In May, the 2023-24 CAH Student Fellows Program concluded with a showcase that featured six arts and humanities projects. (L-R) Amy Randall (History), Natalia Cantu '24 (English), Madysen Moreno '24 (Philosophy, Music), Natasha Moorjani '24 (Music, Political Science), Charlie DiNapoli '24 (Studio Art), Simon Lanzoni '24 (Music, Italian Studies), Miriam Chen Lin '26 (Psychology), Michelle Burnham (English).

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

I am pleased to announce that John Birmingham, professor of Physics, will join the Dean’s Office this summer for a three-year term as Associate Dean. I am so grateful for John’s interest in helping to lead the College during this important time as we welcome a new Provost and start the long-anticipated Core revision. John will have a portfolio that includes most of the social science departments and will also focus his efforts on exploring external funding.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Linda Garber, professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, for her service as Associate Dean for the past four years. Linda joined us in 2020 when I was brand new at SCU and while we were in the midst of the COVID shutdown. She came to our office with a goal of incorporating DEI into our policies and practices, which took on such importance that summer after George Floyd’s death. Working with our JEDI Council, she has pursued incorporating DEI into our regular operations, like FARs, evaluations and hiring. Her efforts will pay dividends for years to come. Please join me in thanking Linda for her service.

Lastly, please take a moment to recognize the work of your colleagues – and yourself – by submitting a nomination for the Annual College Awards presented at the Fall Convocation. Nominations are due by Friday, June 14.

Sincerely,

Daniel

Highlights

At the 20th International Congress of Qualitative Research, held May 16-19 on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Theresa Conefrey (English) delivered a presentation entitled "Writing: An Evolving History." In her talk, she explored strategies for navigating effectively the intersections of human creativity, reflection, and AI within academia. Her aim was to suggest ways of avoiding potential pitfalls while uncovering avenues for innovation. Additionally, the conference included a celebratory memorial to recognize the legacy of Norman Denzin, the founder and director of the congress.

Over 62 students presented the results of their research or internship experiences at the first Alumni Science Research Conference.

On Saturday, May 18, the departments of Child Studies, Public Health, and Psychology hosted our first Alumni Science Research Conference! Over 125 people attended, 62 of whom were students presenting the results of research projects or internship experiences conducted under the supervision of faculty in their departments. A fun day, with lots of cross-disciplinary discussion and connection, was had by all!

You know how they say, "Don't poke the bear?" Virginia Matzek (Environmental Studies and Sciences) recently failed to heed this advice, while participating in a field course on capturing and immobilizing large mammals run by the Center for Wildlife Studies. She and the other nine students in the course learned how to calculate doses of immobilizing drugs, load and shoot tranquilizer darts, and do basic veterinary procedures such as blood and fecal sampling. For Virginia the highlight was either darting a black bear (you have to get it in the hind part of the shoulder; the butt is too fatty and if you hit the ribs, the dart may bounce off) or assisting with a surgical implantation of contraceptive drugs to an endangered Mexican gray wolf female (their breeding is closely regulated to maximize genetic diversity). The lowlight was throwing her back out when she unwisely attempted to move the 600-lb bear. Lessons learned: it is OK to poke the bear; do not try to shift the bear.

Image: Virginia pokes the bear (for blood sample collection).

Nancy C. Unger's (History) latest article is "Legislating Morality in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Moral Panic and the 'White Slave' Case That Changed America.”

Her other new article is “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith’s Bestselling Introduction to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era,” appearing in a special literature issue of The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era co-edited by Nancy.

Nancy’s recent presentations include "La Follette's 1923 European Tour: Laying Groundwork for the Presidential Campaign," at a celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of progressive Robert La Follette’s third-party bid for the presidency. She also presented “Winning Women’s Suffrage: Celebrating Victories, Learning from Mistakes,” to the law firm Beveridge & Diamond PC in celebration of Women's History Month, and provided to the San Luis Bar Association a version of "Learning from Past Moral Panics: The 'White Slave' Case that Changed America."

Image: Nancy C. Unger poses with a Robert La Follette impersonator in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sreela Sarkar (Communication) was invited to speak on the online panel Youth and Digital Cultures on Social Media organized by IDEAS Office of Interdisciplinary Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University which is ranked as the number 1 private university in India and enjoys an international reputation. This panel was the “curtain-raising event” for the research-based Constellation on Transnational Spaces, Culture and Media. Sreela’s talk was commended for its “expertise and commitment to interdisciplinary excellence and rigor” and for “helping the audience to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing digital constructionism.” Following the talk, Sreela has been invited to collaborate with the Constellation on Transnational Spaces, Culture and Media as well as the Constellation on Justice, Urban Systems and Technology under the IDEAS initiative based on the alignment of her work with multiple disciplinary areas and contemporary societal issues.

(L-R): Max Silveira '25 (History, Political Science), Barbara Modesto '27 (Business Undeclared), Darcy Muller '27 (Philosophy), Vaishnavi Tatipamula '27 (Business Undeclared), Noor Khan '27 (Political Science, Business Undeclared), John Lee '26 (Mathematics), unidentified attendee, Mohammed Kadalah. Photograph by Laura Callahan (Modern Languages and Literatures).

Students from the Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese programs met to celebrate the languages they are learning. They read poems in their respective languages followed by the English translation. Mohammed Kadalah (Modern Languages and Literatures) organizes this Annual World Poetry Reading Event.

Biologists are intrigued by variation in genome size given the unexpectedly high levels of DNA found in some organisms. Because of the availability of numerous species of rare insects in the lab of Janice Edgerly-Rooks (Biology), the exploration and knowledge of genome size diversity has just been expanded. After years of effort, requiring extra proofs of concept and additional samples from Thailand, Edgerly-Rooks, Justen Whittall (Biology) and alumna Erin Taylor Kelly '16 (Biology) completed their work that began when Taylor was finishing her senior year. Their results were just published in a journal article entitled "Twelve more bulky genomes in the Polyneoptera: Characterizing the Order Embioptera" in the Entomological Society of America's journal Insect Systematics & Diversity. Polyneopteran species include common insects such as grasshoppers, stick insects, termites and the like. The embiopterans' high DNA content rivaled all of them except for a species of grasshopper. Of note, Taylor recently earned her Ph.D. in Entomology from UC Davis and now works as an ecologist and medical entomologist for the Santa Clara County Vector Control District.

Image: Co-authors Erin Taylor Kelly (left) and Janice Edgerly-Rooks in Vancouver, Canada, at the venue of a joint conference of the Canadian Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America in November 2022.

Amy Lueck (English) and Simone J. Billings (English) attended and presented at the Rhetoric Society of America's Biennial Conference held May 23-26 in Denver, Colorado. Amy chaired the session "Collective Action in Times of Crisis: The Impact of Dissolving Boundaries with Community-Engaged Projects" and presented on how public history work with local tribal communities can not only advance settler knowledge of Native and settler histories but also serve as a means of supporting the tribe's commitment to community-building, cultural revival, and reaffirmation of their federally recognized status. Simone was a part of the session "Just Listening: Social Justice in Current Eloquentia Perfecta Scholarship and Pedagogy," a workshop organized by the affiliate group Jesuit Conference on Rhetoric & Composition (JCRC), leading a break-out group with Renea Frey of Xavier University on the subject of Imaginative Deep Listening and its applications to invention in writing, exploring differences between "being with" and "doing for," drawing from her experience of going on a Kino Immersion Trip to Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico.

Image: Amy Lueck and Simone Billings.

Eugene R. Schlesinger (Religious Studies) recently published a new monograph Ruptured Bodies: A Theology of the Church Divided (Fortress Press, 2024).

The book is a systematic theological account of the divided church, arguing that no adequate ecclesiology can ignore division, because in doing so, it will fail to describe the church that actually is. Such an understanding must integrate the reality of division, while also refusing to blunt its sharp edge—neither dismissing, excusing, nor minimizing it. What must the church be, given the fact of its division?

Jesica S. Fernandez (Ethnic Studies) attended The X Conference on Childhood Studies at the University of Helsinki in Finland where she delivered a talk entitled "Sociopolitical Citizenship as a Framework to Decolonize Children’s Rights: The Story of Sophie Cruz" which engaged a decolonial standpoint to discuss the limitations and possibilities of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UN-CRC). She also presented a poster, "The Youth for Justice Project: Engaging Young People in Environmental & Racial Justice Art-Advocacy" featuring a photo-narrative process and project with middle school youth at the intersections of environmental justice, art and advocacy. This work is supported by and affiliated with the Environmental Justice & The Common Good Initiative.

Justin Boren (Communication) presented at the California Labor Lab's Modern Work & Workers' Voices conference. The mission of the California Labor Lab is to extend the pursuit of health and safety for workers in traditional employment to those in a wide range of alternative arrangements in partnership with affected communities. His presentation, "Stress at Work: How Communication Both Harms and Heals Workers" focused on his scholarship relating to how communicative networks can improve workers' experiences. Watch the video of his presentation.

Iris Stewart-Frey (Environmental Studies and Sciences) gave an invited presentation at Stanford University’s Civil Engineering Department on "Climate science, participatory transdisciplinary approaches, and the development of a climate app to build capacity in drought-vulnerable Central America regions" on May 13. A focus of the talk was efforts to center community-based participatory approaches to learn which metrics matter to stakeholders and strengthen locally-led climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. A climate app ('NicaAgua') has been developed by our transdisciplinary team for local capacity building. Much of this work has been done in collaboration with Ed Maurer (CESE), Kerstin Stahl (University of Freiburg), Hugo Hidalgo (University of Costa Rica), Allan Baez Morales (Frugal Innovation Hub), Qiuwen Li (Art and Art History), Raul Diaz (CII-Asdenic) and 20 undergraduate and graduate students from Environmental Studies and Sciences, Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering, Computer Engineering, Art, and Web Design at SCU.

Find out more about the Frugal Innovation Hub Water & Climate Justice Lab.

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar