The Provost's Awards Lecture Series is intended to honor and showcase the recipients of the Provost's Awards and provide them an opportunity to present, share and discuss their work with the campus. Another goal of this series is to raise the level of academic and intellectual discourse among our colleagues and to further enrich connections with others across the campus.

Date: Thursday, March 16
Time: 3 - 4 p.m.
Location: All seminars will be on Zoom
Meeting ID: 892 1894 1753
Passcode: 529536

Varaxy Yi Borromeo, Department of Educational Leadership
“You, Me, and Our AANAPISI: Building Our Capacity and Enacting Our Commitments as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution”
2021-2022 – Promising New Faculty

In fall 2021, 12.4% of our student population identified as Asian American and/or Pacific Islander (AAPI), with more than half of these students identifying as Southeast Asian American (SEAA). Yet, our identity as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) is not well-understood. Programs, resources and support for AAPI populations are limited. How do we enact our commitments to ourselves and our students as an AANAPISI? This lecture focuses on past and current efforts to build our capacity to support our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities at Fresno State. Contexts that shape AAPI experiences, including the state and (dis)use of data disaggregation, persistent educational disparities, and invisibilization of AAPI communities, are explored and deconstructed. Recommendations and future considerations for owning and coming into our AANAPISI identity are offered.

Luis Fernando Macías, Department of Chicano and Latin American Studies
“Hall Passing, Schemin’, and Organizing: Undocumented Students’ navigational strategies and what they tell us about the state of Higher Education”
2021-2022 – Promising New Faculty

This presentation explores the navigational strategies that undocumented students employ in their pursuit of higher education. The focus on students’ strategies serves to showcase their resourcefulness, ingenuity, and their various approaches to resisting the inequalities related to post-secondary education. This presentation also shares research-based possibilities and actions that institutions of higher education and governing bodies can take to promote equitable access for undocumented students.

Upcoming Seminars

Date: Thursday, April 20
Time: 3 - 4 p.m.
Location: All seminars will be on Zoom
Meeting ID: 850 0245 2645
Passcode: 538034

Kimberly Stillmaker, Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering
“Why Do We Need Women Engineers, Anyway?"
2021-2022 – Promising New Faculty

It's widely known that women are under-represented in engineering, but why does this under-representation matter? Dr. Kimberly Stillmaker, associate professor in civil engineering, will discuss the ways in which this under-representation impacts society followed by an overview of her research in the area of gender equity in engineering, which focuses on increasing the representation of women in the engineering professoriate.

Ettore Vitali, Department of Physics
“A Quantum Journey in the Central Valley”
2021-2022 – Promising New Faculty

From novel materials to superconductors, from cold atoms to neutron stars, quantum physics gives us the foundations to explore some of the most mysterious systems in the universe. At the same time, quantum physics is the science underlying several tools that we use in everyday life, like smartphones and computers. Moreover, many scientists are convinced that the 21st century will be remembered as the era of quantum technologies. Vitali will discuss his research in the development of new computational tools to understand the behavior of quantum systems, and the recent discovery of novel exotic phases of matter. At the same time, Vitali will discuss the learning path that he is preparing for our students, who will learn modern physics while strengthening their skills in programming, visualization, data science and artificial intelligence: this will transform them into the scientists of the future, able to navigate the complexities of nowadays' world and able to lead us in the challenging path of respecting and protecting our planet.