Civil Discourse & Social Change

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Events

Affect and Space Making in Afro-Latina Poetics

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 - 11:30am to 12:45pm

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This webinar explores how Afro-Latina writers challenge colonial ideas of space through storytelling. Focusing on Daughters of the Stone (2009) by Afro-Puerto Rican author Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, the talk examines how Black Puerto Rican women use literature to preserve emotional and spatial knowledge rooted in resistance, community, and spirituality. It highlights how Afro-Latina poetics reshape Latinx and Black geographies by centering Blackness and rejecting dominant narratives like mestizaje.  Read more

Captive Migrations: Confinement and Care on the Mexico-U.S. Border

Monday, October 27, 2025 - 10:00am to 11:15am

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This presentation will provide an ethnographic account of the structures of captivity keeping migrants and deportees in conditions of immobility and precarity at the U.S.-Mexico border. Although deportees and asylum seekers reach the border region through different trajectories, Dr. Carlos Martinez’s research shows how a transnational set of forces—what he calls the carceral frontier—confines the movements of both communities while gradually wearing them down. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted since 2018, this presentation will explore the everyday lives, survival strategies, and forms of solidarity among these communities in Tijuana, Mexico. Read more

STAND UP! FIGHT BACK! Ethnic Studies is Under Attack

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 4:00pm to 6:00pm

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Join us for a conversation among California educators and organizers who have been working in a coalition to defeat AB 715. Learn about the impacts of this bill, which Governor Newsom recently signed into law, on Ethnic Studies curricula, academic freedom, and speech about Israel's on-going occupation and genocide of Palestinians. Read more

After The Fires - A Free Community Event on May 24th

Saturday, May 24, 2025 - 9:00am to 3:00pm

After the Fires

We’re excited to invite you to “After the Fires”, a free public event happening on May 24th at the Audubon Center at Debs Park. This gathering will bring together an incredible lineup of speakers, poets, artists, filmmakers, day laborers, and tenant union organizers to explore the ongoing impact of the Los Angeles wildfires on our communities.

The event is open to all and free of charge. We’ll also have bookshops, plant vendors, and more joining us! Read more

Trokas Duras: Screening & Discussion

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 - 1:00pm to 2:15pm

CDSC Trokas Duras 4-30-25

A visual journey through the interior landscapes of a Jornalero's dreams, his waking reality in L.A., and what it looks like when a group of people relegated to serving others labors for their own elevation of body and spirit. A homage to the unique, idiosyncratic, and customized old pick-up trucks driven by Latino day laborers and the intimacy that is cultivated in and around them.  Read more

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