Breadcrumb
Achievements
Publications and achievements submitted by our faculty, staff, and students.
Paul Michael L. Atienza
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Dr. Paul Michael L. Atienza was elected to the executive board of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) as the Northern California/Nevada region representative. Founded in 1979, AAAS is the primary research and teaching hub for Asian American Studies, an interdisciplinary field born out of the 1960s movements for racial justice, third world liberation, and student activism. Dr. Atienza will serve a three-year term starting April 2026.
Gabi Kirk
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
Dr. Gabi Kirk will be presenting a virtual talk at the international workshop "Evanescent and Emerging Spaces: Land/World Struggles of Palestinians and Guarani" at Cardiff University (Wales) on April 22. This event will confront important and disturbing parallels between the genocides of Palestinians and the Guarani in South America, and the challenges of resisting neocolonial land theft and world grabbing. Dr. Kirk's talk at 8:45 AM PDT on April 22, titled, "Cultivating Sustainable Sovereignty: Palestinian Agrarian Lives in Transnational Focus," will share insights about Palestinian food sovereignty from her current book project.
The workshop is free and open to the public virtually, all sessions are in BST (8 hours ahead). For a full schedule and to reserve a free ticket/watch sessions, see the conference site .
Paul Michael Atienza
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Dr. Paul Michael L. Atienza joined the closing summit of the NSF-funded Knowledge of AIDS (KOA) Research Community Network (RCN). KOA-RCN seeks to form a scholarly community for social scientific, humanistic, and socio-technical researchers, artists, and community advocates of HIV/AIDS broadly situated within the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The final meeting in late March focused on forms of civic engagement that emerged and continues to actively respond for HIV/AIDS advocacy and resources. KOA-RCN seeks to develop multiple outputs in the coming years that include a robust online community and support for ongoing research collaborations.
Amy Rock
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
The framing article for a special issue in the Professional Geographer has been published. The article, In Their Own Voices: The Stories and Status of Women in Geography in the United States (Oberhauser, Dixon, Li, Mossa, Rock, and Sultana), summarizes the articles that share the results of a 4-year project. The special issue, Moving the Needle on Gender Equity: An Analysis of the Status of Women and Marginalized Groups in Geography, covers a range of methods used to assess current and historical conditions for women and marginalized groups within academic geography, celebrating progress and identifying continuing barriers to equitable representation in the discipline, and offers recommendations for continued growth. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2026.2633341
Dr. Armeda C. Reitzel
Communication
Dr. Armeda C. Reitzel, Professor Emeritus, Communication, has been selected to join the Peace Corps as a Virtual Service Pilot Participant. Beginning in May 2026, Dr. Reitzel will work with staff in Ukraine to co-teach a "Summer English and Culture Club for Ukrainian Teens." This assignment builds on Dr. Reitzel's expertise in teaching English as a second language and intercultural communication.
Ryder Dschida
History
On February 28, the Humboldt County Office of Education and the Cal Poly Humboldt History department ran the annual county-level History Day competition on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus. Well over 300 local school children, from 4th grade through high school seniors, present their History Day projects in numerous locations across the campus. The awards ceremony was held in Forbes Gym, where many of the projects were on exhibit for all to inspect. Cal Poly Humboldt has been hosting this event since the 1990s and is the only university that hosts a county-level event in the United States.
Dr. Amy Rock
Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis
Minding the Gender Gap: Working Toward Parity for Women in U.S. Academic Geography (Mossa, J., B. Dixon, S. Sultana, A. Rock, and B. Kar, 2026) has just been released in electronic format. The latest release from the Status of Women in Geography Project, this piece examines 50 years of gender composition of Geography departments in higher ed, finding that while parity has been reached at lower ranks, female full professors still lag behind, even when compared with other social sciences. A map by Dr. Rock related to this project is currently hanging in Founders Hall outside the Geography Department. (Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2026.2621345)
Loren Cannon
Philosophy
Loren Cannon (Philosophy, Applied Humanities) was requested to present his work at the American Philosophical Association's Central Meeting, in Chicago, February 18-21. He presented his most recent essay, "Court of Supreme Contradictions: A Changing Legal Landscape for LGBTQ+ Americans," in the session on LGBTQ+ Philosophy of Law. His latest work explores the relationship between the pro-LGBTQ+ rights rulings in 2015 (Obergefell) and 2020 (Bostock) and how the arguments of several Supreme Court ruling since 2020 together present a much less optimistic picture, especially with regards to broad based social acceptance including the contexts of health care, education, and commerce. This changing legal climate has ramifications for LGBTQ+ persons and our intent to live flourishing lives as well as the stability of the Obergefell and Bostock rulings themselves.
James Floss, Annie Bolick-Floss
Communication
James Floss, Lecturer Emeritus of the Communication Department, recently gave a workshop, “More Than Words” in Tlacochahuaya, Mexico to future teachers focusing on vocality and physicality to enliven read-alouds. The conference, hosted by Escuela Normal Bilingüe e Intercultural de Oaxaca was for indigenous teachers from throughout Oaxaca promoting instruction in their native languages. He was assisted by his wife, Annie Bolick-Floss, former director of Service Learning and Academic Internships.
James Floss, Annie Bolick-Floss
Communication
James Floss, Lecturer Emeritus of the Communication Department, recently gave a workshop, “More Than Words,” in Tlacochahuaya, Mexico to future teachers focusing on vocality and physicality to enliven read-alouds. The conference, hosted by Escuela Normal Bilingüe e Intercultural de Oaxaca was for indigenous teachers from throughout Oaxaca promoting instruction in their native languages. He was assisted by his wife, Annie Bolick-Floss, former director of Service Learning and Academic Internships.