March Headlines

Small business, the "bread and butter" of California's economy
A new study by economist David Neumark found small businesses - those with fewer than 250 employees - to be responsible for all net job creation in California for the 12 year period spanning 1992-2004. The study refutes findings from a landmark national study published in 1996 that found there to be no relationship between business establishment size and net job creation. Read On...

Why do highly educated Arab American women have low employment rates?
Female education, long believed to be an equalizing force in reducing the gender inequality gap, may actually serve a different role in some communities, according to new University of California, Irvine research to be published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review. "In the Arab American community, women have relatively higher levels of education but lower employment rates than many other racial or ethnic groups in the United States," says Jen'nan Read, sociology associate professor at the University of California, Irvine and author of the study. Read On...

Are we entering a new period of democratic dominance?
New research by UC Irvine political science professor Bernard Grofman suggests shifts in political party control over the U.S. House, Senate and Presidency occur roughly every 14 years. The study, published in the February issue of the American Political Science Review, found that cycles of support for the Republican or Democratic parties, and the shifts in party control that accompany them, occur more frequently than previously thought. Read On...

2008 Lauds & Laurels Recipients in Social Sciences
The School of Social Sciences is pleased to have among its faculty, staff, students, alumni and community friends, six recipients of the UCI Alumni Association's Lauds & Laurels Awards for 2008. Established in 1971, the awards recognize, honor, and celebrate the accomplishments of those dedicated to the University of California, Irvine. Recipients of Lauds & Laurels Awards for 2008 and years past have contributed to the mission of the campus and the UCI Alumni Association, and have brought recognition to the institution and the UCI Alumni Association through their achievements, studies, or profession. Read On...

Conflict resolution
Cecelia Lynch, associate professor of political science and fall 2007 recipient of the first faculty Living Our Values Award, often goes the extra mile in pursuit of knowledge. To write a book on the role of religious ethics in international relations, she spent a year studying at The University of Chicago Divinity School. To deepen her understanding of Islamic texts, she took classes in Arabic at UCLA. To research religion and social movements, she traveled to Kenya, Cameroon and the Middle East to interview members of humanitarian organizations. Read On...

Wash. Post managing editor addresses journalism challenges & the religious vote
Washington Post managing editor Philip Bennett spent Monday, March 3 at UC Irvine addressing in two different talks the challenges journalists - and the media in general - face when reporting on Islam. Invited as a guest lecturer for the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Series and the Center for the Study of Democracy, Bennett's afternoon discussion focused on the importance of words when used to label and identify people - in particular, Muslims and followers of the Islamic religion - and the need for more journalists with expertise and experience on the topic of Islam. After concluding his afternoon talk, Bennett joined Jen'nan Read, UC Irvine sociology associate professor, and Tim Kelly, director of the DePree Leadership Center Public Policy with the Fuller Theological Seminary, in a panel discussion focused on understanding the religious voter. The panel was moderated by Stephen Burgard, director of the School of Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston. Read On...

Nobel Laureate Thomas C. Schelling visits UC Irvine
Nobel Laureate Thomas C. Schelling visited UC Irvine on Thursday, March 6 to discuss the topic of nuclear proliferation with interested students, faculty, staff, alumni and community friends. Part of the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Series, Schelling's visit was co-sponsored by the Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality. Read On...

Sarnecka awarded grant from NIH to study early childhood learning
As adults, we all know the meanings of number words like "one," "two," "three," and so on. The numbers could refer to one house, two cats, three apples or any other collection we want to refer to, just as Dr. Seuss so eloquently did in his classic "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish." But where do we really get the concepts for one, two, and three? Are they something we're born knowing or something we learn along the way? For answers, cognitive sciences assistant professor Barbara Sarnecka and her team of researchers, equipped with a newly awarded $152,000, two-year grant from the National Institute of Health, are getting back to the basics in pre-school classrooms throughout the Irvine community. Read On...

Maurer awarded Best Research Note Prize for study on digital money
Bill Maurer, anthropology professor and department chair, has received a Best Research Note Prize from the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) for his study on the use of digital money in Japan. Read On...

White travels to China to analyze social networks in Chinese factories
Douglas White, anthropology professor, traveled to China on March 10 to take part in the analysis of a landmark study on social networks within factory worker communities in the major industrial zones of Guangdong in China. The study, performed in 2005 by researchers from the Institutes of Demography at Stanford and at Xi'an Jiaotong University in China, is the biggest survey and network analysis project ever done in China, says White. Read On...

UCI's mock trial team wins in court, qualifies for nationals
UC Irvine's senior America Mock Trial Association team will advance to the national championships in St. Paul, Minn., in April after winning second place in the regional championships Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 23-24. Read On...

Saba Ozyurt awarded Benton Fellowship and UCSD Visiting Research Fellowship
Saba Ozyurt, sixth year political science graduate student, has received a $10,000 UC Irvine Frances Benton Fellowship and a $24,000 UC San Diego Center for Comparative Immigration Studies Visiting Research Fellowship that will take her to the San Diego campus for the 2008-2009 academic year. Read On...

Chen awarded post-doctoral fellowship to study U.S. China relations
Titus Chen, sixth year political science graduate student, has received a $35,000 Hayward R. Alker Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Southern California's Center for International Studies. Awarded to only two students nationwide, the fellowship will support Chen's research on relations between the U.S. and China with a focus on the recent spike in the number of U.S. based NGOs working within China to train lawyers and judges. Read On...

Martin wins paper prize for work on Hong Kong film industry "ghosts & gangsters"
Sylvia Martin, seventh year anthropology graduate student, has received a paper prize from the International Communication Association (ICA) for her paper, "Of Ghosts and Gangsters: Capitalist Cultural Production and the Hong Kong Film Industry." Her work examines how mass media are shaped by societal practices and beliefs through an examination of the Hong Kong film industry. Read On...

Kimberly Snodgrass
By all accounts, Kimberly Snodgrass, an honors social science undergraduate student, should not be where she is today. Virtually homeless for the first ten years of her life as her alcoholic, drug addicted mother shuffled Kim and her four siblings between motel rooms, shelters and, ultimately, foster care, prospects for a successful future seemed bleak. Read On...


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