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
History
Doris Namala is Reviving History’s Lost Perspectives
Two of Doris Namala's greatest thrills are experiencing students' enthusiasm about her lessons that challenge European-centered perspectives of Mexican history, and knowing her former students who now teach are relishing the same experience in local schools. Namala, a colonial Latin American historian, is well respected in California State University, Dominguez Hills' (CSUDH) History Department for her bold and creative approach to integrating her research into student learning. That admiration has garnered her the 2018 Catherine H. Jacobs Outstanding Faculty Lecturer Award, an honor that acknowledges non-tenure track lecturers who have “demonstrated excellence in teaching effectiveness ... Read More
Bianca Murillo Radically Rethinks Global Capitalism
Associate Professor of History Bianca Murillo's first book, “Market Encounters: Consumer Cultures in Twentieth Century Ghana” (Ohio University Press, 2017), provides an expansive perspective of global capitalism that examines how race, gender, and power are created through commercial networks, and offers a radical rethinking of how economies and markets function. Funded by the Fulbright Hays Program and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Murillo conducted extensive research in the U.K., Europe, and West Africa to trace the evolution of consumerism in the colonial Gold Coast and independent Ghana as far back as the late 19th Century. But while much of the research for her book was spent ... Read More
Donna Nicol: An Agent of Change for Africana Studies
Donna Nicol, associate professor and chair of Africana Studies, arrived at CSUDH in fall 2017. As a faculty member, she teaches Comparative Ethnic and Global Societies. As chair, Nicol is working with her colleagues and the university administration to strengthen the program's curriculum and bolster its presence on campus and in the region. A fourth-generation “Comptonite,” Nicol's deep local roots and unique upbringing in a community-focused family has had a profound effect on her as a researcher and educator. She briefly left South Los Angeles for Ohio State University where she earned a Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education with a specialization in African American ... Read More
