Conference advocates for intersection of Ethnic Studies with math, fashion, and science 

LBCC held an open-to-all summit to discuss ethnic studies, culturally relevant teaching and education advocacy in the T-Building at the LAC on March 28.

The summit consisted of four main breakout sessions discussing different relevant topics such as fashion as a form of resistance, the relevance of culture in math, language compromise, which means how to be more flexible in academic settings when it comes to the type of language being used, and cultural lenses being applied to learning. 

The latter session, called “Helping to Free Our People,” was coordinated by Los Angeles Unified School District teacher Janice Chow.

“There is an intersection of science and ethnic studies and so there is a discussion to be had about that overlap and also about developing counter-narratives to traditional western science,” said Chow about her session.

Chow then gave examples as to how cultural lenses can be applied to learning, such as bringing up melanin when discussing evolution as an evolutionary advantage, and bringing in indigenous perspectives when discussing the topic of climate change. 

“Ethnic studies is such a crucial part of how we learn and how we see the world and it’s also how we can empower people to change the world,” Chow said.

One visitor who attended the “Fashion as Resistance” session was Melvin Villaver, an adjunct professor of African-American studies for the Los Angeles Community College District.

“I really appreciate how our panelists were looking at popular culture, like fashion, as the cultural milieu of black, brown, indigenous peoples over time and how we represent ourselves is in how we appear,” said Villaver. 

The summit was open to not just students and educators at LBCC, but to high school students and educators, and students and educators from other colleges and districts.

“I’m interested in learning more about what is going on, on the ground level at community colleges in terms of the field of ethnic studies,” said Villaver when asked why he felt motivated to attend. 

Some visitors at the summit registered to attend beforehand, and signed in upon entering. 

Frank Perez, an associate professor of ethnic studies at LBCC, explained that there were practical reasons for this such as knowing how much food to provide for the event, but that there were also other reasons.

“We do the registration so that we can report the information back. Information regarding who’s coming. It’s primarily community college people coming, but there’s also faculty, and high school people. It’s a fine dance of making sure we are knowing who’s accountable and that we are using money well to support outreach for our students,” Perez said.

Miguel Zavala, associate professor of teaching at UC Riverside, began the summit with a keynote discussing the nature of ethnic studies.

Zavala proposed a three-fold understanding of what ethnic studies is, which includes identifying the hurdles faced in academia by marginalized communities, identifying the systems that have enabled the hurdles and what schools can do to help students and educators overcome these hurdles, as well as putting new ideas and systems in place to minimize these challenges in the future.