Achievements

Sarah Lasley

Art + Film

I was included in Filmmaker magazine's 28th edition the 25 New Faces of Independent Film list, an annual curated cross-section of impressive independent film creatives. 

Lisa Tremain, Libbi Miller

English

A new open-access book is available through the WAC Clearinghouse (https://wacclearinghouse.org). The book is edited by Lisa Tremain and Libbi R. Miller. 

Across diverse institutional, disciplinary, and educational contexts, the contributors to this edited collection challenge conventional understandings of transfer and explore alternative frameworks grounded in antiracist, queer, feminist, relational, and other marginalized epistemologies. Radical Frameworks for Writing Transfer offers new directions for those interested in writing development, writing across the curriculum, composition, rhetoric, education, and teaching and learning. It serves as both a critique of existing frameworks and an invitation to rethink how writing knowledge is recognized, valued, and carried across contexts.

The book can be found at https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/perspectives/radical/

Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza

Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

AnthroPod, the official podcast of the Society for Cultural Anthropologists, interviewed Dr. Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, associate professor in the Department of Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, for its newest episode, "What Disappointment Does." Atienza shares how disappointment is an important human feeling that merits analysis. He discusses how disappointment animates the lives of his interlocutors, as well as what it means for him to feel failure doing research in the field. The new episode goes live on Thursday, September 10, 2026 on most streaming platforms.

Elam Bender

Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis

Elam Bender has received an Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) NextGen Fellowship for his work using UAVs to apply precision agriculture techniques to small-scale sustainable farms. Through this research, Elam is exploring how high resolution aerial imaging and data collection techniques can help small farms improve efficiency, sustainability, and resource management. The USDA-funded ARI NextGen Fellowship Program provides 421 paid fellowships for California State University students pursuing careers in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences.

Robert Cliver

History

History Professor Robert Cliver contributed a chapter on "Socialist Industrialization" for The Routledge History of Communism, edited by Melissa Feinberg and Lisa A. Kirschenbaum. The book "examines how politics played out inside the factory, the village, the family, or the school. It highlights the different ways Communism shaped the lives of ordinary people all over the world and the ways in which ordinary people shaped Communist movements and states. The authors’ focus on everyday communism allows them to highlight the centrality of race, gender, sexuality, and other identities to understandings of Communism’s appeal, its successes, and its failures." Available from Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-History-of-Communism/Feinberg-Kirschenbaum/p/book/9781032513751 

Kyleigh Brine

Dance, Music & Theatre

Professor Kyleigh Brine was selected to perform in the Selah Dance Concert in Santa Barbara, California, where she presented an excerpt from her new choreographic work, Holding Things. The work is inspired by Maira Kalman’s book Women Holding Things and explores the physical and emotional ways we carry, hold, and move through the things that shape our lives. The performance provided an opportunity to share emerging creative research and new choreography with a broader dance community beyond Cal Poly Humboldt.

Gabi Kirk, Levi Humphrey, Zachary Knight, Liam Blackburn, Sterling Russell, and Corra Houtermans

Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis

Levi Humphrey (GESA '25), Zachary Knight (GESA '26), Liam Blackburn (GESA '26), Sterling Russell (GESA/Religious Studies '26), and Corra Houtermans (ENST '26) with Professor Gabi Kirk (GESA) published "People's Guides to California" in you are here: the journal of creative geography based at University of Arizona. The 2026 issue is themed "Weaving Alter-Worlds" and "explores the act of weaving as a metaphor for crafting interconnected futures that resist colonial domination and hegemonic space." This student-faculty piece explores lesser-known histories and presents of California through Indigenous geography, Black history, and other cultural geographies through creative methods including maps, zines, and even a board game. The publication is on display in front of Founders Hall 109 or can be purchased at the journal's website. 

Josh Meisel

Sociology

Domestic cannabis cultivation has become widespread internationally yet little is known about the methods, motives, and experiences of small-scale growers. In collaboration with the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium, Dr. Josh Meisel surveyed predominately small-scale cannabis growers in 18 countries about their use of cannabis and other drugs; cannabis growing experience; methods and scale of growing operations; reasons for growing cannabis; participation in cannabis and other drug markets; contacts with the criminal justice system in relation to cannabis growing; involvement in other (non-drug-related) criminal activity; and demographic characteristics. One paper resulting from this research, "Small-Scale Cannabis Cultivation, Use, and Supply in Eighteen Countries: Methods, Motives, and Experiences" was published in the July 2026 issue of Contemporary Drug Problems. 

Alison Ruth Holmes

Politics

To mark the nation's 250th, the interdisciplinary Transatlantic Studies Association (TSA) held their annual conference at the College of William & Mary. Professor Alison Holmes (Politics) was an invited keynote speaker on the question "Can Subnational Diplomacy Save the Special Relationship", making the case that actors such as California and Scotland are now both more important on the global stage and to each other. She also presented a paper "The US Constitution(S) and the many Nations of America" offering three case studies beginning with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the evolution and resilience of such documents through the Cherokee and Yurok constitutions. 

John Meyer

Politics

John Meyer delivered a keynote speech on "The Problem with Sustainability 'Solutions'" at the 6th annual International Sustainable Development Dialogue, sponsored by the Global Affairs and Sustainable Development Institute at Osun State University in Osogbo, Nigeria, June 9-11. 

Participants included scholars, policymakers, traditional leaders, journalists, and students from throughout Nigeria, as well as India, the U.K, Liberia, Cape Verde, South Africa, and Ireland. 

Extensive news coverage of the event can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmV_xy-1uFA; https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/06/17/isdd-2026-rethinking-sustainable-development-for-the-global-south/%0A; https://www.instagram.com/gasdi.uniosun/