Latest Achievements

Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff

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April, 2023

Rouhollah Aghasaleh, Education
Dr. Rouhollah Aghasaleh facilitated a pre-conference (NARST 2023) workshop at the Spencer Foundation in Chicago on “Dismantling Systemic Inequalities in Indigenous STEM Education”, sponsored by Indigenous Scientific Knowledge Research Interest Group (ISK-RIG). Organizers: Sharon Nelson-Barber-WestEd, USA Rouhollah Aghasaleh- California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, CA, USA Megan Bang- Northwestern University, IL, USA Pauline Chinn- University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, HI, USA Josiah Hester- Northwestern University, IL, USA Julie Robinson- University of North Dakota, ND, USA Linda Tuhiwai Smith- Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, New Zealand Bhaskar Upadhyay- University of Minnesota, MN, USA David Zandvliet- Simon Fraser University, Canada https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/3108/session/58009
Rouhollah Aghasaleh, Education
Dr. Rouhollah Aghasaleh delivered a keynote address at American Educational Research Association (AERA) Philosophical Studies in Education Special Interest Group (SIG) Business Meeting in Chicago on Friday April 14, 2023.
Regina Khoury, Geology
Regina Khoury has been selected to receive the Alistair and Judith McCrone Graduate Fellowship Award for the 2023-2024 academic year. This fellowship is given to one graduate student each year at Cal Poly Humboldt who demonstrates exceptional academic merit and significant potential for contribution to their field. Regina's MS thesis project with Professor Brandon Browne combines geologic mapping with geochemical and mineralogical analyses of lavas erupted from eight different vents within a ~200 year "flare up" of Medicine Lake volcano in the California Cascades. Her findings will advance hazard mitigation efforts at volcanoes worldwide. Congratulations Regina!
Rouhollah Aghasaleh,
Dr. Rouhollah Aghasaleh has been elected to the Society of Professors of Education (SPE) Board of Directors. SPE (formerly the Society of College Teachers of Education until 1969) is the oldest scholarly society in education, founded in 1902 by Charles DeGarmo and John Dewey, among others. 
Debbie Gonzalez, Social Work
  Debbie Gonzalez, Assistant Professor in the Social Work Department at Cal Poly Humboldt, recently had an article published on SocialWorker.com. Congratulations Debbie! Excerpt: "It is normal to have some stress or anxiety about transitioning from the classroom to the workplace...This article connects social work knowledge with skills for building workplace relationships that support an environment where safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, voice, and cultural responsiveness are commonplace." Read the full article by clicking the link below. https://www.socialworker.com/extras/social-work-month-project-2023/breaking-barriers-relationships-isocial-work-workplace/  
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Paul Michael L. Atienza’s essay “I Look at How They Write Their Bio and I Judge From There”: Language and Class Among Middle-Class Queer Filipino Digital Socialities in Manila” was published in an open access, special section titled Queer Cultures in Digital Asia for the International Journal of Communication. The article examines communicative practices among queer Filipino men in Manila and analyzes dating app profiles with a focus on class and gender. The special section aims to renew critical interrogation of the intersection between queerness and Asia at a time when digital media are inseparable from social lives. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19882

March, 2023

Tyler Evans, Alice Fialowski, Mathematics
My paper "Central Extensions of Restricted Affine Nilpotent Lie Algebras $n_+A_1^{(1)}(p)$" appeared in the Journal of Lie Theory, 33 (2023), No. 1, 195--215. This paper was written jointly with my colleague Alice Fialowski at Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem in Budapest, Hungary during my Spring 2022 sabbatical leave.  https://www.heldermann.de/JLT/JLT33/JLT331/jlt33009.htm
Cutcha Risling Baldy; Kaitlin Reed, Native American Studies
Last week, Save California Salmon and Cal Poly Humboldt’s Native American Studies Department hosted the Northern California LandBack Symposium. This first-of-its-kind free event featured Tribal and State leaders, university representatives, foundations, NGOs, land trusts, and lawyers who work to return land to Northern California Tribes and Tribal land trusts. SCS & NAS also worked with experts to create a draft California LandBack Red Paper to inform policy makers on the history of landback efforts along with current policy and funding needs to help make Tribal land return easier. Draft Red Paper: https://www.californiasalmon.org/_files/ugd/d97ff6_76b85f1726cb4595871840c91bc9ece9.pdf  Conference Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@SaveCaliforniaSalmon  
Vincent Biondo, Religious Studies
Vincent Biondo presented at the American Academy of Religion Western Region Annual Meeting at UC Davis on March 25, 2023.
John Meyer, Environmental Studies
John Meyer, has published two new articles: "Power and Truth in Science-Related Populism: Rethinking the Role of Knowledge and Expertise in Climate Politics" in Political Studies, and "Experimentalism and its alternatives: toward viable strategies for transformative change and sustainability" in Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. Both articles are available open access. 
Phoebe Hughes, Art
Student Phoebe Hughes had a work accepted into the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles Illustration West 61 exhibition. The drawing, Trash Griffins, was created in Fall 2022's ART 321: Drawing II: The Natural World, taught by Associate Professor Brandice Gonzalez-Guerra. Phoebe's work in the exhibition may be seen at this link: https://illustrationwest.org/61/student/trash-griffins/
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza was an invited discussant to a sponsored panel on LGBT Rights in Southeast Asia at the 2023 Association for Asian Studies (AAS) annual conference (March 16-19) held in Boston, MA. The Rising Voices panel is an annual competitive selection process among advanced doctoral students and un-tenured assistant professors on a different topic or theme for inclusion in the AAS conference. The Rising Voices panel is organized by the Southeast Asia Council of AAS and with generous financial support by the journal, TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia.
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza was an invited participant in a two-day workshop gathering Asian/American researchers, policymakers, & community organizers working on projects and advocacy focused on digital disinformation. Hosted by the Dept. of Communication at UMass Amherst, with generous support from Luminate and Reset, workshop participants shared works-in-progress and engaged in dialogue on interdisciplinary strategies to understand histories of racially targeted misinformation and hate speech. 
Ho Yi Wan, Wildlife
Dr. Ho Yi Wan received a grant from the CSU Agricultural Research Institute to support research on a collaborative project that will develop a viable business plan associated with mass timber production in the coastal region of northern California. Dr. Wan and his lab will be responsible for assessing some of the ecological benefits of this plan, primarily with regards to wildfire risks reduction from timber harvest.
David Adams (Humboldt), Greg Bellinder (Azusa Pacific University), School of Applied Health
Adams, D., Bellinger, G. (2023). Engaging Students in your Classroom through a Structured Learning Approach. California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (CAHPERD; Santa Clara).
David Adams,
Adams., D. (March, 2023). Integrating a collaborative and proactive solutions model into your classroom. California Association for Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance  Conference (CAHPERD; Santa Clara).
Dr. Ramona Bell, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Dr. Ramona j.j. Bell was an invited speaker in celebration of Women's Herstory Month at the University of Colorado Boulder on March 7, 2023.  She presented from her forthcoming book, Sporting DIVAS: Black Womanhood, Empowerment & Belonging. 
Marcos Hernandez; Janelle Adsit, English
Marcos Hernandez and Janelle Adsit have published an essay that reflects on Cal Poly Humboldt's literary magazine *Toyon: Multilingual Journal of Literature and Art.* Their chapter, "Literary Journals, Editorial Courses, and Equity in the Publishing Industry," appears in the collection *Creative Writing Scholars on the Publishing Trade* (edited by Sam Meekings and Marshall Moore; published in the Routledge series Studies in Creative Writing, 2022). 

February, 2023

Dr. Sara K Sterner, Education
Dr. Sara K. Sterner and her colleagues, Dr. Megan M. Van Deventer (Weber State University) and Laura Lemanski, ABD (University of Minnesota, MCAD) recently presented their work "Innovative Collaboration: A (Co)Process Model for Teacher Educator Collectives" at the 75th Annual National Meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE 2023).
Jill Anderson, David Adams, Chris Hopper , School of Applied Health
Jill Anderson, David Adams, and Chris Hopper with the help of 3 graduate students published the following book chapter. Anderson, J., Adams, D., Hopper, C., Valdez, M. A., Hughes, D., & Ruland, K. (2023). Collaborative Preparation of Special Educators and Adapted Physical Educators. In Handbook of Research on Interdisciplinary Preparation for Equitable Special Education (pp. 65-84). IGI Global.  
Erin Kelly, Benjamin Graham, and Jeff Kane, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management
Drs. Erin Kelly, Benjamin Graham, and Jeff Kane received a grant from the Joint Fire Science Program (administered by the Departments of Interior and Agriculture) to support a study on community recovery after wildfires, and how recovery can lead to social-ecological resilience. The study will look into what recovery looks like in communities impacted by wildfires, the networks within communities present for recovery, and the resources available to implement community recovery. Findings will be useful for policy makers trying to create funding, regulatory, and other policy mechanisms to facilitate community recovery, and organizations working toward social-ecological resilience in fire-prone landscapes.
Dawn Arledge, California Center for Rural Policy
Dawn Arledge was awarded $1.8 million of a $5 million planning grant to support the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF), a collaborative project between the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP) at Cal Poly Humboldt and 12 other Regional Conveners across the state. The initiative will center community participation to create a regional economic development plan that will support an equitable economic transition to a carbon neutral economy. Within the Redwood Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties), CCRP will partner with the Arcata Economic Development Corporation and North Coast Opportunities. Visit ccrp.humboldt.edu for more.
Dr. Geneviève Marchand, School of Applied Health
Co-authored a year long study and report on demographic and compensation trends of collegiate outdoor program professional staff. The report is available here. This report provides valuable information for staff and program managers who are attempting to close the gap in pay disparities, and elevate diversity, equity and inclusion in the outdoor industry.
Regina Khoury and Sarah Leidinger , Geology
Graduate students Regina Khoury and Sarah Leidinger (Geology) are the 2022-2023 recipients of the $1,500 Richard Chambers Memorial Scholarships from the Northern California Geological Society. Regina Khoury's MS thesis proposal is titled “Pre-Eruptive Storage Conditions of Magmas Erupted During the ~12ka Flare Up of Medicine Lake Volcano, CA.” Her advisor is Dr. Brandon L. Browne in Geology. Sarah Leidinger's MS thesis proposal is titled “Bathymetry and carbon accumulation rate of a rare Northern California coastal peatland.” Her advisor is Dr. Laura Levy in Geology. Congratulations Regina and Sarah! 
Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, Dr. Kaitlin Reed, Native American Studies
Drs. Cutcha Risling Baldy and Kaitlin Reed received a $50,000 grant from the S. H. Cowell Foundation for the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute. Funding will support general operations, ongoing yearly programs, and temporary initiatives of the Lab, including funding for personnel, supplies, and community events and engagement.