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| May 19, 2023 | Submit a Note |
 5:05, 12:59, 2:15 by Anna Snyder '23 (Studio Art). The Senior Studio Art Show opened on May 17 and runs through June 16. Join the Department of Art and Art at the reception in the Edward M. Dowd Art & Art History Building TODAY! Also, today is the Art History Student Research Symposium.
As we approach the end of the year, I’d like to acknowledge the faculty and staff members who are retiring or have retired this year. These individuals have worked at Santa Clara for periods ranging from 22 to 45 years, and collectively have contributed roughly 370 years of service to the University. Their dedication to the College and to our students has left a lasting impact. Thank you all so much for your contributions to our community. I wish you well in your retirement! Hans Boepple, Music I would also like to extend my heartfelt sympathies to the family and colleagues of Rick Scott ’88, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, who passed away last month. In his 27 years as a faculty member at SCU, Rick continuously shared his love of mathematics with students through his teaching and mentoring, no doubt inspiring many to pursue their interest in the field. He will be missed. Sincerely, Daniel Highlights
Brita A. Bookser (Child Studies) presented her research, "Transforming Trapdoors in American Early Care and Education: Structural Solutions and Systems-Change Possibilities," in a symposium at the World Forum on Early Care and Education's annual conference in Panama City, Panama and virtually via Zoom. With colleagues in Malaysia, Kenya, and the U.S., the symposium, "Re-Imagining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Early Childhood Development: Global Perspectives" facilitated a transnational discussion of the importance of DEI in early childhood contexts.
Students working in research labs in the Psychology Department presented at the 104th Western Psychological Association annual conference in Riverside, California, April 27-30. They are Karishma Batra '23 (Psychology), Kate Griffin '23 (Psychology), Hayley Harrison '23 (Psychology), Liana Korotzer '23 (Neuroscience), Isabella Meyerhoff '23 (Psychology), John Miller '24 (Psychology, Political Science), Alex Pechersky '24 (Psychology, Communications), and Grace Roach '23 (Psychology). Their Psychology faculty mentors were Lang Chen, Kirsten Read, Pattie Simone, and Lisa Whitfield. We are grateful for the funding support from the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Dean.
Alec Qualitza '23 (Psychology, Public Health Science) presented a poster on his project, "Supporting Adolescents: Increased Parental Responsiveness is Associated with Decreased Adolescent Loneliness and Emotion Suppression," at the Western Psychological Association conference in Riverside, California on April 29, 2023. This project was advised by Chan Thai (Communication) through funding from the REAL Program. For this study, we conducted a secondary data analysis using data obtained from the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s FLASHE survey. We found that adolescents who perceived having highly responsive parents suppressed their emotions significantly less and were significantly less lonely than teens who had less responsive parents. Our findings suggest that implementing strategies to help parents cultivate responsive behaviors may be beneficial to improving emotional well-being in their children during adolescence and beyond.
Francisco Jiménez (Modern Languages and Literatures, Emeritus) had his stories "Cajas de Cartón" and "Expulsados" included in Realidades published by Saavas Learning Company. On April 19, he made a public presentation on his writing at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah. He gave a talk in a Young Adult Literature graduate class that read his work, The Circuit, and he made a presentation, in Spanish, on his work for students in a dual language immersion program. In addition, a short dramatic movie based on his memoirs titled “The Unbroken Sky” was produced by Normandie Productions, a small independent film company. The film has been entered into film festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Image: Poster for the movie "The Unbroken Sky" based on Jiménez's memoirs.
Students and faculty from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry traveled to St. Mary’s College in Moraga on May 6 to attend the annual Northern California Undergraduate Research Symposium (NCURS). This annual event, being reinitialized after a COVID-linked “pause,” featured oral and poster-style presentations by Chemistry and Biochemistry students from Universities in the Silicon Valley, Sacramento, and California sections of the American Chemical Society; SCU researchers from the laboratories of Professors Steven Suljak, Benjamin Stokes, Grace Stokes, and Paul Abbyad were among those presenting their original research. In addition, Professors Linda Brunauer, Benjamin Stokes, and Steven Suljak attended the event, providing support and encouragement for the talented undergraduate and post-bac presenters.
The South Asia Scholar Activist Collective (SASAC), of which Rohit Chopra (Communication) is a member, was awarded a Luce-AAR Advancing Public Scholarship Grant for its project, "Hindutva Explained: Creating public-facing digital materials for teaching about Hindu Nationalism." The project will be led by Prof. Dheepa Sundaram of the University of Denver. As a member of the SASAC leadership council, Rohit has been centrally involved in its public-facing initiatives related to spreading awareness about Hindu nationalism in the U.S. and globally. He has published extensively on Hindu nationalism in both traditional academic and public-facing scholarly venues. His contribution to the project will involve developing new material on the subject. The Luce grant offered by the American Academy of Religion and the Henry Luce Foundation "supports scholars of religion who are working to engage publics in innovative ways, through projects designed for presentation in public spaces and outreach through publicly accessible sites." Image: Luce-AAR Grant awarded to SASAC.
On May 10, students in Elizabeth Drescher's (Religious Studies) and Jaime Wright's (Religious Studies) sections of Mapping Living Religion (RSOC 175), a field-based course that focuses on the place of religion in cultivating spatial justice in Silicon Valley, had the opportunity to engage Christopher Logan, a community organizer with Sacred Heart Community Service (SHCS), The Very Reverend Julia McCray-Goldsmith, Dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and San Jose Council Member Omar Torres (District 3, Guadalupe-Washington). Students learned of SHCS's organizing on issues such as housing affordability, eviction representation rights, and other spatial justice issues from Chris Logan. Dean Julia McCray-Goldsmith shared insight on the historical cathedral's engagement with unhoused people in St. James Square through the aesthetics or worship as well as the emergency shelter the church is providing for unhoused SJSU students. Council Member Torres emphasized the ways in which City giveaways of land to Google for the now-paused Google Transit Village ("Googleville") has made it impossible for people from the neighborhoods like Guadalupe-Washington (like him) to afford to rent or purchase homes there. Students from both classes asked questions about the effects of gentrification, religious engagement with spatial issues, and how young adults can be advocates for spatial justice. Image: Christopher Logan of Sacred Heart Community Service, San Jose District 3 City Council Member Omar Torres, and The Very Reverend Julia McCray-Goldsmith.
Chad Raphael (Communication) gave an invited keynote talk to the 21st Century Democratic Club on May 12 about the decline of local news and its impact on politics. He began by discussing recently-indicted Rep. George Santos’s ability to evade scrutiny during two election cycles as an extreme example of how the loss of local news organizations has reduced political officials’ accountability to voters. Chad described how advertisers’ and media owners’ disinvestment in local journalism over the past 20 years has undermined the news media’s role in the electoral process, and on research showing that districts with little or no local news organizations have fewer competitive elections, higher rates of corruption among state representatives, and worse constituent service from their U.S. Representatives. He concluded by presenting a variety of reforms for revitalizing local news, starting with strengthening the nonprofit, public service news sector, along with practicing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, embracing participatory and solutions journalism, and integrating journalism into civic education. Image: Chad Raphael's presentation, "Local News: Disinvestment, Dangers for Democracy … and Revival?"
Anna Sampaio (Ethnic Studies) was recently interviewed on KCBS Radio for The State of California Program about the impact of recent developments in gender and racial politics on the emerging Presidential campaign. The interview draws in part on research regarding intersectionality and political mobilization made possible through a multi-year external grant from the Center for American Women and Politics.
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From top left, clockwise: Alice Tenjiwe Kabwe, Brita A. Bookser, Bridget Smith, Martha Vibbert, Mahanom Basri.
Isabella Meyerhoff, Grace Roach, and Hayley Harrison.
Ravi Kotamraju '24 (Biochemistry, Chemistry), Lauren Drake '24 (Biochemistry, Biology), Benjamin Stokes.
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