In this episode of then & now, we are joined by Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, to discuss the recent rollback of affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in American universities. Jamaal examines how these changes—set in motion by the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to end race-conscious admissions, alongside a rising political backlash against DEI, particularly from the Trump administration—signal a return to exclusionary practices after decades of hard-fought progress. Bringing a sociolinguistic perspective to the jagged history of Black student experiences in the era of affirmative action, Jamaal traces the arc from the first efforts at inclusion in the 1950s to the present moment. Focusing on the implications of these shifts, particularly for Black and Latinx students navigating the current higher education environment, Jamaal provides insight into how language, policy, and power shape experiences of belonging and exclusion on campus, offering essential context for understanding this pivotal moment in higher education.

Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil is a University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA in the Department of Education and Information Studies and an incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington. Jamaal holds a Linguistics PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was also the 2019-20 University of California (UC) Student Regent-designate and the 2020-21 UC Student Regent. Jamaal’s research specializations include African American language and culture, sociocultural linguistics, and political discourse.

In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by Dr. Neil J. Young—historian, podcaster, and author of Coming Out Republican (The University of Chicago Press, 2024), which traces the history of conservative and libertarian gay figures in United States history and their influence on the modern Republican Party. In this episode, Neil examines the evolving relationship between these members of the LGBTQ community—predominantly white gay men–and the Republican Party in light of recent executive orders from the second Trump administration, which have sought to reinforce binary gender norms and curtail protections for LGBTQ individuals. Neil contextualizes this dynamic by tracing the history of conservative gay men as a persistent, though often marginalized, constituency within the party over the last century, and their struggle to make equality and gay rights a non-partisan issue. Despite the party’s increasingly exclusionary rhetoric and policies, gay Republicans have maintained loyalty and exerted significant influence, particularly through behind-the-scenes activism and policy shaping since the Reagan era. By interrogating the paradox of LGBTQ support for a party actively enacting anti-LGBTQ measures, Neil offers nuanced insights into the complexities of identity, political allegiance, and the construction of contemporary conservatism.

Neil J. Young is an award-winning historian, writer, podcaster, and author of Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (The University of Chicago Press, 2024). Neil holds an A.B. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. Neil formerly served as a contributing columnist for The Week and, before that, an opinion columnist for HuffPost. He writes frequently for leading publications, including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Politico, Slate, and the New York Times.

In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Professor Fernando Pérez-Montesinos is joined by Carlos Pérez Ricart, Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico City, to discuss Mexico’s Dirty War—an internal conflict from the 1960s to the 1980s between the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)-ruled government and left-wing student and guerrilla groups. As one of the four members of Mexico’s truth commission from 2021 to 2024, Carlos draws on the findings of this initiative to examine the country’s systematic use of violence and repression, as well as the most significant revelations from the commission’s comprehensive reports.

Carlos situates Mexico’s experience within the broader context of Latin America’s wave of repressive military regimes during the Cold War, which implemented widespread crackdowns on real and perceived political dissidents. While countries across the region began confronting these legacies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Mexican government remained largely unresponsive to calls for a truth commission, despite persistent demands from activists and human rights organizations. In 2021, the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) finally initiated a formal process to address past abuses, creating a truth commission tasked with conducting interviews and scouring archives for evidence of past violence. This conversation considers the complexities of uncovering evidence implicating powers behind the formation of the truth commission itself and provides critical insights into the mechanisms of state violence, the politics of memory, and the challenges of transitional justice in contemporary Mexico.

Carlos Pérez Ricart is an assistant professor in International Relations at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. Prior to joining CIDE, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, where he worked at both the History Faculty and the Latin American Centre, St. Antony’s College. His research and teaching interests include the relationship between Mexico and the United States, security and organized crime, arms trafficking, drug policies. He is co-editor of the book "Gun Trafficking and Violence: From The Global Network to The Local Security Challenge" (Palgrave, St. Antony’s College 2021).

Fernando Pérez-Montesinos is an associate professor in the Department of History at UCLA. His research focuses on the history of modern Mexico with a focus on the nineteenth century and the Mexican Revolution. His book, "Landscaping Indigenous Mexico: The Liberal State and Capitalism in the Purépecha Highlands" (UT Press, 2025), focuses on the Purépecha people of Michoacán, Mexico, and examines why and how long-standing patterns of communal landholding changed in response to liberal policies, railroad expansion, and the rise of the timber industry in Mexico.

Further Reading:

• Fifty Years of Silence: Mexico Faces the Legacy of its Dirty War, GWU National Security Archive
• Inquiry into Mexico’s ‘dirty war’ obstructed by military and other agencies, board says, the Guardian