Summer reads: Recommendations from Santa Clara

Research and reading from Santa Clara University for your consideration—Big ideas, better living, and good reads from faculty and staff.

Big Ideas

Pope Francis launched a worldwide conversation about technology and faith. With calls for an ethical framework for AI, Pope Leo continues the Church’s focus on technology that serves humanity. (In fact, Leo’s choice of papal name could be a nod to a previous Pope Leo. Known as the Pope of the Workers, Leo XIII advocated for workers during a different technological upheaval—the Industrial Revolution.) In Encountering Artificial Intelligence: Ethical and Anthropological Investigations, ethicists, researchers, and thinkers consider AI through a Christian lens, posing new ethical questions and pondering how technology can challenge our understanding of the human. Contributors include associate teaching professor and director of the ethics program in engineering Matthew J. Gaudet, JST assistant professor Jeremiah Coogan, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics director of religious and Catholic ethics David DeCosse, and the center’s director of technology ethics Brian Patrick Green.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have become increasingly aware of the ways in which complex international supply chains impact what lands on store shelves. New trade negotiations and tariffs under the second Trump Administration continue to highlight how much there is to understand about where and how everyday products move around the globe. In Supply Chain Finance: Mechanisms, Risk Analytics, and Technology,  readers learn from George (Gangshu) Cai, a Leavey School of Business professor and co-chair of the department of information systems and analytics. He details how supply chains are financed, what makes them efficient, and how to analyze risks.

The Pope and the Pandemic: Lessons in Leadership in a Time of Crisis by JST Dean Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator S.J., examines Pope Francis’s leadership during the global pandemic, offering a model of guidance and inspiration for navigating moments of profound crisis.

A Theology of Flourishing: The Fullness of Life for All Creation, by associate professor of religious studies Paul J. Schutz, invites readers to consider “flourishing” as a central concept for Christian theology and spirituality. This book explores how fostering the fullness of life for all creation can inspire robust action for ecological and social justice, offering a hopeful vision for our interconnected world.

Better Living

Through research and anecdote, Leavey School of Business professor Meir Statman asks why people work for money, rather than letting money work for them in A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance.  Statman, the co-father of behavioral finance, brings his years of life experience and academic thought to lay out the ways people use money that may not serve their actual well-being, and highlights paths to using money to better fit readers’ lives.

Psychology professor Thomas Plante, S.J. offers evidence-based strategies for dropping unhealthy behaviors in Health Behavior Change: Proven Strategies for a Longer and Healthier Life.  The book tackles common problem areas like diet, sleep, and exercise with tools for building a healthier life.

Amazing reads

The life story of Professor Francisco Jimenez is well known to most of the Bronco family. It has been captured in his biographical books and in film. In 2024, a new version came to life when a graphic novel edition of The Circuit was published. It tells the story of a young boy and his family working in the California fields, longing for educational opportunities and a place to be accepted.

In the acclaimed What the Fireflies Knew, English professor Kai Harris weaves a coming-of-age story of change, uprooting, and family secrets that spans a single summer. Readers follow the young KB as she rebuilds her life and herself.

What does it mean to live through change? To grab life despite its hardships? In the book of poetry, Mausoleum of Flowers, English professor Daniel B. Summerhill explores life, death, spirituality, and rebellion through prose.

Broncos reading together

Alumni can join the Bronco book club, which includes great reads and great reads from Broncos. The group is currently reading White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton. It tells the story of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan as she reclaims her identity and fights for her family. The group has also read Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini. It examines how AI could change humanity.

This year’s Santa Clara community reads book is an opportunity for a shared intellectual experience. Recommended to students, faculty, staff, and Broncos, this year’s selection is We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy by Eboo Pate. It speaks directly to the current moment in its call to “construct as much as critique and collaborate more than oppose.” Throughout the year, SCU will host events around the discussions sparked by the book.