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UCI Social Sciences 
E-News


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Welcome to the August 2013 issue of the Social Sciences eNews!




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Social Sciences
in the Media

Immigrants and crime
Rumbaut, Wall Street Journal

10 missteps Obama made at Knox
Neumark, Morningstar News

Revenge of the physicists: how nerds turn models into money
Weatherall, New Zealand Herald

Fact check: Steve King says valedictorians and drug smugglers could be legalized
Rumbaut, ABC News

For Bitcoin to work as money...
Maurer, New World Notes

Study: Mothers' status affects student performance
Bean and Brown, Orange County Register

Three men, three ages. Which do you like?
Neumark, New York Times and Idaho Statesmen

Kollaboration talent show features UC Irvine grads
Kim, '09 economics, Orange County Register

Letters: Sunday Dialogue: The Meaning of 'Race'
Rumbaut, New York Times

Wearing privilege
Lee, Society Pages

Asiana jokes: Racist or just bad taste?
Kim, CNN and KRCRTV.com

Egypt after the coup: Only the beginning of the beginning
Wolf, Baker Institute Blog

'Living wage' laws create both winners and losers
Neumark, NPR

'Living wage' measures hurt the young, unskilled workers the most
Neumark, Washington Examiner

Wal-Mart faceoff with DC fuels minimum wage debate
Neumark, Yahoo Finance and Times.com

Is fear of immigrant criminals overblown?
Rumbaut, ABC News

Hudson high grad named dean at UC Irvine
Maurer, Register-Star

The world of alternative currencies
Maurer, NPR

Boehner caught in immigration labyrinth
DeSipio, Cincinnati.com and AZ Central

Learning through gaming
Ito, Orange County Register

For California's Latinos, population milestone is "call to action"
DeSipio, NBC Latino

A fresh perspective on American life
DeSipio, Orange County Register

In San Francisco BART strike, both sides feel the heat
Meyer, Christian Science Monitor

Mexican American mobility (Op-ed)
Bean and Brown, Los Angeles Times


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Social sciences recognizes outstanding faculty researchers

Awards carry $5,000 prize to support continued research

Two UCI political scientists and an economist have been named 2012-13 recipients of research awards from the School of Social Sciences. Each honor carries a $5,000 prize. Sara Wallace Goodman, political science assistant professor, is this year's recipient of the Social Sciences Assistant Professor Research Award. Established in 2005, the honor recognizes research excellence accompanied by a strong project proposal from a junior faculty member in social sciences. Goodman joined the UCI faculty in 2009, following a six month post doctoral fellowship at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She specializes in citizenship politics of Western European countries and the U.S., focusing on immigrant integration, national identity and immigration policy making. Her 2012-13 winning research proposal focuses on politics of citizenship in Israel.

Matthew Beckmann, political science associate professor, and Jiawei Chen, economics associate professor, are recipients of the Social Sciences Associate Professor Research Award. The award was established in 2011-12 to recognize research excellence and project proposals by newly tenured faculty in social sciences. A member of the UCI political science faculty since 2004, Beckmann studies Washington politics and key leadership styles different presidents bring to the Oval Office. His supported research proposal examines bipartisanship in Washington. Chen specializes in industrial organization, econometrics and finance, using economic models to study how different factors impact markets. He joined the UCI faculty in 2005. His research proposal supported by social sciences is titled, "Dual Dynamics in Markets with Network Effects."

Read on...




Surviving success

Robnett-Olsen studies relevancy of political organizations following social movement success

Belinda Robnett-Olsen, sociology professor, has received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to analyze and chronicle the history of black political organizations in the U.S. from 1970-present. Using archival materials from the NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Conference and news reports from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and African-American newspapers, she will detail how organizations have restructured and refocused in the 40 years following the peak of the civil rights movement. Findings will contribute to her book on how political organizations regroup to stay relevant in the wake of social movement success.

Read on...




Neumark receives grant to study age discrimination

Findings may help policy makers develop laws to help older workers reenter the job market

David Neumark, economics Chancellor's Professor and Center for Economics & Public Policy director, has received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study age discrimination in employer hiring practices. As the U.S. population continues to age, the dependency ratio rises. Extending the work life of older workers could help lower this ratio by increasing tax revenues and decreasing public expenditures on insurance and retirement. Age discrimination in employer hiring practices, however, may limit this trajectory. Findings from this study will help policy makers understand if discrimination is a factor and if so, identify areas in which policies could be created to combat it.

Read on...




Goodman receives 2013 Hellman Fellowship

Award recognizes junior faculty member for research excellence

Sara Wallace Goodman, political science assistant professor, has been awarded a 2013-14 Hellman Fellowship. Awarded by UCI's Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, the honor recognizes outstanding assistant professors for research excellence. The $10,000 award will support Goodman's research on the effects of citizenship education on a naturalizing immigrant's perception of belonging and American identity. Goodman is an expert on citizenship politics. She received her bachelor's in political science from Miami University (Ohio) and her doctorate in government from Georgetown University.

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Pullum receives National Science Foundation fellowship

Honor supports grad student's research on decision making processes of teachers' unions

Amanda Pullum, sociology graduate student, has received a $12,000 National Science Foundation fellowship to study the strategic decision making processes teachers' unions use when responding to legislative threats. Her research will help to shed light upon factors that have the most influence on strategic choices and subsequent decisions. Funding for her study will run through June 2014. Pullum received her master's in sociology and bachelor's in biology and interdisciplinary studies from Virginia Tech.

Read on...




Tang receives competitive York Fellowship

Award supports research on Chinese politics

Beijie Tang, political science graduate student, is the recipient of a Herbert F. York Global Security Dissertation Fellowship from the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. The award supports her research on interactions between domestic politics and international behavior in China, an interest that stems from her lived experiences. A Chinese native, Tang grew up in Shanghai before the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She spent her adolescence and early adult life experiencing the growing pains of a changing nation under Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Open-Door program. A member of the so-called "post-70s generation," she participated in the Shanghai pro- Tiananmen mass protest in 1989. The experience led her to pursue a major in political science after she immigrated to the U.S. in 2004.

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Norman receives fellowship to study citizenship policies in Middle East and Africa

Two-year funding begins in September

Kelsey Norman, political science graduate student, has received a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada Fellowship to study factors that cause Middle Eastern and North African states to liberalize their citizenship policies to allow outsiders to become members. Funding for the two-year, $40,000 study begins in September and runs through August 2015. Norman is currently living with a host family in the historic city of Meknes, Morocco where she has been studying Arabic as part of the U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarship Program.

Read on...




Reddy receives grant from American Institute of Physics

Funding will support the anthropology grad student's research on seismic science

Elizabeth Reddy, anthropology graduate student, has received a grant from the American Institute of Physics to support her dissertation research on seismic science and public policy in Mexico City. With the institute's funding, she will travel to the Niels Bohr Library and Archive in College Park, Maryland to study a collection of oral history interviews conducted with geophysicists in Mexico. Reddy is a fourth year graduate student with a master's in social science from the University of Chicago, where she studied Mexican public policy. She has previously conducted research at Northwestern University's Institute for Healthcare Studies on the health care and self-care systems of kidney patients and their families.

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Wan receives fellowship to study in Japan

Fellowship supports the recent grad's research on nuclear proliferation

Wilfred Wan, '13 political science Ph.D., is one of a select group of U.S. graduate students to be named a 2013-14 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellow. Awarded by the Social Science Research Council, the fellowship will allow Wan to spend the next year in Japan studying alongside leading nuclear proliferation researchers. Wan is a past Harvard University Stanton Nuclear Security Predoctoral fellow. His research on nuclear proliferation has also been funded by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the UCI Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies.

Read on...






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