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| January 21, 2022 | Submit a Note |
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What a great mix of notes this week! I am particularly excited to see so many student authored papers being presented at an international conference this spring. Bravo to the Imaginarium and the work being done in virtual and augmented reality there. An impressive student-led success our campus has seen lately—one that is building community and making a real difference in controlling COVID on campus—are the Health Ambassadors overseen by the Public Health Program. These students have been handing out rapid tests, KN95 masks, Color tests, and care packages outside the library each week. They're screening students for those that need to take rapid tests that day, providing health education about how the rapid tests should be used, and this week, they've been running a testing clinic, asking students to take the rapid tests on site. For any positive cases, they are giving advice, answering questions, and sharing a care package jointly provided by the Health Ambassadors, Peer Health Educators, and ASG. I am proud and heartened to see how our community consistently shows up for each other. Sincerely, Daniel
Student Advisory Council
Edric Dabu is a junior from Honolulu, Hawaii. At Santa Clara University, he is studying Math. Edric joined the Student Advisory Council as a way to become more involved with the university's operations while also learning more about the academic community as he hopes to become a professor. Through his time on the council, Edric would like to provide more support and resources for students who wish to go to graduate school. A fun fact about Edric is that he loves to cook! The Student Advisory Council was started during Fall 2021 and is made up of 10 students from across the College. They meet twice a quarter with Dean Press to discuss their aspirations, suggestions for new initiatives, and their responses to issues of the day.
Highlights
The Delta Stewardship Council has granted an award of $968,826 to a project team, including Virginia Matzek (Environmental Studies and Sciences), to combat the invasion of Phragmites australis in Suisun Marsh. The marsh's role as a major stopover for migratory waterfowl and an important nursery for salmon and steelhead populations is threatened by the invasion. SCU's subaward of $150,872 will go towards hiring student research assistants to study whether planting native wetlands vegetation in places where Phragmites is being controlled by herbicides provides protection against reinvasion by the noxious weed; and towards hiring a postdoc to understand barriers to landowner participation in anti-Phragmites control efforts. Also participating in the two-year project are researchers from Utah State University, Purdue University, Chapman University, and Suisun Resource Conservation District. Image: Phragmites project team members surveying Suisun Marsh by boat.
Kai Harris's (English) debut novel, What the Fireflies Knew, has been featured on several "most anticipated" lists for 2022, including Essence, Marie Claire, Buzzfeed, Bookriot, Bookbub and more. The novel received a starred review from BookPage, which says of the novel: "Throughout. . . complicated and emotionally charged issues, What the Fireflies Knew celebrates the fortitude of its young protagonist. This elegant and eloquent novel is perfect for readers who loved Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye." The book is set to release on February 1, 2022 from Tiny Reparations Books/Penguin Random House, but is available for pre-order now!
Tom Plante (Psychology) published (online first) on January 14th, "Religion has a public relations problem: Integrating evidence-based thinking into clinical practice," in Spirituality in Clinical Practice. Religion and religious institutions receive a great deal of negative, rather than positive, attention and press. This creates an impression, for the casual observer, that religion and associated institutions are a plight on the planet. It is critically important for evidence-based research and best practices in clinical services to be well known and utilized within professional psychotherapy practice. Clinicians must be mindful of the many advantages of religious engagement for physical, mental, and community health and wellness. Psychologists, and other mental health professionals, tend to be secular and nonreligious and receive little, if any, training on religious diversity that may contribute to a negative bias against all things religious. The bias may be detrimental to working with many of their clientele. This reflection addresses these issues and offers a call for a more thoughtful, balanced, and evidence-based approach of integrating religious engagement within clinical and counseling psychological practice.
Christina Zanfagna (Music, Ethnic Studies) co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies on the theme of "Soundscapes of American Gentrification." The issue, published in December 2021, examines the entanglements of music and sound, race, and urban space in gentrifying cities and includes articles on Oakland, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Washington, DC, and Detroit. In her introduction to the issue, Zanfagna (and co-editor Alex Werth) argue that the sonic politics of gentrification attune us to the enduring role of racism in the making and remaking of our cities. Importantly, the issue explores the ways that urban residents resist dispossession and reclaim space through creative practices that are often not seen, but heard.
David Jeong (Communication), Emily Dang '21 (Computer Science & Engineering), and Mohammed Khadadeh '21 (Computer Science, Studio Art) of the Imaginarium had the following papers selected to be presented at the 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Paris:
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