Achievements

Armeda C. Reitzel

Communication

Dr. Armeda C. Reitzel, Professor Emeritus, has been selected for her second engagement as a Virtual Service Pilot Program Participant with the Peace Corps. Over the course of 27 weeks, Dr. Reitzel will support the English language and communication skill development of Ukrainian teachers and youth across 15 schools located in different areas of Ukraine.

Dr. Troy Lescher (Faculty) & Hayden Hilscher (Student)

Dance, Music & Theatre

Dr. Troy Lescher and Hayden Hilscher (Class of 2026) recently published “Doctoral Projects in Progress in Theatre Arts, 2026” for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). This report, based on collaborations of numerous national and international institutions, introduces PhD candidates and shares their emerging research with the field.

Sarah Lasley

Art + Film

Sarah Lasley was included in Filmmaker magazine's 28th edition the 25 New Faces of Independent Film list, an annual curated cross-section of outstanding independent film creatives from around the world.

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.