On Wednesday, April 17th, the Center for Ethnic Studies celebrated the end of the school year by recognizing the work of faculty and students in our programs. Two students in Asian American Studies were recognized for their scholarship: Melissa Dang received the award for Best Undergraduate Essay in Asian American Studies for her essay titled "Why Chris Brown’s “Fine China” is Not Fine, At All" and Eunice Uhm won the award for the Best Graduate Essay in Asian American Studies for her paper titled "The Subversive Possibilities of Diaspora." 

Three graduating students received certificates of completion and gift books: Nic Flores, graduating with a PhD in Comparative Studies and a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Latina/o Studies; Pamela R. Strome, graduating with a Minor in American Indian Studies; andThomas T. Quan, graduating with a Minor in Asian American Studies.  Reflecting on his undergraduate experience, Quan told us that "I’ve had and enormously enriching and enjoyable time in the minor, and I can only endorse it and its continuation in the future."  

In addition, we recognized five students who received CES Travel Awards this year for their exciting scholarly projects: Santiago Gualapuro whose paper on "Language Contact Outcomes in Imbabura Kichwa" was presented at the Thinking Andean Studies Conference; Laura Fernandez, whose paper titled "Birds of a Feather Samba Together: la perpetuación de los estereotipos brasileños en las películas animadas estadounidenses" will be presented at the May 2019 LASA conference;   Leila Vieira, whose paper "Critiquing Consumerism through Collage: The Urban Space in Boy and the World" will be presented at the May 2019 LASA conference; Eunice Uhm, who received travel support for dissertation research in South Korea and Japan in 2019; and Patti Vocal, who will present her paper titled "Examining Mental Health Issues and Latina Identity in Erika Sánchez’ I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2017)" at the May 2019 LASA conference. 

We are grateful to all of our faculty who cross-list their courses with the program and work with students interested in pursuing interdisciplinary Latina/o Studies, but we also took the time to recognize two faculty members for their continued service and collaboration: Inés Valdez, Political Science, for Outstanding Service to Latina/o Studies and Joe Ponce, English, for Outstanding Service to Asian American Studies. 

We are also especially thankful at year's end for the outstanding support of our Administrative Manager Nick Spitulski. Thanks, Nick!

Caption for photo: Theresa Delgadillo, Director of Center for Ethnic Studies; Miranda Martinez, Latina/o Studies faculty; Nic Flores, newly minted PhD with GIS in Latina/o Studies; Namiko Kunimoto, Director of Asian American Studies.