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UCI Social 
Sciences 
E-News


Welcome

Welcome to the May 2014 issue of the Social Sciences eNews!



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Upcoming Events

Kiang Lecture: Chin aur Hind: An Indian Subaltern's Travel Narrative of China in 1900-1901
May 1, 2014

Globalization and the Maritime World in the Twentieth Century
May 1, 2014

Fibonacci, The Golden Mean, and Natural Law in Vision (and Language)
May 1, 2014

Plays Well With Otherness: Anthrohistory and the State of Transdisciplinarity
May 1, 2014

Reassessing the Recent History of Political Islam in Light of the Arab Uprisings
May 1, 2014

Music as Commonground and Platform Workshop
May 1, 2014

Imprecise Probability and Higher Order Vagueness
May 2, 2014

A Second Removal? Institutions, Movements, and the Defeat of Black Colonization During the Lincoln Administration
May 2, 2014

Normal Variation in the Behavior and Neurology of Language: Implications for Genetic Modularity of Mind and Brain
May 2, 2014

What's Wrong With Fat?
May 2, 2014

A Dynamic Model of School Competition
May 5, 2014

Measuring the Impact of Health Insurance on Levels and Trends in Inequality
May 6, 2014

Men Are Animals: Category Politics and Biological Distress in Mexico City and Shanghai
May 6, 2014

UC President Janet Napolitano to deliver annual Peltason Lecture at UCI
May 6, 2014

Relativistic Causality and Local Disentanglement in Quantum Field Theory
May 6, 2014

Book Reading & Signing: The Brotherhood of Freemason Sisters
May 7, 2014

World Red Cross Day
May 8, 2014

Noether's Theorems in AQFT
May 8, 2014

Cherries for Sale: The Incidence and Timing of Cross-Border M&A
May 12, 2014

Nationalism, Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism: Some Lessons From Modern Indian History
May 13, 2014

Controlling Health Care Costs Through Limited Network Insurance Plans: Evidence from Massachusetts State Employees
May 13, 2014

C-ALPHA Inaugural Reception: The Logic of Common Law Reasoning
May 13, 2014

Three Roads to Radical Democracy in India
May 14, 2014

Optimal Nonlinear Income Taxation with Multidimensional Types: The Case with Heterogeneous Behavioral Responses
May 14, 2014

Bounded Rationality and Trading Inefficiencies
May 15, 2014

Democracy and the Political Management of Primitive Accumulation in India
May 15, 2014

21st Joint Symposium on Neural Computation
May 17, 2014

Dynamic Indeterminacy in Credit Economies
May 19, 2014

A Search theory of Sectoral Reallocation
May 21, 2014

A Mixed Random Utility - Random Regret Model Linking the Choice of Decision Rule to Latent Character Traits
May 22, 2014

Grad Student Conference: Like Oil and Water - Designing Social Research on Resource Conflicts across Categories and Scales
May 24, 2017

Grey Matters
May 27, 2014

Linguistic and Religious Pluralism: Between Difference and Inequality
May 29, 2014

Unified Cognitive Science and the ICSI/UCB Neural Theory of Language Project
May 29, 2014

2014 Olive Tree Initiative Send-Off Gala
June 1, 2014


Event Calendar


Social Sciences
in the Media

Enhanced airport security may waste money, study says
Brueckner, LA Times and Chicago Tribune

What happened to Minuteman Project? It's still roiling immigration reform
DeSipio, The Christian Science Monitor

Tech industry creates fears among immigration advocates
DeSipio, USA Today, Dailyrecord.com, DemocratandChronicle.com and KXTV-TV Online

A dog and a robot help kids reach their potential
Krichmar, Orange County Register

What the research says in the minimum wage debate
Neumark, 90.9 WBUR

Preference based on ethnicity and income
Lee, The New York Times

The Bitcoin lawyer: Bill Maurer on Bitcoin's impact in Africa
Maurer, The Bitcoin Lawyer

How bitcoin is moving money in Africa
Maurer, USA Today

Republicans take identity politics approach to court minority voters
DeSipio, The Washington Times

Scenic – But also unhealthy?
Neumark, The Pulse

Age-bias laws backfire on jobless boomers
Neumark and Button, The Wall Street Journal – Marketwatch

Celebration of Teaching Awards recognizes social sciences
Burciaga, Castellanos and Christopherson, OC Register

Tax havens prove alluring to China
Maurer, LA Times

Art break: A handmade utopia
Kett, New City Art

A new study on the Asian Americans' educational success
Lee, iBlug

Congressional candidate seeks to tackle digital literacy, cybersecurity
Gagnier, Orange County Register

Live at issue
Neumark, NBC 10

Michigan minimum wage increase
Neumark, The Heartland Institute

The 30 top thinkers under 30: The social media researcher who wants to understand how warning messages travel online
Spiro, Pacific Standard

The danger of role models: A new perspective
Lee, Huffington Post

Why the kids of Asian immigrants excel – and what it teaches us about stereotypes
Lee, The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Did the great recession trigger 'pent-up' age discrimination?
Neumark and Button, Bloomberg Businessweek

Political science panel considers LGBT public policy
Smith, Windy City Times

Why Asian American kids excel. It's not 'Tiger Moms.
Lee, The Washington Post

Field poll: Californians like Obama much more than rest of nation does
DeSipio, San Jose Mercury News and Times-Herald

SCA 5: Asian-American lawmakers face fallout from affirmative action debate
DeSipio, Southern California Public Radio

4 emerging principles of connected learning
Ito, Campus Technology

Age discrimination and the great recession
Neumark and Button, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Age discrimination laws didn't help older workers in fed study
Neumark and Button, Bloomberg Businessweek

Age discrimination laws no shield for older Americans during recession – paper
Neumark and Button, Reuters and Yahoo! Finance

Food stamps: A reporter's notebook
Neumark, Marketplace


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Undergrad excellence

Six from social sciences honored for contributions to undergrad education at UCI

On April 24, UCI celebrated and honored outstanding faculty, lecturers and graduate students whose contributions to undergraduate education at UCI put them a step above the rest. Among them were six representatives from the School of Social Sciences who have exhibited excellence inside the classroom and out. "In social sciences, we pride ourselves on our teaching excellence, right alongside with our research strengths," says Bill Maurer, dean. "These awards recognize the outstanding attention our community gives to innovative pedagogy, hands-on mentoring and the cultivation of the qualities it takes to become a top-notch scholar and teacher in a diverse learning environment." The following honorees were selected by the Academic Senate Council on Student Experience through a competitive nomination process:

Jeanett Castellanos
Social Sciences Lecturer with Security of Employment
Lecturer of the Year

Jeanett Castellanos has been teaching for the social sciences undergraduate program since 1999. She mentors dozens of Latina/o undergraduates each year on how to conduct individual, data-oriented research projects, many of which have resulted in published articles and book chapters. She counts among her numerous accomplishments having helped place hundreds of students in graduate school, with more than a third at the doctoral level. Her efforts have also resulted in thousands of dollars in grant funding that have allowed students – many of whom may not have otherwise been able to afford it – the opportunity to travel to and participate in research conferences and competitive programs across the nation. Read on...

Joanne Christopherson
Social Sciences Lecturer
Instructional Technology Award

When she was hired on as a lecturer in social sciences in 2006, Joanne Christopherson became one of UCI's first instructors to teach online. The UCI grad is a big proponent of the virtual learning format as she says it allows her to get to know her students better than if they were sitting 20 feet away in a large lecture hall. Using voiceover lectures, readings, reflection papers, forums, videos and full length documentary reviews, her students are required to interact and become familiar with course material in a way that they may not in a classroom setting. She has continued to teach three to four courses each year online, including a course she piloted with three others in the fall based on "The Walking Dead" series. Read on...

Edelina Burciaga
Sociology Graduate Student
Most Promising Future Faculty Member (one of two recipients)

Burciaga is interested in the immigrant experience. Her research looks at the integration experiences of the undocumented 1.5-generation - immigrants who came to the United States as children, yet remain without legal authorization. Distinct from the 1st generation who immigrated as adults and the 2nd generation who are similarly children of immigrants but are U.S. citizens, the undocumented 1.5-generation have developed values, identities and aspirations that are influenced by growing up "American" but are also impacted by the practical reality of living "undocumented" in the United States. Her research explains how the undocumented 1.5-generation manage and negotiate this legal and social paradox. Read on...

