Insight Magazine
Get a new perspective on the College of Arts & Letters at SDSU. Discover news about CAL students, faculty, donors, and alumni. This new magazine highlights the stories of the people within our academic community. It gives you insight into the breadth of activities and achievements that have impact locally, nationally, and internationally.
Spring 2025
I’m delighted to announce that our college continues to grow with the addition of nine new faculty and five staff members this year.
We’ve also begun renewed efforts to make our work visible for and connected to the many communities we serve. These include the following initiatives, with more work to come in the months ahead:
- Artificial Intelligence and Human Responsibility | Just this month we received CSU approval to offer SDSU’s first undergraduate AI degree. This nationally distinctive degree will combine advanced technical training in the foundations of artificial intelligence with similarly deep instruction in the ethics, sustainability, regulation, and human impacts of this revolutionary technology.
- Community Engagement Grants | Faculty and students are now working directly to serve San Diego’s unhoused, to assess language needs across San Diego’s diverse communities, and to build local collaborations alongside visiting international artists.
- Impact-Focused Education | We’re now engaging our students before they begin studying at SDSU, connecting them to multiple programs in the Career & Professional Development Hub that help them see their career potential in the liberal arts and how from day one they can turn their passions into post-graduate success.
These successes and others like them are built on a wider foundation of passion, resilience, and commitment possessed by our staff, faculty, and students. You’ll find ample evidence of that work in the stories below, which highlight the wide range of innovative approaches, interests, and accomplishments that our colleagues have pursued over the last year. Our commitments also continue to be valued by partners outside our university, most immediately in the more than $5 million raised from a multitude of gracious donors and foundations.
Together we’re ensuring that whatever may come, we will continue to do the work we are called to do. Thank you for another excellent year in CAL!
Todd Butler, Dean
College of Arts and Letters
CAL overall outstanding graduating senior builds community
Feliza Alipio Jocson shares her journey at SDSU as an involved ISCOR and Spanish student.
CAL’s 2025 overall outstanding graduating senior, Feliza Alipio Jocson leaves a legacy of community-building and social justice activism. Alipio Jocson majored in international security and conflict resolution (ISCOR), along with Spanish.
Alipio Jocson moved from the Bay Area to attend SDSU amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With limited options and no opportunity to visit the city or tour the campus beforehand, she took a leap of faith. “I just kind of committed and blindly joined, so it was definitely a shock to move down here,” Alipio Jocson said. However, the unique experiences in her areas of study helped her feel connected.
View all of the Outstanding Graduating Seniors by Department.
Student leader and role model plans to focus on environmental justice after graduation
Active in student organizations, Ethan Pellegrini’s four-year journey in CAL was one of resilience, discovery, and growth.
Ethan Pellegrini, a double major in political science and history, has been named to the College of Arts and Letters dean’s list every year since his 2021 arrival at San Diego State University. This year he was recognized with a 2025 SDSU Quest for the Best Award, the annual SDSU Vice Presidential Student Service Award that celebrates student achievements in academic excellence, student service and activities, community service and leadership development.
CAL students excel in research at annual SDSU Student Symposium (S³)
More than 500 SDSU student participated this year and 11 from CAL received awards.
Every year the San Diego State University research symposium brings students together for the chance to share their research with the public via poster exhibitions, oral presentations, or performances.
This year, nine President’s Awards of $500 were awarded to students making the most outstanding oral presentations across all disciplines.
From CAL, geography student Andrés Peñalosa Reyna (mentored by Amy Quandt, associate professor of geography) received this award for his presentation, “Bosque Urbano De Las Californias: A Transnational Urban Forest In Urban Mediterranean North America.”
Faculty Excellence Awards 2025
Faculty Excellence Awards in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Awards are given annually: one for a probationary faculty (tenure-track) and one for a tenured faculty (at the associate or professor level). Recipients receive money in support of their scholarship and are selected based on: (1) exceptional promise for significant research achievement; outstanding capability to publish in quality venues and secure grants/awards for probationary faculty or (2) continuous record of research activity; quality of publishing venues; grants/awards; and national and international impact and reputation for tenured faculty.
Excellence in Teaching Award
- Tenured or Tenure-Track Faculty - Kishauna Soljour, Department of Classics and Humanities
- Lecturer - Amanda Beardsley, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award
- Tenured Faculty - Pierre Asselin, Department of History
- Tenure-Track Faculty - Kristal Bivona, Department of Classics and Humanities
Excellence in Service Award
- Erika Robb Larkins, Department of Anthropology
- Ricardo Vasconcelos, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Language in the borderlands: documenting the lived experiences of Spanish speakers in San Diego
Associate Professor Lauren Schmidt’s research highlights the ties between language and identity in local Spanish-English bilingualism.
San Diego exists in an in-between space, landing on the border of California and Tijuana, Mexico. Here, in the borderlands, the concentration and variety of Spanish speakers forms its own unique culture.
CAL professors conduct international research
In locations from Tahiti to Vietnam, SDSU researchers are hard at work, and their research is making an impact around the world. Here’s a sampling of projects underway today with many more in places such as Alaska, Antarctica, Tijuana and Tajikistan.
