UCI will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a traveling photography exhibit and a four-day conference. "Icons of a Border Installation," running through Nov. 2 in the Student Center, features images of wall remnants in unified Berlin. A conference called "1989: 20 Years After" is set for Nov. 5-8 and will feature a keynote address by Leszek Balcerowicz, Poland's first post-communism finance minister. The photo exhibit is hosted by the German department and sponsored by the Goethe Institute of San Francisco. UCI's Center for the Study of Democracy is hosting the conference.   More »

Locally owned small businesses don't insulate communities from layoffs and closures in bad economic times. Rather, corporate headquarters do the most to protect cities from employment reductions, reports a new study co-authored by a UC Irvine economist. This debunks a popular argument that owners of "mom and pop" stores are less likely to lay off employees, relocate or close their businesses when the economy sours, says David Neumark, UCI economics professor and a Bren Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. The findings validate the efforts of many local governments to attract and retain corporate headquarters, he says.   More »

The nearly 80,000 immigrants older than 65 who arrive in the U.S. each year are often overlooked by society because they don't hold paid jobs or speak fluent English, says UC Irvine sociology professor Judith Treas. "Elderly immigrants remain in the shadows," says Treas, whose research on them was recently published in Generations, a journal of the American Society on Aging. "They never win spelling bees. They don't join criminal gangs. Nobody worries about Americans losing jobs to Korean grandmothers." Over the last 15 years, Treas and her students have interviewed many foreign-born seniors and their relatives and friends. The immigrants have come from a wide range of countries, including Iran, Mexico, Korea, Pakistan and Cambodia. Treas hopes her research will raise awareness of the issues facing elderly immigrants.   More »

Network analysis models can be used to predict the spread of HIV or the collapse of the U.S. economy, and two UCI researchers are at the forefront of this rapidly expanding field. Sociologist Carter Butts (pictured) and anthropologist Douglas White recently published articles in Science magazine stressing the need for researchers and policymakers alike to regard network analysis as an evolving science. "As we learn more about networks in a wider range of contexts, we are discovering sometimes surprising things about what does and does not matter for understanding social systems," says Butts. Papers are available here: www.sciencemag.org/content/vol325/issue5939/index.dtl.   More »

UC Irvine sociologist Andrew Penner's research has shown that, over time, changes in social standing - such as income level, employment and incarceration status - alter the way people racially categorize themselves and others. Now Penner and University of Oregon colleague Aliya Saperstein are expanding the study, thanks to a $35,000 grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to explore how thinking about race as fluid provides insight into inequality. "By recognizing that perceptions of race are fluid and connected to stereotypes about social status," Penner says, "we hope to be able to explain some of the reasons that racial inequality persists in today's society and inform policies aimed at addressing it."   More »

Roxane Varzi's journey from Tehran to suburban Michigan was difficult at first-classmates teased her and news reports depicted her homeland as brutal and repressive. Ultimately, her bicultural upbringing helped inspire her new documentary, Plastic Flowers Never Die. Varzi wrote, edited and selected music for the film, which deals with the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War, an eight-year conflict that killed more than 1 million people. It explores the physical and emotional scars of war as well as Varzi's feelings about her homeland.   More »

Variations in how people perceive colors and how those same colors appear on TV, computers and other media have confounded broadcasters, Web designers and printers trying to reproduce lifelike hues. A. Kimball Romney, UC Irvine social sciences research professor, has found a solution – a mathematical model that determines how the human eye sees color and allows it to be replicated in other formats. His model yields a 99.4 percent match, based on International Commission on Illumination standards.The study, published in June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was co-authored by Chuan-Chin Chiao of the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.   More »

In three years, UCI's Baghdad School Project has shipped 7,500 packets of notebooks, pencils, erasers and rulers to schoolchildren in the war-torn country. A branch of the Dean’s Ambassadors Council in the School of Social Sciences, the organization works with the U.S. Military Postal Service to deliver the supplies, saving thousands of dollars in shipping costs. But raising money is still the group’s biggest challenge. To that effect, the group is hoping to raise funds and awareness at a reception and panel discussion 7 p.m. Thursday, May 21, in Social Science Plaza A, Room 2112. “Rebuilding Iraq: One Student at a Time” will feature social sciences lecturer Bojan Petrovic, an expert on the Middle East; Iraqi-born former Washington Post reporter Omar Fekeiki; and Iraq War veterans John A. Hanson and David Curry. More: 949-824-9229 or teresa.neighbors@uci.edu.   More »

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox discussed the future of democracy in Mexico and Latin America in front of a packed audience Wednesday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. "Democracy is not for granted in Latin America," Fox said. "It has to be nourished, defended and promoted." Fox's lecture was part of the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Series. UCI Chancellor Michael Drake praised Fox for "promoting ambitious humanitarian and economic reforms" in Mexico and presented Fox with an honorary plaque and a stuffed Peter the Anteater.   More »

Wang Feng, UC Irvine sociology professor and chair, recently received a $500,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation to study China's controversial one-child per couple birth control policy. Wang and colleagues will study the policy's social and economic implications in light of the country's looming healthcare and labor shortage crisis. "With China's low fertility level, we're certain to see the number of new entrants to the workforce cut in half within the next 10 years," he says. "We also will see the median age of the entire country increase to 50 years old by 2050 if the current demographic trend continues."   More »

The U.S. could learn a lot from other countries when it comes to human rights, according to a new book by Alison Brysk, UC Irvine political science professor. In "Global Good Samaritans," Brysk provides a comparative look at human rights practices around the world. Canada sits at the top of the list, partly due to its compassion toward refugees and generous foreign aid. The book praises Sweden and the Netherlands as historic leaders in human rights and highlights Japan and South Africa as up-and-coming promoters of human rights. Brysk discussed the book at the International Studies Association's annual meeting Feb. 17 in New York.   More »

A new study co-authored by UC Irvine economics professor David Neumark (pictured), finds that California's Enterprise Zone Program has no measurable effect on new job creation for businesses located within zone boundaries. The state created the program in 1984 with the goal of stimulating business investment in depressed areas and creating jobs. Critics of the program say it costs the state nearly $330 million in lost tax revenue each year, while proponents tout its success at decreasing poverty and unemployment rates. "If this fairly expensive program doesn't appear to be achieving its main objective, it's important that its continuation be reevaluated," Neumark said. Findings from the study are available as a working paper on the National Bureau of Economics Research's website.   More »

UC Irvine faculty, students and staff marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a document that laid the foundation for international human rights law – with a public reading and teach-in Dec. 10. The declaration set out to recognize the inherent dignity of all people, although parts of the world fall short of full social and economic protection for their citizens, said Alison Brysk, (pictured) director of UCI’s Human Rights Program. “From genocide in Darfur to refugees in North Korea, from torture at Guantanamo Bay to political prisoners in Iran, human rights still are threatened around the world,” Brysk said. According to Kevin Olson, political science associate professor the document is as relevant today as it was in 1948. “It's only now coming into its proper place on the international scene,” he said. Graduate students and undergraduate representatives of Amnesty International and Invisible Children joined in the event.   More »

An era of mass migrations, porous borders and easily obtained fraudulent documents is blurring the definition of citizenship and putting national security at risk around the globe, says UC Irvine political science professor Kamal Sadiq in his new book, "Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing Countries." The book is now available through Oxford University Press. Sadiq’s research focuses on “documentary citizenship” – immigrants’ use of forged documents or illegally obtained authentic passports to prove residency or citizenship. Weak and erratic bureaucracies in developing countries allow fake documents to flourish. The result is a thriving underground process for attaining citizenship.   More »

"Immigrant Lives in ‘The O.C.’ and Beyond,” a new exhibit that traces the history of immigration in the county, opens Tuesday, Nov. 18, at UC Irvine’s Langson Library. A collection of books, pamphlets, newspaper articles and historic photographs chronicling the area's often-turbulent immigrant heritage from the 19th century to the present will be available for browsing. The exhibit begins at 5:30 p.m. with a presentation by Frank Bean, UCI Chancellor's Professor of Social Sciences and will continue through April 2009.   More »

