Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Greetings from the week after finals! I hope grading has gone well and that you are looking forward to a much-deserved break.

It’s been an emotional week for those of us in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) community, many of whom were rooting for Morocco (my ancestral home) in its historic match against France at the FIFA semi-finals in Qatar. They lost, alas, but what an inspiration!

For this last issue of 2022, I wanted to share some of what my team worked on this quarter. In an effort to bring attention to and promote the important work of our faculty, we produced four new faculty lightning videos to add to the four we created last fall. Whereas last fall’s videos focused completely on faculty in the physical and biological sciences with the dedication of SCDI, this fall, we featured faculty in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Please take some time to learn about the important work that your colleagues are doing for our students and Santa Clara.

Jesica Fernandez (Ethnic Studies) discusses her work with undergraduate students and middle-school-aged youth utilizing her critical race and ethnic studies curriculum. Through her research and teaching, she develops an intergenerational collaboration that ties into her broader notion of sociopolitical citizenship and developmental well-being.

Scot Hanna-Weir (Music) explores the many ways his work provides creative outlets for any and all students at SCU who have an interest in music. Bringing together people with different disciplines and interests richens the experience and gives the music-making community a variety of perspectives in the process of creating art.

Danielle Morgan (English) discusses the significance of studying comedy and satire as scholarly subjects. Specializing in 20th and 21st century African-American literature and culture, Morgan’s teaching aims to examine the ways in which comedy and satire operate as forms of social justice and develop personal autonomy.

Erick Ramirez (Philosophy) discusses utilizing augmented and virtual reality technologies to improve ourselves and make the world a better place. His team of interdisciplinary student researchers attempt to harness the power of these technologies, while trying to predict and minimize any harms they may produce.

We plan to continue making these faculty lightning videos throughout the year, so stay tuned for more, and please reach out if you think the work of you or a colleague would be good to highlight in a future video.

Wishing you and your family a restful winter break and a happy holiday season!

Daniel