Ro Rosales '23 (Communication) as Yvette, and Brianna Morales '25 (Theatre Arts) as Tiger, in dress rehearsal for "A Tiger in Central Park" from José Rivera's Giants Have Us in Their Books. Directed by Karina Gutiérrez (Theatre and Dance). Catch a performance this weekend.

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Week nine of Winter Quarter!

Nearing the end of Winter Quarter is so unlike any other part of the academic year. Unlike fall, much work is behind us, much has been accomplished, much has been learned…but unlike spring, the end of the year—with its graduations and class promotions—is not yet in sight!

So we’ve arrived at that end-of-winter-spring-break-is-too-short-for-a-real-break moment. And if March this year came in like a lion, and winter ends with the churn and drama of hard work, may the month go out like a lamb and the spring quarter dawn bright and sweet!

In the meantime, enjoy this packed issue of College Notes, so much going on!

Sincerely,

Daniel

Highlights

Bachana Lomsadze (Physics) and his collaborators published a book titled Optical Multidimensional Coherent Spectroscopy. The book was published by Oxford University Press. The book provides an introduction of optical multidimensional coherent spectroscopy for students and researchers in all fields, whether or not they have a background in ultrafast spectroscopy, or even in optical spectroscopy more general. The book then focuses on the use of the technique to probe systems that are primarily of interest in the fields of physics and materials sciences, and finishes with a survey of several emerging materials systems and a discussion of future directions.

David Popalisky (Theatre and Dance) performed his latest dance Old Man Adagio in the SoloDuo Dance Festival in New York City on February 9, 2023 with his partner Michael Hazinski, a former San Francisco Ballet dancer. The performance at Dixon Place Theatre was sold out including seven former SCU dance graduates in attendance. A favorable review in Eye on Dance by Mary Seidman noted:

"In Old Man Adagio to music by Penguin Cafe Orchestra ("Life Boat"), David Popalisky and Michael Hazinski from Santa Clara University, elegantly portray two older men reminiscing on their careers, friendship, and longevity with humor, understanding, and poignancy. Dressed in pedestrian shirts and pants and seated in wheeled rotating desk chairs, they first dance with only their arms, depicting typical youthful male activities. Soon they wittily scoot forward in the chairs using only one lazy foot, eventually rising to convey years of body experience, knowledge, and love of the stage."

Linda Garber's (Women's and Gender Studies) edited collection Tilting the Tower: Lesbians/Teaching/Queer Subjects (1994) was reissued this month as part of the Routledge Revivals book series.

Garber's book Novel Approaches to Lesbian History (Palgrave 2021) was reviewed in the current issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Rohit Chopra (Communication) published a chapter, titled "Online Religion," in The Handbook of Religion and Communication, edited by Yoel Cohen and Paul A. Soukup (Communication) (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2023, pp. 521-536). The volume examines the complex relationship and interaction between religion and communication through multiple perspectives, from the theological to the cultural, from the framework of media institutions to the role of new media.
   
Rohit's chapter embeds the discussion of thematic concerns in online religion in terms of broader and deeper trends in the development of the internet itself. It maps the terrain of online religion broadly according to four main phases of the Internet, namely, the eras of the preweb internet, the static web, the interactive web, and the social web. The chapter highlights significant lines of inquiry in each phase, outlining the contours of research trends, illuminating these through an engagement with representative works, and drawing attention to the larger questions that they raise. Through this approach, the chapter explores abiding questions that continue to animate the study of online religion in addition to emphasizing new issues and themes raised by recent developments in online media technologies, the social and political landscape, and religious practice and belief.

Guillermo Rodríguez (Communication) presented the invited paper "Hellish Soundscapes: The Visual Aurality of Dreaming the Underworld in Don Quixote, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Mala Coda" at the Early Modern Iberian Voices Annual Symposium organized by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute. The lecture took place at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California on February 11, 2023. Using Don Quixote’s cave of Montesinos chapter as a framework for the use of orality and aurality in narrative storytelling, the presentation examined how sound in cinematic storytelling conjures images outside the frame for its spectators. It focused on the writing and sound design process of making a contemporary horror film through the lens of French critic and sound theorist Michel Chion’s book Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Specifically, it explored how sound effects translate from screenplay to screen in writer-director Wes Craven’s 1984 horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street", a major influence on a Latinx horror film Guillermo is currently writing titled Mala Coda. Both films depict a protagonist that descends into an oneiric "underworld" to confront a demonic figure that embodies a repressed truth about themselves, a journey that mirrors Don Quixote’s waking dream inside the cave of Montesinos which unravels his delusion and the artifice of Cervantes’ novel as a whole.

Tom Plante (Psychology) published an article "Medical assistance in dying (MAiD): Ethical considerations for psychologists,"  in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice with several colleagues from across the country.

Abstract: Significant ethical challenges arise when mental health practitioners care for patients who seek to accelerate their own dying for rational medically valid reasons. Current and proposed laws provide for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in several U.S. jurisdictions, all of Canada, and several other nations. Differing provisions of these laws complicate their utility for some patients who seek aid in dying. Some extant laws include roles that mental health professionals might play in assessing patients’ competence or capacity to consent, mental illness, or other cognitive and behavioral factors. Practitioners who choose to accept roles in the MAiD process must consider and resolve a number of ethical challenges including potential conflicts between and among laws, ethical standards, third-party requests, personal values, and patients’ wishes. These include becoming aware of patients who may wish to act independently to end their lives when MAiD laws might otherwise exclude them.

Allia Ida Griffin (Ethnic Studies) presented her paper, "‘Do You Want Pain to be your Legacy?’: On Death and Dying in the Diaspora" at the Iranian Diaspora in Global Perspective conference at UCLA on February 16. The conference featured 50 interdisciplinary scholars and artists working in Iranian Studies.

Griffin’s paper argues that Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde 2017 novel, What We Owe, disrupts the trope of liberation through exile originally established by the first wave of visible and marketable memoirs written by Iranian women in the diaspora. Griffin’s reading tends to the ways that the novel says the unsayable by grappling with the cost of assimilation, the lived experience of rootlessness, and the racialization of Iranians in Sweden.

Image: Allia Griffin, pictured with Sheida Besozzi (University of the Basque Country), Azadeh Sharifi (University of Toronto), and Parmida Mostafavi (NYU)

Lee Panich (Anthropology) was the 2023 recipient of the California Missions Foundation's Norman Neuerburg Award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions towards the study and preservation of California's missions, presidios, pueblos, and ranchos. The award serves to encourage and highlight current scholarship on colonial-era California.

The History Department is pleased to announce that the 2021 issue of Historical Perspectives, the History Department’s undergraduate research journal, has won first place in the national competition for the 2022 Gerald B. Nash Journal Award issued by Phi Alpha Theta (the national History honor society). It is the second year in a row that the journal has won first place, and it is the 5th year in a row that the journal has won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. Many thanks to the student co-editors, Sydney Shead '22 (History, Ethnic Studies) and Sophie Wink '22 (History), the faculty advisor, Naomi Andrews (History), and the student authors for producing such an excellent issue. Student authors include Natalie Henriquez ‘22 (History, Philosophy), Claire Marsden ‘22 (History), Claire Murphy ‘22 (Communication, History), Priyanka Saha ‘22 (Political Science, History), Louis Sheridan ‘21 (History, Economics), Brandon Schultz ‘21 (English, History), Tegan Smith ‘20 (History, Women's and Gender Studies), Adelaide Vergnolle ‘23 (Political Science, History), and Sophie Wink ‘22.

Image: Original cover art by Alexa Esposito^© '24 (Finance, Studio Art Minor)

SCU faculty and students with members of The Travelers: Brian Rivera, far left; Juan Amador, wearing orange cap; and Luis Alfaro, far right.

The SCU cast of Giants Have Us in Their Books was invited to an opening weekend performance of the world premiere of Luis Alfaro's The Travelers at Magic Theatre in San Francisco, California. Students met with the cast and crew, including Artistic Director Sean San José and playwright Luis Alfaro, following a post-show discussion moderated by Karina Gutiérrez (Theatre and Dance).

Marx, Revolution, and Social Democracy has just been published with Oxford University Press by Philip J. Kain (Philosophy). The book argues that Marx is best understood as a social democrat—not as the precursor of Soviet Marxism.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar