Associate Professor Edward Castillo has just been selected to serve on the California Council for the Humanities board of directors. Castillo, recently chosen as Professor of the Year by the Sonoma State University Friends of the Library, teaches Native American Studies at SSU where he's been on the faculty for 10 years.
Founded in 1974, the California Council for the Humanities uses three main avenues to bring the humanities to the public. First, it administers a competitive grants program which this year will award more than $750,000 to organizations for projects which use the humanities to foster multicultural understanding and strengthen community life in California. Some examples of projects funded over the past two years include Valley Stories: Voices from California's Heartland (reading/discussion program), Images of the Past: Representations of Native Californians (a symposium), and The History of Affirmative Action (a video documentary).
Second, it conducts special projects of its own, among them Motheread/Fatheread and the California Exhibition Resources Alliance.
Third, it develops programs around a core theme (currently the California Sesquicentennial), and offers them to sponsoring organizations throughout the state.
Castillo's outstanding service and contributions to Sonoma State University, its students, and the community include many published article and books. He currently has four books published, including his most recent Indian, Franciscans, and Spanish Missionization. Castillo's work has helped reform the teaching curriculum at elementary and high school level history, particularly regarding the portrayal of Native Americans.
Edward Castillo was one of 78 Native Americans who took over Alcatraz Island in 1969, staging a sit-in to protest the loss of Native American lands.
For more information about Edward Castillo, call (707) 664-2458, or for the Council for the Humanities, (415) 391-1474 or go to www.calhum.org.
