In the opening lines of their Las Doctoras podcast, Cristina Rose (Smith) and Renee Lemus invite listeners to join them at their kitchen table to question systems of power, sip on some tequila, and change the world. It’s a premise rooted in the duo’s shared mission: to demystify academic discourse by taking it beyond the classroom, and into public spaces. By chance, Rose and Lemus had met and hit it off at their children’s playgroup, where they discovered their mutual academic and personal backgrounds. Not only did they hail from the same area of Los Angeles and share similar family experiences, but they also both taught within the CSU system. Rose is a lecturer of Women’s Studies at ... Read More
Features
Fynnwin Prager’s Influenza Economic Research Pays Dividends During COVID-19
Fynnwin Prager is an expert on the economic repercussions of epidemics and pandemics. In the article, Prager draws parallels between the study he co-published in 2016, “Total Economic Consequences of an Influenza Outbreak” and recent economic predictions about COVID-19. He also touches on economic and business resilience, the need for better support for communities of lower socio-economic status during health crisis, and a new research partnership with colleagues at USC CREATE and ImageCAT that uses satellite-imaging data to explore various economic factors related to COVID-19. In 2016, Fynnwin Prager, associate professor of Public Administration at CSUDH, co-published the study the ... Read More
Mixed-Media Artist Toni Scott Takes Part in Presidential Distinguished Lecture Series
Moving brush and hand across canvas, often with the motion of a conductor’s baton, mixed-media artist Toni Scott created two original “live paintings” in harmony with the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles as it played through the dramatic peaks and valleys of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.” Titled “The Intersection of Art and Music,” the unique artistic collaboration was prerecorded and shown during CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham’s Spring 2021 Presidential Distinguished Lecture Series on Wednesday, March 24. Before and after each of the performances, Parham led an in-depth discussion with Scott and Dickerson that examined the symbiotic ... Read More
CSUDH Student Turns Hobby into Start-Up Business
When the COVID-19 lockdown first took effect in March 2020, CSUDH student Alexandra Carrasco suddenly found herself stuck at home with a lot of extra time on her hands. She decided to put that time to good use, building a customized computer keyboard for herself. In the months since, she’s been able to turn those skills into a fledgling business, creating custom keyboards for clients by hand. Carrasco, a junior majoring in business administration with an entrepreneurship concentration, first became interested in “mechanical keyboards” when she was still in high school. “Mechanical keyboards have a physical switch in them,” Carrasco explains, “so when you press it, it actually hits a ... Read More
CSUDH Alumna Gracie Ann Dinkins Impacts Lives at Home and Abroad
From an early age, CSUDH alumna Gracie Ann Dinkins (’87, BA, Chemistry) was taught the value of giving back to the community. “My mother instilled the importance of service and sacrifice very early in all of her children,” she says. These days, Dinkins is living out those lessons, working as a trauma and acute care surgeon at a pair of Southern California hospitals while also helping rescue an elementary school in Liberia. Dinkins, who grew up in Liberia, was attending the University of Liberia in 1984 when political and social upheaval that would devolve into a 14-year civil war in the country disrupted her educational journey “The country experienced serious civil unrest and student-led ... Read More
