Copley Connects Fall/Winter 2024

Second Annual Filipino American History Month (FAHM) Celebration By Regina Gong, Ph.D. , Associate Dean for Student Success and Strategic Initiatives Copley Library successfully mounted its 2nd annual Filipino American History Month event on October 2, 2024. This year’s keynote speaker was

Dr. Allyson Tintiangco Cubales, a distinguished professor in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. With a crowd of close to a hundred people, including some prominent Filipino Americans from the San Diego community, Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales talked about her scholarship, poetry, and music rooted

Dr. Weber greets members of the audience

Fireside Chat with California Secretary of State, Dr. Shirley Weber By Regina Gong, Ph.D. , Associate Dean for Student Success and Strategic Initiatives Copley Library successfully hosted California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber’s visit on October 22, 2024, at the Mother Hill Reading Room. Dr. Regina Gong, Associate Dean for Student Success and Strategic Initiatives at Copley Library, worked to bring her to USD to talk about “How Civil Discourse Can Make a National Election Meaningful Locally.” Dr. Gong provided the welcome remarks and introduced Dr. Weber and Dr. Angela Nurse, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, who served as the moderator. The fireside chat was an opportunity for Dr. Weber to talk about her journey to this role and how we need to exercise our civic responsibility to vote, make our voices heard, and meaningfully engage in our democracy, especially for college students. This program is part of the Toreros Together for the Common Good initiative at USD. Through events, education, dialogue, and constructive discussion, Toreros are invited to explore the importance of democracy, ethical leadership, and civic engagement, lighting the way forward to serve the world positively.

Dean Byrd (left) with Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales (middle) and Dr. Gong (right)

in Pinayism. Developed by Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales in 1995, Pinayism is defined as a “radical Pinay sisterhood that connects the global and local to the personal stories of Pinay struggle, survival, service, sisterhood, and strength to emotionally, mentally, physically, politically, and spiritually uplift ourselves” (see the 1995 article, “Pinayism,” written by Dr. Tintiangco Cubales, in {m}aganda magazine , a Filipinx-American student-run literary publication at UC Berkeley). In her presentation, Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales introduced the people who inspired her to conceive of Pinayism as a community, pedagogy, praxis, and an act of resistance. Through storytelling and poetry reading, she challenged the attendees, mostly Filipino Americans, to reflect on their roots by thinking of experiences that influenced and impacted their lives and how these shaped their identities. Moreover, she asked participants to analyze and critique systems oppressive to the liberation of Pinays and similarly marginalized peoples. It was a night filled with thoughtful conversations as the attendees enjoyed the sumptuous Filipino food dinner from one of San Diego’s local Filipino-owned restaurants. The Filipino Ugnayan Student Organization (FUSO) students came in full force and told Dr. Gong how grateful they were to Copley Library for this event. In the words of one of the students, “Thank you for creating a space for us to be in community. I learned a lot, and I’m so proud to be a Filipino American.”

Dr. Weber, onstage with moderator, Dr. Nurse

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