- Janet Franklin | South Africa
- Erika Robb Larkins | Brazil
- Matt Lauer | Tahiti
- Erin Riley | Indonesia
DRI Outstanding Scholars Award for Humanities
Preceding the Albert W. Johnson Research Lecture on March 12, the Division of Research and Innovation recognized faculty and other scholars for their outstanding work.
Humanities awardees were Jess Whatcott, assistant professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Zamira Abman, assistant professor of history and director of the Comparative International Studies Program, and Magdalena Altamirano, professor of Spanish at SDSU Imperial Valley.
Mellon foundation grant bolsters groundbreaking Asian American Studies Department
San Diego State University has launched a new program that aims to provide students with a deep, interdisciplinary exploration of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander histories, cultures, and contemporary issues.
The Asian American Studies (AAS) Department was established in March 2025 within the College of Arts and Letters. An $850,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation will provide additional resources to create an innovative and community-focused curriculum.
New SDSU, The Skatepark Project partnership to drive skateboarding and action sports research
SDSU’s Center for Skateboarding, Action Sports, and Social Change and The Skatepark Project are now partners under a new agreement designed to promote the mental, physical and social benefits of skateboarding culture.
A new partnership to advance research and increase participation in action sports was launched by a San Diego State University center dedicated to skateboarding and The Skatepark Project (TSP) the world’s leader in skateboarding advocacy, education and philanthropy.
Anthropology Department celebrates 60 years at SDSU
On the evening of April 17, nearly 100 anthropology alumni, friends, faculty, and students gathered at the Mingei Museum to celebrate the milestone.
Learn more about the department at anthropology.sdsu.edu.
SDSU earns R1 classification, joins top 5% of research universities in the U.S.
SDSU has, for the first time, been designated an R1 university, a category historically reserved for top-tier, research-intensive doctoral degree-granting universities.
Joining the top 5% of universities to be recognized in the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, San Diego State University has been designated an R1 institution, a designation granted only to doctoral degree-granting universities with “Very High Research Spending and Doctoral Production.”
Faculty and undergraduates team up to research drones, comics, AI and more
CAL's Mentoring for Undergraduate Student Excellence program, or CAL MUSE, fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and undergraduate research within the College of Arts and Letters.
Faculty and undergraduate students pair up to design a project of interest to both parties, applying for a grant to fund their work. Student assistants (SAs), or MUSE awardees, spend 80 hours in support of their faculty mentor to conduct, organize, and compile research on the designated subject.
Research shows state’s strategy for river cleanup may be all washed up
Data from a five-year study indicates the unwanted debris is closely connected with another major societal problem. Hilary McMillan, professor of water resources in the San Diego State University geography department, led a NOAA-funded project to identify the main sources of trash in the San Diego River. Their hypothesis, she said, was storm drains “are one source of trash, but we didn’t think it was the main source.”
New dedicated space honors longtime SDSU poetry professor
Professor Sandra Alcosser has guided the MFA in creative writing/poetry program for 36 years.
It was 1989 when Barbara Boxer, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, tapped Sandra Alcosser to lead the MFA in creative writing/poetry program in the Department of English and Comparative Literature.
Now, 36 years later, a study area on the second floor of the Arts and Letters building, adjacent to the MFA Resource Center and the Poetry International office is officially named the “Professor Sandra Alcosser Poetry Nook.”
SDSU Rising Aztecs
Ten San Diego State University alumni have been named the 2025 Rising Aztecs. The awardees are young alumni with extraordinary career achievements who have demonstrated a commitment to supporting SDSU and engaging with the university in their lives and careers.
Aztec Turned Viking
From 2004 to 2007, SDSU alumnus Kevin O’Connell (’07, sociology) led the Aztec football team as its quarterback and captain. He had a short stint as a player in the NFL, but his career would end up being defined in a different way: as a coach. On Feb. 6, just shy of three years after being named Minnesota Vikings head coach, O’Connell was named Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year.
Elaine Rother Retires
After 45 years working in the College of Arts and Letters, Elaine Rother, director of resources management, officially retired effective March 31, 2025. A celebration in honor of her years of service took place on March 19.
American Indian Studies // Associate Professor Olivia Chilcote was interviewed for: “From her family’s dining room table to documenting a Luiseño band’s path toward recognition in her book.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune
History // Master’s student Maximus Miesner was featured in an article about his research: “Motown music inspires award-winning historical research for graduate student.”
SDSU NewsCenter
International Business // Director Hisham Foad was interviewed for: “Recession risk rises: What can Americans do to protect themselves?”
CBS 8
Political Science // Professor Mikhail Alexseev was interviewed for: “Can there be peace in Ukraine, or is Putin just playing for time?”
KPBS
Department for the Study of Religion // New video feature highlights program.
Study of Religion Video
Center for Skateboarding, Action Sports, and Social Change // Professor Neftalie Williams was interviewed for the feature story: “SDSU assistant professor teaches about the global impact of skateboarding.”
NBC7 San Diego
Sociology // Student Xavier Hamlett was featured in: “‘One small thing can make a big difference’: Xavier Hamlett, fellow SDSU athletes bring help to those in need.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune