Fresno State was among 11 California State University campuses awarded Mellon Foundation grants through the CSU Advancing and Expanding Ethnic Studies Grant Program. 

Led by College of Social Sciences faculty in the Africana Studies Program and American Indian Studies Program, the grants support efforts to deepen engagement with courses and programming on culture, gender and sexuality; strengthen student recruitment and retention; and build broader community connections.

Africana Studies

Dr. Nkenna Onwuzuruoha, assistant professor, organized activities supported by the $50,000 Africana Studies Program grant, entitled “Placemaking: Expanding Black Queer and Feminist Perspectives in Africana Studies,” which supported a campus event series that included: 

• Guest speaker Dr. Chelsea Frazier, author, Cornell University assistant professor of English and researcher on Black feminist ecology. 
• Guest speaker Tracey Dunne, local entrepreneur of Side Hustle Jams.
• An open mic read-in for students, faculty and the public to share favorite book passages and poems from the second-annual series sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.
• A campus screening and Q&A with filmmaker Susanne Rostock about her documentary on activist Harry Belafonte, titled “Following Harry,” co-organized with Dr. Mary Husain. 

“We were excited to create a series of inclusive events and programming that featured researchers, artists, authors and even entrepreneurs,” Onwuzuruoha said. “Being able to understand the background behind their experiences created a meaningful discourse and direction for our students to apply to their own academic paths and lives. It also created opportunities for alumni, current and emeritus professors and members of the broader Fresno community interested in Black feminist and queer issues to reconnect with our campus and program — or to be introduced to them for the first time — and to feel genuinely welcomed.”

The grant also supported research and curriculum development by two student assistants. Marshawn Lee-Castell (criminology) is studying archives of the Grapevine magazine that spotlighted the Central Valley’s Black community in the 1960s and ’70s. Dana Grisby, an Educational Leadership Program doctoral student and Laney College faculty, is helping to develop an upper-division course on Black queer and feminist thought with Fresno State alum Cherika Gamble and lecturer Dion Foster.

As an expansion of the Black queer arts and literature course taught by women’s, gender and sexuality studies faculty Dr. Kat Fobear, the course will enhance curricular offerings for certificates, minors and degrees, and will help shorten time for degree completion.

American Indian Studies

Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver, director of the American Indian Studies Program, oversaw a $100,000 grant to expand coursework, research, holistic dialogues and workshops tied to Native American Two-Spirit and Indigenous Trans peoples.

These programs have helped faculty, staff, students and community partners engage professionally and academically with tribal history and discussions of sovereignty, decoloniality, activism, health and wellness and their own communities. 

Events in collaboration with the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, which houses the LGBTQ2+ studies minor, included:

• Creation of the “Weaving Cultural-Intellectual Traditions into Representation” Project, which has offered curriculum development workshops hosted by Two-Spirit and Indigenous transgender experts and an open-source library archive. Central Valley Two-Spirit/transgender experts and the Fresno American Indian Health Project are hosting safe-space listening sessions and community gatherings focused on pathways to wellness. Future plans include creating training modules on best practices in holistic representation, gender-affirming care and inclusion.
• “Queer Ed Talks” by expert consultants and workshops inclusive of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) perspectives in collaboration with the Cross Cultural and Gender Center.
• The first of two “Talking Circles” symposia featuring BIPOC, Queer and transgender experts who presented on decoloniality, and a related curriculum and research workshop with faculty, staff and students.
• A community service component is also a critical piece of the work. Collaborating with the Fresno American Indian Health Projects Talking Two-Spirit and Red Warrior Project, the American Indian Studies Mellon project serves to create safe spaces for Central Valley Two Spirit and American Indian/Indigenous trans community members to share their insights on best practices in gender-affirming care that is also attentive to the cultural traditions of American Indians.

This fall, faculty will continue to evaluate and revise courses that reflect Two-Spirit and Indigenous trans social and cultural formations and activism in the context of diverse tribal sovereigns, offer listening sessions and a symposium, and design an interdepartmental, restorative justice certificate.

“This grant aims to grow awareness of how tribal sovereignty and citizenship shape the social and political landscapes we all inhabit,” Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver, director of the American Indian Studies Program,  said. “We want to ensure that the voices of Two-Spirit and Native trans peoples are holistically and accurately represented, as normative to healthy and complete societies through the lens of American Indian peoples, and that Two-Spirit and Native trans peoples inform curricular representations, gender-affirming care praxes and future-building strategies.”

These grants were part of an initiative announced in 2024 that involved 95 curricular programs across the nation and $18 million in grants.