Karyn Connell's ballet Jupiter, to Holst's "Jupiter" from The Planets, was performed during Images 2023 dance concert.

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

We were excited to welcome Sinatra Artist-in-Residence, Mark Duplass to campus this week! He spent his time visiting classes and workshopping with students, meeting with faculty members, and hosting an open class on The Writing Process: Writing, Co-Writing, and Adapting. As part of a two-quarter production course in the Communication department that was created for Mark’s residency, he spent significant time reviewing student scripts and giving his feedback. These scripts will continue to be developed as part of the class, and will be brought to life during spring quarter, culminating in a film festival that will be open to campus. The scripts are adaptations from short stories written in creative writing courses in the English Department and the collaborations also include music majors who will compose original scores for the final films. He also met with groups across campus, including The Owl, the Santa Clara Review, and the Wellness Center, as he plans for his visit next quarter.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The devastation and death toll shocks us all, as it would for any natural disaster of this magnitude. Perhaps we Californians are even more upset by this crisis because of our past experience with earthquakes and ever-present vigilance. Regardless of where your compassion comes from, I am grateful for the outpouring of support and care I have seen from members of our College and campus community.

Sincerely,

Daniel

Highlights

Erick Ramirez (Philosophy) along with co-authors Shelby Jennett '24 (Neuroscience), Raghav Gupta '24 (Neuroscience), Sydney Campbell '22 (Neuroscience, Philosophy), and Jocelyn Tan '15 (Electrical Engineering) have published an article, "XR Embodiment and the Changing Nature of Sexual Harassment" in a special issue of the journal Societies. The theme of the special issue "Societal Implications of Virtual Reality: Maximizing Human Potential" draws an interdisciplinary set of scholars to ask questions about the social implications of virtual and augmented reality technologies. In their article they explain how embodiment in extended reality (XR) can change not only how individuals understand their sense of self but also how XR embodiment must change how we understand the nature of sexual harassment. The authors raise regulatory, moral, and metaphysical questions surrounding the self and harm in social XR environments.

Aparajita Nanda (English, Ethnic Studies) chaired a session (by invitation) at the 17th Annual Association of Adaptation Studies Conference "(In)visible Adaptation: Diversity and Inclusion," University of Lisbon, Portugal. Apara also presented a paper entitled: “Adopting/Adapting Rapping in Gully Boy.”

Linda Garber (Women's & Gender Studies, Dean's Office) discussed the pleasures and perils of lesbian historical fiction February 1 in a colloquium presentation titled, "The Present In Our Past" at the Cultural Studies Institute at UC Santa Cruz. The lecture and conversation covered the thrilling and heart-wrenching adventures, trenchant theoretical insights, and critical political shortcomings of novels that establish a historical footing for contemporary lesbian identity in the face of a problematic, mostly silent, archive.

Jeff Burkholder’s (Modern Languages & Literatures) book Poétique de la nature has been published by Classiques Garnier. Engaging with contemporary ecological thought, it studies ideas and representations of nature in French literature from 1750 to 1920. Notably, it charts the emergence of a typically modern conception of nature, one marked by a striking negativity. If “nature” is classically understood to include humanity (i.e., “human nature”), it begins to designate precisely the contrary: the wilderness, the green spaces, the outside of the city, the remote prehistory of civilization, all that modern Europe has not yet formed or corrupted. The book begins by examining how this nature becomes the object of a powerful new descriptive art in the fiction and political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It then explores how nineteenth-century literature takes up and transforms this new poetics in ways that still inform our understanding of nature today.

Di Di (Sociology) has received a grant to collaborate with Esther Chan (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee) of £35,000 for her new project, “Atheism @ virtual world: A study of atheist influencers.” This grant is part of a three-year program on Explaining Atheism led by Queen’s University Belfast. The program is supported by the John Templeton Foundation. They seek to know more about atheism @ virtual world. Visit the project website for more information.

She also received an award of $2,000 from the National Survey of Religious Leaders program at Duke University for the study, “Racing Religion, Science, and Mental Health: How Race and Orientations to Religion and Science Shape Religious Leaders’ Views on Mental Health Causes and Treatments.”  She and Esther will explore more about the intersection between science, religion, and mental health through the National Survey of Religious Leaders.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar