Dr. Jose Calderon
2004 - 2006
Jose Zapata Calderon is the inaugural holder of the newly endowed Michi and Walter Weglyn Chair for Multicultural Studies at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona for the academic year 2004-2005. He received his B. A. from the University of Colorado in Communications and his MA and PhD from the University of California Los Angeles. Since 1991, he has been a Professor in Sociology and Chicano Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He has had a long history of connecting his academic work with community organizing, student-based service learning, participatory action research, critical pedagogy, and multi-ethnic coalition building. He is the recipient of the 2004 Richard E. Cone Award for Excellence and Leadership in Cultivating Community Partnerships in Higher Education, presented by the California Campus Compact (CACC) to individuals who demonstrate building partnerships between communities and higher education. The United Farm Worker's Union has honored him with their Si Se Puede award for his life-long contributions to the farm worker movement. His recent appointments include: a board member of the National Advisory Council of the New Institute On Liberal Education and Civic Engagement by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, a three-year position on the Distinguished Career Award Committee of the American Sociological Association, and a National Civic Scholar by Campus Compact to identify resources, best practices, curricula, and models that connect history and service learning. As a participant ethnographer, he has published numerous articles and studies based on his community experiences and observations. Recent publications include: Lessons From an Activist Intellectual: Participatory Research, Teaching, and Learning For Social Change, in Latin American Perspectives, January, 2004; Resource Materials Manual for Teaching Latino/a Sociology (co-edited with Gilda Ochoa) for the American Sociological Association Teaching Resource Center; Partnership in Teaching and Learning: Combining the Practice of Critical Pedagogy With Civic Engagement and Diversity, in Peer Review, American Association of Colleges and Universities, Spring 2003; Inclusion or Exclusion: One Immigrant's Experience and Perspective of a Multicultural Society, in Minority Voices, edited by John Meyers, Allyn and Bacon, 2004; Organizing Immigrant Workers: Action Research and Strategies in the Pomona Day Labor Center (with Suzanne Foster and Silvia Rodriguez), for a forthcoming book Communities and Political Activism, (edited by Enrique C. Ochoa and Gilda Laura Ochoa), The University of Arizona Press.
