[Sehefac] Fwd: Book Talk: Stevie Ruiz's *Stewards of the Land*, May 14, 3pm

[dana.simmons at ucr.edu]

>From SEHE affiliate Keith Miyake, and featuring SEHE faculty Cathy Gudis
May 4:

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Please join us for an exciting talk by Stevie Ruiz (Cal State Northridge)
on his recently released book, *Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming
Environmental Labor in the American West*. A discussion by Catherine Gudis
(History) will follow.

[image: Ruiz-Stewards_of_the_land-book_talk.png]

*Date:* May 14, 2026, 3:00pm
*Location: *CHASS INTS 1113
*Free and open to the public*, light refreshments will be served

*Details:* The history of the environmental movement—from environmentalism
of the nineteenth century to the environmental justice struggles of the
late twentieth century—has often been portrayed as a series of efforts led
by white environmentalists. In *Stewards of the Land*, Stevie Ruiz
reassesses the movement and reveals that it has always been a multiracial
endeavor. From Southern California berry fields to Japanese American
concentration camps, from Chinese cooks in national parks to Chicano
Civilian Conservation Corps workers, Ruiz traces how the racialized labor
and environmental knowledge of Asian migrants and Chicana/o communities
built the material foundations of modern environmentalism. *Stewards of the
Land* argues that environmental justice was never just a reaction to
pollution in the 1970s but has a much longer history tied to land theft,
labor exploitation, and the everyday struggles of frontline communities to
live and work with dignity. Drawing from comparative ethnic studies and
archival research and with a commitment to decolonial praxis, Ruiz recovers
the stories of those who labored—often invisibly—to build, maintain, and
reimagine environmental spaces in the American West.

*About the author:* Stevie Ruiz is an associate professor in Chicana/o
Studies at California State University, Northridge.

*Sponsored by:* Department of Ethnic Studies; Department of History;
Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity; Latino and Latin
American Studies Research Center & Ronald H. Chilcote Chair; Inland Empire
Labor and Community Center (IELCC)

Keith Miyake

Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies
University of California, Riverside
https://keithmiyake.info
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