Social Sciences
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.