Humanities Lecture Series
Past Lectures
2020-2021
Fall 2020: South Asians and Racial Justice in the Diaspora with Dr. Shoba Sharad Rajgopal
Lecture and Discussion
Monday, Oct. 19, 2020
5:30–6:30 p.m.
About Dr. Rajgopal
Dr. Shoba Sharad Rajgopal is Professor of International Feminist Studies, at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, where she works as Chair of the Dept of Ethnic & Gender Studies, and teaches courses on Gender, Race, and Sexuality.
Her doctorate is in Media Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to her arrival in the United States, she worked for seven years as a broadcast journalist for the Indian TV networks based in Bombay (Mumbai), India, and has also done in-depth news reports for CNN International.
Her journalistic work focused on the struggles of women and indigenous people in the postcolonial nation-state. Her work has been published widely, in academic journals as well as newspapers in the U.S and India.
Internet Addiction: Is It a Thing?
Dr. Tony Kashani, Ph.D.
May 30, 2019
Tony Kashani, Ph.D. is an American author, educator, philosopher of technology, and
a cultural critic. Dr. Kashani is the author of five books in Humanities, including Lost
in Media: Ethics of Everyday Life and Movies Change Lives: A Pedagogy of Humanistic
Transformation.
He teaches Humanities at Foothill College. Presently, he is completing his latest book on the Art of Being Human in the Digital Era.
Finding the Vikings: The North American Search
Elisabeth Ward, Ph.D
Feb. 26, 2019
In this illustrated lecture. Dr. Elisabeth Ward will recount the evidence for Viking
activity in North America as it has come down to us through literary sources, historic
documents, folklore, experimental engineering, environmental science, and archaeology.
Dr. Ward is the former Assistant Curator for the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibition Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. She has taught in the Scandinavian Department at U.C. Berkeley and at Pacific Lutheran University. She is currently the Executive Director of the Los Altos History Museum.
“If Not Me, Who? If Not Now, When?” Being a Monolingual Latina at Home and in the
Academy
Nicole Gonzales Howell, Ph.D.
Nov. 14, 2018
Nicole Gonzalez Howell, Ph.D. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University in Composition
and Cultural Rhetoric. In 2014, Howell was selected as one of the Ethnic Minority
Dissertation Fellows at the University of San Francisco (now the Gerardo Marin Dissertation
Fellows). Prior to her time as a dissertation fellow at USF, Nicole taught a variety
of writing courses ranging from first-year composition to upper division courses for
writing majors.
In addition to teaching, Howell has also been a writing center consultant and graduate editor for Syracuse University. Much of Nicole’s research has focused on the importance of considering social location (race, gender, class, ability, and sexuality) of both students and teachers and how it relates to many aspects of writing instruction, teacher affect, program administration, and in particular writing assessment. Nicole’s current projects are focused on creating accessible teaching practices from k-12 to graduate study.
Meditation for the Age of Technology: Finding Order in Chaos
Mona Rawal, Ph.D.
Feb. 24, 2018
Mona Rawal, Ph.D. is a faculty member of the philosophy department at the Foothill
College. She has a PhD in Philosophy of Mind and cognitive science with a major focus
on the theory of Consciousness.
Her major interest is in Neurophilosophy and is presently researching cognitive science, as it intersects with philosophy. Dr. Rawal heads the Philosophy club at Foothill College and also conducts workshops in the STEM center.
Cultivating Curiosity in K-12 Classrooms
Wendy Ostroff, Ph.D.
Feb. 15, 2018
Wendy Ostroff, Ph.D. is an applied developmental and cognitive psychologist and a
professor in the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University, a
seminar-based program that prepares prospective teachers and emphasizes critical reading,
writing, and thinking.
The author of the books Understanding How Young Children Learn: Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom (2012, ASCD), and Cultivating Curiosity in K-12 Classrooms (2016, ASCD), Ostroff has been designing and teaching interdisciplinary courses on child development, learning, and education for more than 15 years.
Nicodemus, Kansas: Where do we go from here?
Ashley Adams, Ph.D.
Dec. 5, 2017
Ashley Adams, Ph.D. is a descendent of Nicodemus, Kansas, an African American town
founded by former slaves in 1877. In 1996, the National Park Service (NPS) designated
5 Nicodemus buildings as a National Historic Site.
This lecture will include a short history of Nicodemus and the current preservation status of the Nicodemus story, as it relates to the African American and human experience.
How to be Human in the Digital Age: Exploration of Humanities and Technology
Dr. Tony Kashani
Nov. 7, 2017
Tony Kashani, Ph.D. is an American author, educator, philosopher of technology, and
a cultural critic. Dr. Kashani is the author of five books in Humanities, including Lost
in Media: Ethics of Everyday Life and Movies Change Lives: A Pedagogy of Humanistic
Transformation.
He is a subject matter expert and faculty for a number of universities and colleges in the United States, focusing his interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy on the intersection of humanities and technology.He teaches Humanities at Foothill College. Presently, he is completing his latest book on the Art of Being Human in the Digital Era.
