Sept. 24, 2020 — The year is 1938. The Third Reich is rising along with radio evangelism and The City of Angels is constructing the freeways that will transform it into a metropolis. When a grisly murder shocks the city, the first Chicana/o in the Los Angeles Police Department, Tiago Vega, and his partner, Lewis Michener, investigate while being pulled into the deep traditions of Mexican American folklore.
CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) Assistant Professor of Chicana/o Studies Nicholas Centino, Ph.D. was recently honored for his use of the compelling, atmospheric “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” series on Showtime and several other creative teaching twists—innovation that continued when CSUCI’s classes went virtual with the COVID pandemic.
“Penny Dreadful” watch parties, a Facebook live deejay hour of ‘30s and ‘40s Latina/o music and guest speakers to offer historical context earned Centino the CSUCI President’s Innovation in Teaching Award for 2020.
Presented each year at the end of summer, the award honors a CSUCI instructor who has created a curriculum that shows imagination while maintaining a scholarly foundation—a significantly more challenging task considering the campus went virtual in March with very little time for preparation.
“I remember, when we had to pivot to online, I initially sort of threw my hands in the air and gave up,” Centino said. “Then I tried to refocus and meet the needs of the students, who were in the same spot I was psychologically, mentally and spiritually.”
Centino said he was “deeply honored” to receive the award as he tried hard to design classes that were fun and accessible during a confusing and uncertain time. The eight faculty members who nominated Centino noted that his efforts were exceptional—especially considering the circumstances created by the pandemic.
The nominating letter he received from eight of his fellow faculty members listed numerous creative ways Centino revamped his course content to suit the online setting.
“Dr. Centino took this opportunity to make his home a virtual classroom, museum, and community-building site for his students and the public at large,” the letter said. “He created and hosted a show on Facebook Live entitled “Mexican 78s” in order to play, showcase, and discuss historic Mexican vinyl records. Students were able to tune in and listen to Dr. Centino discuss the historical context and importance of this oftentimes forgotten form of Mexican cultural production.”
Centino was thinking out of the box before the pandemic, too, often using his other talents to enhance his classes. For example, Chicana/o Studies helped Centino coordinate a two-day conference and dance performances exploring the legacy of “Las Pachucas,” Mexican American women who wore zoot suits and were criminalized and vilified during World War II.
The closing musical and dance performance included a demonstration from Centino using his skills as a professional swing dancer with the Pacific Swing Dance.
When the pandemic sent the students and faculty home, Centino was sensitive to the financial pressure, emotional stress and loss of work for many of his students, so he transitioned his courses to an asynchronous mode, which means the students could access class at any time.
Instead of standard journal reflections, Centino is encouraging his students to do short weekly spoken word poems on an application called “Discord,” which allows students to get together in online groups, read their poems aloud to one another and discuss them.
“This is a time of diminished attention spans because of the need for people to focus on their health and financial well-being,” Centino said. “All of those concerns are amplified in this moment. I’ve been gently encouraging my students to prioritize their education, too, and the way I’ve been doing that is focusing on creative writing.”
In his nomination letter, which came from faculty in five different programs, his peers echoed words that have been used to describe Centino, including “dynamic, engaged, intentional, enthusiastic, infectious, involved, gifted, scholarly, collaborative, thoughtful, reflective, respectful, and attentive.”
The letter went on to add: “May we all be so adept at serving the students in our care.”