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Welcome Welcome to the February 2014 issue of the Social Sciences eNews! Make a Difference Invest in tomorrow's leaders today. Learn how!Follow us on 
Upcoming Events
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Political science alumnus Pyatt, '85, is U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Appointed to term in July 2013
Five questions with Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey Alumnus, psychology, class of '79
New school research center focuses on study of logic Wehmeier, logic & philosophy of science professor, serves as founding director
More interviews with soc sci's top profs What's your most significant research accomplishment and how has it made a difference?
Making the case for nuclear energy and China's one child policy Wang Feng, sociology professor, via KUCI's Ask a Leader
WANTED: 2014 Undergraduate Social Sciences Commencement Speakers Applications due by Tuesday, February 18, 5:00 p.m.
February Events Featuring Social Sciences Faculty
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
SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Conference: Identity and Conflict February 8, 2014 | 8:45 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1511
SPOTLIGHT EVENT: My (Accidental) Career as a CIA Analyst February 20, 2014 | 5:00-6:50 p.m. | Social Science Plaza A, Room 1100
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
Conference on Meaningfulness and Learning Spaces February 27-28, 2014 | 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | Social Science Plaza A, Room 2112
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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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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:
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
cra ftspeople 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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