Brains Uncorked by Coriolis

Join us for the September installment of Brains Uncorked, a live event series where three scholars share powerful, thought-provoking talks, each just 10–15 minutes long.

This is not a traditional academic lecture. Hosted in a relaxed bar setting, Brains Uncorked challenges three scholars to deliver concise and compelling talks (each under 15 minutes) and invites attendees to explore bold ideas while enjoying a drink and good company. The format is simple: no slides or dense jargon, just clear and thought-provoking insights designed to spark meaningful conversation. Expect fresh perspectives, surprising connections, and discussions that will stay with you well after the night ends.

📍 Tuesday, September 30, 2025

🕖 7:00 PM (doors at 6:30 PM)

🍷 The Nickel Mine in Sawtelle

🎟️ Free to attend, reservations encouraged

Michele Villagran

Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran is an Associate Professor at San José State University School of Information. Villagran’s research focuses on diversity and social justice in library and information science and cultural intelligence phenomena within libraries. Dr. Villagran earned her Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership with her dissertation on cultural intelligence in 2015 at Pepperdine University. She also completed her Master of Dispute Resolution and Certificate of Dispute Resolution with Pepperdine. At the University of North Texas, Dr. Villagran completed her M.L.S. degree in Legal Informatics and her M.B.A. in Strategic Management. She is the recipient of the 2023 ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice and Equality, the 2021 REFORMA Librarian of the Year, and the 2021 ALISE Norman Horrocks Leadership Award.

Carolina Rivera Escamilla

Carolina Rivera Escamilla is an educator, writer, poet, actress, documentarian, and cultural community events organizer based in Los Angeles, California. Born in El Salvador, she studied theater arts at Centro Nacional de Artes (CENAR) and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles, also studying Spanish Literature and film. She went into exile in Canada in the 1980s. She is a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow. Her first book of short stories, titled ...after..., was published in 2015 by World Stage Press. Her first book of poetry, In a Corner of Your Country, was published in 2023 (Bellucci, Palms & Carmichael, LLC Publishing). The Spanish version, En una Esquina de tu País, was published in March 2024 by Poetry Ambassador Press. She is also the director, screenwriter, and producer of the documentary Manlio Argueta, Poets and Volcanoes. Her publications include Collateral Damage, Women Who Write About War Anthology, University of Virginia Press, Migrant Anthology, Somewhere We Are Humans, Harper Collins Press, BOMB Literary Magazine, and Altadena Poetry Review Anthology, Golden Foothills Press, among others.

Marjorie Faulstich Orellana

Marjorie Faulstich Orellana is Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. She was the Associate Vice Provost of the International Institute from 2022-2025 and the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of International Migration from 2015 through 2021. Her research centers on the experiences of immigrant youth in urban schools and communities, including as language and cultural brokers for their families. She is the author of Translating Childhoods: Immigrant Youth and Cultures (Rutgers University Press, 2009), Immigrant Children in Transcultural Spaces: Language, Learning and Love (Routledge, 2016), Mindful Ethnography: Mind, Heart, and Activity for Transformative Social Research (Routledge, 2020), and two co-edited volume: University Community Partnerships for Transformative Education: Sowing Seeds of Resistance and Renewal, and Language and Cultural Processes in Communities and Schools: Bridging Learning for Students from Non-Dominant Groups (Routledge, 2019). She was selected as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association in 2021and is a past president of the Council of Anthropology and Education. She was a bilingual classroom teacher in Los Angeles from 1983 to 1993. Her Substack column can be found here: https://orellana.substack.com/

Info: The interplay between art, territory, language, and memory is a multifaceted phenomenon that has been a point of interest in Carolina Rivera Escamilla's various disciplines since she went into exile as a result of the Salvadoran Civil War. In the context of her own literary endeavors, she explores diverse formats within the genres of theater, fiction, documentary, and poetry, drawing parallels in dominant languages. Escamilla will discuss these themes through her short story collection …after…, poetry collection In a Corner of Your Country/En una Esquina de tu País, and documentary Manlio Argueta, Poets and Volcanoes.

Info: This talk reports on a study in which 67 people in 35 households across the U.S. kept diaries during ten months of the pandemic (May 2020 to February 2021, 787 diary entries in total). Looking back on these diaries five years later, their words may help us all to remember not just what we lost, but what we learned. They might help us prepare for more social, cultural, political and environmental challenges, see new possibilities, and imagine possible futures.

Info: Why does culture matter in research, and what can we do to make research better serve everyone? Dr. Michele Villagran will dive into a project called Culturally Competent Research in Library and Information Science, which focuses on how researchers can do a better job working across cultures, building diverse teams, and asking questions that don’t exclude people. Listeners will get a peek behind the curtain at how cultural awareness (or lack of it) shapes everything from who gets asked to participate in studies to how results are interpreted.

Event Venue

The Nickel Mine, 11363 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States