An internal monthly update on your
Social Sciences news and up-coming events


February Headlines

Penelope Maddy elected President of Association of Symbolic Logic
The Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC, Irvine is pleased to announce the election of Prof. Penelope J. Maddy to the presidency of the Association of Symbolic Logic for a 3-year term ending Jan 1, 2010. Read on...

Crime rates lower among immigrants than natives
Contrary to popular stereotypes, incarceration rates of young male immigrants are lower than those of their native-born counterparts, according to a study published this week by UC Irvine sociologist Ruben Rumbaut and Walter Ewing of the Immigration Policy Center. Children of immigrants, as well as immigrants who have resided in the U.S. for a longer period of time, are more likely to be incarcerated. The researchers say this is because as the immigrants assimilate, the become subject to American economic and social forces such as family disintegration and drug and alcohol addiction -- behaviors that increase the likelihood of criminal behavior. Read on...

Sheena Nahm receives Korea Foundation Grant
Anthropology graduate student Sheena Nahm was recently awarded a grant from the Korea Foundation to support her research project titled, "Adapting Play Therapy from the U.S. to South Korea: Pleasure and Labor in Transnational Knowledge Production and Collaboration." Read on...

Recently released study ranks eight UCI political science professors in top 400
Using citation counts over the course of a scholar's lifetime of research as a measure of impact and contribution to political science, a recently released study ranks eight UCI political science professors in the top 400 in their field. Long-time UCI professors Russell Dalton, David Easton, Bernard Grofman, Helen Ingram, Dorothy Solinger, Rein Taagepera, and Martin Wattenberg are joined by UCI newcomer, Martha Feldman who was at the University of Michigan at the time this study was conducted, to round out this group of highly ranked political science faculty. Read on...

Student Spotlight: Melissa Marinow, Junior Fellow of American Academy of Political & Social Science
Arriving at UCI as dance major, Melissa Marinow quickly found herself dancing to the beat of a different drum. "I have been dancing since a very young age, and I felt like my time at UCI should be completely different so that I could take advantage of opportunities and areas of study I had never experienced before," Melissa says of her decision to major in anthropology. "What interested me most about studying anthropology was how it challenged me to think beyond preconceived notions and see the world through alternative lenses." Read on...

Global Issues Forum: Global warming one of many global issues hot on minds of local high school students
For the past 2 months, 200 students from over 30 under-represented high schools in Orange and Los Angeles counties have participated in a weekend program at UCI focused on developing better informed global citizens. Developed jointly between UCI's Early Academic Outreach Program and the School of Social Sciences' Global Connect, the highly successful Global Issues Forum seeks to introduce high school students to global issues and events affecting their daily lives while providing students a glimpse of life as an undergraduate. Read on...

Study of diabetes & race reveals imperfect science of defining ethnic groups
While previous biomedical research studies have found that genetics and race increase risk for some diseases, a new look into how researchers study genetic triggers of type 2 diabetes suggests that defining race remains an inexact science, with social and historic facts mixing with biology throughout the research process. The new study by a UC Irvine anthropologist calls into question not only how race-specific information is being gathered and interpreted by the medical community, but how it is presented to the public through media and pharmaceutical marketing. Read on...

Love, not money, inspires immigrants to become U.S. citizens
Love, more than money, inspires legal immigrants to go through the naturalization process to become American citizens, according to new research from UC Irvine. Naturalization rates increased after the 1996 Welfare Reform Act restricted many benefits only to citizens, causing speculation that the promise of welfare benefits was inspiring immigrants to become full-fledged citizens. But results of a study by demographers Susan K. Brown and Frank D. Bean show a much stronger connection between the extent of a community's welcoming attitude toward immigrants and the rate of naturalization. Read on...

Professor Receives Grant to Study Latino Experiences in After School Programs
Gilberto Q. Conchas, Associate Professor of Education, has been awarded a Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Grant to examine Latino middle and high school students' experiences in after school programs and other out-of-school activities. Professor Conchas is currently a visiting professor at the Universidad Autonama de Barcelona, Spain in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Read on...

Professor Gonzalez Awarded Grant for Documentary
Chicano/Latino Studies Professor Gilbert C. Gonzalez was recently awarded a UC MEXUS grant in support of his documentary entitled: "Transnational Labor Contractor: The Bracero Program." Read on...

The Baghdad School Project
Imagine sending a child to a school where there are no books, no pencils, no paper, no blackboards. While it may be hard to envision such a learning environment where even the most basic educational tools are nonexistent, this is the reality the children of Iraq face everyday in the classroom. With over 1500 schools in the war torn country, the need for supplies is tremendous. Enter "The Baghdad School Project," a student led initiative created by the Dean�s Ambassadors Council in the School of Social Sciences at UC Irvine to raise money for much needed school supplies in Iraq. Read on...

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