Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Happy September! Although we are in the ninth month of the Gregorian calendar, September on a college campus often feels like the new year, because this is when academic programs using the quarter system begin in earnest. In addition to the start of classes, there are lots of other beginnings – we welcome new Department Chairs and Program Directors, who are so indispensable to our academic mission.

Heartfelt thanks to:

• Jimia Boutouba, outgoing chair of Modern Languages and Literatures, and Alberto Ribas-Casasayas, incoming chair
• Ángel Islas, outgoing chair of Biology, and Christelle Sabatier, incoming chair
• Christelle Sabatier, outgoing director of Neuroscience, and Patti Simone, incoming director
• Betty Young, outgoing chair of Physics, and Guy Ramon, incoming chair
• Matt Bell, outgoing chair of Psychology, and Lisa Whitfield, incoming chair
• Julie Chang (interim chair for Fall Quarter, English)
• Craig Stephens, outgoing chair of Public Health, and Sonja Mackenzie, incoming chair
• Andrea Pappas, outgoing chair of Art and Art History, and Takeshi Moro, incoming chair
• Boo Riley, outgoing chair of Religious Studies, and Jim Bennett, incoming chair
• Aldo Billingslea, outgoing chair of Theatre and Dance, and Kim Mohne Hill, incoming chair
• Elsa Chen (interim chair for Fall Quarter, Political Science)
• Enrique Pumar, outgoing chair of Sociology, and Laura Robinson, incoming chair

This week, we also welcomed many new faculty, who officially started September 1st (the College Notes of April 29th provided introductions to them).

I look forward to seeing you all at our Fall Convocation on September 13th!

Daniel

Highlights

Amy Lueck (English) has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Executive Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the largest national professional organization of Writing Studies scholars. This will be her second time serving on the committee, having held the position as graduate student/early career representative in 2014-2017.

^{Title page of the 1794 play, Count Benyowsky by August von Kotzebue, based on a true story about a Polish-Hungarian count who escapes from a Siberian prison, crosses the Pacific, and goes on to befriend Benjamin Franklin and fight in the American Revolution. The play's U.S. debut was in Baltimore, the same night that "The Star-Spangled Banner" premiered.}

Michelle Burnham (English) gave an invited talk at the Monterey campus of Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English on July 29. "Oceans and Archives: Globalizing American Literary and Cultural History" describes how unearthing forgotten texts from the transoceanic Pacific and bringing these archives into classrooms can transform American literary studies. The Monterey campus of the Bread Loaf School offers an MA program in Global Humanities, and provided an opportunity to connect with secondary school teachers from across the country and world eager to adopt a more global curriculum and pedagogy as well in efforts to turn the tide from divisiveness to unity and even to solidarity.
 

^{This is a muriqui. They were not known to engage in much ground use or bipdal walking until researchers (Michelle's coauthor, Karen Strier) placed camera traps in the forest. The camera trap images basically showed a love fest on the ground in the absence of researchers. These are often known as the peaceful primates because they spend a lot of time hugging, snuggling, and cooperatively interacting. (MB dares you to go google: 'muriqui snuggling' and hit images).}

Michelle Bezanson (Anthropology) has published two chapters in the book: The Natural History of Primates. A Systematic Survey of Ecology and Behavior. The first chapter was co-edited by Katie MacKinnon of St Louis University (Yay Jesuits!) and focuses on capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys. Capuchins are the punks of the primate world in that they get into things (nests, tree holes, etc.) and mess with other animals. For example, Michelle once observed a capuchin to pull on a spider monkey's tail until the spider monkey left in frustration. She also once observed a capuchin tear apart an ants nest and drop it directly on her head. Studying monkeys is fun but not easy.

The second chapter focuses on the ecology of spider, howling, woolly, and muriquis. They have super cool prehensile tails and are a little bit nicer than capuchins.  

MacKinnon, K and Bezanson, M. 2022. The cebidae: ecological niches and behavioral strategies of capuchins (Cebus, Sapajus) and Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri). In Sussman RW, Hart D, Colquhoun, I (eds) The Natural History of Primates. A Systematic Survey of Ecology and Behavior. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
   
Bezanson M, Strier, KB, Sussman RW. 2022. The atelinae: behavior and ecology of spider monkeys (Ateles), howling monkeys (Alouatta), wooly monkeys (Lagothrix), and muriquis (Brachyteles). In Sussman RW, Hart D, Colquhoun, I (eds) The Natural History of Primates. A Systematic Survey of Ecology and Behavior. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

^{Ella Basler '23 and Erica Svendahl '23 at the Beckman Symposium.}

Ella Basler '23 (Biochemistry) and Erica Svendahl '23 (Chemistry and Environmental Science) presented their research at the 2022 Beckman Symposium at UC Berkeley on August 1st. Ella, who works in Eric Tillman's (Chemistry and Biochemistry) research group, presented a poster entitled "Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Homodimerization of Brominated Polymer Chains." Erica, who works with Korin Wheeler (Chemistry and Biochemistry), presented her poster entitled "Expanding Protein Corona Across Environmentally Relevant Conditions." Ella and Erica, SCU's current Beckman Scholars, also attended a full day of technical research talks and discussions.

^{Kusanovich at Cowles Center for Dance, Minneapolis, in front of an iconic Dylan mural.}

Kristin Kusanovich (Theatre and Dance, Child Studies) created original choreography for the musical Man of La Mancha, and co-conceived a new prologue based on immigration and detention center stories told without words, for San Jose Playhouse's Actors' Equity Association (union) production at 3Below Theatre in June.

She also taught modern/contemporary dance technique at Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts in Minneapolis in July. Classes featured the concepts of fall and recovery, using the floor-based techniques of five major modern dance theorists and technique-builders: Horton, Lewitzky, Humphrey, Graham and Zambrano.

She continued her research on climate art and directed six student researchers funded by the CAS REAL program and the Jean Donovan Fellowship of ICJE for six weeks this summer. Students worked with local partners on physical projects and also helped curate and expand the web-based tUrn RESOURCES, a thematic guide for people looking to learn more, teach about, or just discuss the climate crisis and just solutions.

An article published in the U.N. Climate Change Paris Committee for Capacity-building Network newsletter in August featured the international partnership between tUrn and the Environmental Volunteer Network [EVN] in Kabul, who have hosted tUrn weeks reaching 12K people throughout Afghanistan. This summer tUrn supported EVN's successful application to represent Afghanistan with observer status at COP27 in Egypt this fall. tUrn7 is Oct 10-14.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, more fondly known as OLLI, is a community of learners aged 50 and better. The Osher Institute at Santa Clara University is one of 125 branches in the United States, made possible by generous grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation. Founded in 2004, OLLI@SCU was created with one primary mission: enriching members' lives through learning for the joy of learning. Our more recent classes include “20th Century American Short Stories About Aging” with Marilyn Edelstein (English), “From Jim Crow to Civil Rights and Beyond” with Robert M. Senkewicz (Professor Emeritus, History), and “Voting and the Constitution” with Margaret Russell (Law). OLLI@SCU has frequently engaged SCU faculty as instructors, and we are always interested in adding more to our program.

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.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar