October 18, 2023

IDEA Newsletter – October 2023

Newsletter

Collaborate. Cooperate. Partnership.

The 2023-24 academic year has begun with several community-inspired gatherings – the community lunch, the inauguration of President Amy Marcus-Newhall, department community gatherings, and the celebration of the life of Dr. Samella Lewis, Scripps first tenured Black faculty member. This year we continue to focus on collaboration, cooperation, and partnership.

Collaborate: Learning is a shared journey. Together, we can achieve more than individually as we foster an environment where students, faculty and staff work together to unlock our full potential.

Cooperate: Emphasizing the importance of teamwork, empathy, and understanding, the EJ team is working across campus to identify spaces where everyone feels valued, respected, and safe to engage in an exchange of ideas.

Partnerships: Scripps is a place of learning and it’s a community of individuals committed to growth, discovery, and impact.

The EJ Team invites member of the Scripps community to join us in building connections, fostering trust, and committing to support one another. We also welcome you to review our 2022-2023 End of Year Report which provides an overview of last year’s accomplishments and this year’s goals.

Honoring Dr. Samella Lewis

Image of Dr. Lewis, a black woman wearing a red hat

Dr. Samella Lewis was the first tenured Black faculty member at Scripps College. She taught at Scripps from 1970-1984 and was the recipient of the 1984 Faculty Recognition Award. Among the courses she taught were: Explorations in Media: Black Experience; Art Media in Relation to the Black Experience; The Artof Black Cultures in the Americas; and Seminar in the Contemporary Art of Asia, Africa, and Latin America; curriculum that embraced non-Western perspectives and talents in the art world. Dr. Lewis was dedication to pushing the college and its students to explore, question, and learn about non-Western cultures during a time of the 1970’s post-civil rights gains and the 1980’s political undoing.

In 1969, with Ruth Waddy, Lewis published “Black Artists on Art,” forming her own publishing house, Contemporary Crafts, followed by helping to establish the National Conference of Artists, a professional organization for Black artists, which continues today. She was a founder of the

Multi-Cul Gallery in Los Angeles, and in 1975 along with two others founded Black Art: An International Quarterly, which continues today under the name International Review of African American Art.

In 1976, Dr. Lewis founded theMuseum of African American Art (MAAA) in Los Angeles to preserve and raise support for the work of Black artists. She directed the MAAA for 10 years while continuing to teach at Scripps—and in 2007, the College honored her efforts by creating the Samella Lewis Contemporary Art Collection at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. Pieces from this collection, as well as Dr. Lewis’s own work, are currently being highlighted at the Ruth ChandlerWilliamson Gallery’s exhibit Gettin’ It Done: A Selection of Work by Elizabeth Catlett, Samella Lewis, Betye Saar, Emma Amos, Alison Saar, Letitia Huckaby, LaToya Hobbs and Kenturah Davis. T. The exhibit will be on display at the Gallery until October 15, and admissions is free and open to the public.

Click here for more information on the life and legacy of Dr. Samella Lewis

Click here for more information on Gettin’ It Done

Spotlight

23-24 Equity and Justice Fellow

Black woman wearing a white shirt and with curly hair

We would like to welcome the newest member of the Equity and Justice Team, Francesca Simmons, MEd. Francesca is an alumna from the Class of 2014, and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Education and Information Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Francesca’s scholarship is centered on the history of single-gender institutions of higher education. She is very excited to be back at Scripps for the year.

2022-2023 Racial Justice and Equity Fellows

The Racial Justice and Equity Fellowship Program provides grants for research, internships, and community-engagement projects designed to advance scholarship and explore topics relevant to the following: racial justice; inequality; equity; criminal justice reform; intersectional, interracial, and intraracial violence; community-engaged projects; and related areas.

Sydney Nemetz , Class of 2025

Project: Creating a Community Quilt: Home and Belonging in the Filipino/a/x Diaspora

Carmen Puentes, Class of 2025

Project Investigating Academic Discrimination of Latino Students in the Montrose County School District

The 2023-2024 Racial Justice and Equity Faculty Fellowship application is currently open, and closes on October, 20, 2023. You can access the application here.

Updates

DEI Departmental Action Plan

Various offices across campus are hard at work developing a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Departmental Action Plans, focused on reviewing departmental practices and policies to ensure we continue to create equitable and just spaces across campus. Denison Library has created a remarkable plan for their team, and is a great example on how to integrate and highlight DEI work in a preestablished culture. If you are interested in participating, please contact Dr. Mary Hatcher-Skeers.

NACCC Faculty Survey

We will be launching the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates (NACCC) Faculty survey on Tuesday, October 3rd. This is an opportunity for faculty to share their thoughts on the current state of the racial campus climate at the college. The survey will be available to all faculty from October 3rd to October 31st.