RRS Event

On March 13, 2025, RRS co-sponsored a panel discussion, “Decolonize Our Diets: Food and Culture as Resilience and Resistance,” which featured four award winning chefs. Organized and moderated by RRS lecturer and climate justice activist, Gopal Dayaneni, the panel featured Reem Assil (award-winning Palestinian-Syrian chef and author based in Oakland), Bryant Terry (award-winning African American vegan chef, food justice activist, and author), Samin Nosrat (award-winning Iranian-American chef and author of the #1 NYT best seller, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat), and Crystal Wahpepah (an Indigenous food warrior, restaurant owner, and author).

The dynamic discussion focused on the number of ways in which food and food culture is a form of resilience and resistance amongst oppressed peoples. The chefs discussed how food has been a form of resistance against colonization, enslavement, capitalism, war, and genocide. They reflected on how they have woven the political histories of their own communities into their work as chefs and public intellectuals.  

We had an amazing workshop where we screened "Can't Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontline," which shares stories of queer and trans resistance, resilience, and brilliance in the face of rising seas, stronger storms and escalating state violence.

Following the film, we had a Q & A with Natalia Villarán Quiñones, one of the filmmakers. To finish, Deseree Fontenot from the Queer EcoJustice Project and Movement Generation led a fun, interactive workshop that explores ecological diversity, resilience and complexity from a Queer Ecological framework.

The Department of Race & Resistance Studies hosted our first student and faculty mixer this October. It was a great turnout, as our students across the department (which includes all of our Race and Resistance Majors and Minors, Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, and Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies students) got to meet other peers and faculty members and build a community within our department.

On May 3, the RRS department, alongside the CPIOS program and the Pacific Islander Student Association at San Francisco State University, celebrated the book release of Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures edited by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Leora Kava and Craig Santos Perez. This anthology features contemporary eco-literature of a hundred emerging, mid-career and established Indigenous writers from Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and the global Pacific diaspora. The launch will address the seven main themes from the book: "Creation Stories and Genealogies," "Ocean and Waterscapes," "Land and Islands," "Flowers, Plants, and Trees," "Animals and More-than-Human Species," "Climate Change," and "Environmental Justice."

The event featured readings by contributors, editors and our very own San Francisco State students who expressed the urgent voices within the book calling us to act on a time of great need. Pacific ecologies and the lives of Pacific Islanders are currently under existential threat due to the legacy of environmental imperialism and the ongoing impacts of climate change. While Pacific writers celebrate the beauty and cultural symbolism of the ocean, islands, trees, and flowers, they also bravely address the frightening realities of rising sea levels, animal extinction, nuclear radiation, military contamination, and pandemics.

Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures reminds us that we are not alone; we are always in relation and always ecological. Humans, other species, and nature are interrelated; land and water are central concepts of identity and genealogy; and Earth is the sacred source of all life, and thus should be treated with love and care. With this book as a trusted companion, we are inspired and empowered to reconnect with the world as we navigate towards a precarious yet hopeful future.

The book is available here, and we want to share some of the photos captured during this event.

Congratulations to our graduates! The RRS Department held an in-person graduation ceremony on May 23 in Jack Adams Hall for all our scholars who graduated in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. We celebrated and acknowledged everyone's successes and are so proud of all of you.