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UCI Social Sciences 
E-News


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




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Upcoming Events

The First Few Numbers: How Children Learn Them and Why It Matters
March 1, 2013

The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy
March 5, 2013

European Financial Crisis
March 7, 2013

From International Studies to International Security
March 7, 2013

Modeling Color Appearance Space Using Reflectance Spectra
March 7, 2013

Anthropology of Markets & Consumption Conference
March 7-9, 2013

What's The Problem with Quantum Theory?
March 8, 2013

Efficient Perceptual Coding and Reference-Dependent Choice
March 14, 2013

Social Dynamics Conference
March 15-17, 2013

Why Go to Court? Bargaining Failure under the Shadow of Trial with Complete Information
March 18, 2013

Implications of Economics for Immigration Policy
March 19, 2013

Frege: Logical Objects by Abstraction and their Criteria of Identity
March 22, 2013


Event Calendar



Social Sciences
in the Media

Immigration advocates seek new strategy after previous backlash
DeSipio, Arizona Republic

D.C. dysfunction and the filibuster of Chuck Hagel (Op-ed)
O'Leary, Daily Breeze, Press-Telegram, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Daily News and Daily Bulletin

Obama's minimum wage hike: A case of zombie economics (Op-ed)
Neumark, Forbes

Why tongue twisters are hard to say
Hickok, Nature

Push for innovative research is hitting a budget wall, NIH director says
Stanford, Chronicle of Higher Education

The messy legality of drones (Op-ed)
Daniel Brunstetter, Daily News America

A conversation with Scott Brooks
Scott Brooks, Pelican Hill Magazine

UCI professor selected for national honor
Rumbaut, Daily Pilot

A better deal than minimum wage (Op-ed)
Neumark, Washington Post

O.C. cities get down to business
Brueckner, OC Register

Proposed bill looks to raise Minnesota's minimum wage
Neumark, SC Times

Social norms, behavior influence environmental policy
Saari, Newswise

Geeks bearing gifts (Book review)
Weatherall, Financial Times

Keystone XL pipeline protest marks first civil disobedience by Sierra Club
Meyer, Christian Science Monitor

It is not the maths that causes the crisis
Weatherall, Financial Times

The physics of finance... or in defence of geeks
Weatherall, London Evening Standard

What an American-US Airways deal means for fliers
Brueckner, Wall Street Journal

Airline merger can only help at JWA, economist says
Brueckner, OC Register

Raising minimum wage would ease income gap but carries political risks
Neumark, New York Times

Video: Adaptive online math program offers individualized learning
Falmagne, Tech & Learning Blog

Higher minimum wage, higher unemployment? (Blog)
Neumark, FOX Business

Helpful, harmful, or hype? 5 economists weigh in on Obama's minimum-wage proposal
Neumark, The Atlantic and Yahoo!

Raising the minimum wage: A tired, bad proposal
Neumark, National Review Online

Boehner bashes minimum wage hike
Neumark, Fiscal Times

Bid on minimum wage revives issue that has divided economists
Neumark, Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! Finance

Kevin O'Leary: Obama's liberal vision (Op-ed)
O'Leary, OC Register

Evil Wall Street tricks can be used for good (Op-ed)
Weatherall, USA Today

Mathematical modelling with Lisa Jardine
Weatherall, BBC Radio

Black swans are difficult to predict but we still need maths in finance
Weatherall, City A.M. (London)

Conference offers law enforcement insight into gangs
Valdez, Garden City Telegram

Minimum wage increases will lead to lost jobs (Op-ed)
Neumark, San Diego Union-Tribune

The census: Some other race
Rumbaut, The Economist

Self-storage industry keeps on keeping
Varzi, OC Register

Cassidy: MacArthur Foundation researchers find a new digital divide that's hard to cross
Ito, San Jose Mercury News and Willits News

12 researchers elected to national academy of education (Blog)
Rumbaut, Education Week

At talk in Irvine, Giuliani backs immigration overhaul
UCI's National Society of Leadership and Success, OC Register

How the labor movement did a 180 on immigration
DeSipio, NPR

Sidelined by war, Bush also sought for immigration reform
DeSipio, New Hampshire News

Hispanic may be a race on 2020 census
DeSipio, San Francisco Chronicle

Technology for teaching: 10 ways to improve classroom learning (Blog)
Ito, Huffington Post

Whiting: Woman conquers ultra-marathon monster
Fischbeck, OC Register

Undocumented in the U.S.: 11 million and counting
Rumbaut, NPR

Hispanics to soon surpass whites in California
DeSipio, Associated Press, Arizona Daily Star, Bloomberg Businessweek, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chron.com and Denver Post

County will become older, more diverse
Bean, OC Register

Square taps into the mobile payment business
Maurer, LA Times

The morality of drone strikes
Brunstetter, Bill Moyers

How does California economy compare to other states?
Neumark and Muz, Sacramento Bee

As immigration reform debate begins, it helps to turn back the clock to 1986
DeSipio, Southern California Public Radio

Some in O.C. praise Obama immigration plan; critics want tighter border
Bean, OC Register

Obama, senators prepare immigration plans
Bean, Boston Globe


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UCI's Ruben Rumbaut elected to National Academy of Education

Sociologist honored for research on education and immigrant populations

Ruben G. Rumbaut, UC Irvine professor of sociology, has been elected to the National Academy of Education. He's one of 12 new members admitted this year for outstanding contributions in educational research and policy development. "Professor Rumbaut's insightful work on the critical role of education in creating an accomplished and diverse populace has key lessons for educators and policymakers," said Barbara Dosher, dean of UC Irvine's School of Social Sciences and professor of cognitive sciences. "We are delighted to see his work recognized by this important honor." Rumbaut is internationally known and widely cited for his research on children and young adults raised in immigrant families of diverse nationalities and socioeconomic classes. He has authored, co-authored or edited numerous publications on the topic, including 14 books – with two more forthcoming. Rumbaut earned two best book awards from the American Sociological Association and, as a National Academy of Sciences panel member, contributed to two authoritative volumes on the U.S. Hispanic population.

Read on...




Learning to lead

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani offers insights in campus talk

If anyone defines a modern leader, it's Rudy Giuliani, the former U.S. attorney and New York City mayor who helped lead his metropolis through the nightmare of 9/11. On Tuesday, Feb. 5, before a crowd packing UC Irvine's Crystal Cove Auditorium, Giuliani shared his thoughts on leadership, stressing one point in particular. People are not born leaders, he said. They are nurtured and trained in the skills necessary. "You can learn leadership like you can math or history," Giuliani said. "You can learn to improve upon your leadership abilities, because to succeed, you must lead." During his 70-minute talk, which drew from his 2002 book, Leadership, Giuliani detailed six hallmarks of effective leadership: a strong set of principles, optimism, courage, relentless preparation, teamwork and communication.

Read on...




Campus festival marks Lunar New Year

Professor sheds light on cultural traditions of major Asian holiday

Lunar New Year, considered the most important holiday in many Asian cultures, kicked off Sunday, Feb. 10, with parades, outdoor festivals and parties in communities from Garden Grove's Little Saigon to San Francisco's Chinatown. According to the Asian zodiac cycle, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. The merriment continued at UC Irvine as the Taiwanese American Organization hosted a celebration of its own. The fourth annual Lantern Festival & Night Market was held Sunday, Feb. 24, at UC Irvine's Student Center from 5 to 9 p.m. About 1,000 people attended, says TAO President Esther Phu, a fourth-year political science and criminology, law & society student. The event featured traditional East Asian finger foods, performances by UC Irvine dance crews, game booths, and an arts and crafts station.

Read on...




Anteater love: Proposal in the park

Alumni Adeli Duron and Marvin Maldonado

Adeli Duron and Marvin Maldonado met when they were both freshmen at UC Irvine in 2001. Marvin was studying electrical engineering while Adelí was studying Chicano-Latino Studies. Both lived in Elrond in Middle Earth dorms, and an awkward first meeting bloomed into a deep friendship, then eventually into romance. On campus, both became passionate about helping others, specifically Latino organizations. This commitment to others later turned into careers for both. Adeli is the director of Veteran Services on campus and Marvin is the director of Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement Schools Program (a K-12 outreach program) at San Diego State University, though he previously worked at UC Irvine's MESA Schools Program for 5 years. They connected through similar backgrounds, Latino cultures, and family values. But they attribute UC Irvine as critical to their growth. In fact, guess where Marvin proposed? Aldrich Park!

Read on...




Anteater love: Playing the field together

Alumni Rachel Flemming and Kyle Schmid

Icing ankles in the training room isn't the typical place you'd expect love to spark. But for Rachel Flemming '09 and Kyle Schmid '08, a chance meeting at UC Irvine led to friendship. Sharing multiple classes for sociology and social ecology, respectively, as well as the soccer field eventually evolved into romance. Both avid soccer players, Rachel and Kyle learned lessons on the field they carry with them through their lives together. "Soccer is very similar to life," says Kyle. "There are ups and downs. It's a good teacher of life. Adversity on the field helps prepare you for adversity in life." Juggling jobs, coaching soccer teams, attending graduate school (Rachel is earning her master's degree in kinesiology at Cal State Fullerton), and playing on coed soccer teams, they still find time to have fun together and care for their cat, Walter, and dog, Brewster. On March 31 this year, they'll get married at UC Irvine's University Club. After looking at various venues, they selected U Club because it "just felt right. It felt like us."

Read on...




WANTED: 2013 Undergraduate Social Sciences Commencement Speakers

Applications due by Friday, March 22, 5:00 p.m.

The School of Social Sciences is currently seeking undergraduate applicants interested in being a keynote speaker at the school's 2013 commencement exercises to be held Saturday, June 15 at the UCI Bren Events Center. Qualified applicants must be graduating seniors during the 2012-13 academic year (fall 2012, winter 2013, spring 2013 or summer 2013) with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 from a School of Social Sciences major. Applications are available in the Social Sciences Student Affairs Office (Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1201) and the Social Sciences Academic Resource Center (Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1230). DEADLINE: Friday, March 22, 5:00 p.m. Submit applications to Ramon Muñoz (Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1201).

Read on...




SAEP 2013 - Think you have what it takes?

Application deadline is March 15

It boasts a 95 percent UCI graduation rate. More than two-thirds of its 400 alumni have graduated from or are currently enrolled in graduate programs, public policy and public health programs, law school and/or teaching credential programs at Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Washington, UC Irvine and other prestigious institutions. Created in 1991, the School of Social Sciences Summer Academic Enrichment Program is an advanced five-week residential research program designed to challenge the most highly motivated social sciences and social ecology undergrads who are strongly committed to pursuing a graduate or professional education. Think you have what it takes? Applications are due March 15. SAEP alumni: We'd love to hear from you! Find this post on our school Facebook page and let us know how SAEP has impacted you.

Read on...




Evil Wall Street tricks can be used for good (Op-ed)

An op-ed by James Weatherall, logic & philosophy of science assistant professor, featured in USA Today

High-frequency, automated trading on Wall Street has developed a bad reputation. It has been blamed for either causing or amplifying market instability, including the 2007-08 crisis and the 2010 flash crash. But the criticism has obscured an important point: Similar computer-driven analysis could also be used to improve policymaking in ways that would improve economic growth and make markets more stable. For example, if regulators hope to protect against future crises, they need to use the best analytic tools to anticipate the consequences of policy changes, measure and control economic fundamentals such as the inflation rate, and identify growing market bubbles in time to avert financial crises. They could start by road-testing proposed changes to trading rules. This has been done successfully on at least one occasion.

Read on...




Minimum wage increases will lead to lost jobs (Op-ed)

An op-ed by David Neumark, economics Chancellor's Professor and Center for Economics & Public Policy director, featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune

Sixteen states – including California – are considering legislation this year to raise their minimum wage. Most economists agree that raising the minimum wage will in most cases reduce employment opportunities for less-skilled workers. But minimum-wage advocates in California have argued the opposite, pointing at two studies by a team of economists affiliated with UC Berkeley which boldly assert that there are "no detectable employment losses from the kind of minimum wage increases we have seen in the United States." It's a provocative claim, if true. In a new report, however, Ian Salas (UC Irvine), William Wascher (Federal Reserve Board) and I subject these revisionist studies (and the assumptions they rely on) to rigorous empirical testing. Our results suggest that California policymakers shouldn't be so quick to set aside a tested economic consensus.

Read on...




The morality of drone strikes

Q&A with Daniel Brunstetter, political science assistant professor

In his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize speech, President Obama defended the right to engage in "just wars," evoking a theory of ethical warfare that can be traced back to Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and even Cicero. Is the administration's use of unmanned drone strikes compatible with the traditional principles of just war? We asked Daniel Brunstetter, a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, who has written about drones and just war theory for The Atlantic and the journal Ethics & International Affairs.

Read on...




MacArthur Foundation researchers find a new digital divide that's hard to cross

Research by Mizuko "Mimi" Ito, anthropology and informatics professor and current John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning, featured in the San Jose Mercury News and Willits News

The latest research from the Connected Learning folks comes at you like a fire hose of ideas, case studies, academic research and questions about what we're doing and whether we should be doing it differently when it comes to preparing students for the 21st century. But what it comes down to for me, is one basic message: We've got a lot of work to do. The latest effort from the MacArthur Foundation-backed researchers is certainly a conversation starter. And though it doesn't say so anywhere in the group's 99-page report, what I see between the lines is the notion that Silicon Valley and its allies have tackled the easy stuff when it comes to modern-day learning. We've already invented the Internet; built a network of digital pipes; developed all manner of mobile devices; created online courses; published digital textbooks. Now comes the real challenge: Just what do we do with this stuff? "There is this huge opportunity with new technology," says UC Irvine professor Mimi Ito, a lead researcher on the project, "but unless we take it up in ways that are informed by values of social equity and by a learning philosophy that really empowers young people to make the most of what is out there, it's just going to make things worse in terms of equity and the stress that young people are experiencing."

Read on...




Sidelined by war, Bush also sought for immigration reform

Louis DeSipio, Chicano/Latino studies and political science professor, on New Hampshire Public Radio

Immigration reform took center stage this week in Washington, D.C. President Obama embraced it and a bipartisan group of eight senators offered a plan to strengthen border security and provide a path to citizenship with the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. The last major effort to rewrite the nation's immigration laws was in 2007 under President George W. Bush. NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea looks back at what went wrong.

Listen in...




SPOTLIGHT EVENT: The First Few Numbers: How Children Learn Them and Why It Matters

March 1, 2013 @ 3:00 p.m., Social Science Tower, Room 777 (LPS Conference Room)

Cognitive and developmental scientists since Piaget have been interested in how humans acquire number concepts. In this talk, Barbara Sarnecka, UCI cognitive sciences associate professor, will briefly review a decade of research on how children acquire the first few numbers, and explain why this topic is both interesting and important. Then she will present new (as yet unpublished) data documenting the socio-economic gap in young children's number knowledge here in Orange County; as well as two intervention studies in her lab (one finished, one in progress) designed to help kids learn numbers. She'll wrap up by discussing how the results of these studies contribute to our understanding of the origins of number concepts.

Read on...




SPOTLIGHT EVENT: The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy

March 5, 2013 @ 4:00 p.m., Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway (SBSG), Room 1517

The Center for the Study of Democracy, Department of Political Science and School of Social Sciences presents the 2013 Eckstein Lecture featuring Kay Lehman Schlozman, J. Joseph Moakley Endowed Professor, Boston College. Schlozman received a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on citizen political participation and organized interest activity in the United States. Her latest book, The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy (with Sidney Verba and Henry Brady) was published by Princeton University Press in 2012. Her other books include Organized Interests and American Democracy (with John T. Tierney); Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (with Sidney Verba and Henry E. Brady), which won the APSA's Philip Converse Prize and the Book Award of the American Association for Public Opinion Research; The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation (with Nancy Burns and Sidney Verba), co-winner of the APSA's Schuck Prize; and Injury to Insult: Unemployment, Class and Political Response (with Sidney Verba). She has also published numerous articles in professional journals. She has served as secretary of the American Political Science Association and as chair of APSA's organized section on Elections, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior. She is the winner of APSA's 2004 Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science and the 2006 Frank J. Goodnow Distinguished Service Award, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Read on...




SPOTLIGHT EVENT: From International Studies to International Security

March 7, 2013 @ 5:00 p.m., Social Science Plaza A, Room 1100

The International Studies Public Forum presents Ha Nguyen, a graduate of UCI who majored in international studies. Nguyen will share her experiences pursuing a career in public policy and national security through her current role in aviation security with the Executive Office of the President. She will discuss lessons learned on getting started in D.C. and her thoughts on investing in higher education and figuring out different opportunities and tracks within public service.

Read on...




SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Anthropology of Markets & Consumption Conference

March 7-9, 2013, Hyatt Regency Irvine

Recent developments in related fields indicate the growing use of anthropological perspectives for analyzing various marketing and consumption related issues in both global and local settings. The infusion of anthropology can be found in the works of academics as well as researcher practitioners in the industry. The major objective of this mini-conference is to assemble scholars and researcher practitioners from diverse disciplines who are involved in studying markets and consumption practices and employ anthropological and related theories and methods in understanding market phenomena. The conference is sponsored by the UCI Paul Merage School of Business, UCI Center for Ethnography, COR, Association for Consumer Research and Marketing Science Institute.

Read on...




SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Social Dynamics Conference

March 15-17, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center

This conference, sponsored by the Department of Logic & Philosophy of Science, will focus on applying game theory and evolutionary game theory to the formation of conventions, cooperation, signaling and the social contract. The area spans philosophy, economics, political science, and biology. Featured speakers include professors J. McKenzie Alexander, Carl Bergstrom, Cristina Bicchieri, Rosa Cao, Christof Hauert, Ed Hopkins, Gerhard Jaeger, Jorge Pacheco, Rory Smead, Peter Vanderschraaf, Elliott Wagner, and Kevin Zollman.

Read on...






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