^{Over 400 alumni from around the world returned to campus to celebrate with classmates and to meet Dean Daniel Press, College of Arts and Sciences, and Dean Elaine Scott, School of Engineering, at Grand Reunion. Photo by Andrew Chait. Inset photo by Adam Hays.}

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Daniel is at Loyola University Maryland this week for the AJCU Arts and Sciences Deans Conference. He will be back next week with another insightful message.

Open House started on Wednesday with a virtual College of Arts and Sciences overview by Associate Dean Kathy Aoki (Art and Art History), Juliet Kulusic '23 (Psychology and Theatre Arts majors; Women's & Gender Studies minor), and Ruhani Kapoor '23  (Biology major; Biotechnology and Public Health minors). Over 90 participants tuned in from around the continental United States plus a few from Hawaii, India and Singapore. Engagement was very lively and we thank Desiree Recarte and Derrick Hwa from Undergraduate Admissions for helping answer questions about applying to SCU.

We expect several hundred prospective students and family members at the Saturday in-person Open House. In addition to the College overview in the Music Recital Hall, we will have three neighborhood clusters of department info tables–under the Kenna trellis, at the SCDI courtyard, and on the Vari patio. Eight groups are giving tours to showcase our facilities and offerings. Many thanks to the 40+ faculty, staff, and students who will be representing the College tomorrow. See you all there!

Also happening tomorrow, the Center for the Arts and Humanities welcomes Mark Duplass, our 2022-23 Sinatra Artist-in-Residence. Mark, a self-described "genetic B minus," will detail his pragmatic approach to making art in his talk "AM I ENOUGH? Reflections on what it takes to succeed." Attend in person or watch the livestream.

Best,
Kathy Aoki, Katy Korsmeyer, Sandy Boyer

Highlights

^{Kathy Aoki in character as the "Curator" of the Museum of Historical Makeovers.}

As one of the highest paid artists in the world, Jeff Koons is known for delivering kitschy, self-serving work that is reviled by many arts professionals. But does his work deserve to be destroyed? According to Kathy Aoki’s (Art and Art History) tongue-in-cheek exhibition the answer is “Yes!” Entitled "Koons Ruins at the James Estate," her exhibition tells the story of fictional art collector Dorothea James whose growing dislike of Koons’ art leads her to destructive action. She begins to acquire some of his most famous pieces, sticks them in the ground on her secluded estate, and subjects them to accelerated degradation with the help of hired chemists. When James passes away her estate is open to the public as “Koons Ruins.” Set up as a faux history museum exhibit, both seasoned art appreciators and those new to the art world will enjoy this conceptual treat. Through 11/27/22.

Performance: Join Kathy on October 20 for a humorous performance-lecture as "Curator of the Museum of Historical Makeovers." Fraught with fictitious academic excellence, her brief lecture will delve deep into the history of "Koons Ruins." Lecture begins promptly at 6pm at the New Museum Los Gatos. Register here.

^{Ariel Schindewolf, Francisco Jiménez, and Héctor Martínez}

Francisco Jiménez (professor emeritus, Modern Languages and Literatures), Ariel Schindewolf (Modern Languages and Literatures), Héctor Martínez '19 (Psychology, Spanish Studies), and Mike Gómez '19 (Accounting, Spanish Studies) had their book translation, Pasos firmes: De niñez migrante a la Universidad de Columbia published by Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. This translation of Taking Hold: From Migrant Child to Columbia University was the result of a multi-year faculty and student collaboration. In 2018, Ariel Schindewolf and her students Héctor Martínez and Mike Gómez worked in collaboration with the book’s author, Francisco Jiménez, to translate the book as part of an independent study course on literary translation in Spanish. After the students graduated, Francisco and Ariel continued the editing process to prepare it for publication.

Anthony Rivera (Music), conductor for the SCU Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, and the Pep Band, will teach a course for the OLLI@SCU program later this month. Tony’s course, “No Strings Attached: Music for Winds,” will detail the evolution of wind instruments and how they inspired such famous composers as Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Dvorak, Gabrielli, and Stravinsky.

Also teaching this fall is Professor Jane Curry (Political Science), a specialist in comparative politics. Jane's course, “Russia, Ukraine, and Poland: From Frenemies to Enemies and What It Means for the World,” will expand on her knowledge of pre- and post-communism that she has gathered from years of living and studying in Poland. After several years of absence, she will return to OLLI@SCU to teach a course on this topic at a time when it is most relevant.

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.

Veronica Miranda (Anthropology) and José Ortigas (Modern Languages & Literatures) are the new co-directors of the Latin American Studies Program. They are excited to begin their work growing the program and minor. Please reach out to them if you are a faculty member who works in Latin America, teaches courses on Latin America, or is interested in getting involved. They are hoping to add affiliated faculty and new courses to the program.

Alma M. García (Sociology) attended the 2022 Macondo Writers Workshop, held virtually at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. Sandra Cisneros, the preeminent Latina writer, started this workshop in 1995 and named it after the town in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Alma was selected from a national pool of master writers and studied under Kristen Iverson, the author of the award-winning and New York Times best seller, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats. Alma read one of her vignettes at the workshop's concluding session "Desert Women" that will be included in Somos Tejanas, an anthology edited by Norma E. Cantú. Her reading and those of others reached a national audience. Alma received a certificate from the Journal of Popular for serving as a manuscript reviewer for ten years.

^{Front: Katie Ching, Ella Basler, Chloe Heath, Shelby Jennett.
Back: Eric Tillman, Jaden Chong.}

Eric Tillman (Chemistry & Biochemistry) and five SCU undergraduate coauthors just published a paper in Macromolecular Chemistry & Physics entitled "Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Homodimerization of Brominated Polystyrene Chains." In this contribution, a new catalytic cycle capable of transforming polymers into new shapes and sizes is detailed. The students - Ella Basler '23 (Biochemistry), Chloe Heath '23 (Biochemistry), Jaden Chong '23 (Neuroscience), Katie Ching '24 (Bioengineering), and Shelby Jennett '24 (Neuroscience) - all played a substantial role in carrying out the synthetic work, characterizing and interpreting the results, and crafting the publication. The students were all researchers in the Tillman lab this summer.

^{Working with dancers Arletta Anderson and Rosemary Hannon during a 'wrecking' of an work by choreographer Deborah Karp.}

Brian Thorstenson (Theatre and Dance) wrote an essay for the Fall issue of indance. The essay, "A Movement of the Spirit," explores working as a writer with dance makers through one question and five invitations which led to a new way of writing.
 

^{Jesica Fernandez with James Ferreira Moura Jr., and Christopher C. Sonn}

Jesica Siham Fernandez (Ethnic Studies) facilitated two Innovative Workshops, and presented a paper at the International Congress in Community Psychology (ICCP) in Naples, Italy. The first workshop, "Bridging Community Psychologist, Transnational Decolonial Discourse and Critical Liberation Praxes" is an international collaboration with critical community psychologists affiliated with the Roots & Routes of Decolonial Discourse Project that Jesica coordinates as co-PI with Christopher C. Sonn, Ph.D. (Victoria University, AU). The second workshop, "Decoloniality, Liberation & Relational Healing: A Ciranda Activity of Human Rights" builds on the embodied reflexive dialogues that Jesica, in collaboration with James Ferreir Moura Jr., Ph.D. (University of International Integration, Brazil), facilitated in Fall 2021 with the Latinx Student Union -- this time, however, it was led with community psychologists and practitioners. Finally, Jesica presented a paper with Nuria Ciofalo, Ph.D. (Pacifica Graduate Institute, USA) on "Weaving Shawls, Tejiendo Rebozos toward Pluriversal Community Psychologies Outside the Capitalist Hydra." With gratitude for the opportunity to have traveled internationality to reconnect with colleagues and share her ongoing scholarship.
 

Sonja Mackenzie (Public Health) published a piece entitled "Stratifications of Queer Families after Roe" in Cultural Anthropology's Hot Spot series, After Roe. This series examines the legal implications and the cultural and political responses instigated by the Supreme Court 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned the court’s rulings in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992): "At this critical moment of upheaval, anthropologists have much to say about how the United States got here, where it may be headed, and how the US case looks and resonates elsewhere in the world." Mackenzie's piece finds that the Dobbs decision has the potential to further stratify reproduction in queer communities as well as within broader reproductive worlds as queer families plan, conceive, and reproduce far more than babies.

Hsin-I Cheng (Communication) published an article, Injured Privilege and Misplaced Ressentiment: Unpacking Reactions toward Asian Americans after Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) V. Harvard, in Western Journal of Communication. Utilizing the concept of "relational citizenship" that Cheng developed in her 2021 book, this article examines Asian Americans' ambivalent position in the U.S. racial hierarchy by analyzing comments about the 2019 verdict of SFFA v Harvard in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Cheng found that Asian Americans were afforded low relatability as Americans and proposed that concepts of “injured privilege” and “misplaced ressentiment” could move conversations about Asian Americans’ experiences beyond the “model minority” discourse.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar