Welcome to the Walter H. Capps Center
Greetings!
The Walter H. Capps Center is happy to announce exciting news and events for Spring Quarter.
First of all, we are thrilled to present a new project, the Walter H. Capps Archives Online. We are digitizing materials from the Walter Capps Papers at UCSB's Special Collections Library for viewing on our website. We will continue to add digitized archival materials regularly, with a focus on Walter's publications and materials from his famous courses on the Vietnam War and “Voices of the Stranger.”
Inspired by Walter’s course “Voices of the Stranger” and by our Celebration of Walter Capps this past fall, UCSB alumnus and longtime friend of the Capps family Reza Garajedaghi has begun hosting a new podcast, “The Voices of a Stranger” (also available on YouTube). Check it out!
We have also added several videos to our YouTube page, including from our Celebration of Walter Capps’ Legacy. You can find other videos of past events on UCTV and UCTV’s YouTube Playlist.
Next, we have made great strides on our several initiatives. Our Civic Engagement Scholars Program recently received a significant gift from donors Michael and Diane Christian to support student financial aid to undergraduates in the course, which fosters active citizenship and leadership for social change in local communities. We are thrilled to receive this gift!
We are also pleased to announce that the Capps Center won a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to support a two-day workshop this May on “Asian Americans, Religious Freedom, and the State.” A dozen scholars will present and discuss draft chapters for a book on race, law, and Asian American Religions, to be co-edited by Capps Center Associate Director Dusty Hoesly and Melissa M. Borja, Associate Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan. During the workshop, there will be a panel presentation open to the public on May 9.
We are excited to host several events that are free and open to the public:
- April 15: Anti-Asian Hate, Racial Trauma, and Posttraumatic Growth, with Russell M. Jeung (SF State U.)
- May 9: Asian Americans, Religious Freedom, and the State, a panel discussion with leading scholars
- May 22: From the Reagan Revolution to the Trump Insurrection: The Role of the Religious Imaginary in American Politics, with Diane Winston (USC)
- May 23: The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No, with Carl Elliott (UMN)
Additionally, we have partnered with several entities on campus in order to facilitate a number of other events (please see our Events page for final details):
- April 3: What Really Happened to the American Dream?, with Robert B. Reich (UC Berkeley)
- April 11-13: Global Legacies of Anti-Nuclear Activism, a conference with several keynote lectures, panels, and films
- April 20: Talk-Story with Maxine Hong Kingston (author of The Woman Warrior)
- May 8: Decolonizing and Indigenizing Environmental Justice, with Dina Gilio-Whitaker (CSU-San Marcos)
- May 10-12: Indigenous Health and Well-being: American Indian and Indigenous Collective (AIIC) 11th Annual Symposium, with Sage LaPena, Gerald Clarke, and Annette Cordero
Finally, we are looking forward to celebrating with our graduating Mendell fellows and McCune interns and congratulate them on a wonderfully productive year.
Sincerely,
Greg Johnson
Director
