This dissertation examines the multiple contexts in which the ruins of the Yuanming Yuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness) imperial garden-palace of the multiethnic Qing dynasty (1644–1912) are reconstituted through acts of copying. I consider the Yuanming Yuan as a site that has always been in cross-cultural translation, not only in its construction—its most famous section was designed in Sino-Baroque style by Jesuit court artists—but also in its destruction, when Anglo-French troops looted and burned it during the Second Opium War in 1860, leaving behind the marble ruins of the Sino-Baroque European Palaces. The dissertation shifts away from the original site in Beijing towards the garden’s reinterpretation and reconstitution in alternate spatial contexts from the early twentieth century to the present day. Because these reproductions are not exact copies, I consider them “translations,” in that they translate the Yuanming Yuan into new spatial contexts of international diplomacy, domestic theme park, museum gallery, and digital space; furthermore, by reconstituting a Qing imperial space that was looted and burned during the Opium Wars, these “translations” also serve as a means to reproduce—and challenge—national identities, cultural heritage, and appropriations of the past.

The introduction establishes the Yuanming Yuan as a site of cross-cultural translation, a site of memory, and a site of fragmentation. Chapter one examines the architectural translation of the Haiyantang (Hall of Calm Seas) in the European Palaces (Xiyanglou) section of the Yuanming Yuan. In the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, Empress Dowager Cixi reconstructed a new Haiyantang in the Central Lake area of Beijing; I argue that the appropriation of the Yuanming Yuan’s European Palace-style served to create a mediated space for renewed Qing diplomacy with international powers. Chapter two turns to the reconstruction of the Yuanming Yuan as theme parks in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Hengdian and examines the parks’ strategies of selective reproduction and conflation of Qing imperial spaces. I argue that the microcosmic nature of the original Yuanming Yuan made it a suitable site to replicate within theme park imaginaries of the national future. Chapter three traces the journey of the looted bronze zodiac animal heads from the Haiyantang and argues that their potency as symbols of Yuanming Yuan’s looted objects comes from their physical form as decapitated heads. I further argue that the reinterpretation of the heads through acts of artistic creation and vandalism by contemporary artists and activists speak to present day concerns about cultural heritage, preservation practice, and national identities. The dissertation concludes with a meditation on the possibilities and limitations of digital reconstruction and preservation.

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying a predominantly White U.S. teacher workforce, a significant teacher diversity gap persists in almost every state of the country (Boser, 2014). Teachers of Color who enter the profession with commitments to social justice, in particular, face an array of racist structural and interpersonal challenges often leading to their burnout and in some cases push out from the field (Kohli & Pizarro, 2016). In response to neoliberal, color evasive, and apolitical approaches to teacher support, educators and organizers have reclaimed and reframed their pedagogies through critical professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015) to center healing from the damaging impacts of oppression (Ginwright, 2015; Pour-Khorshid, 2016). This three-year ethnographic case study (Yin, 2003) of a California racial affinity group of 12 critical educators of Color (CEoC) committed to healing, empowerment, love, liberation and action (H.E.L.L.A.) offers insights about alternative approaches to teacher support rooted in critical-healing praxes (Cariaga, 2018).

Relying on ethnographic approaches such as participant observation (Wilson, 1977), semi-structured interviews (Patton, 2002), and testimonios (Pour-Khorshid, 2016) as focal methods, I utilized grounded theory (Straus & Corbin, 1998) to examine: (a) the nature of learning and interactions that unfold over time, and (b) the personal and professional impact that members experienced through their participation. The findings from this research illuminate how the group explicitly centered 12 members’ experiences, needs, and collective knowledge to (a) engage in fugitive learning as an act of political and pedagogical resistance to White Supremacy; and in so doing, (b) cultivated a sacred space for soul care and collective healing. I conclude by discussing how and why critical racial affinity group spaces for CEoC offer a more holistic approach to support their personal, political, relational, and pedagogical growth and well-being.

This article looks at the historical and national fantasies produced by the reactivation of archival records during the 50th anniversary celebrations of Expo67 in Montreal, Canada. By asking whose “memories” were put on display during the month-long festivities, this text addresses the many ways power, national identity and memories intertwine in archival institutions and highlights the dynamics and logics of archival encounters. To complicate this claim, this article then shifts to a close reading of Cheryl Sim’s video project Un jour, un jour, produced for the anniversary by Montreal’s contemporary art museum, in order to demonstrate that using records that have affective and personal value can help us imagine better collective futures.

Richard C. Atkinson was named president of the University of California in August 1995, just four weeks after the UC Board of Regents voted to end affirmative action in the admission of students.  The Regents’ decision reversed thirty years of history and made Richard Atkinson the first UC president in decades to face the conflict between the California Master Plan’s goal of broad educational access and UC’s high academic standards without the tool of affirmative action. 

UC’s often stormy transition to the post-affirmative action age was to be his first major task as president.  Entrepreneurial President analyzes this and other defining issues of Atkinson’s eight-year presidency:  UC’s expansion into new forms of  scientific research with industry; Atkinson’s much-publicized challenge to the nation’s dominant college-entrance examination, the SAT; and the 1999 arrest of Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee on charges of espionage, which ignited a prolonged controversy over the University’s management of the national nuclear weapons research laboratories at Los Alamos and Livermore. 

The Atkinson years were a seminal period in UC history, reflected in some important underlying currents of his tenure—his role in the evolving relationship between presidents and chancellors in the ten-campus system and administrative changes he introduced that altered the architecture of UC governance.  

One of the paradoxes of an administration that began with a governance crisis is that in a number of ways the Atkinson era seemed to exemplify what Clark Kerr meant in describing the twentieth century as unusually hospitable to academic enterprises.  Despite the challenges, it was a time of growth, expansion, and optimism for UC.  The University opened its tenth campus, UC Merced, and UC’s place as a leader among research universities was underscored by independent national studies demonstrating the high quality of academic programs throughout the system.  

The political and demographic stresses that set the stage for the Atkinson administration still remain today, intensified by the plunge in state funding for California public higher education generally.  Entrepreneurial President concludes with some reflections on the evolution of the UC system and its future.

The existence of the Internet has revolutionized the music industry, forever changing its forms of participation and promotion. As a result, the space of execution-promotion of music is expanded to include the virtual world, being able to reach com-munities that share similar interests or common identity traits at a global level. This situation is presented as an opportunity for little known repertoire, such as the Latin American and Iberian art song. Based on the experiences with Internet2, which occurred at the Barcelona Festival of Song, the article explores concepts such as the real, the virtual, and the interspace. It analyzes how the interactions produced in these spaces affect our identity, either as musicians or as consumers of music. This new scenario demands that educational institutions train musicians to develop new ways of being a musician and of making music, mediated by technology.