Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspective on Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities (CAMPSSAH)
February 1, 2024–The Office of Academic Diversity, a unit of the Vice Chancellor’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, announces the appointment of a new faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Social Science, Arts, and Humanities (CAMPSSAH): Dr. Maxine Craig!
Dr. Maxine Craig is a Professor in the Sociology department and since 2020 has served that department as Vice Chair and Director of the Graduate Program. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She studies social formations of gender, race, and class through qualitative studies of everyday embodied practices. Her book, Sorry I Don’t Dance: Why Men Refuse to Move, was awarded the 2014 Best Publication Award given by the American Sociological Association’s section on Body and Embodiment. Her book, Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race, won the Best Book of 2002 award on the Political History of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S by the Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics of the American Political Science Association. She is affiliated with Cultural Studies and Performance Studies, and with the Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory & Research and the Designated Emphasis in African American Studies.
Dr. Craig’s strong, sustained commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion is reflected in her record of scholarship, formal and informal leadership, teaching, and mentoring. In fifteen years as a member of the UC Davis faculty, she has fostered networks of mutual support that span multiple departments.
The Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities (CAMPSSAH) builds on the Impact Recruitment Initiative (IRI), whose origin is in calls for greater numbers of faculty whose teaching, research, and service focused on the experiences, contributions and aspirations of African-American and African Diaspora students and communities. CAMPSSAH represents the successful institutionalization and broadening of IRI to encompass the recruitment, integration, and retention of those faculty whose research, teaching, scholarly and creative production bring multicultural perspectives to the social sciences, humanities and the arts with an emphasis on contributions that elevate the voices and visibility of underrepresented students and communities at UC Davis. CAMPSSAH also provides a space for these faculty to strengthen and enhance their engagement with underserved communities through their research and service, within and beyond the campus of UC Davis.
CAMPSSAH works closely with Academic Affairs to strengthen the recruitment, hiring and retention practices and to support historically-marginalized faculty especially but also other faculty of color and faculty whose work brings multicultural perspectives in social sciences, humanities and the arts.