|| Aoki Center Updates ||

On War And October 7th

Today marks one year since the start of the Israel-Palestine war. On October 7, 2023 Hamas, carried out an attack in Israel leading to the death of over a thousand Israeli civilians with hundreds taken hostage in Gaza for use in negotiations. In response, the government of Israel launched an attack on Gaza which has claimed over forty thousand lives, a death toll which continues to increase, and a war with no end in sight. The war is now in Lebanon as the fighting has expanded to include Iran and Hezbollah.  

This escalation of violence in an ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine has sparked global protests. It has divided relationships. It has forced us all to examine our values and wrestle with profound questions of humanity. 

What should not divide us is that every single life claimed in the conflict is unacceptable. What is not controversial is every call for the end of a war whose death toll is composed of men, women, and children. What is not up for debate is our human obligation to protect life.

We join in the calls denouncing acts of war against civilians and an end to this conflict, the wars in Sudan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Myanmar, among others. May dialogue seeking lasting peace take place and human dignity prioritized.

Aoki Joins Main Campus' Bienvenida Faire

Aoki legal fellow Giselle and program coordinator Jesus tabled this weekend on behalf of the Aoki Center at UC Davis' Bienvenida! Bienvenida is an annual celebration of Latinx culture and resources for minority students at UC Davis. We were able to connect with undergraduate students interested in pursuing careers in law and schedule time to have further conversations of encouragement!

Thank You For Your Visit Dr. Michael V. Singh!

Last week the Aoki Center and UCD Division of DEI welcomed Dr. Michael V. Singh's for his book talk Good Boys, Bad Hombres. He examined the politics of empowerment and inclusion as aspects of youth control in schools. Instead of attempting to shape boys’ lives through the threat of punishment, another program aims to provide an “invitation to a respectable and productive masculinity” framed as being rooted in traditional Latinx signifiers of manhood. Singh argues, however, that the promotion of this aspirational form of Latino masculinity is rooted in neoliberal multiculturalism, heteropatriarchy, and anti-Blackness.

The Aoki Center congratulates and celebrates our legal fellow Giselle and Colin on their beautiful union. Cemented by love and shaped by justice, Giselle and Colin share an abolitionist vision of undoing fear and hate to rebuild with grace and love. No prisons, no walls, no borders, no wars. We embrace their radical love for each other and toward the most vulnerable among us. May their love strengthen their resolve to fight injustice together; may the joy they bring each other sustain them. Mazel Tov! Que siempre sean el lugar al que quieren volver cada día. 

-Aoki Center Co-Director, Raquel E. Aldana

|| King Hall ||

Next Week: Protecting Campus Speech

King Hall's very own Professor Brian Soucek will be leading a discussion with one of the ACLU’s leading campus speech litigators, Emerson Sykes, and Alex Morey, the head of campus advocacy efforts at FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

What are the main threats right now to free speech and academic freedom, at UC Davis and around the country? And what are the best solutions?

Come hear how the ACLU and FIRE are working together to protect campus speech—and where they sometimes disagree about what should be protected.

OCT. 16, 2024 | 5:30 — 6:45 PM | King Hall, Room 1001

|| Main Campus ||

Tomorrow - Seminar: Individualism, Creativity, and Innovation

Speaker: Katharina Hartinger, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Individualist societies are more innovative, but little is known about the underlying individual behaviors. I use international labor-market and patent data to show that individualism—the cultural dimension that emphasizes individual achievements over collective action—positively affects individual innovation. Comparing migrants from different cultural origins within the same destination country and using variation in individualism at the country, region, and person level, I find that more individualist migrants select into more innovative occupations—including creative jobs, research, and ambitious entrepreneurship. Individualists also engage more readily in knowledge diffusion on the job—even when accounting for occupational selection and cognitive skills—by investing more time in active learning. Taken together, those innovation choices account for 44 percent of the individualism productivity premium. Individualism also positively affects patenting behavior as a direct innovation output measure, including single-inventor patents.

October 8 | 12:00 to 1:00 PM | Zoom

Thursday: Book Talk!

Please join the UC Davis Department of Asian American Studies for a book talk and discussion for Curtis Chin's new novel, "Everything | Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" on Thursday, October 10th at 4PM!

This Week: The Diaspora Experience: Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics of Emigrants from the Chinese Borderland

Join the Department of East Asian Studies for their upcoming two-day conference at UC Davis on diasporic art, literature, and politics from the Chinese borderland. See the conference program here.

October 10 - 11 | 9 AM to 5 PM | L.J. Andrews Room (Main Campus)

Summit: African American and African Diaspora Student Success

This is a working meeting of UC Davis representatives, including faculty, staff, student leadership, alumni and administration. We plan to review information and data collected about the status of African American and African Diaspora students at UC Davis. We also seek to collectively work to forge alliances and share resources to address the identified needs of this student population. We will provide participants with data before the event so we can all arrive prepared to tackle the issues that day. We hope this event begins an ongoing process to convene and assess our progress, as well as address these and other relevant issues.

Saturday, October 26 | 9 AM to 1 PM | RSVP By October 18

Multipurpose Room, Student Community Center

|| Community Events ||

Tomorrow: Detention Watch Network - Understanding and Building Power

Participants will learn how to: Understand different forms of power, identify a primary target for a campaign as well as allies and supporters, and differentiate between tactics vs strategy and be introduced to tools such as power mapping that help develop a campaign strategy. The training is 2 hours and will incorporate simultaneous English/Spanish interpretation.

October 8 | 12-2pm PT / 2-4pm CT / 3-5pm ET | Virtual | Register

Thursday: Building Bridges For Social Justice & Global Peace

Join the celebration of champions for social justice and global peace organized by CRISJ for students & community empowerment through research, mentorship, and civic engagement.

Speakers/Panel:

• Katie Valenzuela, City Council Member
• Ruth Ibarra, NorCal Resist
• Dr. Flo Cofer, Candidate for Sacramento Mayor

5:30 - 8:00pm | Harper Alumni Center, Sacramento State | Register Here

Next Week: APTP Hosts Healing Portal

Join Anti Police-Terror Project for their next Healing Portal. Healing Portals are one of their strategies to create intentional community care spaces that are in direct relationship to abolitionist movements seeking to eradicate all forms of state violence. Typical offerings include: Traditional Chinese Medicine, massage, acupuncture, sound bath, herbalist, & more! APTP also provides these FREE offerings especially for our Palestinian comrades, impacted families, BIPOC allies and volunteers.

Saturday, October 19th | 1-5 PM | RSVP

||Podcast Recommendation||

Listen - Imperial Policing: Weaponized Data in Carceral Chicago

Chicago is a city with extreme concentrations of racialized poverty and inequity, one that relies on an extensive network of repressive agencies to police the poor and suppress struggles for social justice. Imperial Policing: Weaponized Data in Carceral Chicago (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) examines the role of local law enforcement, federal immigration authorities, and national security agencies in upholding the city’s highly unequal social order.

Collaboratively authored by the Policing in Chicago Research Group (PCRG), Imperial Policing was developed in dialogue with movements on the front lines of struggles against racist policing in Black, Latinx, and Arab/Muslim communities. Imperial Policing analyzes the connections between three police “wars”—on crime, terror, and immigrants—focusing on the weaponization of data and the coordination between local and national agencies to suppress communities of color and undermine social movements.