In his new book, "Minimum Wages," UC Irvine economics professor David Neumark warns against increasing the federal minimum wage, contradicting beliefs held by the now Democratically-controlled White House, Senate and House. According to Neumark, minimum wage increases hurt younger workers by pitting them against older, more skilled adults when competing for the same jobs. "Teenagers either wind up working less and thus have less work experience to draw from in the long run, or they quit school to work because they can make enough money to survive without a formal education," Neumark said. The increase hinders their ability to acquire advanced skills and earn higher wages, he argues. The book hits shelves Friday, Nov. 7, and draws on 15 years of economics research.   More »

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded UC Irvine a $1.7 million grant to create a new research institute focused on the growing use of mobile technology in providing banking and financial services to people in developing countries. The Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion will be the first to explore how the world’s poorest people spend, store and save money. It will study how these habits are affected by the emerging mobile banking industry, known as “m-banking,” which could make financial services and the security they provide available to millions of poor people for the first time. The institute, headed by UCI anthropologist Bill Maurer (pictured), launched Thursday, Sept. 18.   More »

UC Irvine anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh’s latest book, Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China, has received positive reviews from Nature and Science magazines. Described by the latter as “our most surefooted guide to China's adventure in mass birth planning,” Greenhalgh explores how scientific policymaking by a team of aerospace engineers led directly to widespread social suffering as China developed into a technologically advanced state. “Through compelling storytelling and [penetrating] analysis,” reviewed Nature, “she draws together field and archival studies that cover the two decades from 1982 to 2007, spanning huge social, political, cultural and geographical distances.” Greenhalgh's book was published in February.   More »

A team of UC Irvine scientists has been awarded a $4 million grant to study synthetic telepathy – communicating by thoughts instead of speech. Funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, the project could benefit soldiers on the battlefield and paralysis and stroke patients who can’t communicate verbally, according to lead researcher Michael D’Zmura, chair of the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences. The team will work with experts in automatic speech recognition and brain imaging at other universities to research a brain-computer interface that would use noninvasive brain imaging technology to let people communicate thoughts to each other.   More »

UC Irvine political scientist Etel Solingen has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Carnegie Corp. to examine the effects of positive and negative inducements on preventing nuclear proliferation. The research is timely in light of the debate over Iran's nuclear policy. Last weekend, diplomats from six countries, including the United States, met with Iran to propose an incentive-laced package that, if accepted, could lead to a suspension of the country's uranium enrichment program. By studying which actions have discouraged other nations' nuclear development, Solingen hopes to contribute to successful nonproliferation policy. Some preliminary results of her study will be released in 2009, before the crucial 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.   More »

Networking is seen as necessary to succeed in business, and Latina professionals are no exception. According to a recent study by UC Irvine sociology graduate student Jody Agius Vallejo, ethnic professional associations are key to a Latina businesswoman's ability to thrive in Orange County's corporate world. Previous research suggested Latinas lack involvement in professional organizations. Agius Vallejo found this is not the case. "These organizations and associations help Latinas develop skills that aren't learned in a classroom - like business etiquette and socializing through golf – which are very important in the area’s corporate culture," she says. Agius Vallejo will present her work at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Boston Aug. 4. The study will be published in the association's City & Community journal.   More »

Louis DeSipio, political science associate professor at UC Irvine, will examine trends in voter-supported bans on state affirmative action programs thanks to a $50,000 grant from the nonprofit Public Interest Projects. Using data from entrance and exit polling, DeSipio and UC Berkeley researchers Lydia Chavez and Andres Jimenez will determine how factors such as demographics, media and special advocacy and interest groups impacted voter decisions about affirmative action in California, Washington and Michigan. DeSipio says the findings should be of interest to both pro- and anti-affirmative action groups looking to sway the November elections in states like Arizona, Nebraska and Colorado, where anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives are in the works.   More »

Each year, the nation’s top law firms spend 3 to 5 percent of their time on pro bono work. That figure has inspired UC Irvine sociology graduate student Steven Boutcher to study the influence law firms have on social movements through the causes they choose to represent. Boutcher has received a $10,600 award from the National Science Foundation to analyze pro bono cases taken on by top firms over the past 10 years and determine whether patterns exist in the types of causes firms represent. "A significant chunk of social change is driven by elite lawyers in large law firms," says Boutcher, who notes that pro bono work has more than doubled across the nation's top 200 firms since 1998.   More »

When it comes to faculty gender equity, academia earns a “needs improvement,” according to a new UC Irvine study. "Gender inequities and discrimination toward women in academia exist both at the individual and institutional level,” said Kristen Monroe, political science and philosophy professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality, who interviewed female faculty at UCI for the study. She found the culture devalues the authority of women in high-level positions and leaves little room for flexible work-family alternatives, and the issues are not unique to the campus. Published in the June issue of the American Political Science Association’s Perspectives of Politics, the study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program, which seeks to increase the representation and advancement of women in academia.   More »

Nearly 400,000 Russians die each year due to heart disease, but a study by a recent UC Irvine graduate found that about 5 percent of such deaths could be avoided by the year 2025 if the country strengthens its environmental standards. "A poor environment can lead to a number of cardiovascular-related health problems, resulting in death at a younger age," says Natalia Milovantseva, a Demographic and Social Analysis program graduate. "In Russia, if laws for air, water and environmental quality continue to go unenforced, the cost will be measured in lives lost." A Russian native, Milovantseva received the 2008 Southern California Edison Award for Research on Energy and the Environment in recognition of her study. The $1,000 award will help fund her next research venture as she moves on to the UCI School of Social Ecology's environmental analysis and design doctoral program in the fall.   More »

Like Margaret Mead before him, UC Irvine associate professor of anthropology Tom Boellstorff understands the value of cultural immersion. But instead of Samoan villages, Boellstorff spent two years "living" in the online virtual world of Second Life, a community where businesses, homes, money and relationships are created through the click of a mouse. What he learned about human culture is detailed in his new book, "Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human," available now at the campus bookstore. The book is reviewed in the current issue of Scientific American and will be officially released June 18 following a virtual celebration in Second Life's Cetus Gallery District.   More »

UC Irvine anthropology professor Kristin Peterson will travel to France, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Malawai and parts of the U.S. to begin a National Science Foundation-funded study of the ethical and scientific issues surrounding international clinical drug trials. Peterson will perform a three-year study on the implementation, effectiveness and perception of a 2004 clinical trial for the HIV drug Tenofovir. The trial was shut down due to ethical and scientific questions surrounding the study, and Peterson and her research partners will examine the causes for its termination. A preliminary survey revealed some disturbing information, according to Peterson. "Four out of five participants who signed informed consent forms didn't actually know they were part of a study," she says. "Many viewed the program as free healthcare and mistakenly understood that the 'preventative' drug would keep them from contracting HIV."   More »

Is personal Internet use at work strictly the domain of low-paid employees? A recent study co-written by UC Irvine political science professor James Danziger offers some surprising findings about who spends the most time surfing the Web on company time. According to the study, "cyberslacking" is more frequent among those with higher workplace status. In particular, highly paid managers and professionals, as well as employees with greater workplace autonomy, spend substantially more time online for personal purposes during the workday than those below them in the workplace hierarchy. The study also found men are more likely to use the Internet for non-work purposes than women. The study appears in the Journal Cyberpsychology and Behavior.   More »

Edwin Amenta, UC Irvine sociology professor, has received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the rise, decline and persistence of social movement organizations throughout the last century. Armenta will track changes within and across social movements using coverage from national newspapers to determine which movements and organizations have received the most media attention and what accounts for their media coverage. Armenta's study will serve as the first long-term mapping of social movements that have impacted public sentiment over the last 100-plus years. The program will cover a two-year period.   More »

Joseph L. White, UC Irvine professor emeritus of social science, has been named San Francisco State University's 2008 Alumnus of the Year. He will be honored at the university's 107th annual commencement May 24. White has been widely recognized for his extensive contributions to psychology and is a founding member of the Association of Black Psychologists. He is considered by many the 'father' of black psychology and a pioneer in changing psychology to respect and understand the black community. In 2004, he received the UCI Alumni Association's highest honor --the Lauds and Laurels Extraordinarius Award. He is highly regarded for his teaching, research and mentoring of generations of students.   More »

Rein Taagepera, professor emeritus of political science at UC Irvine, has been awarded the Johan Skytte Prize for his analysis of the function of electoral systems in representative democracy. The Skytte Foundation is based at Uppsala University in Sweden and awards the prize annually to the scholar who has made the most valuable contribution to political science. Taagepera will accept the award and a $75,000 prize at a ceremony in Sweden in September.   More »

Arab American women, while highly educated, often have lower levels of employment than women of other racial or ethnic groups, according to a new study by UC Irvine sociologist Jen'nan Read. Read's findings suggest that cultural and familial traditions -- rather than career aspirations -- are a driving force behind Arab American women's motivation to obtain college degrees. "Arab Americans place a strong emphasis on higher education for women," Read said. "However, they stress education not as a means toward achieving a high-powered career as is often the case with U.S. women, but more as a resource to ensure that women can properly teach their children while caring for the family and maintaining their religious and ethnic identity." The study will be published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.   More »

Barbara Sarnecka, cognitive sciences professor at UC Irvine, has been awarded a two-year, $152,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to study early childhood education. Sarnecka and her research team will work with preschool-age children and direct different education games in which the youngsters perform cognitive tasks such as counting different objects and grouping them into different boxes. Their goal is to determine how and when children start learning number concepts. "Children learn to count at a very young age," Sarnecka said, "but the conceptual understanding of what the number words actually mean comes later." Parents with children under age four who are interested in participating may visit www.cogsci.uci.edu/cogdev/index.html, call 949-824-5492 or e-mail cogdev@uci.edu.   More »

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. Conventional wisdom has been that party dominance cycles roughly every 30 years. Grofman's study, conducted with Samuel Merrill, III (Wilkes University) and Thomas Brunell (University of Texas at Dallas), explores party dominance from 1856-2006 and looks at whether realignment cycles actually exist; if change is random or regular and whether the cycle interval is the same for the U.S. House, Senate, and Presidency; and whether observers can identify the forces that drive these cycles. According to the study, the recent Republican ascendancy is likely soon to be replaced by Democratic ascendancy.   More »

Susan Greenhalgh, professor of anthropology at UC Irvine, has written a new book called Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China. The author argues that scientific policymaking by a team of aerospace engineers led directly to widespread social suffering while giving birth to a technoscientific state. Greenhalgh draws on 20 years of research into China's population politics to explain how a nation of one billion decided to limit all couples to one child. The book has been called "remarkably well-researched and thoughtful" by Peter L. Galison, history of science professor at Harvard University. The book was published by University of California Press.   More »

UC Irvine economics professors Francesca Mazzolari (pictured) and David Neumark have received a $35,000 Labor and Employment Research Fund award from the UC Office of the President to study the economic impact Asian and Hispanic immigrants have on local communities. Using data from population and business surveys, Mazzolari and Neumark's study will be one of the first to look at the effects of immigration in terms of increases in product and service demands -- a point they argue may actually be helping communities with large immigrant populations. "Our project will estimate to what extent immigrants raise the demand for U.S. workers through their consumption and the induced rise in product and labor demand," Mazzolari said. The project will span about one year, ending in December.   More »

UC Irvine researchers Liane Brouillette, educational leadership professor, and Kristen Monroe (pictured), political science professor, have received an $828,000 grant from the California Postsecondary Education Commission for a project aimed at improving English and arts education in kindergarten through second grade classrooms. The four-year grant period involves 180 teachers and more than 7,000 students in the San Diego Unified School District. Brouillette and Monroe will develop curriculum and provide professional development training for teachers on how to incorporate art into classroom lessons as a way to strengthen students' English language skills. Storytelling, drawing, music and other creative activities will be used to reinforce language skills.   More »

UC Irvine political science professor Bernard Grofman will be the inaugural Jack W. Peltason Endowed Chair, named for the former UC president and UC Irvine Chancellor. The chair was established in November with a $1 million donation. Grofman also is the new director of the Center for the Study of Democracy. A leading authority on representation, voting rights and redistricting, Grofman has served as an expert witness in key court cases around the country. His current research focuses on how the U.S. compares with other major democracies in terms of institutions, values and public policies. He plans to continue his research in this area with funds established through the Peltason Chair.   More »

UC Irvine anthropology chair Bill Maurer shows that money has meaning beyond commerce in a new slide show produced by the Orange County Register. In a piece titled "Did you know... money isn't always simply money" Maurer discusses cultural, religious and ritualistic practices involving money in Orange County's ethnic communities. Maurer is an expert on various aspects of finance, from Islamic banking to offshore financial services centers in the Caribbean. He teaches a course on the anthropology of money.   More »

Etel Solingen, political science professor at UC Irvine, is receiving positive attention from international policymakers and the press for her recent book, Nuclear Logics: Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East. A range of experts have praised the book, including former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who called it a "valuable and timely contribution" to the debate over curbing nuclear-weapons proliferation. Solingen also has been invited to speak on nuclear issues at the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (Paris), the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry (Moscow, Russia), the Center for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich), Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations, among many others.   More »

Andrea Ballestero, a second-year anthropology graduate student at UC Irvine, will travel to the coastal community of Cocles, Costa Rica, next month to study its innovative system of water pricing based on the collective purchasing power of its residents. A driving force behind Ballestero's research is the fact that 4 out of 10 people in the world lack access to water. The trip is made possible by fellowships from the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs at UCI and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. In Costa Rica, Ballestero will study a national subsidy program that covers water bills for people living under the poverty line to see if it has been successful in providing water to the poor and can be implemented in other areas.   More »

Tom Boellstorff, associate professor of anthropology at UC Irvine, has been selected by the American Anthropological Association to edit its flagship journal, American Anthropologist. The 109-year-old publication features academic articles, commentaries and reviews related to anthropology. Boellstorff's research focuses on gay and lesbian studies, HIV/AIDS in Indonesia and Internet and virtual communities. He will publish a book next year titled Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human (Princeton University Press), in which he explores issues like gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior in the virtual world.   More »

UC Irvine ranks among the best in the country for faculty productivity, according to Academic Analytics, a for-profit company that partners with the State University of New York. Computer and information sciences ranks first; information science/studies ranks fourth; mathematics, geology and Earth science, and urban and regional planning ranks fifth; psychology ranks sixth; social sciences ranks ninth; and human development and family studies ranks 10th. The rankings measure how productive faculty members are in publishing books and journal articles, having their work cited by other journals, obtaining federal research funding, and earning various awards and honors.   More »

Face-to-face canvassing of low-income and minority communities dramatically increases voter turnout within these historically low voter participation populations, according to a new study released by the James Irvine Foundation. Researchers, including UC Irvine professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla (pictured), found other personal contact outreach methods - including live phone calls - to be much more effective at turning out the vote than direct mail, recorded phone messages and other commonly used voter mobilization tactics. The James Irvine Foundation launched the California Voter Initiative in 2006 as a multi-year effort to increase voter participation in targeted areas and evaluate nonpartisan strategies for increasing voting rates.   More »

Penelope Maddy, professor of logic & philosophy of science and of mathematics at UC Irvine, has been named a Distinguished Professor in recognition of her study of the philosophy of mathematics and logic and what justifies our most basic assumptions of mathematics. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and president of the International Association of Symbolic Logic. The Distinguished Professor title is reserved for senior faculty members who have achieved the highest levels of scholarship over the course of their careers.   More »

Roberto G. Gonzales, a doctoral candidate in the UC Irvine Department of Sociology, has published a study in support of the recently defeated Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) act in the latest Immigrant Policy Center publication. Gonzales' study cited the potential benefits of the act for 360,000 high school graduates. The bill, which would have created a path to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants if they attended college or enlisted in the military, failed to pass a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday, Oct. 24. Gonzales joined UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill) in a national news conference Tuesday to support the act.   More »

Summer at UC Irvine is rather calm compared to the hustle and bustle of the school year; the halls are quieter, the plazas nearly empty. A quick walk by room 1208 in Social Sciences Plaza B, however, yields a much different scene. Here, 22 students are enrolled in the School of Social Sciences' Summer Academic Enrichment Program. For the past five weeks, these juniors and seniors – most of them first-generation university students – have voluntarily subjected themselves to SAEP's rigorous curriculum. Social sciences faculty show them general methods for conducting research, performing statistical analysis and communicating findings – essential knowledge for any student interested in pursuing an advanced degree, says Caesar Sereseres, SAEP co-director and social sciences’ associate dean of undergraduate studies.   More »

A person searching for a ripe tomato at the grocery store is more likely to notice apples, strawberries and other red fruits as well, according to a new UC Irvine study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in blood flow in the brain. Cognitive scientist John Serences also discovered that more neurons are called into action to help the eyes find a particular object than has previously been documented. The findings, published in the July 18 online edition of the journal Neuron, may help scientists better understand Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, while also explaining how healthy people’s brains create awareness of their surroundings.   More »

Jeanett Castellanos, a lecturer in UC Irvine’s Social Sciences and Chicano/Latino Studies and director of the Social Sciences Academic Resource Center, was named recipient of the Samuel M. Turner MENTOR Award by the American Psychological Association. MENTOR stands for Minority Education, Nurturing, Training, Organizational advocacy and Research. The award honors a psychology faculty member who has demonstrated a commitment to teaching and training clinical psychologists to work more effectively with ethnic minority clinical populations. Castellanos, who earned bachelor's degrees in psychology and sociology from UCI in 1994, will receive the award during the APA convention in San Francisco this August.   More »

Min Ouyang, assistant professor of economics at UC Irvine, recently received a fellowship sponsored by the American Economics Association and the National Science Foundation. Designed to increase the participation and advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in economics, the fellowship will allow Ouyang to spend this summer at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. While there, she will participate as a member of the research department and continue work on two of her research projects, “The Virtues of Bad Times Revisited: Theory and Evidence on Cyclical Innovation” and “Labor Reallocation, Business Cycles, and Labor Market Institutions.”   More »

R. Duncan Luce, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine, received an honorary doctorate of mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada, June 15. Luce, a pioneer in mathematical behavioral sciences and National Medal of Science winner, was recently honored with the UCI Alumni Association’s Extraordinarius award at the 37th annual Lauds & Laurels ceremony.   More »

Jen’nan Ghazal Read, sociology assistant professor, has won a scholar-in-residence grant from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation that will send her to a castle in the French countryside for scholarly work. Read will spend fall 2007 completing publications about her research on Muslim-American political incorporation in the idyllic setting of Chateau de la Bretesche in Missillac, France. She is one of just two scholars selected annually for this prestigious program, which aims to give faculty a home base for completing research and writing for scholarly publications. Read spent last year as a Carnegie Scholar analyzing national data on Muslim-American political incorporation.   More »

The count is complete: A May 27 event raised more than $145,000 to support guest speakers, cultural events and undergraduate research projects in Middle East studies at UC Irvine. Guest of honor Tony Shalhoub, star of the USA Network show “Monk,” expressed his support for the Middle East Studies Student Initiative program, which aims to generate support for a comprehensive Middle East education program on campus. Comedians Maz Jobrani and Aron Kader entertained the 100 businessmen and women, scholars and students in attendance.   More »

Tom Boellstorff, associate professor of anthropology, has been named editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association. Published for 109 years, the journal features academic articles, commentaries and reviews related to the field. It is sent to all 12,000 association members and major research university libraries across the country.   More »

Jen'nan Read, assistant professor of sociology, has won a scholar-in-residency grant from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation that will send her to a castle in the French countryside for scholarly work. Read will spend fall 2007 completing publications about her research on Muslim-American political incorporation in the idyllic setting of Chateau de la Bretesche in Missillac, France. She is one of just two scholars selected annually for this prestigious program, which aims to give faculty a home base for completing research and writing for scholarly publications. Read spent last year as a Carnegie Scholar analyzing national data on Muslim-American political incorporation.   More »

Harvard University's Graham Allison will discuss what he considers the imminent threat of nuclear terrorism on American soil in his talk, "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe," at the 16th annual Margolis Lecture at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 21 in Social Science Lecture Hall 100. A former advisor in the Department of Defense under presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Allison has the the unique distinction of twice having been awarded the Department of Defense's highest civilian award. At Harvard, he founded the John F. Kennedy School of Government, which he developed from a small program into a major profesional school of public policy and government.   More »

While considering comprehensive immigration reform, Congress called on UC Irvine sociology professor Rubén Rumbaut, a leading scholar on assimilation of immigrants and their children. He testified Wednesday, May 16, before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law at a special hearing, “Becoming Americans – U.S. Immigrant Integration,” in Washington, D.C. Rumbaut is the author of the award-winning Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, and is currently leading a major study about social mobility of immigrants in Los Angeles.   More »