Also receiving special recognition at the school-level for his work with undergraduates:

Charles Anthony Smith
Political Science Professor

Since joining the UCI faculty in 2007, Tony Smith has taught 14 undergraduate and 5 graduate courses (through spring 2013). In just seven years, he's reached a total of 2815 undergrads, averaging 469 students per year, a number that is among the highest in the school for a regular member of the faculty. He consistently involves students in his research activities, serves as a mentor to undergrads and grads alike, and receives excellent feedback on end of course evaluations. Smith's research interests include American and comparative judicial politics, human trafficking, international war crimes, and gay and lesbian politics. Read on...

The UCI Teaching, Learning & Technology Center recognized pedagogical fellows from each school for their contributions to quality undergraduate education. Among them were social sciences graduate students Mark Bloxsom, economics, and Ken Chaiprasert, political science.

All awards were presented at the 21st Annual Celebration of Teaching. A full listing of honorees can be found online. The monetary awards were funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education; Teaching, Learning & Technology Center; Graduate Division; and Office of Information Technology. The Teaching, Learning & Technology Center provided recipients of all awards with engraved plaques and hosted the reception.

Read on...





Taagepera earns UC-wide emeriti award

Honor recognizes research and scholarly excellence since retirement

Rein Taagepera, UCI political science research professor, has been awarded the 2014 Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award. Presented by the Council of University of California Emeriti Associations, the honor recognizes one to two outstanding faculty each year in the humanities and/or social sciences for research and scholarly activities since retirement. The honor carries a $5,000 prize.

Read on...





Lynch receives Tickner Award for pushing boundaries of international studies

Awarded at International Studies Association annual meeting in March

Cecelia Lynch, political science professor and Institute for International, Global and Regional Studies director, is one of two recipients of the 2014 J. Ann Tickner Award. Given by the International Studies Association, a 6,500+ member organization, the honor recognizes scholars who push the boundaries of international studies scholarship, teaching and mentorship. Joining her as a co-recipient of the award is Audie Klotz, political science professor at Syracuse University.

Read on...





Study: Help wanted

Shrinking labor pool makes case for immigration employment, reform, study says

Farmers, construction supervisors and hotel managers scrambling to fill jobs vacated by retiring baby boomers may not be able to find U.S.-born replacements, according to a new study co-authored by Frank Bean, UC Irvine Chancellor's Professor of sociology. The finding was part of his April 3 briefing to members of Congress in Washington, D.C. Using statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, he found that while the U.S. working-age population grew by 0.4 percent annually in the last two decades, the number of less skilled, 25- to 64-year-old, U.S.-born workers with no higher education shrank 0.6 percent annually. The drop was even more notable among the younger segment of the working-age population (those 25 to 44), which declined 2 percent annually.

Read on...





Veteran anteater

After serving her country, Jessica Garcia is now serving as part of the new UCOP Veterans Advisory Council to president Napolitano

Transitioning from the rigors of military life to college living can be a challenge, says Jessica Garcia, political science major and president of UCI's Veterans Professional Fraternity. As the UCI representative on the newly formed 10-student University of California Veterans Advisory Council, she's hoping to change that. In this role, Garcia meets directly with UC president Janet Napolitano to discuss issues facing veterans returning to school. The group has already made some headway in tackling the challenges these student face, sharing ideas to develop a course aimed at helping in-coming veteran transfer students learn the college ropes. Her goal is to make this class available starting in the fall quarter, and she's working with political science professor Caesar Sereseres to make it happen.

Read on...





Preference based on ethnicity and income

An op-ed by Jennifer Lee, sociology professor, is featured in The New York Times

I'm fortunate. My parents are highly educated Korean immigrants who armed me with socioeconomic resources that poised me for educational success: private schools, SAT prep courses and math tutors. But had my parents lacked these resources that gave me an educational advantage, I would have benefited from the resources available in Korean communities, including supplementary education programs. These resources are created by first-generation immigrants, and help boost the educational outcomes of their second-generation children. For example, immigrants from China, India and Korea arrive with high levels of education and the financial means to create ethnic institutions such as after-school academies for their children. As a result, many poor and working-class Asian-Americans have a means of overriding their disadvantaged class backgrounds in a way that other Americans, such as Mexicans, do not.

Read on...





Maurer on bitcoin in Africa

Bill Maurer, social sciences dean and anthropology and law professor, gives USA Today and The Bitcoin Lawyer the low down on mobile money in Africa

It's OK to admit that you still don't know what bitcoin is - but you may now officially be behind the curve. Because innovative startups are setting their sights on all of Africa, seeing an opportunity for the 326 million Africans who lack access to basic banking services. Check out what Bill Maurer, social sciences dean and anthropology and law professor, had to say about the virtual currency as he breaks it down for USA Today and The Bitcoin Lawyer.

USA Today story
The Bitcoin Lawyer podcast





The 30 top thinkers under 30

The social media researcher who wants to understand how warning messages travel online

Emma Spiro, UCI sociology Ph.D. '13, turned 17 years old on 9/11. Facebook and Twitter had yet to be invented, but today she studies how people use social media during mass emergencies. She decided on sociology because "I am fascinated by people, group behavior, and how the structure of society impacts our lives. Every day I discover new challenges and fascinating problems that force me to think creatively about ways to make a difference." As a new assistant professor at the University of Washington's Information School, Spiro's senior colleagues consider her to be brilliant. Her areas of expertise include crisis informatics, big data, and emergency information management, and she publishes award-winning academic papers about how people use Twitter and Facebook during natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and mass protests. She wants to know, for example, how warning messages get disseminated online, and how rumors amplify during times of trouble.

Read on, courtesy of the Pacific Standard





In memoriam: Lewis Acrelius "Creel" Froman, founding UCI and social sciences faculty

Political science professor and former social sciences dean

Lewis Acrelius "Creel" Froman, a founding member of the UCI and School of Social Sciences faculty, passed away peacefully on March 12 at the age of 78. Froman was hired in July 1965 as a professor of political science. He later served a four-year term as dean of the School of Social Sciences from 1971-75. He retired in 2004. Froman earned a bachelor's in political science from Yale University in 1957 and a doctorate from Northwestern University in 1960. His research and teaching interests included political economy, the sociology of knowledge, critical political theory, sexism, the language of politics, and nineteenth-and twentieth-century philosophy - particularly the works of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Foucault, and Marx. The early part of his career was spent studying the U.S. Congress. He devoted many hours to university service during the formative years of the school and campus. Creel is survived by his wife of 16 years, Anh Tran, and two daughters, Liz and Katrina.

Read on...





May Events Featuring Social Sciences Faculty

Take advantage of the opportunity to hear from some of our faculty experts on topics in economics and anthropology at one of the following talks:





SPOTLIGHT EVENT: UC President Janet Napolitano to deliver annual Peltason Lecture at UCI

May 6 | 3:00 p.m. | UCI Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium

Janet Napolitano, the University of California's 20th president, will deliver the annual Peltason Lecture at UC Irvine on Tuesday, May 6. Appointed to her post in 2013, Napolitano leads a university system with 10 campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. The UC system has more than 234,000 students, about 208,000 faculty and staff, more than 1.6 million living alumni and an annual operating budget of more than $24 billion. Napolitano's visit to UC Irvine is sponsored by the UC Irvine Center for the Study of Democracy. The Peltason Lecture was established in 1999 to honor Jack Peltason and his wife Suzanne. Peltason was the 16th president of the University of California (1992-95) and UCI's 2nd chancellor (1984-92).

Read on...





SPOTLIGHT EVENT: C-ALPHA Inaugural Reception: The Logic of Common Law Reasoning

May 13 | 3:00 p.m. | Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1517

The UCI Center for the Advancement of Logic, its Philosophy, History & Applications (C-ALPHA) and the UCI School of Law present "The Logic of Common Law Reasoning," featuring guest speaker John Horty, professor, University of Maryland. A prominent philosophical logician, Horty will speak about his recent research regarding the application of defeasible logic to legal argumentation. The event serves as the inaugural reception for C-ALPHA, founded in 2014 to support collaborative research and visibility of findings on logical inquiry.

Read on...





SPOTLIGHT EVENT: 21st Joint Symposium on Neural Computation

May 17 | 8:30 a.m. | Calit2 Auditorium

The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Engineering presents the "21st Joint Symposium on Neural Computation," featuring keynote speaker Giorgio Ascoli, George Mason University. In 1994, the Institute for Neural Computation at UCSD hosted the first Joint Symposium on Neural Computation with Caltech. This symposium brought together students and faculty for a day of short presentations. Since then, it has rotated between San Diego, Caltech, UCI, UCLA, USC and UCR.

Read on...







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School of Social Sciences
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