For Oscar Mancilla, living through history can be a lot more exciting than just reading about it. The California State University, Dominguez (CSUDH) history major learned this firsthand during his recent participation in the Panetta Institute for Public Policy's Congressional Internship Program in Washington D.C., where he spent three months as an intern for California Representative Jimmy Gomez (CA-34th District). Mancilla had only been living and working in the nation's capital for six weeks when the impeachment inquiry of President Donald J. Trump was announced on Sept. 24. “I was very fortunate. For a history major, there is no better place in the world to be right now than ... Read More
History
Poverty Rates are Pretty Low, but So Are Poverty Lines
Highlights from the recent poverty report, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018, at .census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.html. 1. The 2018 poverty rate--the percentage of the population under federal poverty lines--was 11.8%. Since 1959, the rate has been under 12 eleven times: seven times in the 1970s; three at the end of the Clinton-Greenspan boom (1999-2001); and then only once more, in 2018. 2. Of course, poverty rates are much higher for some social groups. The black rate in 2018 was 20.7%, the Hispanic rate 17.6%. Even after a decade-long economic recovery, one in five black Americans and almost the same fraction of Hispanics were poor. 3. Since they ... Read More
Three CSUDH Students Selected for Prestigious Pre-Doctoral Program
Three high-achieving California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) students have been named 2018-19 Sally Casanova Scholars and selected to participate in the California State University system's (CSU) competitive California Pre-Doctoral Program. Cellular and molecular biology major Natalya Cardona, Spanish linguistics major Jesús Eduardo González Franco, and history major Thaithao Nguyen are among 75 undergraduate and graduate students from across the CSU system who are part of this year's pre-doctoral cohort. All three CSUDH Sally Casanova Scholars are also in the university's McNair Scholars Program, a federal grant program with similar aims: to encourage and prepare students ... Read More
Laura Talamante Makes History Personal for her Students
For Professor Laura Talamante, teaching involves more than instructing students on how to analyze and write about history; it's about weaving her personal stories into her teaching to help students discover connections to the past. Talamante, who teaches European and women's history at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), focuses her teaching and research on issues related to human rights and social justice. Her expertise centers on the 18th century philosophical movement “the Enlightenment” and its effect on Revolutionary France, with a specific focus on women and citizenship development. “There are a lot of steps to becoming a researcher and writer, and ultimately a ... Read More
Cambria Rodriguez Takes 1st at Statewide Student Research Competition
Walking through the “Becoming Los Angeles” exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles where she works, Cambria Rodriguez came across a small box labeled “Dead Man's Island: Demolished in 1929,” which contained several artifacts. Intrigued, Rodriguez, a history major who graduates with her bachelor's degree this spring, began looking into the history of the tiny island at the entrance of San Pedro Harbor. The former island whose ominous name was given for the human remains buried there in the 1800s, was demolished to make way for the expansion of Los Angeles Harbor because many sea-going vessels had run ashore on the island. “I thought 'What? There was an island there?' When I ... Read More
