KUCI: Subversity

In his short tenure of less than a year heading UC Irvine Libraries, Interim University Librarian Gerald Ray Lowell has managed to uplift library morale and flatten the administrative structure so that more people have been involved in

making decisions that affect those of us who work here. He has also taken an important stab at streamlining the academic review process for librarians.

This interview with Gerald Lowell -- Jerry as he was known to us -- is being aired today, his last day of work at UC Irvine.

He looks back at his extensive career in librarianship and reflects on his life's work.

Interviewer is Daniel C. Tsang, show host.

Under seige by fellow activists seeking his resignation as Student Regent of the UC system, Jesse Cheng, a fifth-year UC Irvine Asian American studies major, finally issued a a statement today clarifying his take on his self-described "messy breakup" with his ex girlfriend, a UCLA law student. After the breakup, his former partner, a former UCI Filipina American student, went to the Irvine police, which arrested him last November for attempted sexual battery and attempted rape, but the Orange County District Attorney's Office ultimately decided there was insufficient evidence to justify prosecuting him on misdemeanor charges.

The successful revolt in Egypt has laid bare the limits of U.S. attempts to impose its will over the Middle East. We talk with Prof. Ussama Makdisi, a Rice University professor and

the first holder of the Arab American Education Foundation Chair of Arab Studies there, and author of a new book on U.S.-Arab relations, Faith Misplaced (Public Affairs).

We also provided listeners with a news update on the street protests in Yemen by UCI sociology graduate student Dana

Moss of the Yemen Peace Project.

The ripple effect from the Tunisian turmoil has reached not only Egypt but also other states in the region, including Yemen. For the next edition of KUCI's Subversity program we look into the evolving situation in Yemen, as protesters and the state deal with the fast-changing political situation.

We talk with two activists, one a graduate student from UC Irvine, Dana Moss, and the other William Picard, both of whom collaborated in co-founding the Yemen Peace Project.

Despite UC Irvine's professed commitment to the First Amendment [watch UCI video above on Free Speech], troubling recent signs indicate that the heavy hand of the law is coming down on student protesters on campus, reinforcing UCI's new reputation as a new site of student resistance (and repression).

A criminal pretrial for 19 UCI students who staged a labor protest last year is imminent (March 7, 2011) while a grand jury has apparently been empaneled to investigate the activities of UCI's Muslim Student Union.

For this evening's edition of Subversity, we talk with Carol A. Sobel, a SantaMonica- based civil rights attorney for six MSU students and former students who were called in January 2011 to testify before the Orange County grand jury investigating, apparently, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor!

A year after participating in the first such Tet parade on Bolsa at in Westminster, a contingent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese plan to march again.

We talk again to Gina Masequesmay, from CSU Northridge, about the planned march and whether or not this year's event, slated for 9:00-noon on 5 February, is happening with less controversy than the previous year.

In a sign of the times, ethnic studies programs have to fight for their survival, making some wonder if California is turning into an Arizona battle zone.

A dean at the multi-ethnic California State University, Los Angeles, ahead of a academic program review, has arbitrarily decided he wants to suspend its Asian American and Asian Studies Program. He did say he would meet up with faculty Monday 29 November to hear what they had to say, but the dozens of faculty members who showed up, from a diverse group of ethnicities and disciplines -- as well as concerned students carrying signs declaring AAAS = Diversity etc, were confronted with an unreceptive dean, who would only promise to get word back by Christmas.

On KUCI's Subversity program an hour or so after the meeting Monday, ChorSwang Ngin, the Anthropology professor who chair of the Asian American and Asian Studies program told show host Daniel C. Tsang she was impressed and gratified by the turnout, revealing the University had never shown much commitment to the program over the years, and that enrollment was "growing". She suggested that to "suspend" the program meant its end, which would be quite contrary to the University's commitment to diversity.

As University of California Regents move later this week to raise student fees by 8% and admit more out-of-state and international students, UC students are reacting with frustration.

UCI Student Regent Jesse Cheng has already indicated he will vote against the increase.

KUCI's Subversity talks with two UCI graduate student activists, Fernando Chirino and Robert Wood, about what lies ahead.

University of California Student Regent Jesse Cheng appears on KUCI's Subversity show to talk about his decision to "officially" openly declare his queer sexuality Wednesday 20 October 2010 at a speak-out and vigil in the wake of the many gay teen suicides across the United States.

A new scholarly work on the globalization of Yaoi has come out and KUCI's Subversity program features an interview with its co-editor and a contributor to this pioneering collection. The Yaoi phenomenon, part of a larger Boys Love visual depiction, features teen male romantic and sexual relationships, originally geared, in Japan, at a female readership. As it spread around the world (and the new book includes a chapter on Indonesia's reception to it), one wonders about its effect on how its readers -- now male and female, young and older -- view same-sex relationships in the real world.

On this edition of KUCI's Subversity show, show host Daniel C. Tsang interviews Mark McHarry, co-editor of Boys' Love Manga (McFarland, 2010) and Hope Donovan, a contributor and manga editor.