Spark Seminars 2022 - Santa Clara University

Spark Seminar 2022

Spark Seminars are a unique opportunity for SCU undergraduate students to engage with interested peers around challenging questions, learn with faculty they may not otherwise meet, and get to know a University leader outside of their formal role on campus.

How can students participate?

Spark Seminars are open to all undergraduate students at SCU. We hope the wide range of disciplines and topics offered will provide opportunities for students to explore social justice topics that capture their imagination.

Spark Seminars are listed in CourseAvail under UGST 100.
Seminars will meet once each week during weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5 of spring quarter 2023.
Courses are 1 unit and graded P/NP.

Enrollment will be kept small, so register before these fill up!

DRUGS, POLICIES, AND RACE

Professor Patti Simone (Psychology) with Hon. Risë Jones Pichon

Seminar Description

2021 marked the 50th anniversary of America’s “war on drugs”, and the impact this policy has had particularly on the incarceration of black and brown Americans is substantial. This seminar focuses on the impact of drugs of abuse and policies related to these drugs on individuals, groups and society.

UGST 100, #44807

Tuesdays, 3:50 – 5:30 pm

Dr. Patti Simone

Patti Simone received her Ph.D. from University of California, San Diego and has been a member of the Psychology Department at Santa Clara for more than 25 years. Some of her earlier research examined the effects of various drugs on behavior including the effect of scopolamine, an anticholinergic and psychedelic, on memory and attention. In addition to teaching several classes in psychology, she also has taught courses in Public Health, Neuroscience, and for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at SCU. By far her favorite class to teach is psychopharmacology, where she gets to engage in conversations with students about the effects of drugs on the brain, behavior, and society. Professor Simone received the Louis and Dorina Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence in 2014.

Risë Jones Pichon

Judge Pichon is a member of the Santa Clara University Board of Regents and currently serves as its Chair. She is also a member of the Law School Advisory Board and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Advisory Board. Judge Pichon was a superior court judge for the County of Santa Clara from 1998 until her retirement in 2019. She was elected to serve as presiding judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court in 2015 and 2016, and she is the first minority judge to serve in this position. Prior to her role on the superior court, Judge Pichon served as a municipal court judge and court commissioner. Judge Pichon earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and her Juris Doctor degree from Santa Clara University. She received an honorary doctorate from SCU in 2020.

IMAGINING THE NEW UNIVERSITY

Professor Jesica Fernández (Ethnic Studies) with Vice President Shá Duncan Smith

Seminar Description

In 1968, the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a collective of student activists in San Francisco, Berkeley and the Greater Bay Area, came together to organize a movement to decolonize the university. Today, decades later, students continue to advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, voice and representation in higher education. In this seminar we will engage with these histories, as well as the contemporary experiences of student organizers and activists. Together, and in community, we will imagine the New University, engage radical hope, and pursue opportunities for solidarity-in-action to create a more just and inclusive SCU.

UGST 100, #44804

Thursdays, 12:10 – 1:50 pm

Jesica Siham Fernández

Jesica Siham Fernández is the author of Growing Up Latinx: Coming of Age in a Time of Contested Citizenship (New York University Press, 2021). As a transdisciplinary scholar, Fernández’s book explores the lives of Latinx youth as they grapple with their social and political identities from an early age in an increasingly hostile political climate that shapes their school, family, and community experiences of belonging.

Trained as a social-community psychologist, Fernández completed her Ph.D. in social psychology with an emphasis in Latin American and Latino studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her pedagogy is deeply interconnected with her activist-scholarship and the opportunities she fosters to support students as producers and holders of knowledge-research skill collective power. Fernández completed a year-long course in Effective Teaching Practices from ACUE in 2019-20, and she received the Dr. John B. Drahmann Advising Award in 2020.

Shá Duncan Smith

As Santa Clara’s first Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Duncan Smith oversees the Division of Inclusive Excellence at SCU. She provides vision, leadership, and direction for SCU’s current and future diversity initiatives. Previously, Duncan Smith has held a variety of progressively responsible leadership roles at Swarthmore College, University of Michigan, and the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center. She has over 18 years of experience developing and implementing strategic plans and initiatives to promote diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures for students, faculty and staff.

LEGACIES OF WWII CONCENTRATION CAMPS ON THE JAPANESE-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

Professor Takeshi Moro (Art and Art History) with Acting President Lisa Kloppenberg

Seminar Description

In this seminar, we will explore how the Japanese-American community has lived through the legacies of historical injustices and discrimination. We will hear the stories of tragedies, perseverance, and triumph — not necessarily in that order. Through discussions and reflections, we explore how this history relates to us in Santa Clara and beyond. We will consider cultural influences such as food and art in the SF Bay Area.

UGST 100, #44805

Mondays, 3:30 – 5:15 pm

Takeshi Moro

Takeshi Moro was born in Japan, raised in the U.K. and currently works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Moro studied photography at Rhode Island School of Design and holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from Brown University. He completed his M.F.A. graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Moro’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Serlachius Museot, Finland. His work resides in the permanent collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, as well as in various private collections. Moro was named a Faculty Fellow in the SCU Center for Arts and Humanities in 2017.

Lisa Kloppenberg

Acting President Kloppenberg is a distinguished administrator, lawyer, and educator with a passion for advancing Jesuit values and tradition. She joined Santa Clara University in 2013, serving as dean of the law school and interim provost, and was named Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in March 2020 before transitioning to the role of Acting President in March 2021. As a law scholar, she is well-known for her expertise in Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Constitutional Law.

RACIAL DISPARITIES IN HEALTH OUTCOMES AND MEDIA

Professor Chan Thai (Communication) with Assistant Provost Melissa McAlexander

Seminar Description

Drawing on the instructor’s training in public health, health psychology, and media effects, this seminar will expose students to ways in which different identity groups may experience vastly different outcomes, spanning the topics of public health (COVID-19), SCU student mental health, access to media, and representation in media.

UGST 100, #44808

Thursdays, 2:00 – 3:40 pm

Chan Thai	Chan Thai joined the Department of Communication at Santa Clara University in 2016. She teaches courses on communication and technology, health communication, and the strategic design of communication campaigns to promote behavior change. Her areas of research include measuring the effectiveness of media literacy interventions, designing and evaluating nutrition education interventions, cancer communication, and using national data sets to understand population level health behaviors. Thai has a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara and was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute. She received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Service Award in 2018.
Melissa McAlexander	Melissa McAlexander joined SCU in late 2021 as Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives. In this role, she is currently supporting the efforts to transform mental health services at SCU, serving as an Inclusive Excellence Liaison, and supporting the Provosts’ efforts with campus Remap project and the First Year Experience. Prior to joining SCU, McAlexander was a faculty member and an administrator at Notre Dame de Namur University for 15 years, including serving as Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs as well as Special Assistant to the President.

Chan Thai

Chan Thai joined the Department of Communication at Santa Clara University in 2016. She teaches courses on communication and technology, health communication, and the strategic design of communication campaigns to promote behavior change. Her areas of research include measuring the effectiveness of media literacy interventions, designing and evaluating nutrition education interventions, cancer communication, and using national data sets to understand population level health behaviors. Thai has a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara and was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute. She received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Service Award in 2018.

Melissa McAlexander

Melissa McAlexander joined SCU in late 2021 as Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives. In this role, she is currently supporting the efforts to transform mental health services at SCU, serving as an Inclusive Excellence Liaison, and supporting the Provosts’ efforts with campus Remap project and the First Year Experience. Prior to joining SCU, McAlexander was a faculty member and an administrator at Notre Dame de Namur University for 15 years, including serving as Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs as well as Special Assistant to the President.

READING & WRITING (IN) JUSTICE

Professor Robin Tremblay-McGaw with UMC Assistant Director Tatiana Sanchez

Seminar Description

In this seminar we will consider the power, possibilities, and potential limitations of writing and reading for resisting and eradicating injustice and enacting justice. Throughout our lively discussions and experiments, we’ll also want to consider how this work happens, or doesn’t, inside and outside of various institutions—universities, prisons, government—and the role of action and activism elsewhere.

UGST 100, #44809

Thursdays, 2:00 – 3:40 pm

Tremblay-McGaw	Robin Tremblay-McGaw's (M.L.I.S., University of California Berkeley; Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz) interests include writing and rhetoric, film, poetics and poetry, multimodal projects, narrative and narrative theory, feminist and queer theory, and critical race theory. She teaches a variety of courses at SCU, including “Critical Thinking and Writing: Art, Culture and Social Justice”; and “Film, Gender & Sexuality: Spider Women, Butterflies & Renegades.” Tremblay-McGaw is the co-editor with Rob Halpern of From Our Hearts to Yours: New Narrative as Contemporary Practice. Her book of poems, Dear Reader (Ithuriel's Spear) came out in August 2015. Tremblay-McGaw completed a year-long course in Effective Teaching Practices in 2019-20, and she was named an SCU Center for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellow for the 2020-21 academic year.
Tatiana Sanchez	Tatiana Sanchez is the assistant director for storytelling in University Marketing and Communications at SCU. Sanchez graduated from SCU in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in English, and she earned a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School. Prior to returning to SCU, Sanchez worked as an immigration reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and as the race and demographics reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. She was part of the East Bay Times team that won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting for their coverage of the tragic 2016 Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. While a student at SCU, Sanchez served as the opinion-page editor at The Santa Clara, the university’s award-winning student newspaper.

Tremblay-McGaw

Robin Tremblay-McGaw's (M.L.I.S., University of California Berkeley; Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz) interests include writing and rhetoric, film, poetics and poetry, multimodal projects, narrative and narrative theory, feminist and queer theory, and critical race theory. She teaches a variety of courses at SCU, including “Critical Thinking and Writing: Art, Culture and Social Justice”; and “Film, Gender & Sexuality: Spider Women, Butterflies & Renegades.” Tremblay-McGaw is the co-editor with Rob Halpern of From Our Hearts to Yours: New Narrative as Contemporary Practice. Her book of poems, Dear Reader (Ithuriel's Spear) came out in August 2015. Tremblay-McGaw completed a year-long course in Effective Teaching Practices in 2019-20, and she was named an SCU Center for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellow for the 2020-21 academic year.

Tatiana Sanchez

Tatiana Sanchez is the assistant director for storytelling in University Marketing and Communications at SCU. Sanchez graduated from SCU in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in English, and she earned a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School. Prior to returning to SCU, Sanchez worked as an immigration reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and as the race and demographics reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. She was part of the East Bay Times team that won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting for their coverage of the tragic 2016 Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. While a student at SCU, Sanchez served as the opinion-page editor at The Santa Clara, the university’s award-winning student newspaper.

SOWING STORIES

Professor Melissa Donegan (English) with Dean Daniel Press

Seminar Description

In this seminar, we will explore the benefits of gardening, including growing delicious vegetables, fostering community, and boosting wellbeing. Access to fresh food is a matter of public health and social justice, so we will discuss ways to support sustainability and empower people to grow greener. Let's meet at the Forge Garden, get our hands in the soil, tell stories, and share what we harvest.

UGST 100, #44803

Tuesdays, 10:20 am – noon in the Forge Garden

Melissa Donegan	Melissa Donegan earned a degree in English from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Nineteenth-Century British Women’s Literature from the University of Iowa. She has been teaching at Santa Clara since 2010. Her Critical Thinking and Writing classes investigate themes of home, stuff, and sustainability with an emphasis on epistolary texts. She also teaches “Writing Well(ness): Narratives of Illness, Loss, and Recovery,” an Advanced Writing course. She completed a year-long course in Effective Teaching Practices with ACUE in 2018-19. She enjoys hiking in the foothills of South San Jose, where she relishes seeing bobcats, coyotes, quails, Cooper’s hawks, and rattlesnakes, who remind her to slow down and pay attention.
Daniel Press	Daniel Press joined Santa Clara University as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July 2020. He came to SCU from UC Santa Cruz where he taught for 28 years. He also served as UC Santa Cruz’s executive director of the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems—an educational, research, and public service organization dedicated to increasing ecological sustainability and addressing social justice in the food system. An environmental policy expert, Press served for six years on the California Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, and has advised several land trusts and an environmental education non-governmental organization.

Melissa Donegan

Melissa Donegan earned a degree in English from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Nineteenth-Century British Women’s Literature from the University of Iowa. She has been teaching at Santa Clara since 2010. Her Critical Thinking and Writing classes investigate themes of home, stuff, and sustainability with an emphasis on epistolary texts. She also teaches “Writing Well(ness): Narratives of Illness, Loss, and Recovery,” an Advanced Writing course. She completed a year-long course in Effective Teaching Practices with ACUE in 2018-19. She enjoys hiking in the foothills of South San Jose, where she relishes seeing bobcats, coyotes, quails, Cooper’s hawks, and rattlesnakes, who remind her to slow down and pay attention.

Daniel Press

Daniel Press joined Santa Clara University as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July 2020. He came to SCU from UC Santa Cruz where he taught for 28 years. He also served as UC Santa Cruz’s executive director of the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems—an educational, research, and public service organization dedicated to increasing ecological sustainability and addressing social justice in the food system. An environmental policy expert, Press served for six years on the California Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, and has advised several land trusts and an environmental education non-governmental organization.

TECHNOLOGY, RACE, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Professor Sreela Sarkar (Communication) with Dean Ed Grier

Seminar Description

This seminar examines the close connections between technology and racial inequalities. Possible topics include algorithms and racial bias, the consequences of voice and facial recognition programs for BIPOC communities, the lived realities of the gig economy for marginalized individuals, work and labor concerns within the tech industry, and the use of new media for social justice. This is a discussion-oriented class with contemporary examples from the global world.

UGST 100, #44806

Tuesdays, 2:00 – 3:40 pm

Sreela Sarkar	Sreela Sarkar is Associate Professor of Communication at Santa Clara University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her ethnographic research, based in New Delhi, has critically studied computer “skilling” initiatives for low income, minority women that claim to bring economic and social change in global India. Going beyond questions of the “digital divide” and “access,” Sarkar’s research examines how complex identities of class, caste, religion, and gender intersect with these new social change initiatives. Her research has been published in several Communication and STS journals and she has been an invited speaker at leading institutions in the US and globally. Sarkar teaches courses on social movements, on inequalities in Silicon Valley, on global media and culture among others, and is currently Faculty Director of the CyPhi Residential Learning Community.
Ed Grier	Ed Grier joined SCU in 2021 as Dean of the Leavey School of Business. Prior to joining SCU, Grier was Dean of the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University. He joined VCU in 2010 after a successful 29-year career with Walt Disney Company, where he served in a variety of progressively more-responsible roles around the globe, including president of the $2 billion, 20,000-employee Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Dean Grier is a sought-after speaker on topics including diversity, leadership, and corporate creativity.

Sreela Sarkar

Sreela Sarkar is Associate Professor of Communication at Santa Clara University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her ethnographic research, based in New Delhi, has critically studied computer “skilling” initiatives for low income, minority women that claim to bring economic and social change in global India. Going beyond questions of the “digital divide” and “access,” Sarkar’s research examines how complex identities of class, caste, religion, and gender intersect with these new social change initiatives. Her research has been published in several Communication and STS journals and she has been an invited speaker at leading institutions in the US and globally. Sarkar teaches courses on social movements, on inequalities in Silicon Valley, on global media and culture among others, and is currently Faculty Director of the CyPhi Residential Learning Community.

Ed Grier

Ed Grier joined SCU in 2021 as Dean of the Leavey School of Business. Prior to joining SCU, Grier was Dean of the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University. He joined VCU in 2010 after a successful 29-year career with Walt Disney Company, where he served in a variety of progressively more-responsible roles around the globe, including president of the $2 billion, 20,000-employee Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Dean Grier is a sought-after speaker on topics including diversity, leadership, and corporate creativity.