Research
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.”
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.
-

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.