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 professor sees encouraging signs as a round of talks regarding Iran’s nuclear deal concludes
Press TV
May 2, 2021

As a round of talks in Vienna with the remaining signatories – France, Great Britain, Germany, China and Russia -- to the 2015 agreement regulating Iran’s nuclear program concluded, David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, who has been following the issue closely, was asked for his analysis.

The news report said that Iranian’s lead delegate, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, says an agreement has been reached to remove the majority of individuals and entities on the U.S. sanctions list and that negotiations are continuing on the rest of the names on the list. The U.S., an original signatory, was pulled out of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018 by the Trump administration, which imposed sanctions on Iran in hopes of renegotiating the agreement. The Biden administration is signaling that it wants to rejoin the JCPOA; the lifting of all U.S. sanctions remains a sticking point.

Yaghoubian said Russia’s negotiator, Mikhail Ulyanov, made some positive statements as this round of talks concluded, that there “is indisputable progress, as he put it, and therefore, the talks are continuing to be constructive. And Abbas Araghchi’s characterization of the discussion as being mature is the word he used in regards to issues that were agreed upon, as well as issues that haven’t yet been agreed upon. This overall very positive news.”  

See the full segment at “Vienna talks: Slow progress despite some agreements.”

CSUSB adjunct professor featured by community news website
Stu News Newport
April 30, 2021

The community news website featured Scott Catlett, who was named the finance director for the city of Newport Beach and is an adjunct instructor in the MPA program at CSUSB, teaching government finance and budgeting.

Read the complete article at “Take Five: Meet Newport Beach Finance Director Scott Catlett.”

Politically motivated mass shootings possible in coming year, CSUSB professor says
Daily Beast
May 3, 3021

Experts who monitor domestic terrorism say we’re heading into an even more dangerous phase post-Jan.6. These groups are fragmenting and losing the ability to vent frustration in a public manner. But that does not mean they are going away. It means that a lot of angry radicals are growing angrier.

Last year saw a notable absence of mass killings, probably as a function of the pandemic. The opening of public spaces, however, has coincided with at least 147 mass shooting incidents that have killed 166 so far this year. We are likely to experience even more mass slaughter that is politically motivated, predicts Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University, San Bernardino.

“You have highly volatile people who can be picked up by a variety of conspiracies and movements with violent leanings,” Levin says. “That’s a big reservoir to swim in.”

Read the complete article at “Arresting Capitol rioters won’t stop hard-core extremists.”

Rise of pro-gun and anti-vaccine women’s group linked to more violent extremists troubling, CSUSB professor says
Parentology
April 30, 2021

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at San Bernardino State University, was among the experts interviewed for an article about a group called “Mamalita,” described as “pro-gun, anti-vaccine moms.”

Levin warned that the Mamalitia’s rise could indicate a troubling union between anti-vaccine groups and more violent extremists.

“There was this mingling that took place throughout 2020,” said Levin. “And then we started seeing folks associated with the anti-vax movement, for instance, really cross pollinate with other grievance-oriented folks, including extremists.”

Read the complete article at “‘Mamalitia’ – women form group of pro-gun, anti-vaccine moms.”

New data compiled by CSUSB center shows continued surge in anti-Asian hate crime reports in some major cities
CBS News
May 1, 2021

A new report on hate crimes against Asian Americans has found that 2021 is sustaining the troubling trends of 2020 in some major cities. Across 16 of America's largest cities and counties, there was a 164% increase in anti-Asian hate crime reports to police in the first quarter of 2021 compared to same time period in 2020, with the number of reported incidents rising from 36 to 95, according to an analysis of police data by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

CSUSB Professor Brian Levin, who co-authored the hate crime study, told CBS News that while some of the rise in reported incidents can be attributed to greater cultural awareness of the issue, the rise in Anti-Asian hate crimes is still a "phenomenon in the Asian American community that is of historic significance."

Read the complete article at “New data shows continued surge in anti-Asian hate crime reports in some major cities.”

New CSUSB study reveals increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans in LA
KCBS/KCAL Los Angeles
May 2, 2021

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino found across 16 of America’s largest cities and counties that there has been a 164 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes reported to police in the first quarter of 2021, as compared to the same time period last year.

New York saw the greatest increase at 223 percent. San Francisco saw an increase of 140 percent. And Los Angeles experienced an increase of 80 percent.

“For Los Angeles, we saw more anti-Asian hate crimes in the first quarter than we had for the whole year pre-pandemic 2019,” said Prof. Brian Levin, the study’s author.

Read the complete article and see the related video report at “New study reveals increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans in LA.”

The CSUSB Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism’s latest research on hate crimes against Asian Americans was cited in the following:   

Vincent Chin’s death changed Asian American history — and my family
Teen Vogue
May 3, 2020

Celeste Pewter wrote: “It’s been almost 38 years since my dad joined a group of Asian Americans marching in Detroit, protesting the leniency of the sentence for Vincent Chin’s killers. I find myself thinking about both of them often as we enter Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and national conversations continue on how we can proactively stop AAPI hate. …

“Between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021, nearly 3,800 incidents against Asian Americans were reported to the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate, with a gender disparity was also noted in overall reporting, with women making up about 68% of the reports, as opposed to 29% for men. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) also released a report in March 2021, detailing an almost 150% increase in anti-AAPI hate crimes in 16 of the country’s largest cities, compared to the year before.”