbone of our community. The reading of his poem, “We Draft Work Songs for This City,” during Mayor Todd Gloria’s State of the City address in January 2023, was a powerful acknowledgment of some of the most overlooked and uncelebrated residents. It was also a clear statement about how — and whom — Perez intends to serve during his two-year term as poet laureate. “For me, poetry and activism are never separate,” he says. The child of Filipino immigrants and the youngest of three sons, Perez was born in the wake of a devastating family trauma. Three years earlier, his mother and another nurse were convicted of poisoning patients under their care in the case U.S. v Narciso and Perez. The judge later dismissed all charges, citing prosecutorial misconduct and “overwhelming prejudice to the defendants.”
Being affirmed for my work and recognized for that is important, but it’s not about me. It’s about using the position to start building some momentum for and with San Diego’s youth.
Poetry in Motion: Jason Magabo Perez moves through the community he serves as poet laureate.
Perez’s family didn’t speak much about the case during his childhood, but to this day, he continues to unravel the lasting effects of racial trauma. As a political science major at UC San Diego, Perez learned how the postVietnam War climate, white supremacy, anti-immigration, racism and racial scapegoating played out in his mother’s trial and conviction, as well as its aftermath. Perez also joined Kaibigang Pilipino (KP), a large Filipino student organization, and Kamalayan Collective, both of which helped to nurture his understanding of what it is to be Filipino and to foster a deeper sense of pride in his identity. He and his compatriots also spent many late nights at the CrossCultural Center at UC San Diego engaging with people from other student-of-color organizations. “At first, my involvement with these organizations was social,” he says, “but it became political very fast.” Poetry and activism became intertwined for him during this time. He co-founded a pan-
racial group of student writers who called themselves Freedom Writers Spoken Word Collective. They wrote together, supported one another and performed at open mics, protest rallies and political events. They attended anti-imperialism protests against the reopening of military bases in the Philippines, rallied on behalf of Filipino airport screeners losing their jobs in the wake of 9/11, and worked with a statewide coalition to pressure the UC Regents to repeal anti-affirmative action policies. The way Perez sees it, these extracurricular activities were crucial components of his education. “My political science classes taught me about laws and court cases, governmental structures and the legislative process,” he says. “But these kinds of experiences outside the classroom helped to sharpen what I believed and figure out how I could contribute to my community.” For some poets, the love of poetry precedes all, yet this was not the case for Perez. “I fell in love with communities first, communities fighting for liberation and dignity,” he says. “Poetry happened to be the language that accompanied that love, and helped me articulate and reflect on it.” Love would prove to be at the center of his work when, after graduating from UC San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, he returned eight years later to pursue a second masters degree in ethnic studies (he received his first, a Master of Fine Arts in writing and consciousness, from the New College of California in 2006) and a dual doctorate in communication and ethnic studies. In his dissertation, Critical Race Poetics and the Ghostly Matter of U.S. v Narciso and Perez, he examines the motivations behind his own storytelling and performance practice and writes, “I
have studied, restudied, written, rewritten, performed, recorded, invented, and reinvented poems, fictions, performances, videos, films — all in an attempt to grasp some aspect of my mother’s (and Narciso’s) past.” Indeed, he has produced an impressive body of work, including three books of poetry and a number of multimedia performance works to explore Filipino American histories, colonialism and memory as well as interpret his own lived experience. Today, Perez is an associate professor and director of the ethnic studies program at Cal State San Marcos, where he encourages his students to think about their personal stories. He was appointed the poet laureate of the city of San Diego for 2023-24. And in July, he received a laureate fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. “Being affirmed for my work and recognized for that is important, but it’s not about me,” he says. “It’s about using the position to start building some momentum for and with San Diego’s youth.” Perez will collaborate with San Diego-based nonprofit organizations, city offices and schools to launch a program that bridges ethnic studies and poetry and cultivates a rich youth writing culture in San Diego. “Poetry is grounded in bigger questions of community building and empowerment to articulate ourselves, our desires and our visions,” says Perez. And he’s taking every opportunity to demystify poetry and encourage its use as a tool for individual and collective agency. This story was previously published in UC San Diego Magazine. Learn more at today.ucsd.edu/magazine.
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SAV E T H E DAT E SAVE THE DATE
A Conversation with San Diego Poet Laureate Jason Magabo Perez ’03, MA ’13, PhD ’16 Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 6 p.m. UC San Diego Ida and Cecil Green Faculty Club Registration details for this event are forthcoming. Join Library Associates today by visiting lib.ucsd.edu/lib-associates to receive early registration access or subscribe to the Library’s e-newsletter at lib.ucsd.edu/subscribe for event notifications.
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UC San Diego Library’s Signature Event Series is made possible through the philanthropic support of our generous sponsors and Library Associates.
