From the President

Dear Fellow Phi Betes,

Summer 2024 has been marked by significant geopolitical conflicts and tensions. Amid these challenges, unity and collaboration shone brightly during the Paris Olympics. The Games showcased athletes’ dedication and camaraderie, illustrating how individual excellence and mutual support can transcend national borders and geopolitical complexities. We will soon celebrate the achievements of athletes with disabilities in the upcoming Paralympics, exemplifying diverse forms of human excellence.

Amid these global events, education in the liberal arts and sciences remains paramount. Creative and critical thinking fostered through a liberal arts education is essential for addressing the challenges of our time. Whether navigating international tensions, fostering global cooperation and friendships, or promoting inclusivity and accessibility, the skills developed through the liberal arts are invaluable.

I encourage you to visit our website to learn more about upcoming events and to participate in our ongoing meetups and programs. Renewing your membership is simple through our website, thanks to our dedicated communications team.

I wish you all happiness and good health. Please stay cool and hydrated!

Warmly,

Melissa Xanthe Stevens, President

Don’t miss the 38th Asilomar Conference Feb. 14–17, 2025, on page 5

Can you suggest a new venue for our Annual Meeting?

Unfortunately, although we have used the Bancroft for many years, it will no longer be available for our meeting. We are looking for another venue that is centrally located, has adequate parking, and, if possible, access to public transportation and reasonably priced. We are reaching out to you for suggestions for possible venues.  Please contact Jean James via email at jeanejames@comcast.net or text/call her at 415-328-7978 with any ideas you might have and we will take it from there. We want to continue our annual meeting and awards presentations. We just need a space in which to accomplish this.

Scholarship Awards presented at the Bancroft Hotel on April 28, 2024

In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association has honored the following twelve outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $10,000 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives.

Top row: Alex Ullman (English, UC Berkeley), M. Taylor Black (History, UC Davis), Alexia Hernandez (Linguistics, Stanford, Reed Scholarship), Sophie Cushman (Classical Archaeology, UC Berkeley)

Bottom row: Louisa Brandt (History, UC Davis), Seth Zupanc (Medicine, UC San Francisco), Sarah Manney (Law, Stanford Law, Hendess Scholarship), Yisheng Tang (Japanese Language, UC Berkeley)

Not pictured: Brianne Felsher (Jurisprudence and Social Policy, UC Berkeley), S. Freeman (Geography, UC Berkeley), Marilyn Steyert (Biomedical Science, UC San Francisco, Hardardt Scholarship), Yutong Zhan (History, UC Davis, Norall Scholarship)

The Scholarship Committee: Jeff Fenton, Lynne Fovinci, Rona Giffard, Judith Hardardt, Jean James, Joanne Sandstrom (Chair) 

Teaching Excellence Awards presented at the Bancroft April 28, 2024

The Teaching Excellence Award was given to eight teachers nominated by their students. It consists of a Certificate and a $1000 honorarium.

Top row: Erik Ellis (Writing and Rhetoric Studies, Stanford), Peter Minowitz (Political Science, Santa Clara), Giovanni Peri (Economics, UC Davis)

Bottom row: Nasser Zakariya (Rhetoric, UC Berkeley), Olivia Bailey (Philosophy, UC Berkeley, Hasenkamp Award), Sophia Azeb (Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, UC Santa Cruz)

Not pictured: Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg (Legal Studies, UC Berkeley), Wendy Salkin (Philosophy, Stanford)

Teaching Excellence Committee: Andrea Braga, Melisa Lasell, Leilani Miller, Melissa Stevens (Chair)

PBK Teaching Excellence 2024 award-winner,

Wendy Salkin (Philosophy, Stanford), receives APW prize

Wendy Salkin received the 2025 Fred Berger Memorial Prize of the American Philosophical Association.

The APA is pleased to announce that Professor Wendy Salkin has been awarded the 2025 Fred Berger Memorial Prize for her article, “Speaking for Others from the Bench” (Legal Theory 29, no. 2 (2023): 151–84). Salkin will be awarded $500, and a symposium in her honor will be held at the 2025 APA Pacific Division meeting in San Francisco, CA.

Membership Matters – Wild Apricot and AffiniPay put PBKNCA in the ‘cloud’

Since 2021 Phi Beta Kappa members with access to computers have been able to join, renew, register for events and individually control their privacy options. Board members no longer depend on a spreadsheet on the Membership VP’s computer to do their jobs.

Before the move to the cloud, I manually handled over 1,000 transactions a year; now it is less than 200. This means that I can now focus on assisting PBK members who have questions about what PBKNCA offers, and helping the minority of members who have issues navigating the online system or prefer to transact their membership matters offline. For me these are the most important parts of supporting PBKNCA membership.

Pat Kenber, VP Membership.

Upcoming Events

Currently, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association suggests masking for indoor activities.

Note: The price stated for events is for current PBKNCA members; elapsed or non-members (except guests of members) will pay a surcharge. Full event information, and means of credit card payment, are available on our website https://pbknca.com/Events/.

If you won’t be able to make an event, contact O’Neil Dillon at oneilsdillon@gmail.com ASAP, or if it is the day of the event call him at 510-207-8761, as there may be others on the waiting list who will then be able to take your place.

No-shows do NOT receive a ref­­­und! Cancellations probably do.

Sign up for events at https://pbknca.com/Events

To register for an event if you don’t have Internet access,

please contact O’Neil Dillon, cell 510-207-8761.

Honk! On the Road to a Car Museum, August 24, 2024, 11:00 AM. Members $25, Non-members $40

Come join a docent-led tour of the California Automobile Museum, housing a collection of over 150 classic cars, race cars, muscle cars and early models. Displays range from a 1900 Locomobile Steam Car up to today’s electric cars. Be sure to check out the Glamour Road exhibit (August 5th to late October) highlighting color, fashion, style and the mid-century automobile.

Located in downtown Sacramento, the museum’s mission is to educate and entertain while preserving and promoting the automobile and its influence on our lives. https://pbknca.com/event-5731580

Young Professionals: Join us for a coffee/tea meet-and-greet. Sept. 7

The Phi Beta Kappa Young Professionals Committee is hosting a meet-and-greet on Saturday, September 7th from 9:30 to 11:30am at Blue Bottle Coffee in Palo Alto (456 University Avenue. Palo Alto, CA 94301) where you can meet other recent Phi Beta Kappa graduates. If attendees would like to order beverages/food, they should expect to pay out of pocket. We hope to see you there! 

https://pbknca.com/event-5830152

Museum Tour/Sake Tasting at Takara Sake. Oct. 11, Signup Cutoff Sept 15. Berkeley. 1-3 PM, Members $40, Non-Members $50.

This is a golden opportunity to visit one of the few sake-producer tasting rooms in the U.S.  We will also be treated to a private tour of the on-site museum.

Takara’s Junmai sake production achieves a delicate balance between traditional sake-making craftsmanship and advanced sake brewing technology.  The Berkeley facility produces the flagship “Sho Chiku Bai” brand of premium sake.

The tasting room is a work of art in itself, designed by world-famous architect Don Hisaka.

The Sake Museum covers ancient sake-making techniques and the fusion with modern technology, creating a rich tapestry of tradition and innovation.

https://pbknca.com/event-5825527 or contact Libby Tyler ehtyler6@gmail.com 217-493-4372 for info.

Mary Cassatt, An American In Paris - at the Legion of Honor. Nov. 15

Join Claire and David Cunningham for the museum visit, lunch, and discussion.

See the work of this unique American artist who spent much of her life in France and was a close friend and artistic colleague of Edgar Degas.  Cassatt was both an artist of great merit in France and a promoter of French art in the US.

Too often dismissed as a sentimental painter of mothers and children, Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was in fact a modernist pioneer.  Her paintings, pastels, and prints are characterized by restless experimentation and change.

See website for pricing; https://pbknca.com/event-5805124  or contact O’Neil Dillon, cell 510-207-8761.

38th Annual Asilomar Conference Feb 14–17, 2025

Register now for 2025 at https://pbknca.com/event-5621925, or use coupon on page 2 of the PDF hardcopy.

A few of our scheduled speakers are

Seth Zupanc, PBKNCA Scholarship Awardee, 2024 (UC San Francisco, Medicine)

Communication With End-Of-Life Patients

A current doctoral student in at UCSF, Seth is working to develop innovative ways to identify and measure what matters most to patients facing life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses. Patients' goals and wishes, however, are often documented in the free-text of clinical notes rather than in the medical record. At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Seth has been collaborating on a research stream that seeks to develop natural language processing software to make it easier to find the needle of patients' wishes in the haystack of the medical records.

Professors have noted that Seth is "passionate and knowledgeable across a broad range of issues" and is a "rare combination of prolific researcher and compassionate physician." 

Dr. Franklin Utchen, DVM.  University of Illinois: PBK and Biology in 1982, DVM in 1986

The Fountain of Woof

We all know someone who considers themselves to be a "dog parent", someone who is taking their dogs on vacations, organizing their daily lives around walk schedules, and going through the entire grief cycle when their pet's time comes to be put down.  With 97% of owners viewing their pets like family members, how do we ensure our canine companions are living their best life for as long as they can? Dr. Franklin Utchen will delve into the burgeoning field of biogerontology (the science of aging), exploring how the latest scientific research can be applied to both dogs and humans. Dr. Utchen will present insights into the science of longevity and practical strategies for enhancing the health and lifespan of our canine companions, drawing on his personal experience as a veterinarian with over 35 years of daily practice and the extensive knowledge detailed in his groundbreaking book of the same name, "The Fountain of Woof". His discussion will cover cutting-edge findings from research on aging in dogs, and will also address how these principles can be translated into human applications.  This research will give you the information you need to ensure your dog is by your side - and you are by theirs - for many more memorable years.

Dr. Franklin Utchen is a veterinarian, business owner, and author from the greater Chicago area who graduated with honors from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 1986 and moved to California, soon after, co-founding Norris Canyon Veterinary Medical Center in San Ramon, CA.  In 2000, he led the merger with another practice to form Bishop Ranch Veterinary Center (BRVC), also in San Ramon, which has been included on several lists featuring the best veterinary practices in the Bay Area.  Dr. Utchen shared his veterinary insights as a regular contributor to the East Bay Times for several years, and hosted an informational series on local radio.  Dr. Utchen blends his extensive experience with scientific research to offer innovative insights into canine health and longevity in his upcoming book "The Fountain of Woof", available fall 2024.  Now semi-retired, he focuses on mentoring veterinarians, backpacking, playing guitar, and enjoying time with his daughters, continuing to influence the field of veterinary medicine through his work and writings.

Esther Yu, PBKNCA Teaching Excellence Awardee, 2023 (Stanford University, Literature)

The Tender Conscience (Victorian feminist literature)

 As a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, Dr. Yu has been working on a forthcoming book, Experiencing the Novel: The Genre of Tender Conscience, which argues that subjects in seventeenth-century England claimed political voices through identifying as what they called “tender consciences.” The convictions of Yu’s research have thoroughly informed her pedagogy even during these trying times for, as early modern “tender consciences” realized, developing dispositions of care and sensitivity—even to texts that seem strange or initially difficult or irrelevant—can yield world-historical consequences.            

Yu is especially mindful of the cultural divide that makes it difficult to ask students grappling with so many crises at once to read epic poems and epistolary novels with the intense receptivity that they require. But it is a challenge she feels compelled to take up, not least because of her own relationship as a postcolonial subject and minority scholar to the archive of English literature. Yu encourages students from diverse backgrounds to recognize the creative, transformative possibilities that attend experiences of textual distance and cultural alienation or hostility.

Doug Christie, PBK Visiting Scholar for 2025 (Loyola Marymount University, Professor Emeritus, Theological Studies and Ecology)

Thinking Like A Mountain: Contemplative Ecology In The Anthropocene

The environmental thinker Aldo Leopold once asked: can we learn to "think like a mountain?" That is, can we learn to re-center our thinking, our ethics, our spiritual practice–beyond our own narrow concerns and within the living world? In this moment of global climate change, we are returning to this question with a new sense of urgency, asking ourselves what it will mean for us to relinquish control and learn to live with greater regard for the natural world. This lecture will consider what it will mean for us to cultivate an eco-centric, contemplative spiritual practice in the Anthropocene.

Professor Christie is the author of The Word in The Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (Oxford, 1993), The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Note for a Contemplative Ecology (Oxford, 2013), and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss and the Common Life (Oxford, 2022). He has been awarded fellowships from the Luce Foundation, the Lilly Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 2013-2015 he served as Co-director of the Casa de la Mateada study abroad program in Córdoba, Argentina, a program rooted in the Jesuit vision of education for solidarity. He lives with his family in Los Angeles, and is currently working on a book on the desert as spiritual landscape.

Past, Present, and Future of Treasure Island, Sept 28, 2024, 10:30 AM Members $30, Non-members $45 Waitlisted

Treasure Island Museum, housed in the historic Art Moderne Golden Gate International Exposition Administration

Building, which was also the air terminal for the Pan American Clipper Ships. The second hour will be a 3-mile walking tour of the island with sun and wind exposure, but is easy walking. Gourmet snacks, a bar and restaurants are close by for those wanting to stay for lunch https://pbknca.com/event-5731579.

Dogpatch Art Walk, Saturday, October 05, 2024, 11 AM. $40 Members, $50 Non-members - Waitlisted

This exclusive, guided tour of contemporary art will begin at the Minnesota Street Project, a three-warehouse complex dedicated to educating the public through exhibitions, galleries and programs. Led by collector, traveler and art historian Rhoda Becker; participants will have access to galleries, meet owners and collectors, speak with artists, and get an insider’s perspective on this vibrant contemporary art community. Our guide will have previewed the most current exhibits and created a varied itinerary showcasing current artists and works. The Project recommends allowing three hours to view all galleries and visit with the creatives.

The Minnesota Street Project is in Dogpatch, which is the Bay Area’s new epicenter of innovation, craft and artistic expression. The Museum of Craft and Design, the California College of the Arts, the San Francisco Center for the Book, entrepreneurial ventures, and various art spaces make this an internationally recognized art destination. After the tour, people may want to explore this vibrant area further.

Nearby cafes are available for lunch and refreshments, or bring your own and eat in the nearby park.

When: October 05, 2024, Time: 11 a.m., Length: 3 hours
Where: The Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St. San Francisco
Cost: members $40 ($15 for scholarships), Non-members $50 ($25 goes for scholarships)
Parking: Ample street parking

Reservations at https://pbknca.com/event-5381075 or contact O'Neil Dillon at  510-207-8761 or at  oneilsdillon@ gmail.com

PBKNCA Attends the 47th Triennial in Baltimore MD

PBKNCA's Treasurer Audrey Utchen (right) and Asilomar Chair Dierdre Frontczak (left, attending on behalf of the Santa Clara University chapter) attended the Phi Beta Kappa Triennial Council in Baltimore, MD from August 1st to August 3rd.  The Triennial Council is Phi Beta Kappa's legislative body, which convenes every three years to conduct Society business. This year was the Society's first in-person Triennial Council since 2018 and had nearly 300 voting delegates from chapters and associations representing organizations across the country, in addition to Society executives and Senators. 

Nationals organized programming across three days, with specific breakout sessions for chapters and associations. On the association track we learned about ways to enhance the alumni experience and strategies to ensure continuity of our boards, and connected with other associations to exchange best practices. Another memorable session for the entire delegation covered the plans for Phi Beta Kappa's 250th anniversary, coming in 2026.  There are programming ideas for a national event series, plans to encourage partnership with local organizations to increase name recognition of the Society outside of our members, and potentially even have a national gala in celebration of this important milestone.  Keep an eye out in the coming months for ways you can engage with PBKNCA to mark this historic occasion. The Society also honored Ayanna Thompson with the Sidney Hook Award and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with the Distinguished Service to the Humanities Award, and we heard from them about their work and their view on the future of the arts and sciences.

In addition to the learning opportunities at Triennial, the Council conducted official Society business over the three days.  The main point of discussion was around proposed changes to the stipulations of membership.  Much of the conversation centered around potential adjustments of the language requirement, which had a lot of debate, and Nationals will take the feedback from the Council to the Senate meeting later this fall to review the recommendations.  Additional official business included voting on new Society Senators and leadership, and approving new charters for chapters at College of Charleston in South Carolina, Gonzaga University in Washington, and Texas State University in southern Texas.

The next Triennial Council will be held in 2027 in the Western District.  You can find minutes from prior Triennials on the Society's website here.  Questions about this year's Triennial?  Reach out to PBKNCA Treasurer Audrey Utchen at audrey.utchen@gmail.com

There is an ongoing virtual book club open to interested members.

Contact Program VP O'Neil Dillon at oneilsdillon@gmail.com