Dr. Kimberly Bohman-Kalaja, associate professor of literature in the Humanities External Master of Arts (HUX) program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, has been named a Fulbright Scholar for 2010-2011. “I feel incredibly lucky and truly grateful,” she said of being selected for the prestigious program. Bohman-Kalaja will spend the spring 2011 semester–from February to August–at the University of Tirana in Tirana, Albania, where she will be lecturing and conducting research on the way in which Albania's writers are shaping the nation's identity. “I am interested in the way in which writers and poets see themselves in relation to their national identity,” said ... Read More
Faculty
Winston Hewitt: Endowed Scholarship and Gift of Art Preserve Professor’s Legacy
Winston Russell Hewitt (1922- 2006) may have been the founding chair of the modern languages department at CSU Dominguez Hills, where he taught French literature from 1966 to 1982, but art was his true passion; he ultimately retired from teaching in order to devote his life to painting. After his death in 2006, executors of the Winston Russell Hewitt Foundation chose to honor his passion for art and love of CSU Dominguez Hills with the creation of the Winston Hewitt Art Scholarship. This semester, six students became the first recipients of the $200,000 scholarship, one of the largest established at the university, and on Nov. 10, they were recognized at an opening reception for ... Read More
Latinas Juntas: First Generation College Students Examine Common Experiences, Common Goals
On Nov. 5, the annual Latinas Juntas, a mentoring event for Latina students presented by the university's Career Center took place in the Ballroom of the Loker Student Union. Chicana author Reyna Grande, serving as the keynote speaker, inspired and motivated the participants to succeed at a higher level than they thought possible. Dr. Monica Rosas-Baines, a psychologist in Student Health & Psychological Services created Latinas Juntas eight years ago with Dr. Denna Sanchez, a psychologist in the Career Center. She also teaches Grande's debut novel, “Across a Hundred Mountains,” in a class titled “Las Chicanas,” which examines the cultural, social, and political issues that ... Read More
Peter Desberg: New Book Strictly for Laughs
When professor of graduate education Peter Desberg interviewed comedy writers from the golden age of television to the present for his new book, “Show Me the Funny: At the Writers' Table with Hollywood's Top Comedy Writers,” he and co-author Jeffrey Davis, a professor of screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University, had the opportunity to ask the age-old question, “What's so funny?” The answers surprised them. As a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in treating stage fright, Desberg has worked with numerous stand-up comics. He says that many of the writers he and Davis interviewed had experience as comedians and that they learned what was funny as a survival ... Read More
Teatro Dominguez: Local Second Graders Learn From Multicultural Theatre
There are few better ways to start the day than to watch kids having fun, unless you're an actor from California State University, Dominguez Hills who gets to perform for an auditorium full of second-graders. Theatre major Eduardo Frias got to do just that recently. On Nov. 9, he and 18 fellow Teatro Dominguez members wrapped up a five-week tour performing “The Storytellers” for Carson area second-graders. In the folktale play, Frias portrayed a young boy who learns patience. “Telling folktales to children uses their experiences and what they are exposed to, so they can relate to the story,” said Frias. “Using talking animals, insects, birds… it's a way to get children's attention. ... Read More
