Acknowledgements

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No work, exhibition, or thought comes to fruition alone. The Surveying Utopias: A Critical Exploration standing and digital exhibition curated by J. Ashley Foster as well as the “Utopias: Literature, Technology, Archives” graduate seminar and the Special Collections team at Library at Fresno State have a multitude of thanks to give to people and organizations alike for supporting our endeavors. The Surveying Utopias digital humanities exhbition was created through collaboration with the Special Collections Research Center, Library, California State University, Fresno throughout the fall 2018 semester. Their Topolobampo Collection provided the basis of this collaboration between the graduate students and Special Collections. The Special Collections' staff commitment to this collaborative effort and the support of the Dean of Library Services, Del Hornbuckle is greatly appreciated and duly acknowledged. Without them, this project would not have been possible.  

Overwhelming thanks to the students of the “Utopias: Literature, Technology, Archives” graduate seminar, taught in the Department of English, for their contributions to the exhibition, and for their research, scholarship, and collaborative nature through the entire process. E. Makaela Bowen, Robert Breuer, Erin L. Chavez, Megan Evans, Angel Garduno, Michaella Gonzalez, Josiah D. Hillner, Leean Lewis-Ramirez, and Isabella Lo, thank you.

We are deeply indebted to the team at the Special Collections Research Center in the Library for making our vision possible. Tammy Lau, Julie Moore, Adam Wallace, and Karina Cardenas have been an essential and integral presence in the “Utopias: Literature, Technology, Archives” course and have guided our creative and critical paths. Many thanks also go to the student assistants in Special Collections: Xochitl Cruz, Quang Nguyen, Shields Prestridge, Maya Ramirez, and June Thao.  A special thanks goes to Julie Moore and Boutsaba Janetvilay for creating our metadata. 

We are also grateful to Dr. Laura Huisinga who contributed her expertise in graphic design to layout our exhibition catalogue, and to The Press at California State University, Fresno  and Dr. Honora Chapman for their work on this publication.

We are honored by permission to display and include in this catalogue and on our digital exhibition Delilah Montoya’s Road to Aztlán, the spectacular panoramic photograph. We thank the artist for her generosity and her contributions to our exhibitions. 

We would like to express our appreciation to Drs. Amanda Kemp and Michael Jamanis and Professor Francis Wong of the Theatre for Transformation for celebrating our exhibition and their gift of performance and residency during the opening week.

Our gratitude extends to Lisa Galvez, Jefferson Beavers, Carol Sera, and Barbara Windmiller for all their help with organization and logistics.

Many thanks goes to Dr. Holly Barnet-Sanchez for her illuminating lecture on Aztlán as a potential utopian concept, to Dave Tyckosonfor lending us his model trains for the exhibition, to Samuel Iliff for lending us his Black Panther action figures, and to Renaldo Gjoshe and Kong Meng Lee for their technical assistance.

Deep gratitude goes to our funding sponsors, who have helped us manifest our ideas.  Generous contributions from the College of Arts and Humanities, the Library, Center for Creativity and the Arts, Center for Faculty Excellence, Chicano and Latin American Studies, Cross Cultural and Gender Center, English, Instructionally Related Activities, given by Associated Students, Inc., Organizational Excellence, President’s Commission on Human Relations and Equity, and Theatre Arts.

Thank you to Dean Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, Associate Dean Honora Chapman, Dean Delritta Hornbuckle, Dr. Francine Optua, Dr. Melanie Hernandez, Dr. Cindy Urrutia, Kathleen Scott, Dr. Bryan Barrett, Dr. Rudy Sanchez, Professor J. Daniel Herring, Dr. Cristina Herrera, and Dr. Kathleen Godfrey for moving our work forward and advocating our cause.

We would also like to thank Ray Reynolds, author of Cat’s Paw Utopia, and former faculty member of Fresno State. Not only did Reynolds contribute archival items to the collection, but he also wrote the criticism about Albert Owen and the Pacific Colony that has acted as a guiding light to our course of study.  

 

Acknowledgements