American Academy of Arts & Sciences honors two from UC Irvine
Humanities dean and evolutionary biologist are elected to membership
Vicki Ruiz, UC Irvine dean of humanities and professor of history and Chicano/Latino studies (pictured), and Steven A. Frank, UCI professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, have been named 2012 fellows of the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences. The UCI faculty members are among 220 new fellows and 17 new foreign honorary members elected this year to AAAS. Joining Ruiz and Frank as members of the prestigious organization are film icon Clint Eastwood, Amazon founder
Jeffrey Bezos and philanthropist Melinda F. Gates.
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Accomplished alumnus
Nadia Bermudez, political science '98, 2012 Lauds & Laurels Social Sciences Distinguished Alumnus
At 30 years old, Nadia Bermudez, political science '98, was named one of the top 40 most influential leaders under the age of 40 by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine. A year later, she became the youngest elected president of the city's
bar association for women, the Lawyers Club of San Diego. In the three years since her term ended, the '01 Stanford Law grad has served in a host of legal leadership positions including chair-elect of the ABA's Committee on Employment
Law and Litigation, member of the board directors for the San Diego County Bar Association, and president of the San Diego La Raza Association - all while maintaining an active caseload as a business and employment litigator. Despite her busy schedule - which includes being a new mom to 6-month-old son Samuel - Bermudez still finds time to give back to her UCI alma mater.
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Growing up, 'geeking out'
UCI cultural anthropologist Mizuko "Mimi" Ito studies how digital media are changing the way today's plugged-in youth live and learn
Mizuko "Mimi" Ito spends a lot of time "geeking out" at her computer. She plays video games, trolls the Internet, chats, and visits social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter for hours on end. "My kids often say, 'What's it like to
have a normal parent?'" she says with a laugh. Ito's not going online to watch viral videos of talking dogs or to find out what her friends had for dinner. The cultural anthropologist and director of UC Irvine's Digital Media & Learning
Research Hub is working. She's examining the effect of digital media on today's youth, who appear to be forever texting, Tweeting, posting, surfing or just hanging out on the Internet - often to their parents' and teachers' chagrin.
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Seeing how the other half lives
Art exhibit evokes milieu of families residing in O.C.'s budget motels
Set designer Luke Hegel-Cantarella and his wife, anthropologist Christine Hegel-Cantarella, wanted to craft an artistic representation of what it means to be impoverished in affluent Orange County. A stage production was ruled out - too
moralistic. They chose instead an immersive art installation, a walk-through space on the UC Irvine campus in which visitors could put themselves in the shoes of Orange County's working poor.
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Jody Agius Vallejo, sociology Ph.D. alumnus, is one of OC Metro's 20 Women to Watch
Featured on the cover of OC Metro's March issue
Want to learn more about immigration, the Latino middle class in Orange County and entrepreneurs in Southern California? Ask Jody Agius Vallejo, who specializes in immigration, immigrant integration race/ethnicity and Latinos. In August,
Stanford University Press will release her book, Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican-American Middle Class. It examines patterns of mobility and socioeconomic incorporation among the Mexican-origin middle class in Southern
California. Her research was featured in a cover story by Investment Advisor Magazine.
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Maurer and Rea lend expertise to Credit Slips
Anthropologists serve as week-long guest editors for popular finance blog
During the first week of April, Bill Maurer (pictured), anthropology professor and Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion director, and Stephen Rea, anthropology graduate student, served as guest editors of Credit Slips, a
blog on credit, bankruptcy, consumers, and financial institutions. Created by academics - including UCI's Katie Porter, professor in the School of Law - the blog highlights cutting-edge research and expert perspective on the rapidly
changing world of finance.
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Top honors
Six first-year social sciences graduate students earn competitive fellowships from National Science Foundation
Six first-year social sciences graduate students, including five from anthropology and one from cognitive sciences, have been named recipients of prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships, awarded by the National Science Foundation. In total, 17 UC Irvine students were named as recipients and an additional 35 were awarded Honorable Mentions. Anthropology's high number of award winners places the program in the top of the nation when compared with other universities with similar anthropological program specialties. The fellowships provide three years of support with a $30,000 annual stipend and a $10,500 cost-of-education allowance to the institution.
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Op-ed: Cuts to Aboriginal-focused organizations should be reversed
An op-ed by Kelsey Norman, political science graduate student, as featured in iPolitics April 20, 2012:
In the summer of 2009 I had the privilege of interning with the National Centre for First Nations Governance (NCFNG) in Vancouver. The four month position was a welcome break from my masters studies at the University of Toronto. I
was unprepared, however, for the relevancy and immediacy that such topics have in the context of Aboriginal governance.
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In memoriam: Lawrence Howard, social sciences lecturer and alumnus
Retired lecturer specialized in global affairs, politics, and peace and was a specialist in the UCI Disability Services Center
Lawrence Howard, a retired lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Department of Cognitive Sciences and specialist in the UCI Disability Services Center, passed away at home on March 28, 2012. Howard was a favorite lecturer for
many years. His passion for global affairs, politics, and peace was obvious in his desire to educate his friends and colleagues on current social issues.
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SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Kiang Lecture: The 'Labor Question' of Chinese Capitalism in Africa
May 2, Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway Patio/Room 1517
Reception: 5:30-6:45 p.m.; Lecture: 7:00-8:30 p.m.
The Center for Asian Studies presents the Ninth Annual Wan-Lin Kiang Lecture, "The 'Labor Question' of Chinese Capitalism in Africa," featuring Ching Kwan Lee,
sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her talk will examine key elements of an emerging Chinese regime of production in
Zambia, Africa's leading copper producer and the site of the first of five Chinese-owned special economic zones to be built on the continent. Drawing on field
data on the construction and copper mining sectors, Ching Kwan Lee will discuss the similarities and differences among Chinese and non-Chinese capital in their
labor strategies and impact on African developments. The Wan-Lin Kiang Lecture Series Exchange in Chinese Studies was endowed in 2004 by Mrs. Assumpta Kiang in memory of her husband, Wan-Lin Kiang.
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SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Easton Lecture: Politics, Psychology, and Ethics in Understanding Infectious Disease
May 3, 7:00-8:30 p.m., Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1517
The UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality presents the 2012 David and Sylvia Easton Lecture, "Politics, Psychology, and
Ethics in Understanding Infectious Disease," featuring Cheryl Koopman, psychiatry and behavioral science research professor at Stanford University. Her
research focuses on psychosocial reactions to political trauma, serious illness, and other stressful life events and the evaluation of intervention programs to
help people cope with such events, as well as studies designed to inform the design of psychosocial interventions for improving physical and mental health.
The Easton Lecture honors David Easton, distinguished research professor in the School of Social Sciences' Department of Political Science, and his wife,
Sylvia.
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SPOTLIGHT EVENT: OTI Armenia-Turkey Presentation
May 8, 7:30-9:00 p.m., UCI Student Center, Emerald Bay Room B
In March, UCI's Olive Tree Initiative sent its first delegation to Armenia and Turkey. The eight students and three faculty who attended met with politicians,
religious leaders, nongovernmental leaders and academics to gain a better understanding of tensions between the two nations. The trip marked a new branch of
study and experiential learning opportunity for the student-initiated group that got its start in 2007 with a focus on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Join OTI
for the first in a series of dialogue-focused events where the attendees will share what they learned.
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SPOTLIGHT EVENT: California Graduate Student Democracy Conference
May 12, 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway , Room 1517
The UCI Center for the study of Democracy presents the "8th Annual California Graduate Student Democracy Conference." Graduate students from UCI and UCSD will
present their current research on topics in democracy and a keynote will be delivered by Benjamin J. Hubbard, comparative religion professor emeritus at
California State University, Fullerton on the role of religion in the Presidential campaign. Hubbard has been a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the
Orange County Register, Newport-Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, and Los Angeles Times, where he once wrote a regular column on religion, and has authored and edited a
number of scholarly books and articles on the topic.
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