^{Festival of Lights in The Mission Church, 2018. Kick off the holiday season tonight or tomorrow night with the SCU Chamber Singers and Concert Choir as they illuminate Mission Santa Clara with choral music and candlelight. This two-decade-long festive tradition features a variety of classical pieces and contemporary compositions that will ignite your holiday spirit.}

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Can it be December already? Although I have known almost nothing but the 10-week quarter system, I am still impressed by how fast it goes – thank goodness we have three of these in an academic year!

This is a very full College Notes. You will see lots of updates on some terrific work from widely across the College, showing once again how active you are and the breadth of your fascinating work.

I am also trying something different in this week’s College Notes: I sometimes dabble (rather weakly) in Latin quips or proverbs for these notes, but I could not find anything suitable for the week before Thanksgiving. So I asked Dan Turkeltaub, from Classics, for some help and he very kindly obliged. He has penned a wonderful mini academic treatise, pertaining to Vergil and gratitude, which I feel is a wonderful sentiment for the holiday season. Enjoy!

And good luck with finals week!

Daniel

From Guest Contributor, Dan Turkeltaub, Associate Professor and Chair, Classics

On a lark at the last Council of Chairs meeting, Dean Press joked with me about finding a passage of Vergil that would be appropriate for a Thanksgiving edition of the College Notes. I took it as a challenge and in the spirit of the exchange sent him a couple of options. One of the passages I sent was too encomiastic (the irony that I believe pervades the passage would take too long to explore). The other passage was too despondent. Dean Press responded with another quote from Vergil that he found. I told him the context of the quote and described how the passage could be relevant. And that is how I got roped into contributing to College Notes. Enough of that. On to Vergil.

The Aeneid tells the story of a group of Trojan refugees who were forced to flee their homeland in Asia Minor, sail across the sea with no clear destination, and settle in new lands that were already inhabited by indigenous peoples. During the voyage a storm scatters their ships. Rendered destitute, they manage to reach North Africa, where they are welcomed, fed, and sheltered by a group of Phoenician refugees who were in the process of founding the city of Carthage. As the Trojans settle into what they think might be their new home, their leader, Aeneas, and the Carthaginian queen, Dido, fall into a romantic relationship with each other. Dido rejects a marriage proposal from a local king, who would have protected her people in their new lands, to enter what she believes is a marriage with Aeneas, but Aeneas receives a message from the gods commanding him to leave Carthage so that he can find the lands in which his people are destined to settle. Abandoned by her lover and fearful that the local king she rejected may attack her city, Dido contemplates her situation. After rejecting the possibility of seeking a marriage with the local kings, she next considers following Aeneas (Aeneid 4.537-542):

Iliacas igitur classes atque ultima Teucrum
iussa sequar? Quiane auxilio iuvat ante levatos,
et bene apud memores veteris stat gratia facti?
Quis me autem, fac velle, sinet, ratibusve superbis
invisam accipiet? Nescis heu, perdita, necdum
Laomedonteae sentis periuria gentis?

So shall I follow the ships of Ilium and last commands
of the Trojans? Because they take pleasure from having been lifted up by my help
before, and because gratia for an old benefaction remains among those who remember the deed?

But—say that I want it!—who will permit or receive me onto their superbus boats,
since I am invisa? Don’t you know, ruined woman, don’t you yet
feel the lying promises of the race of Laomedon?

Dido’s question probes the nature of gratitude and its inconstancy in the human heart. We cannot, she thinks to herself, simply expect good treatment from people whom we have helped, even if they remember the good deeds we have done for them. What about gratefulness? The central verses of the passage express a number of ideas simultaneously with a concision that Latin poetry excels at but that English struggles to duplicate (as you can surmise from my mess of a translation). The key term, gratia, is much richer than English “gratitude,” its etymological descendant. Gratia is the happiness, pleasure, courtesy, goodwill, and friendship we display when interacting with other people; it is beauty, charm, and grace; it is the respect and esteem we have for other people; it is the favors we do for others, the gratitude we feel when other people do favors for us, and our ethical obligation to repay a kind act with a kind act. Here, Dido asserts that the Trojans on their superbus (splendid, magnificent, arrogant, haughty, proud) ships will not have gratia towards her because she now thinks that she is invisa (looked at maliciously, with disdain or hatred or disgust or prejudice). Our treatment of each other, Dido suggests, is determined by our relative statuses, by how people view us, and by convenience. Even when people who have benefitted from past kindness remember the good deeds that were done for them, they only display gratia—perhaps their gratia only exists at all—if the circumstances make gratia expedient and if the people towards whom they should feel gratia are respectable or powerful enough to insist upon reciprocal ethical treatment.

The Aeneid refrains from indicating whether Dido is correct or not. Perhaps Vergil left the matter open to allow his audience to focus on what to my mind is a more significant aspect of the passage, namely that Dido only thinks as she does about gratia and herself because of how Aeneas has treated her. Her questions reveal that how we treat other people, regardless of our own intentions or the forces we believe compel us to act as we do, affects those people in ways we do not anticipate. Our treatment of other people shapes what they think about themselves, about the rest of humanity, and about the reliability of ethical norms. Aeneas's callousness towards Dido causes her to feel reviled to the point that she not only believes she will not receive gratia but that gratia itself has no substance or efficacy in human interactions.

An important passage to ruminate on, especially at this time of year. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and experience gratia throughout your lives.

Highlights

Aparajita Nanda (English and Ethnic Studies) published "Of cityscapes, affect and migrant subjectivities in Kiran Desai’s Inheritance of Loss" in Subjectivity (volume 14), an international, peer-reviewed transdisciplinary journal that explores social, cultural, and historical structures and dynamics that make up human experiences. Apara’s article discusses the lives of Jemubhai and Biju, primary protagonists in Desai's novel, as it tracks the role of the city and its impact on the construction of their identities. This impact factor is further analyzed through affective theory, namely Jose Munoz’s concept of "disidentification," a tactic of survival by which minoritarian subjects either consciously or unconsciously "neither assimilate nor strictly oppose the dominant regime."

^{Kaitlyn and Hope's reanalysis of the gut microbiomes of marathon runners, half-marathon runners and cyclists show substantial variation among studies conclusively demonstrating that there is no universal endurance microbiome.} 

Kaitlyn Twadell '22 (Biology, Neuroscience) and Hope Olbricht '22 (Biology, Public Health Science) wanted to know if the gut microbiomes of endurance athletes (like them) were unique. Numerous individual studies of runners, cyclists, rowers, skiers or other endurance athletes suggested there were unique bacteria in their guts - however, these studies could not agree on the identity of these bacteria. During the COVID shutdown, Kaitlyn and Hope reanalyzed several microbiome datasets and conclusively demonstrated that there is no universal endurance microbiome. They share co-first authorship on their study published last month in Microorganisms entitled, "Is There a Universal Endurance Microbiota?" Their work was supported by a DeNardo Scholarship (Kaitlyn Twadell), the Honors Program (Hope Olbricht), summer REAL funding (Hope Olbricht), and a Provost’s Publication Grant. Their investigation was guided by Brody Sandel (Biology), Craig Stephens (Biology, Public Health), and Justen Whittall (Biology)

Tom Plante (Psychology) published an article, "Principles for managing burnout among Catholic Church professionals," in Pastoral Psychology. Abstract: While a large body of research literature has explored the assessment, treatment, and prevention of worker burnout, much less research has focused on the unique issues associated with burnout in religious organizations, especially within the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic Church employees, whether clerics or laypersons, are embedded within a 2,000-year-old global hierarchical structure and organization that is unique in that it includes clerics with vows of chastity, obedience, and often poverty as well as ongoing crises related to clerical sexual abuse scandals, significant financial stressors, and a faith tradition that often overvalues sacrifice and suffering. The purpose of this article is to highlight burnout issues among Roman Catholic Church employees and offer principles and strategies for recognizing, treating, and avoiding burnout among these professionals. Five key principles for burnout management as well as several case examples are also presented.

The Future Teachers Project, led by Omar Davila Jr. (Child Studies), published their second manuscript entitled, "From 'Teacher Shortage' to Resistance: A Critical Perspective on Political Discourse, Education, and Imagining Otherwise," in the journal Teachers College Record. Co-authors include Dr. Mrinal Sinha (Professor and Chair of Psychology at CSU-Monterey Bay), as well as current and former SCU students: Thalia Rodriguez '25 (Child Studies, English), Kiara Mariscal '23 (Child Studies), Briana Bravo '23 (Child Studies), Delilah Garza '23 (Psychology, Child Studies), Mac Mann-Wood '22 (English, Child Studies), Alexia Alvarez '23 (Child Studies), Lauren Davis '22 (Child Studies), and Maria De La Lima '22 (Child Studies, Ethnic Studies). This publication deploys critical scrutiny on "teacher shortage" discourse, showing how it inaccurately describes the current status of K-12 teaching, and highlighting the way economic, political, and historical forces are shaping this profession. This publication outlines a path forward, emphasizing that a vital step to fostering a transformative education system is creating the conditions that enable teachers to become 'transformative.'

^{Panel discussion (l-r) Francisco Jiménez, Luis Valdez, Dolores Huerta, and Damian Trujillo.}

Francisco Jiménez (Professor Emeritus, Modern Languages & Literatures) had excerpts from his books, Cajas de cartón and Senderos fronterizos published in Retratos latinos. Edited by Asse Ledal and Ulla Ringgaard. Gylenal Education, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022. He also participated in a panel discussion with Dolores Huerta and Luis Valdez as part of a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit on Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields/Revolución en los Campos. The panel discussion centered on topics of resilience, perseverance, civic engagement, and social justice. It was moderated by Damian Trujillo and took place at the Wheeler Center in Gilroy on November 12.
 

^{Maya Ryan and Francis Lai at the ARCH symposium.}

Maya Ryan '24 (Public Health Science, Biology) and Francis Lai '24 (Public Health Science) presented their research at the Asian American Research Center on Health (ARCH) symposium, entitled "Invisibility as a Structural Determinant: Mortality Outcomes of Asians and Pacific Islanders." Maya and Francis, mentored by Jamie Chang (Public Health) and Kat Saxton (Public Health, Dean's office), discussed the sharply increasing numbers of Asians and Pacific Islanders who are homeless in Santa Clara County, the invisibility of this issue, and the downstream impacts of invisibility on health.

Virginia Matzek (Environmental Studies and Sciences) has been awarded a grant of $25,894 from River Partners, an environmental nonprofit that restores rivers and floodplains in California. As part of ongoing work to understand the contribution of restored riparian forests to climate mitigation, Virginia and her students are investigating the tradeoff between water usage and carbon storage in the native species planted by River Partners. Student researchers supported by the grant measure water-use efficiency in riparian trees and shrubs using instantaneous gas exchange and stable isotope methods, both in the field and greenhouse. What kinds of trees and shrubs, you ask? A bunch: valley oak; California sycamore; box elder; Oregon ash; elderberry; mulefat; narrow-leaved, arroyo, and Goodding's willows; and Fremont cottonwood (pictured).

Hsin-I Cheng (Communication) collaborated with Sarah Young 24 (Communication), Shiel Basuroy '23 (Communication), and Jack Davey '22 (Web Design and Engineering) to build a multilingual website: Asian & Black Alliance. This website is an extension of her research project on Black-Asian relationships. We hope it will be a catalyst for further conversations. It offers topics including historical events, cultural exchanges, and an interactive map of physical resources for educational and conversational materials. It is a work in progress, and we welcome feedback to help our continuous efforts in expanding the site. We hope you will enjoy the website and would be grateful if you could share this with your students or networks.

Members of the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative presented their community-engaged research at the All-In Conference at University of California - Santa Cruz in October. Chad Raphael (Communication) and collaborator Martha Matsuoka (Occidental College) co-presented on how to align the choice of research methods with community partners’ organizing strategies. Chad also organized a panel on “New Tools for Building Community-Academic Collaborations,” in which he presented on SCU’s Laudato Si’ across the Curriculum professional development program and co-presented a framework that academic partners can use to prepare for community-engaged research by considering their positionality (with collaborators Matsuoka and Floridalma Boj Lopez of UCLA). On the same panel, Iris Stewart-Frey (Environmental Studies and Sciences) co-presented with Nicholas Jensen of California Rural Legal Assistance on their project, “Collaboration for Safe Water: Joint Advocacy for Water Justice in the Central Valley.” And Chris Bacon (Environmental Studies and Science), Fernando Fernandez Leiva (Sacred Heart Community Services - La Mesa Verde), and Andy Ollove (Fresh Approach) co-presented “Collaborative Program Evaluation During Crisis: Toward an Agroecological and Social Justice Approach to Emergency Food Distribution During Covid-19.”

Chad Raphael (Communication; Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative) presented on “Communication, Community-Engaged Research, and Environmental Justice” to 50 researchers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research & Development. In this invited talk, given in November, Chad described the unique value of community-engaged approaches to doing research on environmental justice and the broad spectrum of ways in which the public can be involved in this research. He also proposed a brief research agenda for community-engaged research on environmental communication, especially to foster trust and overcome polarized responses to environmental science. The talk came as the EPA is preparing to open its new Community-Engaged Research Collaborative for Learning and Excellence (CERCLE), which “will help bring EPA’s science into alignment with the needs of local, underrepresented or underserved communities [to] co-produce actionable knowledge and sustainable solutions.”

Frederick J. Parrella's (Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies) new book, The Idea of the Church, will be published by Mercer University Press in 2023. Copies will be available and signed at the meeting of the American Academy of Religion in 2023.

Pearl Maria Barros' (Religious Studies) "Turning Toward a Theology of Transformation: Notes from the Borderlands" has been published in the December 2022 issue of Theological Studies, the preeminent Catholic theological journal in North America. This article brings Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa’s notion of “self” and “borderlands/mestiza consciousness” into conversation with M. Shawn Copeland’s call to “turn theology toward persons.” After tracing Anzaldúa’s critical rethinking of José Vasconcelos’s understanding of mestizaje, as well as the political implications of borderlands/mestiza consciousness as theorized in the work of María Lugones and others, the article examines Copeland’s engagement of decolonial theory in her attempt to turn theology. Both Copeland’s and Anzaldúa’s writings teach nos/otrx that theology can only be both transformed and transformative if the persons doing theology engage in critical self-reflection and build this critical reflexivity into the theologies they create.

tUrn to Physics! The Interdisciplinary tUrn: a faculty and staff climate crisis research group [CCRG] and the Physics department partnered on a Physics Colloquia series event with Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, an astrophysicist and science and math educator, in November entitled "Pathway to a Post-Warming Future." tUrn CCRG and the Child Studies department partnered to have Dr. Bennett's residency include a different, age-appropriate talk on the climate crisis for 125 4th-8th grade children and youth from our neighboring St. Clare School. At this talk, Dr. Bennett read one of his prizewinning children's books on climate change. Children asked if there was going to be a future for them, and they were told that everyone will need to work very hard, but we can make a better future. tUrn is providing critical spaces and high-quality events for community partners like St. Clare School who have their own Laudato Si' Action Plan and are looking for ways to engage with the meaning of that text.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar