College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University--The Official Page

College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University--The Official Page The College of Arts and Letters (CAL) is at the very heart of liberal arts education at San Diego St

CAL's programs in the humanities and social sciences are offered through 18 academic departments and a number of interdisciplinary programs, each of which is designed to help students understand their role in society and to develop aesthetic sensibilities.

For Tinia Hunt, a global education experience is required for her International Business major. She is half Japanese b...
03/13/2026

For Tinia Hunt, a global education experience is required for her International Business major. She is half Japanese but had never traveled outside of the U.S.. She wanted to study in Japan to connect with her roots and improve her language fluency.

Last year, Hunt was awarded a Gilman Scholarship to spend a semester at Sophia University in Tokyo. “I never wanted to leave,” she said. “It was so fun, and the Gilman Scholarship took so much weight off my shoulders. I could go to Japan and not have to worry about, ‘Can I afford this?’”

Read more about the award, here: https://www.sdsu.edu/news/2026/03/sdsu-recognized-as-top-25-producer-of-gilman-scholars

How can artificial intelligence help protect the waves we rely on for recreation, culture, and coastal economies? This t...
03/12/2026

How can artificial intelligence help protect the waves we rely on for recreation, culture, and coastal economies?

This talk demonstrates how Surfline Coastal Intelligence applies machine learning to existing Surfline CCTV infrastructure to enable continuous monitoring of wave quality, surf conditions, and surfer behavior. By linking visual data with metocean drivers, we can quantify a surf amenity and model how surf breaks respond to environmental change.

The presentation, by Paul Ganev of SCI, will include a technical walkthrough of the system and examples of data analysis that support more informed coastal planning and climate adaptation strategies.

RSVP: https://forms.gle/BV9ijvMNHyc7bggH8 or via QR code.

🗓 Wednesday, March 25
⏰ 12:30 p.m.
📍Peterson Gym (PG 153)

🎉 Congratulations to all 11 CAL S3 award winners:Dean’s Award (2 winners)🔴 Xavier Flores | “The Impact of Media on Growi...
03/10/2026

🎉 Congratulations to all 11 CAL S3 award winners:

Dean’s Award (2 winners)
🔴 Xavier Flores | “The Impact of Media on Growing Opposition To Immigration
Among U.S. Latinos” | Mentor: Kim Twist

🔴 Cordelia Sonnenschein | “Learning with Agave: How Agave is Teaching Students about the Past” | Mentor: Nicole Mathwich

Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Award
🔴 Ricardo Rosas Jr. | “From Service to Scholarship: Latino Veterans’ Postsecondary Educational Pathways” | Mentor: Marissa Vasquez

President’s Award (4 from CAL)
🔴 Jerry Paras | “Franchise Capitalism and The Undermining of Worker Power” | Mentor: Jill Esbenshade

🔴 Gabriel Holliday | “Building a City from the Kitchen Up: Culinary Labor, Memory, and the Shaping of New Orleans” | Mentor: Eve Kornfeld

🔴 Rex Peacock | “Water Scarcity, Agricultural Land Retirement, and Restoration Ecology in the San Joaquin Valley” | Mentor: Daniel Sousa

🔴 Charlie Wolf | “Oversight and Regulations of Sober Livings in San Diego County” | Mentor: Megan Welsh-Carroll / School of Public Health

Provost’s Award (2 winners from CAL)
🔴 Victor Lopez | “Cartolandia: Can Archaeology Provide a New Hope to Displaced Communities?” | Mentor: Isaac Ullah

🔴 Isabel Zelaya | “Beyond the Border: Immigration Enforcement and the Criminalization of Latina Motherhood” | Mentor: Cheryl O’Brien

SDSU Undergraduate RSCA Program (SURP) Award
🔴 Isabella Torcat | “The Forgotten First Amendment-The Apportionment Amendment” | Mentor: Edward Blum

Charles Wei-hsun Fu Foundation Philosophy Award
🔴 Leeann Jones | “The Cost of Returning Home: The Act of Repatriation and its Economic Impact on the Museum Industry” | Mentor: Elizabeth Pollard

Learn. more about S3, here: https://research.sdsu.edu/sdsu_student_symposium

SAVE THE DATE: MARCH 26FOR A LECTURE AND PANEL DISCUSSION of the Center for War and Society Speaker Series Sponsored by ...
03/10/2026

SAVE THE DATE: MARCH 26
FOR A LECTURE AND PANEL DISCUSSION of the
Center for War and Society Speaker Series Sponsored by J. Fred and Susan Oliver

MODERATED PANEL:
"Future Wars: Technology , Power, and the Pursuit of Peace"

Thursday, March 26 | 2–3:30 p.m.
SDSU Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center

San Diego State University’s Center for War and Society hosts leaders from Space Command, NAVWAR, and the Air National Guard to discuss how AI and cyber warfare are reshaping the global order. This panel brings together three military leaders to discuss how technology is altering the human experience of war. The discussion will address important questions such as: Is traditional warfare obsolete? How do we maintain peace when attacks are invisible and digital?

