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Welcome Welcome to the January 2014 issue of the Social Sciences eNews! Make a Difference Invest in tomorrow's leaders today. Learn how!Follow us on 
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SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Reddit co-founder on how the 21st century will be made, not managed Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - 12:00pm - 1:30pm | Donald Bren Hall, Room 6011
Giving (back) as good as he got First-generation SAEP alumnus now works at U.S. Department of Education helping others like him
Dosher receives UCI Distinguished Faculty Award for Research Honor recognizes campus's most outstanding faculty member for research excellence
DeSipio named director of UC Irvine Center for the Study of Democracy Chicano/Latino studies and political science prof will continue center focus and pursue new programs
Established UCI center gets new name, focus and leadership Krichmar puts engineering focus on newly renamed Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Engineering (CENCE)
Incarceration has no effect on nonresident fathers' parenting Findings published in December issue of American Sociological Review
VIDEO: Interview with George Marcus, anthropology Chancellor's Professor and ethnography director Collaborative ethnographic research and complex systems
VIDEO: Bitcoin bandwagon Anthro grad student Nelms weighs in
The "Asian F" and the idea of Asian achievement An article by Jennifer Lee, sociology professor, featured in The Society Pages
Mocking history UC Irvine Mock Trial Orange County Register feature
SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Arthur Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences January 10-11, 2014 | Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center
SPOTLIGHT EVENT: Homecoming 2014 Saturday, January 25, 2014
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As Alexis Ohanian learned when he helped to co-found the immensely popular reddit.com, the internet is the most powerful and democratic tool for disseminating information in human history. And when that power is harnessed to create new communities, technologies, businesses or charities, the results can be absolutely stunning. At 29, Ohanian has come to personify the dorm-room tech entrepreneur, changing the world without asking permission. Within a couple of years of graduating from the University of Virginia, Ohanian did just that, selling reddit for millions of dollars. He's gone on to start many other companies, like hipmunk and breadpig, all while representing Y Combinator and investing in over sixty other tech startups. Currently on his book tour, Ohanian will be stopping at UC Irvine to share his ideas and tips about harnessing the power of the web for good. The Q&A type event will be led by Bill Maurer, UC Irvine School of Social Sciences dean, anthropology and law professor and director/co-director of two tech-focused research centers, the Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion and the Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first come, first served basis; limited overflow seating will be available in satellite rooms.
Martha Kanter, undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, listens intently as UC Irvine deans, vice chancellors and directors involved with admissions and financial aid talk about how the campus makes itself accessible to underrepresented minorities and first-generation university students – and how it can do even better. To her right sits another staffer from Washington, D.C., nodding almost imperceptibly as the conversation covers the importance of faculty mentors, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, cultural diversity interest groups, the Blue + Gold Opportunity Plan and more."It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and saying, 'Yes, yes!'" Robert Gomez later admits. Kanter's staff escort during her recent visit to California is an Anteater – class of 2007 – and was an eager participant in all UC Irvine had to offer him as a first-generation college student from Pico Rivera.
Barbara Dosher, cognitive sciences Distinguished Professor, is the 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Award for Research. Awarded by the UC Irvine Academic Senate, the honor recognizes the campus's most outstanding faculty member for research excellence.
Dosher's nearly 40-year academic career has been spent studying the distinct forms and processes of attention, memory and perceptual learning. Her findings have been published widely in such major journals as Psychological Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, Vision Research, and Journal of Memory & Language, and her research has been funded through multi-million dollar grants from the National Eye Institute, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Institute of Mental Health and National Science Foundation, among others.
Louis DeSipio, Chicano/Latino studies and political science professor, is the new director of the UC Irvine Center for the Study of Democracy. Appointed to a five-year term, he plans to continue the center's focus on democratic participation in governance through research, public events and potential new degree programs.
"Research on participation in democracies is what the center has done since its inception and should continue to do," DeSipio says. "We'll continue this through collaborative research and new venues to inform the campus community and the public at large about new and provocative findings on mass political participation."
His goal is not just an academic-style focus, but also interactions with practitioners of politics.
The previously known Center for Cognitive Neuroscience has a new name, new focus and new leadership. Under the direction of cognitive scientist Jeff Krichmar, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Engineering (CENCE) aims to better understand the relation between cognitive abilities and neural systems through brain imaging and mapping, computational modeling, informatics and engineering techniques.
"We wanted to add an engineering aspect to make the center more interdisciplinary, and the response across campus has been great," Krichmar says.
Housed in the School of Social Sciences, CENCE includes 25 core faculty from five different schools on campus representing departments of cognitive sciences, computer science, mechanical and aerospace engineering, neurobiology and behavior, neurology, biomedical engineering, and anatomy and neurobiology.
A prison sentence may not always have negative consequences for children of the incarcerated, says UCI sociologist Kristin Turney. In a new study, she finds that when an uninvolved dad spends time behind bars, there are no negative effects on his parenting.
"To date, most research shows that incarceration has detrimental effects on family life," she says. "But we find that there is considerable variation in these effects."
Turney and co-author Christopher Wildeman, Yale University, analyzed data from the Fragile Families & Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal study conducted from 1998 to 2000 involving nearly 5,000 mostly unmarried parents of children born in urban areas, many of whom are economically disadvantaged. Over the course of the survey, almost half of the dads spent time in prison or jail.
What's your most significant research accomplishment and how has it made a difference? We asked some of our National Academy members, Distinguished Professors and other renowned UCI social scientists to comment and we got some really interesting responses. Here, George Marcus, anthropology Chancellor's Professor and Center for Ethnography director, discusses his work on collaborative ethnographic research and complex systems.
What is Bitcoin and how are retailers jumping on the bandwagon? Taylor Nelms, anthropology graduate student and Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion researcher, weighs in on First Business. 
"I feel ashamed of myself because my grade is not what an Asian should get," reads a PostSecret confession. The quote reflects the popular perception among Asians and non-Asians, alike, that if you are Asian, you should receive a top grade; anything less than an A is an "Asian F." The idea highlights two points. First, academic achievement is racialized, with Asian Americans as the reference group for academic excellence. Second, the expectations and the perceived norm for achievement are higher for Asian Americans than for other groups.
Each year, UC Irvine goes head-to-head with other top universities in the country to argue a single case and gain hands-on experience in a courtroom environment. The mockers must argue both sides of the case. At each competition, they are required to present the case several times against different teams and different judges. Every trial brings a new experience and it's important to think quickly and to constantly reevaluate the situation. In the last six years, UC Irvine's team has qualified for the American Mock Trial Association's National Championship Tournament. In the last two years, the university placed in the top three. The team's consistent quality performance has led to a top bonus bid ranking by the American Mock Trial Association.
Darwinian thinking is now having a major impact in social science, both in the consideration of the consequences of biological and cultural evolution on traditional questions, and in the use of quasi-Darwinian adaptive dynamics in evolutionary game theory. This Darwinian point of view is having a major impact on economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, and demography. The Arthur Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences presents, "In the Light of Evolution VIII: Darwinian Thinking in the Social Sciences," featuring Brian Skyrms, Distinguished Professor, Department of Logic & Philosophy of Science, UC Irvine, and other renowned academics. A full agenda and speaker line up can be found online.
Join the fun! Be among thousands of alumni, students and friends to enjoy Homecoming at UC Irvine. Anteaters from near and far come back to campus every year to be part of this tradition! Bring the whole family for a fun-filled afternoon! Come to the Newkirk Alumni Center at 2:00 p.m. for an educational - and highly entertaining - debate about gun control in the U.S., featuring political science professors William Schonfeld and Mark Petracca, as part of the Classes Without Quizzes series. Don't forget to visit the school booths from 4:00-700 p.m. on Mesa Road at the Bren Events Center for the 2014 UCI Homecoming Street Festival. Then, join 'Eater Nation for the UCI men's basketball game vs University of Hawaii. Alumni: Register early. Reserve two free tickets online, but do it quick - only available while supplies last! R.S.V.P. online. |
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