Department of History

Bernstein balances school, work, and family

kelvin — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 08:30:47 +0000

Bernstein balances school, work, and family kelvin Tue, 06/17/2025 - 01:30 More Press Releases Jeremy Gutierrez, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications June 17, 2025

Fourth-year history major and education minor Gracie Bernstein is proud to be a Highlander. To Bernstein, being a UC Riverside student is not just about her education, but about the work that it took to get here. Prior to transferring, Bernstein received three associate’s degrees, as she wanted to explore her options before settling on history. Making her way through community college and transferring to UCR would not have been possible if not for the support of her family, nor her own dedication.

“I think my family has been my biggest support,” Bernstein said. “They have always encouraged me to continue and push through community college and every quarter here at UCR. Transferring can be such a difficult process and I wanted to give up several times, but my family was always there to remind me of the long-term goal I had. I have 10 siblings and I am close with all of them; whenever I need help or support there is always someone there for me.”

Since enrolling at UCR, Bernstein has made a name for herself through her hard work and perseverance.

“Gracie is a high-achieving student, a dedicated parent, and a scholar-practitioner who aspires to be a history teacher,” Stewer said, “She goes above and beyond her responsibilities as a leader within CHASS F1RST to advocate for resources for all transfer students.”

Balancing an education with parenthood can be difficult, especially when one also has to work. However, Bernstein ensured her success by being aware of what she could handle. The support offered by the Women’s Resource Center and Basic Needs as well as the CHASS academic advisors also gave Bernstein a greater safety net to rely on.

“I went back to school when my daughter was five months and now she's three,” Bernstein said, “I think the most effective thing I have done was making sure that I keep my calendar up to date. Staying on top of all my due dates is so important, as a parent sometimes things slip through the cracks but this way I have never missed an assignment. I think remembering to be compassionate with myself is important too. I never overloaded my schedule and was always realistic with what I could do and be successful in. My daughter has been such a big supporter of mine and one of my reasons to continue.”

According to Bernstein, having strong mentors is very helpful for planning for the future. Faculty from the School of Education and the CHASS F1RST program gave her a way to explore her passions. The workshops hosted by CHASS F1RST were especially useful for discovering opportunities within the history field. It is because of this support that Bernstein intends to stay with UCR to pursue her post-graduate degrees.

“I will be staying at UCR next year to pursue my masters in education,” Bernstein said, “with a concentration in teaching as well as my teaching credential in Social Sciences through our Teacher Education Program! I am very excited to stay here at UCR, it really is my home.”

FEATURED PHOTO. Gracie Bernstein stands before the UCR sign, the bell tower standing behind her.

Tags

Department of History

UCR’s Denver Graninger takes on new role in Athens

kelvin — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:57:13 +0000

UCR’s Denver Graninger takes on new role in Athens kelvin Tue, 01/07/2025 - 05:57 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications January 07, 2025

Denver Graninger, associate professor of history at UC Riverside, is visiting one of Greece’s most prestigious institutions of classics, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Archaeology. Graninger, who started his three-year appointment in July 2024, directs the School’s Regular Member program, which provides an intensive, academic year-length introduction to ancient Greek topography, monuments, and culture for student members pursuing doctorates in classics, archaeology, ancient history, and related fields in graduate programs in the United States and Canada. Admission with fellowship is competitive and applicants regularly come from leading programs."

The core practice of the Regular Program is an autopsy of the topography and monuments of the ancient Greek world. Students visits the vast majority of archaeological sites and museums on the Greek mainland in extended 10 to 12-day trips over the fall. The winter is focused on Athens and Attica, with three days a week on-site and in museums in the city and surrounding countryside. Spring is less structured and gives students the chance to advance their dissertation projects. While Prehistory to Late Antiquity is privileged in the curriculum, there is engagement with later periods of Greek history.

“My appreciation for the quality of the organization and its outsize impact has deepened over the years,” Graninger said. “It is humbling and beautiful to be able to return now in this role.”

Graninger’s three-year term as Andrew W. Mellon Professor (with the potential for one renewal) will run from 2024 through 2027, after which he will resume his role as associate professor of history at UCR.

Graninger’s close ties with the school span more than two decades, beginning in 2002 when he attended as a Regular Member and Michael Jameson fellow. “My time at the School has changed who I am as a scholar — after nine months here as a graduate student, I was never able to look at anything in the ancient Greek world in the same way.”

Graninger returned to the ASCSA in 2009 as Rhys Carpenter Faculty Fellow, focusing on research and teaching throughout the academic year and, in the summer of 2016, as the Gertrude Smith Professor and organizer of a six-week summer program. In 2013, Graninger became a member of the School’s Managing Committee, serving on Admissions and Fellowships and, most recently, on the Executive Committee from 2021 through 2024.

According to Graninger, the School has shaped his career and approach to research, teaching, and collaboration with colleagues.

“I was motivated to apply because it has always seemed like the best possible teaching and research environment for me,” he said. Graninger submitted his application in February 2023, and the Managing Committee approved his appointment as the new Mellon Professor in spring and summer 2023.

Graninger joined the Department of History at UCR as an assistant professor in 2012, teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.

“Working in a history department has helped me to be more open to seeing how my research connects with that of my colleagues, who are working within different chronological and geographical ranges. It is a stimulating setting and I have learned so much from them,” he said. “All of that has, in turn, made me a better scholar and teacher.”

At UCR, Graninger also became involved in different areas of the university, serving as a member of the faculty advisory board for UCR’s Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities Symposium and as a member and chair of the UCR and UC-wide Senate Committees for International Education which oversees study-abroad programs, foreign exchange programs, and international research to serve UC students.

“My work in the Senate on the IE side has been similarly horizon-broadening and helped me to appreciate further both how transformative international education is for students and how policy and politics prepare the ground for those types of experiences,” he said.

At UCR, Graninger also organized study abroad programs in Athens, providing a platform for students to cultivate international collaboration and learning. “Many of my UCR students had not spent a whole lot of time outside of Southern California, but coming to Athens and living here for a month changed them in a profound way, and gave them the confidence to explore further,” Graninger said.

Prior to joining UCR, Graninger was Professor and Director of the American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS), Bulgaria, from 2010 to 2012, where he contributed to the expansion of its academic program and educational trips through course development, archaeological field school launches, which included collaboration and mentorship of graduate fellows who studied a wide range of disciplines. Graninger’s time at ARCS was an invaluable experience that has influenced his new role.

“I really learned to be a generalist, to invest time in our fellows and point them to local resources, and to engage them as scholars and support them as people,” he said. “I draw on that experience every day in Athens.”

As the new Mellon Professor, Graninger intends to expand ASCSA’s Regular Program in three areas: a local context focused on research within the school; a peer-driven one that invites collaboration and connection with international archaeological students in Athens as well as graduate students from various Greek universities; and a context intended to expand professional development for students.

“I aim to be open-minded, embracing what is traditional in the program, but am also ready to try something new and to make the program meet the professional needs of our students, which are in the midst of a significant shift,” he said.

During his term, Graninger also looks forward to continuing his current book project, a social history of Larisa, Greece, from the fifth century BCE to the second century CE, testing new research methods, and studying inscriptions and sites more closely.

“I want to do the job well, to support our students, and help them to advance their research and to spark among them a deeper love for Greece in all of its complexity. There is enormous professional satisfaction in that,” Graninger said. “And I have so, so much to learn from the students, who are bright, motivated, and intellectually diverse, and from Greece.”

Students are led by Denver Graninger on a hiking trip in Sphakteria, an island off the southwest coast of the Peloponnese, Greece, where a battle occurred in 425 BCE during the Peloponnesian War.

FEATURED PHOTO. Denver Graninger and students discussing the history of Palaios Platanos, an abandoned village in east Thessaly, Greece.

Tags

CHASS Newsletter

Department of History

CHASS professors close year-long Distinguished Lecture Series in Shanghai

kelvin — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 03:38:03 +0000

CHASS professors close year-long Distinguished Lecture Series in Shanghai kelvin Tue, 11/12/2024 - 19:38 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications November 12, 2024

UC Riverside’s Jeanette Kohl, associate professor of art history, concluded the 2023-24 World Art History Institute’s (WAI) Distinguished Lecture Series on Renaissance Art and Culture during a September trip to China. As a distinguished visiting professor, Kohl delivered the closing lecture at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), following a series of presentations and a two-day workshop that explored new perspectives of art history and culture during a two-week visit spanning three cities.

“It was a particular honor to give the closing lecture for a year-long series with such esteemed international scholars,” Kohl said. Kohl, who also serves as co-director for UCR’s Center for Ideas and Society (CIS), was invited by Chinese art historian LaoZhu, the founder of WAI.

This year’s series, “Dialogues with Distinguished Scholars of World Art History,” brought together 12 experts in European Renaissance art from the U.S. and Europe for monthly lectures to foster dialogue between Eastern and Western perspectives on art history. Kohl was also accompanied by her husband and UCR colleague, Johannes Endres, professor of art history and comparative literature, who also delivered a keynote and co-led a workshop with Kohl at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA) in Shenyang, China.

Closing the lecture series, Kohl presented her keynote lecture, “A Murder, a Mummy, and a Bust – Forensics of a Renaissance Portrait Sculpture,” at SISU. The lecture highlighted Kohl’s approach to Renaissance art, using the bust of Simon of Trent – an object closely linked to anti-Semitic persecution during the late 15th century – as an example.

“I presented new conservatory and iconographic evidence for the object as a key work in the ferocious, anti-Semitic propaganda around the Trent blood libel of 1475,” she said. “The unusual object is a particularly suited object to talk about the role of visual and conservatory observation, knowledge of historical contexts, and questions of methodology in Renaissance art history.”

Prior to her lecture at SISU, Kohl also spoke at the School of Arts at Peking University in Beijing, the third-ranked university in China, in a hybrid presentation with both in-person and virtual audiences. Kohl’s lecture, “Thinking with Busts: Rembrandt’s Aristotle with the Bust of Homer,” amassed a virtual attendance of 12,000 viewers on Zoom.

“This lecture was a unique experience and left a big impression on me,” she said. “Probably the largest audience I will ever reach with a single presentation.”

Kohl’s lecture at Peking University was based on the last chapter of her latest book, “The Life of Bust,” currently in press with Brepols Publishers.

“I spoke about the artistic and ‘phenomenological’ significance of sculpted portraits as a key medium of remembrance that touches humans in unique intellectual and sensory ways,” she said, examining Rembrandt’s famous painting depicting Aristotle as he contemplates a bust of Homer.

Kohl and Endres engaged with 16 students who presented their papers on Western art traditions in a two-day, “student-centered” workshop at the LAFA. Proposed by Endres, the workshop’s topic, “The Concept of Style: Epistemologies in Art and Science,” is closely related to his research on 19th-century European art and literature.

“The workshop was a great success,” Endres said. “I was thrilled to see how interested our hosts and their students were in our research, and especially in the Western disciplinary methodologies of our common field of art history.”

“I was positively surprised by the students’ open-mindedness, excellent preparation of their papers, their dedication to their topics, and the huge interest in European academic traditions – quite different from the U.S.,” Kohl said. “There was a completely open intellectual exchange, both with colleagues and students, about what is going well and what is going not so well on U.S. campuses and in China.”

For Kohl and Endres, the workshop was eye-opening in the differences between academia in the U.S. and China, even down to student approaches to resources used for study. Both were impressed by the students’ dedication to understanding foreign texts and their proficiency in various languages.

“Interest in primary textual and visual sources is strong, and we were absolutely taken with the tremendous generosity and hospitality in all three locations, but especially in Shenyang,” Kohl said.

“Their enthusiasm for learning from us was contagious and amazed my wife and me wherever we went on our trip and whatever we did and saw,” Endres said. “In return, they brought us into their country and their academic lives and took us on exciting excursions into the great history of their art and culture.”

At the LAFA workshop, Endres was also invited to speak in a keynote address on “Style in an Interdisciplinary Perspective,” aimed at exploring the evolution of style as a concept across art, science, and other fields. Endres, who has researched the concept of “style” at length, has traced how style has grown from a term used in art and literary criticism about the cultural shaping of work to a broader intellectual framework on discourse in reasoning in different disciplines.

“In my talk, I was therefore interested in exploring new ways of looking at the relationships between cultural and scientific knowledge formations and their disciplinary production in different fields and objects, such as works of art, literary texts, music, and scientific epistemologies,” he said.

Speaking and co-leading the workshop at LAFA left Endres with new perspectives and questions for his research. “I learned a great deal from their questions and presentations and from their different cultural backgrounds, as they shared a common interest in questions of style and form in art,” he said.

“There is much to be gained, not least on the academic level, from meeting each other at eye level and cultivating an interest in our respective histories and values,” he said.

For Endres and Kohl, it was also an opportunity to represent UCR, as both members of the University of California and scholars of European art and culture.

“Visits and conversations like these are invaluable,” Kohl said. “We need to leave our own academic and national bubbles and actually talk to colleagues in other cultures, connect with their traditions, respect them, and bring an open mind to learn from them and their histories.”

According to Kohl, their two weeks in China were not merely an academic visit but a full cultural immersion. Outside of lectures and presentations, the visit offered Kohl and Endres opportunities to explore local cuisine, museums, and historic sites with tour guides by their side.

“It is such a modern and forward-pushing society, in many ways, and the state of digitization, the cutting-edge technology, and the pride of their own long cultural traditions was palpable everywhere,” Kohl said.

Following their trip, Kohl is motivated to continue working with her colleagues in China by collaborating with them on her new project, “Global Faces,” which examines the various styles of portraiture across cultures during the Renaissance period.

Kohl and Endres hope their visit will strengthen much-needed international academic ties for students and colleagues.

“This is so important,” she said. “If you go places, you learn to understand people in those places, how and why they think differently, act differently, and have different expectations.”

She hopes UCR will welcome more international scholars from across the world.

With funding support from Marko Princevak, UCR’s Vice Provost for International Affairs, UCR recently launched CIS’s first Visiting International Scholars program, which Kohl sees as a promising beginning.

“We are bringing in a Finnish media archaeologist, Jussi Parikka, who has a large international following – a real star in his field,” Kohl said. Parikka will lead a workshop for students and participate in a day-long symposium titled “Operativity and Digital Capture” at UCR Arts in January 2025, an event she hopes will be the first of the series fostering global academic exchange at UCR.

“So – stay tuned,” she said. “There is more to come!”

Jeanette Kohl delivering the closing lecture of the Distinguished Lecture Series at Shanghai International Studies University.

Johannes Endres during his keynote address at LAFA.

FEATURED PHOTO. Johannes Endres and Jeanette Kohl at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA) workshop.

Tags

CHASS Newsletter

Department of History

Department of Comparative Literature and Languages

UCR Center for Ideas and Society

"We make bridges between people"

kelvin — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 01:25:32 +0000

"We make bridges between people" kelvin Wed, 11/08/2023 - 17:25 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications November 08, 2023

The Public History Program at UCR welcomed “Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice,” a public initiative years in the making to Southern California, with installations of the traveling exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles in September and at the Riverside Art Museum in October through November. This project marks the third exhibition in a series of traveling exhibitions, initiatives, and public programs that the Public History Program has actively engaged in with the Humanities Action Lab (HAL), a collaboration between students, faculty, and issues-based organizations, since 2011.

A robust set of public programming accompanied the exhibition at each of the regional stops. For the Riverside presentation, programming launched at UCR ARTS with a film screening and continued with all-ages events at the Riverside Art Museum, from Oct 14 through Nov 5.

The funded project, which began in fall 2017, is a joint effort involving HAL, UCR, the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, and 21 other organizations across different localities. Led by Rutgers University-Newark, HAL collaborates with universities and issue organizations to create traveling public projects addressing pressing social issues.

“Climates of Inequality” is a participatory public memory project that unites students, educators, and community leaders to highlight the experiences of "frontline" communities disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. Over 500 students–from UCR and elsewhere–worked on the exhibition and programs.

Gudis joined “Climates of Inequality” with HAL alongside UCR history professor Megan Asaka in 2018. In their classes, Asaka and Gudis worked with students alongside community partners such as East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Warehouse Worker Resource Center, and the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice. They conducted extensive research and oral history interviews, shedding light on the impact of environmental injustices in Southern California, particularly within communities affected by the logistics industry. The project aimed to amplify these stories, inspire change, and foster resilience among these frontline communities. (Frontline communities are those that live in proximity to warehouses, railroads, and truck traffic, who are first and worst hit by impacts of related pollution and other harms.

“We focus on local stories that connect with global issues of climate and environmental justice,” said Catherine Gudis, a professor of history at UCR and director of the Public History program. The local focus, on the Los Angeles and Inland Empire sectors, went under the name “Witnessing the Slow Violence of the Supply Chain.”

Public programs galvanized dialogue among community members, who addressed the impacts of logistics, especially the encroachment of warehouses in residential neighborhoods and larger health concerns, and the advances they have made in coalition building and fostering intergenerational advocacy.

According to Gudis, the exhibition showcases the historical disparities in how climate change has impacted communities of color and the working class, while also highlighting how communities have used art, music, and storytelling to make change and start conversations and efforts for a more equitable future. This was conveyed by participants in public programs held at Riverside Art Museum such as “Environmental Justice in the I.E.: Community-based Practice in Art, Activism, and Community Journalism,” “Cultures of Environment,” and a workshop for educators from community groups, K-12, colleges, and universities to build pathways for students of all ages to enter Environmental Justice work.

The Climates of Inequality exhibit was launched at Rutgers University–Newark in 2019. Community partners and UCR students attended and presented at the symposium in Newark, with funding secured by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

In 2020, the Mellon Foundation awarded HAL $500,000 over three years to support “Climates of Inequality and the COVID Crisis: Building Leadership at Minority Serving Institutions.” This supported regional partners, grad students, and faculty involved in the project, to build climate leadership in the region and advance ongoing public engagement efforts.

In August 2023, the NEH awarded HAL $498,000 to support the “Climates of Inequality” Discussions initiative as part of the traveling exhibition to foster nationwide humanities-based conversations led by “frontline” or “environmental justice” communities, which bear the most significant climate change burdens due to enduring environmental racism. The humanities-based conversations will build upon the past two months of programming at JANM and RAM, to include additional community and educational workshops and another exhibition scheduled for April to August 2024, entitled LAND USE(D), co-curated by Gudis and RAM.

As an endowed term chair appointed in 2018, Gudis supports interdisciplinary research and learning within the humanities and social sciences disciplines as part of a $1.5 million donation by UCR alumni, Teresa and Byron Pollitt.

“I was lucky to hold a Teresa and Byron Pollitt Endowed Term Chair which allowed me to offer paid internships to students over the years, and present the exhibition last month in downtown Los Angeles at the Japanese American National Museum,” she said.

“Funding also ensured that all public programs were free to the public,” Gudis said. “This broadened our audience base, because we created different modes of expression and engagement: through film, conversation, art, teaching workshops, family-friendly activities, and bilingual presentations. This allowed us to foster our relationships with different community organizations and individuals--which we aim to continue in the coming months.

“What’s great about talking and learning from community members affected by this—including all of us, as students and faculty at UCR—is that we make bridges between people,” Gudis said.

To learn more about “Climates of Inequality” please visit climatesofinequality.org/.

For more information about the spring LAND USE(D) exhibit and public programs, please visit events.ucr.edu and riversideartmuseum.org/.

Tags

CHASS Newsletter

UCR ARTS

Department of History

CHASS Ph.D. student makes strides in her Latino studies educational journey

kelvin — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 17:48:14 +0000

CHASS Ph.D. student makes strides in her Latino studies educational journey kelvin Tue, 10/18/2022 - 10:48 More Press Releases Alejandra Prado, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications October 18, 2022

An homage to her family and future generations of Latino children encapsulates Daisy Herrera’s educational journey.

A first-generation Chicana and current Ph.D. student at UC Riverside’s Department of History, Herrera is eager to move on to the next step of her path: a fellowship with the Latino Museum Studies Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino in Washington, D.C.

“This is an amazing internship to apply for as a Latinx student interested in public history and museum work,” she said. “The practicums offered include a range of interests and research skills, which makes it a unique program and an awarding experience.”

Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Herrera considers her upbringing, family background and status as a first-generation college student an important part of her identity. Not only is she attending UC Riverside for a doctoral degree, Herrera previously attended UCR during her undergraduate studies, graduating class of ‘07 in a degree in History and Women’s Studies.

Hoping to work in public history, Herrera wants to build bridges that connect communities with their history and start conversations that span generations for this material to be accessible—all while earning a Ph.D.

“I am also a mother-scholar, and I am on campus while my daughter is attending UCR’s Early Childhood Center,” Herrera said. “This journey is even more special because of her presence, and while she may be too young to comprehend what I am achieving, I take her to my graduate courses and to visit other campuses so she does not find academia intimidating.”

During Herrera’s fellowship, she will gain experience in her field by working with the Smithsonian’s curators and researchers and attend workshops that strengthen her skills through the end of this year. According to Herrera, she was also assigned her practicum of choice, “The First 100: Chicanas Changing History,” which will focus on the oral histories of the first hundred Chicanas who earned a Ph.D. in History.

“I am looking forward to learning about exhibit curation and to dive deeper into digital humanities,” Herrera said. “I will strengthen my oral history skills which entails a Chicanx bottom-top methodology that is both engaging and needed when researching the Chicanx experience in the U.S.”

“It is exciting to be able to represent a leading university in Humanities at the national level as a current graduate student and alumna,” said Herrera, who is the only UC doctoral student accepted into the program this year.

“She has a remarkable sense of social justice, an understanding of the necessity to root her inquiries in the deep past and transnational context, and genuine desire to uplift the voices of Chicanx and Latinx grassroots people,” said Dr. Catherine Gudis, Herrera’s advisor at UCR.

While broadening her knowledge and gaining experience within Latino Studies, Herrera hopes to bring inspiration to others who would like to do the same.

“My journey to a Ph.D. is not just for me and my community, but it is a homage to my Mexican parents and to the future generations of other Chicano/Latino children including my daughter,” Herrera said.

“I just love her enthusiasm, and quest to consume knowledge,” Dr. Gudis said.

FEATURED PHOTO. Daisy Herrera and her daughter, Maya Luna.

Tags

CHASS Newsletter

Department of History

Gearing Up and Winding Down

kelvin — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 23:47:36 +0000

Gearing Up and Winding Down kelvin Wed, 07/15/2020 - 16:47 More Press Releases Ian Peltz, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications July 15, 2020

In February, CHASS welcomed Crystal Petrini as Department Manager to the departments of English and Philosophy. Petrini is responsible for all administrative and financial transactions, “and a little bit of everything else,” Petrini said.

Previously, Petrini was the financial analyst for Alianza UCMX, a system-wide institute that is headquartered at UC Riverside. It provides funding to doctoral fellows, postdocs, and faculty doing bi-national research and collaboration.

“I’d been there for a couple years and was ready to take the next step of my career,” Petrini said. “I really wanted to have a team of my own that I could shape and develop so that we could have a greater impact. That’s when this position came up in CHASS and it seemed to be that perfect next step.”

Petrini was already well-known in CHASS, prior to beginning her role as Department Manager.

“She has a beautiful personality which makes it easy to work together,” said Katrice Calloway, Petrini’s supervisor and the Budget & Operations Manager in the CHASS Dean’s Office. “Even before she applied for a position in CHASS, I noticed her natural leadership qualities, strong compassion for staff, impeccable speaking ability, and her overall genuineness as a person.”

This strong compassion and genuineness was also evident during Petrini’s tenure as President of UCR’s Staff Assembly, which supports and promotes staff welfare across campus.

“I feel very lucky for a lot of reasons,” said current Staff Assembly President Dennis McIver, “but I feel beyond lucky that I’ve had a chance to learn under her inspired leadership.”

Petrini was elected Staff Assembly President-Elect in April 2018 and was president during the 2019-2020 academic year. Petrini was also recently elected Chair-Elect of the Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA), the system-wide counsel for all UC staff assemblies. She is the first person from UCR to serve in this position since 2002.

Petrini’s mission on Staff Assembly is direct: “It’s about making our campus a place where the staff wants to be. Without staff, the university wouldn’t run.”

Part of giving back to the staff came in the form of UC’s employee travel benefit. Until recently, the travel benefit has not been permitted for personal use at UC Riverside, even though it was permissible at other UC’s.

“The travel benefit had been a topic of discussion on this campus for years,” said McIver, “and she made it a point to take the initiative and connect with UCOP to have them come and discuss this. It was an effort that had taken literal years and [she] had it wrapped up during her presidency.”

Petrini’s time as staff assembly president has well prepared her for the team she now leads.

“Being President of Staff Assembly required me to use several skills I hadn’t had to tap into in order to successfully oversee a large board of people and advocate with senior leadership,” Petrini said. “It gave me the chance to sharpen skills related to managing and interacting with people which includes having difficult conversations and mitigating any conflicts that may arise within the board.”

As Petrini transitions into the next chapter of her career, her approach to work is unwavering.

“After my presidency, I really look forward to creating more efficient processes within my department,” Petrini said. “Really digging into my current position and making it the best that it can be so that it works for not only the team, but also the faculty and students we serve.”

Tags

CHASS Newsletter

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Department of English

Department of History

Department of Philosophy

Ralph Crowder Memoriam

kelvin — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:16:43 +0000

Ralph Crowder Memoriam kelvin Wed, 04/01/2020 - 12:16 More Press Releases April 01, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Historian and Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Riverside, Dr. Ralph L. Crowder.

After decades of dedication to the academic community, Dr. Crowder passed away in his home Friday, March 20,2020, with family by his side.

The memorial service will be on Wednesday, April 1, 2020, however due to California Executive Order N-33-20 will only allow immediate family at the mortuary location. To accommodate friends, colleagues and students who would want to attend, the mortuary will be live streaming the memorial service via ZOOM and a PDF attachment of the program will be available for download at that time.

Please see the attached invitation for details.

For flowers and condolences please send to:
Tillman Riverside Mortuary
2874 Tenth St, Riverside, CA 92507

To submit memorial reflections electronically send to: dr.crowdermemorialservice@gmail.com

For assistance with ZOOM or the downloadable PDF program contact:
Leslie Renee Settle @ 951-530-7299 or leslie.settle@ucr.edu

You may also download the Zoom app to any electronic device for free @ https://zoom.us/download

Sincerely,

Milagros Peña, Dean

Tags

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Department of History

'She's truly the colleague we all hope for'

kelvin — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 00:16:08 +0000

'She's truly the colleague we all hope for' kelvin Thu, 08/15/2019 - 17:16 More Press Releases Lilian Tran, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications January 08, 2019

Dana Simmons has devoted her life to teaching. She is an associate professor in the department of history and has been teaching at UC Riverside for 13 years.

“With very little, if any, compensation, Dana has been tireless in her efforts to advance the careers of women faculty,” said Goldberry Long, UCR professor of creative writing. “She's truly the colleague we all hope for, one who wants all colleagues to be successful. She works on their behalf without any apparent desire for recognition or praise. Words fail me; she's just wonderful.”

Simmons is a co-convener of the CHASS Women's Mid-Career Research Initiative (CMCRI). The initiative’s goal is to provide a support network for female faculty and faculty of color, to collaboratively and collectively move towards career advancement at the mid-career level. The initiative offers writing retreats, workshops, panels, and assistance in goal settings for the faculty in research and writing.

The CMCRI was formed by UCR CHASS professors Erica Edwards, Jennifer Hughes and Michelle Raheja in 2011 with support from the UCR Center for Ideas and Society (CIS). CIS has also played a huge part in providing support, funding and providing a place where faculty can continuously learn from each other, and for them to demonstrate their love for their work.

“The reward is being able to share the daily triumphs and challenges of my colleagues and to know that the folks out there are watching out for each other,” Simmons said. “I see them as models for my work.”

Simmons was recently nominated by 30 women faculty for the Rachel Fuchs Memorial Award for excellence in mentorship and service to women and the LGBTQ community.

Patricia Morton is a professor of art history and is impressed with Simmons’ leadership. “As a participant in the Women’s Mid-Career Research Initiative, I have seen how Dana’s leadership has positively impacted the careers of women faculty at UCR and given us new ways of supporting, mentoring and succeeding together,” Morton said. “She is constantly innovating new ways of advancing women faculty’s success. She exemplifies the best qualities of collegiality and collaboration, which are the core values of the Rachel Fuchs Memorial Award. I feel lucky to have her as a colleague.”

Simmons is deeply touched by the nomination from her colleagues and credits them for their impact on her own work.

“I was deeply touched when my colleague initiated this process and when so many of my colleagues and collaborators in the CMCRI co-wrote and signed this letter,” Simmons said. As I said to them, I feel as if though I get more out of this group than I necessarily put in. The letter touched me and I am extremely grateful to them.”

Simmons will be taking a sabbatical leave during spring quarter to complete her book, focusing on the history of the science and politics of hunger and food insecurity.

Tags

CHASS Newsletter

Department of History

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences