Laboring Toward the 21st Century:
Rethinking Interdisciplinary Research on the
Working Poor
Progress Report, 2002-2003
Center for Chicano Studies, U.C. Santa Barbara
Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Coordinator
The Center for Chicano Studies, through its project, "Laboring Toward the 21st Century: Rethinking Interdisciplinary Research on the Latina/o Working Poor," has supported research on Chicana/o and Latina/o working poor communities in California as mandated by SCR-43. The funded project specified six objectives: (1) to form a work group of faculty engaged in developing interdisciplinary research on Chicano/Latino working poor populations; (2) to develop individual and collaborative policy-relevant research on these communities; (3) to mentor graduate and undergraduate students interested in the study of Chicanas/os and Latinas/os in the U.S.; (4) to disseminate research on the Chicano/Latino working poor and to stimulate research development through a series of lectures, workshops, conferences and courses; (5) to strengthen campus commitment to the development of the research infrastructure of the Center for Chicano Studies; and (6) to support the development of extramural proposals on Chicano/Latino working poor populations.
During 2002-2003, UCSB's SCR-43 program has been administered by one Project Coordinator, Prof. Carl Gutiérrez-Jones and three administrative support staff (Appendix 1). Faculty, graduate students and undergraduates have met regularly over this period to share their research, and to participate in SCR-43-sponsored colloquia, lectures and workshops. Faculty and SCR-43 sponsored students have also disseminated research germane to the subject of the working poor through SCR-43 sponsored publications and web offerings as well as peer-reviewed publications (Appendix 2). What follows is a progress report which provides an overview of the work supported through the SCR-43 grant during the period since the last progress report (July 2002 to the present).
SCR-43 WORKGROUP FACULTY
The SCR-43 workgroup faculty include Carl Gutierrez-Jones (English), Maria Herrera-Sobek (Chicano Studies), Raymond Huerta (Chicano Studies), Francisco Lomeli (Spanish and Portuguese/Chicano Studies), Juan-Vicente Palerm (Anthropology, on leave from UCSB at UCR), and Denise A. Segura (Sociology). See Appendix 6 for descriptions of the faculty projects. These workgroup faculty are committed to pursuing research collaborations with other faculty at UCSB and in other institutions interested in the development of research on Chicano/Latino working poor communities.
GRANT ACTIVITY BY THE WORKGROUP
Carl Gutierrez-Jones, PI
(Rockefeller Foundation, 2000-2004, $288,000)
A Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship Program Grant entitled "The
Dynamics of Chicana/o Cultural Literacy." Grant monies will support seven,
year-long visiting scholars and artists over a four-year period.
Richard Duran and Denise Segura, PIs
(Kellogg Foundation, 2001-2005, $1.5 Million)
A Kellogg Foundation project wherein UCSB, local city colleges and local high
schools construct an outreach pipeline that is unique for its involvement of
students' families and community-based organizations. A crucial component of
this project is its research dimension; assessment tools will aid in the development
of more effective outreach mechanisms.
Denise Segura, PI
(UCMEXUS, 2002-2003, $14,490)
Professor Segura received this award in support of the Chicana in Acadmics project.
The title of the proposal was "Chicanas in the Academy: Navigating Two
Social Worlds."
NEW AND ON-GOING SCR-43 WORKGROUP INTITIATIVES
Enlace y Avance Program (Kellogg Foundation Grant, $1.5 Million)
This grant supporting research on educational outreach received considerable
matching support from the participating institutions ($1.5 million in matching
funds) and UCSB has promised to make a permanent commitment to the project at
the end of the Kellogg support. Again, SCR-43 funds played a vital role as we
competed for this grant. SCR-43 funds supported student researchers as we worked
with Kellogg's initial planning grant, and both undergraduates and graduates
are being heavily involved in the "execution phase" of the project.
During 2002-2003, many students (five graduates and twenty-nine undergraduates)
were supported with SCR-43 funds as they undertook research internships and
research assistantships affiliated with Enlace y Avance project. The SCR-43
grant also allowed two of the graduate students associated with the project
to present their research at a national conference. Finally, we would note that
the nation-wide Enlace program was singled out by the White House for its contributions
to education. Given the system-wide cuts to outreach, the extramural support
and matching commitments provided by this project have been extremely timely.
Chicana Art Forms in Community Dialogue
This year, SCR-43 faculty member Maria Herrera-Sobek collaborated with Guisela
Latorre (Art History, UCSB) to organize a series of Chicana art events as part
of the ongoing Chicana Art Forms in Community Dialogue project (now in its fifth
year). One goal of the project has been to assist the formation of fundable
community art outreach projects. This project brings to UCSB prominent Chicana
artists to develop high-profile Chicana Art exhibits for the local community.
These artists exhibit their work, conduct workshops (with students and community),
and publish scholarly articles or books on their work. The collaborating group
of faculty and artists is continuing to develop a proposal to establish a Center
for Chicana Art. From January through March of 2003, this group sponsored a
series of lectures by renowned Chicana artist Alma López, as well as
a highly successful exhibit of López's work at UCSB's Multicultural Center.
Mexico-U.S. Research Exchange Program
The Mexico-U.S. Research Exchange Program, that builds on the previous work
of Professors Huerta, Palerm, Lomeli and Segura, pursued its fifth summer session
program in Queretaro, Mexico during 2003. Faculty supported with SCR-43 funds
attended two month-long sessions in Mexico in order to teach and solidify research
development there. Approximately 50 undergraduates participated in the program.
UCSB's administration has been very excited about the undertaking, and is exploring
ways to expand the project.
Undergraduate Research Internship Program
One of the most important mentoring activities undertaken by SCR-43-sponsored
faculty is training undergraduate students in research on Chicano/Latino working
poor populations. In 2002-2003, SCR-43 funds, alongside matching funds from
the Office of Research, sponsored undergraduate researchers interested in projects
concerning Chicano/Latino youth and families (Appendix 3). The bulk of the funding
committed to this effort supported students working with the Enlace y Avance
program.
Faculty / Graduate Student Mentorship
Faculty associated with SCR-43 workgroup continue to emphasize graduate training
and mentorship in six ways: (1) deepening discipline-specific research skills;
(2) developing interdisciplinary research questions and skills by collaboration
between faculty and graduate students involved in SCR43-sponsored projects;
(3) co-authoring papers with graduate students; (4) developing specific skills
that will enhance research dissemination; (5) developing skills that will enhance
grant writing; and (6) developing a network among the graduate students and
faculty that allow for cross-disciplinary sharing through the Center for Chicano
Studies whose infrastructure becomes strengthened as the knowledge base of each
participant deepens and becomes available to the Center. Students involved in
this manner are listed in Appendix 5.
SCR-43 Publications Unit
During 2002-2003, the SCR-43 Publications Unit at the Center for Chicano Studies
undertook a variety of projects in an attempt to disseminate widely our research
in different arenas, including scholarly journals, monographs, local research
"briefs" for popular consumption, web sites, technical reports for
the university and local community agencies, and a newsletter that disseminates
key research findings on Chicano/Latino working poor populations. Ventana Abierta,
the bilingual journal co-edited by Luis Leal and Victor Fuentes, made a significant
contribution to this endeavor. As part of this effort, the workgroup disseminated
a collected volume, entitled The Myths and Legends of Mexico (Ed. Luis Leal).
We would also note that our 2002 publication, Santa Barraza: Artist of the Borderlands
(Ed. Maria Herrera-Sobek) won the Southwest Book Award.
The Affirmative Action and Diversity Project: A Web Page for
Research
This site is an academic resource and it provides scholars, students, and the
interested public with on-site articles and theoretical analyses, policy documents,
current legislative updates, and an annotated bibliography of research and teaching
materials related to affirmative action. Because of the physical location of
this resource, it contains a substantial amount of information on California
politics. We are delighted to convey that, as of August 2003, the site has logged
1,180,000 visitors. Several SCR-43 supported graduate students have been involved
in this project.
Faculty Conference and Research Travel Support
Funding was provided to SCR-43 workgroup faculty to attend selected conferences
when their participation would include one or more of the following: dissemination
of SCR-43 sponsored research, research development activities (e.g., meeting
with program officers of funding agencies), or contact with potential or current
research collaborators.
Chicana Academics Project
This project documents and studies the institutional dynamics affecting Chicana
academics. As part of this process, the project maps Chicana research on these
dynamics. Faculty from across the UC-system have been involved, and two of the
participating UCSB graduate students are receiving support from SCR-43 (one
of these students has subsequently received a 2003-2004 UCMEXUS dissertation
grant).
The Dynamics of Chicana/o Cultural Literacy
This project started with an SCR-43 sponsored conference ("The Routes of
Culture") held in November of 1998. The aim of this project is to rethink
Chicana/o arts in terms of the startling displacements and ongoing migrations
occurring within the modern period. One key assumption of the project is that
the politically-engaged aesthetic experiments which typify Chicana/o art cannot
be fully understood in an analytical frame focused primarily on the nation state
and nationalism. The Rockefeller Foundation has committed $288,000 for the four-year
project (2000-20004) that will bring seven post-doctoral scholars and artists
to the Center for Chicano Studies for one-year fellowships. SCR-43 support played
a crucial role as we created the successful Rockefeller proposal. During 2002-2003,
SCR-43 funds allowed us to involve graduate student researchers in key elements
of the project. In particular, SCR-43 monies, supplemented by existing university
funds, have allowed graduate students to work as Research Assistants with our
fellows.
OPEN CALL FOR FACULTY PROJECTS
During 2002-2003, SCR-43 funding also supported the research activities of several faculty outside the workgroup, including Ines Talamantez (Religious Studies), Edwina Barvosa-Carter (Chicano Studies), Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez (Chicano Studies), Luis Leal (Chicano Studies) and Barbara Harthorn (Anthropology and ISBER).
OPEN CALL FOR GRADUATE STUDENT PROJECTS
Graduate students pursuing work related to the SCR-43 topic compete annually for grants to support their independent projects. These monies help graduate students with costs associated with their research (e.g., travel, transcribing, etc.). During 2002-2003, five such awards were administered in response to an open call. For a list of the recipients and titles of their projects, see Appendix 4. In addition to the awards made through the formal call for proposals, a number of graduate students were provided with travel awards. The SCR-43 workgroup also organized a graduate student research colloquium in 2003, and event in which graduate recipients of SCR-43 support reported on their findings and research progress.
LECTURES AND SPEAKERS SERIES
(Highlights)
Lecture Series
"Chicana/o (Re)presentations and Performance: Visions from the Heart"
Participants in this colloquium (now in its sixth year) included scholars from
a range of disciplines: Tino Villanueva (poet); Alma Villanueva (poet and novelist);
John Carlos Frey (filmmaker); Josefina López (dramatist); Taco Shop Poets
(performance artists); and Michael Nava (novelist).
Sponsored Lectures
Chicana/o Art Exhibition: A Lecture by Alma López
UCSB's Multicultural Center, January 23, 2003.
CONCLUSION
The funds provided through the SCR-43 program have allowed the research participants at UCSB to make tremendous headway in terms of research production, graduate and undergraduate research training, development of larger interdisciplinary research initiatives, and dissemination activities. In addition, our extramural success is changing the face of our campus. The Rockefeller post-doctoral presence is already affecting our graduate recruitment, and the program is also leveraging much needed resources for affiliated units (including the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archive). The Enlace y Avance program is creating a new pipeline for underrepresented students while simultaneously crafting desperately needed research and assessment tools. In sum, the extramural support made possible with SCR-43 seed funding is significantly improving the institution in terms of its attention to the needs of Chicano/Latino populations. The new Ph.D. program in Chicano Studies reflects the general success of these research efforts, and the SCR-43 contributions have played an important role in these institutional advancements.
In terms of our transition to the 2003-2004 fiscal year, we have
no carry-forward funds to report. As we noted in last year's report, the SCR-43
workgroup at UCSB has been successful in gathering significant matching support
for our activities. For the period of 2000-2005, we have secured matching dollar
commitments that will provide $17,000 per year, a figure that represents slightly
more than the UCOP target of 1/3 matching support.