NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.
CSUSB biology professor Stuart Sumida serves as consultant on Pixar’s new film ‘Soul’
Inland Empire Community News
Jan. 18, 2021
Pixar’s newest movie, “Soul,” now streaming online, is winning praise for an entertaining and creative animated film that addresses big ideas through the exploits of a jazz musician.
One area of praise for “Soul” is the work of the film’s animators for their realistic depiction of its characters. To help in their efforts, Cal State San Bernardino biology professor Stuart Sumida was enlisted for his expertise in animal and human anatomy to ensure an accurate representation of a cat named Mr. Mittens.
Read the complete article at “CSUSB biology professor Stuart Sumida serves as consultant on Pixar’s new film ‘Soul.’”
CSUSB professor serves as consultant on Pixar’s new film ‘Soul’
Fontana Herald News
Jan. 18, 2021
Pixar’s newest movie, “Soul,” now streaming online, is winning praise for an entertaining and creative animated film that addresses big ideas through the exploits of a jazz musician.
One area of praise for “Soul” is the work of the film’s animators for their realistic depiction of its characters. To help in their efforts, Cal State San Bernardino biology professor Stuart Sumida was enlisted for his expertise in animal and human anatomy to ensure an accurate representation of a cat named Mr. Mittens.
Read the complete article at “CSUSB professor serves as consultant on Pixar’s new film ‘Soul.’”
CSUSB professor co-authors article about women of color transforming Congress
FiveThirtyEight
Jan. 18, 2021
Meredith Conroy, CSUSB associate professor of political science, co-wrote an article that said the 2020 election had two major political milestones: the election of Kamala Harris as the nation’s first Black and South Asian and woman vice president and, the article’s focus, “ a historic number of women of color — 49 in total, according to data collected by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University — will serve in the 117th Congress, including the first three Korean American women elected to Congress and the first Black women to represent Washington state and Missouri.”
Read the complete article at “Women of color were shut out of Congress for Decades. Now they are transforming it.”
Some business learned to adapt to pandemic, others learned what they’ve been doing wrong, CSUSB professor says
IE Business Daily
Jan. 18, 2021
Some are thriving, although the problems caused by the worst public health crisis in a century has caused some businesses to rethink themselves and even change course.
Much of what’s happening to businesses in the current economic slowdown is similar to what happened during the Great Recession, said Mike Stull, director of the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship at Cal State San Bernardino.
“When the economy collapsed 12 years ago, some businesses are able to do well, but some are exactly the opposite,” Stull said. “The ones that are doing well the media doesn’t write about very often. And I’m not saying the media is overplaying the bad news, because it isn’t. This is obviously a very bad situation.”
Asked for a list of businesses in Riverside and San Bernardino counties that have performed well during the pandemic, Stull produced 20. They range from Akash Winery & Vineyard in Temecula to Zwigart’s RPP Products, from Ruff Ready & Moving in Temecula to Mach One Air Charters Inc. in Chino.
“There isn’t a common thread among them,” Stull said. “I suppose there are some businesses that have figured out ways to deal with the pandemic, but some other businesses have found out what they’ve been doing wrong,” Stull said. “When that happens, a business gets exposed.”
Read the complete article at “Businesses adapt to stay alive during COVID crisis.”
CSUSB professor Vipin Gupta publishes book, 'What Is Divine Energy'
Issue Wire
Jan. 18, 2021
Vipin Gupta, co-editor of the award-winning book “Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies,” has announced the release of his latest work, “What Is Divine Energy: The Power of Managing the Science of Everything.” After recognizing that academic publishing often fails to embrace original approaches, Gupta, a CSUSB professor of management, was fueled to write by his desire to explore the present reality from a new perspective in an unrestricted way.
In “What is Divine Energy,” Gupta highlights the fact that finding solutions for managing the ongoing development of science requires thinkers and researchers to have a healthy skepticism of modern assumptions about fundamental scientific laws. Gupta investigates quintessential questions for living a joyful life, such as considering personal identity, the role of the spirit, and the state of the universe as a whole.
Read the complete article at “Vipin Gupta, expert in managerial science and applied economics, launches his book: ‘What is Divine Energy.’”
CSUSB professor interviewed for segment about L.A.’s historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple being vandalized
Fox 11 (Los Angeles)
Jan. 18, 2021
A segment on Los Angeles’ historic Wilshire Boulevard being vandalized with graffiti included an interview with Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Levin said we're at an "inflection point" that, in his words, bluntly, that President Donald Trump has facilitated and accepted hatred and division in what Levin terms, ''a tyrannical government," and now, we're at the point where that can no longer be tolerated.
Easier said than done, as he acknowledges.
''We're seeing an increase in people who are under both financial and psychological distress, so it's going to be bumpy going forward.''
Read the complete article, and view the online video report, “Graffiti on historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple being investigated as hate crime.”
Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot ‘provided an elastic reservoir’ for extremists to meet others with grievances against government
TIME
Jan. 15, 2021
The Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill was not a standalone event, the news magazine reported. It marked the culmination of more than a year of growing frustration and increasingly virulent ideas.
The rally brought together people from across the country who believe in a host of typically separate conspiracy theories, noted Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. As Trump encouraged supporters to oppose coronavirus-related lockdowns last year, the “liberate” movement and protests at state capitols throughout 2020, “provided an elastic reservoir to meet others with grievance against the government,” Levin says. That helped bring more establishment Republican activists on the ground into contact with QAnon supporters, Proud Boys and white supremacists.
Read the complete article at “The Republican party has distanced itself from the Capitol riot. But local GOP officials fueled supporters' rage ahead of Jan. 6.”
Problem of right-wing extremists won’t go away when Trump leaves office, CSUSB professor says
WPFW Radio (Washington, D.C.)
Jan. 18, 2021
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSUSB, was interviewed for the public radio station’s program “Monday Morning QB” about what to expect from extremists on the far right after Donald Trump leave office.
In an excerpt, Levin said, “Once Donald Trump is out of office, the threat will not fade because it preceded him. It got super-charged from him, but if he’s not going to be the torchbearer for aggression-related grievance, someone else will.”
Go to the WPFW archive page, and scroll down to Jan. 18 episode of “Monday Morning QB.”
INTERVIEW: CSUSB’s Brian Levin on safety precautions at the California Capitol
KSRO Radio (Santa Rosa)
Jan. 15, 2021
The Sonoma County news/talk radio station hosted Brian Levin, professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSUSB, about the level of precaution surrounding the California Capitol ahead of Inauguration Day. Listen at “INTERVIEW: Brian Levin on safety precautions at the California Capitol.”
Police agencies have yet to adapt to threat of right-wing extremists recruiting from their ranks, CSUSB professor says
The Washington Post
Jan. 16, 2021
In an article that reported some off-duty law enforcement officers who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Brian Levin, a former police officer and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said white supremacy and far-right-wing groups are successfully recruiting local law enforcement officers. They also encourage their young members to enter law enforcement, he said.
“We are encountering a new insurgency, as far-right extremists become more active, as their connections to mainstream politics becomes attenuated, but police agencies have yet to adapt to this new threat which directly impacts their ranks and also national security,” he said.
Read the complete article at “Off-duty police were part of the Capitol mob. Now police are turning on their own.”
CSUSB professor comments on arrest of SoCal man on charges related to Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot
KCBS TV (Los Angeles)
Jan. 16, 2021
Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, commented on the arrest of Anthime Joseph Gionet, also known as “Baked Alaska,” in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. Gionet has well-known connections to extremist groups.
“He’s a noted Nazi miscreant,” Levin said. “It is a disgrace that someone like him was able to invade the sacred Capitol of the United States.”
Read the complete article and see the related video report at “Extremist with SoCal Ties arrested after rioting at Capitol.”
Extremists groups from California are becoming more of a threat, CSUSB professor says
KCBS TV (Los Angeles)
Jan. 16, 2021
California is just one of several states amping up security ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Hate crimes expert, Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremisms, fears California Neo-Nazis like the Boogaloo Bois and Proud Boys, whom he says were involved in the violence at the U.S. Capitol, are becoming more of a threat.
“We have seen an explosion in threats against elected officials as well as public health officials in the U.S. and here in California,” Levin said. “Before it was kind of together under an umbrella. Now, with their leader going, he’s being disabled on social media, it’s basically chaotic. I think what that’s going to leave is a group of leaner, meaner folks ready for action.”
Levin says professionals like him are having a harder time tracking Neo-Nazis on social media because they’re only on the dark web, communicating in code.
Levin worries that next week’s confluence of Martin Luther King Day, inauguration and the possibility of impeachment could spark another bout of violence.
“It just keeps expanding. This period of time where President Trump’s most militant and cultish supporters — not conservative goodwill — are going to be the most amped up,” Levin said.
Read the complete article at “Local officials concerned about possible hate crime, violence in coming days following US Capitol riot.”
CSUSB professor, researchers: More than a dozen extremist groups took part in Capitol riots
VOA News
Jan. 16, 2021
In the days since the violent Jan. 6 rampage at the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters, a fuller picture has emerged about the rioters, with researchers identifying members of more than a dozen extremist groups that took part in the riots.
Clues into the rioters' affiliation came from their clothes, signs, flags, banners and other markers, experts say. “They were operating in plain sight,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
One is the Nationalist Socialist Club, or NSC-131, a recently founded hate group known for disrupting Black Lives Matter protests. Another is No White Guilt, a white nationalist group whose founder has blamed “anti-whiteism” for the spread of the coronavirus in the United States.
Levin said that a combination of national groups, smaller state chapters and autonomous regional entities “participated in one way or another in the gathering.”
Read the complete article at “Researchers: More than a dozen extremist groups took part in Capitol riots.”
These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”