CURRENT CLASSES
To join a class, email the instructor/s.
All classes meet online.
February 13 – March 6, 2025
Thursdays, 5pm – 8pm PST
(Meets weekly for six weeks)
To join the class, please email the instructors: Juan Avita and Carlos Torre
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 830 7760 2562 / Password: 408552
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This course introduces the complexity and multidimensional nature of the term “Latinos,” encompassing the diverse peoples, cultures, histories, and identities within Latin America and the Latinx diaspora. Students will explore the social, political, and cultural dimensions of the term, focusing on the ways in which “Latinos” is both a unifying identity and a diverse collection of peoples with unique experiences and perspectives. The course will engage with themes such as colonization, migration, race, ethnicity, language, and identity, and will encourage critical reflection on what it means to be Latino/a in contemporary society.
Carlos Antonio Torre earned three graduate degrees at Harvard University in Human Development and in Administration, Planning and Social Policy: an Ed.M.; a Certificate of Advance Studies (CAS); and a Doctor of Education. He is Professor of Education (Curriculum & Learning) at Southern Connecticut State University; Past-President of the New Haven, Connecticut Board of Education; Past-President of the City-Wide School-Building and Stewardship Committee; and a Fellow at Yale University, where he served seven years as Assistant Dean of the Undergraduate College and a member of the Psychology faculty. Before that, he was professor of Social Work at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. And he is a NASO board member.
1 day class, TBA
Taught by James Tracy
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Popular Education (PE) is a process that encourages “critical consciousness” in learners, the ability to identify the power in everyday lives. Drawing from participatory traditions, PE is a powerful tool to build solidarity and the confidence of change. This workshop introduces the basic concepts of PE as well as ways to incorporate it into organizing work. Come prepared to participate.
James Tracy is an instructor in the Department of Political Science and Chair of the Labor Studies Committee at San Francisco State University. He is the co-author of Hillbilly Nationalist Urban Race Rebels and Black Power with Amy Sonnie and co-author of No Fascist USA with Hilary Moore. And he is a NASO board member.
Meets weekly for five weeks, TBA
Email Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer to sign up.
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This 5-week course will study:
1. The influence of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel on the decisions to pursue Imperialism and the Spanish American War.
2. How people native to the territories were presented to the American public by the media and educated specialist like anthropologist and scientist. How these myths and stereotypes were set into national minds.
3. The development of federal laws in governing these places.
4. Supreme court cases that created constitutional precedents effecting the natives in these territories;
5. And some similarities in how the Supreme court viewed people in the territories and Native Americans in the US. The same Supreme court justices decided the Plessy v Ferguson case that legitimized segregation in law and culture.
Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer is a retired attorney and librarian. She is an adjunct professor of history at Tennessee Tech University.
Meets weekly for five weeks, TBA
Taught by Sonia Coleman
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A recurring series covering conversational Spanish basics with a curriculum designed by one of our board members.
Sonia Coleman a bilingual instructor with 25 years of experience in public and private education. She is the founder of Cultural Exchange Lye-Stile Network in Tampa Florida. She holds a BA in Spanish from Spellman College in Atlanta, Georgia; an MA in Educational Leadership from the University of South Florida; and an EdD in Curriculum and Teaching from National Lewis University.
FUTURE CLASSES
Look out for these in the coming months:
- Into the West
This six part series will look in the 19th C and early 20th C American West, including who (and what) suffered as a result.
Taught by Troy Smith, a history professor at Tennessee Tech University, specializing in indigenous studies, Appalachia, and environmental history, and is an award-winning novelist. He is past Tennessee state president of AAUP (American Association of University Professors), and is currently on the policy and planning committee of United Campus Workers, the Tennessee board of AIM (American Indian Movement)- Indian Territory, and the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. - Reading the Word: Teaching Adults
It takes a specific set of skills to teach adult learners, distinct from teaching children or teenagers. This workshop will look at effective learning strategies, especially for adults who hold negative ideas about their own ability to learn.
Taught by James Tracy, faculty in the Department of Political Science and Chair of the Labor Studies Committee at San Francisco State University. He is the co-author of Hillbilly Nationalist Urban Race Rebels and Black Power with Amy Sonnie and co-author of No Fascist USA with Hilary Moore. And he is a NASO board member. - Social Justice/Racial Equality
This seminar-style class engages the Socratic method in consideration of social inequality in the US while pondering solutions amongst peers. Each class focuses on a different subtopic, such as history of the Native American, history of the civil rights movement, and social justice in the American South and other locations in the US. Classes taught in conjunction with organizations such as the Cherokee Nation and other Native American tribes, the Brown Berets, Asian organizations and more.
Taught by: Troy Smith, Jakobi Williams, Carlos Torre, Yvonne Yen Liu, Hy Thurman and other NASO board members.