Volume 56, Number 20    January 26, 2009         

Crossing boundaries
In a Jan. 20 Oakland Tribune article, Raza Studies Lecturer Brigitte Davila discussed how Barack Obama inspired people across racial and ethnic boundaries. Davila volunteered for the Obama campaign in Texas and Nevada after initially supporting Hillary Clinton early in the Democratic primary. "He seemed very sincere. He seems more like me than anybody else I've ever voted for," she said. "I think the (multicultural) identity is part of it. He gets it; he's really a reflection of the United States."

Great expectations
A Jan. 18 San Francisco Chronicle article featured Professor of Political Science Robert Smith discussing the expectations Barack Obama faced in the days leading up to his inauguration. Smith said that though African Americans see Obama's win as a triumph, they don't expect him to change institutional racism overnight. "There is an unemployment problem in the African American community on a long-standing, structural basis, but I don't think there are any expectations he's going to address this directly. He didn't promise to do any such thing, and most African Americans are aware that if he attempted to do that, he would not have the American people as a whole with him."

Hanukkah in Africa
A Jan. 17 article in Sunday Vision (Uganda) featured a trip to Uganda by Professor of Jewish Studies Mark Dollinger. Dollinger spent time with the Abayudaya, a Jewish community in Uganda. In addition to Dollinger, rabbis from the United States also spent time with the Abayudaya during Hanukkah.

For more media coverage of faculty, staff, students, alumni and programs, see SF State in the News.

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Last modified Jan. 26, 2009 by University Communications.