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| November 22, 2024 | Submit a Note |
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We received some terrible news late yesterday afternoon. Kephas Pope, a sophomore neuroscience and biochemistry major, passed away unexpectedly. As President Sullivan said in her email to the campus community, let us remember Kephas as the wonderful friend, son, brother, and student that he was. In times like this, we must lean on each other as we collectively grieve. If you are looking for ways to connect to our community during this challenging time, you’ll have a few opportunities to attend an upcoming performance by our students during Week 10. The annual Choreographers' Gallery has three shows sharing the talents of our dance students. The Music department is also going to be busy with two performances of their annual Festival of Lights to celebrate the season. As we announced last year, all of these performances are free for current students. If you need support, please don’t hesitate to utilize the services listed below, or share them with students in need. Additionally, you can reach out directly to the Office of Student Life for assistance, Benson 205, osl@scu.edu or by submitting a CARE Referral. I wish you all a Thanksgiving holiday full of gratitude and hope you can get some rest before coming back to close out the quarter. I had hoped to leave you with a seasonal poem of Thanksgiving, but instead here is a timeless elegy by Edna St.Vincent Millay. In Solidarity, Daniel Dirge Without MusicBy Edna St. Vincent Millay
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you. The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,— Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Campus Ministry: Staff are available from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and can be reached at 408-554-4372 or 408-551-1930 and campusministry@scu.edu. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): Located at Cowell Center, CAPS is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and is reachable at 408-554-4501. Crisis (drop-in) hours are available daily from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CAPS 24/7 is available for after-hours crisis calls by calling (408) 554-5220. Office of Student Life: The Office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and can be reached at 408-554-4583 or by submitting a CARE Referral. Residence Hall Support: Students who live on campus may reach out to their Resident Director, Faculty Director, or Spirituality Facilitators for support and assistance. Campus Safety Services: Students can also contact Campus Safety Services for assistance reaching service providers, especially after hours (408-554-4441). Uwill: Students also have access to 24/7 support at 408-554-5220 and can also sign up at uwill.com for therapy appointments. Students will speak with a licensed mental health counselor. Faculty and Staff Resources: Information about the confidential Concern Employee Assistance Program. Highlights
On November 13, the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures hosted Writing & Spirituality: Reflection, Advocacy & Healing Behind Bars, in honor of Opus Prize Week. Organized by Keziah Poole (Lecturer of French & Francophone Studies), the event featured Opus Prize finalist Fr. Zachariah Presutti, founder of the Thrive for Life prison project, alongside justice-impacted speakers Ernst Fenelon Jr. and Robert T. Hinds. After a powerful panel discussion on the role of writing and spirituality in addressing incarceration and advocating for restorative justice, attendees were invited to participate in a workshop exploring writing as a tool for personal reflection and social justice. The event was co-facilitated by members of the Readers' Circle and the Prison Education Project, two organizations collaborating with the French Program to bring opportunities for community engagement to SCU students and faculty. In Winter 2025, Keziah will be introducing a new core course (ELSJ and Civic Engagement) which allows for further involvement in their programs.
SCU Choral Director and Department Chair Scot Hanna-Weir (Music) and the SCU Chamber Singers were in attendance to sing the National Anthem at the 2nd Annual SCU Night at the Golden State Warriors game on November 15.
On the last day of the conference, he presented another paper called "From Manuscript to Print: A Publishing History of Shāh Walī Allāh of Delhi’s (d.1762) Ḥujjat Allāh al-bāligha". This paper used codicological and paratextual evidence from manuscripts and early lithographs of this massively important Arabic-language reformist work to show how it was transmitted from Delhi, where it was first circulated in manuscript the 1740s, to early print editions in Istanbul in the late nineteenth century (where it was picked up by intellectuals and, slightly later, by anti-colonial activists).
Anna also served as an analyst for KCBS Radio throughout their election night and post-election coverage, providing continual analysis of election returns and exit polling data on Nov. 5th and discussing the significance of the outcomes as well as Kamala Harris’s concession speech on Nov. 6th. Finally, Anna’s scholarship covering the enthusiasm gap among voters of color, the decline in Latina congressional candidates in 2024, and the strategic turn toward aggressive masculinity and immigrant scapegoating in the Presidential debate appeared in Center for American Women and Politics Expert Insights Series.
She joined recipients Sean Cardinal O’Malley, OFM; Bishop Gerald R. Barnes; and Carmen Aguinaco in accepting the award which recognizes “a sustained and significant contribution to the development and accompaniment of Hispanic/and Latino Ministry at the national level over the years.” In addition to the Bishops, UCSSB staff, and guests of the recipients, Apostolic Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre was also present. Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose presented the awards to each recipient, offering a few words that characterized their contributions. He said, “Sister Ana María has been present at all five Encuentros and companion to the unfolding of Catholic Hispanic Ministry.” The Bishop was also pleased at the work Ana María has done on his patron, Saint Óscar Romero of El Salvador. Her recent publications are Romero & Grande: Companions on the Journey (2016) and Rutilio Grande: Memory and Legacy of a Jesuit Martyr (2021). Image: Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose presenting the award to Ana María Pineda.
Andrea Pappas (Art and Art History) has won the The Decorative Arts Society's 2024 Charles F. Montgomery Award for her recent book, Embroidering the Landscape: Women, Art and the Environment in British North America, 1740-1770. This annual award honors the most outstanding example of a scholar's first major publication in the field of American decorative arts. Pappas' book, published in 2023, situates women's large embroidered pictures in the context of the history of women and the environment at mid-eighteenth century, connecting them to the emerging science of botany and the world-wide trade in plants, the first agricultural revolution, the environmental changes wrought by settler colonialism, and colonial women's practical knowledge of horticulture and pomology. "These objects used to be dismissed as artistically naive, upper-class exercises in dainty femininity. I'm pleased to have shown that they actually are visually sophisticated, complex art objects that instantiate a significant range of knowledge."
At the American Society of Criminology annual conference, Patrick Lopez-Aguado (Sociology) and Elsa Chen (Political Science) presented on a Presidential Panel featuring three researcher-practitioner partnerships in which criminal justice experts have supported public defenders in Racial Justice Act cases. Patrick and Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender Daniel Portman gave a talk called "'What’s in the car hombre?': Body-worn Cameras, RJA Appeals, and Using Research to Contextualize Racist Interactions with Police." Elsa and Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth-Lashley-Haines spoke on "Building a Case for RJA: Three Strikes Sentencing and Resentencing." Elsa was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology Division on People of Color and Crime, “in recognition of her sustained and significant contributions and lifelong accomplishments in research on criminal justice reform and reentry, shaping policy changes, advancing diversity and inclusion at her institution, and dedicated service to the discipline of criminology and criminal justice.”
Alice P. Villatoro (Public Health) recently presented her research at the 24th World Congress of Psychiatry in México City, México. Her presentation, “Collective Latiné Narratives: Understanding the Intersection of Power and Stigma Among Adults with Personal and Indirect Mental Illness Experiences,” offered new insights into how power dynamics shape experiences of stigma. Unlike prior stigma research, the study centered Latiné voices to reveal that stigma reflects deep rooted power imbalances between those with and without mental illness, reinforcing social exclusion, limiting autonomy, and perpetuating discrimination at multiple levels of society, from individual interactions to societal structures. Notably, the research also showed that power, in certain contexts, can protect individuals with mental illness and their social networks through education and advocacy. The findings underscore the importance of addressing power inequities within Latiné communities to foster equitable mental health outcomes and challenge societal structures that sustain stigma. This collaborative study involved contributions from students and colleagues at Santa Clara University (Public Health Science major Isabella Bunkers '23), Columbia University (Melissa DuPont-Reyes, PhD and Audrey C. Jones, MPH), and Texas A&M University (Lu Tang, PhD).
Di Di (Sociology) published a paper, "Faithfully Gendered? How Religious Attendance Shapes Views of Women’s Leadership in Politics and Business Cross-Nationally," on Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. Drawing on data collected in 44 national contexts, this paper reveals that individuals with higher religious attendance are more inclined to support men’s leadership over women’s leadership in both political and business domains. Notably, this relationship is nuanced by a country’s level of economic development. Greater religiosity is associated with greater support for men’s leadership in more economically developed countries, whereas the reverse occurs in countries with lower economic development. The findings urge a more critical examination of religion’s role in shaping global perspectives on gender equity. 
Di also published a paper, "How the Science–Religion Interface of Christian Religious Leaders Shape Their Perceptions of Depression," on Religions. Relying on responses from approximately 1200 Christian religious leaders from the National Survey of Religious Leaders in the United States, this study adopts ordinal logistic regression to examine how epistemological conflict, epistemic openness, and views of institutional conflict shape religious leaders’ interpretations of and treatments for depression. This study contributes to knowledge of science and religion, religious leaders, and mental health in the United States.
Last month, Tyler van Wulven (Philosophy) presented a paper entitled "The Road to Hell" at the Hegel Society of America's Biennial Conference. The paper draws resources from Hegel's investigation into "self-consciousness," i.e., the way in which we make sense of ourselves through our engagements with other people and our historical context. He argues that Hegel's account of self-understanding illuminates the experience at work in identifying with authoritarian movements. By bringing Hegel into conversation with contemporary political philosophy, recent sociological work on "deaths of despair," and recent anthropological work on the mind-numbing, unsatisfying nature of much white-collar labor, we can come to understand the experiential logic that leads many, both rich and poor, to identify with authoritarian politics - hence, the road to hell. His ultimate conclusion is that, in seeking to understand this logic, we can become more sympathetic to the suffering that is core to authoritarian identification such that we can (i) avoid pretentious attitudes that merely condemn such individuals as lost, stupid, bigoted, etc., and (ii) think differently about how we can prevent the allure and spread of authoritarianism - the road to hell. The paper will be published next year (2025) in the Hegel Society's Journal, The Owl of Minerva.
The Center for the Arts and Humanities Fall headline event, "Queening Out," featured a performance by drag queens Alpha Andromeda and Jah Jah Feel, followed by a Q & A moderated by Bernell Nevil III, Office for Multicultural Learning (OML), and post-event reception. It was an evening of creative brilliance with insightful information about queer joy and LGBTQ+ issues.
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Students, staff and faculty participate in a Readers' Circle workshop with panelists and prison organizers.
L-R: Daniel Portman (Santa Clara County Public Defender), Patrick Lopez-Aguado, Mona Lynch (UC Irvine), Lisa Romo (Office of the State Public Defender, CA), Elizabeth Lashley-Haines (LA County Public Defender), Elsa Chen, Catherine Grosso (Michigan State University)
Alice Villatoro at the 24th World Congress of Psychiatry meeting in México City, México.
(L-R): Bernell Nevil III (OML), Jah Jah Feel, Alpha Andromeda. Photo by Jim Gensheimer| College of Arts and Sciences |
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