Fellow Profiles
Prof. Clardy's (he/they) project "Civic Indifference and Black Suffering" analyzes Black suffering, social exclusion, and socio-ontological dispossession and it seeks to draw out the parallels between Afro-pessimism and an interpretive philosophical framework called "civic indifference." In developing this framework, the project takes a cue from Saidiya Hartman who situates the Emancipation from slavery as a "non-event" and Fred Moten who asks whether the socio-ontological category of "humanity" permits us to understand the social life (and social death) of those marked "Black." By redirecting our attention away from de jure social and political changes and toward our socio-ontological orientation of indifference toward Black suffering, the project helps us better understand the peculiar nature of Black suffering and what Black folks mean when they say "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Click here to learn more about Prof. Clardy and their research program. Check out Professor Clardy's website here.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
As a graduate student in philosophy, I often found myself auditing African American Studies courses—most of which were offered by our History Department—to fill the gaps left by my more traditional philosophical training. I’m deeply grateful to the professors who allowed me to audit those classes and to the peers who made space for my contributions, especially since, coming from philosophy, I was often way off base… lol. One day, in response to something I said in class, Dr. Caree Banton remarked, “It seems like you might like what the Afropessimists have to say about this,” and this would be my first introduction to Afropessimism.
From the moment I started reading it, I was struck by how deeply it resonated with me. You have to remember—I was a Black philosopher in Arkansas during the first rise of Trump. There was a lot to resonate with. But at that time, I could only engage with Afropessimism sporadically, picking up pieces here and there. It wasn’t until the pandemic in 2020, when I—like many of us—was at home a lot, that I could finally sit with these texts in a sustained way. I haven’t disengaged since.
The more I read, the more I recognized Afropessimism’s philosophical depth—particularly its engagement with socio-metaphysical and socio-ontological questions, which were the very questions that drew me to philosophy in the first place (though, back then, I was more focused on metaphysics of love). At the same time, I became increasingly aware of how Black thought—despite its deep philosophical engagement—was and continues to be excluded from the discipline’s conception of “real” philosophy. This project is my way of bucking against that exclusion. By bringing Afropessimism into conversation with philosophy in the public and institutional spaces available to me, I refuse philosophy’s tendency to ignore, invalidate, or trivialize Black thought. WIth my work on this project, it must finally grapple with the questions that Black thinkers have long posed—the same questions that our very existence forces into being. Philosophy, and philosophers, can no longer be indifferent to Blackness, Black suffering, and Black thought.
What kind of an impact do you hope your project will have–whether on your field, the community, our campus, etc.?
This is a great question, though a tricky one for a Afropessimist thinkers to answer. Hope, after all, is a complicated thing. That said, I can certainly speak to the expectations I have for the impact of this project.
At the campus level, I see this as an extension of the work I’ve already been doing to deepen the conversations about race and racialization we have around here. In my Philosophy of Race and Ethics & Race courses, for example, students engage with Afropessimist thinkers like Saidiya Hartman, Hortense Spillers, Frank Wilderson, and Frantz Fanon. Over the past five years at SCU, I’ve seen how seriously my students take these thinkers and how invested they are in these questions—so much so that some, like Lauren Fuller, have gone on to publish work on Afropessimism that began in my classroom. My fireside chat with Frank Wilderson III, who many consider the godfather of Afropessimism, builds on this engagement. Alongside efforts like the Black Justice Studies Collaborative’s event with Eddie Glaude, it signals that SCU is a place where students can come study difficult and urgent questions about race and not have to shy away from the more challenging issues that race and racism present in our society. That matters—especially at a time when Critical Race Theory is under attack at institutions across the country. As long as I am here, SCU will be a place where these conversations happen, and they will happen at the highest level.
Within the discipline, this project also has implications for how philosophy engages with race. When philosophers introduce students to race and racialization through this lens, it expands both the scope of their syllabi and the way students are trained to think about these issues. My own work—especially my recent publications—further pushes the boundaries of philosophical discourse by bringing Afropessimism into conversation with areas like the philosophy of love and emotions, which has not been done before. In doing so, my work lays the groundwork for future scholars interested in the intersections of race, love, and emotion—scholars who, because of this work, will be able to pose their questions more perspicuously.
At the community level, I’m less certain about the project’s impact. I do, however, think that engaging with the worldviews that inform my work might help people better understand the nature of oppression—particularly how anti-Blackness, in its many forms, structures our world.
Why do you think the arts and/or humanities are important?
Well, because the humanities—alongside basketball and hip-hop music—in many ways saved my life. I grew up in a house with a massive library in our den. The collection had everything from encyclopedias to my grandmother’s collection of Stephen King novels, plus a wealth of literature—both fiction and nonfiction—by Black writers. We’re talking Morrison and Baldwin, of course, but also Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), Eldridge Cleaver, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Malcolm X, pamphlets and newspapers from the Black Power movement, and so much more. At one point, I was actually sent to read as a form of punishment—but my love for the material made my caretakers rethink their disciplinary strategies... lol. Reading was just too enjoyable for me.
Eventually, I started reading on my own whenever I had the time. My grandmother was always a reader—constantly toggling between Stephen King and the Bible, funnily enough—so sometimes I’d grab something off the shelf just so I could snuggle up next to her while she read. Because of that, I can’t remember a time when the humanities weren’t important to me. I fell in love with history and with Blackness. And hip-hop, remember we're talking about the 90s after all, became the perfect artistic complement to what I was learning—some of my favorite artists took stories about Black social and political positionality and performed them against the backdrop of a G-Funk West Coast sound. It was poetry. It was power.
These things in tandem sharpened my ability to take on different perspectives, and that, to me, is one of the most crucial reasons why the arts and humanities matter. They shape how we see the world because they contextualize it.
Eastburn’s research focus in the 2024-25 academic year will be an investigation of the idea of home: how we define where home is, from the idea of hometown and the places we know from our earlier lives to the homes that we find and forge for ourselves in adulthood. Through art exhibitions in Oregon and California, and opportunities to engage the community through art making and public art opportunities during the year, Eastburn’s work will focus on how they navigate the concept of home by exploring place how it defines and shapes us, and how human connections are forged through art.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
This is an ongoing project that is born out of a body of work I began making 10+ years ago. The work addresses the overabundance of digital technology, and as a result, information and disinformation, that we now have access to, and are addicted to gorging on, daily. The disconnected and overwhelming feelings created by ceding much of our personal interactions and relationships to large technology companies has had a deleterious effect on people and society. My paintings comment on this new technology landscape as it relates to people's daily experiences with information overload. I am aiming to exhibit works from this ongoing body of work in several venues this year, and as part of my project, I am incorporating as many public-facing events into these exhibitions as possible in order to forge actual human-to-human connections amongst participants as a way of helping myself and others reconnect with human interaction that is not mediated by an app or a screen.
What kind of an impact do you hope your project will have–whether on your field, the community, our campus, etc.?
I hope this project at least has an impact on those people who attend the exhibitions or the talks and workshops associated with them. My aim is to ask people to consider how and why they use technology and encourage more human interaction that is not mediated by a digital device. I am also aiming to get people making art as a way to connect with other people, to creating and making things by hand, and to exploring ways of working that are new to them. Perhaps participants in these events will even bring some of these ideas to other people in their familial or social circles so the ideas will spread further.
Why do you think the arts and/or humanities are important?
I think the arts and humanities are crucial to understand who we are. They teach us about what it means to be human, about people in history and how they have navigated the world, and how we fit into the larger world. The arts specifically allow us to use our creativity to inspire, educate, and tell stories to others. They are a powerful tool for communicating ideas to others.
Sam’s project delves into California's investment, employment practices, and legal representation of Braceros during the Bracero Program's tenure. With a primary focus on the Chualar Tragedy, the event that precipitated the national Bracero Program's abolition, this study unravels the layers of legal representation and classification of Bracero injuries. It examines how injuries were categorized overall, the similarities and potential preventions of other tragedies during the program, and interrogates the reactive nature of California's legislative decision-making. Alongside the legislative perspective, the cultural upheaval that often accompanied Bracero's injuries will help situate the identities and rights Bracero and the “wetbacks” had during this time in greater American history.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I became interested in the Bracero Program and its legal implications through one of SCU's own courses. Through California History by one of my advisors, Meg Gudgeirsson, I was introduced to the complex Latinx history of California. Combining this incredible introduction, I coupled it with my love of legal history to develop into the project it is today.
Which scholars or artists (in any field) have influenced your work the most, whether for this scholarly or creative project or one in the past?
I would say the most influence I have had has been from the incredible history department from SCU. Every professor, especially my advisors, have helped cultivate me into the historian I am today!
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
During my career here at SCU, the most transformative and eye-opening experience was that there is always more to be said, researched, and investigated. Throughout the robust and enlightening courses offered in all my majors, there is always a place where research has yet to be conducted or has yet to be robustly discussed. For example, through my independent study into Philippines History with Dr. Barbara Molony, I had written extensively on intersectionality of Filipino history of Jose Rizal and the developing field and methodologies of martyrdom. Overall, I realize that if there is an area or field you are interested in, you can always contribute to it with your originality and unique perspective.
Social media has had a profound impact on daily life, but existing research on social media has not focused on young women of color's roles in shaping culture online. Kaitlin's project uses Black feminist frameworks and qualitative methods to investigate one aspect of culture we embody online and offline: fashion. As a signifier of cultural affiliation and expression, fashion and beauty niches present an exciting model of the generation and documentation of women of color's representation online.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I first became interested in how women of color discussed fashion when I started to learn how to sew in 2020. I mostly learned through online tutorials and occasional trouble-shooting with my aunts. But, I found that most of the popular seamstresses and fashion YouTubers were white women and I had to actively look for women of color like me. I knew that women of color must be having sewing and fashion discussions online. So, this project started with wanting to celebrate and uplift creators who were not promoted enough by social media sites.
Which scholars or artists (in any field) have influenced your work the most, whether for this scholarly or creative project or one in the past?
Bell Hooks has inspired my life more than anyone else. From Feminism is for Everybody to All About Love, I think about her work when I'm doing scholarship and art. She is an expert at balancing the gravity of social life and oppression while staying hopeful and centering love. Hook's work (and the work of all Black feminists) emphasize Black women's rights to joy and love. This project has always been an exploration of joy, particularly how clothing and dress can be a way to express ourselves.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
In winter quarter 2024, I took Dr. Jesica Fernandez's class on Women of Color in the United States. For our final project we were asked to make a zine about a topic important to women of color. Overall, this class helped me understand my experiences at SCU. By bringing art and design into the classroom, Dr. Fernandez encouraged us to incorporate spirit and life into our discussions and projects. Since that zine project, I have opted to make zines for other classes and infuse my daily life with more art.
Architecture appears as form and mass but creates meaning as space and spirit. Professor Clydesdale’s project focuses on buildings and environments designed by Taiwanese architects since the turn of the twenty-first century. She is investigating design processes, aesthetic principles, and how people activate sites as they move through and use them. From conception and construction to the manifestation of places in a community, the defining feature of new Taiwanese architecture is a spirit of “public character” (gonggong xing 公共性). Taiwan’s tangled cultural legacies, staunch commitment to sustainability, and a political system that promotes public engagement are foundational to the emergence of these works that, although avant-garde, are not altars to the egos of architects. Instead, from nature centers and theaters, bus depots, and high-speed rail stations, to schools and cemeteries, Taiwan shows how architecture, sustainability, and democracy can preserve local heritage, connect people to natural environments, and promote civic engagement. This, in turn, suggests that contemporary Taiwanese architecture can offer lessons for architects, city planners, officials, and the public in other places in the world.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I was researching how traditional aesthetics and design influence contemporary architecture and landscape design, which is a focus of my class “Fabricating Nature in East Asia.” As I was delving into this very broad topic, I found that architects in Taiwan are doing really cool things that incorporate global architectural influences with Japanese and Chinese ideas about space. But they also have a distinctive aesthetic, which is partially due to the way projects are funded and designed, and is also due to a certain ethos that pervades Taiwan. During my first research trip to Taiwan the fall of 2023, I characterized this as "public character."
What kind of an impact do you hope your project will have–whether on your field, the community, our campus, etc.?
I believe that Taiwan's approach to the environment, cultural legacies, and collaborative design holds models for architects, government officials, and urban planners in other parts of the world. It is informed by the natural environment--Taiwan is an island with finite resources but also a spectacular range of ecosystems and vistas, and by complex cultural legacies including indigenous tribes, early migrations from China, fifty years of Japanese colonization, a later infusion of mainland Chinese when the Nationalists lost the civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949, and economic and cultural ties to the United States since then.
New Taiwanese architecture is at once very local, but it addresses pervasive global concerns: how can governments urge populations to value the natural environment? How can thoughtful infrastructure salve anxieties and mend rifts between urban and rural populations? How can public spaces restore mutual trust between governments and citizens? I hope that my research will show how “public character” in Taiwanese architecture can be a model for urban planning and public architecture that is sustainable and promotes civic engagement in other parts of the world.
Why do you think the arts or humanities are important?
This question is daunting! There are whole books devoted to justifying the importance of the humanities. Two titles come to mind: Andrew Delbanco's College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be and Roosevelt Montas' Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation. And, once or twice a year, some professor or other will pen and publish in the New York Times an eloquent treatise explaining why we should bother teaching and learning about the vast breadth of human experience. Or,The Wall Street Journal will run a piece from a business CEO attributing their success not to an MBA but to their undergraduate major in history. Alas, I'm not up to this task without re-heating what has already been stated on the topic. So, instead, I will offer a narrow perspective as an art historian. In art history, we concentrate on images and primary texts. I don't mean "concentrate" in an abstract way. I mean we drill into, hack, and parse art works, artifacts, architecture, along with translated letters, contracts, poems, and the like. We plunge, swim, and sometimes dive deep below the surface to pull out meaning: why was it made, how, and for whom? How did it challenge or solidify codes of status, philosophical ideas, or the role of women in a society?--to name a few questions. The part that I love most about this odyssey is that even though, time after time, we arrive at the same conclusions (e.g., the Qin terracotta army embodies Han Fei's philosophy of Legalism; Hokusai's genius is that everything in his work has a dual nature; 20th century Chinese woodblock prints rallied and spread revolutionary fervor), the journey with every class of students is different. In College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be, Andrew Delbanco claims that much of the value in a college education comes from what students learn from each other. In art history, and I imagine in history, philosophy, and religious studies and so forth, we peel back layers of history together, and with surprising regularity, students point out something new in an image or text that I have seen or read countless times. As a class, we emerge transformed from our encounter. Of course, we see the painting, sculpture, building or text differently. But our intense concentration also changes our powers of observation and analysis, so that we see everything differently throughout the rest of the day. If you repeat this process by attending class for a quarter or more, you run the risk of having the way you see and understand things changed forever.
Katie Ioffe (Communication and Computer Science), “Beyond the Interface: An Ongoing Exploration of Design and Interaction”
Katherine’s research project will focus on creating a user interface and experience that increases the ease of user education, experience, and learning. Each learning experience will be adaptive to each user, through a system of “Personalized Adaptive Learning”, or “PAL”. Specifically, this User Experience project will help teach the user to create a beverage through a series of steps and experiences.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I first became interested in working on my CAH project when Dr. Heather Turner - my faculty mentor and a phenomenal Professor in the English department! - reached out since I had expressed interest in the UX (user experience) field and we started brainstorming some ideas. We both love coffee shops and a lightbulb lit up. One time, two of my friends and I were asked to make a single cup of coffee using a coffee machine we'd never used before - we got the cup of coffee, but it took about fifteen minutes and a lot of struggling before we got there. That's where the idea for CoffeePAL - a way to make that whole experience a little easier and more fun - came from!
Which scholars or artists (in any field) have influenced your work the most, whether for this scholarly or creative project or one in the past?
As a writer I've always loved Walter Issacson's biographies - I remember binge reading a lot of his works when I was about thirteen or so - he's both a journalist and historian and through that manages to communicate the most complex and nuanced stories in an accessible and interesting way, while still portraying the humanity of those he writes about. Whenever I write, or try to think of the way we're telling a story, I try to make it both easy to read but still engaging, so I always think back to Issacson.
I also have a great love for Robert Frost and his poetry, the way he writes about the natural world, the way he uses words to portray the human condition in such an inspiring way. I grew up first hearing, then reading Frost since I was very little and found a lot of comfort in those poems. Every turn of a word has the power to convey and extract meaning and emotion - and in some ways begins to sound like a song.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
When I was a young freshman I took a course called "Incarnating the Word", where we read stageplays and screenplays all quarter, learned about history, theology, and quite a bit about the professor's love of ice cream. Also, we learned a lot of Greek and Latin words, which I still remember even now! But he also loved the stories that we read about, and that I think really helped me engage with the course - that it wasn't just a painful slog through something we had to learn, but something we wanted to learn about. And we wrote - we were challenged to write in a way I hadn't necessarily written before, in a way that went very in depth in complexity and breadth towards the material. It was wonderful! I've always loved stories, literature, movies, characters - even history, for the same reasons!
At the time I was just getting out of the Computer Science major - which is as filled with tears as it is with semicolons (that is to say... a lot!) - and it wasn't until I took a humanities course like that where the subject was beautiful, emotive, and revelatory of something about our own humanity that I found myself increasingly drawn towards writing, history, literature - in other words, books! And I've always been very bookish - ask my elementary school librarian where I spent my lunches! But I never considered it seriously in any way. I'm also very grateful that the Professor - and we still keep in touch! - was so encouraging of all his students, especially during such a tumultuous time as freshman year. I was amazed by what a book or a few words could be - and what that meant about how incredible life itself could be. It was a very Dead Poets Society sort of realization, but for the first time my heart was on fire (and it wasn't the hot sauce I doused all my Benson meals in!) because I actually loved what we were learning about. And that changed me and the course of my life, I think, much for the better.
Miah Jeffra (English), “Summer of the Locusts”
The Summer of the Locusts continues Jeffra's work addressing social inequity and examining whiteness as a settler-colonialist construct in its contemporary articulations (family values, pop culture, politics). This project concerns the friendship of two pre-teen boys growing up in a trailer park in rural Appalachia, inspired by a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews that Jeffra began in the summer of 2022. The story is set in a town where an inmate from the local penitentiary escapes and is purported to be living in the woods beyond the trailer park. This incident catalyzes a series of events that center the two prepubescent protagonists within a field of scrutiny, requiring them to negotiate their friendship, their identity, and how they want to be seen within their community. The reportage connects social inequities to toxic masculinity, domestic violence, and poverty by examining how young men process and respond to such prevalent influences as they grow up. Jeffra plans to return to Appalachia to complete their fieldwork, which will inform the final choices for the novel's structure, and commence the prose writing.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
It began when discovering that my entire extended family voted for Trump in 2016. They are lower to lower-middle class residents of Appalachia. I was curious why they thought Trump was a representative for them. So I first interviewed them, but then quickly became interested in the community's younger male residents, how they conflated Trumpian rhetoric with their own definition of manhood. Soon, the ethnographic interviews I conducted were with boys ages 10-17. Their perspective concerning contemporary American masculinity was fascinating, and thus the project took on its current iteration.
What kind of impact do you hope your project will have-whether on your field, the community, or campus, etc?
I hope that the book provides a compassionate and complex look into cultures in Appalachia, how their kinship and politics are cultivated. Understanding is more important than indictment.
Why do you think the arts and/or humanities are important?
In a world where we prioritize and rely upon that which is quantifiable, the arts and humanities provide insight into the aspects of our society, culture, and existence that cannot be measured so definitively. Where science gathers knowledge, the arts and humanities cultivate wisdom.
Past Fellow Profiles
2023-2024
Faculty Fellows
Jimia Boutouba (Modern Languages and Literatures) “ War, Race and Sexual Politics in French Indochina”
This two-part research project investigates French imperial history by tracing the crisscross colonial trajectories of people displaced across the French imperial map. Unsettling colonial cartography, the project attends to narratives of south-south encounters, transnational solidarities amid anti-colonial wars, unexpected unions, invisibilized “métis” (mixed-raced) populations, and forced departures. The project draws on rare archival materials and testimonies from unknown and/or previously unheard minoritized perspectives: those of Black Asian children born during the war of Indochina (1946-1954), and accounts by North African sex workers who were brought to Indochina on a government-approved program of mobile prostitution to “service” combat and support soldiers overseas. In investigating these complex stories that emerge at the intersection of Asian, African, and French imperial histories, Prof. Boutouba’s project seeks to shed new light on the nexus of racial and sexual politics at the heart of French imperialism as well as center the perspectives and historical agency of minoritized trans-imperial groups whose voices and stories are seldom considered as legitimate historical records.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
So far, my scholarly interests have focused on the intertwined histories of North Africa and France in colonial and postcolonial times. But I wished to expand my research by investigating trans-imperial processes that connected France, Africa, and Asia, and their legacies in the postcolonial era. In exploring the complex and hidden stories that emerged at the intersection of Asian, African, and French imperial histories, I hope to shed new light on the nexus of racial and sexual politics at the heart of French imperialism and give visibility to minoritized groups whose voices and stories are seldom considered as legitimate historical records.
What kind of an impact do you hope your project will have–whether on your field, the community, our campus, etc.?
My project represents new forays into the history of French imperialism and provides an innovative approach to understanding French imperialist policies and war campaigns by drawing on rare archival materials, and oral testimonies from unknown and/or previously unheard minoritized perspectives: those of Black-Asian children born during the war of Indochina (1946-1954), and accounts by North-African sex-workers who were brought to Indochina on a government-approved program of mobile prostitution to “service” combat and support soldiers overseas.
Examining French colonial history through these trans-imperial trajectories and perspectives represents a major departure from previous scholarly studies that have mostly focused on binary accounts across the colonial divide (North/South; West/Orient; colonizer/colonized), thus neglecting the histories, experiences, and narratives of other minoritized trans-imperial groups. My project will center these subordinated groups' voices, perspectives, and historical agency to challenge historical erasure.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
Last fall, I spent hours and days opening old boxes and leafing through dusty military files in the French Military Archives in the Château of Vincennes. As I was trying to piece together fragments of these black soldiers’ stories and trajectories, I stumbled across curious documents that left me astonished, sometimes horrified; they offered a rare glimpse into the harrowing conditions that black soldiers had to face in Vietnam, all the while trying to balance love and danger, affection and prejudice within shattering calamities of war.
Another impactful outcome of this new research is the Visiting Scholar invitation I received from the University of Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan to further investigate the history of the African soldiers who fought in the 1st Vietnam War and their Afro-Asian descendants. I met with members of the Métis Association, the President of the War Veterans Association, and many other people who were all eager to help. I was particularly moved by the stories I heard from métis children and the long-lasting traumas that this colonial history has had on their families.
Hsin-I Cheng (Communication)“ Bridging the Digital and Physical Spaces: Furthering Black and Asian Solidarity”
The Asian-Black Relationality Project stems from Prof. Cheng’s 2022 publication on the theoretical concept of relational citizenship. From 2022 to 2023, a collaboration between SCU students and former colleagues built the Asian & Black Alliances (ABA) website— a multilingual website highlighting historical and cultural interactions between these two racial groups, which also includes individual and organizational voices to illustrate how such solidarity-building is a continuous process. This project further bridges cyber (i.e., website) and physical (i.e., face-to-face interactions) spaces. Prof. Cheng will build a team of educators/collaborators to generate mini-lesson plans based on the website and host public forums to share these plans and discuss Black-Asian relationality.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
My ability to come to the United States for graduate studies was facilitated by an African-American woman. Being a citizen of Taiwan, a nation bullied by a superpower and unrecognized by the majority of the world, I have been inspired by Black people’s sustained resilience. As an Asian American, I have been wary of how Asian and Black communities are positioned to fight against each other in the United States.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many intergroup tensions derived primarily from inequality have come to public discourses. One of these is Asian and Black relationships. Although members of these two racial groups have known about their uneasy relationships, it was not until the “3rd wave” of BLM and the rise of anti-Asian hate that this topic surfaced in mainstream media reporting. Due to this, a group of SCU students and I built a multilingual website on Black-Asian relations in 2022 (Asian & Black Alliance). The CAH project is a continuation of expanding space about these two racial minorities and their dynamic interactions.
What kind of an impact do you hope your project will have–whether on your field, the community, our campus, etc?
Research on these two racial minority's interactions remains scarce in my field of Communication Studies. Such discussions are also rare in the broader community here at SCU and the Bay Area. My proposed work intends to offer creative ideas and topic-oriented lesson plans for these two groups to engage each other in public discussions, and build potential solidarity. In the current time when efforts to erase minority histories from the U.S. collective memory are great, holding interdisciplinary public events on Black-Asian Solidarity is not only beneficial but imperative.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
As an ethnographer and qualitative researcher, I have encountered many opportunities to learn from my participants’ lived experiences. The ingenious strategies that people with little access to power and resources created to resist various forms of oppression are a source of inspiration for my ongoing research.
Christina Zanfagna (Music) “Black-Italian Crossroads: Racial Tensions, Social Solidarities, and Sonic Affinities”
From the influence of North African music in Southern Italy to contemporary “hip-wop” in the U.S., Prof. Zanfanga’s project explores Black-Italian musical affinities and racial tensions. Exposing the local and transnational contact zones between Black and Italian communities, this collaborative project will interrogate their overlapping histories of migration and cultural assimilation as well as racial and ethnic exclusion. These submerged histories of interracial musical exchange reveal new understandings of how race and music intersect as they disrupt the dominant polarized optics of race in American popular music (i.e. Black/White) that are often based on notions of racial essentialism. Work during the fellowship period will focus on the Black-Italian nexus in early 20th-century New Orleans jazz and Italian American female pop stars' appropriation of Black musical and dance styles such as voguing and gangsta rap.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
As a bicoastal Italian American who grew up in the worlds of hip hop and basketball, and as a scholar of Black popular music, the contact zones between Black Americans and Italian Americans have always intrigued me. I started thinking more seriously about doing a project on this topic during conversations with musicians Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi about the musical connections across the Black Mediterranean (while they were SCU Sinatra artists-in-residence during 2019-2021). Informal conversations eventually manifested in a CAH roundtable discussion entitled “Black-Italian Crossroads” that featured, in addition to Rhiannon and Francesco, actor John Turturro and scholars John Gennari (UVM) and Camilla Hawthorne (UCSC). Rather than isolate this conversation to a small, niche, academic audience, the six of us agreed that this was a history that needed to be seen and heard not just read about. SCU Professor and filmmaker Mike Whalen joined our team last spring.
What kind of impact do you hope your project will have-whether on your field, the community, or campus, etc?
We are working on a feature-length documentary on the cultural contact zones of Black Americans and Italian Americans and how these contact zones have also boomeranged back to Italy. This is a story about how outsider, “outlaw” ethnicities have become American through music, film, sports, and foodways, and in so doing, have changed America. My hope is that this film provides a more complicated and nuanced depiction of the interconnections between Blackness, Italianness, and Whiteness. But more importantly, I hope that audiences are able to see and hear how these stories of interethnic conflict and collaboration speak to larger narratives about immigration and radicalization in this country and beyond.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience in your research, whether for this project or on in the past?
There have been numerous eye-opening experiences throughout this process, most of which have to do with the incredible potential of collaborative, interdisciplinary research. But mainly I've been surprised and moved by the support and enthusiasm that this project has received from an array of people--from scholars to musicians to my own Italian American and Black American relatives. I think people are hungry for complex stories that reveal cultural solidarities across racial lines (without diminishing the conflicts, tensions, power dynamics, etc. that also exist).
Student Fellows
Natalia Cantu ‘24, DH student fellow (English and Biology)"Digital Finding Tools for the Tenacious Box Set of Zines" (Advised by Kirstyn Leuner, English)
The Tenacious Box Set is a collection of zines published by women in prison and held in the Special Collections at SCU. Natalia will be completing a finding aid for this important material, focusing on an index that will organize each publication by topic, theme, author, and date. Her goal is to make the impressive works within the Tenacious Box Set more digitally accessible to students and scholars at and beyond SCU.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I became interested in "Digital Finding Tools for the Tenacious Box Set of Zines" after I had taken ENGL 68A: Women's Prison Writing with Professor Kirstyn Leuner, in the Winter of my Junior year. This course centered around the writings of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women who graciously shared their stories in order to help broaden individuals' perspectives on issues surrounding incarceration. Before this class, I had never been exposed to works such as these—works that carry that capability to move you to activism and bring a whole class together in a collective discussion. These works had a very considerable impact on me and I am extremely grateful that I get to work with them on this project.
Which artists (in any field) have had the most influence on you and why?
Recently, I have started reading The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner in my English Senior Seminar with Professor Burnham. This work is a fictional account of life in prison and has influenced me because of the way in which it showcases how various socioeconomic factors affect incarceration. Additionally, many authors have had a tremendous influence on me: Francisco Jimenez, Joan Didion, Jorge Luis Borges, Sandra Cisneros, Amparo Davila, and many more. All of these authors have shaped my writing style and inspired me to pursue my varied interests in writing and research.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
Every class in ENGL 113EL: Writing Center Theory and Practice with Professor Denise Krane, was very transformative and eye-opening. In this course, we focused on writing centers, but also educational systems, and the diverse set of writers that exist. Coming from a background where both of my parents are, or have been, teachers, it was particularly enlightening to learn about various factors that influence students and teaching—socioeconomics, language, and culture—to name a few. Discussing this with my peers in class, and my parents at home, allowed me to recognize the vast amount of change, in attitude and practice, that needs to occur in our educational system in order to accommodate writers with various needs and to make the system more welcoming for these writers.
Miriam Chen Lin ‘26 (Psychology and Studio Arts)“The Familiar Yet Esoteric Mind: The Psychological Reasoning of Identity and Mental Health in Undergraduate Students” (Advised by Jennifer Frihauf, Psychology; Jessica Eastburn, Studio Arts; Leandro Glory Damasco Jr., Dance; and Oliver Bochettaz, English)
Miriam brings together her interests in Psychology and Art in a project on the importance of mental health among students and in our society. Her project will consist of multimedia work that integrates studio art, dance, film, and writing. Each visual piece will be accompanied by a paper describing the work and analyzing its relations to psychological theories, experiments, and data. Ultimately the project will be exhibited and compiled into a trade book.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I've always been intrigued by the importance of mental health amongst our population and have been interested in seeing the overlap of different mediums/disciplines to address different perspectives on an issue. The idea for creating “The Familiar Yet Esoteric Mind” began as an extension of a research paper that delved into the reasoning behind identity crises for class. As this paper expanded my interest beyond the classroom, I furthered my investigation on expanding my inquiry and wanted to create a body of visual works that was relevant to the specific population of college students.
Which artists (in any field) have had the most influence on you and why?
Since 2018, I've been greatly inspired by Cyril Rolando. He is a clinical psychologist and a digital art hobbyist in France who has bridged his interests together to create works that explore the complex emotions of human life in a surrealist style. Beyond my appreciation for his visual arts what draws my admiration is his dedication to pursuing and excelling in both fields that I am passionate about. His ability to create works that embody the interdisciplinary gray area of overlapping fields gives his work a new form of dimensionality and meaning.
My other main artist influencer is a Japanese illustrator Avogado6. His works mainly consist of thought-provoking depictions of social and emotional issues that are always peaceful yet jarring at the same time. He has mastered the ability to create works that balance a macabre nature with an elegant counterpart. Avogado6 has influenced my art style and has honed my interest in creating works that can be visually and conceptually thought-provoking but ones that contain a significant meaning.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
My first CTW writing class taught by Professor Oliver Bochettaz has been the most eye-opening. From the first intriguing material of exploring an artist who put live fish in blenders to the notion of achieving a better self, this course not only expanded my reasoning of exploring the possibilities of deeper meaning (ex: qualitative aspects of life, soma pneuma, and psyche, archetypes, etc.) and exploration of understanding of myself but also planted the initial seed of thoughts that later cultivated into the framework for my CAH project.
Charlie DiNapoli ‘24 (Studio Arts) “Shrines” (Advised by Pancho Jiménez, Studio Art)
Charlie will create a series of 6-10 works in ceramics/mixed media that explore his own religious and emotional experiences, ranging from frustration and anger to boredom and despair. The pieces will be sculpted semi-self-portraits displayed in frames that resemble the out-coves that hold religious figures in traditional settings. Charlie plans to enter these works into juried shows and to prepare for his senior show in the Spring.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I began my current project last winter when writing about the Della Robbia family from Florence. One of the motifs that began to stand out to me was that of a place of reverence, specifically altars and altar shapes. One would believe that every figure of a saint or of Mary is flawless and to be looked to in a time of need. But we are all human and make mistakes: who would we put into an altar today and what is worth that kind of reverence? Exploring these questions is what has been inspiring my current works and specifically my series of shrines.
Which artists (in any field) have had the most influence on you and why?
As previously mentioned, I have gained inspiration from the Della Robia family and their religious subject matter and themes. Additionally, I draw inspiration from Robert Arneson and his use of self as a subject. Most importantly, however, I gain inspiration from all my teachers, and their guidance in creating a sustainable practice for myself in the arts.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
One of the teachers I am speaking of is Pancho Jimenez. As a freshman I tried to sign up for a basic ceramics class in my second quarter, I was feeling creativity-starved and desperate to get back in the studio. The class was full at the time so I sent an email to the professor but never got a response. I then made an appointment at the Drahmann Center to get advice on what to do. It turns out I made the appointment with Pancho, who told me that I had emailed the wrong professor and that he was actually the teacher of the course I was trying to enroll in. After showing him my work from high school, he let me take the intermediate course that he was teaching. I was the only student in the class, which was being held at the same time and in the same studio as the basic class. He challenged me and pushed me to do my best work and it was by far my favorite experience I have had at SCU. At the end of the quarter, he encouraged me to pursue art as a major or minor and I am so grateful he did.
Simon Lanzoni ‘24 (Studio Art, Music, and Italian)“Seeing in Tongues” (Advised by Ryan Carrington, Studio Art)
Seeing in Tongues will take the form of an audiovisual installation that includes sculpture and sound to explore how language and perception define an individual’s interpretation of reality. As someone who is bicultural and bilingual, Simon has begun to perceive how language is culture, how reality can be reflected in language, and how language produces ever-changing realities. Simon will create three different 3D works of art along with one greater soundscape to inspire students, faculty, staff, and visitors to create an inclusive future for the arts at SCU and to celebrate the human impulse to create.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
By reading Food of the Gods by Terrence McKenna. In the early moments of the book, McKenna quotes anthropologist Misia Landau who states, “Language is not merely a device for communicating ideas about the world, but rather a tool for bringing the world into existence in the first place. Reality is not simply 'experienced' or 'reflected' in language, but instead is produced by language.” This particular quote is what introduced me to this concept, and sparked my interest.
Which artists (in any field) have had the most influence on you and why?
I’ve been greatly inspired by hard-edge artists from the 50s and 60s such as Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly who I believe engaged in the practice of painting as sculpture. Viewing the canvas as a three-dimensional form rather than merely the surface of the painting. They experimented with odd canvas shapes, sizes, and colors to create new viewing experiences. Ones which added a layer of spatiality that only sculpture could truly produce. I view my practice as a continuation of Stella and Kelly, in the sense that while their works remained fixed on the wall, I am removing the canvas from the wall and placing it into the center of space as a free-standing three-dimensional object. I believe this to be the practice of "painting as sculpture" in its purest form. Sunn O))) is a drone metal band that plays at extremely high volumes of around 145dB to create a physical experience of sound. I fell in love with the physicality of their live performances, as the ability to feel sound and how certain frequencies manifest on your body at high volumes is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Sunn O))) truly put into perspective for me just how much of a physical experience sound is.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
These individuals greatly influenced my practice, as it is inspired by the concept that sculpture is a 3 dimensional and visual art form, whereas sound is not inherently visual or tangible but is very much a physical experience. Therefore, fusing the two into a greater work, creates a unique experience in which sound and visual become interchangeable. Sound enters into the third dimension, taking on a visual form, while the sculpture becomes a physical, and aural experience. While audiovisual art certainly exists, it often is an object that produces sound. My work takes a distinctly different approach as the visual and sonic elements are two separate entities existing independently in a space, intertwining through a specific installation. They are not a product of the same source, as this would bind them together as one, rather my work uses space as a means for play between sonic and visual. It is this quest for fluidity between these two mediums in and out of each other that is the driving force behind the aesthetics of my installations.
Natasha Moorjani ‘24 (Music and Political Science)“Choral Music and Justice” (Advised by Scot Hanna-Weir, Music)
Natasha will be composing an original choral work that brings awareness to the legal aspects of social justice by setting to music legal texts, such as Supreme Court opinions or writings by legal scholars. The texts of her choral piece will synthesize the most impactful phrases and pressing ideas from the legal texts, while the medium of choral music will add emotion and emphasis in ways that will allow both the singers and the audience to connect with them. Her project hopes to explore how the arts can be an effective mechanism for social justice and how the emotive qualities of music make it an extremely powerful way to create change.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
As a double major in music and political science, I've had passions in both fields, and I've been composing music as a personal hobby for many years. Through my CAH project, I've had an opportunity to not only compose with the support of a mentor and a group of other talented artists but also apply my skills in music to my other interest area of law.
Which artists (in any field) have had the most influence on you and why?
The artists who've influenced me most are undoubtedly my teachers -- both in music performance and music theory. Thanks to them, I've not only improved as a performer and composer but also been exposed to a wide variety of styles that form my musical "toolkit.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
Last year, SCU's Chamber Singers premiered a piece written by Prof. Hanna-Weir titled "Four Principles of Marriage." This piece used language from the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized gay marriage and set them to choral-orchestral music. Through learning and performing this piece, I found that it was not only an interesting combination of music and law, but that the music could be used to illustrate the meaning of the legal text for a wider audience. My experience directly inspired me to work on my own fellowship project, centering on choral music and environmental justice.
Madysen Moreno ‘24 (Music and Philosophy)“Heard Her: A Concert Series” (Advised by Teresa McCollough, Music)
Madysen’s concern with the lack of female representation in the music industry drives her fellowship project, an original four-movement concert series showcasing a suite of music composed to explore the phenomenology of woman through sound. Madysen’s composition will proceed through the help of Santa Clara University’s New Music Ensemble and will debut in a live Spring performance.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I became interested in my CAH project after working with Dr. Teresa McCollough in various upper-division music classes, particularly when leading the SCU New Music Ensemble. It was Dr. McCollough who brought this fellowship to my attention and we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to engage the music department and CAH via a concert series.
Which artists (in any field) have had the most influence on you and why?
Stephen Scott, Steve Reich, and John Cage have been extraordinarily influential in my artistry and composition, and I have taken much inspiration from their past works.
Tell us about a transformative or eye-opening experience you have had in a humanities or arts course at SCU. What did you learn or take away from it? How did it change you?
A particularly transformative experience I have had in the arts at SCU was working with the SCU New Music Ensemble. When performing my complex piano piece with an ensemble of 10 people, I found a community I had never known before. The support and dedication from the ensemble members in learning my piece created a strong sense of camaraderie. This experience fostered a deep connection with my fellow SCU student artists.
Faculty Fellows
Sonia Gomez, History: "A Gendered Diaspora: Intimacy and Empire in the Making of Japanese America, 1908-1952"
“A Gendered Diaspora: Intimacy and Empire in the Making of Japanese America, 1908-1952.” This book project explores the complicated and changing race and gender logics that alternately excluded and included Japanese women in the United States. It demonstrates how intimacy (marriage) and empire (immigration policies) intersect in the making of Japanese America in the Twentieth Century, and discusses how marriage -- as a contested mode of immigrant incorporation -- shaped the process of immigration and settlement for women and their families.
Why did you decide to become a professor of history?
I once read that every historian is in search of their past. While that might not, actually, be true for every historian, it certainly is true for me. I majored in history as an undergraduate largely because I was trying to make sense of my place in the world and studying history helped me do that. Then, I had the opportunity to conduct my own independent research and I traveled to the Library of Congress and National Archives in College Park, Maryland. That experience was thrilling. I am kind of a nosy person which worked well in the archive and, as they say, the rest is history!
How do your personal identity and background inform your teaching and scholarship?
My personal background is foundational to who I am as a teacher-scholar. My scholarship trajectory began when I wrote an undergraduate research paper on women like my maternal grandmother, so-called Japanese war brides who married non-white men. I was interested in learning more about their migration experience and telling their stories since so much of the literature had focused on the relationships between Japanese women and white men. My thesis led me to my dissertation topic, which led me to my (first) book and so on. My next project builds off of everything I learned and didn't learn with the first book.
I am a first-generation college student/graduate who started at community college. That experience has made me sensitive to issues of inequity both in the classroom and within the university at large. Like many of my colleagues I am committed to inclusive teaching practices. As a U.S. historian, I try to expose my students to diverse voices.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
As I mentioned earlier, my book project began as an undergraduate paper about my grandmother. Of course, it has evolved and expanded over time. Throughout the years, I became more and more interested in exploring how gender shapes immigration policies and the experience of immigrants. My CAH project is the culmination of that work. In the book, I explore how gender and intimacy, in this case marriage, facilitated the migration of Japanese women during periods when the Japanese were legally excluded on the basis of race. Largely, I am interested in troubling binary conceptions of inclusion and exclusion and calling attention to the ways in which gender shapes migration.
Tony Hazard, Ethnic Studies: "Afro-Indigeneity, Family Remembrance, and The Narragansett of Rhode Island"
Tony Hazard's project entitled, "Afro-Indigeneity, Family Remembrance, and The Narragansett of Rhode Island" emerges from research into his indigenous Narragansett ancestors of Rhode Island, leading back six generations to James Monroe Hazard II (1825-1908) who appears on the original federal tribal roll of 1881. He explores this moment of “detribalization” (1880s) to uncover the contours and legacies of the racial logics of enslavement and colonialism that animated state and federal policy toward the Narragansett people in the 20th century. Learn more about Tony's project here.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
One main concern for me at the moment is the obfuscation of the history of this country. I see this happening in two ways, both are troubling from my perspective as an educator and historian. On the one hand, I am terribly concerned about the resistance both locally and nationally, to expanding primary and secondary curricula to be more inclusive, holistic, and accurate. On the other, there is a clear commitment in some quarters of the current political culture to delegitimize the critical histories of peoples who do not fit neatly into white supremacy’s vision of itself, specifically in a North American context.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
This project had been on my mind for years. Prior to my start at Temple University in the doctoral program in History, my father began exploring the history of his paternal ancestors, the Narragansett people of Rhode Island. Sadly, he passed away during my time at Temple. I knew that one day I would take up his work, and recently becoming a father myself, the time feels right to embark upon this journey in honor of my dad and my son.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
In my research for this project I have learned so much about the strength of my Narragansett ancestors, their resistance and will to survive, since the encroachment of European colonizers in early 17th century Rhode Island. From primary documents, digital archives, and secondary sources, this project has challenged me to learn the details of the Great Swamp Massacre of 1675, enslavement of Narragansett peoples in New England and the West Indies, and detribalization in the 1880s. This process has deepened my understanding of what it means to be Narragansett, and Afro-Indigenous, and still here.
Amy Lueck, English: "Indigenous Remembrance of the Winchester Mystery House"
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Winchester Mystery House’s public opening in 1923, Amy’s project is an examination of public memory at this local attraction, with a focus on indigenous representation and remembrance at this site. Exploring the role of local and national indigenous history in the legends and contemporary experience of this site, I want to use this project to encourage public audiences to recognize the deeply layered and entangled histories of such memory sites, and to critically examine the role of whiteness and settler colonialism in animating such stories.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
In my research and teaching, I have been most interested in interrogating various borders and boundaries that construct (and don't just reflect) a sense of difference between and among sites of practice, methodologies, institutions, and the like. For example, my first book project explores the rhetorical and political (and not strictly pedagogical or institutional) divide between U.S. high schools and colleges as they emerged in the nineteenth century. The boundary between these sites of learning is too often assumed, and hence reinforced, in policy and practice. In my second book project, this same interest is now applied to practices of historical storytelling and placemaking, looking at the tendency to separate out and isolate diverse narratives and experiences at public memory sites. My own answer is taking the form of what I'm calling "entangled remembrance" practices--an attempt to implicate gender, race, colonialism and other vectors of identity and power in public remembrance practices. Our own campus is one example of a site struggling to tell multiple stories simultaneously. Another example is the local Winchester Mystery House attraction that is the focus of my Center for Arts and Humanities fellowship, and my second book.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I became interested in my research site, the Winchester Mystery House, after having moved to the South Bay Area and encountering so many intriguing and competing public representations of it. As a feminist rhetorical scholar and historiographer, I was interested in this house as a site of women's public remembrance--a popular historical site representing a woman's actions, and one with a long history of evolving representations to study as well. The CAH project I'm working on this year is an expression of entangled remembrance of this site: an attempt to layer and entangle different embodied experiences of this one site, particularly to implicate ongoing settler colonialism as a key facet of public remembrance that has been insufficiently engaged. In this project, I bring several stakeholders with different perspectives on the house into conversation with one another, including the official historian of the house, a local historian who wrote a well-respected book on the site, and a Muwekma Ohlone youth with ancestral ties to the lands on which it is built. I want to see what emerges through these embodied entanglements, and what they might help us to understand and accomplish in future representations and engagements with similar sites.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
The most transformative experience for my research was the day I realized, all too belatedly, that the Winchester Mystery House was on Ohlone lands. Of course, I had tacitly recognized this fact, but I had previously been working in a way that cordoned that reality off from my analysis, which had focused on the site's significance to Western women's histories. The ways I had defined my research for myself had disentangled my work on the Winchester Mystery House from concurrent projects on Ohlone public memory at Mission Santa Clara. Then one day I realized they were part of the same project. This realization, and the rhetorical mechanisms by which I was for so long enabled not to recognize it, is now the primary interest of my research.
Lee Panich, Anthropology: "Insurgent California: Native Resistance and the Collapse of the Missions"
Lee Panich (Anthropology), "Insurgent California: Native Resistance and the Collapse of the Missions" This collaborative project examines Native Californian resistance during the final decade of the mission system. Though overshadowed by the annexation of California by the United States in 1846, the period between 1835 and 1845 was one in which Native people in the San Francisco Bay region fought to retain their lands and livelihoods as the previous colonial system crumbled around them. Work during the fellowship period will focus on the translation of primary documents and community outreach to contextualize the liberation movement of the late mission period with continued Ohlone activism today.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
Most of my current projects focus on the long-term effects of colonialism for Indigenous people, including the role that academic disciplines and institutions play in the perpetuation of colonial structures. As a non-Native scholar, my path into this work is rooted in collaborative relationships with Native Californian communities whose ancestors have experienced colonialism firsthand, including the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
My CAH project examines archival documents that illuminate how Native people in the Bay Area navigated the collapse of the Franciscan mission system in the 1830s and 1840s. In the conventional wisdom about this time, Native people simply disappear from the story. But my interest was piqued when Gustavo Flores, a colleague from Evergreen Valley College, showed me a trove of documents related to the Pueblo of San Jose that showed Native people--including the ancestors of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe--had fought for their rights throughout the time period. Now, he and I are working to find more documents, archaeological evidence, and oral histories that will further tell the story of how the Ohlone community persisted in a particularly tumultuous time between the end of Spanish rule and the annexation of California by the United States.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
One of the most eye-opening experiences for me has been studying Ohlone history and archaeology from the vantage point of our Santa Clara campus. Despite the well manicured grounds, the more I dig into these issues the more it becomes clear that the history of public memory at Santa Clara has contributed to the erasure of Native people in our region. I see this as a crucial issue to forefront in my research and teaching at SCU.
Mukta Sharangpani, Women's and Gender Studies: "Aging Across Borders: Towards an Ethnography of Loss and Hope"
Mukta Sharangpani (Women's and Gender Studies), "Aging Across Borders: Towards an Ethnography of Loss and Hope" Mukta Sharangpani is an anthropologist whose work is situated at the junctures of kinship, modernity and mobility. Her project examines the shifting scapes of family-making among South Asian Bay Area multigenerational families. It centers the experiences of later life immigrants who, propelled by the uncertainties and anxieties brought about by the pandemic, have recently left their own homes and lands to join their children. Through their narratives of mourning and yearning, unsettling and resettling, forgetting and remembering, it highlights the coping strategies they deploy as they move across borders, and considers what avenues exist for them to find meaning, hope, and joy in this new and often final phase of their lives.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
I continue to be interested in issues of gender, kinship, and class in Urban India and the Indian Diasporas. I am interested in the complex ways that culture shapes and is shaped by violence and how cultural notions about family, community, nation, tradition, and modernity shape South Asian and diasporic personhood. My current project is based on later-life immigrants who migrate from India to the US to join their adult children and grandchildren. In the first part of this project, I explore how individuals and families adjust to, cope with, and make meaning from these new and shifting intergenerational residential experiences. In the second part of the project, I examine the narratives of various stakeholders (parents, adult children, siblings, grandchildren, and the extended families and community networks) to illuminate the ethical, moral, and practical dilemmas surrounding filial care.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
The pandemic and the resultant closing of national borders made it extremely difficult for me to reach my elderly parents living in India. Others around me - family, friends, and other immigrant communities were also experiencing the same anxieties and barriers to travel. We heard of people unable to travel to aid an ailing parent or even attend their funeral. We heard of the mental health crisis and the alarming rise in suicidal behaviors and suicides among the elderly. We heard about visiting parents who did not return home; but without adequate health care support, remained exposed and vulnerable in unimagined ways. It was an unnerving but generative time to explore the themes of this project. Thanks to the CAH I was able to start my research on the experience of multigenerational immigrant South Asian/ Indian households in the Bay Area, particularly focusing on elderly parents who recently migrated from India during the pandemic to join their adult children and grandchildren in the Bay Area.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
The roller coaster emotional ride and the way this project gave me both an arm and armor to ask difficult questions about my own life! I found that the early joys and reliefs of family reunification would often give way to caregiver fatigue, concerns around the sustainability of these migration decisions, and tense negotiations between different dyads (parent-adult child, adult child-sibling/s adult child-spouse, adult child- their child/ren). These practical and affective ebbs and flows through which people thought about the meanings of family and filial obligation. What was really illuminating for me were the ways in which the ambivalences experienced and expressed by caregivers/ receivers orbited and congealed around the kitchen. It is here that genders and generations communicated, hoped, coped, battled, resolved, contested, and claimed space and identity.
Student Fellows
Maddie Moran '24, (English, Spanish, & Philosophy) "Digital Finding Tools for the Tenacious Box Set of Zines" (Advised by Prof. Kirstyn Leuner, English)
As the DH-CAH Fellow, Maddie will be creating a finding aid for the zines contained in our Tenacious Box Set in our special collections at SCU. The Tenacious zines are a series of publications of pieces written by women in prison that have been compiled and arranged into separate collections. In order to present the finding aid, she will use Omeka to construct an index based on subject and arranged by date. The index will organize each individual piece by its primary topic or theme as well as its author and date of publication for ease of access.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
Right now, I am juggling my fellowship, studying abroad in Barcelona, being social chair of Santa Clara Club Tennis, being a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and preparing to study for the LSAT. All of these commitments are equally important to me and I am grateful that I have been able to find time to dedicate to each of them!
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
During my sophomore year, I took a class with Professor Leuner where we explored pieces written by incarcerated women. I hadn't previously delved into the world of women's prison writing and was thrilled when we were given the opportunity to read some real works authored from within prisons around the country. These often short yet eye-opening writings were published in a series of zines compiled by Victoria Law, an activist and author, over the course of 20 years. When Professor Leuner approached me with the idea of organizing these zines and making them more accessible for our campus community and the wider public towards the end of the academic year, I was ecstatic (especially since having an organizational system for them would've been so useful for my classmates and I when we used them for our final project in Professor Leuner's women's prison writing class!).
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
One of the most transforming experiences for me in a humanities course at SCU was when Professor Velasco-Moreno showed the film Babel in class. Babel weaves together four stories from Morocco, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. The film proves that even though we may feel very different from each other, we are all connected in some way. It strives to rescue humanity from modern society, which seems, at times, almost inhuman. Alejandro González-Iñárritu, the director, emphasizes our interconnectedness in the 21st century and how our actions affect others. The viewing of Babel and our subsequent class discussions opened my eyes to the need to see humanity in others and to understand the beauty and importance of our interconnectedness, especially in the modern world.
Alex Perez '23, (Public Health, Political Science, & Women's and Gender Studies) "Traveling Tookor (Woman): A Journey of Self-Reflection and Decolonial Knowledge Production Healing through Indigenous Lands" (Advised by Prof. Sharmila Lodhia, Women's and Gender Studies & Prof. Jesica Fernandez, Ethnic Studies)
Alex is exploring the land on which we live through an ethnographic study of her own positionality and the places she travels. The sacred land and our connection to it is full of knowledge, solidarity, and healing. Her project will tap into these resources to produce knowledge that will build a bridge between indigenous learning and Santa Clara University.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
I am most excited about my work as co-chair of the Undocumented Students and Allies Association and furthering advocacy for migrants on and off campus. Recently, I attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice and it reignited my understanding of solidarity and community building and I am hoping to engage further throughout the year. I also find great importance in IESAC - with planning the Diversity Forum, which is one opportunity for students, faculty and staff, and administrators to come together and discuss important issues facing our campus.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I became interested in Traveling Tookor after watching the film “Spirit of the Peaks.” I had never seen indigenous storytelling before, and was blown away by the weaving of something so personal with the greater world and our understanding of our positionality in a sacred world. Then, through discernment with conversations with my friends Sophie Yonkers-Talz and Daniel Martinez along with my parents, I developed an idea to create my own exploration of identity, placing sacred land and connection to the earth at the forefront of my ethnographic research. I was/am excited for delineating much of my own experiences throughout a road trip I took this summer and connecting it with identity, home, and indigenous understanding in my final product.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
Hope and Human Suffering, taught by Diana Gibson allowed me to understand the complexities that intrinsically tie hope and human suffering together. In that class, I worked through my understanding of positionality and social justice outside of a Santa Clara context and found my place as a global citizen. Further, this class led me to the Ignatian Center and all of its offerings which has illuminated my time at Santa Clara.
Bianca Romero '23, (History, French, & Asian Studies) "Colonial Urban Planning in French Indochina" (Advised by Prof. Naomi Andrews, History)
Bianca Romero '23, (History, French, & Asian Studies) "Colonial Urban Planning in French Indochina" (Advised by Prof. Naomi Andrews, History) Bianca is researching how French urban planning was used in colonies as a tool of imperial power. Her project focuses specifically on Vietnam and French Indochina to explore the relationship between landscapes, manmade and natural, and their impact on both colonizers and those they colonized. In order to further understand the role of cities in before, during, and after colonization she will base her studies in conceptions of urbanism and modernity in these respective cultures.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
I am most concerned with my research for my thesis and my work as a research assistant for my advisor. Through both these projects I am able to explore the intersection of my majors--by conducting historical research in French.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
It was through conversations with my advisor and my intersectional studies at SCU that I became interested in my project. I have been fortunate to have taken a lot of different classes in different departments. Some notable courses include Chinese philosophy, fabricating nature in East Asia, and introduction to Urban Planning. My project is a culmination of my varied interests.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in your research, whether for this project or one in the past?
I feel like I have taken something away with every course. Most recently I took an introduction to writing studies which completely transformed the way I think about writing. One idea from that class which has definitely influenced my thesis work is that all writing is done in conversation with other writing. My project is just more commentary on an already existing discussion about colonial urban planning. This will influence both how I write about in my paper as well as the sources I cite.
Emma Rutter '23, (Neuroscience & Theatre and Dance)"Dance: A Stimulus for Memory?" (Advised by Prof. Patti Simone, Neuroscience and Prof. David Popalisky, Theatre, and Dance)
Emma Rutter '23, Neuroscience & Theatre and Dance, is researching the connection between dance education and memory recall. Her plan is to conduct a literature review of existing studies on the topic and primary research in the dance department at SCU. With her interdisciplinary education in neuroscience and dance, she hopes to analyze both verbal memory and movement memory via appropriate tests on a group of dancers and a group of non-dancers. Her goal is to raise and answer the following questions: Is there a significant improvement in memory recall in dancers? If a trend is noticed is it only applicable to movement memory or generalized to verbal recall? The project results will be presented in an educational infographic promoting involvement in dance education and a creative choreographic demonstration explaining the research findings. Her goal is to demonstrate the importance of dance education and funding for arts education.
What commitments or concerns are most important to you right now?
One concern that is most important to me right now is the lack of funding and accessibility to arts education, particularly dance education. I believe that arts education has a value and should be accessible to all.
How did you become interested in the CAH project you are working on this year?
I took a neurobiology course last year where we got to explore a topic of interest. I chose to conduct literature research on the effect of exercise on the prevention of Alzheimer's Disease. While exploring the topic of the relationship between exercise and memory I grew curious about the effect of dance on memory. I have been dancing since I was three years old and currently study Dance and Neuroscience at SCU. The relationship between dance and neuroscience is fascinating since dance integrates many cognitive functions. Furthermore, dance education is often regarded as frivolous and therefore is underfunded. I believe that my dance education has furthered my academic skills, professional skills, and holistic health. This project is the fusion of my two passions with the goal of educating others on the neurological advantages of dance.
What is one of the most transforming or eye-opening experiences for you in a humanities or arts course at SCU?
One of the most transformative classes in the arts and humanities I took was dance history with Professor Anna Kimmel. In this class, we explored the history of western concert dance and learned how to write about dance. Since my dance training is primarily in classical ballet this class informed me of how the dance form evolved. Most importantly this class brought to my attention and expanded my knowledge of how the system of dance was put into place and its many faults.