THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014
Volume 95, Issue 49
Honors students to show research
Artists make ‘Exit’
Consortium will include students from 15 CSUs KYLE NAULT Daily Titan
More than 50 students from California State University honors programs will present original research for attendees as part of the 11th annual Honors Consortium Saturday in the Titan Residence Halls Saturday. The event provides an open forum for students to showcase projects and papers from a variety of interdisciplinary studies and also allows for faculty members to figure out new ways to improve the program. “It’s a very friendly conference but highly professional,” said Susan Jacobsen, Ph.D., director of the Honors Program at Cal State Fullerton. “We have freshmen who have no conference experience and very little academic experience, they’ll be presenting … all the way up through the seniors who are generally presenting their senior honors projects or thesis.” For Ashley Adams, a senior graphic design major, the consortium will serve as her platform to deliver over two years worth of research regarding visual brand identity. “The visual brand identity for a corporation is everything, their name, their logo, their slogan, their color scheme, everything that the consumer sees,” she said. “It’s in our life 24/7 and we’re surrounded by all that.” Adams initially came up with her research topic when she spotted a Monster Energy Drink delivery truck with a scratched “M” logo as she was walking her dog. “I was thinking like ‘well, how did this person come up with (the logo), why is it so effective, why do so many people drink their drinks?’” she said. Adams, who over the course of her research has interviewed 12 designers in the field, points to a criteria that all major companies use in determining the aesthetics of their logo. “There’s certain design aspects you have to remember when creating a logo,” she said. “The logo is ultimately like an iceberg, the identity is being seen at first and that’s the tip of the iceberg.” The presentation, Adams said, is meant to help inform students about the inner workings of marketing and advertising. SEE CONSORTIUM, 2
WILLIAM CAMARGO / For the Daily Titan
ALVIN KIM / For the Daily Titan
ALVIN KIM / For the Daily Titan The Exit Gallery in the Visual Arts Center serves as a space for undergraduates of all disciplines to show their artwork to the public. Recently, the gallery has been used to showcase multiple art installations. Top left: “SHol” displays goldfish in bowls that hang from the ceiling. Top right: “PATH” is an installation with a variety of colors and textures. Bottom: An installation titled “I hide my bruises” focuses on domestic abuse and traumatic events.
Coming out, looking within Upon LGBT research, professor learns to accept himself JENNIFER NGUYEN For the Daily Titan
For the second night in two weeks, Craig Loftin worked tirelessly, searching for a topic for his dissertation. He was interested in the gay and lesbian experiences of the 1950s, when the gay rights movement first emerged. Instead of skimming through countless books or doing Internet research, the 26-yearold graduate student was cooped up in the utility room of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, located near the USC. Loftin sifted through collections of materials related to LGBT history, including newspaper clippings, journal and magazine articles, photos and audiovisuals. He came across thousands of letters stored away in unlabeled boxes stacked to the ceiling. The letters were written to ONE magazine, the first openly gay publication in the United States, and provided insight into the experiences, thoughts and feelings
of gay men and lesbians nationwide. The letters Loftin came across were from the 1950s and early 1960s, years before the infamous Stonewall riots of 1969, and each one was just as candid as the next. People wrote about how they were arrested for being gay, how the family dynamics changed after they “came out” and some asked if there were ways they could help the magazine. This was exactly what Loftin had been searching for, but it wasn’t just some tremendous find for his thesis. In the long run, having access to the archive and continuing to read about gay history gradually undid the emotional baggage he carried about his own sexuality for over 10 years. Today, Loftin is an adjunct lecturer in the American Studies Department at Cal State Fullerton. He has also taught a LGBT history course, called Sexual Orientations and American Culture, where he discusses the history of gay people and the debates that have existed. “That is very meaningful to me, knowing that there will be some gay students working through some issues that they’re having,” Loftin said.
NATALIE BETANCOURT / For the Daily Titan Craig Loftin is an American studies lecturer who has written two books, Letters to One and Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians In Cold War America, both of which were published in spring 2012.
It’s not really accurate to say Loftin was closeted, he said, but rather, he was in complete denial. One of the reasons he didn’t think he was gay was that he didn’t fit into many gay stereotypes. Growing up, he was active in baseball and he didn’t throw the ball with a limp wrist, a characteristic commonly
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associated with gay men. He never liked Broadway shows, except for Tennessee Williams’s plays. Loftin was not into fashion either and had no talent or desire in being someone’s stylist, he said. And he didn’t have a feminine speaking tone either, nor a “flamboyant” or “colorful” personality and attitude.
“That was my own life being warped by stereotypes in the media,” he said. For a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person growing up in the 1980s, it was a perennial experience that they didn’t fit in.
SEE LGBT, 5
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