^{Theatre and Dance's "Shakes in Your Face" Shakespearean troupe recite sonnets and soliloquies at the SCU Library's "Shakespeare Interactive" event celebrating the renamed Premodern Studies interdisciplinary minor (formerly Medieval & Renaissance Studies) and the upcoming The Book of Will production. Top left - SCU Humanities Librarian Leanna Goodwater with the facsimile of Shakespeare's First Folio and Jean Lau '24 (Communication); top right - Jackie Hendricks (English, Premodern Studies director) with Kimberly Mohne Hill (Theatre and Dance); bottom left - William Webb '22 (Theatre Arts) with a passing student, wearing a paper Elizabethan hat made at the event by Jeffrey Bracco (Theatre and Dance, not pictured); bottom right - Sara Session '19, (Theatre Arts) '24 (TEJD), right, reprises her role as Juliet for the occasion.}

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

It has been a busy week in the College and the nation, as a scan of these College Notes and the headlines will both attest. While it can hardly be said that as the College goes, so goes the Country (!), I see a crucial parallel in the deep engagement I observe near and far. College faculty and staff are all in; for each other, for students, for their passions, their commitments and their aspirations. In the nation, a contentious and divisive election was also marked by deep engagement, with high voter turnout and (so far) political peace. Our work as academics and our participation in political life can both be said to be labors of love, so may Virgil be correct: Omnia vincit amor (love conquers all)!

My week has also been enlivened by meetings with TT candidates in Political Science and Psychology – the extraordinary vibrancy and quality of these candidates demonstrate how much the College community appeals to a wide academic audience nationwide. Similarly, we have superb candidates for our CAS Assistant Dean search. Taken altogether, these searches bode well for our long hiring season, which will run through winter quarter.

I wish you a restful weekend and productive pre-Thanksgiving week!

Daniel

Highlights

Francisco Jiménez (Modern Languages & Literatures, professor emeritus) had “Expulsados,” a chapter from his book Senderos Fronterizos, published in Temas by Vista Higher Learning, 2022. He gave a presentation to all first-year students at Los Gatos High School who were required to read his memoir, Breaking Through, on September 7. He presented “The Immigrant Experience” for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, on September 15, and for Matterport Company, on September 23. Francisco also gave a presentation on his book, The Circuit, at Tessellations School in Cupertino on October 19 and met with the SCU LEAD scholars on October 25 to discuss his memoir Reaching Out.

The play Breaking Through, adapted from Jiménez’s book by the same title by Leo Cortez, was performed by the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (PCPA) in Santa Maria on October 29. After the performance, Jiménez and Marilet Martínez, the director of the play, engaged in a conversation and answered questions. The play is being performed this fall at schools throughout the Central Coast of California.

^{Breaking Through director Marilet Martinez; actors Johnny Valerio and Gisela Feied; Francisco Jiménez; actors Stephanie Roman and Noah Esquivel; stage manager Paige Weissenburger.
Photo: Jennifer Schwartz, Managing Director, PCPA}

Rohit Chopra (Communication) contributed an essay, "Caste in the U.S.," for ABC-CLIO's The Asian-American Experience, a subscriber-based educational resource for students. Aimed at ninth-graders and higher, the essay presents an overview of caste relations among South Asian communities in the U.S., with reference to the longer histories of caste relations in South Asia and the migration of South Asian communities to the US. The Asian-American Experience is itself part of a larger initiative, The American Mosaic centered on historical, social, and cultural diversity in the United States.

Rohit also published an essay,"Online Hindutva as a global right-wing counterpublic," on The Immanent Frame, Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere, a blog of the Social Science Research Council. The essay is part of a series on Hindutva [or Hindu Nationalism] and the Shared Scripts of the Global Right. Rohit's essay examines how online Hindu nationalism can be seen as part of a broader global phenomenon, the right-wing counterpublic, which sets itself up in opposition to a perceived liberal-left enemy. The essay also describes how online Hindu nationalism shares important themes and tropes with other right-wing online movements, such as in the US or Turkey, such the "deep state" and globalist conspiracies orchestrated by the likes of Georg Soros.

John Farnsworth (Environmental Studies and Sciences, emeritus) has been selected to co-chair a committee of the WDFW Wildlife Diversity Advisory Council that will recommend changes in Washington’s State Wildlife Action Plan. The committee will evaluate the current action plan, which began in 2015 and will run until 2025, and make recommendations for the future plan, which will guide Washington State’s conservation efforts until the year 2035. Co-chairing the committee will be Glen Mendel, a wildlife scientist who served as a habitat and fish biologist for 33 years with the WDFW.

Most of us know that doing something fun can bring about creativity. For example, one might go for a run and during that run, they might figure out the first sentence of a grant or the first stroke of the paintbrush. Another example is that a staff/faculty member might be part of a choir. They get to meet and sing with a bunch of really cool people and that action alone clears their head for a tough work week. As academics we might also use our expertise to address common everyday challenges. For example, a chemist who studies crab stomachs (Cancer borealis) may entertain us at party with their knowledge of how to eat crab without hurting our hands or accidentally eating that nasty stuff in the middle.
   
Michelle Bezanson (Anthropology) is happy to report that she carved a pangolin pumpkin. Pangolins are her favorite mammal. She studies a type of mammal that is not a pangolin but understanding comparable systems is helpful to her body of work. By carving a pangolin pumpkin, Michelle learned the following. Their scales are part of the epidermis and a histologist might explain that this is quite different than the scales of an anteater even though both are considered flexible dermal armor. Also interesting is that pangolins have a prehensile tail and a tongue that is longer than their head to tail measurements. This tongue attaches somewhere near the pelvis. The pangolin pumpkin took two hours to carve and melted in three days. It is now in the compost pile.
 

Virginia Matzek (Environmental Studies and Sciences) has been making up for lost time with conference talks recently. In early November she presented her research on "Carbon sequestration in California oak woodlands" to a packed house at the 8th California Oak Symposium, a conference originally scheduled for March 2021 and twice postponed due to the COVID pandemic. In September she spoke at the Society for Ecological Restoration Europe in Alicante, Spain on "Estimating the value of newly restored riparian and tidal marsh areas to recreational hunters." She also gave a "Slough-side Chat," part of a new series of talks aimed at bringing current research to land stewards and wildlife managers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, in late October.

To see some of what Virginia presented, check out this cool storymap of her Delta recreational hunter study.

^{Cruz speaking at the conference Welcome session.}

Cruz Medina (English) was invited to give a talk based on his research about the band Ozomatli for the California Community Colleges Organization of Latinx Empowerment, Guidance and Advocacy for Success (COLEGAS), a chapter of the National Community College Hispanic Council. In addition to presenting, Cruz was asked to speak following the Welcome Keynote, as well as to introduce the band before they performed at the conference. In his book Reclaiming Poch@Pop, Cruz included an interview he conducted with two of the members of the band about the social justice work that is rooted in the band's origins and community activism.

David Gray (Religious Studies) published a chapter entitled "The Cakrasaṃvara Tantra" in The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies, edited by Richard K. Payne and Glen Hayes, Oxford University Press, 2022.

What the Fireflies Knew, the debut novel by Kai Harris (English), has been selected as a title for Silicon Valley Reads, a community engagement program that features books and an annual theme to bring people together by providing more than 100 free, public events each year in February and March. Events for all ages include author talks, book clubs, art/music events, community activities, arts and crafts, movies, and creative events or activities based on the theme each year.

For 2023, Silicon Valley Reads will set off on a “Journey to New Beginnings.” The committee has selected three fiction novels for adults—There There by Tommy Orange, The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore, and What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris—and books for youth of all ages, that each depict a different journey to new beginnings.

Baylor University Press announced the publication of The Media Ecology of Theology: Communicating Faith throughout the Christian Tradition by Paul Soukup, S.J. (Communication). The book explores the interaction between communication media, broadly defined--oral discourse, music, art, written texts, architecture, ritual, education, film, television, and social media--and the Christian theological heritage.

Exclusively tailored to the OLLI@SCU community, Thomas Plante (Psychology) will speak on the aspects of ethical living that are absent in modern-day society. His presentation, "What Matters Most? Living Ethically in an Unethical World" will touch on important points from his 2004 novel, Do the Right Thing: Living Ethically in an Unethical World.

OLLI@SCU will be featuring SCU instructors periodically in College Notes. The average course ranges from 4 to 10 hours of instruction per quarter. We hope this will inspire you to stay updated on OLLI news and possibly teach a class for our members. To learn more about the joy of teaching adult learners, contact olliatscu@gmail.com.

Katy Korsmeyer (Biology, CAS Dean's Office) has a limited number of free tickets for the San Jose Speaker Series.  The next speaker is Neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman on December 6.  Request tickets.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar