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2011 Social Sciences

December 14, 2011
Study of research impact ranks UCSC 21st in the world
UC Santa Cruz ranks 21st in the world in a five-year measure of the top 500 universities based on the impact of its researchers' scholarly publications.
December 13, 2011
Environmental Studies faculty stands up for experiential education
Faculty in UCSC's Environmental Studies program have teamed up to launch a fundraiser to protect the future of its experiential education courses.
December 06, 2011
Education researchers win $2 million grant to prepare teachers who help English learners
Education researchers at UC Santa Cruz have received nearly $2 million over five years from the U.S. Department of Education to develop methods of training prospective elementary school teachers how to best teach English to English learners while also teaching grade-level content.
December 06, 2011
Free computers help community college students improve skills
In the first-ever field experiment involving the provision of free computers to students for home use, UC Santa Cruz economics professor Rob Fairlie found that when students had access to a computer at home their grades went up along with -- not surprisingly -- their computer skills.
December 01, 2011
House names Capitol meeting room in honor of Gabe Zimmerman
The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to name a room in the Capitol for UC Santa Cruz alumnus Gabe Zimmerman (Stevenson, '02, sociology), the Congressional community outreach director who was killed in the January shooting rampage in Tucson.
November 28, 2011
Writing instructor's essay included in natural history anthology
An essay by Sarah Juniper Rabkin, a lecturer and researcher in the UC Santa Cruz Environmental Studies Department is included in "The Way of Natural History" (Trinity University Press, 2011), an anthology in which more than 20 writers argue that attention to nature is a key pathway to nurturing our humanity.
November 07, 2011
UCSC wins $2.6 million grant for organic farming research
UC Santa Cruz will continue and expand its leading role in sustainable agriculture research with a $2.6 million federal grant to strengthen collaboration with Central Coast farmers to promote organic production in the region.
November 03, 2011
Tom Pettigrew wins social psychology career award
Thomas F. Pettigrew, research professor of social psychology at UC Santa Cruz, is one of two recipients of a new Career Achievement Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
November 03, 2011
UCSC's Museum of Natural History holds open house and fundraiser
Two master naturalists will share their wisdom with the community when the UC Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History Collections (MNHC) holds its third annual open house and fundraiser Friday, Nov. 18 and Saturday, Nov. 19 at the Science and Engineering Library periodicals room on the UCSC campus.
October 25, 2011
2011 Founders Celebration Dinner: recognizing extraordinary achievement
A Nobel-prize-winning cancer researcher, a biotech industry veteran, and a central figure in the founding of UC Santa Cruz, were among the honorees at the Founders Celebration gala dinner, which drew 350 people to the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz on Friday.
October 21, 2011
Researchers work with high school teachers on new state writing standards
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz, in collaboration with local educational agencies, have won a $250,000 grant to help high school English teachers in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District prepare for new state standards in reading and writing.
October 18, 2011
Social Sciences honors teachers, staff members, students
Three teachers in the social sciences were honored for teaching and research as the division held its annual staff and faculty fall breakfast Oct. 12.
October 14, 2011
Beyond calories and consumption, new book critiques obesity orthodoxies
Julie Guthman, associate professor of community studies, challenges many widely held assumptions about the “obesity epidemic” in her new book, "Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism."
October 13, 2011
Elliot Aronson to deliver fall Emeriti Lecture Oct. 27
Elliot Aronson, emeritus professor of psychology, will deliver the fall 2011 Emeriti Lecture, "The Psychology of Self-Persuasion: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts," at UC Santa Cruz on Thursday, October 27.
October 07, 2011
Google chief economist kicks off finance lecture series at UC Santa Cruz
Hal Varian, chief economist at Google and a UC Berkeley emeritus professor, is the inaugural speaker of a quarterly lecture series being launched by a new financial and economic risk-analysis initiative at UC Santa Cruz.
October 07, 2011
UCSC ranked third in research influence in world university survey
In an analysis of the world's top universities, UCSC ranked third in research influence.
October 07, 2011
Community water projects in rural Kenya help raise family income
Rural family incomes tend to rise when Kenyan women don't have to spend several hours a day lugging water to their villages, UC Santa Cruz sociology professor Ben Crow writes in a new paper in the journal World Development.
October 03, 2011
Founders Dinner on October 21 to honor achievement, service, and scholarship
UC Santa Cruz will host its fifth annual Founders Celebration dinner at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz on Friday, October 21.
September 30, 2011
Five UCSC students win Fulbright scholarships
Five UC Santa Cruz students in four disciplines are winners of Fulbright scholarships for a year of research and study abroad. They will travel to China, Germany, Italy, and Mexico for the 2011-2012 academic year.
September 30, 2011
Psychology professor wins early career award
Phillip Hammack, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has been awarded the Louise Kidder Early Career Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), a division of the American Psychological Association.
September 23, 2011
LALS post-doc's research proposal wins top award from UC-Mexico funder
Tania Cruz Salazar's research on immigration by indigenous youth recently won the UC MEXUS Monarch Award for the most outstanding proposal submitted for funding this year.
September 13, 2011
The New McHenry: It’s Not Your Parents’ Library
I’m sitting in a “Group Study” room of the newly renovated McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz and I’ve got to admit—I’m pretty relaxed.
September 09, 2011
UCSC hosts fall harvest festival on September 25
Celebrate the bounty of fall at the 17th annual Fall Harvest Festival, Sunday, September 25 at UC Santa Cruz’s 25-acre organic farm with live music, food, apple tasting, apple pie bake-off, garden talks, hay rides, events for kids, and tours.
September 08, 2011
Prominent Indian statesman Karan Singh to deliver Satyajit Ray Lecture
Distinguished Indian statesman and diplomat Dr. Karan Singh will deliver the 2011 Satyajit Ray Lecture at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, September 24, at 5:30 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall.
September 08, 2011
Archaeology probes West African cities and impact of European influence
UCSC anthropologist J. Cameron Monroe writes about archaeological exploration of sub-Saharan African cities that played a prominent role in the slave trade of the 17th through 19th centuries.
September 02, 2011
UC Santa Cruz expert explains origins of political crisis in Nigeria
The car bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria's capital Aug. 26 is an ominous sign of the increasing militancy of disaffected Muslim youth in Africa's most populous nation, according to UC Santa Cruz professor Paul M. Lubeck, who spent six weeks this summer conducting research in Kano, Nigeria's largest city in the predominantly Muslim north.
August 30, 2011
Andrew Szasz wins highest honor in American environmental sociology
UC Santa Cruz sociology professor Andrew Szasz is the 2011 recipient of the Frederick Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award of the Environment, Technology, and Society section of the American Sociological Association, the highest honor bestowed in American environmental sociology.
August 26, 2011
Annual UCSC plant sale kicks off fall gardening season
The UCSC Farm & Garden’s Fall Plant Sale offers a rich and timely selection of organically raised vegetable seedlings, perennials, and California natives Friday and Saturday, September 9 and 10.
August 15, 2011
UCSC undergraduates exhibit summer research projects
More than 80 students presented their summer research projects at the 2011 Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium.
August 03, 2011
New book explores Russian dachas and the link with nature
UC Santa Cruz anthropology professor Melissa L. Caldwell writes about dachas, the little garden cottages where city-bound Russians go to connect with nature and end up working hard.
August 02, 2011
Resolution introduced to name Capitol room in honor of Gabe Zimmerman
A resolution has been introduced in Congress to name a meeting room at the U.S. Capitol in honor of UC Santa Cruz alumnus Gabe Zimmerman, the congressional staffer killed in the January shooting spree that wounded his boss, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
July 27, 2011
New organic gardening course offered at UCSC Farm and Garden
A new, comprehensive organic gardening course is being offered at UC Santa Cruz this summer, starting September 7 and running for nine weeks on Saturdays and Wednesday evenings.
July 22, 2011
UCSC moves forward with ecological horticulture apprenticeship program
The pioneering Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture program at the UC Santa Cruz Farm and Garden will continue to offer hands-on training in small-scale organic agriculture despite a significant loss of state and federal funding to the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS).
June 23, 2011
Researchers win $2 million grant to study spread of bat-killing fungus
Two UC Santa Cruz researchers, Winifred F. Frick and A. Marm Kilpatrick, have won a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to study the spread of a fungus that is decimating bat populations in the northeastern United States.
June 16, 2011
Free poetry reading and music at UCSC's Alan Chadwick Garden June 25
On Saturday, June 25, from noon until 2 p.m., a bevy of award-winning poets will read from their work at “A Garden of Poetry and Music,” with music by guitarist Bruce Abrams and piper Jay Salter. The event is free and open to the public
June 13, 2011
Professor documents the immigrant experience in Santa Cruz County
In her new book, "I'm Neither Here nor There, Mexicans' Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty," Professor Patricia Zavella describes how poor and working class Mexican Americans and migrants struggle for identity in Santa Cruz County.
June 13, 2011
EPA administrator speaks of commitment to environmental justice
In her College 10 commencement address June 12, Lisa P. Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spoke of her commitment to environmental justice and lauded College 10's focus on social justice.
June 07, 2011
Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas honored at 39th annual performance
Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas was presented with two awards of recognition during the troupe's 39th annual spring concert including Watsonville Mayor Daniel Dodge proclaiming June 3 "Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas Day" in Watsonville.
June 02, 2011
Farm & Garden market cart opens Tuesday, June 7
“Opening day” is around the corner, with spring produce and flowers going on sale at the UCSC Farm & Garden’s market cart beginning Tuesday, June 7.
May 26, 2011
UCSC documentary exhibition premieres at Del Mar Theater
Soon-to-be graduates of the Social Documentation (Soc Doc) program at UC Santa Cruz will premiere their masters thesis video documentaries at the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz, Thursday, June 9 at 7 p.m. The screening is free and open to the public.
May 23, 2011
Business Design Competition: high-tech test-grading system designers win top prize
UCSC engineering graduate student Paul Abumov and McMaster University astrophysics graduate Nicolas Petitclerc won the top spot at this year's Business Design Competition. A patent is pending for their innovative, high-tech test-grading system.
May 20, 2011
Sociological association awards Tom Pettigrew distinguished career award
Thomas F. Pettigrew, research professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has been named winner of the William Foote Whyte Distinguished Career Award of the Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.
May 19, 2011
UCSC economist expects emerging economies to push for next IMF head
The resignation of the head of the International Monetary Fund sets the stage for a tussle between developing countries and European economies, according to Joshua Aizenman, an international economics expert at UC Santa Cruz.
May 19, 2011
UC Santa Cruz students reap the benefits of Measure 43
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the passage of Measure 43, the student-funded Sustainable Food, Health, and Wellness Initiative at UC Santa Cruz that has treated thousands of students to a broad menu of ways to learn about food, including workshops, campus conferences, events, and classes.
May 18, 2011
Psychology professor awarded prestigious Spencer fellowship
Phillip L. Hammack, assistant professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2011-2012 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.
May 18, 2011
New book questions effectiveness of peace-building workshops
In his new book, UCSC psychology professor Phillip L. Hammack questions the effectiveness of peace-building workshops involving Israeli and Palestinian teenagers in the United States.
May 10, 2011
Clarity and vision: scholars impress judges at Graduate Research Symposium
The 7th annual Graduate Research Symposium on Friday, May 6, gave graduate students a chance to show off their projects and highlight their far-ranging achievements.
May 04, 2011
Education graduate student wins grant for dissertation research in India
A UC Santa Cruz graduate student in education has won a grant from the Rotary Foundation to help fund her dissertation research in India.
May 03, 2011
New endowment supports teaching and research at the Arboretum
A gift from botanist Jean Langenheim has established a new endowment in support of the UCSC Arboretum.
May 02, 2011
Strawberry & Justice Festival Takes Place at CASFS Farm on May 5
This year the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), UCSC’s Food Systems Working Group, and University Café are hosting a free, campus-oriented event on the theme of strawberries and social justice. The event will take place at the CASFS farm on Thursday, May 5 from 4 pm to 7 pm.
May 02, 2011
UCSC launches Center for Entrepreneurship
UCSC has launched a new Center for Entrepreneurship, which offers students across disciplines comprehensive, hands-on experience in bringing innovations to market.
April 29, 2011
Destiny and development in the Mayan tradition of midwifery
Barbara Rogoff is accustomed to choosing what she will write about. But with her most recent book, "Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town," the project chose her. The book is part memoir, part ethnography, part research study in child developmental psychology. It's also clearly a labor of love.
April 28, 2011
Analysis shows personal contact reduces tension and prejudice
In a new book, "When Groups Meet: the Dynamics of Intergroup Contact," Thomas F. Pettigrew, an international expert on racism, and Linda R. Tropp, associate professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, analyze research that shows how bringing groups together can mitigate prejudice.
April 25, 2011
Gift establishes Hellman Fellows Program to support junior faculty
The Hellman Fellows Fund has approved a gift of $625,000 to establish the UCSC Hellman Fellows Program.
April 25, 2011
Campus Earth Summit keeps sustainable conversations going
The all-student organized Earth Summit on April 22, now in its 10th year, brought together students, faculty, staff, and community members to share ideas and strategize on how to transform UCSC into a sustainable campus.
April 22, 2011
College Nine celebrates 10 years with film, performances, receptions
Nine is 10. College Nine celebrates its 10th anniversary May 13-15 with a multitude of events including "Peace on Fire: Global Blues, Poetry, & Politics," a spoken-word and live music performance Saturday, May 14, featuring Angela Davis, Corey Harris, Ekua Omosupe, and Shailja Patel at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
April 21, 2011
Psychology professor links cultural identities, educational success
In her new book, UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Catherine R. Cooper examines how culturally diverse youth can develop pathways to college without losing ties to their families, peers, and cultural communities.
April 19, 2011
Scholarship winner reports from National Conference for Media Reform
Corinne Warnshuis, a fourth-year sociology major at UC Santa Cruz, reports from the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston after winning a scholarship to attend.
April 15, 2011
UCSC Farm & Garden’s Annual Spring Plant Sale slated for April 30 and May 1
The UCSC Farm & Garden’s Spring Plant Sale takes place Saturday, April 30, and Sunday, May 1, in the Barn Theater parking lot at the base of the UC Santa Cruz campus, near the intersection of Bay and High streets in Santa Cruz. The sale will be open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Saturday, members of the Friends of the Farm & Garden enjoy priority early entry starting at 9 a.m.
April 12, 2011
SocDoc graduate director wins Guggenheim Fellowship
Renee Tajima-Peña, graduate director of the masters Social Documentation program at UC Santa Cruz, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2011.
April 12, 2011
Labor activist to speak on the rise of right-wing populism April 21
Bill Fletcher Jr., a longtime labor activist, will present a free, public lecture, "Right-Wing Populism and the Crisis of Organized Labor," 4 p.m. Thursday, April 21 in Humanities I, Room 210, at UC Santa Cruz.
April 12, 2011
Nuclear policy expert to discuss implications of Fukushima nuclear plant disaster April 19
Daniel Hirsch, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer on nuclear policy, will give a free, public lecture Tuesday, April 19 on the aftermath of the current nuclear plant disaster in Japan.
April 12, 2011
Second Rethinking Capitalism conference attracts large audience
The second Rethinking Capitalism conference at UC Santa Cruz April 7-9 attracted attentive audiences – much from the Santa Cruz community – for three days of discussions on the perils facing capitalism and government efforts designed to prop it up.
April 11, 2011
Cuban video project screens rural documentaries April 15 at UCSC
Short video documentaries produced by Cuban campesinos will be shown Friday, April 15 when Cuban filmmaker Carlos Rodriguez visits UC Santa Cruz as part of a tour of U.S. universities. The event is free and open to the public and runs from 12:30-2 p.m. in the Cervantes Room at the Bay Tree Book Store building.
April 08, 2011
New atlas takes a graphic approach to global inequalities
In 2001, the UC Atlas of Global Inequality went online at UC Santa Cruz. Now, millions of hits later, the interactive research project has been turned into a book, The Atlas of Global Inequalities, by two UC Santa Cruz professors.
April 07, 2011
Elliot Aronson wins UC distinguished emeriti award
Elliot Aronson, emeritus professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has been named winner of the 2010 Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award given to outstanding University of California professors in the humanities or social sciences for research and activities since retirement.
March 30, 2011
Elliot Aronson nominated for book, emeriti awards
Elliot Aronson, emeritus professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has been nominated for the 2010 Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award of the University of California.
March 24, 2011
Rethinking Capitalism conference examines illusion of safety nets
The second annual Rethinking Capitalism conference, April 7-9 at UC Santa Cruz, will investigate the social systems that help prop up and preserve capitalism in the aftermath of the crisis of 2008. Free and open to the public.
March 21, 2011
Social Sciences announces winners of distinguished alumni and emeriti awards
The UC Santa Cruz Social Sciences Division has named Peter R. Stein, (College Eight, '75) as winner of the 2011 Distinguished Social Sciences Alumni Award. Education professor emeritus Art Pearl has been selected to receive the 2011 Distinguished Social Sciences Emeriti Faculty Award.
March 11, 2011
UC Santa Cruz graduate student's research focuses on Japan's quake response
Carla Takaki Richardson has been intently watching Twitter feeds and social media posts from Japan after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated the country's northeastern coast. She returned in January after 18 months in Kobe, Japan researching the country's disaster management information systems.
March 04, 2011
UCSC economist testifies on widening wealth gap and barriers to financing
UC Santa Cruz economics professor Rob Fairlie told a U.S. Senate committee Thursday that significant financial barriers are keeping minority businesses from opening and expanding even in a recovering economy.
February 28, 2011
UCSC announces Baskins’ $1 million engineering gift at Scholarship Benefit Dinner
Chancellor George Blumenthal announced a special $1 million gift from Jack and Peggy Downes Baskin for engineering graduate fellowships at UCSC's eighth annual Scholarship Benefit Dinner.
February 23, 2011
Alums Dana Priest, Richard Harris win prestigious journalism awards
Two UC Santa Cruz alums, Richard Harris (Crown, 1980) and Dana Priest, (Merrill, 1981) have won prestigious journalism awards for their reporting last year on the Gulf oil spill and the national security complex.
February 18, 2011
Alumnus Kent Nagano wins Grammy award for Best Opera Recording
Renowned conductor and UC Santa Cruz alumnus Kent Nagano received a Grammy Award for “Best Opera Recording: "Saariaho: L'Amour De Loin” at the 53rd Grammy Awards.
February 18, 2011
UCSC scientist uses storm-chasing weather radar to track bats
Storm chasers have become bat counters. A UC Santa Cruz scientist, working with meteorologists at the University of Oklahoma, is using mobile storm-chasing radars to follow swarms of bats as they emerge from their caves each night to forage on insects.
February 16, 2011
New research center focuses on state's interconnected crises
The Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California, headquartered at UC Santa Cruz, is a new University of California research initiative that seeks to address the state’s interconnected crises in the economy, education, employment, environment, health, housing, and nutrition.
February 15, 2011
Conference explores right-to-the-city movements
A daylong conference at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, February 26 will explore the growing urban organizing movement. "Whose City: Labor and the Right-to-the-City Movements" will feature leading thinkers and activists in the burgeoning city movement on three panel discussions on issues of housing, wages, and economic justice; environmental justice and green jobs; and race, class, and citizenship.
February 09, 2011
Psychology professor's book explores everyday feminism
In a new book, Aaronette M. White, an associate professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, collects the personal reflections of 18 African Americans who are practicing feminism in their everyday lives.
February 07, 2011
Anthropology graduate student wins prestigious Paper Prize
Sarah Bakker, a graduate student in anthropology, is the first UC Santa Cruz student to win the prestigious Paper Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Europe.
February 04, 2011
Scholarship Benefit Dinner to provide vital financial support for students
UC Santa Cruz will host its eighth annual Scholarship Benefit Dinner on Saturday, February 26, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.
January 12, 2011
Scholarship fund established in honor of Gabriel Zimmerman
A scholarship fund has been established at UC Santa Cruz in honor of Gabriel Zimmerman, the UCSC alumnus who was killed in the shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz. that wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
January 10, 2011
John Laird named secretary of California Resources Agency
John Laird ('72, Stevenson, politics) is the new secretary of the California Resources Agency, appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, a key position overseeing the state's environment.
January 10, 2011
Alumnus Gabriel Zimmerman remembered for social conscience, consensus-building
Friends and colleagues remembered UC Santa Cruz alumnus Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, one of six people fatally shot Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.