This moderated panel discussion is intended to foster better understanding of the complexities of war in the modern age and military technology’s implications for the future. The follow-up Q&A session will offer students and other members of the audience a unique opportunity to engage with military leaders who manage cutting edge technologies.

Learn more about the panelists and the events at cws.sdsu.edu/news-and-events

RSVP, here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uNumzRsnINeqz74l7sr3gnfKVFRrQhIzWmX3-hAr-RY/viewform?edit_requested=true

_________
LECTURE WITH SAM MOYN:
"Making War Humane: Past, Present, and Future"

Thursday, March 26 | 5:30 p.m.
SDSU Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center

We are honored to welcome Samuel Moyn, the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, for an examination of the ethical paradoxes within modern conflicts. Drawing on his acclaimed work “Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War,” Professor Moyn will address the unsettling possibility that our efforts to humanize war have inadvertently shored up the military enterprise, making it more durable and pervasive in the modern era.

From the inception of humanitarian goals to the contemporary realities of the Global War on Terror and the Israel-Gaza conflict, Moyn applies the same rigorous intellectual history found in his celebrated volumes, such as “The Last Utopia” and “Liberalism Against Itself,” to challenge our fundamental assumptions about peace and justice.

As a prolific scholar and the head of Yale’s Grace Hopper College, Moyn continues to redefine the intersection of law, history, and power, offering our community a timely and sophisticated perspective on the future of global ethics.

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HDf5uCyAMb8lF01xXO4pmE_RuS5Rk6O4R66i9CGtIeo/viewform?edit_requested=true

Sponsored by the Center for War and Society, the College of Arts and Letters, the San Diego World Affairs Council, the San Diego Army ROTC, the Center for Human Rights, and the International Security and Conflict Resolution program.

🗓 SAVE THE DATE!Fiske Legal Series presentsBuilding Tomorrow’s Legal EcosystemThursday, April 9 | 5-8 p.m.KPBS Events Ce...
03/09/2026

🗓 SAVE THE DATE!

Fiske Legal Series presents
Building Tomorrow’s Legal Ecosystem
Thursday, April 9 | 5-8 p.m.
KPBS Events Center / 5200 Campanile Drive

A law degree is more than courtrooms and contracts; it is the essential toolkit for the most exciting frontiers of the future. SDSU’s Fiske Legal Series welcomes panelists Albert Tan (international business ‘89), who helped develop and advance the global fund finance industry that powers the private capital economy, and Colleen Kerr, who helped shape the AI frameworks that will define the next generation of human intelligence.

This special conversation with these leaders, hosted by moderator and alumnus John Fiske (political science ‘04), will prove that pursuing a law school degree gives you a seat at the table where the future is being decided.

RSVP: https://bit.ly/4swFesG
More details: SDSU.EDU/FISKE for more details.

Congratulations to CAL students who made the SDSU Student Symposium a success. From presentations like "Betty Crocker: T...
03/03/2026

Congratulations to CAL students who made the SDSU Student Symposium a success.

From presentations like "Betty Crocker: The Liminal Figure that Shaped American Propaganda" to poster topics like "The National City Earthquake Safety & Outreach Initiative" and "Mourning Attire in the Borderlands: A Case Study from the La Mesa History Center" — students exemplify how research in the humanities and social sciences can help change the world.

The awards ceremony takes place this Friday.
Check the S3 website for details: https://research.sdsu.edu/sdsu_student_symposium

Join SDSU English and Comparative Literature Professor Jessica Pressman and scholar, poet, and digital artist Amaranth B...
03/02/2026

Join SDSU English and Comparative Literature Professor Jessica Pressman and scholar, poet, and digital artist Amaranth Borsuk in a talk that asks you to think strategically about the history and future of literature and language, the book and digital platforms for poetics.

Borsuk is author of “The Book” (MIT Press, 2018), an introduction to the book as object, content, idea, and interface. Her books of poetry include: “Pomegranate Eater" (Kore Press, 2016); “Handiwork” (Slope Editions, 2012), selected by Paul Hoover for the 2011 Slope Editions Poetry Prize; and “Tonal Saw” (The Song Cave, 2010), a chapbook-length erasure.

Borsuk is associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell, where she also serves as associate director of the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics.

Tuesday, March 17 | 2–3:15 p.m.
SDSU Library, Digital Humanities Center (LA 61)

Presented by the College of Arts and Letters HŪMTECH initiative, the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Digital Humanities initiative, and the Hugh C. Hyde Living Writers' Series.

Fall 2025 CAL Miicrogrants were awarded to 21 faculty members to support research projects and educational resources acr...
02/27/2026

Fall 2025 CAL Miicrogrants were awarded to 21 faculty members to support research projects and educational resources across CAL departments.

Faculty members received a $500 award. The money provides financial backing for various research projects. Among the awardees are Jennifer Sheppard from the department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies and Zamira Abman in Comparative International Studies.

Abman is pictured above at the National Library of Tajikistan in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Photo by: Khosiyat Yusupjonova.

Read the full article to learn more about CAL's award-winning faculty doing important research. https://cal.sdsu.edu/news/cal-microgrants-2025

Join us for a university-wide conversation with Brian Hie, Stanford professor and lead of the Evo project, whose work si...
02/26/2026

Join us for a university-wide conversation with Brian Hie, Stanford professor and lead of the Evo project, whose work sits at the frontier of artificial intelligence and biology. Hie has developed an AI system capable of generating entirely novel genetic sequences — opening new possibilities for medicine and our understanding of life itself.

Designed for faculty and students across all disciplines, this audience Q&A will invite wide-ranging discussion about the promises, risks, and responsibilities of
AI-driven biotechnology. Bring your questions and your perspective to what promises to be a thought-provoking, cross-disciplinary exchange.

Hie is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation Stanford Data Science Faculty Fellow, and an Innovation Investigator at Arc Institute, where his group conducts research at the intersection of biology and AI.

Monday, March 16, 4–5 p.m. in the Digital Humanities Center at SDSU Library.
RSVP, here: https://bit.ly/4u5y0NR

Learn more about HŪMTECH events, here: https://cal.sdsu.edu/humtech

🎉Congratulations CAL students! The fall 2025 Dean's List is live now.The College of Arts and Letters dean's list recogni...
02/20/2026

🎉Congratulations CAL students! The fall 2025 Dean's List is live now.

The College of Arts and Letters dean's list recognizes academic achievement within a single semester. To be eligible for the dean's list, students must be in good academic standing, an undergraduate, enrolled, and have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (semester GPA only) based on a minimum of 12 units of credit for courses in which letter grades were assigned.

Find out who made the list, here: https://cal.sdsu.edu/people/deans-list

ISCOR student Tyler Paulo credits an international conference with fostering different perspectives and student connecti...
02/16/2026

ISCOR student Tyler Paulo credits an international conference with fostering different perspectives and student connection. Tyler speaks to the value of attending the 2026 Peace Summit of Emerging Leaders in Bangkok with ISCOR peers.

In January, the Peace Summit of Emerging Leaders in Bangkok, Thailand’s United Nations Conference Center, welcomed students from around the world to participate in an annual international conference centered on world peace.

Among the delegates were five students from San Diego State University’s International Security and Conflict Resolution (ISCOR) program: Chloe Seger, Tyler Paulo, Jess Seguin, Leo Hymus, Samantha Alvarado, and Justina Pow.

Read the full article to learn more about their international experience.
https://cal.sdsu.edu/news/peace-summit-2026

Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data CentersTuesday, Feb. 24, 4 p.m.Digital Humanities Center / SDS...
02/12/2026

Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 4 p.m.
Digital Humanities Center / SDSU Library

RSVP: https://forms.gle/ypDdVgQVWF3y1AyQA

In this roundtable discussion, community advocates from two borderland regions of the Southwest U.S.— Doña Ana County, New Mexico and Imperial County, California — will detail their experiences organizing against the development of AI data centers. At a time when industry leaders are claiming AI will transform every aspect of social, political, and economic life, this dialogue emphasizes the importance of community knowledge and lived experience in countering the promises made by the AI industry.

SPEAKERS;
Annie Ersinghaus, award-winning independent filmmaker from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Daisy A. Maldonado, community advocate for environmental justice, public health, and climate preservation in southern New Mexico.

Gilberto Manzanarez, community advocate and educator from Calexico, California, focused on environmental justice and government transparency in the Imperial Valley.

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5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA
92182

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Monday 8am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8am - 4:30pm
Friday 8am - 4:30pm

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CAL's programs in the humanities and social sciences are offered through 18 academic departments and a number of interdisciplinary programs, each of which is designed to help students understand their role in society and to develop aesthetic sensibilities.