UCTV videos of all projects from 2018 – 2019:
Merced Downtown Neighborhood Identity, History and Preservation
Graduate fellows:
- Anaïs Guillem
- Dalena Ngo
- Rocco Bowman
Other team members:
- Garima Panwar
- Graham Goodwin
Community partners:
- Merced Downtown Neighborhood Association
- Merced County Courthouse Museum
Project poster:
4-Dimensional Map of Merced
Graduate fellow:
- Katherine Shurik
Other team members:
- Maria Elena Arias-Zelidon
- Mirko De Tomassi
- John Flores
Community partners:
- Sarah Lim, Director of the Merced County Courthouse Museum
- Karen Baker, Director of Merced Visitor Services
- Dennis Colton, Director of the Merced Multicultural Arts Center
- Clifford ViMonte, Storyteller for the Cultural Arts Center
Project poster:
Baskets to Bytes: Indigenous California Heritage Preservation
Graduate fellows:
- Cristyna Galarza
- Manuel Dueñas
- Scott Nicolay
Project summary:
Discussions with members of the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association (CIBA) confirmed the value of producing 3D digital images of traditional baskets in museum collections that can be shared back with communities of origin, thus making currently inaccessible basket-weaving techniques and designs on curated baskets available to contemporary basket weavers. Digital Heritage preservation techniques can restore access to the baskets and related materials to the communities that created them. The project will focus on the creation of 3D visual scans of the baskets in some of these collections. This project is in its second year of support.
Calisphere Archive:
Project poster:
Water Governance & Power Dynamics
Graduate fellow:
- Iván González-Soto
Project summary:
Recent studies indicate many people in California are exposed to unsafe drinking water. This project responds to CA’s drinking water crisis through community-engaged research. This project considers the following categories: levels of contestation in water-related board membership elections; water-related board membership vacancies; demographics of water-related board membership, including, but not limited to race, ethnicity, and gender; length of service to a northern San Joaquin Valley water-related board. The first objective developed a collaborative study to contextualize debates around clean water in the San Joaquin Valley’s Latinx and low-income rural communities. The second objective endeavored to open a discussion on how power operates in relation to California’s water crisis and water-related special districts. This is the final phase of a two-year project. Data gathered in year-one aided in the development of a comic book to inform San Joaquin Valley residents about CA’s drinking water crisis, the role of water-related special districts in addressing the drinking water crisis, and how community members can address the crisis through water-related special districts. This project was initially funded in the first year of the grant and was chosen to be renewed.
Project posters:
