The Center for Arts and Humanities film and discussion series, "Problems With Love," continued last week with "Reality TV and the Fantasy of True Love." The event featured a robust interdisciplinary panel of students and faculty with a conversation about the ways in which reality TV shows impact our understanding of love, dating, marriage, and relationships. Front row left to right: Michelle Burnham (English and CAH), Nikhita Panjnani '24 (English), Mythri Jegathesan (Anthropology), Karina Tsou '24 (Anthropology, Sociology). Back row left to right: Justin Clardy (Philosophy), Audrey Bland '24 (Anthropology), Julia von Gersdorff '25 (Anthropology), Nadine Koochou '24 (English).

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Back in November, I shared a number of transitions among staff in the College. Since then we’ve had some shuffling of positions and have welcomed some new staff to campus. First, Pam Doherty, who was previously the department manager for Mathematics and Computer Science, is now supporting Political Science. Welcome to Vari, Pam!

Additionally, Jasmine Anthony is the new department manager for Anthropology and Sociology; Heidi Elmore is the new department manager for History and Classics; and Donna Young is the new department manager for Mathematics and Computer Science. We also have recently hired April Culver as the new marketing manager for SCU•Presents. Welcome to the College, and to SCU!

I want to offer a big thanks to the department managers who stepped up to help keep everything running while we worked to fill these positions. We are truly grateful!

Sincerely,

Daniel

Highlights

Amy Randall (History) is quoted in "Oskar Schindler’s Heroic (and Complicated) Holocaust Legacy," an article on the A&E Channel's History website. Also, her podcast "Defining Genocide: a Gender Lens" with Genocide Watch (the coordinating organization of The Alliance Against Genocide, an international coalition of organizations) was recently released for their new podcast series.

 

 

 

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Sharmila Lodhia (fourth from left) and co-authors presenting their project at the 2023 ASFS-AFVS Knowing Food: Insights from around the Table" Conference at Boston University.

Sharmila Lodhia (Women’s and Gender Studies) published a multi-authored paper with Azza Basarudin, Tina Beyene, Elora Halim Chowdhury, Catherine Z. Sameh, and Khanum Shaikh titled, “What Hungers Call Us Home? Engaging Autotheory Through Food,” in Feminist Studies. Taking food as an organizing principle and deploying a collective form of autoethnography as a method to narrate familial, social, and transnational histories, the piece illustrates how foodways hold deep emotional and sensual significance as sites of struggle and meaning-making. Sharmila’s section traces food practices through her family’s migration from India to South Africa to California as a living historical archive of colonialism, apartheid, and the conditions of US migrant lives.

 

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Santa Clara was selected as one of 14 universities nationwide to be named a Beckman Scholars Program Awardee Institution for 2024. This prestigious honor will provide 15-month mentored research experiences for 6 exceptional SCU undergraduate students in chemistry, biological sciences, or interdisciplinary combinations thereof. Each undergraduate/faculty mentor will receive $26,000 to be used for student wages, research expenses, and conference travel. As part of the application and selection process, SCU put forth 12 faculty Beckman Mentors, 11 of whom are in the College, who are eligible to serve as mentors to these Beckman Scholars: Paul Abbyad (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Brian Bayless (Biology), Ian Carter-O'Connell (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Elizabeth Dahlhoff (Biology), Amelia Fuller (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Lindsay Halladay (Psychology, Neuroscience), Virginia Matzek (Environmental Studies and Sciences), Michelle McCully (Biology), Grace Stokes (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Eric Tillman (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Korin Wheeler (Chemistry and Biochemistry). This is SCU's second time being named a Beckman Scholars Program Awardee Institution.

More information and to learn how to apply.

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Amy Lueck (English), Teresa Contino '23 (English, Psychology), and Nathan Barnes '21 (English) published an article, "Composing Collaborative Feminist Recovery Projects with Scalar," in the digital rhetoric journal Kairos. The article shares insights gleaned from their use of Scalar, an open-source digital publishing platform, to compose an anthology of women writers in the context of their 2020 Women Writers and Writing course.

