The Mechanical Horse installation and reception in the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation. Bottom left: Butch Coyne (SCU Presents), City of Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor, and City of Santa Clara Cultural Commissioner Debra von Huene. Bottom right: SCU President Julie Sullivan and Mayor Gillmor "push the button" to start the exhibit.

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

It's Week Two of fall quarter, a time to work out the bugs in classes and transition from time away, but to read this week's College Notes, you would think that faculty, staff and students are still deep in a productive summer mode!

The Provost’s Office shared an opportunity I would like to pass along that might be relevant for any faculty or staff who are examining death penalty issues in their courses or programming. Fordham is hosting a simulcast at local movie theaters on October 21 and 25 of a live performance of Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean’s best-selling 1993 memoir chronicling her ministry to death row inmates and the families of their victims. I encourage you to find a showing near you, if this is relevant to your areas of study or interest.

Tomorrow is poet W.S. Merwin’s birthday; he died in 2019 and would have been 96 this week. A popular poem of his, written in the late 1960s, foreshadows the extinction of gray whales. At the time, reading the poem conveyed a foreboding dread of what we might soon be losing, but a great deal of human activism, ingenuity and commitment prevented the worst. I offer the poem here as a reminder of the work we do, why we do it and how we convey our aspirations, anguish and passions (and no, I don't think AI could have written it!).

Sincerely,

Daniel

For a Coming Extinction

By W.S. Merwin

Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing

I write as though you could understand
And I could say it
One must always pretend something
Among the dying
When you have left the seas nodding on their stalks
Empty of you
Tell him that we were made
On another day

The bewilderment will diminish like an echo
Winding along your inner mountains
Unheard by us
And find its way out
Leaving behind it the future
Dead
And ours

When you will not see again
The whale calves trying the light
Consider what you will find in the black garden
And its court
The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas
The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless
And fore-ordaining as stars
Our sacrifices

Join your word to theirs
Tell him
That it is we who are important

Highlights

WestEd Summer Institute participants in Washington, D.C.

Francisco Jiménez (Modern Languages and Literatures, Emeritus) was interviewed by Rafael Vazquez’s Santa Rosa Radio Station KKBF “Lideres del Futuro” Program about his award-winning four-book series and “The Unbroken Sky,” a short dramatic film based on his memoirs. The trailer for the movie is posted on YouTube. 

Francisco was the keynote speaker for two WestEd Summer Institutes for teachers and school administrators. The first one took place in Santa Cruz on July 19 and the second one in Washington, D.C. on August 9. WestEd, is a nonpartisan research, development, and service agency, that works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults.

George Galvis, Naomi Levy and Amy Lerman presenting at the first annual GSPP alumni conference on Sept. 8, 2023.

Naomi Levy (Political Science was an invited panelist at the Goldman School of Public Policy's first annual alumni convention. Along with Amy Lerman of the Possibility Lab and George Galvis of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Naomi discussed the participatory research project she has been leading on a panel entitled "Garbage Cans to Double Dutch: Mapping community-sourced indicators towards a new public safety model."

Rohit Chopra's (Communication) book, The Gita for a Global World: Ethical Action in an Age of Flux (Westland Books: Chennai, 2019) was published in a new paperback edition for the Indian market, with a new afterword and cover design. In the critically acclaimed book, Chopra argues that the ancient Indian and Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita, offers us valuable ethical resources for critically engaging with the challenges of the present, such as a pervasive condition of existential uncertainty, war and violence, and encounters with difference of various kinds, whether religious, cultural, national, or sexual. Understanding the text as a possible ethical guide to the present, however, requires squarely confronting aspects of the Gita that contradict modern day notions of rights and equality, such as its endorsement of a patriarchal and casteist order. To work through these contradictions, Chopra presents a method for reading the Gita against itself to foreground its emancipatory and liberatory possibilities.

Image: The Gita for a Global World, 2023 paperback edition for India.

The Honors Program is very happy to announce that Michele Parker (Public Health) has joined us as the new Assistant Director. Michele will work with our students on advising and mentoring, especially in STEM fields.

Tripp Strawbridge (Modern Languages and Literatures) recently published an article in the journal System. The article, titled “The effect of ‘at home’ network communication, off-site travel, and extracurricular activity on longitudinal social network development in study abroad,” examines several factors that have long been posited to influence how university students build social relationships while studying abroad. Results from the study show that, while spending a semester abroad in Spain, students managed to maintain active (virtual) communication with their friends and family from back home without it affecting their social development abroad (e.g., whether or not they formed a greater number of friendship with Spanish peers). In contrast, however, the type of social networks that students formed was affected by the amount of time that students spent traveling outside of the study site on weekends. For example, students who spent 8–10 of their weekends traveling outside of the study site (out of a total of 15 weekends) were far less likely to develop close relationships with local Spanish peers, negatively affecting – among other things – their Spanish language learning.

Panelists present at the "Violence against Women Politicians" panel at the APSA 2023 meeting held virtually and in person.

Anna Sampaio (Ethnic Studies) recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) held virtually and in person in Los Angeles. She served as a discussant and reviewer of the new book “Direct Democracy Rules: The Effect of Propositions, Initiatives, and Referendums on State Immigration Legislation in the 21st Century,” and presented a research paper entitled “Escalating Political Violence and Intersectional Impacts on Latina Politicians,”

Anna was also interviewed recently on KCBS Radio for The State of California Program to discuss voter turnout and the outcome of a special election in Ohio centered on a ballot initiative designed to restrict reproductive rights.

Tom Plante (Psychology) published an article with Sasha Eros '23 (Psychology, Religious Studies), "The effects of centering prayer on well-being in a sample of undergraduate students: A pilot study," in Pastoral Psychology.

Abstract: Contemplative practices have likely been used for self-awareness, concentration, creativity, and well-being since the dawn of time. While practices such as yoga and Buddhist meditation have been extensively studied in recent decades, Christian contemplative practices have received less attention in empirical research. This study aims to investigate the effects of centering prayer, a Christian contemplative practice, on mental health and well-being. The research focuses on college students enrolled in a religious studies course that incorporates centering prayer into the curriculum. Using a comparison group from another religious studies course, the study examines whether practicing centering prayer regularly for seven weeks can lead to changes in anxiety, stress, depression, mindfulness, satisfaction with life, hope, and compassion as assessed by multiple questionnaires. Multivariate analyses of covariance indicated trends suggesting that centering prayer may contribute to decreased anxiety and increased hope and compassion. The study highlights the potential therapeutic benefits of centering prayer and the need for further research on Christian contemplative practices.

Nancy C. Unger (History) spoke at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina on September 19 on “The Importance of the Gay Bar in American History: From Havens to Targets to Catalysts for Community and Change." The talk gave a general overview of gay bars beginning in the mid-1800s, but also offered some specifics on gay bars in the South, especially in South Carolina. Race, place, and gender were prominent themes. Nancy has been invited to be a future Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professor at Wofford.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar