Campus Briefs

By The Santa Clara

Broncos Read Accepts Nominations

Broncos Read is back and in full swing, looking for smiling students to become the new faces that are strategically placed around campus.

Last week, Vice Provost for Information Services and Chief Information Officer Ron Danielson kicked off the 3rd annual Broncos Read campaign, announcing the opening of the campaign's nomination process in a campus-wide email. 

Helene Lafrance, a member of the Broncos Read Committee, said that the campaign is modeled after the American Library Association's READ posters, which feature celebrities holding their favorite books to celebrate reading. Similar campaigns have been implemented at other universities, including Creighton University in Nebraska. 

The Broncos Read campaign is meant to be a fun way to recognize and honor students, student groups, faculty and staff who have made strong contributions to the Santa Clara community, Lafrance explained. The campaign asks members of the university to nominate students, faculty and staff who embody the university's "3Cs," conscience, competence and compassion.

The winning nominees will be honored during National Library Week in April. They will be photographed for a Broncos Read posters with a book, newspaper, magazine or other reading material of their choice.

Last year's Broncos Read honorees included religious studies professor Sarita Tamayo-Moraga, the women's basketball team, former Santa Clara Review editor Taara Khalilnaji1 and the Kids on Campus staff. Their posters are featured on the first floor of the library.

Broncos Read is becoming more popular each year. 

"Last year, we received close to 90 submissions," said Lafrance.

She also added that the online submission process has helped facilitate the campaign and that the committee has been impressed with the submissions they have received.

LaFrance said that the nominations are evaluated by the Broncos Read Committee, which include three members of the university library staff, a student and a faculty member. 

"Some people get nominated more than once, so we take this into consideration too," said Lafrance.

This year the Broncos Read Committee may be hiring a student photographer to shoot for a Broncos Read posters, which would offer a student the opportunity to showcase his or her own work.

Professor Chang Introduces New Book

"It was like an adrenaline rush, my heart was racing!" said English and ethnic studies associate professor Juliana Chang, Ph.D., throwing her hands up to her face in a dramatic reenactment.

This past Tuesday, Chang delivered a lecture on her new book "Inhuman Citizenship: Traumatic Enjoyment and Asian American Literature." Chang explained that her desire to focus-in on these particular novels stemmed from the intensely felt reactions she experienced while reading them, stating her emotions to have ranged from sadness and shock to pure exhilaration.

To start the lecture off, Chang gave the audience a general introduction to the subject matters discussed in "Inhuman Citizenship:" racism, trauma and four specific Asian-American novels examined within her book. 

Her vivid demonstration actually creates feelings of trauma to the reader. The remainder of Chang's talk provided a detailed illustration of the in-depth analysis her book details on four different novels.Chang communicates the idea of hyper-visibility versus invisibility when she recited a passage that describes a Filipino woman struggling to grab the attention of salespeople while shopping at a predominantly white shopping center. This example provided the audience with insight into the complexity within different kinds of oppression.

Chang has already begun cooking up some new ideas. She hopes to begin an examination of the film "Flower Drum Song," a Hollywood musical that is filled with clichés and offensive Asian stereotypes.