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Naomi Levy and Fiorella Vera-Adrianzén's (both Political Science) community-engaged research project on public safety in Oakland over the past 2+ years culminated in an event held at the Oakland Museum of California on January 17th. Levy moderated a panel discussion about the Firsthand Framework for Policy Innovation with several of their community partners, which was live-streamed and recorded. The event coincided with the release of a report detailing the work and data release in an interactive multi-media website. 

Image: Collage from the recently released Firsthand Framework for Policy Innovation website

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Sonia Gomez (History) recently published a chapter titled, "Interracial Friendship across Barbed Wire: Mollie Wilson and Lillian Igasaki," which explores the subversive nature of interracial female friendship during the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The chapter appears in Black Transnationalism and Japan, edited by Natalia Doan and Sho Konishi published by Leidan University Press (LUP). "Interracial Friendship Across Barbed Wire" is part of Gomez's second book project that examines Black-Japanese solidarity in the first half of the 20th century.

Image: Courtesy of Amsterdam University Press

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Mako Watanabe (above, right) being interviewed by Olivia Horton on Kron 4 Live! In The Bay and (below) with his award-winning sculpture.

Recent alumnus Mako Watanabe '23 (Studio Art) joined host Olivia Horton to share his wooden sculptures on Kron 4 Live! In The Bay. Mako's work has recently been shown at Hammerling Winery in Berkeley, CA, and, in January, he won the Best In Show award in the 3rd Annual Juried Show at Combine Art Collective in Walla Walla, WA.

As a volunteer for the Department of Art and Art History, Mako continues to make his carved wooden sculptures and practices his photography work in the area. We are proud of his early accomplishments in the art world, and look forward to seeing where his art will take him next!

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Molly M. King (Sociology) published a co-authored article “Structure, Status, and Span: Gender Differences in Co-authorship Networks Across 16 Region-Subject Pairs (2009–2013)” in the journal Scientometrics. The article studies gender disparities in scientific collaboration several countries and disciplines. Using network analysis on 1.2 million authors and 144 million co-authorship relationships, we look at how connected authors are, tendencies to author with same-gender collaborators, and the nature of men’s and women’s interdisciplinary and international ties. This is the first paper to take a global, multi-discipline approach to study gender patterns in collaboration without artificially restricting co-authorship networks. This article was published open access.

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Julien Gussman (third from left) at NATS Musical Theatre Competition in New York.

Julien Gussman '23 (Theatre Arts) won and placed in two national vocal competitions in the past six months. In May 2023, Julien won the Classical Singer Music Competition, Musical Theatre Pre-Professional Division (held in San Francisco), and on January 8, 2024, they placed 3rd in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Musical Theatre Competition (held in New York). Participants in this competition were from across the U.S., and judges in the finals included Broadway mega-star Kelli O’Hara.

Throughout their college career, Julien has performed around the Bay Area, in musicals ranging from The Rocky Horror Show with Ray of Light Theatre (San Francisco) to A Little Night Music (South Bay Musical Theatre). Julien’s repertoire also includes classical music; they won the SCU Concerto Aria Competition in 2019 and performed Mozart’s “Porgi Amor” and Menotti’s “Black Swan" with the SCU Orchestra.

Julien is the student of SCU vocal instructor, Debra Lambert, and coaches with SCU collaborative pianist Elizabeth Neff.

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Journal release, International Journal of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences.

Aparajita Nanda (English, Ethnic Studies) recently gave a keynote address titled, "Afrofuturism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" at an international conference organized at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), in Kolkata, run by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. She followed up her inaugural speech with a journal release of the International Journal of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences.

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Victor Rossi, Katie Conrad, and Joey Hernandez-Mena presented their poster at the Northern California Botanists meeting.

Victor Rossi '24 (Biology), Katie Conrad '24 (Biology), and Joey Hernandez-Mena '25 (Public Health Science, Biology),  student researchers in Justen Whittall's (Biology) lab, presented their research project, "The Biochemistry of Attraction: Red Flowers and their Hummingbird Pollinators in California" at the Northern California Botanists meeting in Chico, CA on January 9, 2024. They were the only undergraduate poster at the meeting and are eager to turn their discoveries into a manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar