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UCI Social Sciences 
E-News


Welcome

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




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Upcoming Events

Book Launch: Learning by Doing at the Farm
February 4, 2014

Of Cats and Plants in Iran: Ethnography, the Ordinary, and the Ethics and Poetics Of Invasion
February 5, 2014

Existence and Necessary Existence
February 5, 2014

How Can We Eliminate Female Genital Cutting?
February 6, 2014

Overconfidence in Political Behavior
February 6, 2014

War Crimes and Trials: The War on Terror
February 7, 2014

The Semantic Approach to Science, After 50 Years
February 7, 2014

The Role of Health Discussion Partners in Recovery from Mental Illness
February 7, 2014

Up the Anthropology
February 7, 2014

10th Annual Irvine-Japan Conference
February 7, 2014

Ethnocharrette 2.0
February 8, 2014

Conference: Identity and Conflict
February 8, 2014

On Truth-Aptness in Modal Language
February 12, 2014

Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide
February 13, 2014

Patterns of Synchrony: From Animal Gaits to Binocular Rivalry
February 13, 2014

A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours: Territorial Expansion, Land Policy, and U.S. State Formation
February 14, 2014

Divorcing Upon Retirement: A Regression Discontinuity Study
February 18, 2014

My (Accidental) Career as a CIA Analyst
February 20, 2014

An Experimental Study of Network Formation with Limited Observation
February 20, 2014

Logics as Scientific Theories
February 21, 2014

Inside the Politics of Self-Determination
February 21, 2014

SoCal PhilMath + PhilLogic + FoM Workshop 5
February 22, 2014

Money and Markets in a Human Economy: Harnessing Bureaucracy to Grassroots Democracy
February 25, 2014

Lessons from the Postville Raid
February 25, 2014

US Immigration Reform and Its Global Impact
February 26, 2014

What is the Correct Logic of Necessity, Actuality and Apriority?
February 26, 2014

Surveillance after Snowden: Decoding the 'Snooping Scandal'
February 27, 2014

Conference on Meaningfulness and Learning Spaces
February 27, 2014

Paradoxes of Interaction?
February 28, 2014

Cross-Racial Mobilization & Candidate Position-Taking: The Evolution of Hardline/Moderates Stances During the Second Reconstruction
February 28, 2014


Event Calendar



Social Sciences
in the Media

Status update: Reddit's Ohanian motivated by 'rounding error'
Reddit, Bloomberg Businessweek

Making the case for nuclear energy and China's one child policy
Wang Feng, KUCI

Obama seeks minimum wage hike with mic and pen
Neumark, National Public Radio

Prosecutor is a trailblazer
Lacey, OC Register

San Jose's minimum-wage increase a cautionary tale for Los Angeles (Op-ed)
Neumark, Los Angeles Business Journal

What drives success? (Opinion)
Rumbaut, The New York Times

Anti-Alvarez campaign sparks controversy
Valdez, UT San Diego

A slam dunk for sociology
UC Irvine undergrad major in sociology, OC Register

Woods scholar program gives students a lift
Aguilar, OC Register

Political newcomer hones pitch
Petracca, OC Register

Five questions with Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey
Lacey, OC Register

The Walking Dead online course attracted 65,000 participants
Christopherson, Comicbook

Amy Chua: the tiger mom returns to the fray
Lee, The Guardian

The politics and problems of raising the minimum wage (Opinion)
Neumark, News & Observer, World News Network and Cincinnati.com

In life and business, learning to be ethical
Monroe, The New York Times

Another View: Let's target tax credit instead of wage hike
Neumark, Des Moines Register and Connecticut Post

Column: Politics and minimum wage (Opinion)
Neumark, Gaston Gazette

Michael Saltsman: The minimum wage is the War on Poverty's least-effective tool (Opinion)
Neumark, New Hampshire Union Leader


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Political science alumnus Pyatt, '85, is U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine

Appointed to term in July 2013

When social sciences alumni graduate from UCI, they go on to careers as successful lawyers, teachers, professors, business leaders and other professions that take them to all corners of the globe. For Geoffrey Pyatt, political science '85, that journey has led him overseas to Europe where he's currently serving as the eighth U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine. His 24 year State Department career has ranged from Asia to Europe and Latin America. Prior to his post in Kiev, Pyatt was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the South and Central Asia Affairs Bureau, leading the State Department's newest geographic bureau and helping to manage U.S. relations in a region that stretches from Kazakhstan to the Indian Ocean.

Read on...





Five questions with Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey

Alumnus, psychology, class of '79

Jackie Lacey is a woman of many firsts. Before she was the first woman and the first African American to be named district attorney of Los Angeles County, Lacey was a first-generation college student who received a bachelor's degree in psychology from UC Irvine (class of '79) and a law degree from the University of Southern California. She went on to become a deputy district attorney, where she earned national recognition for a 1998 case that was first successful prosecution of an LA County race-based hate crime murder. As she worked her way to the top, Lacey also established the first Animal Cruelty Prosecution Program in the United States. Lacey is now in her second year as the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Read on...





New school research center focuses on study of logic

Wehmeier, logic & philosophy of science professor, serves as founding director

The School of Social Sciences has a new research center. Directed by Kai Wehmeier (pictured), logic & philosophy of science professor, the Center for the Advancement of Logic, its Philosophy, History and Applications (C-ALPHA) has been established to support collaborative research and visibility of findings on logical inquiry. "There are a number of scholars across campus who study topics in logic – logicians, philosophers of logic, historians of logic, mathematicians and scientists – but we lack an appropriate forum to bring these resources together and stimulate new directions," says Wehmeier. Housed in the School of Social Sciences, the center aims to provide a formal structure that strengthens existing and builds new cross-disciplinary connections.

Read on...





More interviews with soc sci's top profs

What's your most significant research accomplishment and how has it made a difference?

We asked some of our National Academy members, Distinguished Professors, Chancellor's Professors and named chairs in social sciences to comment on the above and we got some really interesting responses. Learn more about their work below and be on the lookout for more videos.

  • Frank Bean, sociology Chancellor's Professor and Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy director, discusses his research on immigration and social demography.
  • David Snow (pictured), sociology Distinguished Professor and Center for Citizen Peacebuilding co-director, discusses his work on social movements and homelessness.





Making the case for nuclear energy and China's one child policy

Wang Feng, sociology professor, via KUCI's Ask a Leader

UCI sociology professor and demographer, Wang Feng, offers his latest findings on the impacts and adjustments to China's one child policy and gender preferences for offspring.

Listen in...





WANTED: 2014 Undergraduate Social Sciences Commencement Speakers

Applications due by Tuesday, February 18, 5:00 p.m.

The School of Social Sciences is currently seeking undergraduate applicants interested in being a keynote speaker at the school's 2014 commencement exercises to be held Sunday, June 15 at the UCI Bren Events Center. Qualified applicants must be graduating seniors during the 2013-14 academic year (fall 2013, winter 2014, spring 2014 or summer 2014) with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 from a School of Social Sciences major.

Read on...





February Events Featuring Social Sciences Faculty

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




SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Book Launch: Learning by Doing at the Farm

February 4, 2014 | 6:00-7:30 p.m. | Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1517

Beginning in 1968, the University of California, Irvine was host to an experiment in intercultural exchange and artistic and social scientific learning through practice. Located on the edges of William Pereira's California Brutalist campus, the Farm was a space for craftspeople from Guatemala, Mexico, and Samoa to demonstrate their skills; a laboratory for new methods in education and research; and an unexpected countercultural gathering site. Learning by Doing at the Farm reflects upon this unusual experiment, which brought together Cold War Politics, modern development, and indigenous peoples drawn into the strange intellectual and cultural circumstances of 1960s California. The event includes film screenings, commentary and Q&A with the editors (Robert J. Kett and Anna Kryczka, UCI Graduate Students) and Julia Klein, Soberscove Press, and Bill Maurer, UCI Social Sciences.

Read on...





SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Conference: Identity and Conflict

February 8, 2014 | 8:45 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1511

Sponsored by the UC Irvine Department of Economics and Center for Global Peace & Conflict Studies, the conference on Identity and Conflict featured expert discussions with faculty from Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, Colorado and UCI's own Jean-Paul Carvalho, economics professor. Topics covered will include war, nation-building, politics and public goods, race and class, and religion and politics.

Read on...





SPOTLIGHT EVENT: My (Accidental) Career as a CIA Analyst

February 20, 2014 | 5:00-6:50 p.m. | Social Science Plaza A, Room 1100

When Brenda Seaver joined the CIA as an analyst in 2000 - practically on a whim - she was flying blind. She admits to having few preconceived notions about what the career would entail, beyond what she read in Tom Clancy novels and a few intelligence community textbooks. What the UCI alum knew for certain was that she wanted to write about international affairs, travel overseas, and use her expertise to inform U.S. policy. In her presentation, she will reflect on the high points of her career; what has kept her at CIA for 14 years; the greatest challenges facing CIA analysts today; and the most significant changes she has observed in the profession.

Read on...





SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Expert Series: Is Crisis the New Normal Across the Middle East and Africa?

February 20, 2014 | 6:00-7:30 p.m. | Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1517

From the disastrous situation in Syria, to the breathtaking speed of events in Egypt and the lingering aftereffects of the near collapse of the global financial system in 2008, the world is changing rapidly. Across the School of Social Sciences, researchers and critical programs are studying and addressing events like these that were unimaginable just a few years back. Join the school in our second lecture of the three-part Social Sciences Expert Series where researchers will share their expertise on crises in Egypt, Israel/Palestine and the African continent.

Panelists include:
  • Julia Elyachar, Anthropology Professor and Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies Director
  • Cecelia Lynch, Political Science Professor and Institute for International, Global and Regional Studies Director
  • Daniel Wehrenfenning, Olive Tree Initiative Director
  • Moderated by Lawrence Kugelman, Community Activist

Read on...





Conference on Meaningfulness and Learning Spaces

February 27-28, 2014 | 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | Social Science Plaza A, Room 2112

The Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences presents a conference honoring Jean-Claude Falmagne's 80th birthday. Falmagne is a UC Irvine cognitive sciences research professor and the founder of ALEKS Corporation, an online adaptive assessment and learning software program short for Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces. In August, he and his wife, Dine, donated $3 million to support the establishment of three new endowed chairs in the School of Social Sciences' Department of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine.

Read on...







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